THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR Gentlemen, I need hardly tell you that the most important question of the hour is the question of self-government. Upon the solution of this question depends the solution of many other questions, upon which again depend the full development of our nationality and if for the whole of last year we have been putting forth our best energies and our earnest efforts in the cause of Home Rule or self-government it is because we feel--I feel and many of my friends feel--that unless and until we have the government of this country in our own hands it is impossible to carry on the work of nation building. (Hear, Hear). Gentlemen, we could afford to be idle in the past when we hoped that the Government would do everything for us. But now after 150 years of British rule, where do we find ourselves? If you consider our position, the actual realities of our position to-day after 150 years of British rule, you will at once see that we are in a hopeless condition. HOW DO WE STAND? What have we got which we can call our own? If the enemy knocks at our door have we got strength to fight him? Have we got the weapons of warfare? Have we got even a lathi with which we can defend our hearths and homes?--No. (Cheers) Have we got money?--No. (Cheers) Are the people, the vast majority of the people of Bengal educated?--No. One hundred and fifty years of British rule have passed by without conferring real education on the people of this country. You need not enquire into the causes. I am only trying to give you a picture of the helplessness of our position to-day. We have not got anything--we have not got money, we have not got arms, we have not got education. Well, an analysis of our position to-day will tell you more eloquently than any speaker can that the only solution of this question is self-government. The very objections which are urged against the granting of self-government are to my mind good reasons for granting home rule to this country (Cheers). It is said that we do not deserve Self-Government because the people of this country are not educated. My answer to that is why have they remained uneducated so long? In other countries education has been introduced and carried far within a period of 20 years or 25 years--in some countries in less than that. But why is it or how is it that within the last 150 years of British rule--the bureaucratic government in the country has not succeeded in educating the people of this country? Why is it so? It is not necessary for them. It is not necessary for the bureaucracy to do that, but it is necessary for the people of this country. It is necessary for the development of our race. It is necessary for the very existence of our nationality. Now, if you say that we are not fit for self-government because we are uneducated, I say that is the very reason why you ought to give us Home Rule, because if you do so we will succeed in educating the vast