Page:Anandamath, The Abbey of Bliss - Chatterjee.djvu/15

 profitable. As for the first, it sets a premium upon superstition and suggests a proceedureprocedure [sic] which has been unhappily followed by some of our public men of to-day. If it is sought by this means to instil patriotism into the superstitious mind through superstitions, it fails sadly; for patriotism thus distorted can never develop into genuine patriotism and must remain a superstition for ever. It is a matter of common knowledge that superstitions, once rooted, are far more difficult to uproot than mere ignorance, and if permitted to remain, they may promote particular ends, but must be a dead block to all progress. Thus patriotism gains nothing by this distortion and it only helps to hinder the growth of true Indian Nationality by preventing the participation of Hindus and Mussulmans and other religious communities in a common patriotic work. The experiment therefore of degrading patriotism by basing it on superstition is not only fruitless but positively harmful.

The other is a more serious matter still. Now one thing that would be patent to every reader of this novel is that its heroes are frankly hostile to Mussulmans. This has led me to think thrice before placing the work before a larger public by translation. Our Mussulman friends have no doubt a good right to get offended at the way in which the anti-Mussulman sentiment has been developed in this novel. But several facts have got to be taken into consideration. Firstly, as I have already observed, our author is not to be too much identified with the sayings and doings of his adventurers in this book. Then again, the impression left by a study of the whole book is that the feeling was not so much against Mussulmans quá Mussulmans, as against the anarchy and misrule under the Mussulman kings of the age and