CHAPTER 23
The crowd pressed all around the high plinth of the temple. The forecourt was packed with people and spilling over on to the road beyond the temple boundary were more people. This vast concourse suddenly bent low, like a field of wheat bent down by the wind, as a gong sounded three times. The oracle emerged from the portals and began to speak.
“My dear brothers and sisters, I give you the blessings of the mother goddess, on this auspicious day.”
“Kalika mata ki Jai! Devi Sunanda ki Jai!,” shouted the crowd with growing frenzy.
“Today I want to speak to you about a subject that concerns the welfare of every one of us. You know that some daring souls, people like you and me, but perhaps fired with a greater exceeds of public zeal, have started an agitation to bring the railways to our state. I want you to lend your support to this movement.”
There was clapping and renewed slogan shouting.
“My dear people, you know our state is backward. We need the railways. They will bring business and commerce to us. They will bring new ideas and new people. They will bring progress. Here we are in the middle of India, still cut off from the rest of the world and living in a medieval age.”
“But this is not to say that I want you to do anything that will disturb law and order. Please show your support for the movement by peaceful means, just as Mahatma Gandhi has shown us. Do not give the authorities any pretext for cracking the whip. Be peaceful, non-violent and submit to the law meekly, without giving up your protest.”
“Now I want to tell you one more thing. I am stepping down from this office. At this very moment I lay down this burden, which I am not worthy to bear.”
There were shouts of “no! no!” But the oracle went on.
“You will wonder why I am doing this suddenly. Well, for these last few days I have strongly felt the call of my own inmost being, telling me that this was not my true vocation. I hear Kali-maa commanding me to give up everything and go to the Himalayas to seek her out and this what I mean to do. Good bye! My dear brothers and sisters, may the blessings of the mother goddess be with you now, and forever.”
The crowd was stunned into silence for a while. Then there was pandemonium. There was a renewed burst of slogan shouting. Some people climbed on to the plinth and started shouting. Others wandered distractedly though the grounds. Some even tried to barge into the temple, but the portals were firmly shut. The chaos lasted till a body of mounted policeman appeared on the scene, when the whole crowd just melted away and within minutes there was not a soul to be seen with in the temple grounds except the policeman.
Meanwhile in the drawing room of Badal Mahal, the King and the Political Agent sat together, nursing tall glasses of pink gin as messengers shuffled in and out of the room.
“I have to thank you Colonel. It seems your talking to had the desired effect.”
Major Smith put down his glass, “you mean she has decided not to support the agitators?’
“No, unfortunately not. But all the same, she has just saved me from an unpleasant duty. She has just announced that she is stepping down as the oracle and going away to the Himalayas to find God. Good riddance I say.”
“Going away to the Himalayas, So that was why she seemed so unruffled. She must already have made up her mind when I met her. That reminds me. She gave me this letter for you.”
“Please open it my dear Colonel and read it out. It is probably her resignation letter.”
“You are right By Jove! So it is.
“Unndata,
For some time now I have felt that I am unsuited to the demands of my office and the responsibilities that it imposes on me. I want to be free of this burden. I have a strong desire to visit the Himalayas and to seek out ultimate truth. I request you humbly therefore, to relieve me of this office.”
“That is all.”
The king clapped his hands and a retainer appeared to replenish their drinks. Another came and whispered something in the king’s ears.
“Well, it is short and to the point. I must say the young lady knows her mind well. I admit, Colonel Somers, to a sneaking admiration for the young woman. She obviously does not want to give me the satisfaction of dismissing her and she probably enjoys the halo of martyrdom that this will give her. All the same, it does solve my problems rather neatly. A most satisfactory outcome, don’t you think my dear Colonel.”
“You are forgetting Preddy that she has given her blessings to the railway agitation.”
“Now that she has stepped down that will fizzle out after a brief upsurge. You must understand Colonel that we Indians are great respecters of authority. As long as the young lady had the authority of her office behind her, people would have followed her to the gates of hell. But now that she is just an ordinary citizen all that she will generate is a sentimental regard that will also fade out pretty soon. Even our gods are on the side of established tradition and authority. Romantic idealism has few takers in India, apart from some desperate young men and women who are inspired by foreign ideas. In India, people are on the side of the stronger party, almost on principle, as it were.”
“Well, and thank god for that.”
“Thank god indeed. Let us drink to that.”
