In 1918 the Congress and the Muslim League considered in a joint meeting that Self-Government for India could be delayed no longer. Otherwise the growth of Indian Nationality and the development of Indian manhood would be impossible. The Bureaucracy in this country would not grant it. Therefore it was necessary that Indian demands should be carried across the seas to the great British Democracy. The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League thought it proper to send a deputation to England to tell the British Democracy that Indians wanted the right to build up their own constitution--a constitution which alone would enable us to secure the development of Indian nationality and the development of Indian manhood. A public meeting of the Citizens of Calcutta was held on the 18th March, 1918, under the Presidency of Babu Motilal Ghose to support the Indian Deputation to England, when Srijut Chitta Ranjan Das said:--
"It is plain that you may agitate as long as you like; you may demand your right, as you have a right to demand, but you will not get the Bureaucracy in this country to support you. You must, therefore, go to their masters....
If we find that we are not to get Self-Government, we have at least the right to get an honest answer. Let the British Democracy say, if it likes, that this war is a war of liberation of humanity, but liberation of humanity does not include the liberation of India. When I consider the objections put forward to the grant of Self-Government, I can hardly keep my patience. They say we are not educated enough to get Self-Government. My answer is: whose fault is it? For the last 150 years you have been governing this country and yet you have not succeeded in educating the people of this country to such an extent that they may be fit for governing themselves. Do we not know that Japan was made only in 50 years? You have had 150 years. Why is it that at the end of that period we are told that we are not fit to govern ourselves? Nobody really believes that the time has not come.... We are further told that we are divided between many sects. We follow different religions, we have got different interests to serve and so on. If you say that we are not fit for Self-Government, because we are divided in our interests, and in our religions, my answer is that Self-Government and Self-Government alone is the remedy of that."