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More Lessons from Camilla
THE fresh disturbances in Tipperah are only so many more arguments for an organised League of Mutual peference throughout Bengal. Mere individual or local self-protection will not meet the exigencies of the situation. In the towns where the educated community is strong and compact and there rare a number of active and spirited young men, the nationalist ,may be able to hold his own against riot and outrage, official or unofficial, though even here help from outside may become increasingly necessary; but in villages where the educated class is not represented, the need for immediate assistance from outside is imperative. The educated classes have now in Swaraj an idea for which men can fight and, if need be, die without fear and even with joy; and the possession of such an idea gives a moral strength which more than compensates for inferiority in numbers. But we have not had time as yet to instil this sentiment deeply into the hearts of the masses. If we are to carry the peasant and the shop-keeper with us, we must give them a ready support and protection against attack which will accustom them to look up to their educated compatriots as their natural protectors and 1eaders. Otherwise the sense of helplessness under such organised oppression as is being practised in Comilla will be too strong for the nascent spirit of patriotism and we shall be seriously hampered in our future work. We must have such an organisation that the first news of such incidents may be taken as a cry fur help and sufficient assistance proceed to the scene of action without a moment’s delay. In the stirring address of the President of the Berhampur Conference, defence was included as a necessary part of our programme in Bengal. We look to the young men to lay the foundations for such an organised League. The physical training and self-defence movement which we started three or four years ago has borne admirable fruit, and we rejoice to find its wisdom so entirely justified; but it must now be given a far wider and more thorough realisation and become national Page-47 and universal instead of local and sporadic. Wherever ten or twelve young men can gather together let them form an institution, however small and unpretentious, for the training of the body, discipline and the habit of physical courage and activity. Let them put themselves in communication with similar bodies near them, form local leagues and send out preachers and organisers to create such institutions in neighbouring places where they do not exist. Let every youth who is not an active member of these institutions and leagues be looked down on as deficient in manhood, patriotism and his duty as a citizen. In this way the foundation may be laid for a National League of Defence. Older men may give ideas and advice; it is the young who in these days of revolution must lead in action; for on their foreheads is the light of the new dawn and theirs are the million arms of the awakened Mother. The work to which we call them is not less pressing and urgent than the maintenance of Boycott and Swadeshi; for without it neither Swadeshi nor Boycott can endure. Bande Mataram, April 2, 1907 Page-48 |