Ram Mohan Roy would have been a greater reformer and Lokmanya Tilak a greater scholar if they had not to start with the handicap of having to think in English and transmit their thoughts chiefly in English.
This belief in the necessity of English training has enslaved us. It has unfitted us for true national service.
Of all the superstitions that affect India, none is so great as that a knowledge of the English language is necessary for imbibing ideas of liberty and developing accuracy to thought.
The canker has so eaten into the society that in many cases the only meaning of education is a knowledge of English.
We Hindus and Mohamedans would have to blame our folly rather than the English, if we allowed them to put us asunder.
It would be a sad day for India if it has to inherit the English scale and the English tastes so utterly unsuitable to the Indian environment.
My heart rebels against any foreigner imposing on my country the peace which is here called Pax-Britannica.
Christianity in India is inextricably mixed up for the last hundred and fifty years with the British rule.
No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances.
There is as much need for a change of heart among the Hindus and Mussalmans as there is among the British, before a proper settlement is arrived at.
Let us learn from the English rulers the simple fact that the oppressors are blind to the enormity of their own misdeeds.
The Britisher is the top dog and the Indian the underdog in his own country.
That I want to destroy British imperialism is another matter, but I want to do so by converting those who are associated with it.
India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before.
The British power is the overlord without whom Indian princes cannot breathe.
My conception of dominion status implies present ability to severe the British connection if I wish to.
The British are weak in numbers, we are weak in spite of our numbers.
My motto is “Unite now, today if you can; fight if you must. But in every case avoid British intervention.”
Will Great Britain have an unwilling India dragged into war or a willing ally co-operating with her in the prosecution of a defence of true democracy?
Boycott brought about anyhow of British cloth cannot yield the same results as such boycott brought about by hand-spinning and khaddar.