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Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, August 12th, 1907 }
Marionettes and Others
The Englishman is naturally making the most of the Loyal Manifesto, but that most is miserably little. The unspontaneous character of the effusion has been emphasized by the difficulties and vicissitudes which it had to go through before it saw the light. Conceived in the Black and White Club, begotten, it is said, by Sir Andrew Fraser on the brain of Mr. Blair, the first attempt at delivery with Sjt. Pradyot Kumar Tagore as midwife ended in an abortion. Even the second time with an older and more experienced hand at work the pains of parturition were excessive. Not a single leader of the people or prominent political man signed the absurdity, even the most moderate declaring that no man with any sense of self-respect could sign such a document. Of the few Zamindars who have a real political sense and some position in politics, only one has signed and he, we believe, under the mistaken impression that the objectionable portions had been omitted. There are only two or three solid signatures, if we measure solidity by brains or public influence and not by wealth. Some of the signatories have obviously signed from fear of the consequences of refusal, others belong to that type of people found in every country who consider it their duty to bow their knees before the powers that be whenever required. Their loyalty is uncaused and unconditioned. It knows no ebb and flow, it is a constant quantity and can be manifested at the bidding of a superior person. These people are so well drilled and disciplined in loyalty that the master has simply to look at and down hangs the head, the hands automatically join and every limb falls into its fitting posture of humility. This dancing to the pipe is a natural phenomenon without any particular meaning.
Page – 633 So this loyal manifesto of the Bengal landholders has excited less interest than even a bear-dance or the performance of a clown. There are professional and mechanical genuflexions with less significance than the automatic movements of marionettes. They think that the bureaucracy has made them and can unmake them at any moment, and the very instinct of self-preservation forces them to their knees. The surprising thing is that so able a political race as the English should think they can make anything substantial out of an advantage so unreal. __________
A Compliment and Some Misconceptions
We extract in another column the opinions and interpretations of the London Times anent the Bande Mataram. It is gratifying to find the Thunderer so deeply impressed with the ability with which this journal is written and edited, even though the object of this generous appreciation be to point us out as the tallest oak of all on which the lightning may most fitly descend. But we feel bound to correct certain misapprehensions into which the Times has too readily fallen. It suits the Times to pretend that the Nationalist movement in India is a pure outcome of racial hatred and that the creation and fomentation of that hatred is the sole method of Indian agitators and the one object of their speeches and writings. But Nationalism is no more a mere ebullition of race hatred in India than it was in Italy in the last century. Our motives and our objects are at least as lofty and noble as those of Mazzini or of Garibaldi whose centenary the Times was hymning with such fervour a few days ago. The restoration of our country to her separate existence as a nation among the nations, her exaltation to a greatness, splendour, strength, magnificence equalling and surpassing her ancient glories is the goal of our endeavours: and we have undertaken this arduous task in which we as individuals risk everything, ease, wealth, liberty, life itself it may be, not out of hatred and hostility to other nations but in the firm conviction that we are working as much in the interests of all humanity including England herself
Page – 634 as in those of our own posterity and nation. That the struggle to realise our ideal must bring with it temporary strife, misunderstanding, hostility, disturbance, that in short, it is bound to be a struggle and not the billing and cooing of political doves, we have never attempted to deny. We believe that the rule of three hundred millions of Indians by an alien bureaucracy not responsible to the nation is a system unnatural, intrinsically bad and inevitably oppressive, and we do not pretend that we can convince our people of its undesirability without irritating the bureaucracy on one side and generating a strong dislike of the existing system on the other. But our object is constructive and not destructive, to build up our own nation and not to destroy another. If England chooses to feel aggrieved by our nation-building, and obstruct it by unjust, violent or despotic means, it is she who is the aggressor and guilty of exciting hatred and ill-feeling. Her action may be natural, may be inevitable, but the responsibility rests on her, not on Indian Nationalism. __________
Pal on the Brain
We have commented on one misconception of the Times about ourselves which it perhaps could not help, so necessary was the error to justify its own position, but it has perpetrated another which seems wilful,— unless it is the result of monomania. The Thunderer seems to have Srijut Bipin Chandra on the brain; it sees him gigantically reflected in every manifestation of Nationalism and is rapidly constructing him into a sinister Antichrist of British rule. So it insists on identifying him with the Bande Mataram and will take no denial. Somebody has been pointing out to it that Bipin Babu severed his connection with the paper nine months ago, and this is how the Times disposes of the attempt to dissipate its cherished delusions: "Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal has nominally ceased to edit the paper, but there can be no question that he is the dominating force behind its policy and comments, which are stated with a literary ability rare in the Anglo-native Press." The Times is evidently not going to be
Page – 635 deceived. The literary ability with which the Bande Mataram states its views is rare in the "Anglo-native" Press but it is known that Bipin Pal has a rare literary ability, therefore it is unquestionably Bipin Pal and no other who really edits and writes in the Bande Mataram. There seems to be a flaw somewhere in the Thunderer's logic, and we do not think the Bengal Government in its recent affectionate enquiries has come to the same conclusion. Bipin Babu has his own sufficient portion of anti-bureaucratic original sin without being burdened with ours. The Times should realise that almost the whole literary ability of Young Bengal is behind the movement of which we are the daily expression, so that the ability and literary excellence of our paper is not to be wondered at.
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