{"id":1065,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","slug":"66-a-thing-that-happened-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\/66-a-thing-that-happened-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-66_A Thing that Happened.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nA Thing that Happened<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nI<\/font>T<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/b> IS <\/b>
\n<\/span>not the policy of the Karmayogin<\/i>
\nto dwell on incidents whether of the present administration of the country or of the relations between the ruling
\ncaste and the people. To criticise persistently the frequent instances of high\u00adhandedness
\nand maladministration inevitable under a regime like the present does not lead
\nto the redress of grievances; all that it
\ndoes is to create a prejudice against the reigning bureaucracy. The basis of
\nour claim to Swaraj is not that the English bureaucracy is a bad or tyrannical
\nGovernment; a bureaucracy is always inclined to be arrogant, self-sufficient,
\nself-righteous and unsympathetic, to ignore the abuses with which it abounds,
\nand a bureaucracy foreign and irresponsible to the people is likely to exhibit
\nthese characteristics in an exaggerated form. But even if we were ruled by a bureaucracy of angels, we should
\nstill lay claim to Swaraj and move towards national self-sufficiency and
\nindependence. On the same principle we do not notice or lay stress on the
\ncollisions between Englishmen and Indians which are an inevitable result of the
\nanomalous and unnatural relations existing between the races. It is the
\nrelations themselves we seek to alter from the root instead of dealing with the
\nsymptoms. But the incident at Goalundo
\ndetailed in this week’s Dharma <\/i>is one
\nwhich the country has to take notice of, unless we are to suppose that the
\nmovement of 1905 was the last flaring up of national strength and spirit
\nprevious to extinction and that the extinction has now come. We have received a
\nletter from the sufferer translated into English, it is from his own account
\nthat we summarise the facts.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

A Brahmin Pandit with the title of Kavyatirtha,
\nignorant of English, was proceeding with two Bengali ladies from Mymensing to Calcutta on Sunday the 2nd January
\nby the Kaligunge mail steamer, and reached
\nGoalundo at 11 o’clock at night, too late to catch the Calcutta train. He and
\nsome other passengers decided to spend the night in the steamer. While he was
\ngoing<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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down
\nto look after his luggage, an European came up to him, caught his wrapper,
\ntwisted it tightly round his neck and said in Hindustani, "Who are
\nyou ?" Getting no answer to his request for an explanation except the
\nrepetition of the question, he replied that he was a passenger. Thereupon
\nwithout farther parley the Englishman proceeded to drag the unresisting Pandit
\nto another steamer lying alongside. On the way the latter appealed to the
\nsub-agent of the Steamer Company, a certain Sarat Babu, but, after a word from the Saheb, was told that he must accompany the
\naggressor to the Company’s agent, with a name which the Pandit caught as Joyce.
\nIt was not, however, to the Agent, but into a first-class cabin where there
\nwere three other Europeans and two English women, that the Brahmin was dragged
\nand the door closed behind him. No sooner was he in the hands of this company
\nthan he was charged with having abused the Englishman whom he had never seen
\nbefore in his life, and a savage blow dealt him in the left eye which cut the
\nskin and set blood flowing freely. Blows after blows were rained on head and
\nbody, the head being cruelly battered, the lips cut open and some of the teeth
\nloosened. His appeals for mercy were answered by a shower of kicks with booted
\nfeet on his head and the English women joined in the pastime by beating him
\nfuriously on the thigh with a dog chain. The unfortunate Bengali was by this
\ntime sick, stunned and almost senseless with the beating. The pain of the blows
\nfalling on his already bruised and battered head was intense and the iron chain
\ndrew blood with each cut. Fortunately he happened to fall against the door and
\nit flew open. With difficulty he managed to crawl to the staircase; but at this moment the Englishman drew a
\nrevolver and, pointing it at him, cried out "Shala,
\nI will shoot you." In terror of his life the Brahmin managed anyhow to plunge down the stairs and dropped almost
\nsenseless at the bottom. His eyes were clotted with blood, but he caught a
\nglimpse of Sarat Babu coming near him with an European whom he conjectured to
\nbe the Agent Mr. Joyce. A few words were spoken between the two. Afterwards
\nSarat Babu returned and told the Pandit that he could expect no redress from
\nthe Company, but he might bring a criminal suit if he cared to do so. The farther
\nhappenings of that night need<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n

not
\nbe entered into, except to note the extraordinary conduct of the Company’s
\nofficers who almost immediately separated the two steamers and took the Kaligunge mail into midstream where they kept it
\nuntil the Europeans had escaped in their steamer to Naraingunge.
\nIt was only possible to discover from the luggage labels that they belonged to
\na jute factory in Nakail near Aralia. There were some Bengali passengers
\npresent, including a pleader from Jessore
\nand an employee of the Sealdah District
\nSuperintendent’s Audit office but, though
\nthey sympathised with and cared for their compatriot after he had escaped with
\nhis life, there was none to assist him at the moment of the outrage, nor could
\neven the piteous cries of the ladies awake a spark of resolution anywhere in
\nthose present. The Samities of young men are
\ndisbanded, the cry of Bande Mataram has sunk to rest, and royally-minded
\nindividuals like the perpetrators of this murderous assault can finish their
\nimperial pastime unhindered.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

