The present time in India is full of portents
THE introduction to the book of speeches of Gokhale published in 1908 starts with:
The present time in India is full of portents. One never opens the day's newspaper without anxiety. The air is thick with shadowy visions of the future, fantastic plans, harrowing doubts, black designs, born of blind hope or unreasoning despair. Political postulates, hitherto accepted without question, are freely challenged. The very foundations of our public life are being torn up and examined. A feeling of intense uneasiness broods over the land, and the more susceptible spirits cry in anguish that they have been the victims of foul treachery.