We have reached this stage after tremendous sacrifices. We should not while away our time in scholastic discussions and parliamentary debates. Our struggle has been long and tedious. The honourable Member from Bengal, Mr. Maitra mentioned that period to be two generations. He is right in a way. But I would like to take it further backward to the middle of the last century. At that time it took the form of a revolt after a century of exploitation by the foreign bureaucrats. It was a part of the great nationalist movement of the nineteenth century. It failed and was followed by such repression that it took a generation for the Indian genius to re-assert itself. This time it took a more systematic and organised shape under the name of the Indian National Congress. This was the beginning of the era to which Mr. Maitra referred. The struggle was fraught with difficulties and the path was full of pitfalls and the task hazardous. But our great leaders followed it resolutely and courageously. The pace was considerably accelerated by the new turn that the Father of our Nation gave to the Indian Politics. Blessed be his name. Within the short space of a generation we reached the stage of acquiring freedom even before it was granted by the foreigner. This Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946 to frame a Constitution for the undivided India. Enormous changes took place during this period. With a view to the early recognition of our freedom, our leaders went the length of agreeing even to a partition of the country. But no one at that time realised that this would be a signal for man to turn a wolf to brother man, as the great English philosopher Hobbes said two hundred years ago–Homo Hominis Lupus. This is not the place to describe those horrible atrocities; but the misfortune is that some of its baneful effects still persist and affect even our daily life. The country has succeeded in solving much more complicated problems and I am sure it will rise to the occasion and get over this hurdle which stand in the way of national advancement.
