1)
Today I complete eighty years of my life .As
I look back on the vast stretch of years that lie behind me and see in clear
perspective the history of my early development, I am struck by the change that
has taken place both in my own attitude and in the psychology of my countrymen
-- a change that carries within it a cause of profound tragedy.
Our direct contact with the larger world of
men was linked up with the contemporary history of the English people whom we
came to know in those earlier days. It was mainly through their mighty
literature that we formed our ideas with regard to these newcomers to our
Indian shores. In those days the type of learning that was served out to us was
neither plentiful nor diverse, nor was the spirit of scientific enquiry very
much in evidence. Thus their scope being strictly limited, the educated of
those days had recourse to English language and literature. Their days and
nights were eloquent with the stately declamations of Burke, with Macaulay’s
long-rolling sentences; discussions centred upon Shakespeare's drama and
Byron's poetry and above all upon the large-hearted liberalism of the
nineteenth-century English politics.
At the time though tentative attempts were
being made to gain our national independence, at heart we had not lost faith in
the generosity of the English race. This belief was so firmly rooted in the
sentiments of our leaders as to lead them to hope that the victor would of his
own grace pave the path of freedom for the vanquished. This belief was based upon
the fact that England at the time provided a shelter to all those who had to
flee from persecution in their own country. Political martyrs who had suffered
for the honour of their people were accorded unreserved welcome at the hands of
the English.
I was impressed by this evidence of liberal
humanity in the character of the English and thus I was led to set them on the
pedestal of my highest respect. This generosity in their national character had
not yet been vitiated by imperialist pride. About this time, as a boy in
England, I had the opportunity of listening to the speeches of John Bright,
both in and outside Parliament. The large-hearted, radical liberalism of those
speeches, overflowing all narrow national bounds, had made so deep an
impression on my mind that something of it lingers even today, even in these
day1s of graceless disillusionment.
2)
Certainly that spirit of abject dependence upon the
charity of our rulers was no matter for pride. What was remarkable, however,
was the wholehearted way in which we gave our recognition to human greatness
even when it revealed itself in the foreigner. The best and noblest gifts of
humanity cannot be the monopoly of a particular race or country; its scope may
not be limited nor may it be regarded as the miser’s hoard buried underground.
That is why English literature which nourished our minds in the past, does even
now convey its deep resonance to the recesses of our heart.
It is difficult to find a suitable Bengali
equivalent for the English word 'civilization'. That phase of civilization with
which we were familiar in this country has been called by Manu 'Sadachar'
(literally, proper conduct), that is, the conduct prescribed by the tradition
of the race. Narrow in themselves these time-honoured social conventions
originated and held good in a circumscribed geographical area, in that strip of
land, Brahmavarta by name, bound on either side by the rivers Saraswati and
Drisadvati. That is how a pharisaic formalism gradually got the upper hand of
free thought and the ideal of 'proper conduct' which Manu found established in
Brahmavarta steadily degenerated into socialized tyranny. During my boyhood
days the attitude towards the cultured and educated section of Bengal, nurtured
on English learning, was charged with a feeling of revolt against these rigid
regulations of society.
A perusal of what Rajnarain Bose has written
describing the ways of the educated gentry of those days will amply bear out
what I have said just now. In place of these set codes of conduct we accepted
the ideal of 'civilization' as represented by the English term.
In our own family this change of spirit was
welcomed for the sake of its sheer rational and moral force and its influence
was felt in every sphere of our life. Born in that atmosphere, which was
moreover coloured by our intuitive bias for literature, I naturally set the
English on the throne of my heart. Thus passed the first chapters of my life.
Then came the parting of ways accompanied with a painful feeling of disillusion
when I began increasingly to discover how easily those who accepted the highest
truths of civilization disowned them with impunity whenever questions of
national self-interest were involved.
