doubt, and no one would deny the ancient glories of India or the many
admirable characteristics of the people of India to-day. It is the
self-deceiving patriotism, the blind ancestor-worship, of which we are
speaking as a phase of modern opinion. As an instance when Indians
certainly did themselves injustice by this spirit, we may single out the
celebrated trial in 1897 of the Hon. Mr. Tilak, member of the
Legislative Council of the Governor of Bombay. The Mahrattas of Western
India look back to Sivaji as the founder of their political power, which
lasted down to 1817, and have lately instituted an annual celebration of
Sivaji as the hero of the Mahratta race. One great blot rests on
Sivaji's career. In one campaign he invited the Mahomedan general
opposing him to a personal conference, and stabbed him while in the act
of embracing him. It was at one of these Sivaji celebrations in 1897
that Mr. Tilak abandoned himself to the pro-Indian and anti-British
feeling, glorifying Sivaji's use of the knife upon foreigners. "Great
men are above common principles of law," ... he said. "In killing Afzal
Khan did Sivaji sin?" ... "In the Bhagabat Gita," he replied to himself,
"Krishna has counselled the assassination of even one's preceptors and
blood relations.... If thieves enter one's house, and one's wrists have
no strength to drive them out, one may without compunction shut them in
and burn them. God Almighty did not give a charter ... to the foreigners
to rule India, Sivaji strove to drive them out of his fatherland, and
there is no sin of covetousness in that." Practical application of Mr.
Tilak's language was soon forthcoming in the assassination of two
British officers in the same city of Poona. Mr. Tilak, victim of his own
eloquence and of the spirit of the day, was necessarily prosecuted for
his inflammatory speech, and was sent to prison for eighteen months. But
it is not too much to say that the _unanimous_ feeling of educated India
went with Mr. Tilak and regarded him as a martyr.