{"id":1042,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:12","slug":"26-facts-and-opinions-21-8-1909-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\/26-facts-and-opinions-21-8-1909-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-26_Facts and Opinions 21-8-1909.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nFacts and Opinions<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nVolume I – August 21,1909 – Number 9<\/font><\/p>\n

\n \t\tSrijut Surendranath Banerji’s Return<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n            <\/font>
\nT<\/font>he veteran leader of Moderate Bengal has returned from
\nhis oratorical triumphs in the land of our rulers. The ovations
\nof  praise and applause which appreciative audiences and
\nnewspaper critics of all shades of opinion have heaped upon
\nhim, were thoroughly deserved. Never has the great oratorical
\ngift with which Srijut Surendranath is so splendidly endowed,
\nbeen displayed to such faultless advantage as in these the
\ncrowning efforts of his old age. The usual defect of his oratory,
\nan excess of language and rhetoric over substantial force,
\na defect which also limited Gladstone’s oratory and made it
\nthe glory of an hour instead of an abiding possession to humanity, was absent from these speeches in England. For the first
\ntime the orator rose to the full height of a great and sound eloquence strong in matter as in style. With the statesman’s part in
\nthe speeches we do not wholly agree. Nevertheless it must be
\naccounted as righteousness to Srijut Surendranath that he enforced the Moderate Nationalist view of things, \u2014 a very different view from Mr. Gokhale’s which is certainly not Nationalism
\nand hardly even strong enough to be called Moderatism, \u2014 to
\nits utmost limits and did not leave the English public under the
\nvain delusion that some paltry tinkerings with the Legislative
\nCouncils would satisfy the aspirations of an awakened India.
\nHis first speeches accepting the reforms were great blunders
\nwhich might have done infinite harm, but his later utterances,
\nhowever equivocal on this point, did much to redress the balance.
\nWe await with interest Sj. Surendranath’s action in this matter. In our view the
\none policy for us is "No control, no co-operation", and in this we believe we are supported not only by the
\nwhole mass of advanced Nationalist opinion but by a great body
\nof Moderates. The danger is that the older Moderates, trained<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 158<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nin a much less exacting system of political agitation, may attempt
\nto enforce the demand for control only in speech while in action
\nconceding co-operation without control and thus giving away
\nfor some fancied and worthless advantage the vital position of
\nthe new movement. The reforms give no control, therefore the
\nreforms must be rejected. Co-operation is our only asset, the
\nonly thing we can offer in exchange for control, the only thing
\nby withholding which we can by pressure bring about the cession
\nof control. It would be the height of political folly to give away
\nour only asset for nothing.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n A
\n False Step<\/a><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\nSj. Surendranath’s maladroit reference to the outrages when
\nspeaking at Bombay was a false step which he has since made
\nsome attempt to recover. However it be put, it was maladroit
\nand unnecessary. Any promise of co-operation in this respect
\nimplies an admission that we have the power to prevent these
\nincidents and are therefore to some extent responsible either for
\nbringing them about or for not stopping them before. It echoes
\nthe indiscretion by which Sir Edward Baker sought to make a whole nation
\nresponsible for these acts of recklessness and excuses the vindictive and headstrong utterances in which Mr.Gokhale tried to protect his own party and invoke the fiercest
\nrepression against his Nationalist countrymen. The isolated
\ninstances of assassination during the last year or more have been
\nthe reaction, deplorable enough, against the insane policy of
\nindiscriminate police rule and repression which was started and
\nprogressively increased in the recent stages of the movement.
\nNot by a single word or expression ought any public man to
\nallow the responsibility to be shifted from the right quarter and
\nto rest in the slightest degree on the people who had no part
\nin them, no power to detect and stop the inflamed and resolute
\nsecret assassin and no authority given them by which they can
\nbring about the removal of the real causes of the symptom. To
\ndissociate oneself is a different matter. That should be done
\nclearly, firmly and once for all.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 159<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n A
\n London Congress<\/a><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\nIt is a pity that his oratorical triumphs in England seem to have
\nblinded Sj. Surendranath to their small utility to the country.
\nSo far has he been led away by the slight and transient effect he
\nhas produced on the surface of the public mind in England that
\nhe is attempting to revive the old and futile idea of a Congress
\nin London. Whether he will prevail on his fellow-Conventionalists to perpetrate this huge waste of money, we cannot say. The
\nbreak-up of the Congress and the "stern and relentless repression" of the Nationalist party has delivered the old Congress
\nConservatives from the fear of public opinion. Needless to say,
\nno so-called Congress held under such circumstances will be
\nrepresentative of the people. It is the old love of striking theatrical effects addressed to an English audience as patrons that has
\nbeen revived in Sj. Surendranath by his visit. We notice that the dead cant
\nabout the faith in the sense of justice of the Government and the British democracy once more reappears in the
\ncolumns of the Bengalee<\/i>. All these are bad signs. What is it that
\nthe Moderate Leader proposes to effect by this expenditure of
\nmoney which might be so much better used in the country itself ?
\nWe fail to see how a meeting of forty or fifty Indians, however
\neminent and respectable, prosing about Indian grievances and the
\nsense of justice of the British democracy or the immaculate Liberalism of Lord Morley can do any lasting service to the cause of
\nIndia in England. Even if this could be turned into a really imposing theatricality, the effect of such shows in European countries is merely a nine days’ wonder unless they are followed up.
\nIt is natural that an orator should overrate the effect of oratory,
\nbut Sj. Surendranath is surely aware that the greatest speeches or
\nseries of speeches unconnected with its own interests now produce
\non the blas\u00e9 British public only the effect of a passing ripple which
\nis immediately effaced by the next that follows. Either therefore
\nhis proposal means only some temporary theatricals and waste
\nof money or he must persuade our people to resume the old
\nabandoned policy and carry on a perennial campaign in England
\nfor the "education" of the British Public. Only as part of such a
\ncampaign had the proposal of a London Congress ever any<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 160<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmeaning or justification. But even in its best days the Congress
\nleaders could never produce enough men, money and energy for
\nso stupendous a work, and it is doubly impossible now that the
\nold policy is discredited. Certainly, if Sj. Surendranath thinks
\nthat the newly awakened energies of India are going to follow
\nhim in throwing themselves into this channel, he is grievously
\nmistaken. Not all his prestige and influence can put back the
\nhands of the clock so utterly. The Indian movement has really
\nto deal not with the British democracy, which is an almost negligible factor in Indian affairs, but with the politicians in Parliament, His Majesty’s ministers and the powerful influence in England of the official and commercial English out here. These are
\nhard-headed and obstinate forces which, so far as they can at all
\nrise out of the narrow groove of class interests or racial pride and
\nprejudice, can only be influenced by one consideration, the best
\nway to preserve the Empire in India. Even in the minds of Sir
\nHenry Cotton and Mr. Mackarness that cannot fail to be a dominant consideration. If any educational work has to be done in
\nEngland, it is to convince these classes that it is only by the concession of control that the co-operation of the Indian people
\ncan be secured. And that work is best done from India.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 161<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facts and Opinions Volume I – August 21,1909 – Number 9 Srijut Surendranath Banerji’s Return               The veteran leader of Moderate Bengal has returned…<\/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-1042","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\/1042","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=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}