India for Indians: Enlarged EditionDas, Chitta Ranjan
History
India for Indians: Enlarged Edition
Das, Chitta Ranjan
India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947
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. If that is the
view of the British Democracy let them tell us so. We won't be content
with excuses and pretences. Gentlemen, when I consider the objections
put forward to the grant of self-government, I can hardly keep my
patience. What is it that they say? 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? The very statement fills us with apprehension. As days go
by, we will be rendered more and more unfit. No gentlemen, nobody
really believes that the time has not come. It is a matter of immediate
necessity and we must have it (cheers).
Then we are told, we are divided between many sects. We follow
different religions, we have got different interests to serve and so
on. Arguments are piled upon arguments in this way--it is always easy
to argue and we at any rate who belong to the profession of law, know
that it is always possible to argue. (Laughter). We all know that
though vanquished, one can argue still (laughter). But do we not know,
from the history of civilization, that directly you make people of
different classes, of different religions, and of different interests,
work together, work for a common good, do we not find that unity is
brought about more successfully from the very fact of having to work
together than by any other means? Therefore 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. (Hear, hear.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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