{"id":1041,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","slug":"70-the-viceroys-speech-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/02-karmayogin-volume-02\/70-the-viceroys-speech-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-70_The Viceroy’s Speech.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nThe Viceroy’s Speech<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n
\nT<\/font>HE <\/b><\/span>speech of Lord Minto on the occasion of
\nthe first meeting of the Viceroy’s Council under
\nthe new regime is a very important pronouncement;
\nand the most momentous of the passages in the pronouncement are two, the one in
\nwhich he disposes finally of any lingering hopes in the minds of the Moderates,
\nthe other in which he threatens to dispose finally of any lingering hopes in
\nthe minds of the Nationalists. It has been a Moderate legend which still labours to survive, that the intention of Lords Morley
\nand Minto in the Reforms was to lay the foundations of representative
\nself-government in India. This legend was perseveringly
\nreiterated in direct contradiction of the Secretary of State’s famous
\npronouncement that, so far as his vision could pierce into the future, the
\npersonal and absolute element in Indian administration must for ever remain.
\nLord Minto has. now stamped his foot on the Moderate legend and crushed it into
\natoms. We quote the important passages in which he accomplishes this ruthless
\ndestruction.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

"We have distinctly maintained that representative Government
\nin its Western sense is totally inapplicable to the Indian
\nEmpire and would be uncongenial to the traditions of Eastern populations \u2014 that
\nIndian conditions do not admit of popular representation \u2014 that the safety and
\nwelfare of the country must depend on the supremacy of British administration \u2014
\nand that that supremacy can, in no circumstances<\/i>, be delegated to any
\nkind of representative assembly …. We have aimed at the reform and
\nenlargement of our Councils but not at the creation of Parliaments. I emphasise
\nwhat I have just said in view of the opinions to which advanced Indian
\npoliticians appear not infrequently to commit themselves."<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

In the face of speech so plain and uncompromising it will be
\ndifficult indeed to keep up the fiction that it is only the regulations which
\nare objectionable and, if only the regulations are changed, we can with a clear
\nconscience accept and participate in the Reforms. The Act and the Regulations
\nare not different in<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 381<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

aim or parentage; they have one origin, one object, one policy.
\nLord Minto has emphatically stated that the initiative in the Reforms was from
\nbeginning to end his own, and the facts bear out the truth of his statement.
\nHis inaugural speech has put a seal of finality on the death-doom of Moderatism
\nof which the publication of the Councils’ rules was the pronouncement. The
\nobjective of Moderatism is colonial self-government, the means, the grace and
\ngoodwill of the British rulers, and the two British rulers whom they have
\nhailed as apostles and fathers of Reform have declared explicitly that in no future age, however distant,
\nand in no circumstances, however changed, can the official supremacy be
\ndelegated to any kind of representative assembly however safely constituted.
\nNot even, therefore, a Russian Duma, that simulacrum of a Parliament, is to be
\ngranted to India even in remote and
\nmillennial futurity.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The other passage is the reference to the licence of a revolutionary
\nPress as a means of combating Terrorism. The revolutionary Press has long
\nsince disappeared and, therefore, we can only suppose that Lord Minto means the
\nNationalist Press and that this pronouncement heralds fresh coercive legislation.
\nThe platform has been silenced, the Press must follow. Then Thought alone will
\nremain free from the prohibitions of the law and even that may be coerced by
\nthe deportation and exile of anyone whom the Police may suspect of entertaining
\nliberal opinions. Just as the first-quoted passage ensures the extinction of
\nall Moderate activity, so this menace portends the extinction of all
\nNationalist activity. We do not know that we shall be altogether sorry. If the Englishman<\/i>
\nis tired of assassinations, we also are tired of the thankless and apparently
\nunsuccessful task of regulating popular discontent and pointing out legitimate
\npaths to national aspiration on the one hand and attempting to save the
\nofficials from themselves on the other. We have only persevered in it from a
\nstrong sense of our duty to the country. But we are beginning to feel that Fate
\nis more powerful than the strongest human effort. We feel the menace in the air
\nfrom above and below and foresee the clash of iron and inexorable forces in
\nwhose collision all hope of a peaceful Nationalism will disappear, if not for
\never, yet for a long, a disastrously long season.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 382<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Viceroy’s Speech   THE speech of Lord Minto on the occasion of the first meeting of the Viceroy’s Council under the new regime is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-karmayogin-volume-02","wpcat-23-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}