divided the mingled population of Europe into ' races,' clearly defined as though it were a farmyard with chickens, geese, turkeys, rabbits and guinea-pigs, and claimed scientifically to separate the human animals after their kind, and to pen them each in their several folds.

Whiles language or linguistic affinity was the criterion, whiles a supposed ethnic affinity, with the result that amongst the nations which had to be 'reunited' to the German Fatherland were counted not only Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Eastern Switzerland, but the whole of the British Empire, America, Austria, North-Western Russia, Scandinavia, the North of France, the the North of Italy as well as all the colonies and possessions of the Powers concerned.

And unfortunately it was not only in Germany that these theories were treasured. Ardent and insinuating propaganda has made the racial hoax the popular lore of civilisation; thus in advance weakening reasonable resistance against the claims of German megalomania and preparing for our Continent the turmoil of ceaseless rearrangement in accordance with the finding of the popular professor of the hour.

Against this fit of national, linguistic, or quasiracial intolerance, Helvetism stands a living protest, just as formerly it stood against religious. intolerance. In the Swiss Confederacy four linguistic groups, or as the Germans would say four races,' are " combined and are content to remain united, notwithstanding the appeals and stronger than appeals of the surrounding Empires.

Undesirably the union under a single government of those who speak the same language and have in common, owing to this common language, a large spiritual patrimony, constitutes a political ideal which through its very simplicity brings to bear a great force of propaganda and attraction. The Press, without seeking to fathom the value of this ideal, yields it a considerable place amongst its

preoccupations. And modern admiration for what is quantitatively big stands agape before this notion of imposing concentration.

How then has it been possible for the small, Swiss groups to withstand and escape the fascination ? At first there were reasons of religious, political, social, and economical independence which counterbalanced the lure of language, and caused the Swiss, above all things, to value the comforts of their own home.

But during the last fifty years these reasons have faded, and in the case of economy have even been upset altogether. There is no longer a striking difference between the freedom of Switzerland and of the surrounding countries. On the other hand, the Swiss industries, which must obtain practically all their raw materials as well as all their fuel through importation, are completely isolated from the sea by ever greater obstacles, a situation the perilousness of which is brought home to all inhabitants of the Confederacy, both foreign and native, by the rigours of the present

war.

In addition to this, foreign penetration, in the main German, has increased abnormally. Basle and especially Zurich are fast becoming German towns. Finance, commerce and industries are to an alarming extent in German hands. Press and lecture-room all too rarely can be called national institutions.

What reasons have the Swiss for still holding together? What has saved the Confederacy from the disintegration which every circumstance seems to favour? Is it the law of inertia alone, a conservative clinging to established custom? A common history, common traditions and customs certainly form a bond of union which it is difficult to dissolve. But though they create a faculty for passive resistance, they are not sufficient to account for the almost aggressive spirit of nationalism and national cohesion which

of late years, and especially since the outbreak of the war, is making itself felt in all quarters of the country.

This is more than a reasoned weighing of the pros and cons of a continued co-operation between the two and twenty republics and the four linguistic groups of Switzerland. It is the breeze of the Alps, it is ancient Helvetism intuitively asserting itself, and all the more demonstratively as a protest against the national intolerance of Europe.

Foremost and most ardent of all is the New Helvetian Society, which unites the younger

intellect of the nation. Meetings are held, lectures are given, pamphlets and articles are published, and above all, influence is brought to bear silently and unobtrusively in the right quarters. With the utmost care Romanic and Allemannic Swiss not only make it a point not to hurt each other's sensibilities, but to understand and appreciate each other's mentality, and to combine diversity to a higher, richer, and more productive unity.

The future belongs to Switzerland, said Victor Hugo, a seer who sometimes saw aright. Let us hope he did so this once.

ERY few people can really have an idea of the possibility of historical research in India. The large number of civilizations and dynasties which influenced and ruled India have left their monuments, relics, and records. It is the duty of the historical research to unearth these and to study them carefully. I say very few people can really have an idea, simply because the possibilities reveal themselves only when a person sets himself at work with zeal and resolution. Where could the relics be found, where the documents relating to the past history of India could possibly be lying, and to what extent that wealth could be obtained, is a problem which could be answered only by those who are at work. Those who are strangers to this labour usually do not possess even the remotest idea on the subject. This truth will home if we pay attention to the condition of historical research in Deccar. and specially in the Maratha country.

come

Historiography in the Maratha country could be divided into four periods. First of all, there is the period of the Maratha regime. During this period the Marathas had done a considerable literary activity, and their energies did not spare the field of Historiography also. They had learnt from the Mohammedans the value and also practice of this noble art. To copy a few Bakhars was at that time a part of the education of a young man who expected to enter the Government service as a clerk. A large number of Bakhars (chronicles) came into existence, and in writing them very importart work was dore by the Kayastha Prabhus, who are generally known by their more popular name Parabhus, though the people of other castes also had their share in the work. Biographies and family histories were compiled. Autobiographies and diaries by important, men also came to be written. We have, for example, a short autobiography of Nana Phadnavis still available. Some people used to

write Tippanas or the Memoranda.

