And that service in the temple clearly told Meseemed that floating melody Rose from the bosom of the Earth ; The submission meek it was Of the Earth, miserable and sad. That mortal yearning stole my heart; It vibrates within me And purifies my soul. I was young then ; Today I am infirm and old. The hair on my head have all gone grey. It aches my ear, As if an elephant mad A lotus-clump doth smash. It touches not my chord, Awakens no love of God. -A wretch impious that I am! Today I seek a distance safe, Far from the City's noisy throng, Where the din and bustle would dwindle and faint With the remoteness wide. What value the environ bears, What's the use of seclusion, I realise it now, Seek an atmosphere calm. To be a materialist, I own. 36 44 55 66 INDIA'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM IN EUROPE TILL 1914 ARUN KUMAR BOSE It sounds strange indeed that a subject nation should inaugurate her freedom's battle, and fight it,—at least, in its early years of development-in the very house of her masters. Yet, since the beginning of the last quarter of the 19th century, when some sort of Indian nationalism began to express itself, agitation for its due recognition was started, and for more than a generation carried on in India and England, as well. What accounts for this strange course of Indian Nationalism? It should be noted at the first place, that the English never conquered anything like an Indian nation. For centuries before the arrival of the English, Indians had been a culturally integrated people living under a disintegrated political system. They had not yet developed,— and, nor it seems, they inherited,-that necessary consciousness of national identity, to think of the English intruders as a common danger to India as a whole,-which was then nothing more than a geographical expression. The rise of English power in India seemed to the native population, excepting a very few, as one of the so many invasions and changes of dynasties, that India had been experiencing for centuries. So, unlike the subject peoples of Europe, Indians nourished little national animosity against the English, and as ever before, expected a redress of their grievances by an appeal to the new 'Badshahs' of Calcutta, and failing there, by imploring the mercy and justice of the ultimate sovereign in London. It was with such expectations that Raja Rammohun Roy, in 1830 went to England to plead before the Home Government the case of the pensioned nominal 'Badshah' of Delhi. Nearly twenty years later, a minister of Satara also went to London to do the same for his young aggrieved master. This inherent belief of the Indians in the necessity and utility of appealing directly to the ultimate sovereign was further reinforced by a new attitude towards the English nourished by the English educated middle-class, that was fast rising to power and prosperity. They admired and tried to imitate, almost everything European, specially English. They read the constitutional history and political philosophy of Britain, and appreciated the British love of liberty and equity, that had broadened into practice from precedent to precedent. How could, they wondered, those Englishmen, who were passing the Reform Bills, abolishing slavery, and championing the cause of freedom all over the world, be so callous and cruel towards the lot and demands of their Indian subjects. So, something must be wrong with the British officials in India, who did not give the people in England an accurate picture of the condition and demands of the Indian people. So, the only way they decided upon, was to by-pass the bureaucracy here, and to appeal directly to the liberal sentiment of Britain. It is with this purpose that, Devendra Nath Tagore, (the father of the poet Rabindra Nath Tagore) as the Secretary, British-Indian Association, Calcutta wrote on 11th December, 1851 to some prominent men in South India regarding the necessity of an all-India representation to be made to the British parliament, in view of the approaching termination of the East India Company's Charter in 1853. This shows that even over a century ago, some leaders of Indian opinion had started thinking of securing a hearing of their case in the parlia ment. Dadabhai Naoraji, who had settled as a merchant in London just before the Mutiny, began shouldering the task of acquainting the British public with the condition and demands of the Indian people. He pleaded in public for the presence of some Indian members in the British Parliament, quoted from newspapers like the "Indu Prokash" and the "Hindu Patriot" to express the general demand in India for Indianisation of services, and demanded an equitable adjustment of financial relations between Britain and India.3 As a private individual, representing the genuine demands of the Indian people, Naoraji, on 2nd May, 1868 submitted to Sir Stafford Northcote, the Secretary of State for India, a memorandum for the admission of educated Indians in the Indian Civil Service. Later, in 1884, he submitted a revised memorandum on the same subject. * There was a further difficulty that no English journal in those days would publish anything about India, except some sensational news about the snakes, tigers and magicians of India. So, Naoraji purchased some shares of the "Daily News" only to reserve some space there for really important news about India. Thus, almost 1 & 2 Lecture before the East Indian Association, London on 2nd May, 1867. * Congress. 