Address by Syama Prasad Mookerjee
December 7th, 1940
I consider it a proud privilege to be invited to address the Convocation of your great University, and I thanks you sincerely for the honour which you have bestowed on me. Your University cannot claim a long history bearing marks of the toil of generations but within the short period of its existence it has secured a fame and a reputation peculiar to itself which have Justly won for it an abiding place in the hearts of millions of our countrymen. Yours is a great seat of learning. that has sprung in to life amidst surroundings which remind us of all that is best in Indian civilization. Your renowned city was the metropolis of a Philosopher-King of the Upanishadic Age and the home of Parsvanatha, the celebrated Tirthankaza of the Jainas.It stands in the vicinity of the holy steps where Gautama Buddha preached his fast sermon, where Sankaracharyya distinguished himself in Dialectics and Philosophy, where Tulsidas wrote his immortal songs, and where Shree Chaitanya distributed the nectar of divine love to high and low. Indeed, that great son of India whose name will for ever be enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen, not only as the most illustrious of your founders but also as one of the makes of New india, could not have selected a more appropriate site, for the Hindu University of Hindustan. May your University produce sages like Silabhadra and ardent mission- Aries like Dipankara who made this country the intellectual centre of the East and carried the torch of Indian civilization beyond the heights of the Himalayas and across the shores of the southern Seas ! Advancing years have now left their mark on the health of Pandit Malaviya, and I voice the sentiments of all sections of Indians throughout the country when I pray that he may yet be spared for a long number of years to see the ever-increasing development of his beloved University as an active and progressive seat of learning dedicated to the service of the nation. The present distinguished occupant of the office of Vice-chancellor commands universal respect and confidence and the destinies of this University could not have been entrusted to a worthier person, whether from this country or from abroad.
I shall not attempt to analyse in detail the activities of your University but l must pay my tribute to the solid progress you have made in diverse branches of knowledge, literary, philosophical, scientific and technical. Scholars have flocked to your portals from distant parts of India, attracted by the richness and variety of facilities offered by you. The reputation of some of your departments, specially in the domain of science and engineering, has gone far beyond the limits of this province. lf large and generous benefactions have enabled you.
To erecting imposing and commodious buildings which have helped to create a beautiful city of your own, you have also been able to attract to your halls a long line of devoted teachers who have considered it their sacred duty to dedicate themselves to the cause of knowledge. I know financial difficulties have often been a matter of deep anxiety to the authorities of the University, and it is all the greater reason that one should gratefully acknowledge the spirit of sacrifice that has animated the members of your staff who have cheerfully carried on thier work, often in spite of great financial uncertainties. I hope the State will do its obvious duty towards this great national institution and, by giving you the necessary financial relief, will enable you to march along, with vigour and courage, on the path of progress and expansion.
Your University has paid and will pay due homage to the cause of spread of knowledge in its diverse branches but I would also ask you to fulfil in an abundant measure your obligations for the revival of the glory of Hindu culture and civilization, not from a narrow or bigoted point of view but for strengthening the very root of nationalism in this country. In this great land of ours where twenty-eight crores of Hindus live, the word Hindu sometimes stinks in the nostrils of many a son of India. A re-orientation of Hindu culture and ideals, of which your present Vice- Clancellor is one of the ablest exponents, will not only help to bring back to india that political freedom which she has lost but will also raise the soul of mankind throughout the earth to a higher level of thought and action.
As a University you have a great role to play in re-shaping the destinies of the people of your country. We must bear in mind the cardinal principle that we want to see developed and trained through education the whole nature of our alumni, intellectual, moral and physical, not merely for the purpose of qualifying for any special calling but to bring up good citizens, useful members of society, men. true and fearless, capable of bearing their part with credit in public and private life.
Such University-trained men are needed in rich abundance in India today. Interested persons often try to raise a controversy about the relative claims of elementary education and higher education in India, forgetting the fact that the University expresses the corporate longing of the people for the higher things of, the spirit.
As University men we want that elementary education should spread from one part of the country to the other and that provision should be made for this purpose in a liberal and unstinted manner. Indeed. the failure of Government, which has remained in dominant authority in India for more than a century and a half, to discharge this obligation, is regarded as one of the black spots in its administration. Let us not, however, forget that eminent thinkers in countries where elementary education is both free and compulsory have felt hat such an instruction, unless browned by some- thing which is higher, is not only barren but may even be dangerous. It is not enough to teach our democracy to read unless we also teach it to think. It is the ignorant and unthinking mind, with its trivialities, its uncertainties, and its clouded vision, from which we have most to fear.
