{"id":1067,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1067"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:21","slug":"72-the-necessity-of-the-situation-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\/72-the-necessity-of-the-situation-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-72_The Necessity of the Situation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nThe Necessity of the Situation<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nA<\/b><\/font>
\nVERY <\/b><\/span>serious
\ncrisis has been induced in Indian politics by the revival of Terrorist outrages
\nand the increasing evidences of the existence of an armed and militant revolutionary
\nparty determined to fight force by force. The effect on the Government seems to
\nhave been of a character very little complimentary to British statesmanship.
\nFaced by this menace to peace and security the only device they can think of is
\nto make peaceful agitation impossible. Their first step has been to proclaim
\nall India as seditious. Their second is to announce the introduction of fresh
\nlegislation making yet more stringent the already all-embracing law of
\nsedition. By these two measures free speech on press or platform will
\npractically be interdicted, since the perils of truthfulness will be so great
\nthat men will prefer to take refuge either in a lying hypocrisy, or in
\nsilence. Frankness, honesty, self-respecting and truthful opposition in Indian
\npolitics are at an end. The spirit which dictates the resort to these measures,
\nwill inevitably manifest itself also in the proclamation as illegal of all
\nsocieties or organisations openly formed for the purpose of training the
\nstrength of the nation by solid and self-respecting political and educational
\nwork towards a free and noble future. By the law which gives the Government that
\npower of arbitrary suppression associated work is rendered impossible, though
\nnot as yet penalised. If free speech, if free writing, if free association is
\nmade impossible under the law, it is tantamount to declaring a peaceful
\nNationalism illegal and criminal.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The effect of the recent assassinations on the Moderate Party has
\nbeen to throw them into a panic and demoralisation painful for any lover of
\nIndian manhood to witness. It is quite possible for an Indian politician at
\nthis crisis to consider in a spirit of worthy gravity and serious recognition
\nof the issues involved the best way of combating the evil, even if it involves
\nco\u00adoperation with a Government which persists in the repression of the national
\nhopes and aspirations and seeks to compel co-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 387<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\noperation
\nby pressure instead of by winning the hearts of the people. But that is not the
\nspirit shown by Moderate organs and by Moderate leaders. All that we can see is
\na desperate and cowardly sauve qui peut<\/i>, an attempt by every man to save
\nhimself and to burrow under a heap of meaningless words. Wild denunciations of
\nthe revolutionary instruments as fiends, dastards, cowards, with loads of other
\nepithets which defeat their purpose by their grotesque violence; strange panegyrics of the deceased police
\nofficer as a patriot, saint, martyr by those who formerly never discovered his
\ntranscendent merits or had a good word to say for the police; meetings to arrange steps for the suppression of
\nAnarchism loudly advertised by leaders who know that they are powerless to take
\nany effective steps in the present state of
\nthe country; Vigilance Committees which can at best pay for the hired vigils of
\nwatchmen easily avoidable by a skilful nocturnal assassin; \u2014 are these the
\nspeech and action of responsible and serious political leaders or the ravings
\nand spasmodic gesticulations of a terrified instinct of self-preservation ?<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The Nationalist Party can take no share in these degrading
\nperformances. On the other hand its own remedies, its own activities are doubly
\ninhibited, inhibited from below by the paralysing effect of successful or
\nattempted assassinations, inhibited from above by panic-stricken suspicion,
\npanic-stricken repression. We have not disguised our policy, we have openly
\nadvertised our plans of party reconstruction and reorganisation, we have
\nsought to speak and act candidly before the Government and the country, not
\nextenuating the errors of the Government, not inflaming the minds of the
\npeople. The first answer to our propaganda was given by the revolutionary party
\nin the blow struck at Nasik, the Second by
\nthe Government in the extension of the Seditious Meetings Act to all India. We
\nstill felt it our duty to persevere, leaving the results of our activity to a
\nhigher Power. The assassination in the High Court and the announcement of a
\nstringent Press legislation convinces us that any farther prosecution of the
\npublic activities we contemplated, will be vain and unseasonable. Until,
\ntherefore, a more settled state of things supervenes and normal conditions can
\nbe restored, we propose to refrain from farther political action. The
\nGovernment and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 388<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