There came a time when perforce I had to snatch
myself away from the mere appreciation of literature. As I emerged into the
stark light of bare facts, the sight of the dire poverty of the Indian masses
rent my heart. Rudely shaken out of my dreams, I began to realize that perhaps
in no other modern state was there such hopeless dearth of the most elementary
needs of existence. And yet it was this country whose resources had fed for so
long the wealth and magnificence of the British people.
While I was lost in the contemplation of the great
world of civilization, I could never have remotely imagined that the great
ideals of humanity would end in such ruthless travesty. But today a glaring
example of it stares me in the face in the utter and contemptuous indifference
of a so-called civilized race to the wellbeing of crores of Indian people. That
mastery over the machine, by which the British have consolidated their
sovereignty over their vast Empire, has been kept a sealed book, to which due
access has been denied to this helpless country. And all the time before our
very eyes Japan has been transforming herself into a mighty and prosperous
nation. I have seen with my own eyes the admirable use to which Japan has put
in her own country the fruits of this progress.
3)
I have also been privileged to witness, while
in Moscow, the unsparing energy with which Russia has tried to fight disease
and illiteracy, and has succeeded in steadily liquidating ignorance and
poverty, wiping off the humiliation from the face of a vast continent. Her
civilization is free from all invidious distinction between one class and
another, between one sect and another. The rapid and astounding progress
achieved by her made me happy and jealous at the same time.
One aspect of the Soviet administration which
particularly pleased me was that it provided no scope for unseemly conflict of
religious differences, nor set one community against another by unbalanced
distribution of political favours. That I consider a truly civilized
administration which impartially serves the common interests of the people.
While other imperialist powers sacrifice the
welfare of the subject races to their own national greed, in the USSR I found a
genuine attempt being made to harmonise the interests of the various
nationalities that are scattered over its vast area. I saw peoples and tribes,
who, only the other day, were nomadic savages being encouraged and indeed
trained, to avail themselves freely of the benefits of civilization. Enormous
sums are being spent on their education to expedite the process.
When I see elsewhere some two hundred nationalities
-- which only a few years ago were at vastly different stages of development --
marching ahead in peaceful progress and amity, and when I look about my own
country and see a very highly evolved and intellectual people drifting into the
disorder of barbarism, I cannot help contrasting the two systems of
governments, one based on co-operation, the other on exploitation, which have
made such contrary conditions possible.
I have also seen Iran, newly awakened to a sense of
national self sufficiency, attempting to fulfil her own destiny freed from the
deadly grinding-stones of two European powers. During my recent visit to that
country I discovered to my delight that Zoroastrians who once suffered from the
fanatical hatred of the major community and whose rights had been curtailed by
the ruling power were now free from this age-long repression, and that
civilized life had established itself in the happy land. It is significant that
Iran's good fortune dates from the day when she finally disentangled herself
from the meshes of European diplomacy. With all my heart I wish Iran well.
4)
Turning to the neighbouring kingdom of Afghanistan
I find that though there is much room for improvement in the field of education
and social development, yet she is fortunate in that she can look forward to
unending progress; for none of the European powers, boastful of their
civilization, has yet succeeded in overwhelming and crushing her possibilities.
Thus while these other countries were marching
ahead, India, smothered under the dead weight of British administration, lay
static in her utter helplessness. Another great and ancient civilization for
whose recent tragic history the British cannot disclaim responsibility, is
China. To serve their own national profit the British first doped her people
with opium and then appropriated a portion of her territory. As the world was
about to forget the memory of this outrage, we were painfully surprised by
another event. While Japan was quietly devouring North China, her act of wanton
aggression was ignored as a minor incident by the veterans of British
diplomacy.
We have also witnessed from this distance how
actively the British statesmen acquiesced in the destruction of the Spanish
Republic. On the other hand, we also noted with admiration how a band of
valiant Englishmen laid down their lives for Spain. Even though the English had
not aroused themselves sufficiently to their sense of responsibility towards
China in the Far East, in their own immediate neighbourhood they did not
hesitate to sacrifice themselves to the cause of freedom.
