Jogendra Nath Mandal, a leader of the Namasudra community and later of the Scheduled Castes Federation in Bengal, was a minister in the Muslim League ministry of Khwaja Nazimuddin when he gave this speech in the Bengal Legislative Assembly on 5 June 1944. Narendra Nath Das Gupta had moved an adjournment motion against the government's ban on a Hindu conference at Lora, where four districts meet. Its sponsors described it as a meeting for the uplift of the Scheduled Castes. Mandal reads from a Bengali leaflet issued for the conference. The Bengali passages are reproduced from the printed record, where the type is worn and a few words in the leaflet could not be read.
Mandal argues that the conference was a Hindu Mahasabha scheme to set Namasudras against Muslims in a district prone to riots, and he reads as evidence the leaflet's call to awaken the Hindus' dormant martial valour. He says that caste Hindus had kept his community untouchable for centuries and took an interest only when the government offered money for Scheduled Caste education. When opponents call him উচ্ছিষ্ট ভোজী, an eater of leftovers, for serving with the League, he answers that Hindu leaders such as Syama Prasad Mookerjee had made their own alliance with the League first.
[p. 153] The Hon'ble Mr. JOGENDRA NATH MANDAL: Mr. Speaker, Sir, it has pained me much to listen to the speech that was delivered by Mr. Narendra Nath Das not because his speech was full of insinuations and aspersions but because his speech was full of false statements and incorrect statements. Sir, the time at my disposal is very short. Therefore it will not be possible for me to explain all that has happened during the last week.
Now, Sir, one thing will be clear from the leaflets that were issued by the organisers and convenors of the Hindu conference. Mr. Das has said in his speech that the object of the conference that was to be held at Lora was to bring about unity amongst the different sections of the Hindu community and to promote educational and social interests of the Hindu community. In the speech he has said that there was no intention on the part of the organisers and convenors of the conference to pick a quarrel with any other community. Sir, I will read one passage from one of the leaflets. It runs like this.
....আমরা যে প্রাচীনতম সনাতন ধর্ম্মের বংশধর তাহার গৌরবোজ্জ্বল ইতিহাস আমরা প্রায় বিস্মৃত হইয়াছি। আজ অন্য ধর্ম্মালম্বীগণের নিদারুণ কশাঘাতের ফলে আমাদের মধ্যে নূতন চেতনা ও প্রেরণার সঞ্চার হইয়াছে। আমাদের সম্মুখে প্রধান সমস্যা, আমাদের সুপ্ত [p. 154] ক্ষাত্রবীর্য্যকে উদ্বুদ্ধ করা এবং এক অবিচ্ছিন্ন সুশৃঙ্খলিত, একই আদর্শ [illegible] অনুপ্রাণিত জাতি হিসাবে নিজদিগকে গঠন করিয়া তোলা।
Sir, they have tried to rouse the Hindu community against those who do not profess the Hindu religion. Then, Sir, when it was published in the Amrita Bazar Patrika that a Hindu conference was going to be held at Lora and a reception committee was formed with Mr. P. R. Thakur as Chairman, one day I saw Mr. Thakur and asked him what was the object of the conference. He told me that the Maharajadhiraja Bahadur of Burdwan and Dr. Mookerjee have proposed that a military college should be established at Lora. (Cries of “hear”, “hear” from Opposition benches.) This was the reply given by Mr. Thakur.
I come to another point. Who were the real organisers of the conference? The organisers of the conference were a large number of Hindu Mahasabha workers and many of the Secretaries of district and subdivisional Hindu Sabhas assembled there and they sent up their workers to different villages and different parts of several districts. Sir, on behalf of the Scheduled Castes there were a handful of Namasudra people of Lora village alone except Mr. P. R. Thakur of Faridpur and Mr. Upendra Nath Edbar of Pirojpur. A leaflet was issued containing over 100 names but 90 per cent. of the names were given without the knowledge and consent of those whose names appeared in the leaflet. Rai Sahib Lalit Kumar Bal, whose name has been used because he is a local leader, came to Malikhali where I went to visit a high school and I took the Special Officer, Scheduled Castes Education, in order that he may be conversant with the difficulties of the school authorities and I went to Digdha to inspect another newly-started high English school organised by Namasudras so I took the Special Officer with me. In that meeting at Malikhali Rai Sahib Lalit Kumar Bal delivered a speech and he expressed his strong resentment against this conference but his name was used in the leaflet. Then, Sir, one Rajendra Nath Malakar, who is a pleader of Bagerhat and a leader of Mollarhat thana, his name was included in that list. He went with me in the same steamer and he handed over to me a letter expressing his resentment and asking my advice as to what he should do in the matter. Then, one Bhabani Sankar Gain, who is a leading gentleman of Mollarhat thana, his name is there. He wrote me a letter asking my direction and he asked me to attend a meeting at Mollarhat the object of which was to oppose this conference. Then Babu Narayan Chandra Bala, head master of Salpar high school, wrote me a letter also in a similar manner asking my advice as to what he should do in the matter. His name also has been used without his knowledge and consent. In this way hundreds of names from different parts of four districts were used. Moreover most of the names are not of Scheduled Castes but of Caste Hindus.
Now, Sir, another point I should make clear and that is that the locality was selected with the one object and that object was that the locality was a hotbed of riot at regular intervals and that was a junction of four districts, and if a conference of that nature could be held and the Namasudra people could be roused against other communities, the object of the Hindu Mahasabhaites would be fulfilled. That was the only object and there can be no other object. For the last four thousand years we have been kept untouchables and our Caste Hindu brethren never felt for us and never made any attempt to uplift us and now that Government have given us Rs. 5 lakhs for education they have found it a suitable time to go to Lora and establish a college there which is not at all necessary.
Another word, Sir, and I have finished. My friend Srijut Narendra Nath Das Gupta has called me উচ্ছিষ্ট ভোজী। If I have been an উচ্ছিষ্ট ভোজী, his leaders Dr. Syamaprasad Mookerjee, Mr. Pramatha Nath Banerjee and Mr. Santosh Kumar Basu, when they were in office and made alliance with the Muslim League, they also were greater উচ্ছিষ্ট ভোজী। Muslim League is a most powerful and prominent organisation in India and I have [p. 155] not felt any hesitation in making alliance with that organisation. My honourable friends have called me উচ্ছিষ্ট ভোজী। but in that respect they are our leaders, they are our eye-openers. They have made alliance with the Muslim League first and they took উচ্ছিষ্ট before we took.
With these words, Sir, I oppose the resolution.
Bengal Legislative Assembly Proceedings, 1944, pp. 153–155.