{"id":1081,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1081"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:26","slug":"38-nationalist-organisation-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\/38-nationalist-organisation-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-38_Nationalist Organisation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nNationalist Organisation<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/b>time has now come when it is imperative in the interests of the Nationalist Party that its forces
\nshould be organised for united deliberation and effective
\nwork. A great deal depends on the care and foresight with
\nwhich the character and methods of the organisation are
\nelaborated at the beginning, for any mistake now may mean
\ntrouble and temporary disorganisation hereafter. It is not the
\neasy problem of providing instruments for the working of a
\nset of political ideas in a country where political thought has
\nalways been clear and definite and no repressive laws or police
\nharassment can be directed against the dissemination of just
\npolitical ideals and lawful political activities. We have to face the
\njealousy, suspicion and hostility of an all-powerful vested interest
\nwhich it is our avowed object to replace by Indian agencies, the 
\nopposition, not always over-nice in its methods, of a rich and influential section of our own countrymen, and the vagueness of
\nthought and indecisiveness of action common to the great bulk
\nof our people even when they have been deeply touched by
\nNationalist sentiment and ideals. To form a centre of order,
\nclear, full of powerful thought, swift effectiveness, free and
\norderly deliberation, disciplined and well-planned action must
\nbe the object of any organisation that we shall form. Two sets
\nof qualities which ought not to be but often are conflicting, are
\nneeded for success; resolute courage and a frank and faithful
\nadherence to principle on the one side and wariness and policy
\non the other.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe first mistake we have to avoid is the tendency to perpetuate
\nor imitate old institutions or lines of action which are growing out of date. The Nationalist Party is a young and progressive
\nforce born of tendencies, aims and necessities which were foreign
\nto the nineteenth century, and, being a party of the future and
\nnot of the immediate past, it must look, in all it does and creates, 
\nnot to the past but to the future. There are still in the party the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 219<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nrelics of the old desire to raise up a rival Congress and assert our
\nclaim to be part legatees of the institution which came to a violent  end at Surat. Our claim stands and, if a real Congress is again
\nerected, it must be with the Nationalists within it and not excluded. The strength of the demand in the country for an United
\nCongress is a sufficient vindication of the claim. But if we try still
\nfarther to enforce it by holding a rival session and calling it the
\nCongress, we shall take an ill-advised step calculated to weaken
\nus instead of developing our strength. A technical justification
\nmay be advanced by inviting men of all shades of opinion to such
\na session, but as a matter of fact none are likely to attend a session summoned
\nby pronounced Nationalists unless they are pronounced Nationalists themselves. An United Congress can be
\neffectively summoned only if we are able to effect a combination
\nof Nationalists, advanced Moderates and that large section of
\nopinion which, without having pronounced views, are eager to
\nrevive a public body in which all opinions can meet and work
\ntogether for the good of the country. Such a combination would
\nsoon reduce Sir Pherozshah’s Rump Congress to the lifeless
\nand meagre phantasm which it must in any case become with the
\nlapse of time and the open development of the Mehta-Morley
\nalliance. But to create another Rump Congress on the Nationalist side would be to confound confusion yet worse without any
\ncompensating gain. It would moreover throw on the shoulders 
\nof the Nationalists a portion of the blame for perpetuating the
\nsplit, which now rests entirely on the other side.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIf a Nationalist Rump Congress is inadvisable and inconsistent with the dignity of the Nationalist Party and its aversion
\nto mere catchwords and shams, an imitation of the forms and
\nworkings of the old Congress is also inadvisable. We were never
\nsatisfied with those forms and that working. The three days’
\nshow, the excessively festal aspect of the occasion, the monstrous
\npreponderance of speech and resolution-passing over action and
\nwork, the want of true democratic rule and order, the weary
\nwaste of formal oratory without any practical use or object, the
\nincapacity of the assembly for grappling with the real problem of
\nour national existence and progress, the anxiety to avoid public
\ndiscussion which is the life-breath of democratic politics, these<\/font><\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 220<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nand many other defects made the Congress in our view an instrument ill-made, wasteful of money and energy, and the centre
\nof a false conception of political deliberation and action. If we imitate the
\nCongress, we shall contract all the faults of the Congress. Neither can we get any help from the proceedings of the
\nNationalist Conference which met at Surat; for that was a loose
