SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR INDIA.
I. Speech at the Bombay Congress.
*Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, (Hyderabad, Deccan,— as a delegate from the United Provinces) who, on rising to support the Resolution on Self-Government at the Bombay Congress of December, 1915, was received with an ovation, said:– *
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen,—Till one moment ago it was not my proud privilege to be able to say “fellow-delegates,” because it is only at this very moment I have been—as a preliminary step, as a possible step to self-government that might come within a few years and about which, Sir, you have asked for a declaration — I have been asked to speak for a Province that is not my own, the United Provinces, and I was asked to represent their desires for this great moment which your enthusiasm makes me believe is the real desire of the people of this country.
After the eloquent and brilliant exposition and interpretation of the ideals of self-government, that have been formulated by the many speakers before me, whose knowledge of the subject is better than mine, and whose services in the cause for attaining that self-government are infinitely greater than mine can ever be, you hardly need a word from me either to emphasise or to adorn the speeches that they have made and the ideals they have formulated.
But since it is the desire of so many people here present that some woman from amidst you, some daughter of this Bharat Mother, should raise her voice, on behalf of her sisters, to second and support this resolution on self-government, I venture—though it seems presumption so to venture—to stand before you and to give my individual support as well as to speak in the name of many millions of my sisters of India, not only Hindu, but by Mussalman, Parsi and other sisters, for the sake of self-government which is the desire and the destiny of every human soul. This vast assemblage represents to-day in miniature the Federation of India to which we look forward not in the distant future. I see with the eye that is given to the world’s poets who dream, and dream with a palpitating heart, that vision, that expectation, that ecstasy of desire, that prayer that we shall send forth every moment of our lives that the dream may be realised. What is your dream? What is it to be in the words of your resolution? What are the responsibilities that go with the privileges you demand as a free and self-governing people ? I speak not of the privileges that you demand today but of the responsibilities that they entail upon you. What are those responsibilities, what is the high burden that will go with that honour that you have demanded, with the right that you insist as your destiny, that destiny of the children of India?
Friends, believe me, as one of the speakers before me has said, this is the psychological moment of our nation’s history. For the first time, after centuries upon centuries of political antagonism, of bitterness that comes from division between creed and creed, between race and race, after centuries of feuds and bloodshed, this is the psychological moment when the Hindu and the Mussalman are met together in this cosmopolitan city to cooperate together, to weld together into a nationality with unity of feeling and purpose, of endeavour and achievement, without which there can be no India of tomorrow.
That is really the final burden, the final responsibility of this resolution that has been so brilliantly proposed and seconded. What is the purpose of the self-government that you demand? Is it that you wish to keep the privileges for this community or another, for this majority or another, excluding a minority of whatever caste or creed? No. You are demanding self-government that you may find in it your national regeneration, your national deliverance, so that you may be free not only from the despotism of political domination, but from that infinitely subtler and more dreadful and damning domination of your own prejudices and of your own selfseeking community or race. Having got arrested through the evolution of time and spirit, and seeking to obtain the right savouring of self-government, I ask you not to pause and say “We have found the ultimate goal,” because it seems to me that we are likely to be left in the cold unless we are in by the open door of the great Federation of India and establish that national feeling of Unity that knows no difference of caste or creed. If the communities may keep their own individual entities, it is only for the enriching of the federated national life. And so working together, feeling together, cooperating together, subordinating all merely sectarian and racial interests to the larger hope and the higher vision of United India you will be able to say with one voice as children of one Mother:—
Waken ! O Mother, thy children implore thee ! We kneel in thy presence to serve and adore thee ! The night is aflush with the dream of the morrow, Why still dost thou sleep in thy bondage of sorrow ? O waken, and sever the woes that enthral us, And hallow our hand for the triumphs that call us.
Are we not thine, O Beloved, to inherit The purpose and pride and the power of thy spirit ?
Ne’er shall we fail thee, forsake thee or falter, Whose hearts are thy home and thy shield and thine altar, Lo! we would thrill the high stars with thy story And set thee again in the forefront of glory.
Mother, the flowers of our worship have crowned thee! Mother, the flame of our hope shall surround thee! Mother, the sword of our love shall defend thee! Mother, the song of our faith shall attend thee! Our deathless devotion and strength shall avail thee! Hearken, O Queen and O Goddess, we hail thee!