Part 1

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INDIA FOR INDIANS

by

CHITTA RANJAN DAS

With Foreword by Babu Motilal Ghose

(Editor, A. B. Patrika.)

Ganesh & Co., Madras.

The Cambridge Press, Madras

First Edition November, 1917 Second Edition May, 1918 Enlarged Edition April, 1921

CONTENTS

PAGE

Foreword i-vi

Hindu-Mahomedan Mass Meeting, Calcutta 1

Public Meeting at Mymensingh 8

A Great Meeting at Decca 28

Home Rule Meeting at Barisal 53

Protest against Internments 88

Indian Deputation to England 97

Premiers Appeal 106

Self-Government 112

The Great Transformation 118

The Great Denial 143

Advice to Students 164

The Battle of Freedom 168

Address to Students 172

Non-Co-operation 176-192

OM

FOREWORD

When the Publishers asked me for a Foreword to this small volume of Speeches by Mr. C. R. Das, I readily acceded to their request, both from personal and public considerations.

Personally I have known Mr. Chitta Ranjan Das from the days of his youth. His father, the late Babu Bhuban Mohan Das was a friend of mine. Bhuban Mohan was a well-known Attorney of the Calcutta High Court. For some time he was connected also with Bengalee journalism. As editor, first, of the _Brahmo Public Opinion_, and subsequently of the _Bengal Public Opinion_, he made a very high position for himself among Bengalee journalists. His style was very simple, and he spoke with a directness that was rather rare in our more successful English weeklies of those days. Babu Bhuban Mohan was a sincere patriot, and though like good many English educated Bengalees of his generation, he threw himself heart and soul into the Brahmo Samaj Movement, in his personal life and more particularly in his dealings with his Hindu relatives, he belonged to the old Hindu type, and spent whatever he earned,--and he earned a lot--for the support of his poorer relatives. Indeed he spent upon them more than his finances allowed and consequently got involved in heavy liabilities that forced him, during the closing years of his professional life, to take refuge in the Insolvency Court.

Chitta Ranjan was educated, I think, in the London Missionary College, Bhowanipore; and subsequently in the Presidency College, Calcutta whence he took his B.A. degree and went to England to qualify himself for the Indian Civil Service. I do not remember if he actually competed for the I.C.S. He joined the Inns of Court and was called to the Bar in the early Nineties.

Chitta Ranjan gave considerable promise of exceptional literary and oratorical gifts even when he was a student in the Presidency College, Calcutta. While in England he made some political speeches, in connection I think, with the Electioneering Campaign of Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, and some of those speeches were very favourably noticed by the English and the Indian Press.

Upon his return home, and within a short time of his joining the Calcutta Bar, he took upon himself the responsibility of all his father's debts; an act that forced him at the very commencement of his professional career, to join his father in seeking the protection of the Insolvency Court. It was not only a filial duty, but a point of honour, with Chitta. Ranjan to share this indignity with his father. He was very seriously handicapped, both in his professional and in his public life, by this insolvency. But for it, Chitta Ranjan would have long ago publicly thrown himself into all our political and patriotic movements and won the position of leadership to which he was entitled by his capacity and his devoted love for his country.

Though his exceptional abilities were universally recognised, from the very beginning of his career as a member of our High Court Bar, he could not secure adequate scope for them for a good many years; pecuniary struggles forced him to abandon the chances of a successful practice in the High Court for the mufassal practice which is more profitable to a junior Barrister.

The celebrated Conspiracy Case against Srijut Aravinda Ghosh, in which he appeared as Aravinda's Counsel pushed Chitta Ranjan into the fore front of the Calcutta Bar. Great was the sacrifice that he made in undertaking this defence. For more than six months he was engaged in this case, and the fee that he received was not sufficient to meet even all his household expenses during these months; and he had to incur a large debt for this purpose. The acquittal of Aravinda at once raised the reputation of his Counsel, and from the very day that Chitta Ranjan came back to take up the broken threads of his High Court practice, he found himself on the high road to both fame and wealth. This reminds me of the saying of Sree Bhagavan in the Geeta--that the doer of good never comes to any grief.

As soon as he found his position in this profession secure, Chitta Ranjan's first thought was to remove the stain of insolvency from his father's name and his own and he started to pay off every pie of those old debts. This is the first time, as Mr. Justice Fletcher declared, that a discharged insolvent publicly accepted his old liabilities and applied for a formal discharge of his insolvency. This act of unusual fidelity to his financial obligations, at once raised Chitta Ranjan Das to the position of a great moral hero.

