Page:University of Calcutta Special Convocation Address 1921.djvu/10

 to enter the portals of our Academy, which has been charged by our Gracious Sovereign to conserve our ancient learning and simultaneously to push forward Western science? It is, indeed, by a wise dispensation of Providence that the destinies of India have been united to those of a western nation so progressive and enlightened as Great Britain; this has rendered it possible for us to maintain and develop our highly cherished national culture, intellectual and spiritual, and, at the same time, to take full advantage of the immense opportunities of advancement afforded by all the knowledge, all the science, all the skill of the West, But while we realise the truth that the destiny of men is in their own hands, that their future is for themselves to shape, we look for comradeship to the nation which has been a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind,—that comradeship which is the key to all well-being and happiness in the democratic life of the British Empire to-day, comradeship between nation and nation, between race and race, between people of all ranks in all walks of life. We have been taught to believe that every man and woman under the law should have an equal chance and equal hope, and that individuals and society will have their highest development and the largest allotment of human