THE MIRACLE OF PURUN BHAGAT The night we felt the earth would move We stole and plucked him by the hand , Because we loved him with the love That knows but can not understand . And when the roaring hillside broke , And all our world fell down in rain , We saved him , we the Little Folk ; But lo ! he does not come again ! Mourn now , we saved him for the sake Of such poor love as wild ones may . Mourn ye ! Our brother will not wake , And his own kind drive us away ! Dirge of the Langurs . There was once a man in India who was Prime Minister of one of the semi-independent native States in the north-western part of the country . He was a Brahmin , so high-caste that caste ceased to have any particular meaning for him ; and his father had been an important official in the gay-coloured tag-rag and bobtail of an old-fashioned Hindu Court . But as Purun Dass grew up he felt that the old order of things was changing , and that if any one wished to get on in the world he must stand well with the English , and imitate all that the English believed to be good . At the same time a native official must keep his own master 's favour . This was a difficult game , but the quiet , close-mouthed young Brahmin , helped by a good English education at a Bombay University , played it coolly , and rose , step by step , to be Prime Minister of the kingdom . That is to say , he held more real power than his master the Maharajah . When the old king -- who was suspicious of the English , their railways and telegraphs -- died , Purun Dass stood high with his young successor , who had been tutored by an Englishman ; and between them , though he always took care that his master should have the credit , they established schools for little girls , made roads , and started State dispensaries and shows of agricultural implements , and published a yearly blue-book on the `` Moral and Material Progress of the State , '' and the Foreign Office and the Government of India were delighted . Very few native States take up English progress altogether , for they will not believe , as Purun Dass showed he did , that what was good for the Englishman must be twice as good for the Asiatic . The Prime Minister became the honoured friend of Viceroys , and Governors , and Lieutenant-Governors , and medical missionaries , and common missionaries , and hard-riding English officers who came to shoot in the State preserves , as well as of whole hosts of tourists who travelled up and down India in the cold weather , showing how things ought to be managed . In his spare time he would endow scholarships for the study of medicine and manufactures on strictly English lines , and write letters to the `` Pioneer '' , the greatest Indian daily paper , explaining his master 's aims and objects . At last he went to England on a visit , and had to pay enormous sums to the priests when he came back ; for even so high-caste a Brahmin as Purun Dass lost caste by crossing the black sea . In London he met and talked with every one worth knowing -- men whose names go all over the world -- and saw a great deal more than he said . He was given honorary degrees by learned universities , and he made speeches and talked of Hindu social reform to English ladies in evening dress , till all London cried , `` This is the most fascinating man we have ever met at dinner since cloths were first laid . ''
When he returned to India there was a blaze of glory , for the Viceroy himself made a special visit to confer upon the XXXXX the Grand Cross of the Star of India -- all diamonds and ribbons and enamel ; and at the same ceremony , while the cannon boomed , Purun Dass was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire ; so that his name stood Sir Purun Dass , K.C.I.E. .
BHAGAT India Langurs London Maharajah Minister University blue-book bobtail tag-rag