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.