Having secured his discharge from his insolvency, Chitta Ranjan found himself free to freely and openly join all our public activities; and as the new National Life in Bengal, denied free scope and outlet in politics by the restrictive legislations of Lord Minto, had commenced to seek and find expression in a variety of literary organisations. Chitta Ranjan threw himself into this Nationalist Movement, and soon found himself among its great leaders. In 1915 he started a new Bengalee Monthly, the _Narayana_, which secured for its contributors some of the highest literateurs of Bengal, including Maha-Mahopadhyaya Hara Prasad Sastri who has an European reputation, and Babu Bepin Chandra Pal. Chitta Ranjan's entry into Bengalee literature dates from 1894 or 1895 when he published a volume of Bengalee lyrics, called _Malancha_ which introduced a new element of freedom and realism into our modern lyrical literature. During the last two years, two more volumes of Lyrics have been published by him. The last annual Literary Conference of Bengal, in recognition of his literary services, nominated Chitta Ranjan as the President of its Literary Section while the political leaders of the Province offered him an equal recognition by asking him to preside over our last Provincial Conference.

The speeches collected and published in this volume are the latest pronouncements of Mr. C. R. Das upon some of the pressing political problems before us. They have already attracted considerable notice from the Anglo-Indian press, and the virulance of these criticisms are themselves a _prima facie_ proof of their worth and importance. I will not try any criticism of these here. The reader will be able to judge of their value himself. Students of current political literature in this country will find in these a freshness of ideas and a freedom of treatment which are so much needed just now for the formation of a sound and healthy public opinion among us.

Mr. C. R. Das, though yet young, is already an esteemed and prominent leader of Bengal. His patriotism is genuine; his abilities are unquestioned. Self-seeking is not in his line. He tries to serve his motherland according to his light, not for his own aggrandisement but for her welfare alone. He is above official frowns or favours--his independence is fearless. He is not a pushing man yet his talent has pushed him forward to a foremost place both in his profession and the political field. He earns a good deal of money but perhaps spends more. His charities are many though the general public know very little of them. He has a fine heart, which is ever ready to help a fellow in distress, even at a considerable personal sacrifice. If he does not convert himself into a mere money-making machine like many worthy members of his profession, he is bound to prove a tower of strength to the national cause. He is a Home Ruler and a democrat of democrats, every inch of him. To me he is specially dear, as he is a devotee of Sri Krishna and Sri Gauranga. As his father's friend, I have the privilege of passing benediction on him. May God grant him a long and healthy life and enable him to devote it unselfishly to the service of man and his maker.

AMRITA BAZAR } PATRIKA OFFICE, CALCUTTA, } MOTI LAL GHOSH. _12th November, 1917_. }

INDIA FOR INDIANS

HINDU MAHOMEDAN MASS MEETING

_On the 7th October 1917, an enthusiastic Mass Meeting was held at Calcutta, when Mr. C. R. Das as Chairman of the meeting spoke as follows_:--

