India for Indians / Enlarged Edition

by Chitta Ranjan Das

From Delhi we come to Bengal. There again we have the speech of His Excellency the Governor. His Excellency advised us—he did not command—His Excellency advised us that we should stop all political agitation at the present moment and he gave two reasons for it. One reason is this:

"Now let me give you my first reason. We have always been slow as a people, as in Great Britain and India to realise how closely the enemy keeps his eye upon us how quick he is to note our actions, indeed our very words, and what a difference it makes to his own morals whether he sees arrayed against him the serried ranks of a united people or whether he detects or thinks he detects in this part of the Empire or in that some note of dissension, some indication of lack of unity of purpose."

Therefore, do not show that you are wanting in a unity of purpose. I was thinking what His Excellency really meant because it seems to me that we are in complete agreement with what His Excellency said. That is the very reason for which we made the suggestions. Let not the enemy think that England is not united in its purpose and that India is not prepared to take its place in the fight. That is the very reason for which we suggested that all causes which led to resentment of the people of this country and drew them away from this united purpose should be removed—that the people of this country should be allowed to feel that India is their own country, that it is their birthright to defend their own country, that it is their right, not right alone but it is their proud privilege to fight the common enemy. His Excellency said we should do nothing so that the enemy could think that we are not united. My answer is: Make us united. It can be done with a stroke of the pen to-morrow if you really want to do it (Hear, Hear). If you do that, the enemy will detect no lack of unity of purpose. It is possible to make it appear that there is no lack of unity of purpose.—Is it not a hundred times more desirable that there should be real unity of purpose?

IF THE KAISER CAME TO CALCUTTA?

"If the Kaiser came to Calcutta what would all the talk of freedom of individual, of the liberty of the subject, of the right of this people or that people to self-determination, of this constitutional reform or that constitutional reforms—what would be the value of all such talk if the Kaiser came to Calcutta?"

Again, I say, we are in complete agreement with His Excellency, the Governor of Bengal. I believe, if the Kaiser came to this country to-morrow there would be no talk of liberty of the subject, of the right of freedom of the individual and of constitutional rights and that is the very reason why I am personally interested in not letting the Kaiser come to Calcutta (Laughter) and that is the very reason why we have been asking the Government again and again, why our leaders have asked the Government repeatedly, to do away with these repressive measures to call forth loyalty, not lip-loyalty but real and genuine loyalty—not loyalty to the Bureaucracy but to the Empire. You cannot call that up by sweet words alone, we want deeds—and as I say, this can be done by a stroke of the pen to-morrow if you really want to do it. (Hear, Hear and Laughter.)

MUST WE FEEL TO ORDER?

His Excellency advanced another reason. It is this:—

"The British people have a temper of their own. Some people call them a stubborn and a stiff-necked race. They are, I believe, a fair and a just people. You can without difficulty reason with them, you can without difficulty excite their interest, excite their sympathy and above all, you can excite their gratitude. But they are people, believe me, who resent, perhaps more deeply than any other people on this earth any suspicion that anybody is bent upon making an attempt to take advantage of them when their backs are against the wall."

Therefore, gentlemen, what does it come to? We must consider that wicked capacity of the German people who are for ever on their watch to find out a flaw in the constitution of this country. You must also regard the temperament of the British nation, who will be angry if you want your rights at this juncture, but the only people whose interests and whose sentiments are to be set at naught are the Indian people (Shame). We are not men! We are not a race! Our feeling need not be considered—our sentiments are nothing! Our feelings must be those of our masters. We must feel to order and suppress our real feelings! (Shame).