immediate danger is removed, most of the fighters disperse to their villages, where there is no demand for their service. There is urgent need no doubt, but no intelligent demand or reliable co-operation; Capacities and methods are bound to vary with different workers and in different localities. We cannot expect that all will yoke their natural capacities to one or two items of national work, such as Ichaddar and Harijan uplift. A more comprehensive, programme of social activity has become. a crying need. The national spirit is seeking expression in hundreds of directions. It cannot be kept_ within the confines of -a strictly military programme such as that of the. Congress. Local leadership and originality have to be encouraged and linked on to an all-round scheme of national reconstruction, if the ‘goal of freedom is to be attained expeditiously. There is an atmosphere of artificiality and dictatorship around the present arrangement which may prove advantageous to a general organising his forces, but will fail to satisfy a whole nation of peaceful workers. There is lack of work; vital needs are neglected; there is a growth in the number of ideal agitators; local initiative and leadership are suppressed.
(f) It is highly necessary to ensure a uniformity Of national policy among the individuals and institutions working in varied spheres, all desiring to- serve the country in one form or other. Such uniformity can be made possible only by the enunciation of common ideals and principles of social and religious life and the popularisation of an agreed progranime for the attainment of the goal. At present too much emphasis is being placed on restricting the bare processes and paths of activity, on concentrating the forces on a few fronts. A few can keep on sharpening their swords, but a large number must attend to the ploughs and the domestic hearths. There are many lakhs of people who are not directly connected with the Congress, but who would be willing to do their little bit in a less ostentatious manner, even as officers of the government, to promote unity, reform abuses, strengthen public spirit and help useful enterprises. In the absence of opportunity to share in non-political work, their services and support are being lost to the national cause. For lack of sufficient discussion and clear enunciation of governing social ideals, workers in different fields are puffin°, in opposite directions and cancelling each other’s efforts. Educationists have their distinctive fads; religious men pursue their exclusive methods; socialists cling- to their panacea. Aryasamaj, Brahrnosamaj, Ramakrishna Mission, Sikh Organisations, the jat-Pat Torak Mandal, Service Societies, Harijan Associations, Non-Brahman Societies, Sree Narayana Mission and a thousand other institutions and organisations all devoted to the same great -purpose of Hindu unification and freedom, are working in all parts of the country, very often pursuing, antagonistic policies and not infrequently creating avoidable conflicts. Their labours are made difficult and sometimes frustrated. There is no co-operation among them. Hindu society is being pecked and pulled by each as it pleases. The waste of national energy is ‘immense. To co-ordinate these forces and harness them to a well-conceived common good of the Hindus, we want a representative Hindu organisation which will be able to formulate the essential Hindu demands and serve as a common
platform for all liberal-minded Hindu workers who are unable to join the political struggle.
(g) Permanent Hindu-Muslim unity can be achieved only through cultural rapprochement and increasing social affinity. Political compromises and settlements are bound to be temporary and will be upset the moment they are found inconvenient to any party. There is also the further danger that basic principles of democracy may be sacrificed or the interests of one party or the other may be betrayed in the anxiety to patch up quarrels somehow and present a united front to the enemy. The interests of the Hindu masses are in greater danger of being ignored for default of proper representation than those of any other important group. The -Muslims can assert themselves, the orthodox Hindus are vociferous, the Hindu politicians are strongly organised. The Hindu masses are still without any means of voicing their demands as Hindus. In the long run half-hearted compromises with rival groups create more trouble than do good. In the days of Akbar, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya, Tukaram and Elcanath and even of Shivaji there seemed to be greater fellow feeling and desire for fraternisation between Hindus and Muhammadans than after the national spirit manifested itself, In some places the national movement has undoubtedly contributed to widen the gulf between them. Politics is identified with a scramble for power by the average politicians and common citizens, however a few saintly leaders may protest. On this basis there can be no durable agreement between widely different cultural and religious groups. Material considerations serve more to rouse rivalries and suspicions than to cement real friendship even within a family circle. Many millions of people can never be made Ito agree on a calculation of risks and profits, on a ‘perfect balancing of separate and selfish interests. But on a common platform of social and religious ideals it will be possible to establish permanent attachments, new contacts and closer affinities without selfish motives, and they will automatically pave the way for their expression in a political unity. This is true of our relations with the Christian and other religious groups. Opportunities for social intermingling have to be increased; a wider spirit of tolerance has to be infused into the daily life; feelings of antagonism have to be removed: by abolishing the causes of irritation; unity has to be created by exposing essential identities .The natural and spiritual aspirations of all humanity and cultivating devotion to common ideals, mote “in the social sphere – than in the restricted political one In the absence of popular effort in these directions, the various :communities which compose. the’ Indian population .are going on—deepening Mutual prejudices, developing points of difference,. and ‘cultivating- rivalries. The Hindu’s, constituting the ‘majority party, have to set the lead in creating a common, social and cultural ground where all communities may meet in a friendly spirit without selfish motives.
