{"id":1063,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1063"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:20","slug":"56-facts-and-opinions-18-12-1909-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\/56-facts-and-opinions-18-12-1909-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-56_Facts and Opinions 18-12-1909.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

\nVolume I – Dec.
\n18, 1909 – Number 24<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t
\n Sir
\n Pherozshah’s Resignation<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nT<\/font>he resignation of
\nSir Pherozshah Mehta
\ntook all India by surprise. It was as much a cause of astonishment to his
\nfaithful friends and henchmen as to the outside world. The speculation and
\nbewilderment have been increased by the solemn mystery in which the Dictator of
\nthe Convention has shrouded his reasons for a step so suddenly and painfully
\nembarrassing to the body he created and now rules and protects. A multitude of
\nreasons have been severally alleged for this sudden move in the game by
\ningenious speculators, but they seem mostly to be figments of the imagination.
\nIt was an ingenious guess that Sir Pherozshah has been appointed, as a reward
\nfor his great services to the Government, on the India Council and could,
\ntherefore, take no farther part in party politics. But until the appointment,
\nif real, is announced, such self-denial is not obligatory, and surely Lord Morley would be quite willing to give his choice
\nten days’ grace in order that he might pilot through this crisis in its fortunes
\na body so useful to the Government as the Convention that is striving this year
\nto meet at Lahore. We ourselves lean to the idea that it is the complications
\nensuing on the unmasking of the Reforms that are chiefly responsible for the
\nmove. The Reforms are exasperating to Hindu sentiment, destructive to popular
\ninterests and a blow even to the Loyalist Hindus who were loudest in acclaiming
\nthe advent of the millennium. The Bombay leaders cannot accept the Reforms
\nwithout exasperating the people or refuse them without offending the Government. They are in that
\nembarrassing position which is vulgarly called being in a cleft stick. It is
\nnot surprising in a tactician of Sir Pherozshah’s eminence that, at such a
\ncritical juncture, he should prefer to guide the deliberations of the Lahore
\nConvention from behind the veil rather than stand forward and become personally
\nresponsible for whatever he may think it<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 304<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

necessary
\nto compel the Convention to do. The Bengal Conventionists
\nare already in danger of drifting away from the moorings and the new
\nRegulations have, we believe, created the imminence of another dissension
\namong the remaining faithful. The resignation of Sir Pherozshah
\nmakes it easier for the Bengal Moderates to attend the Lahore Congress, and
\nthat may not have been absent from the thoughts of the master tactician. But we
\nnever thought that Sir Pherozshah would care so much for the co-operation of
\nthe Bengalis as to allow Srijut Surendranath to be President, as certain sanguine
\ngentlemen in Bengal seem to have expected. Failing Sir Pherozshah and Mr. Gokhale, who for obvious reasons cannot be put
\nforward so soon after the Benares Presidentship, Mr. Madan Mohan Malaviya
\nwas evidently the man, and we find accordingly that he has been designated
\nfor the succession by the obedient coterie at Bombay. We await with interest
\nthe upshot of this very attractive entanglement and the method by which the
\nConvention will try to wriggle out of the very difficult hole into which Lord Morley has thrust it.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n The
\n Council Elections<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The elections for
\nthe Reformed Councils, so far as they have proceeded, entirely justify the
\ndescription of the new bodies which we gave in our article on the Reforms. The
\nelections for the United Provinces give a fair sample of the results which are
\nsure to obtain all over India. With the exception of two or three gentlemen of
\nthe type of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, there is none on the Council to
\nrepresent the educated wealthy, much less the people at large; all the rest are Europeans, Mahomedans and grandees. It is a Council of
\nNotables, not a reformed Legislative Council representing both the Government
\nand the people. In Bengal two gentlemen have been elected who represent the most
\nlukewarm element in the popular party, for Sj. Baikunthanath Sen and Mr. K. B. Dutt stand not for the new movement in Bengal so
\nmuch as for the old antiquated Congress politics which Bengal, even in its Moderate element, has left far behind.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 305<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Behar sends one independent man
\nin Mr. Deep Narayan Singh.
\nAll the rest are of the dignified classes who either have no patriotic
\nfeelings or dare not express them. It is possible that Sir Edward Baker, in
\norder to remove the stigma of unrepresentative subserviency
\nfrom his Council, may try to nominate two or three who will help to keep Sj. Baikunthanath
\nand his friend in countenance, but that purely personal grace will not mend
\nmatters. The Bengal Council is likely to be an even more select and unrepresentative
\nbody than we expected. We counted the District Boards as possible
\nconstituencies for representatives of opposition and independent opinion, but,
\nfor the most part, they might almost as well have been preserves for the
\naristocracy. In East Bengal it is evident that the Councils will be a Mahomedan and European body.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n British
\n Unfitness for Liberty<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By all
\nAnglo-Indian papers it was triumphantly announced as a conclusive proof of the unfitness of the Indian people for self-government
\nthat the Surat Congress should have been
\nbroken up by the storming of the platform when passions were highly excited and
\nrelations between parties at breaking-point. Every ordinary sign of excitement
\nat a public meeting is telegraphed to England under some such graphic title as
\n"Uproarious proceedings at the Provincial Conference". But if rowdyism is a sign of unfitness for liberty, there is no country so unfit as
\nEngland itself and logically, as lovers of England, our Anglo-Indian friends
\nought to pray that Germany, which knows how to sternly stop such disturbances,
\nor Russia, which knows how to punish them, should take charge of England and
\nteach her people respect for law and order. The excitement of the great
\nrevolutionary struggle now proceeding in England has already in these few days
\ninduced such lawlessness and disorder that it is becoming almost impossible for
\nConservative speakers to command a public hearing. At first it was the Liberal
\nMinister, Mr. Ure, whose meetings were
\nsystematically interrupted and broken up by organised Conservative rowdyism. Since then the Radicals have<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 306<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

