Speeches of Bepin Chandra Pal, Delivered at Madras

NORMAN G. BAHKI^H ^ I s m'-mm^ Speeches .\ OF T 4^ ^• DELIVERED AT .<v S MADRAS. MADRAS. GANKSH a Co 19'7 PRINTED BY S. SUNDARESAN & Brother., MADRAS. I -it' .^^^^^^^^"^-^..^^^^^^^^^ SRJ BEPIN CHAi-^ : Speechea. OF Srj. BEPIN CHANDRA PAL {Delivered ai MA DRA S.J PUBLISHED BY GA.VESH & Co., MADRAS. PRINTED AT THE IRISH PRESS, MADRAS 1907. — SPEECHES OF BABU BEPIN CHANDRA PAL. DELIVERED IN MADRAS. The first of the series of speeches delivered in Madras by Bubu BepiD Ob«ndra Pal was on the "New Movement." Mr. G. Sabi-anaanialyer, b.a.. Editor of the Swadesa-Mithrau, was voted to the chair The New Movement. Mr. Subramania Aiyar, friends and fellow-conntrymen : When at the close of the last Seseion of the Indian Nationa* Congress iu Calcutta, I was asked to go over here on a short ' leotaring tour, and when in response to that kind invitation I agreed to do so, I did not expect the demonstration that I wit- nessed last evening while progressing along with you in a procession. I refuse to accept it as a profession organized iu my honour and, therefore, I say I was not prepared for the demonstration that I saw last evening. It was not in honour of any particular individual, but of the ideals of Swadeshi and Swaraj (Criea of Vande Mataram), to which reference has already been made by my friend in the chair. Nor did I expect such a large gathering as I see befoi«e me. I was fortunate enough to address very large audiences in Madras on previous occasions, bat this audience, I am called upon to face this evening, is absolutely out of all proportion to what experience j had even in your enthusiastic city, 4 or 5 years ago. This is a proof, Sir, I take it, not merely of the idle curiosity of the people of this great city, (cri^js of 'certainly not'), but 1 take it —and I am glad of that assurance—that it is a proof at least of the )ntei-6Bt that has been awakened among mj conntrymBu here in the New Movement, that has already commenced t) bring about raighty transformations in the thonghta and ideals of oar countrymen all over this great Indian continent (Hear, hear). What is this New Movement ? You read • in the newspapers the outer manifeetations of this movement- Yon have come to identify this movement with Swadeshi ; yon have come to identify this movement with something more than Lord Minto s honest 'Swadesi'; you have come to identify it with Swadesi that is ..organi- cally related to boycott (Hear, hear) ; you have come to this movement with the new ideal of svoaraj identify ; you have come to identify this movement also, as your chairman told yon, with the Partition of Bengal (Hear, hoar). You see ripples of this movement in the outbreak ef lawlessness in the Eastern provinces, first in the outbreak of iawles&ness by those wbo are paid by the people of this country (hear, hear and cries of shame) to help in the preservation of law and order (cries of shame). You saw the ripple of this new movement in the kind of lawlessness last year about this time in Barisal (cries of shame). You, I believe, recognised also the outer ripples of this movement in the present outburstof lawlessness in anothershape viz, in the outburst of Mahomedan Vandalism in parts of East Bengal You have come to identify this movement with the in- carceration of our joung men and old men also, with the arrests of popular leaders (cries of shame) in different parts of fiengal. You have uomo to identify it with the regulation sticks uf the Police and the Vande Matarmn sticks of the people. I know all this ; and you also know all these things. But I do not care just now to speak of these ouier ripples. They are merely the manifes- tations of a force that is flowing through the very heart of tho oation. They are the outermost fringe', as it were, the outermost — oonrse of the raigbfy currents that have commenced to stir to their very depths the still waters of Indian national life Sometime ago, an English gentleman, a retired Anglo-Tndian official, wrote to a friend of mine iu Calcntta, wanting to know the inwardness of the New Movement in Bengal. I desire to speak a few words to you this evening on this inwardness of the New Movement. What is this movement due to.'' What are the foroeaof its strength and inspiration? What are the forces that lie hidden at the root of this movement ? What is it'that this movement desires to achieve and how does it propose to achieve that end? Reference, gentlemen, has been made to the Partition of Bengal. Allow me to tell yon that the significance of that measnre has been considerably exaggerated ontside Bengal. It has been, I confess, exaggerated also to some extent even by a section of the Bengali Press. The Partition whs an evil