to the future plans and programme of himself and his party, one could see that experience of public life was gradually teaching him to discriminate between what was more spectacular, sensational and plaudit-bringing than calculated to bear lasting fruit, and what would draw out the strength of the people and build up national life on enduring foundations. We are, therefore, justified in holding that had he lived even for five years longer, he would have been able to render more solid service to the country and humanity than he had yet done and thus conferred lasting benefit on his people.
This is no mere guess. The cabled news that the Secretary of State and the Viceroy have come to the conclusion that the Reforms are not to undergo any material alteration till the year 1929, which does not seem to be a mere rumour, is an arrogant and contemtuous challenge thrown out by the Conservative party and the majority of the British people to the people of India. The gauntlet must be taken up by the people of India in general and by the people of Bengal in particular. By the people of Bengal in particular, because it is only with reference to this province that it has been declared by the Government that there are to be no transferred subjects and the Reforms are to that extent to be in abeyance for the next two years. Had Mr. C. R. Das been alive, he would have readily and with alacrity taken up the challenge; for he was a born fighter and loved a fight dearly, and shone best when leading a forlorn hope to victory. Time after time in spite of heavy odds, in spite of the ample powers of cowing down and buying up at the disposal of the bureaucracy, in spite of the deflecting lure of communal advantage, the Deshbandhu inflicted defeats on the Bengal Government by using weapons placed at the disposal of the people by the laws and regulations of the Government itself. His personal magnetism, the spell of his great sacrifice, his powers of holding his party together, which did such good service at previous fights, would have been of the greatest use to the country at this juncture. And there would have been a dramatic fitness in Mr. C. R. Das taking the lead in this fight, because intentionally or unintentionally, the conclusion arrived at by Lords Birkenhead and Reading appears to flout the friendly gesture which he had recently made at Faridpur. But he is gone from the sphere of his earthly labours, leaving behind no capable leader to take his place.
There have been and still are in India men more lavishly endowed with heart affluence and intellectual powers than Mr. C. R. Das. There have been and are gifted men who have deliberately chosen lines of work which do not lead to opulence. There have been and are others who have left behind their boyhood and a worldly life simultaneously, and, taking the vow of poverty, dedicated themselves to a life of service. All honour to them. But Mr. C. R Das’s peculiar claim to our respect and admiration lies in this that he had proved to his own and other’s satisfaction that he could make as much money as anybody else in the lucrative profession of law, he had known the pleasures of luxurious living and the gratification of bodily cravings; yet when the call came, he gave up for good money-making with all its excitement and attendant satisfaction, he renounced his previous worldly life more and more, he got more and more ready to throw himself into the fire that drives out the dross and leaves the pure gold of human nature behind.
None of our public men ever made so great a pecuniary sacrifice as he.
Even when he had not set out on the path of renunciation, money did not cling to him nor he to money. True, his lavish expenditure was not all for the public good or for the relief of the needy; true, he was extravagant in his habits; but he was also open-handed in giving, nay, often reckless and indiscriminate in his charity. All of which shows that attachment to wealth was not a feature of his character, and, therefore, there was the making of the sannyasin in him to a greater extent than in many a man more faultless and free from blame than he.
This is not to be wondered at. In fact, the hagiology of all religious sects shows that the very ardour, impetuosity and passionate natures which led many men in the earlier parts of their lives to plunge headlong into dissipation enabled them, when the turning point came, to give themselves up with equal zeal to a life of spiritual realisation. Great achievement in any sphere of activity is not for cold, calculating and extremely careful and prudent natures. The driving force lies in the emotional part of human nature, though reason sits at the helm and is indispensable for success.
The Deshbandhu, though a successful lawyer, was essentially emotional by temperament. This stood him in good stead
