{"id":1060,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:19","slug":"05-swaraj-and-the-musulmans-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\/05-swaraj-and-the-musulmans-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-05_Swaraj and the Musulmans.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n
\n                                                "Swaraj" and the Musulmans<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nw<\/font>e
\n<\/font><\/span>EXTRACT <\/font><\/b>in our columns this week the comments of Srijut Bepin Chandra
\nPal’s organ, Swaraj, on the Government’s pro-Mahomedan
\npolicy and its possible effects in the future. We are glad to see this great
\nNationalist again expressing his views with his usual orginality
\nand fine political insight. We do not ourselves understand the utility of such
\na campaign as Srijut Bepin Chandra is carrying on in England. In politics quite
\nas much as in ordinary conduct the rule of desh<\/i>–kal<\/i>–patra<\/i>,
\nthe right place, the right time and the right person, conditions the value and
\nthe effectiveness of the work. For Bepin Babu’s
\nmission there could not be a worse place than England, a worse time than the
\npresent and a worse audience than the British people. What is the prophet of
\nself-help and dissociation doing in England ? Or what kind of message is this that he
\ncarries to the British public, "We do not welcome your favours, we reject
\nyour help and sympathy and will have no political association with you until
\nSwaraj is ours, \u2014 and therefore I am here speaking to you and publishing my
\nviews to a British audience in London"? We can only suppose that Bepin Babu does really imagine he can produce some kind
\nof effect worth having, moral if not substantial, upon the ruling nation, and
\nif so what does it portend ? Is Saul also
\namong the prophets ? Does Bepin too stand in
\nthe doorway of Britannia ?<\/span><\/p>\n

The first three or four issues of Swaraj disappointed our
\nexpectations. A sense of the unreality of his position seemed to haunt the
\nwriter and robbed his writing of the former strength and close touch with the
\nsubject. It was the old views, the familiar thought, the well-known manner,
\nbut it neither convinced, illuminated nor inspired. This month’s Swaraj is more confident and
\neffective, although the thing still seems to be in the air. The passage
\nextracted and the admirable character-sketch of Srijut Shyamsunder Chakrabarti are the best things in the
\nissue. Bepin Babu seems to have recovered the copious vein of thought, the<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 22<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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subtle and
\nflexible reasoning, the just and original view of his subject which made one
\nwait with impatience for every fresh number of New India<\/i>. His attitude
\ntowards the Reform scheme and the Mahomedan
\ndemand for a separate electorate is the attitude which has consistently been
\nadopted by the Nationalist party in Bengal towards the Hindu-Mahomedan
\nquestion in ordinary politics. We do not fear Mahomedan opposition; so long as
\nit is the honest Swadeshi article and not manufactured in Shillong or Simla, we welcome it as a sign of life
\nand aspiration. We do not shun, we desire the awakening of Islam in India even
\nif its first crude efforts are misdirected against ourselves; for all strength, all energy, all action is
\ngrist to the mill of the nation-builder. In that faith we are ready, when the
\ntime comes for us to meet in the political field, to exchange with the Musulman, just as he chooses, the firm clasp of
\nthe brother or the resolute grip of the wrestler.<\/span><\/p>\n

That time has not yet come. There is absolutely no reason why the
\nelectoral question should create bad blood between the two communities, for if
\nwe leave aside the limited number who still hunger after loaves and fishes or
\nnurse dead delusions, the reforms have no living interest for the Hindu. His
\nfield of energy lies elsewhere than in the enlarged pretences of British
\nLiberalism. His business is to find out his own strength and prepare it for a
\ngreat future, and the less he meddles with unreal politics and nerveless
\nactivities, the better for the nation. The Mahomedan has not progressed so
\nfar. He has to taste the sweets of political privilege and find them turn to
\nashes in his mouth. He has to formulate demands, rejoice at promises, fume at
\nbetrayals, until he thoroughly discovers the falsity and impossibility of his
\nhopes. His progress is likely to be much swifter than ours has been in the
\npast, for he gets the advantage if not of our experience, at least of the
\nideas now in the air and of the more bracing and stimulating atmosphere. He is
\nmore likely to demand than to crave, and his disillusionment must necessarily
\nbe the speedier. And it is then that he too will seek the strength in himself
\nand touch the true springs of self-development. Our best policy is to leave the Mahomedan representatives on the
\ncouncils to work out their destiny face to
\nface with the bureaucracy, with no<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 23<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nweightier Hindu
\ncounterpoise than the effete politicians, the time-servers and the
\nself-seekers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of one thing we may be certain, that Hindu-Mahomedan unity cannot be effected by
\npolitical adjustments or Congress flatteries. It must be sought deeper down, in
\nthe heart and in the mind, for where the causes of disunion are, there the
\nremedies must be sought. We shall do well in trying to solve the problem to
\nremember that misunderstanding is the most fruitful cause of our differences,
\nthat love compels love and that strength conciliates the strong. We must
\nstrive to remove the causes of misunderstanding by a better mutual knowledge
\nand sympathy; we
\nmust extend the unfaltering love of the patriot to our Musulman brother,
\nremembering always that in him too Narayana
\ndwells and to him too our Mother has given a permanent place in her
\nbosom; but we must cease to approach him falsely or flatter out of a selfish
\nweakness and cowardice. We believe this to be the only practical way of dealing
\nwith the difficulty. As a political question the Hindu-Mahomedan problem does
\nnot interest us at all, as a national
\nproblem it is of supreme importance. We shall make it a main part of our work
\nto place Mahomed and Islam in a new light before our readers, to spread juster views of Mahomedan
\nhistory and civilisation, to appreciate the Musulman’s
\nplace in our national development and the means of harmonising his communal
\nlife with our own, not ignoring the difficulties that stand in our way for
\nmaking the most of the possibilities of brotherhood and mutual understanding.
\nIntellectual sympathy can only draw together, the sympathy of the heart can
\nalone unite. But the one is a good preparation for the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 24<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

                                                "Swaraj" and the Musulmans   we EXTRACT in our columns this week the comments of Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal’s organ, Swaraj, on the Government’s…<\/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-1060","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\/1060","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=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}