To-night I wish to say a few words to you about the present political
situation in our country. Do not imagine gentlemen, that your political
situation is detached from other matters which belong to our country.
Political activity is part and parcel of your culture; it is the
practice of your patriotism; it is the expression of your religion. I
never believe in watertight compartments of human culture. There are
people of this country, who try to divide the whole field of human
life into so many compartments or divisions. With them politics is
one thing, religion, education--these things have nothing to do with
politics. With them religion is a different branch altogether. Neither
politics nor education has anything to do with it. They forget that
human soul is one, they forget that the individuality of human beings
is one complex whole covering many activities. As the individual soul
is one, so the national soul is one. I do not desire to deal with the
political situation of to-day in any narrow spirit or in a spirit which
is borrowed from the politics of Europe,--much as I venerate European
culture, much as I love and much as I acknowledge my indebtedness to
the education which I had in Europe, I cannot forget that Bengal stands
for something higher than that. I cannot forget that our nationality
must not rest content with borrowing things from European politics--and
I repeat what I said elsewhere, that Bengal has a message to give to
the world. When you will find that infant nationality has grown and we
have developed according to our light our country will deliver that
message and the world will listen.