India for Indians: Enlarged EditionDas, Chitta Ranjan
History
India for Indians: Enlarged Edition
Das, Chitta Ranjan
India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947
That movement again in its turn gave rise to the movement of the late
Swami Vivekananda. All that was narrow in the movement of Shashadhar
was widened, a more liberal note was sounded. The national spirit
of which the first note was heard in the movement of Sashadhar, was
developed by Swami Vivekananda and in his hands it became a trumpet,
I am not saying that the message of the Swami was the final word in
our nationalism. It was somewhat abstract in so far as it was more
Indian than Bengalee. But it was tremendous--something with an undying
glory all its own. If you read his books, if you read his lectures,
you are struck at once with his patriotism, love of country, not that
abstract patriotism which came to us from Europe but of a different
nature altogether a more living thing, something which we feel within
ourselves when we read his writings.
THE SWADESHI MOVEMENT
I now pass on to another phase of this national history, that is, the
great Swadeshi movement. It really began in 1902. It was intensified in
1905; it went on and I believe, it is still going on. That movement was
inaugurated by the same spirit of nationalism made broader, perhaps a
little selfish--all national claims begin in national selfishness but
made more real. Bengal, for the first time, in those days, realised the
great soul within her. At that time we became fully conscious so far
as Bengal is concerned. We turned to the country, the whole of Bengal
became to us the symbol of the soul of Bengal. Many of you, gentlemen,
must have lived through that period, must have taken part in the many
activities of that period and I ask you to say if you ever felt the
pulse of the people of Bengal beat so clearly as you did in those days.
(Hear, hear) I say before that movement all other movements were more
or less borrowed because before that the soul of Bengal was hidden from
us. For the first time in the history of our national life that soul
began to reveal herself and we were struck with the glory and majesty
of it. This period of our national life is remarkable for the writings
of Rabindra Nath Tagore (Cheers) and of Bepin Chandra Pal, of D. L. Roy
(Cheers) and many others. But at that time our idea of nationalism was
centred in Bengal. We never looked beyond Bengal, we were looking at
Bengal, we were drinking of Bengal, as it were; and of course, we were
enraptured, as all lovers are.
Now, gentlemen, the nationalism of to-day is wider than that. We have
lived to grow and we discover that although the soul of Bengal must
direct all our activities that although the soul of Bengal must find
its fullest expression in every work in which we engage yet there is a
wider outlook which cannot be neglected.
THE AWAKENING OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MAHOMEDANS
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