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Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 11th, 1906 }
A Savage Sentence
We hope that an appeal will be preferred against the barbarous sentence passed on one Bipin Behari Modak for throwing acid,— so it is alleged,— in the face of an unpopular non-striker in the Howrah Office. To us the evidence on the defence side seems to be exceedingly strong nor can we discover any motive for the attack on the part of a man who had no connection of any kind with the strike. But then it was a strike case, and strike, in magisterial eyes, means Swadeshi and Swadeshi means sedition. So by a strict chain of judicial logic the accused is not only convicted but meted out a savage and merciless punishment. Whatever may be the fact as to this particular prosecution, it is certain that a taint of Swadeshi in any case seems to double and treble the guilt in the eyes of the magistracy. The spirit of Sir Bampfylde Fuller has not left the country with his body. ______________
The Question of the Hour
There is every sign that the issue on which the future of the national movement depends, will soon become very acute. Babu Bhupendranath Bose has put it with great frankness when he says that we must act in association with and not in opposition to the Government. In other words, the whole spirit which has governed the national movement, must be changed and we must go back to the policy of pre-Swadeshi days. This then is the issue before us. We declared a war of passive resistance against the bureaucracy on the 7th of August; and we understood that the struggle was not to end till such a regime as Lord Curzon's
Page – 153 should be rendered for ever impossible in the future. Are we now to declare peace and alliance with the bureaucracy and blot out the last twelve months from our history? Babu Ananda Chandra Roy made the proposal a little while ago; a much more considerable politician makes it today. It is for the country to judge. ________
A Criticism
Babu Naresh Chandra Sen Gupta, at a meeting of the Students' Union, made certain remarks upon the new party and the old. The spirit of the remarks was good, but the information on which they were based seems to be remarkably one-sided. He said, for instance: "The old leaders never forgot to take counsel with the new party; but the new party had spurned the old men." When, may we ask, except at Barisal where the new school was in a majority, did the old leaders take counsel with the new? Since then it has been the deliberate policy of the old leaders to exclude the new party from their counsels and some influential men among them have even declared that they will not work with the principal men of that party. We do not pretend to dictate to the old leaders or to the Congress or to any other public body; we wish to have an opportunity of pressing our views on the Congress as the views of increasing numbers in the country. The future is ours and we are content to conquer it by degrees. But the determination of the old leaders is to give us no foothold in the present. A great and growing school of politics cannot consent to be treated in such cavalier fashion. ________
By the Way
Babu Bhupendranath Bose has, it appears, been writing to the Mofussil laying down the policy of the nation. Babu Bhupendranath is not going to allow Mr. Tilak to be President, because the said Tilak does not know navigation. Babu Bhupendranath is
Page – 154 going to telegraph to Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji asking him to dance to Babu Bhupendranath's fiddling. Babu Bhupendranath is not going to allow the nation to act in opposition to the Government. Babu Bhupendranath as a loyal Legislative Councillor, will compel the people to act in association with the bureaucracy. Long live Babu Bhupendranath Bose, ally of England and Dictator of Bengal! It is very natural for the Comilla people to enquire whether this remarkable pronouncement is Babu Bhupendranath's own particular balloon, or Babu Surendranath Banerji also is tempting the airy heights in his company. The mysteries of the secret conclave which attempts to direct the destinies of the national movement are carefully veiled from profane eyes, but it is generally understood that Babu Bhupendranath wields there a marvellous influence, the source of which it is difficult to understand. He is a successful attorney, a conspicuous figure in Calcutta society, a man of the world gifted with consummate business ability, a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, who aspires, it is believed, to the cool heights of Simla. In all this there is nothing which gives him a claim to lead in a great patriotic upheaval. Yet he is the power behind the throne.
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Curiously yoked is this grey leader with the flying mane, thunderous neigh and stamping hooves of our great veteran war-steed. The one would gallop on with the national chariot, the other hangs back. The eye of the one is thrown forward, his ear pricks to the noise of the battle, his heart is in the future with the destiny of his nation. The eye of the other is cast backward, his ear pricks to the dulcet voices of Minto and Morley, his heart is in the past, in the august peace of the Legislative Council. But it is the slow horse that sets the pace. And hence we have Babu Bhupendranath Bose figuring as President-maker and policy-maker to His Majesty the lately awakened Democracy of Bengal.
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The question is, will the people sanction the appointment of
Page – 155 Babu Bhupendranath by himself to this important office? To the spirit of autocracy and government from behind the curtain, we shall always be opposed whether in the bureaucracy or in our own leaders. But if there is to be an autocrat, let him at least be one whose heart is wholly with the people.
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