our social and political life. Fortunately, acts like these are reprobated throughout India. They may appeal to the perverted imaginations of misguided youth, but are abhorrent to the sober sense of the great mass of the population of India. They alienate not only the sympathy of those Englishmen whose support would be invaluable to our cause, both in India and in England, but they provoke the bitterest resentment among our own people who naturally shrink from an ideal where lawlessness is likely to have sway. On your behalf and for myself, I express my utmost and unqualified detestation of these lawless acts, and I fervently appeal to all sections of our people to express in unmistakable language their abhorrence of these dastardly crimes which besmirch the fair fame of our country and so to co-operate with the authorities as to render their detection and punishment absolutely certain. We are left, therefore, with the third alternative as the only means of attaining the goal of selfgovernment. Before I deal with it, let me remind you of a parable in Mr. Edwin Bevan's thoughtful little book on Indian Nationalism. He likens the condition of our country to that of a man whose whole bodily frame, suffering from severe injuries and grievous lesions, has been put in a steel frame by a skilful surgeon. This renders it necessary for the injured man, as the highest duty to himself, to wait quietly and patiently in splints and bandages--even in a steel frame-until nature resumes her active processes. The knitting of the bones and the granulation of the flesh require time, perfect quiet and repose, even under the severest pain, is necessary. It will not do to make too great haste to get well. An attempt to walk too soon will not only make the matter worse, and above all the aid of the surgeon is indispensable and it is foolish to grudge the necessary fee.

When we ourselves have so far advanced under the guidance and protection of England as to be able not only to manage our own domestic affairs, but to secure internal peace and prevent external aggression, I believe that it will be as much the interest as the duty of England to concede the fullest autonomy to India. Political wiseacres tell us that history does not record any precedent in which a foreign nation has with its own hands freed from bondage the people which it has itself conquered. I will not pause to point out, what has been pointed out so often, that India was never conquered in the literal sense of the word, and, as very properly observed by the late Sir John Seeley. India is not a possession of England

in the sense of legally being a tributary to England more than any of her colonies. I will not wait to examine the cases of French Canada and the Boer Republics in South Africa to whom free institutions have been granted. But, has there been a situation before this in the history of mankind like that of India to-day? Has there been a nation whose ideas of political morality have ever reached those of the great English nation? Has there been another nation which has fought so continuously and strenuously for the freedom and liberty of other nations as the English? My faith is based not on emotion or unreasoning sentiment, it rests on the record of what has already been achieved by the undying labours of far-sighted English statesmen and noble-hearted Indian patriots, both those who are still working for the cause and those whose labours are done and whose spirits hover over us to-day and guide and inspire us. The East and the West have met-not in vain. The invisible scribe who has been writing the most marvellous history that ever was written has not been idle. Those who have the discernment and inner vision to see will know that there is only one goal and there is only one path. The regeneration and reconstruction of India take place only under the guidance and control of England, and while we admit that the goal is not yet, we refuse to believe that it is so distant as to render it a mere vision of the imagination. We deprecate the impatience of those who imagine that we have only to stretch our hands to grasp the coveted prize. But we differ equally from those who think that the end is so remote as to be a negligible factor in the ordinary work of even present-day administration. It seems to me that, having fixed our goal, it is hardly necessary to attempt to define in concrete terms the precise relationship that will exist between India and England when the goal is reached. Whatever may be the connection of India with England in the distant future her impress on India could never be effaced and the inter-communion of the spirit and the breathing of new life into India by England will be a permanent factor which could never be discounted. Autonomy within the Empire is the accept

can

ed political faith of the Congress, and I find it difficult to believe that our patriotism and love of country cannot be reconciled to the picture of the future which generous English statesmen like Lord Haldane draw in which Englishmen and Indians will be fellow-citizens of a common Empire and of a common and splendid heritage, all of us bringing our special talents to bear co-operatively

At present the air is thick with another popular grievance which, as time goes on, will demand the highest counsel of perfection and the most mature political wisdom for purposes of redress. It is, of course, in consonance with the constitutional creed laid down by the Congress, that SelfGovernment under the British Rule is its Ultima Thule. But the way, I am afraid, to the promised land is long and beset with difficulties which it would be wisdom on our part to take cognisance of. A hasty or rash step or a precipitate move, calculated to endanger the patriotic aspirations breathing in every enlightened unit of the Empire, is most inexpedient and absolutely undesirable. We must so balance our minds as not to be carried away by sympathy for liberal maxims into wild transports of revolutionary rapture. Great organic measures, as the constitutional history of free countries teaches us, are always preceded by a reasonable period of discussion. A variety of ideas on Self-Government, more or less of a crude or nebulous character, now mooted in the country, need to be well moulded into a crystallized form and to be tested in the crucible of practical politics before they could be materialised. It is only by such a slow and measured process that we can reach the goal. It is not the multiplicity of organisations which is wanted. What is most essential and of paramount importance is the concentration of responsible opinion, well-reasoned, well-balanced and well-directed, which might unmistakably reveal the fact that India is of one mind and one heart. There are lions in the path who will have to be overcome, and we should not forget another important fact that bureaucracy, in every part of the world, is stubborn and unwilling to move. Their pace of progress is the pace of the tortoise. In practical politics we cannot omit to take into account these elements. It would not be inappropriate here were I to quote the opinion of a distinguished member of the Anglo-Indian Bureaucracy in reference to all Indian political progress. It was Sir Auckland Colvin who in 1884 observed in that remarkable but exceedingly statesmanlike paper entitled: "If it be realwhat does it mean?" contributed to the Pioneer, as follows:

While the English mind in India has been tempted to stand still, arrested by the contemplation of the fruits of its efforts in former times, and by the symmetry of the shrine, the pride of its own creation, in which it lingers to offer incense to its past successful labours,

the Indian mind has been marching on, eager and anxious to expand its own sphere of action, and to do what it for its own part has to do.