measure, the Partition was a hateful measnre. The Bengalis hated to be divided from their own people, the Eistern Provin- ces from the Western Provinces. We have been living together for hew many centuries past nobody knows; we have developed a peculiar culture of onr own, throngh a common language and a common literature. Belonging though, no doubt, to the wide life of Indian Hindus and Indian Moslems, yet Bengal ilinduism has its own peculiarity, as the Moslem ideals and cultares of Bengal have also their own peculiarity. Bengal has been for many centuries past a nation speaking one language, belonging to one civilization, ''practically trying to develop one culture, and this original unity based jipon the unity of language, religion, civilization and culture, developed and grew-—thank God under the community of civic "and political interests. Ever since the establishment of * British rnle in India, we had been governed practically by one and the same laws, ruled by the same administration ; and our political life has, all these years, been controlled by one single policy. Suddenly, however, the Province, united in lanjfuage, united in past historic associa- tion?, united in oivilizatioi^nd oalture, united' in a common law and administration, this Province was proposed to be cut into two, which gave offence to us. It pained us. We cried, we prayed, we petitioned, we protested, but all to no purpose (cries of shame) and the administrative will—T will not call it administrative necessity, because we do not recognise the necessity—the administrative will had its way, And on the 16th October 1905, two Provinces were made out of the Province of Bengal. The measure was carried out with almost indecent haste, and the reason of the haste was this—judging from the past experience of ludian political life and agitation, the Government of Lord Curzon evidently believeS (cries of shame) that as long as the measure was not carried out, so long only would this agitation continue. But once it became a " Settled fact," the agitation also would quietly, like all previous agitations, more or less settle down. That was the prognosis which the acute Viceroy made of the situation. For once, superior wisdom was blinded, superior intelligence failed to see through the outer garb and gathering of popular agitation and popular excitement (cries of shame and cheers); and the agitation against Partition instead of sub.siding, as previous agitations bad done, when it was foutid that they would do no good, continued ; it increased, it expanded, it attacked and covered new grounds. It developed new forces and it applied these new forces to the solution of the problem before itself. (Hear, hear) Whence came this new inspiration, this new force ? Truth to say, wp soon recognised that it is not in the power of any Goyernment,»^mt<^h less is it in the power of an aliea Govei'Duieut, to divide a people whom Gods anited (Hear, hear). They might with their pen, dipped in red ink, pass a line on the administrative map of the Province (Hear, hear), add fresh laboars to the dj^ftsmen in the Survey Department of the Government. Bat the stroke of the pen, cannot cut the nation into two. The stroke of the pen though it wounds, wounds in other ways than by cutting things into two's and three's twenty's and thirty's. If it were possible for a stroke of the pen to cut up anything, why, we have been applying this stroke, my friend in the chair and 1 , a humble follower of his (cheers). We have been cutting administra- tions not into two. but into two bnadreda almost every day by the stroke of our pens ; but the administration remaine all the same. We pierce oflBjials by this instrument., but the offi- cials remain all the time hale and hearty. So that when Lord Carzon passed hia gubernatorial pen, cut the Province of Bengal in twain, Bengal remained one, and all that this attempt did was to create a deathless determination in the people to continue to be one to the end of their life (Hear, hear). So, really, the Pdrtition measure failed, and the failare of it was conBrroed by the proceedings of the pubic meeting that we held in Calcutta, on the 7th Aagust 190.5. I was addressing an overflowing meeting on that memorable evening from the steps of the Calcutta Town Hall. The audience was aa large aa this, and when 1 saw that aadifnc*, the idea struck me that it would be a verv good thing if the Viceroy's astral body could descend from Simla and Uk<^ \U position on the top of the banyan tree, that we have near our Town Hall, and if it could see from the top of that tree the crowds that gathered and declared their determination to undo the measures of the Partition measure.

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