A MOHAMMEDAN MOSQUE 200 THE KALIGHAT 206 PILGRIMS TO KALI 206 ENTRANCE TO THE PANDAL AT SURAT 258 THE LINE OF RETREAT 258 THE SACRED RIVER 262 ON THE BANK 264 THE BURNING-PLACE 266 THE RIVER WALLS 266 A PLACE OF PRAYER 268 A BULLOCK WELL 272 GOING TO WORK 274 RELIEF SHELTERS 274 ON THE RELIEF WORKS 276 SWADESHI WEAVERS IN BOMBAY AND MADRAS 284 WORKMEN’S DWELLINGS, BOMBAY 286 BOMBAY MILL-HANDS 288 LALA LAJPAT RAI 296 AN ARYA SAMAJ TEACHER 304 A STREET IN HARDWAR 306 HARDWAR STRAND 306 IN THE GURUKULA 310 MAKING YARN 318 A VILLAGE PANCHAYAT 318 A DESERTED CITY 334 THE NEW SPIRIT IN INDIA INTRODUCTION SUMMARY OF RECENT EVENTS Although politics are not the only subject of this book, it may be of assistance if I summarize very briefly the chief political events of the few years preceding the winter of 1907-8 when I was in India. No hard-and-fast line can be drawn in history, but the arrival of LORD CURZON AS VICEROY on December 30th, 1898, marks a fairly strong and natural division. He had previously been Under-Secretary for India (1891-92), and Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1895-98), and he was well known for the distinction of his Oxford career and for his travels in Central Asia, Persia, and the Far East. In the House of Commons he had further won a high reputation for industry, knowledge, and self-reliance. The first year of his office (1899) was marked by a change in the CURRENCY, by which a gold standard was introduced, gold and currency reserves instituted, and a permanent rate of exchange fixed at sixteen pence to the rupee, or fifteen rupees to the pound sterling—a higher value than the rupee had reached in the fluctuations of the five previous years. Before the closing of the mints, it had sunk to 13·1 pence.