THE PRIVILEGE OF THE YOUNGER GENERATION.
The following is the address delivered by Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, on the Anniversary Day of the Andhra Jatheeya Kala Sala, Masulipatam (1914-1915), with Sir Sankaran Nair in the chair.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, and specially students of this National College—I cannot tell you how deep to-day is my sense, not merely of pride, but of hope in being present on this occasion; and while I was sitting here I realised with something like rapture that the service of India can never be a thing of sorrow, but always of a kind that looks forward for tomorrow.
Yesterday morning, I was assisting at the Memorial meeting of that great son of India whose death might seem to us to have left India without hope for the future, for in the midst of that mourning we had a feeling of despair that the greatest son of India had departed, and who could take his place? To-day, sitting here, and looking at these young men, and these eager faces before me, I realize that though Gokhale has died, his spirit survives and his work will be completed from generation to generation, so long as founders and organisers of institutions like this are in India to inculcate his ideals not merely by precept, but by example.
And that is why I say the service of India is always a service of hope, looking forward for the dawn of tomorrow; and I say it because I know, after hearing the beautiful and heart-stirring report of the Head-master that the ideal of service—of service manifold and co-ordinated and focussed towards one destiny and one purpose,—is here a living lesson from day to day, from hour to hour, not confined to one class, not confined to one creed, not confined specially to one form of intellectual expression and achievement but emphasising every form of expression—intellectual, æsthetic, and artistic which comes out today in what is called “national consciousness.” For years now it has been my great privilege to be more and more closely identified with what is known as the younger generation. In almost every great city of India I have come into joyful and intimate comradeship with the young men who are going to make the history of tomorrow. In the different cities of India I have come closely, and ever more closely, in touch with what is called the “new spirit” in India — with what has justly and aptly been called the Indian Renaissance.
Two years ago, through an unhappy misfortune of failing health, I went to England, and there for 18 months lived in contact and in comradeship with Young India which there is receiving an impress of national unity in an alien country. For it is England that is the training ground of Indian patriots, for it is on that common ground that most of the young men, young impulsive dreamers of dreams in the present and doers of great deeds in the future, are congregated together, from every province and every village, representing every religion and every race, but representing always the same ideals springing from the most diverse civilisations and the most diverse histories. And there in Oxford and in Cambridge and in Edinburgh, but chiefly in London, where thousands and thousands of young hearts beat to-day as “one India” — there it was that I realized that there really such a thing as the Indian renaissance. I began, moreover, to realise that there is such a thing as duty, but duty sanctified into a privilege — and that is the privilege of the younger generation, the privilege of united service to the country that shall never again know division in the future. And so you can imagine with what delight I accepted the invitation to address the students of this College on the occasion of their fifth anniversary.
But I must also tell you how my delight at the thought of myself—an individual—being given this chance of coming into touch with the young spirits of Masulipatam became deeper when it suddenly dawned upon me that besides a personal bond of sympathy between you and me in ideals there is moreover a historic connection between my capital and yours. It is well-known history that this ancient Hindu centre of Masulipatam was once historically — and has always been in sentiment — associated in friendly relationship towards the premier Muhammadan province of India. This seemed to add new strength to my hopes, new wings to my aspirations, and new force to my message. What is it that I call the privilege of the younger generation? What is it that I call the sanctity of duty and of service? In one word it means the history of India as it lies in your hands to make it. And the history of the future of Indian culture has been summed up to-day in language of the choicest literature by our Principal when he enunciated that the culture of a nation does not limit itself to mere intellectual and scholastic achievements, but must find infinite forms of expression, as infinite, indeed, as human capacity.
And it seems to me that not merely in the ideals of a nation, but in the actual daily measurable working out of these ideals, it can be realised how effectual enthusiasm can be when it is transmitted into the earnestness of service; and nothing has given me greater pleasure on this most delightful afternoon than to have given medals not merely to those who have excelled in studies, but to those who are learning to work with their hands, to recognise the dignity of manual labour, as it should stand side by side with the dignity of scholarship. This, coming from me with traditions of scholarship behind me, should count for something, because it means that those who in the past considered that self-expression was merely a monopoly of intellectual authority have begun to realise that there are other and various forms of such self-expression. Let me now carry this thought onward and tell you how, as the years go on, when the young spirits of to-day will go out into the world and prove and justify such lessons as have been taught to them in this institution and in other institutions with similar ideals, they will only then begin to realize that to them the only thing that is left is to feel with that young sannyasi in yellow robes (a boy-reciter) who said, “I am Indian! I am Indian! I am Mussalman! I am Christian!” Infinitely better than anything that one can think of is it to repeat the sloka “I am India—I represent the honour of India, I represent the capacity of India, I represent all those ideals which my country must stand for in the eyes of the world—to realize and to justify the past, which made her the supremest sovereign, the greatest teacher of spiritual truth and of intellectual learning in the past.” And that, believe me, is not difficult to accomplish; for I do not say that each one of you individually has all those qualities that make up the sum total of national entity, but that each of you, however little gifted with anything that the world counts supreme, is an indispensable quantity in that great stream of national life which I want you to realize as flowing from the past in unbroken continuity towards the future.
Realizing this you will also realise that service is of many forms, that each one of you is called to some special service of his own, some intellectually, some by legitimate gifts to rank and position, some through brains, some through genius that can rouse the sleeping spirit to living action, some through literature, and some through the merest, humblest work, as diggers of the soil, as sweepers, as scavengers, flushing the drains of national life. Believe me that in the eyes of the Mother, service is not more supreme in one form than another, and that what she requires is that whatever we are called upon to do individually that we should do with fulness and dignity. Now what are the many forms of service, which co-ordinated together, will make up the hopeful tomorrow of India. In the past it used to be considered that a son of a gentleman must not soil his hand or disgrace his ancestry with trade or commerce or industry; but more and more young men are beginning to realize that the dignity of India does not consist merely in having degrees of Oxford and Cambridge or in becoming Lawyers, Doctors or Government servants, but depends also on having that expert knowledge of arts, science, and industry which alone can give back to India her once central place in human civilisation.
Only today the learned president, in talking to his companions on his journey here, was saying that if he had been twenty years younger he would have not chosen Law for his profession, but he would have used all his brain, time and energy, that have made him such an indomitable personality in public life to the advancement of India in industrial enterprise. Again when you are devoting yourselves to the service of your country you must remember that it is the unity in feeling between the two great races which make up Indian nationality, that forms the dominant fact in the realization of national ideals. Unity and not division is the only possible basis on which you can build up great national traditions. There is really only one limitation to the definition of Nationality. Your strength must have grown so wide as to have felt the universal thrill of brotherhood that binds the world’s races together. You might then come to India as the centre of universal and fundamental brotherhood: and this is the only limitation of the definition of Indian Nationality.
To-day the great lesson that I shall carry back to Hyderabad, and that I shall carry always wherever I go is that I have found a living institution teaching the lesson of National unity and the necessity of co-ordinating all forms of national work. To-day it has inspired me to see the carpenter receiving a prize, and the moulder receiving recognition, all for work that is so necessary to the ultimate interests of the country. The great function of an institution such as this is to teach that all work is dignified so long as it is faithfully done. Gentlemen, I think that in the years to come the greatest national festival that will be kept in every part of India will be not the dawn of the New Year, nor merely the feast of Saraswati, nor of any of the other great gods and goddesses, but that of our living India, whose temple is in our hearts, who speaks with the same tongue to the child as to the philosopher, to the tiller of the soil as to the poet. We shall keep Her festival, and we shall worship Her as she must be worshipped, in spirit and in truth.