What rights can the British people give me if I have not the claim
within myself? Can man create rights? They can only recognise the
rights which I have within me, the rights which belong to me, the
rights which are given to me by God and rights which no man can take
away. Unless you can satisfy that, unless you can make good that
position, neither the British Parliament, nor all the Parliaments of
the world will be able to confer on you things which do not belong to
you. Strive for the thing which belongs to you. Say to them manfully,
"this is my right" and prove that assertion by the voice of the people,
the united voice of the nation (cheers). Prove that assertion and when
you have done that, is there any power in this world which can say,
you will not have that which belongs to you (cheers). They can only
keep it from you as long as you do not realise that it is yours. That
which you realise as your own cannot be taken away from you. The moment
you realise this is your own, that moment that right will have to be
recognised and not a moment sooner. No half-measures will create that,
no tinkering scheme of reforms has ever made a nation in the past and
will never make a nation in the future. Is it not Mr. Surendranath
Banerjea who has repeated times without number that nations are by
themselves made (Loud Cheers)?