{"id":1056,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:17","slug":"06-beadon-square-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\/06-beadon-square-speech-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-06_Beadon Square Speech.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nBeadon Square Speech<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nS<\/font>J<\/font><\/b>. Aurobindo Ghose said that when in jail he had been told that
\nthe country was demoralised by the repression. He could not believe it then,
\nbecause his experience of the movement had been very different. He had always
\nfound that when Swadeshi was flagging or the Boycott beginning to relax, it
\nonly needed an act of repression on the part of the authorities to give it
\nredoubled vigour. It seemed to him then impossible that the deportations would
\nhave a different effect. When nine of the most active and devoted workers for
\nthe country had been suddenly hurried away from their homes without any fault
\non their part, without the Government being able to formulate a single definite
\ncharge against them, surely the Boycott instead of decreasing would grow
\ntenfold more intense. And what after all was the repression ? Some people sent to prison, some deported, a
\nnumber of house-searches, a few repressive enactments, limiting the liberty of
\nthe press and the platform. This was nothing compared with the price other
\nnations had paid for their liberty. They also would have to suffer much more than this before they could make
\nany appreciable advance towards their goal. This was God’s law; it was not the
\nrulers who demanded the price, it was God who demanded it. It was his law that
\na fallen nation should not be allowed to rise without infinite suffering and
\nmighty effort. That was the price it had to pay for its previous lapses from
\nnational duty. The speaker did not think that there was any real demoralisation. There might be a hesitation among the richer and more
\nvulnerable parts of the community to hold conferences or meetings or give
\npublic expression to their views and feelings. He did not measure the strength
\nof the movement by the number of meetings or of people present at the meetings.
\nHe measured it by the strength and indomitable obstinacy of feel-<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*A Swadeshi meeting was
\nheld at Beadon Square, Calcutta, on 13th June 1909, under the presidentship of Babu Ramananda Chatterjee. Several speakers addressed the
\nmeeting. This is the authorised version of Sri Aurobindo’s
\nspeech delivered at that meeting.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 25<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\ning and purpose in
\nthe hearts of the people. Their first duty was to keep firm hold on their ideal
\nand perform steadfastly the vows they had made before God and the nation. The
\nrulers were never tired of saying that we
\nshould get self-government when we were fit. Fitness meant national capacity
\nand strength was the basis of capacity. That was what Lord Morley really meant when he asked himself
\nrepeatedly whether this was a real uprising of the nation or a passing
\nexcitement. He meant, was it a movement with real strength in it, a movement
\nwith elemental force enough in it to resist and survive ? That experiment was now being made. They must not expect
\nsubstantial gains at so small a cost. He had heard vaguely of the reforms when
\nin prison; he had heard them ecstatically described. He was surprised to hear
\nthat description. He had been in England for fourteen years and knew something
\nof the English people and their politics. He could not believe that England or
\nany European people would give substantial reforms after so short an agitation
\nand so scanty a proof of national strength. It was not the fault of the British
\npeople, it was a law of politics that they who have, should be unwilling to
\nyield what they have until they had fully tested the determination of the subject
\npeople and even then they would only give just as much as they could not help
\ngiving. When he came out, he found what these reforms were. The so-called
\nintroduction of the elective principle was a sham and the power given was
\nnothing. For the rest, it was a measure arranged with a skill which did credit
\nto the diplomacy of British statesmen so that we should lose and they gain. It
\nwould diminish the political power of the educated class which was the brain
\nand backbone of the nation, it would sow discord among the various communities.
\nThis was not a real reform but reaction. They would have to go much further in
\nsuffering and self-sacrifice before they could hope for anything substantial.
\nThey must hold firm in their determination and keep the Swadeshi unimpaired and
\nby that he meant the determination to assert their national individuality in
\nevery branch of national activity. There was one thing that might be asked, how
\ncould we expand the Swadeshi if all our methods were taken out of our hands ?
