Presidential Address to the Indian National Congress, Cawnpore

[p. 756] FRIENDS,—I have asked the permission of this great gathering to address you in a language that is not ours because to-day I have been made the mouthpiece of a nation in struggle, the consolation of a nation in sorrow, the heart-beat of a nation in agony and the promise of a nation determined to win freedom at the uttermost sacrifice. You have before you in two national tongues and in one foreign language something of that unkindled fuel of my heart that I have piled up, awaiting your kindling hands to bring radiance to that dead wood. You having elected me at so grave an hour of the nation's history, have done something that throughout centuries may serve to redeem for one moment the shame and degradation of your fallen manhood, in giving to a mere woman, the woman who for years and years rocked the cradle and sung lullaby to that national standard which is the emblem of your own regeneration, you have gone back to the earliest inspiration that built your civilization and admitted the woman a co-sharer and comrade in the secular and spiritual evolution of a people. And though I be unworthy and have not in me one single quality that fits me for so great an honour—even I, weak, and unworthy though I be, am of that spiritual descent that knows no mortality; I am of that descent that has for mothers the purity of Sita, the courage of Savitri and the faith of Damayanti and having this for ancestry, the meanest woman becomes consecrated, perhaps by tradition, to serve and to succour her land.

[…] Naidu mourns political prisoners and the deaths of C. R. Das, Surendranath Banerjea and Bhandarkar.

Others also have died, alas! To them also we offer our most mournful tribute. But let us remember the highest tribute, the loftiest memorial that we can offer to our illustrious dead, is to make our lives a more radiant remembrance of their dreams, their deeds, their hopes and aspirations and their failures and achievements also. How to-day shall we raise that memorial, how to-day shall the [p. 759] living justify, how to-day shall the living vindicate and immortalize the dreams, the aspirations and sacrifices of the dead? Oh, my friends, to-day where shall I find the language, where shall I find that living fire that shall kindle in your hearts an undying fire of which Basanti Devi has spoken to you in her message? How shall I stir your hearts, how shall I light that flame that cannot die so that your slavery, so that your disunion, so that all the things that make you hungry and naked and forlorn, oppressed and battered, shall be burnt in that undying fire? We are to-day a people disorganized. We are to-day a people bowed down in the storm of reaction and hatred. Only the other day we were saying: 'Behold! Liberty is at hand.' Only the other day we said: 'Out of South Africa there came a wizard across the seas.' We said: 'Here comes the magician.' We said: 'Here comes the great sorcerer and by some magic he shall teach us deliverance from bondage' and throughout the length and breadth of this great sorrowing country went the magic fire—that was called "Non-Co-operation," "Non-Co-operation." The old saw visions. The young dreamed dreams; women saw their souls lit up like so many lamps extinguished. The young men said: "Let every drop of blood in me become a sacred sacrifice for the liberty of my people." The old said: "Oh God! give us youth again so that we may live to die for that ideal." And thousands went to prison. Thousands took the vow of poverty and the rich became poor and the poor became hungry and the hungry became corpses, but, we to-day, we are unable to sustain the might of that doctrine. We have not the courage, we have not the nobility, we have not the faith of our fathers to sustain the epic sacrifice. And so we are to-day in the grip of despair, we are to-day in the grip of hateful reaction which comes after a great epoch of life and sacrifice. How shall we rise out of that terrible despair? I said the other day only: "In the battle for liberty, fear is the one unforgivable sin." And to-day we are traitors because we are afraid, we are unpardonably sinful because we know despair. How shall I raise you out of [p. 760] that despair? How should I bring together the scattered, demoralised, hostile and conflicting forces of the Indian people.