\nand informal body which only considered certain immediate
\nquestions and emergencies arising out of the Surat session. Yet
\na centre of deliberation and the consideration of past progress
\nand future policy is essential to the building of the Nationalist
\nParty into an effective force conscious of and controlling its
\nmission and activities. We shall indicate briefly the main principles on which we think the organisation of such a body should
\nbe based.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe first question is of the scope and object of the institution. In the first place, we must avoid the mistake of making it a
\nfestival or a show occasion intended to excite enthusiasm and
\npropagate sentiment. That was a function which the Indian
\nNational Congress had, perhaps inevitably, to perform, but a
\nbody which tries to be at once a deliberative assembly and a national festival, must inevitably tend to establish the theatrical
\nand holiday character at the expense of the practical and deliberative. National festivals and days of ceremony are the best 
\nmeans of creating enthusiasm and sentiment; that is the function
\nof occasions like the 7th August and the 16th October, the Sivaji
\nUtsav and similar celebrations. We must resolutely eschew all
\nvestiges of the old festival aspect of our political bodies and make
\nour assembly a severely practical and matter-of-fact body.
\nSecondly, we must clearly recognise that a body meeting once a year cannot be an effective centre of actual year-long work; it
\ncan only be an instrument for deliberation and determination of
\npolicy and a centre of reference for whose consideration and adjudgment the actually accomplished work of the year may, in its
\nmain features and the sum of its fulfilment, be submitted. The
\npractical work must be done by quite different organisations,
\nprovincial and local, carrying the policy fixed by the deliberative
\nbody but differently constituted; for, as the object of an executive
\nbody is entirely different from the object of a deliberative body,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 221<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nso its constitution, rules and procedure must be entirely different.
\nIn fact our All-India body must be not a Congress or Conference
\neven, but a Council, and since in spite of Shakespeare and Sj.
\nBaikunthanath Sen, there is much in a name and it largely helps
\nto determine our attitude towards the thing, let us call our body
\nnot the Nationalist Congress, Convention or Conference, but
\nthe Nationalist Council.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIf the body is to be a Council, its dimensions must be of such
\na character as to be manageable and allow  of effective discussion
\nin the short time at our disposal. A spectacular Congress or
\nConference gains by numbers, a Council is hampered by them.
\nTherefore the maximum number of delegates must be fixed and
\napportioned to the different parts of the nation according to their
\nnumbers. Secondly, in the proceedings themselves all elements of
\nuseless ornament and redundance must be purged out, such as the
\nlong Presidential Speech, the Reception Committee, the Chairman’s speech and the division of proceedings into the secret and 
\neffective Subjects Committee sittings and the public display of
\noratory in the full assembly. The first two features are obviously
\nuseless for our purpose and a mere waste of valuable time. With
\nthe disappearance of the spectacular aspect usually associated
\nwith our public bodies, the reason for the mere display of oratory also disappears. The only other utility of the double sitting
\nis that the full assembly forms a Court of Appeal from the decision of the Subjects Committee and an opportunity to the minority for publicly dissenting from any  decision by a majority which
\nthey might otherwise be supposed to have endorsed. The necessity for the first function arises from the imperfectly representative character of the Subjects Committee as it is at present
\nelected; the necessity for the second function from the absence of publicity in
\nits proceedings. If the whole Council sits as Subjects Committee, the necessity for the Court of Appeal or the
\npublic assertion of dissent will not occur. The only justification
\nfor the existence of the Subjects Committee in our present political bodies is their unwieldy proportions, the only reason for its
\nsecrecy the attempt to conceal all difficulties in the way of coming
\nto an unanimious conclusion; and neither of these reasons will
\nhave any existence in a Nationalist Council. The subjects can be<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 222<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nfixed by a small executive body existing throughout the year,
\nwhich will be in charge of all questions that may arise in connection with the Council, subject to approval or censure by the
\nCouncil itself at its annual meeting. The resolutions on these
\nsubjects can be formed in the Council and additional resolutions
\ncan be brought forward, if the Council approves. All unnecessary oratory should be avoided and resolutions formulating policy
\nof a standing character can be first got out of the way by a formal motion of them from the Chair. After this preliminary, the
\nCouncil can go into Committee to consider, approve or amend
\nthe report of progress made by the Secretaries for the past year, and, on the
\nsecond day, resolutions demanding debate and deliberation may be discussed in full Council.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe next question is the procedure and constitution.
