_At Chittagong on the 17th June 1918, under the auspices of the local
Home Rule League, a meeting was held under the presidency of Babu Jatra
Mohan Sen, when Mr. C. R. Das delivered the following speech_:--
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I wish you had not insisted on my speaking
to-night as I am anxious not to spoil the effect of the brilliant
address (of the Hon. Mr. Fazlul Huq) to which you have just listened
(go on, go on). If I rise to respond to the call from the Chairman,
I confess it is not without some hesitation. Gentlemen, Mr. Huq has
dealt with the question of Home Rule from many points of view, with
considerable force and with great eloquence. I desire to say that I
am in complete agreement with everything that has fallen from him.
(Cheers).
You will, however, permit me to-night to tell you a story--the story of
the great denial. The other day our distinguished Chairman said that
we are in the midst of a great crisis. I also said that the present
crisis of India is greater and more serious than any in her history.
But to-day I will tell you the story of the great denial. As a preface
to my story I shall ask you to recall to your mind the principal
incidents of our national history under British Rule. More than a
century and a half have passed by and at the end of it we find that
the people of Bengal, the vast majority of them at any rate, are not
educated and this want of education is put forward by the authorities
as an argument against Home Rule. I have given this answer before and I
repeat it again--if they are not educated, whose fault is it? What have
the authorities been doing here for the last 150 years if they have
not succeeded in educating the people of this country? What excuse is
there for this failure? Is there a national government anywhere in the
history of civilization, which after it took up the work of education,
did not finish and complete it within, say, 30 years? (Hear, hear).
Do you doubt for a moment that if we get self-government now, we will
be able to educate the people of this country in another 20 years?
But why has not this been done by the Government? Let the Bureaucracy
answer--This is a chapter in the story of the great denial (Hear, hear).