Nothing was better calculated to enlighten them than another feature introduced also from the Deccan into the "national" propaganda.

In the Deccan the cult of Shivaji, as the epic hero of Mahratta history, was intelligible enough.

But in Bengal his name had been for generations a bogey with which mothers hushed their babies, and the Mahratta Ditch in Calcutta still bears witness to the terror produced by the daring raids of Mahratta horsemen.

To set Shivaji up in Bengal on the pedestal of Nationalism in the face of such traditions was no slight feat, and all Mr.Surendranath Banerjee's popularity barely availed to perform it successfully.

But to identify the cause of Nationalism with the cult of the Mahratta warrior-king who had first arrested the victorious career and humbled the pride of the Mahomedan conquerors of Hindustan was not the way to win over to it the Mahomedans of Bengal.