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Vol. I.
FACTS AND OPINIONS.
-30
KIDOYANGVA)
KARMAYOGIN
National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c.,
The Patiala Case.
The Patiala case has developed its real objective, which is the destruction of the Arya Samaj, the men arrested being merely pawns in the game. The speech of the Counsel for the prosecution, Mr. Grey, in no way sets out an ordinary case against individuals, nor is there any passage in it which gives any light as to particular evidence against the porsons on their trial, but from beginning to end it is an arrangement of the Arya Samaj as a body whose whole object, semi-open rather than socret, is the subversion of British rule. Mr. Norton, taking advantage of the presence of Sj. Aurobindo Ghose in the dock, attempted to build up in the Alipur Case an elaborate indictment of the whole national movement as a gigantic conspiracy, but he did not neglect the individual cases and made some attempt to conceal the extra judicial object of his oratory by a continual reference to actual evidence, relevant or irrelevant, in the case. Mr. Qrey has not given himself that trouble. The political character of his advocacy is open and avowed. But be follows his Calcutta precursor in the ludicrous jumps of his logic from trivial premises to gigantically incongruous conclusions, in
A WEEKLY REVIEW
OF
2nd Magh 1316.
his heroic attempt to make brioks ont of straw. His chief argumente are that the Arya Samajista read the Amrita Bazar Patrica and the Punjabee,-to say nothing of the long defunct Bande Muturum, and that some of the prominent members of the Arya Samaj are. politicians and yet femain members of the Arya Samaj. The perfectly general interpretations by Swami Dayananda of the Vedic view of politics, are the basis of his attack, and even the vehement character of the great reformet's polemics against other religions, the orthodox Hindu included, are pressed into the service of this unique argument. And all this is used to prejudice men under trial on a serious charge. Mr. Norton trifled with the traditions of the British bar by his pressing of trivial and doubtful evidence against the accused in the Alipur case, but it seems to us that Mr. Grey has departed still farther from those lofty traditions. And what if the Patiala Court decides that the Arya
Samaj is a seditious body, seditious in origin, seditions in intention, seditious in action? Will the Government prescribe as an illegal association this wealthy,powerful and highly organised community containing more than half the brains and aetivity of the Punjab? Already the charge has been made that by giving special priviléges to the
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Mahomedans, the Government have abandoned definitely the principle of religious neutrality on which their rule has hitherto been founded. The present Governor of the Panjab is possibly capable of such a step,-after the whitewashing of the Police in the Gulab Bano ease and his speech to the Loyalist depatation, we can believe him cap. able of any rash and headstrong step. Fortunately, there is little likelihood that Mr. Grey's oratory will be any more effective than Mr. Norton's.
The Arya Samaj and Politics.
We have received a communication from a member of the Samaj in which he puts to us certain printed questions relating to the aims, character and works of the Samaj and of its founder's teachings. We have not that direct and firsthand knowledge which would enable us to answer these questions with any authority. But on the general question our views are known. Aryaian is not an independent religion. It is avowedly an attempt to revive the Vedio religion in its pristine purity. The Vedic religion is a national religion, and it embraces in its scope all the various activities of the national life. Swami Dayanand an a restorer of Vedician ineluded the theory of politics in his scope and revealed the intensely national character of the Hindu religion and
