know what there is next door, we have to look into Hunter. We gather no facts first hand,—neither about men, nor commerce, nor even agriculture. And yet, with such crass indifference on our own part, we are not ashamed to prate about the duties of others towards our country. Is it any wonder that our empty preaching should be so utterly futile? The Government is at least doing something and has some responsibility. We are doing nothing and have none. Can there be any real interchange of counsels between two such parties? And so it happens that on the one hand we get up agitations and hold indignation meetings and vociferate to our heart’s content and then, the very next day, swallow the most unpalatable humiliations so completely that no doctor, even, has to be called in!
I do hope that my readers will tell me that I am uttering the stalest truisms. The truths—that we must look after our own interests, carry on our own work, wipe away our own shame, earn our own welfare, do everything ourselves—are certainly not new. And I shall glory in any censure that may be passed on me because of their triteness. What I dread is lest any one should accuse me of advocating something new-fangled, for then must I confess ignorance of the art of proving self-evident things. It is the sign of a critical condition indeed, if the simple should appear difficult and old truths come as a surprise, or rouse honest indignation!
However, I have wandered of nights on the vast sandbanks of the Padma, and I know how, in the darkness, land and water appear as one, how the straightest of paths seem so confused and difficult to find, and when in the morning light dawns, one feels astonished how such mistakes could have been made. I am living in the hope that when our morning comes, we shall discover the true path and retrace our steps.
Moreover, I am sure that all of us are not wandering in the same darkness. There are many enthusiastic young fellows whom I know, who are willing to spend more than words in the service of their country. Their difficulty is, they do not know what to do about it, where to go for advice, what service is to be rendered and to whom, to spend oneself without method and without organisation would be mere waste. If there had been some centre of our shakti, where all could unite, where thinkers could contribute their ideas, and workers their efforts, then there the generous would find a repository for their gifts. Our education, our literature, our arts and crafts, and all our good works would range themselves round such centre and help to create in all its richness the commonwealth which our patriotism is in search of.
I have not the least doubt in my mind that the rebuffs which we are meeting from the outside are intended by Providence to help this centre of our shakti to become manifest within the nation, our petitions are being thrown back to us in order that we may turn our faces towards such centre, and the pessimism which is spreading amongst the feckless, workless critics of the government is due not to the smart of any particular insult, or the hopelessness of any particular concession, but to the growing insistence of an inward quest for this centre.
If we can establish such centre in our midst, our persuasions and arguments may be addressed to it and will then acquire meaning and become real work. To this centre we can pay our tnbute, to it we can devote our time and energy. It will be the means of evoking and giving full play to our intellect, our capacity for sacrifice and all that is great and deep in us. To it shall we give and from it shall we receive our truest wealth.
If our education, our sanitation, our industries and commerce radiate from such a centre, then we shall not, off and on, be kept running after orators to get up public meetings to protest against some wrong, to ventilate some grievance. These sudden awakenings and outcries, by fits and starts, followed by a relapse into the silence of somnolence, is getting to be ludicrous. We can hardly talk about it seriously any more, not even to ourselves.