The Bakhars were mostly copied on the models supplied by Mohammedan writers. But none of these to our knowledge came anywhere near the models. We cannot even compare these chronicles (Bakhars and others) with the Mohammedan writers like Ferishta and Khafi-Khan. These Bakhars were very inaccurate, the writer did not base his information on any records but on some things which they had heard. Their information is usually scanty, some of the information which they recorded has been borrowed from a very remote source, and the language of the Bakhars to the modern taste will find disagreeable. Moreover their authors have often resorted to imagination. Cases of anachronism are plentiful. Add to the lack of culture of the Bakhar writers, the prejudices and intentional falsehoods found in the historians of every country and age, and then we shall get a picture of the Maratha historiography prior to the British rule. The Bakhar-writing did not really end with the Maratha rule. Some work of this type were compiled even after 1818; but they were written by men who had received their education during the Maratha rule, but who had lived to see the overthrow of their countrymen. Among these men could be mentioned Sohoni, who wrote a bakhar of the Peishwas.

The period after 1818, could be divided into two parts, the dividing point being the memoiable year of 1857, when the Universities of Bombay and Calcutta were founded. During the first part, the printing presses were introduced, and some changes were made in the original educational system of the Maratha Governments. Men who came to front at this time, like Dadoba Pandurang, Hari Keshavji, Keshavji, Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambhekar, were writing text-books for schools, and some other books, the aim of which primarily is to impart through vernacular the knowledge which was available only through

English. To put in Marathi what was in English was the aim of almost all those who at that time were writing in Marathi. To translate from the English was the raging passion among the writers. Moreover, these men found historical literature in English regarding their own country. English language and literature was regarded as a reservoir from which all could drink. Those who learnt English began to compare the English literature with their own. Moreover, they did not have sufficient knowledge of Marathi literature or Sanskrit literature, because very few books were printed, and those who would have good libraries at command were extremely few. How greatly were the educated men of those times ignorant of Indian literature would appear astounding to the people of to-day. Dadoba Pandurang compiled a grammar of Marathi language, a work which is studied even to-day, was entirely ignorant of Sanskrit language when he wrote it. Another class of men who took part in the literary activity of the period, was that of men oriented in Sanskrit lore, that is, Shastris and Pandits. These men began to learn English after they finished their Sanskrit studies. Nor Shastri Sathe, the most learned man of his, times, began to study English at the age of sixty, and began to advise his young scholars to study English. Those who had studied Kanada, Jaimini, and Gadadhari, with their sacred Brahmin Masters, continued their studies in logic by reading the works of Hamilton and Mill at a later age. Similar was the case with the students of astronomy. Strangely enough (or rather we will not call it strange when we can understand the Psychology of it) this class, with the study of English, cultivated also a great deal of contempt for the traditional Sanskrit culture, and a great reverence for the European literature and intellectual tradition. Among such men could be mentioned Krishna Shastri Chipalonekar, who did a great deal to formulate the present Marathi prose style

by writing a number of independent works and translating many books. His most important scientific contribution have been his essays on Marathi grammar which were primarily intended as a criticism on the grammar of Dadoba Pandurang, first given as lectures to the training college of Poona, but afterwards published and republished. Herein he uses the historical method in the study of Marathi grammar. For a number of decades after these lectures were published, there was no essay or book which would vie with the work of Krishna Shastri, although a new scientific grammar has been written by the late Mr. Damle, who died in a recent railway accident at Borgaon in Berar. Thus the first generation of the English educated men was that of those who studied Sanskrit language and literature first, and devoted attention to the study of Sanskrit much later. The work of this generation towards historiography and many other matters was that of bringing into Marathi what existed in Sanskrit. They did not exert to publish the old Sanskrit chronicles or to reconstruct a history critically with the help of document. Their effort was to bring into Marathi what is ready made-the productions of the English historians. The only effort made to reprint the earlier Marathi literature was devoted exclusively to print and publish the semi-sacred literature, and Gujarathi poetry. In this task Parashram Pant Tatya Godboli, Madhav Chandroba, and Govind Raghunath Ketkar (the grandfather of the present writer) took prominent part. The two latter, with the help of Amarapurkar Shastri, brought a large number of Sanskrit works to light, and Mr. Ketkar especially was known as a hunter of old books, and he was on that account commissioned by the Ranis of Tanjore to secure a large number of Sanskrit works for their library, which enjoys great reputation for the collection of Sanskrit and Prakrit works.

