So little has hitherto been done to enlighten public opinion at home as to the gravity of the evil which the recent Indian Press law has at last, though very tardily, done something to repress that many Englishmen are still apparently disposed to regard that measure as an oppressive, or at least dubious, concession to bureaucratic impatience of criticism none the less healthy for being sometimes excessive.[1] The following quotations, taken from vernacular papers before the new Press law was enacted, will serve to show what Lord Morley meant when he said, "You may put picric acid in the ink and the pen just as much as in any steel bomb," and again, "It is said that these incendiary articles are 'mere froth.' Yes, they are froth, but froth stained with bloodshed." Even when they contain no definite incitement to murder, no direct exhortation to revolt, they will show how systematically, how persistently the wells of Indian public opinion have been poisoned for years past by those who claim to represent the intelligence and enlightenment of modern India.
Only too graphically also do they illustrate one of the most unpleasantly characteristic features of the literature of Indian unrest--namely, its insidious appeals to the Hindu Scriptures and the Hindu deities, and its deliberate vilification of everything English.
Calumny and abuse, combined with a wealth of sacred imagery, supply the place of any serious process of reasoning such as is displayed in Mr.
Pal's programme with all its uncompromising hostility.
In the first place, a few specimens of the hatred which animates the champions of _Swaraj_--of Indian independence, or, at least, of Colonial self-government.

The _Hind Swarajya_ is nothing if not plain-spoken:-- Englishmen! Who are Englishmen?
They are the present rulers of this country.

But how did they become our rulers?
By throwing the noose of dependence round our necks, by making us forget our old learning, by leading us along the path of sin, by keeping us ignorant of the use of arms....

Oh! my simple countrymen! By their teaching adultery has entered our homes, and women have begun to be led astray....

Alas! Has India's golden land lost all her heroes?
Are all eunuchs, timid and afraid, forgetful of their duty, preferring to die a slow death of torture, silent witnesses of the ruin of their country?
Oh! Indians, descended from a race of heroes! Why are you afraid of Englishmen?
They are not gods, but men like yourselves, or, rather, monsters who have ravished your Sita-like beauty [Sita, the spouse of Rama, was abducted by the demon Ravana, and recovered with the help of the Monkey God Hanuman and his army of monkeys].