(h) After all, politics is but a means; The social ideals are the end. The political and economic strength of people must be constantly controlled by the vision of the ultimate aims of the national, life. Political freedom would be worth little if it did not satisfy the universal desire of all humanity for opportunities of fuller self-realization in social existence. The attainment of a completely democratic society depends on the adherence of the masses to liberal social ideals. No one achievement is going, to solve all problems. One success will only lead to another struggle for a further success… Struggles, successes and failures form an eternal Series and their connecting link is the social and’ religious idealism of daily life. It is, therefore to necessary to hold out constantly before the. Hindu ‘masses a sufficiently comprehensive and high Social goal which will inspire their local as well as their national activities and direct them in all their repeated efforts along different paths to the same great destiny. The absence of a’ representative Hindu. Organisation to formulate those, ideal ends; popularise them, and promote sustained endeavour for their realisation, cannt but be detrimental to the advancement of the whole nation in all spheres.
(i) The Hindus cannot afford to ignore the world forces. The world has been moving and is -moving in certain clearly ,indicated directions in politics, and we are trying to move with the world, to apply the principles of world growth and use its methods. We want freedom, democracy and socialism and such other good things which other nations seem to have attained. We do not care to examine why they have succeeded and why we have not. The Nationalities of the West are the result of two great natural impulses of all civilised races—the great impulse towards individual liberty and equality which is otherwise called democracy and the equally
impulse pulse towards a closer union with their fellow-men which we call nationality. The latter presupposes the former. There cannot be a nation of masters and servants, of high castes and low castes, -of free me% and slaves. Free and self-respecting citizens can alone make a free nation.’ A democratic social order is an imperative condition precedent to national solidarity. The Hindu social system is -un-democratic, anti-national, imperialistic. In European countries the national awakening was preceded by a revolt against priestly domination. A people who are every day of their life stooping at the feet of priests and entrusting their souls to the- care of unscrupulous pretenders cannot constitute a self-sustaining nationality. Our ability to throw off the yoke of priestly thraldom is the test of our competence for national independence. It was so in other parts of the world and we are not going to prove an exception. Tribalism or communalism is incompatible with nationalism. The former is the pride of exclusive caste groups or racial groups, and the latter is the spirit of patriotic devotion to the country and to the welfare of all within the country as fellow patriots. So long as we cling to the ancient tribal or caste attachments the truly national attitude will be denied to us, will be impossible of attainment. We must give up the former if we want to obtain: the latter. The progress of democracy has been marked by the extension of state control to all main departments of social life and national activity. We cannot tolerate two governments, one political and the others religious, if we want to attain national. unity. No people can serve two masters at the same time. We have to choose between the two—whether to be a nation of patriots or a collection of mutually jealous castes and creeds. The world is becoming more and more one; no people can afford to stand out of it and say they will have their own illogical ways. Our .peace, as well as the peace of the world, imperatively demands that our life should be linked on with that of other nations, that our culture should be approximated to the best common ideals of all humanity. To-day the Hindus stand out of the current of world progress. Other nations can feel no fellowship with a people to whom suicidal caste distinctions and soulless idolatry are the essence of civilisation. We have to tune our national life in harmony with the song of world progress if we want to march with other countries :to the victory which is peace and happiness for all: Hindus have first to become a free nation .before India can become one. There can be no independent India with a servile Hindu population.
