What have we got which we can call our own? If the enemy knocks at
our door have we got strength to fight him? Have we got the weapons
of warfare? Have we got even a lathi with which we can defend our
hearths and homes?--No. (Cheers) Have we got money?--No. (Cheers) Are
the people, the vast majority of the people of Bengal educated?--No.
One hundred and fifty years of British rule have passed by without
conferring real education on the people of this country. You need not
enquire into the causes. I am only trying to give you a picture of
the helplessness of our position to-day. We have not got anything--we
have not got money, we have not got arms, we have not got education.
Well, an analysis of our position to-day will tell you more eloquently
than any speaker can that the only solution of this question is
self-government. The very objections which are urged against the
granting of self-government are to my mind good reasons for granting
home rule to this country (Cheers). It is said that we do not deserve
Self-Government because the people of this country are not educated. My
answer to that is why have they remained uneducated so long? In other
countries education has been introduced and carried far within a period
of 20 years or 25 years--in some countries in less than that. But why
is it or how is it that within the last 150 years of British rule--the
bureaucratic government in the country has not succeeded in educating
the people of this country? Why is it so? It is not necessary for them.
It is not necessary for the bureaucracy to do that, but it is necessary
for the people of this country. It is necessary for the development of
our race. It is necessary for the very existence of our nationality.
Now, if you say that we are not fit for self-government because we are
uneducated, I say that is the very reason why you ought to give us
Home Rule, because if you do so we will succeed in educating the vast
majority of our countrymen in 20 year's time (Cheers).