On Mahatma Gandhiis Birthday This day, Indians all over the world ama Gandhi has rendered to India, and to the cause of Indias freedom is so unique and unparalleled that his name will be written in letters of gold in our national history for all time. Speech of Neta Ji on Mahatma gandhis 75th Birthday- In order to estimate correctly Mahatma Gandhis place in Indian history it is necessary to take a birds eye-view of the British conquest of India. You all know that when the British first set foot on Indian soil, India was a land flowing with milk and honey and it was the wealth of India which had attracted poverty-stricken Englishmen from across the seas. Today we find that as a result of political enslavement and economic exploitation the Indian people are dying of hunger and starvation, while the British people who were once so poor and needy have grown fat and rich on the wealth and resources of India. Through sorrow and suffering, humiliation and torture, the Indian people have learnt at long last that the only solution of their manifold problems is the recovery of their lost liberty. Turning to the methods of the British conquest of India, we see that the British never attempted to fight the entire Indian population in any part of the country, nor did they try to conquer and occupy the whole of India at once. On the contrary they always tried, to win over a section of the people, through bribery and corruption, before they commenced military operations. This was the case in Bengal, where the Commander-in-Chief, Mir Jaffar, was won over by the British by offering him the throne of Bengal. At that time the religious or communal problem was unknown in India. The last independent king of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daula, who was a Muslim, was betrayed by his Commander-in-Chief, who was also a Muslim, and it was the Hindu Commander. Mohanlal, who fought for Siraj-ud-Daula till the very last. The lesson that we have learnt from this episode in Indian history is that unless timely steps are taken to prevent and to punish treachery, no nation can hope to preserve its independence. The developments in Bengal did not unfortunately open the eyes of the Indian people in time. If even after the fall of Siraj-ud-Dowla in Bengal, the Indian people had made common cause against the British, they would have easily succeeded in throwing the unwanted foreigner out of Indian soil. No one can say that the Indian people did not fight in order to retain their freedom, but they did not fight all together. When the British attacked Bengal, nobody attacked them from behind. When, later on, the British fought Tipu Sultan in South India, neither the Marathas in Central India nor the Sikhs in the North came to the rescue of Tipu Saltan. Even after the fall of Bengal, it was still possible to overthrow the British, through the combination of Tipu Sultan with the North. Unfortunately for us, this was not done. It was, therefore, possible for the British to attack one part of India at a time and gradually extend their rule over the whole country. The lesson that we have learnt from this painful chapter of Indian history is that unless the Indian people stand united before the enemy, they will never be able to achieve their independence, nor will they be able to preserve it even if they acquire it. It took a long time for the eyes of the Indian people to be opened. Ultimately, in 1857, they woke up and made a concerted attack on the British in different parts of the country. When the fight began, the fight that the British historians call the Sepoy Mutiny and we call the First War of Independence, the British were easily defeated at first. But two factors accounted for our ultimate failure. All parts of India did not join in the fight; and, what is more significant, the technical skill of our army commanders was inferior to that of the commanders of the enemy forces. It is a fact that Europe had made considerable progress in the art of modern warfare in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the Indian people had not kept abreast of the times. Consequently, when the final clash with the British forces took place our army leaders were found wanting. The lesson that we have learnt from our failure in 1857 is that in future, the Indian people must keep up intimate contact with the progress made by other nations in every walk of life, especially in the art of warfare. After the defeat in 1857, the Indian people were disarmed by the British. It was the greatest folly and mistake on their part to submit to disarmament at that time. If the Indian people had not been disarmed and thereby rendered helpless, it would have been possible for them to strike for their liberty once again, within a short period of time. Owing to disarmament, however, the Indian people lay politically prostrate and despondent for nearly thirty years. Ultimately, in 1885, a political awakening took place through the birth of the Indian National Congress. The Indian National Congress was in the beginning a moderate body. The leaders of the Congress were at first afraid of demanding complete independence and the severance of the British connection. Within a brief span of twenty years however, new life was infused into the Congress. By 1905, we find leaders like Aurobindo Ghosh demanding complete independence for India. Along with this demand for independence, more extreme methods were adopted for achieving liberty. In Bengal the boycott of British goods was adopted as a retaliation against the partition of that Province, and this method of boycott was gradually taken up all over India. Not content with economic boycott, Indian youths next took to the cult of the bomb and the revolver. A number of youths were sent abroad to learn revolutionary sabotage in Paris and other European centres, while Indian youths as a whole began to study the revolutionary methods adopted in other parts