Gentlemen,--When this morning Mr. Akran Khan called upon me to request me to preside over this meeting, I felt it was a call of duty to which I must respond. My heart is filled with gladness to find that on this platform and at this meeting Hindus and Mahomedans of Calcutta have met together to fight their common battle. Indeed in the days of the Swadeshi movement in 1905, I knew--and my friend Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal will bear me out--we knew that the day was not far distant when the Hindus and the Mahomedans will fight shoulder to shoulder in the cause of their country. I did not then know that the time was so near. While I must give expression to this feeling I feel at the same time, a sense of deep loss. I refer to the death of my friend Mr. Rasul. How I wish he had been here to-day to fight this battle with us shoulder to shoulder, how I wish his presence had animated us to-day. Gentlemen, on the morning of the day that he died, I felt this loss but I feel it overwhelmingly to-day in this vast assembly. There is no man in Bengal, Hindu or Mahomedan who was more respected by the whole Bengalee race. There is no man in Bengal who fought so much, who exerted himself to such an extent to bring about the union between Hindus and Mussalmans of this country and if I may be permitted to say so, he was almost the pioneer amongst Mahomedans, the first who felt that the interest of the Hindus and the interest of the Mahomedans is the same in spite of religious differences. Gentlemen, we have met to-day to protest against the policy of internment and to ask for the release of the gentlemen who have been interned. Who are the persons who are specially mentioned in your notice? I am sure you will agree with me that these are names which are respected by Mahomedans and Hindus alike. The name of Mahomed Ali is a household word in India. I had the honour of his friendship. We met together often when he was in Calcutta and I can tell you that there is no more sincere and ardent patriot in the whole of this country than Mr. Mahomed Ali. Mr. Shaukat Ali, I do not know personally but I have heard accounts of him from many of my friends which show that this gentleman is an unselfish patriot. This gentleman had been engaged in the work of union between Hindus and Mahomedans all over India and certainly such a man is worthy of esteem and honour. The last name is that of Sham Sunder Chakravarty. I have had personal acquaintance with him. I have been bound with him by ties of friendship and I can assure you, gentlemen, that Sham Sunder Chakravarty is incapable of having done anything which deserved his internment. I have given you the honoured names which are mentioned in this notice. But over and above these few names I can tell you there is hardly a home in East Bengal from which one or more persons have not been interned. Every home in East Bengal is filled with sadness to-day, because these people have been snatched away from their homes and imprisoned without trial or without proof. I protest on your behalf against this policy of internment. I say this policy is un-British, is opposed to all the time honoured traditions upon which the British Empire is based. It is opposed to all rules of common sense and prudence and uprightness and the sooner this policy is abrogated the better for the peace and prosperity of the empire.

Gentlemen, at a time when the British Government in its wisdom has declared its policy that Home Rule in some shape or other must be granted to this country that some sort of responsible Government is necessary for the foundation and preservation of the empire; at a time when His Excellency the Viceroy has advised us to preserve an atmosphere of calmness; I ask, is it wise to detain these men against popular opinion, against the universal desire of the Indian people. And why should they be detained? May we not tell those who are responsible? You detain them under an Act which has been characterised by the highest authorities in England and in this country to be illegal and ultra vires. You have detained these men and other persons on political considerations which are outside the purview of the Defence of India act under which you claim to detain them. Gentlemen, I wish to read to you a passage from the judgment of one of the greatest judges in England--I may say that the Act in England is similar to the Act under which these gentlemen have been snatched away from society and kept imprisoned. This learned Judge, Lord Shaw than whom a nobler judge there is not in the whole of England says--You remember, gentlemen, in England persons of German origin have been sought to be detained in this way and His Lordship says:--"But does the principle, or does it not, embrace a power not over liberty alone but also over life?" His Lordship says that if by the stroke of a pen you can take away the liberty of a man, does it not also follow that by the stroke of a pen you can take away his life also? His Lordship goes on to say:--

"If the public safety and defence warrant the Government under the Act to incarcerate a citizen without trial, do they stop at that, or do they warrant his execution without trial? If there is a power to lock up a person of hostile origin and associations because the Government judges that course to be for public safety and defence, why, on the same principle and in exercise of the same power, may he not be shot out of hand? I put the point to the learned Attorney-General, and obtained from him no further answer than that the graver result seemed to be perfectly logical. I think it is. The cases are by no means hard to figure in which a Government in a time of unrest, and moved by a sense of duty, existed, it may be, by a gust of popular fury"

in this case the Anglo Indian fury

"might issue a regulation applying, as here, to persons of hostile origin or association, saying, 'Let such danger really be ended and done with; let such suspects be shot.' The defence would be, I humbly think, exactly that principle, and no other, on which the Judgments of the Courts below are founded--namely, that during the war this power to issue regulations is so vast that it covers all acts which, though they subvert the ordinary fundamental and constitutional rights, are in the Government's view directed towards the general aim of public safety or defence."

"Under this the Government becomes a Committee of Public Safety. But its powers as such are far more arbitrary than those as of the most famous Committee of Public Safety known to history."

