Putting out the eyes of Indians

In Russia, the condition of education under Czarist rule can be realized from the following passage in a book written by the American journalist Albert R. Williams:

"In Moscow I saw two peasant soldiers gazing at a poster being stuck up on a kiosk. 'We can't read a word of it' they cried, indignant tears in their eyes. 'The Czar only wanted us to plough and fight and pay taxes. He didn't want us to read, He put out our eyes.''

To put out the 'eyes' of the masses, to put out their minds and consciences, was the deliberate policy of the Russian autocracy. For centuries the people were steeped in ignorance, narcotized by the church, terrorized by the Black Hundreds, dragooned by the Cossacks. At the end of the 19th Century 70% of the male population and 90% of the female population in Russia was illiterate (vide Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edn. p. 60).

In India the 'eyes' of our masses have been deliberately put out, first by the centuries of feudalism which we had, and then by the false propaganda of the British, and after them by some powerful vested interests who want our people to remain irrational, unscientific and ignorant, steeped in casteism, communalism and superstitions to secure their power and pelf