Chitta

“ If our experience so requires it, reform Indian ideal to suit the present times but seek not to destroy the eternal ideal of India. Our home shall always be the Indian home."
Chitta Ranjan earned a good deal in his life, but spent his all for the cause of the suffering humanity. Charity gives him unmixed pleasure. He who takes is blest but thrice blessed is he that gives. ”

“ Chitta Ranjan openly spoke out his mind and said, "My Lord, before answering your question, I should mention here a peculiar custom of our country. Every Indian house-holder of the higher castes has in his house a place fitted for religious discussions where members of the lower castes are not admitted, but adjoining it he sets apart another place where all are equally welcome. Your Bengal Club and Calcutta Club can well be compared to the above two places. ”

“ The parents should rather educate their girls; if by chance they do not get married, they can earn their own livelihood and may be so many Car [29] penters and Nightingales in our society". Such is the view of Chitta Ranjan about the present Hindu society. Generous, large-hearted and magnanimous as Chitta Ranjan is, there is something in the texture of his mind that is above the ordinary run. Few men who battle for the right, have the calm fortitude, the cheerful equanimity with which Chitta Ranjan battles to fulfil the burning aspirations of his soul. ”

“ There is nothing but this self. For this reason, though a Hindu in the true sense of the term, [27] Chitta Ranjan is an avowed opponent of the caste-distinction prevalent in our society. He has two daughters and a son. His elder daughter was married to a member of the Kayastha community and he married his only son to a Vaidya girl of Western Bengal. These marriages he celebrated according to the Hindu rites with the sanction of great Sanskrit scholars. But as usual the whole orthodox Hindu society was in a state of tumult over the inter-caste marriage of Chitta Ranjan's elder daughter. ”

“ Vaidya, the then secretary of the Home Rule League in the Central Provinces was sentenced to eighteen months' rigorous imprisonment, Chitta Ranjan went to Nagpur to defend him. Mr. Vaidya was acquitted and Chitta Ranjan became very popular in the Central Provinces. On the acquittal of Mr. Vaidya, Chitta Ranjan addressed many meetings on Swaraj and although he earned nothing in the case, he gave a large donation to the local Home Rule League. The citizens of Nagpur as a mark of deep gratitude and respect presented to him an address in a silver casket. ”

“ The acquittal of Aravinda at once raised the reputation of Chitta Ranjan in the eyes of his countrymen. After this he took up the defence of the famous Dacca Conspiracy case without charging any fees at a great personal loss and also volunteered to defend the boycott cases of Bengal earning thereby the lasting gratitude of the whole nation. Providence also rewarded him amply for his good work and from the very day that he came back to take up the broken threads of his High Court practice, he found himself on the high road to both fame and wealth. ”

“ He has loved his country with all his heart from childhood; in manhood through all activities he has striven hard to keep alive its sacred image in his heart; and now on the threshhold of age that image [62] has became clearer and truer than ever. The late Lokamanya Tilak once said of him, "I believe the time is not very far when Chitta Ranjan will devote all his energy to the services of his country and his love of mother-land will burn as a torch-light to guide his countrymen in the right path." ”

“ The next will be that the Chitta itself will realise that it melts away into its causes whenever we so desire. Lastly we shall find that we are established in our Self, that we have been alone throughout the universe, neither body nor mind was ever related, much less joined, to us. They were working their own way, and we, through ignorance, joined ourselves to them. But we have been alone, omnipotent, omnipresent, ever blessed; our own Self was so pure and perfect that we required none else. We required none else to make us happy, for we are happiness itself. ”

“ It necessitated that spinning should be introduced in every [68] house and Indians should be encouraged to weave their own clothes. Chitta Ranjan proceeded on a lecturing tour all over Bengal to preach Swadeshi to his countrymen and to make it clear to them that the salvation of India lay in hand-spinning and weaving. In course of one of his lectures he said:—
"At this commencement of a new era in the history of India, you must take the Swadeshi vow. I know Indians can do everything only if they wish it. Their fortitude is unique and determination firm. ”

“ In course of another speech delivered at a meeting on October 2nd 1917, Chitta Ranjan dwelt at length on the policy of internment and demanded the release of the gentlemen who had been interned. He said:—
"There is hardly a home in East Bengal from which one or more persons have not been interned. Every home in East Bengal is filled with sadness to-day because these people have been snatched away from their homes and imprisoned without trial or without proof. ”

“ Chittagong is a large town of Mahometans and Mugs, a Birmese tribe who inhabit many parts of the Malay peninsula, and the coast to the northward of it. The town stands on the north shore of an extensive delta, formed by rivers from the lofty mountains separating this district from Birma. These mountains are fine objects on the horizon, rising 4000 to 8000 feet; they are forest-clad, and inhabited by turbulent races, who are coterminous with the Cookies of the Cachar and Tipperah forests; if indeed they be not the same people. ”

“ The real man is behind the mind; the mind is the instrument in his hands; it is his intelligence that is percolating through the mind. It is only when you stand behind the mind that it becomes intelligent. When man gives it up, it falls to pieces and is nothing. Thus you understand what is meant by Chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and Vrittis are the waves and ripples rising in it when external causes impinge on it. These Vrittis are our universe. ”

“ In Chittagong, when a woman cannot bring her child to the birth, the midwife gives orders to throw all doors and windows wide open, to uncork all bottles, to remove the bungs from all casks, to unloose the cows in the stall, the horses in the stable, the watchdog in his kennel, to set free sheep, fowls, ducks, and so forth. ”