To return to the historical literature. I have already said, that during the first period of Maratha Historiography, Bakhars, Tawarikhs, and Kaijiyats, were considerably written, but their knowledge among the common people was not great. The learned classes shunned these, and they remained only with the official class. During the second period, the knowledge of history not only of the Marathas but of other peoples also was circulated considerably by some writers who translated or borrowed from English works. We now come to a third period in which attempt is made to popularize the Bakhar literature. But this period did not come till the early eighties.

As I have said, the people had set before themselves to translate English works, or to write books on India borrowing the information on English sources. A number of works were written by Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambar with the help of English works. He also translated some works in Marathi such as Elphinstone's History. The Bakhars were disliked for their language, and new prose styles, modelled after the English styles, was being formed. Men educated in Sanskrit language and literature had introduced a new style of writing Marathi, discarding the style of Bakhar which contained such a large admixture of Persian words. So some new works were necessary to satisfy the people of new tastes. Moreover, a large number of Bakhars, which were written in the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th centuries, were unpublished. But this task was not undertaken until late. The newly educated men did not come in contact with the Bakhars to any great extent as they came from poorer classes, and the Bakhars remained only with such families which produced men of affairs during the Maratha regime. In fact, prior to 1870, there was very little printed literature excepting some semi-sacred poetical works.

OT only in the Presidency of Madras but throughout the country have considerable surprise and indignation been caused by the action of the Government of Madras in invoking the arbitrary and drastic provisions of the Press Act against Mrs. Annie Besant, the Keeper of the "New India" Printing Works. The innumerable meetings of protest held in almost all the principal mofussil stations in the Presidency of Madras and in the leading towns and cities of the country, and the unanimity with which the Indian Press-English and Vernacular-has pronounced itself on the step taken by the authorities in Madras, are strong evidences to show how the entire country views with concern the existence of the Press Act on the Statute Book. It is no wonder that men of all shades of opinion and even journalists and publicists, who have had differences of opinion with Mrs. Annie Besant and who do not certainly see eye to eye with her on some important public questions and even disapprove of the tone of some of her writings and speeches, have banded themselves together to vigorously urge the repeal of the law, which is undoubtedly a standing menace to the liberty of Indian journalism. It cannot be forgotten even for a moment that the Press Act was designed by the authorities chiefly to put down and prevent "the growth of a murderous conspiracy, whose aim is to subvert the government of the country and to make the British rule impossible by general terrorism." Sir Herbert Risley, whose words we have quoted and who piloted the measure through the Council, pleaded that some effective weapon was necessary to deal with a class of people who proclaimed open hostility to the British rule and who urged through the columns of a certain section of

the Press that "the only cure for the ills of India is independence from foreign rule, independence to be won by heroic deeds, self-sacrifice, martyrdom. on the part of the young, in any case by some form of violence: " and the Honorable Member in charge of the Bill added that "sedition has the monopoly of its audience, and that audience is large and is increasing daily."

Surely it cannot for a moment be pretended that the situation at the present day is what it was at the time the authorities urged the necessity for the introduction of the Press Act in its drastic form. Even when the legal member pressed it on the attention of the Council, there were some among the non-official members, who uncompromisingly opposed the legislation. on the ground that it was unnecessary and that it was too dangerous a weapon to be placed in the hands of the Executive. But having regard to the fact that the legislation was brought forward almost on the eve of the MintoMorley reforms and that "the air was thick with feelings which were antagonistic to the continuance of British rule," the non-official members of the Legislative Council, including the late Mr. Gokhale, reluctantly gave their consent to the Bill. It was a legislation designed to meet an extraordinary situation. Undoubtedly this was what the non-officials were made to believe when urged to support the legislation, and it would be well to recall at this moment the fact that before the Bill was finally put to the vote and declared passed, the late Mr. Gokhale moved but in vain that the Act shall remain in force for three years only from the date on which it receives the assent of the Governor-General. Is it any wonder then that the whole country