-042_Bureaucracy at Jamalpur.htm

Bureaucracy at Jamalpur

                THE most recent accounts of the Jamalpur outrage emphasise the sinister nature of the occurrence and the defects in our own organisation which we must labour to remove. The most disgraceful feature of the riots has been the conduct of the British local official who seems to have deceived and betrayed the Hindus into the hands of the. Mahomedan Goondas. The nature of the attack, its suddenness and completeness, show beyond doubt that it had been carefully planned beforehand and was no casual outbreak either of fanaticism or rowdyism. It is impossible to believe that the Joint Magistrate, responsible for the peace of the country, was totally uninformed of the .likelihood of an organised attack which was generally apprehended by the Hindus. Yet it is reported that the local official induced the Hindus to be present at the Mela by a distinct pledge that they had nothing to fear from the Mahomedans, and then, in violation of his pledge, left them utterly unprotected for brutality and sacrilege to work their will upon them. If he had any inkling of the outbreak which was then in preparation, his action amounted to cynical treachery. Even if he was so imbecile as to be unaware of what was going on in his own jurisdiction, his failure to provide against the possibility of his pledge coming to nothing lays him open to the worst constructions. At the very least he showed a light-hearted disregard for his official obligations and his personal honour. His subsequent action was equally extraordinary. All the accounts agree in saying that the police were quite inactive until the anti-Swadeshists had their fill of plunder and violence and were making for the station. Even then, they confined themselves to depriving them of their lathis, -- the mischief being done and further violence superfluous, -- and with a paternal indulgence dismissed them to their homes unarrested. The only people arrested were a few of the Hindus who, if they were guilty of anything, can have only been guilty

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of self-defence. The accounts on which we base these comments are unanimous and have not up to the present moment met with any denial. We can only conclude therefore that, as at Comilla, the local officials looked with sympathy on the rioters as allies in the repression of Swadeshism, and acted accordingly. To stand by while the Mahomedans carry out that violent repression of Swadeshism which the sham Liberalism of the present Government policy forbids them to undertake themselves; to clinch this illegal repression by legal repression in the form of prosecution of respectable Hindus for the crime of self-defence; to strain every nerve to prevent outside help coming to the distressed and maltreated Swadeshists, and finally to save appearances by sending a few of the Mahomedan rioters to prison -- a punishment which has no terrors for them, since they are all hooligans and some of them old jail birds: -- such has been the consistent attitude of the local officials. The only new circumstance in the Jamalpur incident has been the assurance given by the local official which amounted to a promise of protection, and which alone made the outrage possible. For the last century the British have been dinning into our ears the legend of British justice, British honour, British truth. The belief in the justice of the British nation or of British Magistrates is dead. Generated by liberal professions it has been killed by reactionary practice. The belief in the personal honour and truth of individual Englishmen has somehow managed to survive; but it will not stand such shocks as the East Bengal bureaucrats have managed to administer to it. We would earnestly press upon the people of East Bengal the unwisdom of trusting to official promises or to anything but their own combination, organisation and the strong arm for their protection. We have already pointed out more than once what the Comilla officials took some pains to point out to those who applied to them for protection, that it is folly to raise the cry of Swadeshi and Swaraj and yet to expect protection from the bureaucrats whose monopoly of power the movement threatens.

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Is This Your Lion of Bengal?

It is painful to see how utterly helpless and at sea the "recognised leaders" of Bengal are showing themselves in face of the growing acuteness of the crisis in East Bengal. The Bengalee's comments on the Jamalpur outrage are, we are compelled to say, a .model of cold timidity and heartless over-caution. The Bengalee declares that the whole Hindu community in Calcutta is intensely excited over the outrage done to their community in Jamalpur. It hints and insinuates that the connivance of the British officials is mainly responsible for these outrages; but even these vague insinuations it defends with a triple line of "ifs". It threatens dim and terrible consequences if the Government do not take proper measures. But in the meantime what does our contemporary, voicing as it does the mind of the most famous politician in Bengal, propose in order to meet the emergency? It proposes to hold a mass meeting in order to devise steps to minimise the evils of the situation, and, having held a meeting, it proposes to wait and do nothing. Or at least, if anything is to be done, it is merely to boast of our superiority to "lowly passions" and to wait patiently to see what the Government might do! These superior and enlightened journals cannot be expected to yield to such "lowly passions" as indignation against oppression, active sympathy with our outraged fellow-countrymen, and the desire to avenge their wrongs. We are sick to death of this false mealy-mouthed affectation of moral blamelessness which is merely an excuse for pusillanimity. Nero fiddled and Rome burned. Jamalpur is in a state of siege, the town held by Goorkhas, succour from outside excluded; one man lies dead and others wounded, some, it is said, fatally; the broken image of Durga, the outraged sanctity of religion, the blood of our kindred, the offended honour of our cause and country, -- all cry out for succour and vindication. Yet the Bengalee finds time to fiddle about its superiority to "lowly passions". Such is the leading Bengal finds in the crisis of her destinies. Oh, the pity of it!

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Anglo-Indian Blunderers

The Englishman has its own standing suggestion for the treatment of incidents like the Jamalpur disturbance. The theory is, the riots are the result of Mahomedan indignation at the Swadeshi Boycott; therefore, Swadeshi is the cause of the whole trouble; therefore, put down Swadeshi with the strong hand. No one knows better than the Englishman that the disturbances have been caused by the sinister alliance of Anglo-India with the Nawab of Dacca and his following contracted to put down Swadeshi by fair means or foul. For our part we should welcome open oppression by the bureaucracy; it would be more honourable at least than local connivance at violence and brutal lawlessness, and it would be a pleasure to meet an open and straightforward opponent. But open or secret, direct or indirect, no measures whatsoever will succeed in crushing the insurgent national spirit. We wonder whether these complacent bureaucrats and exploiters have any idea of the growing mass of silent exasperation to which the present policy is rapidly giving shape and substance. Possibly, the idea is to force the exasperation to a head and crush it when it breaks into overt action, the old policy of the English in Ireland. But we would remind these blundering Anglo-Saxon Machiavellis that India is not Ireland; it is easier to unchain the tempest than to decree to it what course it shall take and what it shall spare or what destroy.

Bande Mataram, April 25, 1907

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