3 Lecture before the Society of Arts, London on 15th February, 1871, and the Man. chester Athenecum in Nov., 1886. single-handed for nearly two decades Naoraji voiced the otherwise inarticulate Indian opinion in England, as the uncredentialled ambassador of the Indian people. But, the first significant chapter in the history of the agitation by Indians in England for the recognition and fulfilment of their demands, opened with Mr. Lalmohan Ghose's deputation to England in 1878, on behalf of the Indian Association. The whole of educated India was then agitated over the Civil Service question. The All-India Memorial on this topic was addressed to the House of Commons. It would have been ordinarily despatched by post to the House of Commons. But the Indian Association tried to impress upon the British public and government the intensity and unity of feeling in India by sending their unanimously agreed representative to voice their opinion. Their choice at first fell upon Surendra Nath Banerjee himself, but considering his recent dismissal from the Indian Civil Service, he himself preferred that some one else should represent the case. The next choice fell on Lalmohan Ghosh.5 On his arrival in England he received valuable support from Naoraji, Cherron, the Secretary of the Aborigine's Protection Society and David Wedderburn, the brother of Sir William Wedderburn. A meeting organised by the Liberal Party was held in the Willis Rooms, under the presidency of the great free-trader John Bright." Mr. Ghose's eloquence was highly appreciated by all, and its effect was instanteneous. As early as 1870, the Government of India had been empowered to directly appoint really able and loyal Indians to the I.C.S., but they had slept over the matter for full seven years. But now, within 24 hours of Mr. Ghose's speech the rules creating the so-called statutory Civil Service were laid on the Table of the House of Commons. The success of this mission may be said to have opened a new chapter in India's fight for freedom, in the potentialities it disclosed of what might be done by Indian deputations in England." Indeed, Mr. Ghosh was again sent to England soon after his return to India, by the Indian Association. It was during his stay on this occasion, that he stood as a candidate for parliamentary election in the Liberal interest, from the Deptford constituency. He narrowly lost it solely due to Irish vote that went against him at the last moment. Had he succeeded, he would have been entitled to the Nation in Making (p. 54) by 8. N. Banerjee (Oxford Univ Press, 1925). 6 Ibid., p. 54. 1 Ibid., p. 54. honour reserved for Mr. Naoraji of being the first Indian member of the British Parliament. 8 Almost at the same time Lord Lytton, the Viceroy of India had tried to gag the popular vernacular newspapers and to disarm the Indian population,-a step not taken even during the Mutiny,-by passing the Vernacular Press Act and the Arms Act. The Indian Association protested against it, and petitioned to Mr. Gladstone.' He supported their protest and condemned these repressive Acts in his Midlothian Campaign.10 11 12 Thus, there was an increasing realisation of the efficacy of appealing directly to the Liberal British opinion at Home, and of making the Indian question a party issue in British elections and parliamentary debates.1 With this view Mr. A. O. Hume went to England in 1885, the year the Indian National Congress was founded,—and with the help of Reid and John Bright started pro-Indian propaganda, there. But the first active suggestion to open in England a branch organisation in the Inlian National Congress, came from Mr. Naoraji. In 1888 Mr. W. C. Bonerjee, a flourishing Indian Lawyer at London and the first President of the I. N. Congress, and Mr. Eardly Norton joined Mr. Naoraji in his efforts. They also enlisted the support of Mr. Charles Bradlaugh, who had been allowed by his constituency of Northampton to assume the title "member for India''13. In July 1889, a branch office of the I. N. Congress was opened at 25 Craven Street, Strand, London. Mr. William Digboy became its first superintendent. An advisory body of pro-Indian public men was immediately formed, and this was known as the British Committee of the I. N. Congress. Sir William Wedderburn was elected its chairman and remained so till his death in 1918.14 In December, 1889, a formal resolution confirming the appointment of the British Committee was passed in the annnual session of the I. N. Congress at Poona, in the presence of the renowned guest Charles Bradlaugh.15 A resolution was passed appointing a committee of ten consisting of Sir Pherozesha Mehta, W. C. Bonnerjee, Surendra Nath Banerjee, Manomohan Ghose, R. N. Mudholkar, George Yule, 8 Ibid., p. 54. 9 Ibid., p. 58. 10 Midlothian Lectures. 11 Nation in Making, by Surendra Nath Banerjee, p. 56. 12 Indian National Evolution, Chap. XII, by A. C. Mazumdar. 13 Ibid. 14 Rise & Growth of the I. N. Congress (pp. 162-69) by G. K. Mukherjee & C. F. Andrews, pub. in London, 1938. 15 Ibid. |