And remember that when the world is in conflagration, this corner which
has hitherto escaped it, will not evade the peril which threatens it.
The march of disaster will then be terribly rapid. You have soon to
prepare yourself against any hostile sides. You can only withstand it if
the whole people realise the imminent danger. You can by your thought
and by your action awaken and influence the multitude. Do not have any
misgivings about the want of long previous preparations. Have you not
already seen how mind triumphs over matter and have not some of you with
only a few months' preparation stood fearless at your post in
Mesopotamia and won recognition by your calm collectedness and true
heroism? They may say that you are but a small handful, what of the vast
illiterate millions? Illiterate in what sense? Have not the ballads of
these illiterates rendered into English by our Poet touched profoundly
the hearts of the very elect of the West? Have not the stories of their
common life appealed to the common kinship of humanity? If you still
have some doubts about the power of the multitude to respond instantly
to the call of duty, I shall relate an incident which came within my own
personal experience. I had gone on a scientific expedition to the
borders of the Himalayan terrai of Kumaun; a narrow ravine was between
me and the plateau on the other side. Terror prevailed among the
villagers on the other side of the ravine; for a tigress had come down
from the forest. And numerous had been the toll in human lives exacted.
Petitions had been sent up to the Government and questions had been
asked in Parliament. A reward of Rs. 500 had been offered. Various
captains in the army with battery of guns came many a time, but the
reward remained unclaimed. The murderess of the forest would come out
even in broad day-light and leisurely take her victims from away their
companions. Nothing could circumvent her demoniac cunning. When all
hopes had nearly vanished, the villagers went to Kaloo Singh, who
possessed an old matchlock. At the special sanction of the Magistrate he
was allowed to buy a quantity of gunpowder; the bullets he himself made
by melting bits of lead. With his primitive weapon with the entreaties
of his villagers ringing in his ears Kaloo Singh started on his perilous
journey. At midday I was startled by the groanings of some animals in
pain. The tigress had sprung among a herd of buffalo and with successive
strokes of its mighty paws had killed two buffaloes and left them in the
field. Kaloo Singh waited there for the return of the tigress to the
kill. There was not a tree near by; only there was a low bush behind
which he lay crouched. After hours of waiting as the sun was going down
he was taken aback by the sudden apparition of the tigress which stood
within six feet of him. His limbs had become half paralysed from cold
and his crouching position. Trying to raise his gun he could take no aim
as his arm was shaking with involuntary fear. Kaloo Singh explained to
me afterwards how he succeeded in shaking off his mortal terror. "I
quietly said to myself, Kaloo Singh, Kaloo Singh, who sent you here? Did
not the villagers put their trust on you! I could then no longer lie in
hiding, and I stood up and something strange and invigorating crept up
strength into my body. All the trembling went and I became as hard as
steel. The tigress had seen me and with eyes blazing crouched for the
spring lashing its tail. Only six feet lay between. She sprang and my
gun also went off at the same time and she missed her aim and fell dead
close to me." That was how a common villager went off to meet death at
the call of something for which he could give no name and the mother
and wife of Kaloo Singh had also bidden him go. There are millions of
Kaloo Singhs with mother and sisters and wife to send them forth. And
you too have many loved ones who would themselves bid you arm for the
defence of your homes.