ion, Jhalakati, Faridpur, and
Pangsa were selected as the theatres of those performances. The
resolutions were varied in character, but however guarded and mild their
phraseology, the speeches advocated boycott in its most blatant form,
and sentiments were expressed tending to keep alive the most pernicious
and dangerous characteristics of the political and social situation.
Similar conferences, in which the boycott played a prominent part, and
in which ill-feeling against the Government was excited, were held in
August and September at Pabna and Dinajpur, and in the Sylhet district
in October a series of meetings took place. In a portion of the Faridpur
district, the unsettled condition of which has for some time been a
cause of anxiety, the inhabitants are mostly Namasudras. The ostensible
object of these meetings was to raise the social condition of the
people, but it appears from the accounts published in the Press that the
Anti-Partition agitation and the boycott of foreign goods were urged and
the promise of social privilege was only made as a reward or return for
promising to take the boycott vow. This condition of affairs could not
be permitted to continue indefinitely, and it became evident that sooner
or later--and the sooner the better--the mischief must be stopped and
the people of the province given the opportunity which they need and
desire to settle down to their normal life and to co-operation with the
Government for their material and moral progress.

NOTE 10

SACRIFICING "WHITE GOATS"

The term occurs, for instance, in one of the most violent fly-sheets
issued only a few months ago from a clandestine press in India, under
the heading _Yagantar_, killing no murder:--

Rise up, rise up, O sons of India, arm yourselves with bombs, despatch
the white _Asuras_ to Yana's abode. Invoke the mother Kali; nerve your
arm with valour. The Mother asks for sacrificial offerings. What does
the Mother want? The cocoanut? No. A fowl or a sheep or a buffalo? No,
She wants many white _Asuras_. The Mother is thirsting after the blood
of the Feringhees who have bled her profusely. Satisfy her thirst.
Killing the Feringhee, we say, is no murder. Brother, chant this verse
while slaying the Feringhee white goat, for killing him is no murder:
With the close of a long era, the Feringhee Empire draws to an end for
behold! Kali rises in the East.

NOTE 11

HINDUS AND MAHOMEDANS IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE.

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