{"id":1088,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:28","slug":"21-facts-and-opinions-7-8-1909-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\/21-facts-and-opinions-7-8-1909-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-21_Facts and Opinions 7-8-1909.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nFacts and Opinions<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n


\nVolume I – August 7, 1909 – Number 7<\/span><\/p>\n


\n\tThe Police Bill<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n                <\/font>
\nT<\/font>he Police
\nBill has passed the Committee and next week, it is rumoured, will be made law.
\nIt is a provision for giving absolute power to the Police Commissioner and his
\nunderlings. It is true that the power is limited in time in certain respects,
\nbut so long as it lasts it is arbitrary, absolute, without checks and,
\npractically, without appeal. We hear that the present Police Commissioner
\nresents any proposal to put a check on his absolute power as a personal insult.
\nIf so, he is in good company, for he only follows the example of that great
\nphilosopher and democratic statesman, Lord Morley,
\nwho resents democratic criticism of his measures and actions as a crime and
\nsacrilege and a petty amendment of the present provisions for the deportation
\nof inconvenient persons as a vote of censure. The spirit of absolutism fostered
\nby arbitrary government in India is not only swallowing up the old British
\nvirtues in India itself but encroaching on the free spirit of England. The
\npowers of prohibition, regulation and arrest provided for in the Bill will
\nexalt Mr. Halliday into the Czar of
\nCalcutta. It is noticeable that any man may be arrested for the breach of any
\nlaw by any policeman without a warrant and be sentenced to a fine of a hundred
\nrupees or, for certain political offences
\namong others, to a month’s hard labour. Any meeting can be stopped for a week
\nat the sweet will and discretion of an individual. The provisions for search
\nand entry of the police into houses and so-called public places are so ample as
\nto give a power of inquisition and domiciliary visit second only to the
\nRussian. Even boardings, messes and private lodging-houses are liable to entry
\nat any hour and on any pretext. And by an inspired improvement on the stringent
\nBombay Act no action of the police, however vexatious, unwarranted and
\nmalicious, can be punished unless the aggrieved party can prove bad faith, a
\ncondition which in nine cases out of ten of<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 135<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

malicious
\nharassment is impossible of satisfaction. It is a sound principle that where a
\ncitizen has been causelessly harassed, the burden of proving good faith rests
\non the harasser. An opposite proviso means
\nthe destruction of the liberty of the person. No man’s personal freedom and
\ndignity will henceforth be safe for a moment from the whims of the lowest
\npoliceman in the street. The authorities may say that this is not the purposed
\nobject of the Bill. We have nothing to do with the intention of the framers, we have to do only with the provisions of
\nthe law itself, and it is enough if all these things are rendered possible
\nunder the provisions. To make bad laws and plead good intentions is an old
\nevasion of weak and violent rulers.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n The
\n Poliitcal Motive<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That there is a
\npolitical motive behind the Bill, any child can see and to conceal it only the
\nmost flimsy precautions have been taken. The prohibition of public meetings can
\nhave no reference to any but Swadeshi meetings, the reference to objectionable
\ncries is obviously aimed at the national cry of Bande Mataram and the power of harassing under the
\npretext of regulating public processions and meetings can have no objective but
\nthe revived meetings and processions which have shown that the national
\nmovement was not dead but only suspended. Other provisions of the Bill may be
\ndictated by the sole object of strengthening the hands, already overstrong, of the Calcutta Police in keeping
\norder, but the nature and wording of these provisions coupled with the
\namazingly comprehensive definition of "public place" leave us no
\noption but to see the obvious political motive behind. It is possible for the
\nPolice Commissioner under these provisions to paralyse every legitimate form of
\npublic activity in the city of Calcutta. It is no use sheltering under the provisions
\nof the Bombay Act. The Bombay Act has been used to paralyse public activity of
\na kind inconvenient to the Government in that city. What, moreover, was the
\nnecessity of suddenly resorting to the stringency of the Bombay Act at this
\nparticular juncture ? It is not alleged that
\nany of the meetings or processions recently orga-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 136<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

nised <\/span><\/font>
\n\twere disorderly or led to
\ndisturbance or public inconvenience. The only fresh emergency was the
\npolitical.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n\t
\n A
\n Hint From Dinajpur<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Amrita Bazar Patrika<\/i>
\nnotices a case from Dinajpur which may give a few hints to Sir Edward Baker if
\nhe really wants or is wanted to establish police autocracy in Calcutta. Mr. Garlick there justified the caning of witnesses
\nand accused by the police as a necessary "method of examination"
\nwithout which the administration of justice in this country cannot be carried
\non. He says, "I dare say the police frequently quicken the witness’ answers with a cut from their riding canes. Such
\n\tmethods of examination<\/i> are no doubt to be deprecated but without them I
\ndo not suppose the police would get any information at all." The case will
\ncome up before the High Court and we await with interest the view that
\nauthority will take of this novel legal dictum. Meanwhile why should not Sir
\nEdward Baker take time by the forelock and, after a now familiar method,
\nvalidate such "methods" beforehand by a clause in his Police Bill
\nempowering any policeman to cut with a cane any citizen whom he may fancy guilty
\nof breaking any law so as to persuade him to desist ?
\nOf course the said policeman will not be liable to punishment unless it can be
\nproved that he cut in bad faith.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t The
\n Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We publish
\nelsewhere an appeal from the promoters of the enterprise which first
\nencouraged Indian energy and capital into the new path many are now preparing
\nto follow. This Company, as the pioneer, had to face all the difficulties of a
\nnovel enterprise of considerable magnitude and it has suffered more than others from competition supported
\nby official sympathy. To Nationalists it will be sufficient to recall the name
\nof Chidambaram Pillai,
\ncondemned to a long term of imprisonment on the strength of police
\nreports, and the plucky struggle made by the Company<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 137<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n\tagainst overwhelming odds. The Company
\nrepresents an output of patriotic effort and self-sacrifice such as no other
\nhas behind it and it would be a public disgrace if its appeal went unheard.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n\tA
\n Swadeshi Enterprise<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the great weaknesses of the Swadeshi
\nmovement at present is the ease with which, under the stress of necessity, we
\nadmit articles as Swadeshi which are to all intents and purposes foreign. It is
\nalways therefore an encouraging sign when a real Swadeshi enterprise is started
\nwhich liberates us from the necessity of such humiliating compromises,
\nespecially when they affect articles of
\ndaily necessity. We take for an instance what we choose to call Swadeshi
\numbrellas although these are Swadeshi only so far as the labour of fitting the
\nparts together is concerned. Sirdar Rajmachikar
\nof Poona and his brother have done a service
\nto Swadeshi by starting a factory in which all the parts except the iron ribs
\nand stretchers are either made in the factory or, in the matter of cloth, procured from Poona and Bombay mills. The only
\ndrawback is the high prices of these articles compared with the cheapness of
\nthe fractionally Swadeshi umbrellas. This we believe, is largely due to the
\nhigh prices of the cloth produced from the Bombay mills, but the people of
\nBombay and Poona are taking these umbrellas by the thousand in spite of the difference. We hope Bengal will be as patriotic in
\nthis small but important matter. The prices will come down as soon as a
\nsufficient market is created. Meanwhile we must take the Swadeshi article at a
\nsacrifice as we have pledged ourselves to do by any number of vows and
\nresolutions. To replace foreign by indigenous in the objects of daily use is
\nthe very life-breath of Swadeshi.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n\u2013 138<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facts and Opinions Volume I – August 7, 1909 – Number 7 The Police Bill                   The Police Bill has passed the Committee and…<\/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-1088","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\/1088","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=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}