he thousands here assembled, with
the hope and belief that, ere long, we shall lay there the willing and
grateful homage of a free Nation.

CHAPTER II.

CAUSES OF THE NEW SPIRIT IN INDIA.

Apart from the natural exchange of thought between East and West, the
influence of English education, literature and ideals, the effect of
travel in Europe, Japan and the United States of America, and other
recognised causes for the changed outlook in India, there have been
special forces at work during the last few years to arouse a New Spirit
in India, and to alter her attitude of mind. These may be summed up as:

(a) The Awakening of Asia.

(b) Discussions abroad on Alien Rule and Imperial Reconstruction.

(c) Loss of Belief in the Superiority of the White Races.

(d) The Awakening of Indian Merchants.

(e) The Awakening of Indian Womanhood to claim its Ancient
Position.

(f) The Awakening of the Masses.

Each of these causes has had its share in the splendid change of
attitude in the Indian Nation, in the uprising of a spirit of pride of
country, of independence, of self-reliance, of dignity, of self-respect.
The War has quickened the rate of evolution of the world, and no country
has experienced the quickening more than our Motherland.

THE AWAKENING OF ASIA.

In a conversation I had with Lord Minto, soon after his arrival as
Viceroy, he discussed the so-called "unrest in India," and recognised it
as the inevitable result of English Education, of English Ideals of
Democracy, of the Japanese victory over Russia, and of the changing
conditions in the outer world. I was therefore not surprised to read his
remark that he recognised, "frankly and publicly, that new aspirations
were stirring in the hearts of the people, that they were part of a
larger movement common to the whole East, and that it was necessary to
satisfy them to a reasonable extent by giving them a larger share in the
administration."

But the present movement in India will be very poorly understood if it
be regarded only in connexion with the movement in the East. The
awakening of Asia is part of a world-movement, which has been quickened
into marvellous rapidity by the world-war. The world-movement is towards
Democracy, and for the West dates from the breaking away of the American
Colonies from Great Britain, consummated in 1776, and its sequel in the
French Revolution of 1789. Needless to say that its r