III. Speech at the Calcutta Congress.
In supporting the Resolution on Self-Government at the Calcutta Congress, in December, 1917, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu said: —
Several years ago, in this historic city, the modern nation-builder, Dadabhai Naoroji proclaimed the immortal message of Swaraj in your ears. I do not think that there was one single heart amongst you that did not respond to the call of your birthright that had so long been withheld from you. We are gathered here to-day to vindicate the message that he then gave, to confirm the truth that he proclaimed; and we demand the fulfilment of the dream that he dreamt for you on that memorable occasion. If I stand before you as a chosen representative of united India it is only because the womanhood of the Nation stands by you to-day and you require no proof more worthy, more convincing of your evidence for responsible and complete Self-Government than the sense of instinctive and fundamental justice you show in letting the voice of Indian womanhood to speak and confirm the vision, the demand, the endeavour, the ambition of Indian manhood.
THE IDEAL OF THE RESOLUTION.
Other speakers having spoken before me and explained to you in detail the scheme that you have propounded, the ambition that the scheme embodied, and the aspiration that you are at the point of achieving, I shall only strive to interpret something that goes beyond the details of that scheme and that is the ideal that has been represented in this resolution. Remember, whatever may be the details of the proposition, whatever may be the facts and factors of any practical politics that you contemplate, its permanent inspiration is the spirit in which these demands and these aspirations are conceived and fulfilled to-day. What is it that we demand? Nothing new, nothing startling, but a thing that is as old as life, as old as human consciousness and that is the birthright of every soul in this world. Remember that within your own province, within your own territories, you should have a living chance and not be disinherited as exiles in your own land, slaves in your own territories, dumb to all things, blind to all things, deaf to all things, that other Nations are enjoying. That day is over when we were content to be slaves in bondage, intellectual, and political, because the day of division is over.
No race can be separated from another race in this great land. There is no longer an India of the Hindu or an India of the Mussalman, but it is an India which is a united India. Arguments are brought forward, you all know how cleverly and subtly, that India has always been a conquered country, a country always under foreign political domination. It is true, but India, you should know, is a great country with 5,000 years of Vedic culture that absorbed and enriched itself within the Aryan culture, Buddhist culture and European culture of the world. What is really at the base of all our grievances is that our self-respect has been trodden to dust, that our manhood has been challenged, that the primary right of man to defend his honour, to defend his women and to protect his country, have been taken away from him. That is the deadliest insult that has not merely emasculated and embittered but has almost slain beyond redemption the spirit of the heroic Indian. Not that you have lost political power and domination, but that you have lost the spirit within you that was your birthright and inviolable treasure. You say that the Moghuls were your rulers. What was the policy of the Moghul rulers? They became part and parcel of the Indian race. They gave to the Indian people those rights and responsibilities which we demand today from the British Throne. These things which are embodied in the scheme for responsible autonomy were given to the Indians. In the time of Akbar’s rule the power of the purse belonged to the conquered people of that Moghul Emperor. Did that power lead to differences? Did it breed disloyalty? No.
That power knit together the peoples so alien to one another in race, faith, tradition and culture. With what result? So far from impoverishing the intellectual cultures of India the foreign conquests succeeded in assimilating foreign cultures with ours and the valour of the children of the Sword has added to the valour of the children of the Sun. In that combination India was honoured. India had not to face the question of submission and implied bondage to conquerors. When we talk of Responsible Government it does not mean an illusion of power. Power without responsibility is demoralising. We demand not license of power, but we demand all the dignity, the sanity, the creative authority of power that is responsible to itself and responsible to the Nation. We do not want to be separated from the life of the people. We want no divided power. Our goal is the same, but temperaments are different; conditions are different; environments are different; and all these things being considered, India is not an India of one race or another, of one party or another, of the Moderate or the Extremist; but in politics the ideal is always there, but there must be a certain amount of expediency used. That is the only compromise that has been made. All life is a life of compromises. The only thing that matters is that for the sake of the weaker the stronger must be prepared to make some sacrifices.
Who says that there is a man or woman here today who does not desire, waking or sleeping, that does not dream that autonomy, that freedom, that liberty, that is self-contained and conveyed by this resolution? One community has got into the race earlier than another community; and possesses advantage by that circumstance and that is the meaning of the compromise that we feel for the weaker. We confess that it is a compromise, but we say that the demand that we make in the Congress-League scheme is an irreducible minimum and that minimum should not be delayed one hour longer. I am only a woman and I should like to say to you all, when your hour strikes, when you need torch-bearers in the darkness to lead you, when you want standard-bearers to uphold your banner and when you die for want of faith, the womanhood of India will be with you as the holders of your banner, and the sustainers of your strength. And if you die, remember, the spirit of Padmini of Chittoor, is enshrined with the manhood of India. (Loud cheers.)