German efficiency
in Germany is far greater than English efficiency in England; the
Germans were better fed, had more amusements and leisure, less crushing
poverty than the English. But would any Englishman therefore desire to
see Germans occupying all the highest positions in England? Why not?
Because the righteous self-respect and dignity of the free man revolt
against foreign domination, however superior. As Mr. Asquith said at the
beginning of the War, such a condition was "inconceivable and would be
intolerable." Why then is it the one conceivable system here in India?
Why is it not felt by all Indians to be intolerable? It is because it
has become a habit, bred in us from childhood, to regard the sahib-log
as our natural superiors, and the greatest injury British rule has done
to Indians is to deprive them of the natural instinct born in all free
peoples, the feeling of an inherent right to Self-determination, to be
themselves. Indian dress, Indian food, Indian ways, Indian customs, are
all looked on as second-rate; Indian mother-tongue and Indian literature
cannot make an educated man.
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