This is what one of the greatest of English Judges has said. Now, gentlemen, we next come to these particular cases. Mr. Mahomed Ali, as you all know--and if I have said more of him, you will pardon me, because he was a friend of mine,--he was asked to give an undertaking. He gave it but he said: "Subject to the injunctions of my religion." They are all the facts which have appeared in the letter of his mother whom judging from her letter, we all hold in deep veneration? Judging from that letter it seems to me that Mr. Mahomed Ali was not released because he would not give an unconditional undertaking, because he did not say, "What ever the injunctions of my religion may be I give an undertaking, the undertaking which you want." Well, gentlemen, I pause for one moment and I ask you to consider according to what right or what principle does the Government of this country or any government in the world, ask a man to give up his opinion and his religion? Ought he to submit to it? Is it not his duty to say at once, "I do not care what you do but it is my religion, I stand on it and here in this sphere I am a free man, You may hold my body imprisoned but my soul is in the hands of God." Now gentlemen, exactly, that illustration was given by this great judge in his judgment. His Lordship goes on to say:--

No far-fetched illustrations are needed; for, My Lords, there is something which may and does move the actions of men often far more than origin or association, and that is religion. Under its influence men may cherish belief which are very disconcerting to the Government of the day, and hold opinion which the Government may consider dangerous to the safety of the realm. And so, if the principle of this construction of the statute be sound, to what a strange pass have we come! A regulation may issue against Roman Catholics--all, or, say, in the South of Ireland, or against Jews--all, or, say in the East of London,--they may lose their liberty without a trial. During the war that entire chapter of the removal of Catholic and Jewish disabilities which has made the toleration of British famous through the world may be removed not because her Parliament has expressly said so, but by the stroke of the pen of a Secretary of State. Vested with this power of proscription, and permitted to enter the sphere of opinion and belief, they, who alone can judge as to public safety and defence, may reckon a political creed their special care, and if that creed be socialism, pacifism, republicanism, the persons holding such creeds may be regulated out of the way although never deed was done or word uttered by them that could be charged as a crime. The inmost citadel of our liberties would be thus attacked. For, as Sir Erskine May observes, this is "the greatest of all our liberties--liberty of opinion."

Gentlemen, is life worth living if we have not that liberty of opinion? You may differ from me, I may differ from you--you must be allowed to hold your own opinion, I must be allowed to hold mine. Members of the Civil Service may hold one opinion, I may hold another opinion. His Excellency the Viceroy may hold another opinion. His Majesty the King Emperor personally may hold one opinion and I may hold the contrary opinion--but is opinion a crime? Has it ever been a crime in the history of civilization? We hoped that the dark ages have gone but it seems that it still lingers. Now, apart from the opinion of this great judge, I rely,--I venture to think I have got the right to rely--upon the gracious Proclamation of 1858. Let me quote to you, gentlemen, the passage which has been often quoted and which we regard as our Magna Charta. It says this;--

"Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be in anywise favoured, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observances, but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure."

Gentlemen, I venture to think, that the Government, His Excellency the Viceroy or the Members of Council whoever may be responsible for it, has absolutely no right to demand an undertaking which in any way goes against the dictates of his religion. I hold in my hands the Magna Charta, I hold in my hands the very words used by Queen Victoria Empress of India, viz., "all those we charge and strictly enjoin, who may be in authority" and in this case the Council here is in authority,--"that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure." His Excellency should know and the Council should know that by this act they are going against the Proclamation of 1858, according to which they would incur the displeasure of His Majesty the King. It is not we who are against the King, it is not we who are going against the principles upon which this Empire is based. It is those who Snatch away our liberty without just cause, without trial. Now, gentlemen, all these considerations might have been placed before the Government--I am sure the Government would have listened and done justice--but there is a difficulty in our way.

The difficulty is the European Association. We are used to the tricks of the European Association. In the days of the Ilbert Bill Agitation, we saw what the Anglo Indians can do. But then, public opinion had hardly been born in this country. To-day, again when the British Government has recognised the policy of self-Government we hear the same uproar. These people who come here to make money, who come here penniless and when they retire, take away thousands and thousands--these people pretend to talk in the name of India when they say that these gentlemen, these honoured gentlemen should not be released because they knew that if they are released, they will strengthen the party which seeks Self-Government, because they know that when Mr. Mahomed Ali comes out, when Babu Sham Sunder Chakravarty comes out, they will fight shoulder to shoulder for the cause of Self-Government in this country. And if Self-Government is granted what about the policy of these merchants? If Self-Government is granted the authority of Magistrates and Collectors in every district will be lessened--and then what would happen to these gentlemen who write letters to Collectors saying,--my dear so and so, will you see this done and will you see that done? It is a notorious fact in this country--and I have heard complaints from many Indian Merchants engaged in the coal trade--that they cannot get waggons at a time when English merchants are fully supplied with waggons. These are the advantages which they get by this country being ruled not by the people of this country but by a bureaucracy. That really is the reason of this Anglo-Indian agitation.