পাতা:সাহিত্য-সাধক-চরিতমালা পঞ্চম খণ্ড.pdf/৫২৯

এই পাতাটির মুদ্রণ সংশোধন করা প্রয়োজন।

నీ 8 রমেশচন্দ্র দত্ত Bombay 14 Novr. 1907, I thank you sincerely for the kind advice you have given me in your letter of the 25th October, and I will bear it in mind. I have often been misjudged, as people who advocate reforms always will be ; but the reforms I have urged have always been moderate and practicable, and, to quote your words, I never have asked “for the moon.” In all my official career of twenty-six years I worked in harmony with my colleagues and superiors, and I have pursued the same conciliatory policy during the last ten years, i.e. since my retire. ment from service. Nevertheless, people who are opposed to all reforms have branded me as an “impatient idealist,” while ardent reformers have branded me as lukewarm and half. hearted, A reformer who is moderate is between two fires. He has no friends, as I have learnt to my cost. The situation in India sti11 rens ains critical, and every coercive measure is adding to the influence of the extremists. Tem years ago the deportation of the Natu brothers, the secret search for a conspiracy against the British rule which did not exist, and the savage sentences passed by Courts in many cases under panic, first gave birth to the extremist party in the Mahratta country from Poona to Nagpur. Later on, the unwise Partition of Bengal, and the equally unwise measures which were adopted to distinguish between class and class, creed and creed, gave rise to lamentable disturbances, and strengthened the extremist party in Bengal. Recent events, which I need hardly mention, are strengthening the same party in the Punjab. The large tnajority of the educated people are still moderate, and are striving to stem the new spirit ; but their hands are weakened, as they can as yet show no real advance towards self-government, which is the aim of all moderate reformers... ... my younger countrymen listen to us with doubt and distrust , they ask us what has been gained by our "constitutional agitation” during these ten or fifteen years