When I stand here before you, I feel I am standing on a sacred soil.
To every Nationalist of Bengal, Barisal is a place of pilgrimage. Here
it was that our friend and guru Babu Aswini Kumar Dutt (cheers) has
passed the best years of his life in the service of the people of this
country and in awakening within them the spirit of nationality in
the true light of spirituality. Here it was, gentlemen, that we met
at one of the most memorable conferences that took place in Bengal, I
mean the Provincial Conference in which we came into conflict with the
Executive. I cannot efface from my mind the memory of that meeting. The
song of Bande Mataram had been sung before in Bengal but never in that
significant way as it was done on that memorable occasion. I remember
the conference vividly, the march from this very place to the hall
of the conference, the illegal orders that were passed, the illegal
arrests that were made, and the voice of the people triumphing over all
those illegal attempts on the part of the Executive. Gentlemen, that
surely was a landmark in the history of Nationalism and if I have come
before you to-night to speak of the most momentous question which is
agitating the whole country, it is only meet that you should remember
the struggles, the glorious fight, the unselfish work and activities of
our leaders which have brought us to this state.