“ Chittagong.—Hindú elements now increase. Even in Arakhan, Buddhism had ceased to be the only creed of western origin. There were Mahometans who spoke a mixed dialect called the Ruinga; [27] and Brahminical Hindús who spoke another called the Rosawn. In Chittagong, then, we must look about us for the aborigines; so intrusive have become the Hindú elements. Intrusive, however, they are, and intrusive they will be for some time to come.
The foot of the hill, and the hill itself, are important points of difference in Indian ethnology. ”

“ I am not for belittling the glory of the culture of India under those empires—I have the deepest veneration for them and I say the purpose of Indian history is that throughout the ages, through every success, through every failure, through every battle which was won, through every battle which was lost, the history of India was working out her destiny and turning out the great Indian nation. ”

“ My quarrel is not with the individual at all. My quarrel is with the system. It is the system which is responsible for the bad government of this country. Why is the system bad? It is for this—that there is no responsibility. ”

“ Gentlemen, if you have once made up your mind that you want some kind of Government which will be responsible to the people, the next point to consider will be, what kind of Government is it that you want. We cannot forget that we live in the midst of an empire, the largest and the most glorious empire in the history of the human race. We cannot forget that our interests are bound up intimately with the interest of England. We cannot forget that our interests are also bound up with the interests of Australia and South Africa. All of us live and grow under the sway of the same Empire. ”

“ But we can tell these gentlemen, so far as I am concerned, at any rate, I am perfectly clear,—that we shall accept no Self-government, no Home Rule unless it recognises and includes within it the teeming millions of India. When I ask for Home Rule, for Self-Government, I am not asking for another bureaucracy, another oligarchy in the place of the bureaucracy that there is at present. In my opinion, bureaucracy is bureaucracy, be that bureaucracy of Englishman or of Anglo-Indians or of Indians. We want no bureaucracy, we want Home Rule, we want Self-government by the people and for the people. ”

“ I am not one of those who will borrow all our ideals from Europe. All my life, I have protested against it, I protest against it again and I shall protest against it so long as I live. I am not unmindful of the great culture of Europe. ”

“ The rights of the British in India! The little-minded traders who at a time when the Government enjoins a calm atmosphere, hold a meeting and proceed straight away to denounce the whole country; and abuse the people and all the ideals for which they fight and in which they live and move and have their being—these men claim the right to represent the British. ”

“ When you heap contempt upon the whole of the British Parliament, I suppose it is allowable. If only an Indian says that the bureaucratic Government has been found to be wanting, it has failed in its duties, it has failed in its charge of the administration of this country, it is such violent language that the State must put down. ”

“ Well, gentlemen, I pause for one moment and I ask you to consider according to what right or what principle does the Government of this country or any government in the world, ask a man to give up his opinion and his religion? ”

“ Is India to remain outside the union? I admit that our freedom must be won by ourselves, but such a bond of friendship and love of sympathy and co-operation between India and the rest of Asia, nay between India and all the liberty-loving people of the world is destined to bring about World Peace. World Peace, to my mind, means the freedom of every nationality and I go further and say that no nation in the face of the earth can be really free when other nations are in bondage. ”

“ Again, my earnest appeal to the Government is: "Take care, do not disregard the people's sentiments. Do not wish to substitute obedience to the Bureaucracy in place of the people's loyalty to the Empire. The people of this country are impatient and they will not bear it." ”

“ We have always been slow as a people, as in Great Britain and India to realise how closely the enemy keeps his eye upon us how quick he is to note our actions, indeed our very words, and what a difference it makes to his own morals whether he sees arrayed against him the serried ranks of a united people or whether he detects or thinks he detects in this part of the Empire or in that some note of dissension, some indication of lack of unity of purpose. ”

“ Not only should justice be done, but that the people should be convinced of it, ... not only should the Government be satisfied, but that the people should be convinced that a substantial measure of responsible government has been granted. ”

“ I believe in revolutions, but I repeat, violence defeats freedom. The revolution of non-violence is slower but surer. Step by step the soul of the nation emerges and step by step the nation marches on in the path of Swaraj. The only method by which Freedom can be attained in India at any rate, is the method of non-violent non-co-operation. ”

“ We ought to stand on our own individuality in all the glory which that individuality implies but at the same time we must emerge from that and with the fullest consciousness of ourselves we should reach out to the world. That is the true philosophy of our nationality, and if we are living in an empire to-day, we ought to see that we do not live self-centred, in the splendid isolation of our own individuality. ”

“ Is it reasonable to ask the people of this country to join the army when you have made it impossible for them to feel that this is their country, when you have made it impossible for them to feel that empire you speak of is their empire? ”

“ I am not slow in recognising my indebtedness to it but I cannot forget my own individuality. I cannot forget the spirit of Bengal which pervades every thought that I entertain, every hope that I cherish, every fear that I have, and so long as I live, I promise before you to-day that I will devote my life to work out the salvation of the ideal of Bengal. The soul of Bengal had been sleeping for years but directly Self-government is given to us, that soul, while living in an atmosphere of freedom, will make its enormous claim to give the fullest expression to its ideal. ”

“ Be it yours to wage a spiritual warfare so that the victory, when it comes does not debase you, nor tempt you to retain the power of Government in your own hands. But if yours is to be a spiritual warfare, your weapons must be those of the spiritual soldier. Anger is not for you, hatred is not for you, nor for you is pettiness, meanness or falsehood. ”

“ I am prepared to wait if I see that the Government with our help can raise a large army in Bengal to-day to face a great danger—if I see that and if I find that such a course is likely to succeed, I am prepared to wait till the war is over for the fulfilment of those broken pledges. ”