{"id":1087,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","slug":"29-bengal-and-the-congress-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\/29-bengal-and-the-congress-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-29_Bengal and the Congress.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\nBengal and the Congress<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/span><\/b>
\ndissensions in the Congress have been a severe test of the capacity of the
\nIndian people to act politically under modern conditions. The first necessary
\nelement of democratic politics is difference of opinion, robust, frank, avowed,
\nfirmly and passionately held, and the first test of political capacity in a
\ndemocratic nation is to bear these differences of opinion, however strong and
\neven vehement, without disruption. In a monarchy differences of opinion are
\neither stifled by an all-powerful absolute will or subordinated and kept in
\ncheck by the supreme kingly arbiter; in an aristocracy the jealousy of a close
\nbody discourages free opinion and its free expression; in a bureaucracy
\nstereotyped habits of action and method lead to a fixed and inelastic way of
\nthinking and difference of opinion, when tolerated, is kept by the exigencies of
\nadministration private and largely ineffective. It is democracy alone that
\ndemands free divergence of opinion in politics and open propagandism and debate
\nas the very breath of its nostrils. The tendency to democracy creates freedom of
\nspeech and thought and these in their turn hasten the advent of democracy. All
\nattempts to silence by force or evasion important differences of opinion are
\nanti-democratic and though they do not necessarily show an incapacity for
\ngovernment, do show an incapacity for democratic politics. The democratic
\ntendency in humanity is and has long been pressing forward victoriously to
\nself-fulfilment and the modern attempt of the banded forces of autocracy,
\nbureaucracy, plutocracy and theocracy to turn its march can only result in its
\ngrowing stronger by the check and urging forward with greater impetuosity to its
\ngoal. It is therefore the democratic tendency and the democratic capacity which
\nmust be accepted and shown by any nation which aspires to go forward and be
\namong the leaders of the world. In the matter of the Congress it is only Bengal,
\nso far, that has shown the democratic capacity of being able to meet and discuss
\nand to a certain extent work together in<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 175<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nspite
\nof grave and even fundamental differences. To a large extent this is due to the fact that all parties in Bengal have some
\ncommon ground. Just as the different parties in a well-organised
\ncountry, even when they differ in everything else, have this foundation of union and common tolerance that all are desirous of
\nthe freedom, greatness and sound internal condition and development of their nation, so we in Bengal are all agreed in holding the
\ndevelopment of a well-organised, self-sufficient and self-governing
\npeople as the immediate and ultimate object of all our politics.
\nThis is only to say that Bengal has attained earlier than other
\nprovinces to political perception and sound political instincts.
\nThere are forces of disruption in Bengal as everywhere else, but
\nit says much for the capacity and insight of the mass of the
\neducated class that these forces have been overborne and Bengal
\npreserves her unity. The credit is due much more to the people
\nthemselves than to the leaders on either side, and this itself is
\nthe healthiest sign of all and the guarantee of democratic development. When the people are wiser than their leaders and
\nwise men, the democratic future of a country is assured. Men
\nof great gifts and strong character are often carried away by
\ntheir eager perceptions and at such moments it is the sound
\ncommon sense of a capable democracy that sets right the balance.
\nIt was this common sense that saved the situation after Surat.
\nThe people had the instinct to desire unity and the good sense to
\nsee that unity was not possible or, if possible, was not worth having by the sacrifice of the movement which Bengal had initiated.
\nThat such an unthinkable repudiation would have been the
\nfirst result of surrender to the Convention leaders of Bombay
\nand Madras, has been sufficiently proved by the determined
\nrejection of the Boycott resolution at the meeting of the
\nConvention last December. The Pabna resolution for an United
\nCongress was therefore so framed as to leave the Convention
\nCommittee a door open for reconciliation. They rejected the
\nopportunity on a constitutional technicality of a purely verbal
\ncharacter and of doubtful validity and proceeded to show the
\nhonesty of this sudden passion for scrupulous constitutional
\nprocedure when they imposed a constitution on the body they
\nchose to call the Congress without allowing it to be submitted<\/p>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 176<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

for acceptance or amendment by that body. The resolution at
\nHughly ought to be differently framed so as not only to make an
\nUnited Congress possible but to bring it about so far as Bengal
\ncan help towards that consummation.<\/p>\n