We feel a great difficulty in dealing with this case. We are not in
\nthe habit of dealing in violent language, yet to write coolly of it is a little
\ndifficult. And if we describe the assault as an infamous atrocity or describe
\nthese English gentlemen and ladies as cowardly ruffians and fiendish assassins,
\nwe have to recollect that such phrases are properly applied to Indian
\nTerrorists and we may be prosecuted under Sec. 153A if we apply them to Europeans
\nwho, after all, did nothing but amuse themselves. Moreover, any indication of
\nthe proper deserts of these people, however carefully expressed, might expose
\nus to forfeiture of our Press and prosecution under the new laws. If we point
\nout that such things seem to happen with impunity under the present conditions
\nin India, Sec. 124A is lying in wait, ready to trip us up, and the Andamans or twenty years’ hard labour with
\nhandcuffs and fetters loom before our uneasy apprehensions. We do not know
\nwhether, considering how the Sedition law is being interpreted in Bombay, Nagpur, and the Punjab, even mentioning this
\nincident may not bring us within its provisions. It is impossible, however, to
\npass it over in silence, and we proceed, therefore, to make a few observations,
\ntreading amid the pitfalls of the law as carefully as we can.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

First, we have a word to the Government of East Bengal.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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It is very
\nbusy dealing with romantic dacoities, shapeless conspiracies, vague shadows of
\nTerrorism, Arms Act Cases, meetings of Reform Councils overstocked with
\nlandholders and Mahomedans. We do not know whether it has any time or interest
\nto spare for little sordid unromantic incidents of this kind. If it has any
\nspare time, it might do worse in its own interests than glance once at that
\nnight’s doings at Goalundo. It is obviously impossible to appeal to the law.
\nEven if the identity of the assailants were fixed, the culprits would at once
\nbring a trumped-up countercharge, say, of robbery, dacoity, Anarchism or any
\nhandy accusation, and the word of a hundred Bengalis, of whatever position or
\nhonourable antecedents, would not weigh with any but an exceptional Judge,
\nagainst that of a single Englishman, whatever his antecedents or education. The
\nonly probable result would be to add a term of imprisonment to the Pandit’s
\nmisfortunes. Even to reveal his name might expose him to the gentle mercies of
\nthe local Police in his District. All we can do, therefore, is to advertise the Shillong Government of what has happened and give them the chance of action.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, we have one word to say to the nation. The assault was
\nmotiveless and seems to have been committed merely because the Pandit was a
\nBengali and the Europeans felt in the mood to hammer a Bengali, perhaps out of
\nthe race-hatred which organs like the Englishman<\/i> are busy fomenting with
\nperfect impunity. There is no other explanation of the facts. The thing has
\nhappened and we wish to say at once that nothing in our remarks must be held to
\nmean that we advise retaliation. But incidents like these never happen to a
\nbrave, patriotic and self-respecting nation; they happen only to those who
\ncower and fear and, by their character, justify men who think themselves
\nentitled to treat them like slaves. When the Bengalis showed themselves in the
\nfirst ardour of 1905 a brave, patriotic and self-respecting nation, these
\nincidents ceased to happen. If they are now reviving with features of a studied
\natrocity absent from similar brutalities in the past, it must be because we are
\nceasing to deserve those appellations. The nation is cowering in silence under
\nthe terror of repressive laws, all symptoms of national life are discouraged by
\nthe leaders and the elders as dangerous and untimely. Those<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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\n

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\n
\n

who dare to speak words of hope and courage
\nto the people, are denounced by your
\nvernacular journals, shut out by carefully devised creeds and regulations from
\nthe body you still call the National Congress, boycotted by some of your
\nDistrict Conferences. If the Government see Anarchists and dacoits in every bush, you see deportations and
\nhouse-searches in every Lal-pagri. You cower
\nin your homes, speak your opinions in hushed whispers, allow the national
\nspirit to die out and your Mother to go down again into the black pit from
\nwhich we raised her. And this incident at Goalundo
\nis the first ominous warning God gives you of the inevitable result.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is only one way to uphold a nation’s
\nhonour and to compel outrages upon it to cease automatically, \u2014 and that is to
\nshow that we are a nation and not a herd. If by any means within the law, the perpetrators of this outrage can be
\nmade to feel that Bengalis cannot be half-battered to death with impunity, it
\nshould doubtless be done. But no personal anger, no violent language or violent
\nactions are needed. The reawakening of the national spirit ready to act
\nfearlessly and blamelessly \u2014 for self-defence and prevention of a crime are
\nblameless, \u2014 on every emergency great or small, will of itself be sufficient.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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

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

A Thing that Happened   IT IS not the policy of the Karmayogin to dwell on incidents whether of the present administration of the country…<\/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-1065","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\/1065","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=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}