useful purpose in familiarizing the educated classes with the reasons why universal education is desirable, and in evoking the opinions of the native press on the subject. Thus, though it failed to pass, the Bill undoubtedly forwarded the cause. Some step for the furtherance of universal education will have to be taken ere long.

c. The Servants of India Society

In Poona there is a Hindu College called the Fergusson College, the professors of which receive very small salaries and do their work for the love of India. The quality of the education is high; and a number of most devoted public servants have been trained in its work. Amongst these the most brilliant is the Hon. Mr. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, C. I. E. He served as one of the professors of the College for twenty years, from 1885 till the end of 1904. He then set himself to the formation of a society, the aim of which should be devoted and life-long service to the people of India.

The following paragraphs give the substance of an interview which the writer had with Mr. Gokhale in the National Liberal Club, London, in June, 1913.

The Society, which was established in 1905, is called the Servants of India Society. Its headquarters are in Poona, where there is a Home specially built for the training of the workers; and there are Branches in four of the provinces of India, Bombay, the Central Provinces, Madras and the United Provinces.

Only University graduates or men who have done successful public service are admitted as members. When a young man wishes to become a member, he lives in Mr. Gokhale's house for a short time, or in the Home, so that he may learn by experience what the society is, and so that the other members

may have an opportunity of gauging his temperament and character. If he is thought suitable and if he wishes to go into the work, he becomes a student. For five years he receives a salary of only thirty rupees a month, and spends every year four months in study in the Home in Poona, six months in practical work in that Branch of the society to which he belongs and two months at home. The purpose of the whole movement is to create by means of practical work a higher type of worker. The progress of India is the great aim in view. There is a clear perception that, if India is to be a nation, the communities must become united. Hence in all the work of the society the aim of bringing Hindus and Muḥammadans together in real brotherhood is kept in view. Young Hindus are sent to live among Muḥammadans, to help them by loving service to the utmost of their power, just as missionaries do.

The society is open to young men of any race or religion; and there is a keen desire on the part of the leaders to get members other than Hindus. One Muhammadan is already a member. There is no attempt made to bind the men together religiously. There are no common prayers in the Home. Each man is left to order his own devotions as he thinks best. Yet Mr. Gokhale holds that the aims in view, and the serious renunciation which membership imposes, are in themselves deeply religious. No demand is made that a student should give up caste; yet brotherly feeling in the Home is so rich and deep that no caste distinctions are kept. Members are not asked to become celibates; but life in the Home during the four months of training is monastic. The students are completely under the guidance of the First Member, Mr. Gokhale. During the five years of their training they are not allowed to deliver public addresses or to write to the magazines, without first submitting the matter to the First Member.

The work of the society is carried on under the direction of the Branches. Those who are members give their whole time and work to public service, while the students give their annual term of six months. A few of them are told off annually to make arrangements for the meetings of the National Congress. They do all they possibly can to help such movements as primary education, female education, and the uplifting of the Depressed Classes. In Berar a great deal has been done to help the Co-operative Credit Societies of the Province. During the serious fodder-famine from which Gujarat suffered in 1912, ten members and six volunteers were fully engaged for ten months, and did priceless service.

After the five years of studentship are over, a member receives only fifty rupees a month of salary, even if he be a married man with a family. There are at present twentysix members in all. The expenses of the society already run from twenty to forty thousand rupees per annum. Mr. Gokhale raises the bulk of this large sum himself from private friends.

The following paragraphs copied from a brief prospectus of the society will give a clear idea of the spirit of the undertaking:

For some time past, the conviction has been forcing itself on many earnest and thoughtful minds that a stage has been reached in the work of nation-building in India, when, for further progress, the devoted labours of a specially trained agency, applying itself to the task in a true missionary spirit, are required. The work that has been accomplished so far has indeed been of the highest value. The growth during the last fifty years of a feeling of common nationality, based upon common traditions and ties, common hopes and aspirations, and even common disabilities, has been most striking. The fact that we are Indians first, and Hindus, Mahomedans and Parsees or

1 The Servants of India Society, to be had from the Society.