The Modern Review/Volume 38/Number 1/Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das
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 Page:The Modern Review (July-December 1925).pdf/110 in the conduct of some causes celebres. It was owing to this emotionalism that he found Vaishnavism as it exists in Bengal so congenial to his soul. It was this temperament that enabled him when he was deeply stirred to work himself up to passionate utterance, thus succeeding in swaying listening multitudes to the mood of his choice. Not that he could not argue;—he could argue. But when reasoning and feeling went together, the combination proved irresistible.
He was a fiery and passionate lover of freedom and of his country. He loved India well, though not always wisely; which exposed his methods to criticism. This love was with him a consuming passion, and combined with his impetuosity to make him chafe at restraint and impatient for Swaraj as he understood it. Once that he had thrown himself into active politics he worked incessantly in spite of ill health and bodily suffering. It may be that this ceaseless toil and his impatient fretting proved too strong for a constitution whose vitality had never been conserved by attention to the laws of health.
There was perhaps another cause. He was, even some of his friends say, autocratic by nature. This led him to do more things himself—to attend more to details—than a leader need do personally. His followers were also to blame. For economising the energies and vitality of the leader and in the interests of the party, they ought to have asserted themselves and claimed and done their share of work and given him the much-needed rest.
A Part of the Gathering in Front Calcutta Corporation Building, to Have a Look of the Dead Body of Deshabandhu
Mr. C. R. Das was an able organiser and a good hand at getting up demonstrations. He was firm and resolute. He possessed the courage to face and take the consequences of his words and deeds. He never shirked responsibility. His friends have borne public testimony to his loving and lovable nature.
These qualities and others indicated in previous paragraphs made him the leader of men that he was.
Musalmans are a powerful minority in India. They form the majority in Bengal. An Indian leader, and particularly a Bengali leader must sincerely desire to bring out the public spirit of the Moslem community and earnestly endeavour to persuade that community to hitch that public spirit to the wagon of the national movement. Mr. C. R. Das tried to do this according to his lights, even at the risk of becoming unpopular with his Hindu countrymen. Perhaps, with the sole exception of Mahatma Gandhi, no Hindu leader enjoyed the confidence of the Musalmans to a greater extent than Mr. Das.
Though born in a Brahmo family and brought up and married as a Brahmo, Mr. Das had become a Vaishnava of the Bengal School. This, as we have said, suited his emotional temperament best. Whether the Brahmo Samaj, to which he originally belonged, was also to any extent responsible for this reaction in him, is more than we can say. His Vaishnavism was one cause of his popularity with his Hindu countrymen: but it would not be right to say or suggest that he became a Vaishnava for the sake of popularity. Though from a Brahmo Hindu he had become a Vaishnava Hindu, socially he remained progressive. He was in favour of intercaste marriage, and acted up to his principles in the marriage of his daughters. Needless to say, he never observed orthodox restrictions as regards interdining or untouchability.
The People of Calcutta Waiting at the Sealdah North Station for the Arrival of the Dead Body of Deshabandhu Das
He occupies a niche in the temple of literary fame in Bengal as a poet, and was fond of music, particularly kirtans. He helped in starting institutions for widows and orphans.
Though we were acquainted with him, we were never thrown into close contact with him. All that we have written about him is, therefore, what we can infer from public records. It is to be hoped, some among those who knew him intimately would write an adequate biography, severely separating facts from fiction and giving a critical appreciation of the man such as would explain the extraordinary influence which he exercised over the imagination of the public. It was no common influence that could make lakhs upon lakhs of people belonging to different castes, sects, nations and races follow his funeral procession. We do not know that any king or emperor, statesman or general, philanthropist or patriot, prophet or saint, in our country had ever so imposing a funeral. Nor were there ever so many memorial meetings held all over India and even abroad and so many messages of sorrow received from all parts of India and many foreign countries. The time has not yet come to correctly appraise the value of such a phenomenon. Heaping of superlatives upon superlatives leaves a sense of unreality behind, does not give a clue to the understanding of the phenomenon. There should be an adequate explanation and a correct appraisal. When the time comes, we would expect his biographer to give us that explanation and appraisal.
On the Funeral Pyre
Whatever the explanation, one conclusion is irresistible—a people which can express its love for its leader in such an impressive manner is not dead.
That the friends, fellow-workers and followers of so eminent and devoted a worker in the country’s cause received the news of his unexpected death as a stunning blow was only natural; for even those who could not be included in any of the above categories were shocked when they heard that he was no more.
But none of us should give way to a mood of despondency. The nation which under God’s providence has produced some eminent leaders is certainly capable of producing more. And even ordinary men can render signal service to the country if inspired by single-minded devotion to its cause.
Our fields of work may be different and our methods, too, may differ. But may all of us be devoted to the country’s cause as the Deshbandhu was, and may the patriot and the lover of man in the Deshbandhu’s personality live for ever in the lives and spirits of his countrymen.