Oh my brothers! if to-day you are to realise that your brethren in South Africa are threatened with extermination because the rulers of that land say: "Who are you, slaves of India to-day who dare to interfere with the extermination of your slave kindred over here." Our brothers in South Africa have sent their ambassadors to us in their hour of agony. They have come to the last desperate stage when they cannot stand alone and they come to you with hands of supplication saying: "Oh, rise out of slavery because your slavery is the guarantee of our death in that country; your freedom is the prophecy of our honour in the eyes of the world." What answer shall you make to your Colonies? In East Africa, in Kenya, where our people have been living for centuries making historic Colonies of India—where sailors from Cambay showed to Vasco De Gama the way to India, the Eldorado, India the Eldorado, the dream of the world—there they say to your people: 'You shall not be anything but inferior because you belong to a slave nation called India.' In South Africa where your people by the sweat of their brow and blood of their lives have built up that beautiful Natal, they say to us: "You shall not trade here; you shall not live here; you are the Asiatic menace that we must cut off from our lives," and we, with all the tyranny of our social system, with all the curse of disunion, with all the dishonour of our bondage, have not the power of authority to say to them: "Thus far and no further, because the million-armed and free India stands before her stricken children in South Africa."

[…] Naidu calls for military training, laments India's weakness abroad, and decries Hindu-Muslim strife.

Oh, my friends, do you think that Swaraj to-day is a thing that can be taken in piecemeal on communal lines or [p. 764] racial lines or on lines of creed, caste or province? Is it not an organic thing—the very life-blood of our being that we cannot separate—that we cannot divide and yet keep, a living Swaraj? Why should the Hindus, the great majority, proud of their ancient civilization, forget that the basic glory of their culture has been the recognition of the beauty of all creeds and acceptance of all classes, giving them sanctuary, hospitality, succour, sympathy, unity, friendship and love offered in real generosity to all those who came to our doors. Is it not Hinduism to have apotheosis of tolerance and reverence for all good and for all the beauty of the world and shall the Hindus be so untrue to their inheritance that they shall to-day stand in isolation and say: 'Swaraj will be won on the strength of the Hindu people and let the Mussalmans stand aside'? That is to deny the fundamental principle, that great Vedic faith which belongs to you and to me as the imperishable heritage, that no foreign invasion has been able to corrupt or to defraud. But when, on the other hand, seven crores of Indian Moslems turn their faces beyond the frontiers of India and are also deeply preoccupied with the sorrows of Islam in other lands they forget that India their Mother is bleeding of her manifold wounds. What shall I say to my Moslem brothers—has not their Prophet taught them that paradise lies at the feet of the Mother and shall I not ask my Moslem brothers to turn their eyes and come back to the feet of the Mother in whose benediction lies their paradise? Shall not their recognition in its fullest measure of the Indian nationality be the greatest of gifts that Islam can give to India to crown the great gifts that came across the desert to my India? Shall not the Hindus and Moslems cease to talk of majority and minority—of safeguards and protection—of neutrality and hostility—and shall they not say: "India, our Motherland is the one bond of union, and though we the Mussalmans may belong to the desert called Arabia and though we the Hindus come of the forest culture of the Vedas, we are indissolubly bound together." Let the desert and the forest meet together in one paradise of culture whose name is Indian Liberty for the Indian Nation. Oh, my friends, how shall we solve [p. 765] this problem, I do not know. Some say to me: Give us separate communal representation and all things will be well. Others say: Give us a joint electorate and all things will be well. Oh, is it so easy to treat the fatal disease with a few canting formulae of separate or joint representation or is there any magic in the number of seats given to one community or the other? If the remedy is so easy—a mere incantation of a number of seats or separate representation—some jugglery of the polling booth—I would say: Give it and be done with it. But the disease is very deep indeed and the name of that disease is 'distrust' and 'hatred' and it cannot be cured, believe me, until the women of the race say: "No more shall our little children be cradled to the lullaby of this hymn of internecine hate"—until the women of the race say—until the sisterhood and motherhood of India say: "We shall stop this dreadful disease that perpetuates our slavery and makes us the mockery of the civilized world;" and then and then only shall there be hope for this unhappy country. But that is not the end of our catalogue of sins.

[…] Naidu urges service to villages and workers, discusses the States and Frontier, and calls for unity.

