YOUNG INDIA _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA $2.00 net [Illustration: DADABHAI NAOROJI] YOUNG INDIA AN INTERPRETATION AND A HISTORY OF THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT FROM WITHIN LAJPAT RAI FOREWORD BY J. T. SUNDERLAND ILLUSTRATED [Illustration: colophon] “The people of India are capable of administering their own affairs and the municipal feeling is deep rooted in them. The village communities, each of which is a little republic, are the most abiding of Indian institutions.” (LORD LAWRENCE, once Viceroy and Governor-General of British India). NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH 1917 Copyright, 1916, by B. W. HUEBSCH First edition, August, 1916 Second edition, April, 1917 Printed in U. S. A. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY DEAREST FRIEND THE LATE LAMENTED DWARKA DASS, M. A. OF THE PUNJAB WHO DIED OF A BROKEN HEART, AT THE COLLAPSE OF PUBLIC LIFE IN HIS NATIVE PROVINCE, (OCTOBER 1912) AS AN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO HIS UNCOMPROMISING ATTITUDE TOWARDS PUBLIC LIFE, HIS LOFTY PRINCIPLES, AND HIS NOBLE ADVOCACY OF THEM FOREWORD Mr. Lajpat Rai, the author of this book, is one of the most widely known, most honoured and most influential public men in India. For more than twenty years he has been a leading member of the bar in Lahore, the capital city of the large province of the Punjab, and has long been prominent in public affairs both local and national. From almost the beginning of the National Indian Congress he has been an active leader in that body, which is the most important political organization in the country. The last time I was in India (two and a half years ago) I found that he was being widely talked of for the Presidency of the Congress at its approaching yearly meeting. Conspicuous in Indian educational work and a founder of the large and flourishing Anglo-Vedic College in Lahore, he has for a dozen years or more held the position of either Vice-President or Honourary Secretary of the College, and also that of Lecturer in History.