Dr. Roy believed that the youth of India would determine the future of the nation. He felt that the youth must not take part in strikes and fasts but should study and commit themselves to social work. While delivering the Convocation Address at the University of Lucknow on 15 December 1956, Dr. Roy said:My young friends, you are soldiers in the battle of freedom-freedom from want, fear, ignorance, frustration and helplessness. By a dint of hard work for the country, rendered in a spirit of selfless service, may you march ahead with hope and courage...Dr. Roy was both Gandhiji's friend and doctor. When Gandhiji was undertaking a fast in Parnakutivin, Poona in 1933, Dr. Roy attended to him. Gandhiji refused to take medicine on the grounds that it was not made in India. Gandhiji asked Dr. Roy, "Why should I take your treatment? Do you treat four hundred million of my countrymen free?" Dr. Roy replied, "No Gandhiji, I could not treat all patients free. But I came... not to treat Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but to treat "him" who to me represents the four hundred million people of my country." Gandhiji relented and took the medicine.