I am not afraid of the ultimate sacrifice. I am only a woman. I am only a woman but I am the standard bearer of your honour and I will see to it—the women of India will see to it—that you men shall no more betray the heritage of our nation. The Indian woman calls: 'Oh, my [p. 771] men, stand up and say what is manhood but sacrifice, what is life except to die that our children may be reborn in their heritage of freedom.' And if men falter, as they have done through centuries, go to your homes and let me, a mere woman—let me go to the world and say: 'Mother, rise, we redeem you from bondage, rise from the nightmare of slavery. Shall it be left to the women to say that thy sons were faithless but thy daughters have saved thee.' Bande Mataram. (Applause and prolonged cheers.)

[p. 772] PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

The following is the Presidential Address, copies of which were printed and circulated :

[…] The written address opens with thanks for the honour done to Indian womanhood.

The accepted convention of this august assembly imposes upon me, alas, the duty of placing before you a [p. 773] formal document of plans and policies of work for the coming year. I therefore, contrary to the impulse and custom of a life-time, am vainly groping for appropriate phrases that might serve dimly to foreshadow some of the thoughts that can only find spontaneous expression when I stand in your midst and the inspiration of your living presence shall give to my heart its voice of hope, and to my words their wings of fire.

[…] Naidu mourns the dead and reflects on Gandhi's non-cooperation movement.

We need to-day some transcendent miracle of intrepid and enduring statesmanship to enable us to remobilize, reconcile and discipline our scattered and demoralised energies to a supreme unanimous effort for the final [p. 775] deliverance of India from the last shackles of her political subjection; and to devise a comprehensive scheme that shall act as a natural and indispensable auxiliary of political emancipation, and include within the scope of its interest or benediction all the enterprises and endeavours that substantially contribute to the social, economic, industrial and intellectual advancement of India, consistently with the requirements of her own peculiar conditions and in accordance with the finest ideals of modern progress.

To give concrete expression to our decision in regard to these ancillary activities, the Indian National Congress should create definite departments to be governed by groups of men and women specially qualified by their capacity or enthusiasm to administer to the vital and divergent wants of the people. The main divisions might be few but should include within their sphere of responsibility all cognate matters. To my mind it is of paramount importance to formulate a practical scheme of village reconstruction on the lines of Deshabandhu Das's dream. For this purpose we must try to enlist a large band of missionary patriots of burning zeal who set free from material wants by the pious charity of the householders of the country as in ancient times, should carry through the length and breadth of the land the beneficent evangel of self-reliance and self-respect, taking the immemorial twin symbols of the plough and the spinning wheel as the central text of the teaching that shall liberate our unhappy peasantry from the crushing misery and terror of hunger, ignorance and disease. Closely allied to the task of village reorganisation, is the task of organising the industrial workers in the crowded cities, who are so often compelled to live under conditions that degrade and brutalize them; and who, dislocated from the steadying influences of the familiar traditions and associations of the rural homes they leave in search of bread, are so hopelessly exposed to the temptations of immorality and vice. It should be our endeavour to assist in securing for them improved housing conditions, better wages and a cleaner atmosphere, and to establish an equitable and harmonious co-operation between [p. 776] Capital and Labour as a valuable joint asset of national progress.

I am appalled at the criminal apathy of our general attitude towards the urgent problem of Indian education. The surpassing evil of foreign domination has been to enslave our imagination and intellect and alienate us from the glorious tradition of our national learning. We are to-day no more than the futile puppets of an artificial and imitative system of education which, entirely unsuited to the special trend of our racial genius, has robbed us of our proper mental values and perspectives, and deprived us of all true initiative and originality in seeking authentic modes of self-expression. It is pre-eminently our duty towards the young generation to so recreate our educational ideals as to combine in felicitous and fruitful alliance all the lovely regenerating wisdom of our Eastern culture with all the highest knowledge of art and science, philosophy and civic organisation evolved by the younger people of the West.