\n<\/b>We
\n<\/b>desire no autocratic President, no oligarchy of ex-Presidents and
\nlong-established officials, no looseness of procedure putting a
\npremium on party trickery and unfair rulings. The only body
\nof officials will be two general secretaries and two secretaries for
\neach province, forming the executive body of the Council, who will be for the
\nmost part recorders of provincial work and summoners of the Council and will
\nhave no power to direct or control its procedure. Instead of an autocratic and influential
\nPresident we should have a Chairman who will not intervene
\nin the discussion with his views, but confine himself to guiding
\nthe deliberations as an administrator of fixed rules of procedure which he will
\nnot have the power to depart from, modify or amplify. He must therefore be, like the Speaker of the House of
\nCommons, not an active and prominent leader who cannot be
\nspared from the discussion, but a man of some position in the
\nparty whose probity and fairness can be universally trusted.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe last question is that of the electorate. We throw out the
\nsuggestion that, in the first place, we should cease to be bound by
\nthe British provincial units which are the creation of historical
\ncircumstances connected with the gradual conquest of India by
\nthe English traders, and have no correspondence with the natural
\ndivisions  of the people, and should adopt divisions which will
\nbe favourable to the working out of the Nationalist policy. And
\nsince the main work of the party will have to be done through the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 223<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nvernacular, the most natural and convenient divisions will be
\nthose of the half dozen or more great literary languages, minor
\nor dialectal tongues of inferior vitality being thrown under the
\ngreat vernaculars to which they geographically or by kinship
\nbelong. It was the programme of the Nationalist Party in Bengal
\nto create a register of voters throughout the country, who could
\nform a real electorate. Such a conception would have been
\nimpracticable in the old days when the people at large took no
\nactive part in politics; it was fast approaching the region of
\npracticability when the repressions broke the natural course of
\nour national development and introduced elements of arbitrary
\ninterference from above and a feeble and sporadic Terrorist
\nreaction from below, the after-swell of which still disturbs the
\ncountry. Sj. Bepin Chandra Pal has written  advocating the creation of a register of Nationalists, as a basis for organisation.
\nThis is, no doubt, the only sound basis for a thoroughly democratic organisation, but so long as the after-swell lasts and the
\ntempest may return, so long as the police misrule does not give
\nway to the complete restoration of law and order, a register of
\nNationalists would only be a register of victims for investigators
\nof the Lalmohan and Mazarul Huq type to harass with arrests,
\nhouse-searches, binding down under securities, prosecutions with
\nno evidence or tainted evidence, and the other weapons which
\nCriminal Procedure and Penal Code supply and against which
\nthere can be no sufficient redress under an autocratic regime not
\nresponsible to any popular body, leaning on the police rather
\nthan on the people and master of the judiciary. In these circumstances we can only create convenient limited electorates for the
\nelection of our council delegates, awaiting a more favourable
\ncondition of things for democratising the base of our structure.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nOn these principles we can establish a deliberative body
\nwhich will give shape, centrality and consistency to Nationalist
\npropaganda and work all over the country. We invite the attention of the leading Nationalist workers throughout India to our
\nsuggestion. The proposal has been made to hold a meeting of
\nNationalists at Calcutta at which a definite scheme and rules
\nmay be submitted and, as far as possible, adopted in action so<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 224<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthat the work may not be delayed. No United
\nCongress is possible this year, and if or when it comes, the existence of our
\nbody which is avowedly a party organisation will not interfere
\nwith our joining it.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 225<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

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

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

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