II. Speech at the Lucknow Congress.
Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, in supporting the Resolution on Self-Government at the Lucknow Congress of December, 1916, said:
Mr. President, and fellow-citizens of the Indian nation, – From the very beginning of time it has always been the woman’s privilege to have the last word on any subject, and though that last word is sprung on her by the tyranny of the leaders that demand Home Rule, it is to vindicate the readiness of my sex, to stand by the men of India in all that concerns their national welfare and honour that I rise to obey the mandate of this tyranny. (Hear, hear.) Many speakers, before me, gifted and famous, full of knowledge and full of experience, have laid before you a scheme of Self-Government, and it is not for me to add words to their practical wisdom. I am merely a spectator from the watch-tower of dreams, and I watched the swift and troubled, sometimes chequered but nevertheless indomitable, time-spirit marching on in a pageant of triumph to the desired goal.
Gentlemen, if to-day Home Rule is no distant dream, if it is no mere fancy of Utopia, it is due to one thing more than to any other thing and perhaps you will let me enlighten you, so that you may offer your gratitude to the right sources. Less than four years ago, in this very city of Lucknow, this city of memories, this city of dead kings, a new hope came to birth, because the younger generation of Mussalmans had seen a vision that made it possible for the leaders of the National Congress to realise within the scope of practical vision, of practical work, of practical achievement, the supreme desire of the national soul.
Gentlemen, it was my privilege to represent my great community on this occasion. It was the greatest honour of my life that I was invited to speak to this young generation of Islam that had seen this vision of Indian nationality which succeeded in passing a constitution whose essential creed was cooperation with the Hindu sister community. And because of this vision, four years after in this very city of Lucknow, we are now able to say that ‘we shall have Home Rule, we will not ask for it, we will create it of our own desires, out of our own enthusiasm, out of our own capacity, out of our inviolable unity, the unity of the Hindu and the Mussalman.’ (Hear, hear.)
Friends, Members of this Congress, citizens of India who have come from the farthest corners in this great country, I ask you in the name of that greater Nation that is born to-day in the city of Lucknow to offer your thanks to three men, though it might indeed seem invidious to make distinctions, where so many have been earnest, so many have been loyal and cooperating, it would be indeed lacking in gratitude on the part of this great assembly, were it not to offer a public recognition of gratitude to three most brilliant, most faithful, most courageous Mussalmans—the Rajah Saheb of Mahmudabad, that fearless and independent spirit, Mazahrul Haque, and thirdly Mr. M. A. Jinnah, of whom it was that the late Mr. Gokhale said to me, immediately after the last Muslim League in Lucknow, that ‘He is the best ambassador of the Hindu-Muslim unity.’ We are united to-day by the efforts of the Muslim League. To stand united, but united with such strength that nothing from outside, not even the tyranny of Colonial domination, shall withhold from us our rights and privileges, withhold from us liberties that are due which we claim by our united voice. Nothing can prevent us from achieving the desires of our heart for, as Mr. Surendrarnath Banerjea told you, the final issues are in your hands. The ultimate decision is yours. Who will deny you the birth-right of freedom? If the millions of India speak with one voice and say, ‘Ours is the right of freedom; we claim it; we take it; you dare not deny to us the birth-right of humanity,’ nobody dare deny it. Centuries have gone by; the old divisions are healed; old wounds have got covered.
Instead of building our regeneration on hatred and division, we stand today building our national future on the secure and imperishable foundations of love and united service. Each of us has seen a vision. To each of us has come that living consciousness that it is united service for the Motherland that constitutes the supremest hope of tomorrow. There is no one so mean, so weak, so selfish as not to think that in the service of the Motherland lies joy greater than all personal joys; in suffering for her comes the supremest consolation in our personal sorrow and in her worship is the absolution of sin; to live for her is the most victorious triumph of life, to die for her is to achieve the priceless crown of immortality. (Hear, hear, and applause.) Let us then offer our lives unanimously as a tribute at the feet of the Motherland, for, as the great Prophet of Islam says “Under the feet of the Mother lies Paradise.” (Loud applause).