from their lips. Carefully studying earlier history, we ask ourselves
wherein the new ideas differ from the ideas current in India a century
ago. Then as progress appears, or is absent, the forces at work stand
approved or condemned. The exact historical comparison we may claim to
be a special feature of this book.

The writer is not ignorant of the delicacy of the historical task he has
set himself. He claims that during the twenty years he spent in India he
was eager to know India and her sons, read the pamphlets and articles
they wrote, enjoyed constant intercourse with Indians of all classes and
religions, reckoned, as he still reckons, many Indians among his
friends. He claims that during these years it was his pleasure, as well
as a part of his professional duty, to study the past history of India.
Ignorance of Indian history vitiates much of the writing and oratory on
Indian subjects. As a member of the staff of an Indian college, with six
hundred University students, the writer claims to have had exceptional
opportunities of entering into the thoughts of the new middle class, and
of cross-questioning upon Indian problems. In India, students "sit at
the feet" of their professors, but let it not be assumed that the
Oriental phrase implies a stand-off superior and crouching inferior.
Nay, rather it implies the closest touch between teacher and taught. All
seated tailor-fashion on the ground, the Indian teacher of former days
and his disciples around him were literally as well as metaphorically in
touch. The modern professor, successor of the pandit or guru, enjoys
intercourse with his students, as full and free, limited in truth only
by his time and his temperament.

Judging by the test of the new ideas in India, the writer has no
hesitation in declaring that the British regime has been a great
blessing to India. Likewise, whether directly inculcated or indirectly,