WHAT PRICE SALVATION

Although Jiddu refuses to talk on temporal matters, the recent visit of the religious leader to Boston stimulates discussion on the pending crisis in India as well as on the whole question of self-government. India is at the rebellion point; but it is a rebellion, typically oriental, that instead of rising to a boil congeals to passive and all-expanding ice. It is a rebellion typically modern in that it aims to force the English out of the government by forcing them out of business. Above all it is a rebellion intensified by the personality of Mahatma Gandhi with whom originated the plan of passive resistance by economic boycott and general non-cooperation.

In India there exists a class once oppressed and styled "the untouchable" by Brahmin priests, who now enjoy comparative freedom. To them England's rule is obviously preferable. In the north are the Mohammedans sure of a paradise gained across the bodies of dead infidels. Against them, at the present time at least, England's defense is imperative. Practically every great plague that has scourged Europe originated in India; and the scalpel and the microscope of western science would still be a definite loss. The weakness of Mahatma Gandhi lies in his rejection of all western influence, just as the weakness of the West lies in its callousness to Eastern culture.