In Bengal there are three classes of opinion as to the best
\nway of meeting the difficulty. There is a small section of the
\nModerate party which desires the Convention Congress to stand
\nand the Nationalists to be excluded. There are two courses open to this
\nminority. They may insist on the Bengal Provincial Conference and the District Committees accepting the body created
\nby the Congress Committee as the real Congress and on their
\nloyally following the rules and the instructions of this Congress
\nand its Provincial Committee. If that were accepted the Bengal
\nProvincial Conference would become a Moderate organisation
\nand, while commercial Swadeshi would be preserved, the Boycott
\nwould disappear from the avowed programme of Bengal. But
\nwe do not think anyone will have the hardihood to make this
\nproposal in so many terms and, if any ventured so far, it would
\nbe without any chance of popular acceptance. A more probable
\ncourse is for this minority to agree to a vague and easily evaded
\nresolution which they will have no intention of accepting as a
\nguide to conduct and to oppose the passing of any more definite
\nresolution on the ground that Bengal ought to preserve its own
\nintegrity and leave the rest of India to its divisions. The object
\nthey would aim at is to leave the Convention and its Committees
\nto figure as the real Congress and Congress Committee and themselves be free to join them without popular disapproval. But the
\ninevitable consequence would be that the Nationalists will be
\ncompelled to erect another body which would represent their
\ninterests. The erection of a rival National Congress at Nagpur
\nlast year was prevented by the Government, fortunately, we
\nthink, for no such body could really claim to be a National
\nAssembly any more than the Convention can justly claim that
\ncharacter. But if an United Congress proves impossible, the Nationalists cannot
\nallow the Convention unchallenged to delude the world by pretending to voice authoritatively the sense
\nof the Indian nation.<\/p>\n

\nA second section of opinion is that of advanced Moderates<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 177<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

and among these we find two ways of thinking. Some lay stress
\non the unconstitutional conduct of the Convention Committee
\nin forcing their constitution on the Madras Convention without
\nsubmitting it to discussion and seemed to think that by passing
\nit through the next sitting the constitutional defect will be cured.
\nThey seem to forget that it will be a Congress elected under
\nthis unconstitutional constitution to which the question will be
\nsubmitted. In effect, therefore, a body unconstitutionally elected
\nwill sit to validate the unlawful law under which it was born and
\nso cure its own unconstitutional character without getting rid of
\nthe initial and incurable defect which prevents it from sitting at
\nall. The constitutional difficulty will not be met and the political
\ndifficulty will remain as serious as ever, for the Nationalists would
\nstill be excluded and the menace to our unity in Bengal would
\nincrease every year. Others of the advanced Moderates see more
\nclearly and can understand that only a freely elected Congress,
\nas freely elected as the Hughly Conference will be, can accept
\nthis constitution or form any other. Any resolution passed on
\nthis subject must therefore contemplate a freely elected session
\nand the submission to it of any constitution proposed or drafted
\nfor the better organisation of Congress procedure and Congress
\naffairs.<\/p>\n

\nThe third section of opinion is that of the Nationalist party. Immediately after
\nthe fracas at Surat, on the same day indeed, the party became acutely sensible
\nof the nature of the catastrophe which had occurred and its first step was to
\ntake an attitude which might leave the way open to reconciliation; and this
\nattitude they maintained at all the subsequent Conferences where they were
\neither represented or dominant. <\/b>We do not agree with Lala Lajpatrai’s
\nsuggestion that the Congress should always remain in the hands of the Moderates;
\na popular body must remain either in the hands of the party which numerically
\npredominates or be run by a joint body representing them proportionately to
\ntheir numbers. But the Nationalists would not deny the name of Congress to a
\nbody merely because its administration was in the hands of a single party. They
\nrefuse it because that body by a constitution passed without right or authority
\nexcludes a powerful section of opinion in the country and pretends to be a
\nNational<\/p>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 178<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Congress when it is really a party organisation. If the Convention were to consent to a free election and a free constitution, the
\nNationalist Party would not allow a matter of nomenclature, however important,
\nto stand in the way of reunion. But the Convention constitution is not free. It is in the first place a close oligarchical constitution seeking to limit the right of election to a
\nfew privileged bodies affiliated to itself. Even if this reactionary
\nlimitation were to be confirmed by a freely elected Congress the
\nNationalists would have no cause of complaint, for they would
\nstill be free to organise a party institution which would spread
\nthe knowledge and appreciation of democratic principles and get
\nthese limitations abrogated from within the Congress itself. But the
\nConstitution is also not free in virtue of the eligibility to delegateship being limited to those who can sign a declaration of faith
\nspecially designed to exclude the advanced school of patriotism.
\nThis limitation is vital. A National Assembly cannot bind itself
\nby any creed but the creed of patriotism which is understood
\nand which it would be futile to express. The Nationalist Party
\ncannot accept the limitation of delegateship by an exclusive creed.
\nThey would not seek to bind it by their own creed, still less can
\nthey accept a creed which contravenes their avowed principles.
\nThe Congress may always pass a resolution expressing its aims
\nand objects. That is merely the opinion of the majority and can
\nalways be changed if the minority becomes the majority. But a
\npersonal subscription to views one does not hold is unthinkable
\nto any man of honour and probity. These are the three parties and their views.
\nThe election of a free Congress is the only possible way to their final reconciliation, the omission of the creed
\nthe only condition of the continuance of an United Congress.
\nIt is for the good sense of the people at large to decide between
\nthese conflicting views and determine what is best for Bengal and
\nthe nation.<\/p>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 179<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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

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