India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947; Nationalism -- India
READER: I cannot follow this. There seems little doubt that we shall
have to expel the English by force of arms. So long as they are in the
country, we cannot rest. One of our poets says that slaves cannot even
dream of happiness. We are, day by day, becoming weakened owing to the
presence of the English. Our greatness is gone; our people look like
terrified men. The English are in the country like a blight which we
must remove by every means.
EDITOR: In your excitement, you have forgotten all we have been
considering. We brought the English, and we keep them. Why do you forget
that our adoption of their civilization makes their presence in India at
all possible? Your hatred against them ought to be transferred to their
civilization. But let us assume that we have to drive away the English
by fighting; how is that to be done?
READER: In the same way as Italy did it. What it was possible for
Mazzini and Garibaldi to do, is possible for us. You cannot deny that
they were very great men.
CHAPTER XV
ITALY AND INDIA
EDITOR: It is well that you have instanced Italy. Mazzini was a great
and good man; Garibaldi was a great warrior. Both are adorable; from
their lives we can learn much. But the condition of Italy was different
from that of India. In the first instance the difference between Mazzini
and Garibaldi is worth noting. Mazzini's ambition was not, and has not
yet been realised, regarding Italy. Mazzini has shown in his writings on
the duty of man that every man must learn how to rule himself. This has
not happened in Italy. Garibaldi did not hold this view of Mazzini's.
Garibaldi gave, and every Italian took arms. Italy and Austria had the
same civilization; they were cousins in this respect. It was a matter of
tit for tat. Garibaldi simply wanted Italy to be free from the Austrian
yoke. The machinations of Minister Cavour disgrace that portion of the
history of Italy. And what has been the result? If you believe that,
because Italians rule Italy, the Italian nation is happy, you are
groping in darkness. Mazzini has shown conclusively that Italy did not
become free. Victor Emanuel gave one meaning to the expression; Mazzini
gave another. According to Emanuel, Cavour, and even Garibaldi, Italy
meant the King of Italy and his henchmen. According to Mazzini, it meant
the whole of the Italian people, that is, its agriculturists. Emanuel
was only its servant. The Italy of Mazzini still remains in a state of
slavery. At the time of the so-called national war, it was a game of
chess between two rival kings, with the people of Italy as pawns. The
working classes in that land are still unhappy. They therefore indulge
in assassination, rise in revolt, and rebellion on their part is always
expected. What substantial gain did Italy obtain after the withdrawal of
the Austrian troops? The gain was only nominal. The reforms, for the
sake of which the war was supposed to have been undertaken, have not yet
been granted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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