from below would soon induce them, to change their
minds. Not to do so would imperil their position
and the only alternative would be complete removal.
The Congress and the various Praja Mandals have so
far made every effort to induce the Rulers to side
with their people and establish responsible govern-
ment. They must realise that for them not to agree
to do so will not stop the coming of freedom to their
people; their opposition will only place an insur-
mountable barrier between them and their people,
and an arrangement between the two will then be-
come exceedingly difficult. The map of the world has
changed many times during the last hundred years;
empires have ceased to be and new countries have
arisen. Even now before our very eyes we see this
map changing. It requires no prophet to say with
confidence that the Indian States system is doomed
even as the British Empire, which has so long pro-
tected it, is doomed. It is the path of prudence as
well as of wisdom for the Rulers to line themselves
with their people and be sharers with them in the new
freedom, and instead of being despotic and disliked
rulers, with a precarious tenure, to be proud and equal
citizens of a great commonwealth.

A few of the Rulers of the States have realised this
and have taken some steps in the right direction.
One of them, the Raja of Aundh, Chief of a small
State, has distinguished himself by his wisdom in
granting responsible government to his people, and
in doing so with grace and goodwill;

But,- unhappily, most of them stick to their old
ways and show no 6igns of change. They demons-
trate afresh the lesson of history that when a class has
fulfilled its purpose and the world has no need of it>
it decays and loses wisdom and all capacity. It can-
not adapt itself to changing conditions. In a vain