(j) To complete the list of our perversions, there is rising in the country a Hindu Nationalism which is a travesty of all true progress. This creed is being fostered by distinguished scholars and propagated both within and without the country with pride and religious fervour. It is marked by such claims as these: the Hindu civilisation is the best in the world, Hindu religion is the highest glory- of man, Hindu institutions are the models of righteousness, Hindu Nationalism is peculiarly its own and unlike those of other nations. The parading of these stupendous claims and exhibition of self-esteem is only a prelude to a justification of all the evils and wickednesses of caste and priestcraft as the unique contributions of Hindu culture. The Western classes are compared to the Eastern castes; the racial persecutions in America and Africa and Germany are quoted in support of Hindu untouchability; the alleged failure of democracy in the West is used as an argument to laugh at talk of freedom and equality in India; the silly stories of the Puranas are used to prove the superiority of Hindu intellect and science to those of the West and discredit the claims of scientific advancement made by modern civilisation in general; in fact all that we have and are is held up for the highest esteem and all that others are and have is cried down as worthless trash. From these self-laudatory conclusions, the new Hindu nationalist jumps at once to the stern demand that Indian Nationalism must be for the preservation of the immortal culture of the Hindus. Every province and every village rings with claims of distinct culture, distinct contributions it can make to the complex picture of Indian life. In short, glorification and perpetuation of the social and religious status quo is the sum and substance of this much lauded spirit. Unless the Hindu proletariat are organised and enabled to speak for themselves and to shape their own ideals, there is a great danger of educated orthodoxy rising on the tide of the national awakening and re-establishing its vested interests and hereditary domination. We are asking Great Britain to announce unequivocally what she is fighting for and to proclaim her attitude towards India’s claims. The Hindus have a similar right to ask the Nationalists to state in unambiguous terms what they mean by culture, democracy and freedom; whether they are identical with all the glorious Hindu institutions we possess now or whether they .promise anything better, and if what is the exact .nature of the other thing they promise. Similarly. the world has a right to ask India to announce her intentions and ideals with regard to the introduction ,of democratic institutions, the advancement of science and knowledge, individual freedom and ‘equality of citizenship both before the law of man .and that of God. Hindu Nationalists, Indian Nationalists, Muhammadans, Christians and Sikhs, Brahmans and Non-Brahmans, Asiatics and Europeans are vitally interested in the supreme ‘question what Indian Nationalism stands for. Will it preserve the castes? Will it support priestly exploitation? Will it cling to its self-conceited exclusion from world progress? Or will it join the other civilized nations in their sorrows and comforts, successes and failures, trials and triumphs as brother with brother, as fellow pilgrims groping their way to the kingdom of God on earth? A representative Hindu Congress alone can give an authoritative :answer to these questions. India and the world ,demand that the Hindu democrats should organise, speak out and assert themselves. If we may be :allowed to anticipate the aims of a truly democratic Hindu Congress,, we would say that they will be:
- To make the Hindus a free and united nation living in harmony with other nations,
(a)By obtaining for all Hindus that degree of -freedom and equality in Hindu society which Buddhists, Muhammadans and Christians enjoy in :their respective societies,
(b) By obtaining for all Hindus that equality ‘before social and religious law which, as Indians, they claim before the state law,
(c) By obtaining for Hindus such right to •manage Hindu institutions and affairs as they claim
As Indians to govern India,
(d) By obtaining for Hindus the same right to admit fresh members to its fold as the Buddhists and. Muhammadans and Christians enjoy;
- To reconstruct Hindu life and institutions so as to make them harmonise with the political ideals of India.
III. To co-operate with other Hindu and non-Hindu organisations for the realisation of Indian; Nationality and Human Brotherhood.
