276 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES
Europe, and that light upon it may have to be thrown from the East.
I have sought your help in religious matters, which it is yours to give in a special sense. But I make bold to seek it even in political matters. I do not believe that religion has nothing to do with politics. The latter divorced from religion is like a corpse only fit to be buried. As a matter of fact, m your own silent manner, you influence politics not a little. And I feel that, if the attempt to separate politics from religion had not been .made as it is even now made, they would not have degenerated as they often appear to have done. No one considers that the political life of the country is in a happy state. Following out the Swadeshi spirit, I observe the indigenous institutions and the village panchayats hold me. India is really a republican country, and it is because it is that, that it has survived every shock hitherto delivered. Princes and poten- tates, whether they were Indian born or foreigners, have hardly touched the vast masses except for collec- ting revenue. The latter in their turn seem to have rendered unto Caesar what was Caesar's and for the rest have done much as they have liked. The vast organis- ation of caste answered not only the religious wants of the community, but it answered to its political needs. The villagers managed their internal affairs through the caste system, and through it they dealt with any oppression from the ruling power or powers. It is not possible to deny of a nation that was capable of producing the caste system its wonderfal power of organisation. One had bui to attend the great Kumbha Mela at Hardwar last year to know how sk iful tla: organisation must have been, which without any seeming effort was able
�� �
