Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from withinLajpat Rai, Lala
History
Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from within
Lajpat Rai, Lala
India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947
_The Nationalist Press._ They started a number of papers in Bengalee and
also in English, in which they gave their ideas to the people. The
_Sandhya_ and the _Bande Mátaran_, as two of the new papers were called,
became their classrooms. In a few months the face and the spirit of
Bengal was changed. The press, the pulpit, the platform, the writers of
prose and poetry, composers of music and playwrights, all were filled
with the spirit of nationalism. Bande Mataram (Hail Motherland) was the
cry of the day. It was chanted in schools, in colleges, in streets, in
houses, in public squares, almost everywhere. Even the government
offices and the compounds of the private residences of European
officials resounded with it.
_Sabhas_ and _Samitis_ and _Akharas_[75] leaped into existence by
hundreds, where the Bengalee young men began to take lessons in fencing
and other games. This was their reply to those who taunted them as
cowards; for the famous, or rather infamous, remarks of Macaulay about
Bengalees were often hurled at their heads by the Anglo-Indians, or new
language was used to express the same thoughts.
The boycott had created an unheard of situation in some of the districts
in Eastern Bengal. In one district--Barisal--the Superintendent of
Police and the Collector had both failed to be able to buy a piece of
Manchester shirting for one of their friends, as no trader would sell it
except by permission of the gentleman who was the leader of the
boycotters. This leader happened to be a man who had made his influence
by his character and by service. He was, so to say, the uncrowned king
of his district. That was a crusher to the bureaucracy. No foreign
bureaucracy could tolerate it. Sir William Bamfylde Fuller, on whom had
fallen the first Lieutenant Governorship of Eastern Bengal, was
bewildered by the strength of the movement and the new character which
the Bengalees were developing. The people refused to show him the
customary honours. Even the presence of the Lieutenant Governor in the
town did not prevent the people from giving ovations to anti-partition
propagandists and making anti-partition demonstrations. At one place it
is said that even the railway porters refused to touch his baggage,
which had to be carried by police constables. This was more than he
could bear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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