Such acts of heroism reminded me over again of the
true English spirit to which in those early days I had given my full faith, and
made me wonder how imperialist greed could bring about so ugly a transformation
in the character of so great a race. Such is the tragic tale of the gradual
loss of my faith in the claims of the European nations to civilization.
In India the misfortune of being governed by a
foreign race is daily brought home to us not only in the callous neglect of
such minimum necessities of life as adequate provision for food, clothing,
education and medical facilities for the people, but in an even unhappier form
in the way people have divided themselves. The pity of it is that the blame is
laid at the door of our own society. So frightful a culmination of the history
of our people would never have been possible, but for the encouragement it has
received from secret influences emanating from high places.
One cannot believe that Indians are in any way
inferior to the Japanese in intellectual capacity. The most effective
difference between these two eastern peoples is that whereas India lies at the
mercy of the British, Japan has been spared the shadow of alien domination. We
know what we have been deprived of. That which was truly best in their own
civilizations, the upholding of the dignity of human relationships, has no
place in the British administration of this country.
If in its place they have established, with baton
in hand, a reign of 'law and order', in other words a policeman's rule, such
mockery of civilization can claim no respect from us. It is the mission of
civilization to bring unity among people and establish peace and harmony. But
in unfortunate India the social fabric is being rent into shreds by unseemly
outbursts of hooliganism daily growing in intensity, right under the very aegis
of 'law and order'.
In India, so long as no personal injury is
inflicted upon any member of the ruling race, this barbarism seems to be
assured of perpetuity, making us ashamed to live under such an administration.
And yet my good fortune has often brought me into
close contact with really large-hearted Englishmen. Without the slightest
hesitation I may say that the nobility of their character was without parallel
-- in no country or community have I come across such greatness of soul. Such
examples would not allow me to wholly lose faith in the race which produced
them.
I had the rare blessing of having Andrews -– a real
Englishman, a real Christian and a true man -– for a very close friend. Today
in the perspective of death his unselfish and courageous magnanimity shines all
the brighter. The whole of India remains indebted to him for innumerable acts
of love and devotion. But personally speaking, I am especially beholden to him
because he helped me to retain in my old age that feeling of respect for the
English race with which in the past I was inspired by their literature and
which I was about to lose completely. I count such Englishmen as Andrews not
only as my personal and intimate friends but as friends of the whole human
race. To have known them has been to me a treasured privilege.
It is my belief that such Englishmen will save
British honour from shipwreck. At any rate if I had not known them, my despair
at the prospect of Western civilization would be unrelieved. In the meanwhile
the demon of barbarity has given up all pretence and has emerged with
unconcealed fangs, ready to tear up humanity in an orgy of devastation. From one
end of the world to the other the poisonous fumes of hatred darken the
atmosphere.
The spirit of violence which perhaps lay dormant in
the psychology of the West, has at last roused itself and desecrates the spirit
of Man. The wheels of Fate will some day compel the English to give up their
Indian empire. But what kind of India will they leave behind, what stark
misery? 'When the stream of their centuries' administration runs dry at last,
what a waste of mud and filth they will leave behind them! I had at one time
believed that the springs of civilization would issue out of the heart of
Europe. But today when I am about to quit the world that faith has gone
bankrupt altogether.
As I look around I see the crumbling ruins of a
proud civilization strewn like a vast heap of futility. And yet I shall not
commit the grievous sin of losing faith in Man. I would rather look forward to
the opening of a new chapter in his history after the cataclysm is over and the
atmosphere rendered clean with the spirit of service and sacrifice. Perhaps
that dawn will come from this horizon, from the East where the sun rises. A day
will come when unvanquished Man will retrace his path of conquest, despite all
barriers, to win back his lost human heritage.
Today we witness the perils which attend on the
insolence of might; one day shall be borne out the full truth of what the sages
have proclaimed: 'By unrighteousness man prospers, gains what appears
desirable, conquers enemies, but perishes at the root.'
