The masses are the real minorities, and yet they are not asking for all these safeguards, and even when they ask for the safeguards they do not make it a condition precedent to constitutional progress. What is more, they care more for the country, for our own national progress and therefore, they not only say, let us go ahead, but they exhort us to go ahead. They stand by us, and I appeal to our own so-called religious minorities to take a lesson from these people. Whom are we supposed to represent? The ordinary masses of our country. And yet most of us do not belong to the masses themselves. We are of them, we wish to stand for them, but the masses themselves are not able to come up to the Constitutional Assembly. It may take some time; in the meanwhile, we are here as their trustees, as their champions, and we are trying our best to speak for them. While we are doing this, our friends, the Muslim Leaguers, wish the rest of the world to believe that we are trying to do them some harm therefore they cannot hope to come over here, they cannot be expected to come over here. I wish to tell them from this forum, it would be the greatest possible tragedy not only for the Muslim masses but also for the masses of the country in general, if the Muslim League were to follow this policy of non cooperation, this policy of do-nothing. What more can the Indian National Congress be expected to do in order to concilliate them than what it has already done? Our friends, the Muslim Leaguers, instead of trying to come to us and negotiate with us, reason with us or argue before us- they have gone over to the Britisher. They have tried to gain one after another a number of concessions. Each one of these concessions has come down as a sort of black curtain in blotting out the vista of freedom and Swaraj that this country is aiming at; and in addition they have done enough to embitter the people of this country. In spite of all this, the Indian National Congress has chosen to accept all these various safeguards and rights and various other things that they have been gaining from the British with the only hope, with the only intention, with the only appeal to our Muslim League friends, to come over here and co-operate with us in the shaping of the Constitution for our country. If they do not come, are we going to stop where we are? Certainly not. They ought to know, and other people also who are backing them ought to know, that the Indian National Congress cannot be stampeded in this fashion. We are making history, we have been making history for the last 25 years. Again and again, in spite of our constitutionalists who have been telling us. “For God’s sake do not go against the law, these things will not get us Swaraj, you negotiate with the British, work with the British”, we have resorted to saytagraha on many an occasion in order to safeguard the rights and privileges of our people. We have made progress,–who can deny that? Could we have been in this Constituent Assembly if we had not been able to launch direct struggles? Could there have been even this possibility for the Muslim League to try and obstruct as they are doing now, if it had not been for the sacrifice and struggle that we have been carrying on all these years? We have reached a stage when it is impossible for British imperialism to prevent us from making progress. British imperialism goes to the pitiable plight of trying to have some allies in order to arrest our progress–may be for a day, may be for a few minutes. But British imperialism will not succeed, and these allies of British Imperialism cannot succeed. What is more, our own masses will soon be in a position to set aside not only British imperialism but also their allies in this country and go ahead and help us to go ahead. What has been the position of the Muslim League itself? There was a time when Mr. Jinnah used to say that independence was a sort of mirage, that it was absurd for India to claim independence for India. He himself said that direct action was an absurdity, and yet he has himself come to claim independence for India, he has declared himself in favour of independence. He has himself come to declare from the Muslim League rostrum the “Quit India” slogan, though he would like to have it, as “divide the country between us, and quit India.” Nevertheless he followed in our own footsteps. He wants today two Constituent Assemblies, whereas not long ago he was not prepared to think of any Constituent Assembly at all. What does this show? I say, that if we go ahead, the Muslim Leaguers also are obliged to go ahead for the simple reason that the ordinary masses, whether Hindus or Muslims, to whichever community they belong, are impelling their political leaders, in spite of their own peculiar partisanship, to go ahead in the manner in which alone India can go ahead. Therefore, I appeal to our Muslim Leaguers, at least in the name of their own masses, to come into this House and co-operate with us, if they are not for their own vested interests, for their Nawabs, or for their Jagirdars.
