significance of those
speeches is that Mr. Pal borrowed their keynote from the Presidential
address delivered in the preceding year by the veteran leader of the
"moderates," Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, at the annual Session of the Indian
National Congress. The rights of India, Mr. Naoroji had said, "can be
comprised in one word--self-government or _Swaraj_, like that of the
United Kingdom or the Colonies." It was reserved for Mr. Pal to define
precisely how such _Swaraj_ could be peacefully obtained and what it
must ultimately lead to. He began by brushing away the notion that any
political concessions compatible with the present dependency of India
upon Great Britain could help India to _Swaraj_. I will quote his own
words, which already foreshadowed the contemptuous reception given by
"advanced" politicians to the reforms embodied in last year's Indian
Councils Act:--

You may get a High Court judgeship here, membership
of the Legislative Council there, possibly an Executive
Membership of the Council. Or do you want an expansion
of the Legislative Councils? Do you want that a few Indians
shall sit as your representatives in the House of Commons?
Do you want a large number of Indians in the Civil Service?
Let us see whether 50, 100, 200, or 300 civilians will make
the Government our own.... The whole Civil Service
might be Indian, but the Civil servants have to carry out
orders--they cannot direct, they cannot dictate the policy.
One swallow does not make the summer. One civilian,
100 or 1,000 civilians in the service of the British Government
will not make that Government Indian. There are traditions,
there are laws, there are policies to which every civilian, be
he black or brown or white, must submit, and as long as
these traditions have not been altered, as long as these principles
have not been amended, as long as that policy has not
been radically changed, the supplanting of European by
Indian agency will not make for self-government in this
country.

Nor is it from the British Government that Mr. Pal looks for, or would
accept, _Swaraj_:--

If the Government were to come and tell me to-day "Take
_Swaraj" I would say thank you for the gift, but I will not
have that which I cannot acquire by my own hand....
Our programme is that we shall so work in the country,
so combine the resources of the people, so organize the forces
of the nation