{"id":1074,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:24","slug":"18-college-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\/18-college-square-speech-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-18_College Square Speech.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nCollege Square Speech*<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nI<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\nTHANK <\/b><\/span>you for the kindly welcome that you have
\naccorded to me. The time fixed by the law for the breaking up of the meetings
\nis also at hand, and I am afraid I have disappointed one or two speakers by
\ngetting up so soon. But there is just one word that has to be spoken today.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n      
\nsir
\n<\/span><\/b><\/font> <\/span>E. <\/font> baker’s
\n<\/span>speech<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nRecently a speech has been made in the Bengal
\nLegislative Council by the Lieutenant-Governor of this province, a speech which
\nI think is one of the most unfortunate and most amazing that have ever been
\ndelivered by a ruler in his position. The occasion of the speech was a
\nreference to certain murders that have recently been committed in London. Those
\nmurders have been committed by a young man and there has been no proof that any
\nother man in India or in England is connected with him, no proof that any
\nconspiracy has been behind him. Not only so but the Police in London have
\ndeclared that so far as their evidence goes they find that the murder was
\ndictated by personal and not political motives. That crime is still the subject
\nof a trial which has not been closed. Was this the time, \u2014 was this the occasion
\nfor the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal to rise from his seat in the Legislative
\nCouncil and practically associate, practically make the whole country
\nresponsible for the crime of a single isolated youth in London ? Not only so,
\nbut the Lieutenant-Governor, in referring to the crime, said that there had
\nbeen plenty of denunciations in this country but those denunciations did not go
\nfar. And he wanted from us one thing more and that was co-operation. He wants
\nco-operation from the whole community. He further saddled his request with the
\nthreat that if this co-operation were not obtained, steps would have to be
\ntaken<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n* Speech
\ndelivered on 18th July, 1909 when presiding at the meeting in College Square,
\nCalcutta.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 112<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nin which there would be no room for nice
\ndiscrimination between the innocent and the guilty.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe murders that have been committed in Bengal
\nhave been sufficiently proved by the failure of case after case to be the acts
\nof isolated individuals. There has been only a single instance which is still
\nsub judice<\/i>, and even if it were fully established, it would only prove that
\nthe crime was done in one case by a small group of men. Under such circumstances
\nwhat is the co\u00adoperation that the L.-G. demands from us ? He will not be
\nsatisfied if we denounce and dissociate ourselves from the crime. He wants
\nco-operation. It is at least desirable that he should name and describe the
\nco-operation he insists on before he carries out the remarkable threat with
\nwhich he has sought to enforce his demand. There has been much talk recently, in
\na wider sense, of co-operation. Now, gentlemen, we are a people who demand
\nself-government. We have a government with which we are not at all associated
\nand over which we have no control. What is the co-operation a government of this
\nkind can really demand from us ? It can only demand from us obedience to the
\nlaw, co-operation in keeping the law and observing peace and order. What further
\nco-operation can they expect from us ? Even in the matter which the L.-G. has
\nmentioned, we are at a loss to see how a people circumstanced like ourselves can
\nhelp him. Still I have a proposal to make. I think there is only one way by
\nwhich these unfortunate occurrences can be stopped. The ruler of Bengal in his
\nspeech spoke in approval of a certain speech made by Mr. Gokhale at Poona
\nrecently. In that speech Mr. Gokhale declared that the ideal of independence was
\nan ideal which no sane man could hold. He said that it was impossible to achieve
\nindependence by peaceful means and the people who advocate the peaceful methods
\nof passive resistance are men who, out of cowardice, do not speak out the
\nthought that is in their heart. That idea of Mr. Gokhale has been contradicted
\nbeforehand by the Sessions Judge of Alipore and even an Anglo-Indian paper was
\nobliged to say that Mr. Gokhale’s justification of the repressions on the ground
\nthat stern and relentless repression was the only possible attitude the
\nGovernment could adopt towards the ideal of independence was absurd because the
\nideals and the<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 113<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n


