Page:Indian independence.djvu/24

 -duced only by a nation-wide disgrace, disability, indignity and wrong.” What is this most humiliating common factor in our lives which can and ought to bring together men and women, the literate and the illiterate, rich and poor, prince and peasant, Hindu, Moslem, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Jew and Parsi, capitalist and labourer, Brahmin and non-Brahmin, “touchable” and “untouchable,” “high caste” and “low-caste”? It is foreign rule and foreign exploitation. Whatever our grievances and wrongs and want of opportunity, foreign rule is a common disgrace which we must all feel. The period of 160 years, since the battle of Plassey, is far too long a time to be in subjection to a band of foreign rulers, who have come from an island 7,000 miles away in the North of Europe. Such subjection, if Seeley's historical maxim is true, cannot but lead to national deterioration. This is why the need for independence is so immediate. This is why it cannot be postponed indefinitely, while other important things