Madhusudan_Das

66 Madhusudan Das :
the old Congress movement, the great slumbering mass of Islam which
has remained politically inert throughout the last century, the
shopkeepers, the artisan class, the immense body of illiterate and
ignorant peasantry, the submerged classes, even the wild tribes and races
still outside the pale of Hindu civilisation, Nationalism can afford to
neglect and omit none. It rejoices to see any sign of life where there was
no life before, even if the first manifestations should seem to be illregulated
or misguided, it is not afraid of Pan-Islamism or any signs of
the growth of a separate Mahomedan self-consciousness but rather
welcomes them. It is not started by the spectacle of a submerged class like
the Namasudras demaning things which are, under existing
circumstances, impracticable from Hindu society. When a community
sues for separate rights from the bureaucracy, that is a sign not of life but
of stagnant dependence which is death, but when it seeks a larger place in
the national existence and it tries to feel its own existence and its own
strength, it is a true sign of life, and what Nationalism asks is for life first
and above all things; life, and still more life, is its cry. Let us by every
means get rid of the pall of death which stifled us, let us dispel first the
passivity, quiescence, the unspeakable oppression of inertia which has so
long been our curse; that is the first and imperative need. As with
backward communities, so with backward provinces. It is vitally
important to Nationalism that these should awake. Behar, Orissa, the
Central Provinces, Gujerat, Sindh must take their place in the advancing
surge of Indian political life, must prepare themselves for a high rank in
the future federated strength of India. We welcome any signs that the
awakening has begun. It is for instance a cause of gratification that
Orissa is beginning to feel its separate consciousness, and to attempt to
grow into an organised life under capable and high-spirited leader,
although we consider his political attitude mistaken and believe that he is
laying up for himself bitter disappointment and disillusionment in the
future. But when the inevitable disappointment and disillusionment
come, then will the new political consciousness, the new organised life of
Orissa become an immense addition of strength to the forces of
Nationalism. Yet it remains true that the only way these provinces can
make up for lost time and bring themselves up swiftly to the level of the
more advanced races, is by throwing themselves whole-heartedly into the
full tide of Nationalism...