Thus it is that while the dry bones in the valley have been galvanizing themselves into life for the last 30 years and Indian humanity has been taking large strides in all matters affecting its political, social, educational and industrial welfare and is instinct with manifold activities in all directions, the Bureaucracy has been almost standing still before its venerated but absolute shrine, making puja to it, while unconscious of all the progress that has been so quickly going around it. That hierarchy still seems to be little aware that the country has rapidly passed through the transition stage ever since the epoch-making Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, and that it is now entering on a stage which is in every respect a radically different one from that to which its members have been accustomed since the midVictorian age. Self-Government is bound to

come.

I venture to say, albeit, by measured stages, from precedent to precedent. Of course, there are those enthusiastic and ardent though impatient idealists who seem to entertain the belief that they have only to pronounce aloud the shibboleth of Self-Government to realise in a trice the accomplishment of their ideas. To such I have only to refer to the sage observations which that stalwart Congressman and robust friend of India, the late Sir Henry Cotton, made in the course of his address in this very city eleven years ago, as the President of the twentieth session of the Congress :-

The process of reconstruction cannot be effected otherwise than by slow and gradual means. Many years must elapse before we can expect the consummation of a reconstructive policy. But it is a policy which we should always keep before our eyes.

In the cautious and gradual development of representation, in the increase of your power and influence in India itself, involving the ultimate extension of autonomy, we shall find the appropriate and natural prize and legitimate goal for Indian aspirations.

for their own existence and their reputation for administrative sagacity. In his memorable "History of Civilisation," Buckle has observed:

Men have recently begun to understand that in politics, no certain principles having yet been discovered, the first conditions of success are compromise, barter, expediency, and concession. It will show utter helplessness even of the ablest rulers, when they try to meet new emergencies by old maxims. It will show the intimate connection between knowledge and liberty: between an increasing civilisation and an advancing democracy. It will show that for a progressive nation, there is required a progressive polity; that within certain limits, innovation is the solid ground of security; that no institution can withstand the flux and movements of society, unless it not only repairs its structure but also widens its entrance; and that even in a material point of view no country can long remain either prosperous or safe in which the people are not gradually extending their power, enlarging their privileges, and so to say, incorporating themselves with the function of the State. Neglect of these truths has entailed the most woeful calamity upon other countries.

Such is the undoubted truth which history has

deduced from past politics of great States which, we fain hope, will be ever present before the mind of the rulers of present India and serve as the basis of the coming polity of reconstruction. Let us earnestly pray that this terrible war now waging may by the mercy of Divine Providence be brought to a satisfactory and peaceful close whereby our rulers may be enabled to respond to the popular appeal by laying down a far-seeing policy which will give a first instalment of genuine and living representation in the active government of the country broad-based upon the people's will. And you will all agree with me that no one is more capable of formulating such a beneficent policy in this direction, on a sound and liberal basis than our present beloved Viceroy, whose sagacious and sympathetic statesmanship has already achieved for him a name and fame as imperishable as that of Canning and Ripon, in the annals of British India.

Gentlemen, our demands are neither immediate nor peremptory. We can wait and must wait till the end of the war, when the whole Empire will be reconstructed upon new lines; but there is no harm in postulating our demands now and informing the British people of the unity and the intensity with which the reforms are insisted upon. When the affairs of the Empire are taken into consideration, our views should be before the English nation. Of course we cannot expect that India will change in the twinkling of an eye by some magical process, but we do hope that a new policy will be initiated which will end in self-government and give us the status and power of a living nation. If you ask me to give you indications of reforms which are immediately needed, I would say that the first step towards Self-Government must be taken by abolishing the packed official majority in the Imperial Council. We must have a sure ard safe elected non-official majority, which would discuss and deal with all Indian questions from the Indian standpoint. Next, we must free the Executive Council of the Viceroy from the incubus

of the Bureaucracy. Then fierce light would be thrown into the dark corners of Indian administration. We must have more Indians in the Executive Council, which is really the chief source from which policies emanate. Again, a great reform that is needed is what has been called "Provincial Autonomy." Local selfgovernment should not be a mere sham, but based on real foundations as contemplated by that noble Viceroy, the Marquis of Ripon. The Arms Act must disappear from the Statute- Book, and no limitation should be laid on the entry of Indians into any Public Service. Volunteers should be e 'isted freely from all classes. Agriculture mu be improved, and commerce and industry help cd. Education will have to be free and compu'sory. I have refrained from laying down any cut-and-dry scheme of self-government. I suggest that there should be unanimity on these questions amongst all the people of India, and I can conceive of no better agercy than that of a joint deputation of the Congress and the League, which would place our den ands before the British public and the British Government.

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