{"id":1089,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","slug":"50-the-reformed-councils-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\/50-the-reformed-councils-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-50_The Reformed Councils.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\nThe Reformed Councils<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/b><\/font>HE<\/b><\/span> great measure
\nwhich is to carry down the name of Lord Morley
\nto distant ages as the inaugurator of a new
\nage in India, \u2014 so at least all the Anglo-Indian papers and not a few of the
\nModerates tell us, \u2014 is now before us in all its details. The mountains have
\nagain been in labour, and the mouse they have produced this time is enormous in
\nsize and worthy of the august mountains that produced him, but not the less
\nridiculous for all that. What is it that this much-trumpeted scheme gives to a
\npeople which is not inferior in education or intellectual calibre to the Turk,
\nthe Persian and the Chinese who already enjoy or are in sight of full
\nself-government ? There are four elements which have always to be considered in
\na change of this kind, first, the nature of the electorate, second, the
\ncomposition of the body itself, thirdly, the freedom of election, fourthly, the
\nscope, functions and powers of the
\nassemblies. There is not one of these points in which the people have really
\ngained, there is hardly one of them in which they are not worse off than under
\nthe old system.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat
\nchange has been made in the electorates ?
\nExcept that they have been increased in number, we do not see that there has
\nbeen any real change at all, and an increase in number is of no value in
\nitself, but only if the number of elected members represent a force sufficient
\nto give the people its proper weight in the legislation and administration of
\nthe country. We shall show under the third head that we have gained nothing in
\nthis direction. On the other hand not only class, as was formerly the case,
\nbut creed has been made the basis of representation and, therefore, unless the
\nHindus have the strength of mind to boycott a system which creates a
\ndistinction insulting as well as injurious to the community, this measure,
\nwhile giving us not an atom of self-government, will be a potent engine for
\ndividing the nation into two hostile interests and barring the way towards the
\nunity of India. Formerly, there were only two classes in India, the<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 278<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nsuperior
\nEuropean and the inferior Indian; now there will be three, the supreme
\nEuropean, the superior Mahomedan and the
\ninferior Hindu. This is loss number one, and it is no small one, to the
\nMahomedan no less than the Hindu. The official of course
\ngains.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven
\nif there is no democratic or even semi-democratic basis of election \u2014 merely
\nsmall established bodies which can in no sense be called the people, \u2014
\nsomething might be gained if the Councils were so composed as to give a
\npreponderance or powerful voice to independent elected representatives. That
\nis what the Councils profess to do and that is why so much parade is made of
\nthe non-official majority. What are the facts ? In the Viceroy’s Council there
\nare to be thirty-five avowedly Government members, twenty-eight being
\nofficials and seven nominated. Of the twenty-five elected members eleven will
\nbe sent from the new Councils all over India; as we shall show from the Bengal
\nexamples, these Councils will contain a predominant pro-Government vote even
\namong the non-official members and their representatives will be therefore
\npro-Government men. That makes forty-six reliable votes for the Government. Of
\nthe remaining fourteen three will be Europeans who will naturally side with the
\nGovernment; that makes forty-nine. Of the remaining eleven five will be
\nspecially elected Mahomedan representatives and, as under the new system the Mahomedans are a favoured class depending for the
\ncontinuance of that favour on good behaviour, that means another five reliable
\nvotes for the Government, which makes fifty-four. Of the remaining six all are
\nrepresentatives of the landholding class who
\ndare not be too independent, \u2014 although they will no doubt oppose in small
\nmatters, which they can do with impunity as there is not the slightest chance
\nof the Government being defeated. The consequence will be that on the Viceroy’s
\nCouncil there is not any reasonable chance of there being a single independent
\nmember representing the people. This startling result of the Reforms may not
\nseem at first credible, but if our argument is carefully followed, it will
\nestablish itself. No doubt, one or two men like Mr. Gokhale,
\nSir Pherozshah Mehta or <\/b> Dr.<\/b> Rashbehari Ghose
\nwill be admitted by permission, but that privilege we had on better terms under
\nthe old system.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 279<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Let us pass to the Bengal Councils and establish our position. In East
\nBengal there will be twenty-two nominated and two specially nominated against
\neighteen elected members establishing at once a standing Government majority of
\nsix. Of the eighteen who might oppose, there will be four members who in the
\nnature of things are bound to be Europeans and four specially elected Mahomedan members, which at once raises the
\nreliable Government vote to thirty-two; five representatives of District and
\nLocal Boards, who, from the preponderance of Mahomedans
\non those bodies, are bound to be Mahomedans, two representatives of landholders
\nof whom one at least is likely to be a Mahomedan and the other, being a
\nlandholder, cannot afford to be too independent. There remain three members of
\nMunicipal bodies who are all likely to be independent, if the elections are not
\ninterfered with by indirect pressure. Therefore, out of forty-two members only
\nthree are likely to be independent members. It is needless to point out that
\nthe representative of the non-official members on the Viceroy’s Council is
\nsure to be a pro-Government man.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nWe
\npass on to West Bengal where things ought to be better. Here there are
\ntwenty-two nominated against twenty-six elected members, giving at first sight
\na non-Government majority of four. But we have to subtract from the apparent
\nmajority and add to the apparent minority four members from European or predominatingly European constituencies, four Mahomedan members and the member
\nfor the University, now practically a department of the Government. That gives
\na Government vote of thirty-one and a possible opposition vote of seventeen.