\nthoughts
\nof a nation could not be punished. This was a very dangerous teaching which Mr.
\nGokhale introduced into his speech, that the
\nideal of independence \u2014 whether we call it Swaraj or autonomy or Colonial
\nSelf-Government, because these two things in
\na country circumstanced like India meant in practice the same (loud applause<\/i>),
\n\u2014<\/i> cannot be achieved by peaceful means; Mr. Gokhale knows or
\nought to know that this ideal which he decries is deeply rooted in the minds of
\nthousands of people and cannot be driven out. He has told the ardent hearts
\nwhich cherish this ideal of independence and are determined to strive towards
\nit that their ideal can only be achieved by violent means. If any doctrine can
\nbe dangerous, if any teacher can be said to have uttered words dangerous to the
\npeace of the country, it is Mr. Gokhale himself. (Loud cheers<\/i>). We have
\ntold the people that there is a peaceful means of achieving independence in
\nwhatever form we aspire to it. We have said that by self-help, by passive resistance
\nwe can achieve it. We have told the young men of our country, "Build up
\nyour own industries, build up your own schools and colleges, settle your own
\ndisputes. You are always told that you are not fit for self-government. Show by
\nexample that you are fit to govern yourselves, show it by developing
\nself-government through self-help and not by depending upon others." There
\nis a second limb to that policy and it is passive resistance. Passive
\nresistance means two things. It means, first, that in certain matters we shall
\nnot co-operate with the Government of this country until it gives us what we
\nconsider our rights. Secondly, if we are persecuted, if the plough of
\nrepression is passed over us, we shall meet it not by violence, but by
\nsuffering, by passive resistance, by lawful means. We have not said to our
\nyoung men, "When you are repressed, retaliate"; we have said, "Suffer." Now we are told that by
\ndoing so we are encouragers of sedition and
\nanarchism. We have been told by Anglo-Indian papers that by speaking in Beadon Square and other places on patriotism and
\nthe duty of suffering we encourage sedition. We are told that in preaching
\npassive resistance we are encouraging the people to violate law and order and
\nare fostering violence and rebellion. The contrary is the truth. We are showing
\nthe people of this country in passive resistance the<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 114<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nonly way in which
\nthey can satisfy their legitimate aspiration without breaking the law and
\nwithout resorting to violence. This is the only way we can find to co-operate
\nin maintaining peace and order. The co-operation we expect from the
\nLieutenant-Governor of Bengal and from the Government of this country in return
\nis that they will respect the primary rights of the people of this country,
\nthey will respect the right of public meeting and the right of a free Press and
\nthe right of free association. If they co-operate so far then we can assure
\nthem that this movement will advance on peaceful lines and the thing which
\ntroubles them will cease for ever. But the L.-G.
\nsays that measures will be passed which will observe no nice discrimination
\nbetween the innocent and the guilty. A more cynical statement has seldom
\nissued from a ruler in the position of Sir Edward Baker. If the threat is
\ncarried out, who will be the gainers ? I do
\nnot deny that it may for a time stop our public activities. It may force the
\nschool of peaceful self-development and passive resistance to desist for a
\nwhile from its activities at least in their present form. But who will gain by
\nit ? Not the Government, neither Mr. Gokhale
\nand his school of passive co-operation. It is the very terrorists, the very
\nanarchists, whom you wish to put down, who will gain by it. It will remove from
\nthe people their one hope, but it will give the terrorists a fresh incentive
\nand it will teach the violent hearts, the undisciplined and ardent minds a very
\ndangerous lesson that there is no peaceful way to the fulfilment of their
\naspirations and the consequence will be such as one trembles to contemplate. I
\ntrust the threat will never be carried out. I trust that the Government will be
\nruled by wise counsels and consider the matter more carefully. There are
\nominous signs and it seems as if measures were about to be passed which will
\nput an end to the right of public meeting and the public expression of our
\nfeelings. But I trust that wiser counsels will yet prevail. The Government
\nshould remember that it stands dissociated from the people by its very
\nconstitution. If it wants co-operation it cannot get the co-operation which is
\nsimply another name for passive obedience. That is the doctrine which is being
\ntaught today, the doctrine of the divine right of officials and the obligation
\non the people of passive obedience. That is a doctrine which no modern<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 115<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nnation can accept.
\nNo modern nation can accept the extinction of its legitimate and natural hopes.
\nCo-operation can only be given if the Government which is now alien becomes our
\nown, if the people have a share in it, not merely in name, not merely by the right
\nof talk in the Legislative Council, not merely by apparent concessions, but by
\ngetting some measure of control in the matter of legislation, in the
\nexpenditure of the taxes they are called on to pay for the maintenance of the
\nadministration, if, in short, they can be given some starting-point from which
\nin future the Government of the country can be developed into a Government of
\nthe people. That is the only condition upon which the co-operation, of which
\nwe hear so much nowadays, can be given. Without it co-operation is a satire,
\nit is a parody. It is the co-operation in which one side acts and the other
\nside merely says "yes" which is demanded of us. We cannot give our
\nsanction to such co\u00adoperation. So long as even that little of substantial self-government is not conceded to us, we have
\nno choice but to cleave firmly to passive resistance as the only peaceful path
\nto the realisation of our legitimate aspirations. We cannot sacrifice our
\ncountry. We cannot give up the ideal that is dear to our heart. We cannot
\nsacrifice our Mother. If you take away our primary rights all that is left for
\nus is passive resistance and peacefully to suffer, peacefully to refuse the
\nparody of co-operation which we are asked to give.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 116<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

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

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

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