India for Indians: Enlarged EditionDas, Chitta Ranjan
History
India for Indians: Enlarged Edition
Das, Chitta Ranjan
India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947
There are those who would wish to bargain, that is to say, when we are
suggesting to the Government in all seriousness that certain measures
are necessary for carrying out the Prime Minister's Message we are told
that it is bargaining, that we want to exploit England's difficulty!
What is England doing now? This is a simple fact and I do not wish to
conceal it. What is our interest in the war? Our only interest is our
country. What is England doing now? England asks us to help her in
this war. And why should we help her? If we are to help her, we must
first of all feel that this country is our own country (Cheers)--that
India has in fact and not in name, her rightful place in the British
Empire (Loud Cheers). That is what we say. That is what great statesmen
in England have said again and again. If this is your real intention,
tell the people so--tell them "it is your own country, manage your own
affairs and defend your own country" and you will then see what we
can do (Hear, Hear). The only thing that we want is to feel that this
is our country. If it is not our country, what does it matter to us?
(Cheers). If it is our country it affects us; it affects our personal
interests, it affects our selfish interests, it affects our future--and
we are ready for any sacrifice. You say that we want to exploit
England's difficulty. And if we say that England is exploiting at this
time our helplessness, that would at once be condemned as unwise and
unworthy. Those who wish to realise themselves, those who wish to make
the people of this country realise that India is their own country,
that India is a part, an integral part--not shadowy or imaginary but
a real part of the British Empire--well, they are to be condemned as
persons who would exploit England's difficulty (Shame). That is how the
Conference was held at Delhi.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF BENGAL'S ADVICE.
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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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