\nThat could easily be done by the Government. The authorities in this country
\nhad absolute and irresponsible<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 26<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

power. It had
\npractically been admitted by a responsible member of the Liberal Government
\nthat the liberty of no subject of the British Crown was safe in this country if
\nthe Government of India took it into its head that he was dangerous or
\ninconvenient, if it were informed by the police who had distinguished
\nthemselves at Midnapur or by information as
\ntainted, by the perjurers, forgers, informers, approvers,
\n\u2014 for what other information could they have, circumstanced as they were by
\ntheir own choice in this country ?\u2014 that such and such men had been seditious or
\nwere becoming seditious or might be seditious or that their presence in their
\nhomes was dangerous to the peace of mind of the C.I.D.
\nAgainst such information there was no safety even for the greatest men in the
\ncountry, the purest in life, the most blameless and inoffensive in their public
\nactivity. Then there was this Sunset Regulation. It appeared that we were
\npeaceful citizens until sunset, but after sunset we turned into desperate
\ncharacters, \u2014 well, he was told, even half an hour before sunset; apparently
\neven the sun could not be entirely trusted to keep us straight. We had, it
\nseems, stones in our pockets to throw at the police and some of us, perhaps,
\ndangle bombs in our Chaddars. How was this
\nprohibition brought about ? Merely by a
\nlittle expenditure of ink in the Political Department. It would be quite easy
\nto extend it further and prevent public meetings. It was being enforced on us
\nthat our so-called liberties were merely Maya. We
\nbelieved in them for a time and acted on the belief; then one fine morning we
\nwake up and look around for them but they are not there, in reality they never
\nwere there; they were Maya, illusions; this
\nwas the reason why not only we could not accept reforms which did not mean real
\ncontrol, but some of us did not believe even in that, we doubted not only the
\nsham control but the sham of the reforms themselves, but still control was the
\nminimum on which all were agreed. The question remained, if all our liberties
\nwere taken away, what were we to do ? Even
\nthat would not stop the movement. Christ said to the disciples who expected a
\nmaterial kingdom on the spot, "The kingdom of heaven is within you."
\nTo them too he might say, "The kingdom of Swaraj is within you."<\/span><\/p>\n


\nLet them win and keep that kingdom of
\nSwaraj, the sense of<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 27<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nthe national separateness and
\nindividuality, the faith in its greatness and future, the feeling of God within
\nourselves and in the nation, the
\ndetermination to devote every thought and action
\nto his service. Here no coercion or repression could interfere; here there was no press
\nlaw or sunset regulation. And it was a law
\nof the psychology of men and nations that the Brahman once awakened within must
\nmanifest itself without and nothing could
\neventually prevent that manifestation. Moreover, their
\nmethods were borrowed from England. England gave them and encouraged their use
\nwhen it was inoffensive to her, but the moment they were used so as to conflict
\nwith British interests and to expand national life and strength, they were
\ntaken away. But the Indians were a nation apart; they were not dependent on
\nthese methods. They had a wonderful power of managing
\nthings without
\ndefinite means. Long before the Press came into existence
\nor telegraph wires, the nation had a means of spreading
\nnews from one end of the country to another with electrical
\nrapidity
\n\u2014 a Press too impalpable to be touched. They had the power of enforcing the public will without any fixed organisation, or
\nassociating without an association \u2014 without even the European refuge of a
\nsecret association. The spirit was what mattered, if
\nthe spirit were there, the movement would find out its own channels; for
\nafter all it was the power of God manifested
\nin the movement which would command its own means and create its own channels. They must have the firm faith
\nthat India must rise and be great and that
\neverything that happened, every difficulty, every reverse must help and further their
\nend. The trend was upward and the time of decline was over. The morning was at hand and once the light had shown
\nitself, it could never be night again. The
\ndawn would soon be complete and the sun rise
\nover the horizon. The sun of India’s destiny would rise
\nand fill all India with its light and overflow India and overflow Asia and overflow the world. Every hour, every moment could
\nonly bring them nearer to the brightness of the day that God had decreed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 28<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\nHOME<\/font><\/span><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beadon Square Speech   SJ. Aurobindo Ghose said that when in jail he had been told that the country was demoralised by the repression. He…<\/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-1056","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\/1056","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=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}