retaliated
\nwith much greater effect, first, with "good-humoured" interruption,
\nthen with more formidable tumult and, finally, we see the temper rising to
\nabsolute ferocity. Not only do we read in one telegram of four Conservative
\nmeetings which were of a disorderly nature, while Lord Kesteven
\nand Lord Harris were refused a hearing, but the windows at Mr. Ure’s last meeting were broken with a
\nbattering-ram and several of his audience were cut; and the other day a
\nConservative meeting was broken up, the agent left senseless by his assailants
\nand the candidate only saved by a skilful flight. Nor were the worst excesses
\nof which our young men were accused in the prosecution of the Boycott and
\npicketing, anywhere near the violence and recklessness of which Englishwomen
\nhave been systematically guilty during the last few months. Clearly it is time
\nthat a more capable nation conquered and took charge of England.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n The
\n Lahore Convention<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The prospects of
\nthe Lahore Convention seem to be exceedingly clouded. In the matter of the
\nPresidentship the fiat has gone forth from Bombay that Pandit Madan Mohan
\nshall be President and, unless the dissatisfaction with the Mehta leadership has extended itself to the
\nsubservient Congress Committees, it is likely that the Bombay nomination will
\ngive the lead to the rest of the Conventionist
\ncoteries, excepting perhaps Burma and Bengal. The Convention is now at a
\ncritical stage of its destinies. Disowned by the Punjab, troubled by strained
\nrelations between Bombay and Bengal, it has received the crowning blow from the
\nGovernment which supports it; its policy has been discredited before the
\ncountry and once more it has been proved to a disgusted people that the methods
\nof the Conventionists lead to nothing but
\nrebuffs, humiliation and political retrogression in the name of reform. If this
\nbody is to survive, there is need of a strong hand and skilful guidance,
\notherwise the present session is likely to be the last. Already the Convention
\nis becoming the refuge of an out-of-date and vanishing coterie who no longer
\ncommand the confidence of the country. By its very constitution the<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 307<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Convention
\nhas cut itself off from the people and a few men meeting in conclave elect the
\ndelegates in the name of an indifferent or hostile public. The dying past in
\nvain strives to entrench itself in this insecure and crumbling fortress. Every
\nday will serve to undermine it more and more and the Nationalists are content
\nto let time and inevitable tendency do their work for them. Only by a radical
\nself-purification and change of policy can the Convention hope to survive.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 308<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facts and Opinions Volume I – Dec. 18, 1909 – Number 24 Sir Pherozshah’s Resignation   The resignation of Sir Pherozshah Mehta took all India…<\/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-1063","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\/1063","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=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}