द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

THE BENGAL SITUATION 335 people to say that the revolutionary movement is the result of unemployment among middle-class youths. At the outset it should be pointed out that the revolutionary movement is not an anarchist movement, nor is it merely a terrorist movement. The revolutionaries do not aim at creating anarchy or chaos. While it is a fact that they do occasionally resort to terrorism, their ultimate object is not terrorism but revolution and the purpose of the revolution is to install a National Government. Though the earliest revolutionaries studied something about revolutionary methods in other countries, it would not be correct to say that the inspiration came from abroad. The movement was born out of a conviction that to a Western people physical force alone makes an appeal. It is not generally realised by Britishers, that it is they who have been primarily responsible for teaching the Indian people the efficacy of physical force. Two or three decades ago (and even till to-day in some cases) the average Britisher in India, especially when he was a member of the army, or of the police, was so haughty in his general behaviour towards Indians, that no Indian with a grain of self-respect could help feeling the humiliation of being under a foreign government. In the street, in the railways, in the tram-cars, in public places and in public functions, in fact everywhere, the Britisher expected the Indian to make way for him and if he refused to do so, the Indian would be assaulted. In such cases of friction, the forces of the Government were always on the side of the Britisher. Cases frequently happened in which Indians of the highest position and rank—even Judges of the High Court— would be insulted in this way. Even during the Great War, when India was fighting on the side of England, such cases of friction between Indians and Britishers would constantly occur in the tram-cars in Calcutta,¹ No legal or constitutional remedy could be found for such insults for neither the police nor the subordinate Law Courts would venture to do justice. Then the time came when Indians began to hit back and when they did so, the effect was immediate and remarkable. Ever since then, in proportion as they have been able to hit ¹ The writer has had personal experience of many such cases.