\nOf these again five are representatives of the landholders who cannot be
\nindependent to any notable extent and of whom only one or two are likely to be
\nindependent at all. There are, therefore, only twelve votes of which we can
\n[have] any hope, the representatives of the Boards and Municipalities. Here
\nalso the independent section of the community is hopelessly ineffective in
\nnumbers. Only four of these will be representatives of Bengal and this is one
\nof the most joyous results of the policy of partition and deportation plus
\nco-operation which is the basis of the new measure. Here again the chances of
\nan independent re-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 280<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\npresentative being returned to the Viceroy’s Council are
\nsmall on paper, nil in reality.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen
\nwe come to the freedom of the electors in choosing their representatives, we
\nfind restrictions so astonishing as at once to expose the spirit and purpose of
\nthese reforms. The Boards and Municipalities which alone represent in a faint
\ndegree the people are debarred from electing anyone not a member of these
\nbodies. Thus at one blow it is rendered impossible for a popular leader like Sj. Motilal Ghose, unless the Government choose to nominate
\nhim, to be on these amazing Councils. Farther, anyone dismissed from Government
\nservice, e.g. Sj. Surendranath, sentenced at
\nany time to imprisonment or transportation, e.g. Mr. Tilak,
\nor bound down, e.g. mofussil leaders like
\nSj. Anath Bandhu Guha or Sj. Hardayal
\nNag, the leading men of Mymensing and Chandpur respectively, or declared by the authorities
\nto be of undesirable antecedents, e.g. Lala Lajpat Rai, Sj. Aswini Kumar Dutta,
\nSj. Krishna Kumar Mitra
\nand all Nationalists and agitators generally, are ipso
\nfacto<\/i> incapable of representing the people under these exquisite reforms.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfter
\nall this it may seem a waste of time to go into the question of the scope,
\nfunctions and powers of the Councils. They may briefly be summed up by saying
\nthat the Councils have no scope and no powers, and that they have also no
\nfunctions except to talk, but by no means freely and no longer at large. We
\ncertainly do not object to the rule that no member shall talk for more than
\nfifteen minutes at a stretch; our only regret is that the maximum could not be
\nfifteen seconds. But since to talk inconclusively and ask questions which need
\nnot be answered unless the Government likes, is the only activity allowed to
\nthe august councillors, it seems like adding injury to insult to hedge in this windy privilege with so many
\nrestrictions. The restrictions placed on the putting of interpellations would
\nrule out of order half the questions in the House of Commons. It is curious how
\ncarefully the Government has guarded itself against anything which might
\ninconvenience it or put it into a corner. Even to ask any question about the conduct
\nor character of persons except in their official
\nor public capacity, is banned, so that, for instance, if an official
\nmisconducts himself in a flagrant manner, so long as<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 281<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nhe can say that he has done it in his private
\ncapacity, the Government cannot be questioned as to the truth of the matter or
\nits intentions with regard to the peccant individual. With a little legal
\ningenuity we think there is hardly any question, not of the baldest and most
\ninsignificant character, which could not be brought under the restricting
\nclauses. And, to crown all, the President is given the power of disallowing any
\nquestion on the ground that it will inconvenience the State, in other words himself
\nand his Government, and he may disallow any supplementary questions without any
\nreason whatever ! Any resolution may be
\ndisallowed for a similar reason or absence of reason. When we add that Native
\nStates are held sacrosanct from discussion, the Military similarly safeguarded,
\nand that no value need be attached to the resolutions of the Council on the
\nFinancial Statement and no resolutions at all can be proposed or passed on the
\nBudget, we think we have said all that is necessary to paint in its true colours the glorious liberality of this most wonderful and unheard-of reform.
\nWe heartily congratulate Lord Morley, Lord
\nMinto, and their advisers on the skill with
\nwhich the whole thing has been framed, the Moderates on the glorious price for
\nwhich one or two of their leaders have sold the popular cause, the Hindus on
\ntheir humiliation and the country generally on the disillusionment, we hope the
\nfinal disillusionment, which these Councils, when they meet, will bring about
\nfar more successfully than could have been done by any Nationalist propaganda.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 282<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

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

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The Reformed Councils   THE great measure which is to carry down the name of Lord Morley to distant ages as the inaugurator of a…<\/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-1089","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\/1089","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=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}