politics in it, but at present a clear consciousness of Aryan
greatness and a strong love and reverential spirit towards
the Motherland have transformed it into a shape in which
the religious element predominates. Politics is part of religion,
but it has to be cultivated in an Aryan way, in accordance
with the precepts of Aryan religion.

Nowhere is the cult of the "terrible goddess," worshipped under many
forms, but chiefly under those of Kali and Durga, more closely
associated with Indian unrest than in Bengal. Hence the frequency of the
appeals to her in the Bengal Press. The _Dacca Gazette_ welcomes the
festival of Durga with the following outburst:--

Indian brothers! There is no more time for lying asleep.
Behold, the Mother is coming. Oh Mother, the giver of all
good! Turn your eyes upon your degraded children. Mother,
they are now stricken with disease and sorrow. Oh Shyama,
the reliever of the three kinds of human afflictions, relieve
our sorrows. Come Mother, the destroyer of the demons,
and appear at the gates of Bengal.

The Barisal _Hitaishi_ refers also to the Durga festival, in which the
weird and often horrible and obscene rites of _Skakti_ worship not
infrequently play a conspicuous part:--

What have we learnt from the _Shakti Puja_? Sooner or
later this great _Puja_ will yield the desired results. When the
Hindus realize the true magnificence of the worship of the
Mother, they will be roused from the slumber of ages, and
the auspicious dawn of awakenment will light up the horizon.