the
\nAnglo-Indian community seem to be agreed that by some process of political
\nchemistry unknown to us the propagation of peaceful Nationalism generates armed
\nand militant revolutionism and the best way to get rid of the latter is to
\nsuppress the former. We will give them the chance by suppressing ourselves so
\nfar as current Indian politics are concerned. We have no wish to embarrass the
\naction of the Government or to accentuate the difficulties of the situation.
\nThe Government have no doubt a policy of their own and a theory of the best
\nmeans of suppressing violent revolutionary activities. We have no faith in
\ntheir policy and no confidence in their theory, but since it is theirs and the
\nresponsibility for preserving peace rests on them, let them put their policy
\nfreely and thoroughly into action. We advise our fellow Nationalists also to
\nstand back and give an unhampered course for a while to Anglo-Indian
\nstatesmanship in its endeavours to grapple with this hydra-headed evil.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

But before we resort to silence, we will speak out once freely and
\nloudly to the Government, the Anglo-Indian community and the people. We will
\ndeliver our souls once so that no responsibility for anything that may happen
\nin the future may be laid at our doors by posterity. To the Government we have
\nonly one word to say. We are well aware that they desire not the co\u00adoperation
\nof the Nationalist Party, but its annihilation. They trace the genesis of the
\npresent difficulties to the propaganda of the Nationalist leaders and an unstatesmanlike resentment is allowed to overpower
\ntheir judgment and their insight. Choosing to be misled by a police whose
\nincapacity and liability to corruption has been loudly proclaimed by their own
\nCommissions presided over by their own officials, they have formed the rooted
\nopinion that the leaders of Nationalism are secretly conspiring to subvert
\nBritish rule, and neither the openness of our proceedings nor the utter
\nfailure of the police to substantiate these allegations have been able to
\ndestroy the illusion. The open espionage, menace
\nand detective machinations to which we are
\nsubjected, are sufficient proof of its persistence. Nevertheless, it is due to
\nthe Government that we should speak the truth and it is open to them to
\nconsider or reject it at their pleasure. The one, the only remedy for the
\ndifficulties which beset them in India, is to cease<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 389<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

from shutting their eyes on unpleasant facts, to
\nrecognise the depth, force and extent of the movement in India, the radical
\nchange that has come over the thoughts and hearts of the people and the
\nimpossibility of digging out that which wells up from the depths by the spades
\nof repression. They are face to face with aspirations and agitations which are
\nnot only Indian but Asiatic, not only Asiatic but worldwide.
\nThey cannot do away by force with these opinions, these emotions, these
\ndevelopments unless they first trample down the resurgence in Japan, China,
\nTurkey and Persia and reverse the march of progress in Europe and America.
\nNeither can they circumvent the action of natural forces which are not moved by
\nbut move the Indian political leaders. Reforms which would have satisfied and
\nquieted ten years ago are now a mere straw upon a torrent. Some day they must
\nmake up their minds to the inevitable and follow the example of rulers all over
\nthe world by conceding a popular constitution with whatever safeguards they
\nchoose for British interests and British sovereignty, and the earlier they can
\npersuade themselves to concede it, the better terms they can make with the
\nfuture. This has been the traditional policy of England all over the world, and
\nit has always been an evil day for the Empire when statesmen have turned their
\nbacks on English traditions and adopted the blind impolicy of the Continental
\npeoples. They have seen at Lahore and Hughly
\nthat Moderatism is a dead force impotent to
\nhelp or to injure, that whatever the lips may profess, the hearts of the people
\nare with Nationalism. Impolitic severity may transfer that allegiance to the
\nmilitant revolutionism which is raising its head and thriving on the cessation
\nof all legitimate political activity. The Nationalist leaders will stand
\nunswervingly by their ideals and policy, but they may prove as helpless hereafter
\nas the Moderates are in the face of the present situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Anglo-Indian community, through its
\nrecognised organs, is now busy inflaming hostility, hounding on the Government
\nto farther ill-advised measures of repression and adding darkness to darkness
\nand confusion to confusion. Statesmanship they never had, but even common
\nsense has departed from them. The Indian people made a fair offer of peace and
\nalliance to them at the beginning of the movement by including goods<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 390<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