of the world, notably in Russia and Ireland. During the last World War, the Indian leaders were duped by false promises made by unscrupulous British politicians and, as a result, Indian blood and money were poured out in the service of Britain and in order to strengthen the chains of Indias bondage. It must, however, be said to the eternal honour of the Indian revolutionaries that they did not allow themselves to be deceived by Britain and they did their very best to work up a revolution in the country. But, unfortunately for India, they failed. When the last World War was over and the Indian leaders began to demand the liberty that had been promised to them, they discovered, for the first time, that they had been betrayed by perfidious Albion. The reply to their demand came in the form of the Rowlatt Act — or the Black Act — in 1919, which deprived them of what little liberty they still possessed. And when they protested against the Black Act, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre followed. For all the sacrifices made by the Indian people during the last World War, the two rewards were the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. After these tragic events of 1919 the Indian people were stunned and paralysed for the time being. All the attempts for achieving liberty had been ruthlessly crushed by the British and their armed forces. Constitutional agitation, boycott of British goods, armed revolution — all had alike failed to bring freedom. There was not a ray of hope left and the Indian people, though their hearts were burning with indignation, were groping in the dark for a new method and a new weapon of struggle. Just at this psychological moment, Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the scene with his novel method of Non-cooperation and Satyagraha or Civil Disobedience. It appeared as if he had been sent by Providence to show the path to liberty. Immediately and spontaneously, the entire nation rallied round his banner. Every Indians face was now lit up with hope and confidence. Ultimate victory was once again assured. For twenty years and more Mahatma Gandhi has worked for Indias salvation, and with him the Indian people too have worked. It is no exaggeration to say that if in 1920 he had not come forward with the weapon of struggle, India would today perhaps have been still prostrate. His services to the cause of Indias freedom are unique and unparalleled. No single man could have achieved more in one single lifetime under similar circumstances. The nearest historical parallel to Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps Mustafa Kemal Pasha who saved Turkey after her defeat In the last World War and who was acclaimed by the Turks as the “Gazi.” Since 1920 the Indian people have learnt two things from Mahatma Gandhi which are the indispensable preconditions for the attainment of independence. They have, first of all, learnt national self-respect and self-confidence as a result of which revolutionary fervour is now blazing in their hearts. Secondly, they have now got a countrywide organisation which reaches the remotest villages of India. Now that the message of liberty has permeated the hearts of all Indians and they have got a countrywide political organisation representing the whole nation, the stage is set for the final struggle for liberty, the last war of independence. It is not in India alone that a struggle for freedom has been heralded by a spiritual awakening. In the Risorgimento movement in Italy, it was Mazzini who first gave the spiritual inspiration to the Italian people. He was then followed by the fighter and the hero Garibaldi, who began the March to Rome at the head of one thousand armed volunteers. In modern Ireland, too, the Sinn Fein Party, when it was born in 1906, gave the Irish people a programme which was very much similar to Mahatma Gandhis non-cooperation programme of 1920. Ten years after the birth of the Sinn Fein Party, that is, in 1916, the first armed revolution in Ireland took place. Mahatma Gandhi has firmly planted our feet on the straight road to liberty. He and other leaders are now rotting behind the prison bars. The task Mahatma Gandhi began has, therefore, to be accomplished by his countrymen; at home and abroad. Indians at home have everything that they need for the final struggle, but they lack one thing — an army of liberation. That army of liberation has to be supplied from without and it can be supplied only from without I would like to remind you that when Mahatma Gandhi commended his non-cooperation programme to the Indian nation at the annual session of the Congress at Nagpur in December 1920, be said, If India had the sword today, she would have drawn the sword.” And proceeding further with his argument, Mahatmaji then said that since armed revolution was out of the question, the only other alternative before use country was that of non-cooperation or Satyagraha. Since then times have changed and it is now possible for the Indian people to draw the sword. We are happy and proud that Indias Army of Liberation has already come into existence and is steadily increasing in numbers. We have, on the one hand, to complete the training of this army and send it to the field of battle as soon as possible. We have, simultaneously, to build up a new army that can go on reinforcing the army in the field. The final struggle for liberty will be long and hard and we must go on fighting, till the last Britisher in India is either cast in prison or thrown out of the country. I would like to warn you that after our Army of Liberation sets foot on Indian soil, it will take at least twelve months, and perhaps more, to liberate the whole of India from the British yoke. Let us, therefore, gird up our loins and prepare for a long and hard struggle
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:32:26 +0000
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