mense natural resources. In
India, one of the century's most remarkable figures, Mohandas Gandhi,
embarked on an enterprise that would not only revolutionize the fortunes
of his country, but also demonstrate conclusively to the world what
spiritual force can achieve. Africa was still awaiting its moment of
destiny, as were the inhabitants of other colonial lands, but for anyone
with eyes to see, a process of change had been set in motion that could
ultimately not be suppressed, because it represented the universal
yearnings of humankind.

These advances, however encouraging, could not conceal the historic
tragedy that had occurred. During the second half of the nineteenth
century, the proclamation of the Day of God addressed by Baha'u'llah to
the rulers of His day, in whose hands lay the destiny of humankind, had
been either rejected or ignored by its recipients in both East and West.
Reflection on so great a breach of faith throws into sobering perspective
the subsequent response that had met the mission of 'Abdu'l-Baha to the
West. However much one may rejoice in the praise poured on the Master from
every quarter, the immediate results of His efforts represented yet
another immense moral failure on the part of a considerable portion of
humankind and of its leadership. The message that had been suppressed in
the East was essentially ignored by a Western world which had proceeded
down the path of ruin long prepared for it by overweening
self-satisfaction, leading finally to the betrayal of the ideal embodied
in the League of Nations.

In consequence, the two decades immediately after Shoghi Effendi assumed
his responsibility for the vindication of the Cause of God were a period
of deepening gloom throughout the Western world, which seemed to reflect a
massive setback in the process of integration and enlightenment so
confidently proclaimed by the Master. It was as if political, social and
economic life had fallen into a kind of limbo. Grave doubts developed
about the capacity of the liberal democratic tradition to cope with the
problems of the times; indeed, in a number of European countries,
governments inspired by such principles were replaced by authoritarian
regimes. Soon, the economic crash of 1929 led to a world-wide reduction in
material well-being, with all the further moral and psychological
insecurities that resulted.

An appreciation of these circumstances helps us to understand the
magnitude of the challe