produced in India
\nthrough European enterprise and with European capital as genuine Swadeshi
\ngoods; but instead of securing their future
\ninterests and position by standing in the forefront of the political and
\nindustrial development of India, they have preferred to study their momentary
\ncaste interest and oppose the welfare of the country to which they owe their
\nprosperity. As a punishment God has deprived them of reason. They are hacking
\nat the roots of British investment and industry in India by driving blindly
\ntowards the creation of more unrest and anarchy in the country. They are imperilling a future which can still be saved, by fanatical attachment to a
\npast which is doomed. If they could look at politics with the eye either of the
\nstatesman or the man of business, they would see that neither their political
\nnor their commercial interests can be served by a vain attempt to hold this
\nvast country by pressing a mailed heel on the throats of the people. The pride
\nof race, the arrogance of colour, a bastard mercantile Imperialism are poor
\nsubstitutes for wisdom, statesmanship and common-sense. Undoubtedly, they may
\ninduce the Government to silence and suppress, to imprison and deport till all
\ntongues are hushed and all organisations are abolished \u2014 except the voice of
\nthe bomb and the revolver, except the subterranean organisation that, like a
\nsuppressed disease, breaks out the more you drive in its symptoms. Have they
\never contemplated the possibility of that result of their endeavours \u2014 the
\npossibility that their confusion of Nationalism with Terrorism may be ignorant
\nand prejudiced, and that the measures they advocate may only destroy the one
\nforce that can now stand between India and chaos ?<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

To the people also we have a last word to say. We have always
\nadvocated open agitation, a manly aspiration towards freedom, a steady policy
\nof independent, self-sustained action and peaceful resistance to the repression
\nof legitimate activities. That policy was only possible on condition of a
\ncertain amount of self-restraint in repressive legislation by the Government,
\nand a great amount of courage, self-restraint, resolution and self-sacrifice on
\nthe part of the people. It appears we cannot count on any of these conditions.
\nThe rise of a revolutionist party fanatically opposed alike to the continuance
\nof the British <\/font><\/span>con-<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 391<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nnection and to peaceful development makes our policy yet more impossible. A
\ntriangular contest between violent revolution, peaceful Nationalist endeavour
\nand bureaucratic reaction is an impossible position and would make chaos more
\nchaotic. Any action at the present moment would be ill-advised and possibly
\ndisastrous. The Government demands co-operation from the Moderates, silence
\nfrom the Nationalists. Let us satisfy them and let there be no action on our
\npart which can be stigmatised as embarrassing the authorities in their struggle
\nwith Terrorism. The self-restraint of our party after the conviction of Mr. Tilak was rewarded by the breakdown of Moderatism after it had undisputed control of the
\npress and platform for almost a year. A similar self-restraint will be equally
\nfruitful now. Revolution paralyses our efforts to deal peacefully but
\neffectively with Repression; Repression refuses to allow us to cut the ground
\nfrom under the feet of Revolution. Both demand a clear field for their
\nconflict. Let us therefore stand aside, sure that Time will work for us in the
\nfuture as it has done in the past, and that, if we bear faithfully the burden
\nof the ideal God has laid upon us, our hour may be delayed, but not denied to
\nus for ever.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 392<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Necessity of the Situation   A VERY serious crisis has been induced in Indian politics by the revival of Terrorist outrages and the increasing…<\/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-1067","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\/1067","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=1067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}