In a lecture delivered on the 11th October 1917 at Dacca, Chitta Ranjan dwelt on the nature of the Self-Government that India stands in urgent need of:—
"There is one thing to which I desire to draw your attention and it is this; that in framing the scheme you must not be swayed by a feeling that the Government will not grant this or grant that. What the Government will grant and what the Government will not grant, that is the business of the Government, we have got only to consider what is necessary for our national well-being, if you find that certain steps are absolutely necessary for our national development, do not fail to put that down in your scheme out of timidity."
In course of another speech delivered on the 14th October 1917 he added:—
"Our Self-Government does not mean the Self-Government of the Hindus, the Self-Government of the Mahomedans; Self-Government does not mean Self-Government of the land-holders; Self-Government means Government by all the People of India in which all interests are to be represented and if there are any classes who are depressed, they ought to be told that the sooner Self-Government is introduced into this country the better for them: they ought to be told that we have no desire to restrict the franchise in any manner at all to the disregard of any such interest, and if any kind of responsible government is introduced into this country, which is made responsible to the people, they will have the power in their hands to oppose any oppression or injustice in every possible way."
Lord Minto was undoubtedly responsible for the reign of terror in India; it was he who first introduced repressive laws in this country. They were directed against the natural aspirations of the Indians. While protesting against these laws Chitta Ranjan had the courage to tell the Bureaucratic Government—"That we are fighting for the ideal expressed by the King's Ministers; we are fighting for carrying out that very policy which has been declared in England by His Majesty's Ministers".
In 1918 the Congress and the Muslim League considered in a joint meeting that Self-Government for India could be delayed no longer. Otherwise the growth of Indian Nationality and the development of Indian manhood would be impossible. The Bureaucracy in this country would not grant it. Therefore it was necessary that Indian demands should be carried across the seas to the great British Democracy. The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League thought it proper to send a deputation to England to tell the British Democracy that Indians wanted the right to build up their own constitution—a constitution which alone would enable us to secure the development of Indian nationality and the development of Indian manhood. A public meeting of the Citizens of Calcutta was held on the 18th March, 1918, under the Presidency of Babu Motilal Ghose to support the Indian Deputation to England, when Srijut Chitta Ranjan Das said:—
"It is plain that you may agitate as long as you like; you may demand your right, as you have a right to demand, but you will not get the Bureaucracy in this country to support you. You must, therefore, go to their masters....
If we find that we are not to get Self-Government, we have at least the right to get an honest answer. Let the British Democracy say, if it likes, that this war is a war of liberation of humanity, but liberation of humanity does not include the liberation of India. When I consider the objections put forward to the grant of Self-Government, I can hardly keep my patience. They say we are not educated enough to get Self-Government. My answer is: whose fault is it? For the last 150 years you have been governing this country and yet you have not succeeded in educating the people of this country to such an extent that they may be fit for governing themselves. Do we not know that Japan was made only in 50 years? You have had 150 years. Why is it that at the end of that period we are told that we are not fit to govern ourselves? Nobody really believes that the time has not come.... We are further told that we are divided between many sects. We follow different religions, we have got different interests to serve and so on. If you say that we are not fit for Self-Government, because we are divided in our interests, and in our religions, my answer is that Self-Government and Self-Government alone is the remedy of that."
It has in season and out of season, been dinned into our ears that a subject people has no politics. It was therefore that political discussions, had hitherto been carried on in the spirit of singing laudation to the administration of Government, however palpable its defects seemed to be. This mendicant spirit in politics has been overthrown by the exertions of Chitta Ranjan and his compatriots in the field of national work in this country. Chitta Ranjan's ideal of political life was neither Utopian nor Quixotic. All that he demanded was, that all men are entitled to have equal opportunities without which the progress of human society and consequently the progress of a nation comes to a stand-still. He wanted for his countrymen the opportunities for self-realisation which would render pointless and inappropriate at the present-day Matthew Arnold's remarks:—
"The East bowed low before the blast,
In patient deep disdain;
She heard the legions thunder past,
And plunged in thought again."