Under the head of " Cross-currents " the writer discusses
in Wednesday's issue the beneficent forces generated by Indian unrest. Amongst these he notes the various non- political organisations which have been quietly developing all over India, and the fruitful effect of Western ideas in developing the native tradition of mutual helpfulness beyond the narrow limits of the caste system. These ends have been promoted by a number of philanthropic and religious conferences during the last twelve months, which for the most part represent "an honest and earnest attempt to apply, as far as possible, the teachings of Western experience to the solution of Indian problems." The writer devotes special attention to the remarkable Society of the "Servants of India," founded by Mr. Gokhale--himself one of the most remarkable exemplifications of the cross-currents of Indian unrest—at Poona. The avowed aim of the Society is "to train up men as national missionaries for the service of India and to promote by all Constitutional means the true interests of the Indian people." The Members, who "frankly accept the British connexion as ordained, in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, for India's good," are bound by vows which involve a disregard of caste, but the constitution of the Society differs from that of the Jesuits, which in many ways it recalls, by being non-sectarian and claiming no religious sanction.
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