Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/342

 252 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES

leading and which is doing all the thing for the nation, It would be monstrous if it were otherwise. The only education we receive is English education. Surely we must show something for it. But suppose that we had been receiving during the past fifty years education through our vernaculars, what should we have to-day ? We should have to-day a free India, we should have our educated men, not as if they were foreigners in their own land but speaking to the heart of the nation; they would be working amongst the poorest of the poor, and years would be a heritage for the nation. (Applause),. To-day even our wives are not the sharers in our best thought. Look at Professor Rose and Professor Ray and their brilliant re-searches. Is it not a shame that their researches are not the common property of the masses ?

Let us now turn to another subject.

The Congress has passed a resolution about self- government, and I have no doubt that the All-India Congre.s Committee and the Moslem League will do their duty and come forward with some tangible sugges- tions. But I, for one, must frankly confess that I am not so much interested in what they will be able to produce as I am interested in anything that the student world is going to produce or the masses are going to produce. No paper contribution will ever give us self- government. No amount of speeches will ever make us fit for self-government. It is only our conduct that will fit us for it. (Applause). And how are we trying to govern ourselves ? I want to think audibly this evening. I do not want to make a speech and if you find me this evening speaking without reserve, pray r

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