In addition, I would insist with all the force at my command on including a complete course of military training as an integral part of national education. Is it not the saddest of all shameful ironies that our children whose favourite lullabies are the battle songs of Kurukshetra and whose little feet march gaily to the stirring music of Rajput ballads, should be condemned to depend for the safety of their homes, the protection of their sanctuaries, the security of their mountain and ocean frontiers, on the fidelity and strength of foreign arms? The savage Massai, the primitive Zulu, the Arab and the Afridi, the Greek and the Bulgar may all carry their tribal weapons and claim their inalienable right to defend the honour of their race, but we whose boast it is that we kindled the flame of the world's civilization are alone defrauded of our privilege and have become cowards by compulsion, unfit to answer the world's challenge to our manhood, unable to maintain the sanctity of our homes and shrines.

[p. 777] Whatever the experiments recommended by the Commission now sitting to explore the avenue of the military advancement for our people, it is incumbent upon the Congress to form forthwith a national militia by voluntary conscription, of which the nucleus might well be the existing volunteer organisations. Further we should also carefully consider the question of nautical as well as naval and aerial training to equip the nation for all purposes of defence against invasion or attack.

[…] Naidu turns to Indians overseas, publicity, Hindu-Muslim unity, the princely States and the Frontier.

These are some of the accessory features of our work. The real function, however, of the Indian National Congress is the speedy attainment of Swaraj.

There is a large and influential section of Congressmen who still cling with touching and jealous loyalty to the orthodox creed of Non-Co-operation. Sternly refusing to take cognizance of legislative bodies they devote themselves to the pursuit of Mahatma Gandhi's benevolent mission, propagating the cult of the spinning wheel and ministering to the lowly and pitiful outcastes of our society whom, in our arrogance, we have so long deprived of their elementary human rights.

To-day therefore, the Swaraj Party with its highly disciplined organisation and its striking record of success is [p. 781] the only political body within the Congress engaged in actual combat with bureaucratic authority. Is it not in this crucial hour the unmistakable duty of all the other political parties in the country, irrespective of their particular labels and particular beliefs, to return to the Congress which invites them with open doors, and coalesce all their divided energies and talents in devising a common programme of action in pursuance of a common goal?

All of them have openly acknowledged that the Reforms of 1919 which were to have created a new era of progress have proved nothing but a mirage and the powers they professed to transfer to the people nothing but a deceptive myth. All of them surely, are tacitly agreed upon some common maximum of the wrongs they are still prepared to endure, some common minimum of the rights they are now determined to enforce. And whatever be my own personal conviction, they at all events are all in favour at least as an initial form of self-government of the ideal of Dominion Status, so elaborately expounded in the Commonwealth of India Bill, and more succinctly and emphatically embodied in the National Demand which has been endorsed by the representatives of all political schools in the Legislative Assembly. Below the limits of that demand the Indian nation cannot descend without irretrievable damage to its dignity and self-respect. It is now for the Government to make the responsive gesture that shall decide our future attitude. If the response be sincere and magnanimous, with ample guarantees of goodwill and good faith on its part, it will necessitate an immediate revision of our present policy. But if by the end of the Spring Sessions we receive no answer or an answer that evades the real issues or proves unworthy of our acceptance, the National Congress must clearly issue a mandate to all those who come within its sphere to vacate their seats in the Central and Provincial Legislatures and inaugurate from Kailas to Kanyakumari, from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, an untiring and dynamic campaign to arouse, consolidate, educate and prepare the Indian people for all the progressive and ultimate stages of our united struggle [p. 782] and teach them that no sacrifice is too heavy, no suffering too great, no martyrdom too terrible, that enables us to redeem our Mother from the unspeakable dishonour of her bondage, and bequeath to our children an imperishable legacy of Peace.

In the battle for liberty, fear is the one unforgivable treachery and despair, the one unforgivable sin.

With palms uplifted in ardent supplication, I pray that, to us, in our coming hour of travail, may be granted in sufficient measure an invincible faith and an inflexible courage, and that He in whose name we begin our labours to-day will in the hour of our triumph keep us humble and in the beautiful words of our ancient invocation

Lead us out of the Unreal into the Real, Out of the Darkness into the Light, Out of Death into Immortality.