 | THE DUTY OF STUDENTS Swaraj in one year |  |
THE DUTY OF STUDENTS
[The opening ceremony of the National College,
Calcutta, under the auspices of the Board
of Education, recently formed by Srijuts
Chittranjandas, Jitendralal Banerjee and
other Non-co-operation leaders, took place
on Friday, the 4th February, 1921. A
hymn from the Gita was sung by a number
of boys at the commencement.
In opening the College, Mr. Gandhi addressed
the students and professors as follows:—]
Friends,—You have just now heard the
beautiful prayer sung by the students over
there, and I hope that all of you will ponder
over the magnificent language of that prayer.
If we will base all our acts in this institution
on prayer, I have very little doubt that we
shall come through with added glory to
ourselves and to our country. I have had the
privilege, during these few months, of opening
several institutions in several parts of India.
But I must confess to you that, in opening no
other institution have I been so weighed down
with anxiety and fear as I am in performing
institution. As I have elsewhere remarked, all
the eyes, all the attention of the student world
are centred upon Calcutta. You have seen so
many telegrams reproduced in the press,
I have seen many more telegrams not
reproduced in the press, congratulating
the students on the magnificent response
to the country's call. You may have also
noticed that as a result of your response the
students all over India are withdrawing
themselves from Government institutions.
Great, therefore, is your responsibility and the
responsibility of the professors and teachers
connected with this institution, of Mr. Das
and myself also. For myself, I can only
assure you that my prayers will attend all
your efforts in making this institution a
success. But I know that no prayer that I
can offer, no prayer that our clearer hearts
can offer, can be of the slightest service unless
the student approach their task in humility
and in their fear of God, with perseverance,
with single-mindedness and with love and a
devotion for the country in whose name and
for whose sake they have abandoned Government
institutions. It is not a light task for
expecting a great career in his own estimation.
It is no light task for a student with all these
expectations to surrender them in the hope
that he is rendering a service to the country
and therefore a service to himself. Personally
I have not the slightest doubt about it. I
hope you will never have to regret the day
that you left Government institutions. But I
know also that you must have to regret the
day if you will not use your time usefully, if
you have left under the impulse of moment as
so many of our leaders who mean well of the
country have already expressed their fears.
Let me hope that you will falsify their fears.
You will at the end of the year so discharge
yourselves that those who are to-day filled
with doubts may come forward with an
expression of opinion that their doubts were
misplaced. Let me not conceal from you, the
students of Calcutta, what certificate Indians
in other parts of India give to you. Many of
the students, and many grown up men also,
who have talked to me about your movement
have expressed a sense of nervous fear. You
have been credited with a great deal of emotion,
you have been credited with a great deal of
with the same amount of perseverance and
industry.
You are embarking upon a new career.
You are turning over a new leaf. You are
shouldering a great responsibility. You are
counting yourselves among the makers of
India of the future. And if you realise this
responsibility, I have no doubt, you will dispel
all these fears which have been expressed in
other parts of India. Those who know Bengal
well are in a position also to testify that
Bengalis on many an occasion have not been
found wanting; and for my part I shall
certainly decline to believe that those students
who have responded and who will join this
institution will be found wanting. I shall
hope also that the professors and the teachers
will prove true to their trust. What I said in
all humility to the professors and teachers at
the time of performing the opening ceremony
of the Gujarat National College, I am tempted
to repeat here; that the success and failure of
this institution will very largely depend upon
the honest exertion that the professors and
teachers may put forth. At this critical moment
in the history of our dear country every
mind of the country, has a serious responsibility,
and if the professors and the teachers are
found asleep, if they are overtaken with doubt,
if they are overtaken with fear as to the future,
God help the students who come under their
charge. And I shall pray to the Almighty
that he may bless the professors and teachers
with wisdom, with courage, with faith and
with hope.
I have in one of my speeches told the
students that whilst they might go on with
the course that they have mapped out
for themselves they must not interfere with
others. You have perhaps read the paragraph
that appeared in the newspaper today
with reference to Barisal. I do not
know whether it is an exaggerated account
of what had happened there. I do not care
whether it is an exaggeration and whether
it is an under statement, but it furnishes a
lesson for you and for me that we must on no
account resort to violence, that we must on no
account exert undue pressure. And as I said
at one of the meetings day before yesterday, I
hope that the students will not sit dhurna—
they will not exercise any pressure whatsoever
of the schools and colleges. It is sufficient faith
in that those who feel it is sinful to belong to
these institutions ought to come out of them.
If we have sufficient faith in ourselves we shall
remain steadfast although not a single other
student responds to the call. It does betray
want of faith in our own mission when you
become impatient. And if we are impatient
we begin to compel others to do what we have
done. I hope no one of the student who will
belong to this institution will be filled with
any such doubts as to the correctness of his
conduct.
I hope also that when I renew your acquaintance
a month hence, as I hope I shall be
able to do, you will not call upon me to address
you any longer in English, but that you will
have mastered sufficient Hindusthani to
be able to understand whatever message I
might have to give to you in our national
common language. I assure you when
you approach your study of Hindusthani
some of you will find it simple and easy. To
some of you the words will seem perfectly
natural, because the vocabulary is common to
Bengali, Hindi and most of the Indian
will find also it will feed your intellect and it
will satisfy all the intellectual requirements of
intellectual Bengal. And if you want to go in
for literature, I promise you will find treasures
hidden both in Hindi and Urdu whatever
scripts you take up—and whatever books you
take up first. You talk of the poverty of Hindi
literature—you talk of the poverty of to-day's
Hindi, but if you dive deep into the pages of
Tulsidas, probably you share my opinion that
there is no other book that stands equal to it
in the literature of the world in modern languages.
That one book has given me faith and
hope which no other book has given. I think
that it is a book which can stand any criticism
and any scrutiny alike in literary grace, in
metaphor and in religious fervour.
I hope also that when I come back you
will have made sufficient progress in making
yarn and have it woven by some village weaver
for your own use. But I hope that you will
be able to give sufficient proof of what wonders
you have performed in spinning and I hope
you will be able to share with me the same
poetry and the same intellectual treat that I
find in spinning if you spin with faith and
hope also that your professors and teachers
will give their lectures through Bengali, and
I hope that, all the knowledge that you have
acquired in your Government institutions, you
will translate for yourselves in Bengali and
that you will be able to find equivalent
expressions for the richest thought that you
have learnt from English poets and from
English literature.
I hope also that you will approach your
task with a religious faith. If this movement
of ours is not religious I am free to confess to
you that this movement will not only fail but
it will discredit us. It is a new method of
applying ourselves to the task and if we
consider that we can solve the problem of
India by bringing some changes only upon the
old methods, we shall be doomed to disappointment.
If you approach the task with
the same religious fervour for which Bengal is
noted, I know you will find that Swaraj is
within easy reach. May God help you. May
God help the professors, and may God give
you the strength that our friend Srijut
Chittranjandas needs. I have much pleasure
in declaring this institution open.
| THE DUTY OF STUDENTS Swaraj in one year | |