{"id":1098,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:32","slug":"40-facts-and-opinions-9-10-1909-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\/40-facts-and-opinions-9-10-1909-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-40_Facts and Opinions 9-10-1909.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

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

\nVolume I – Oct. 9, 1909 – Number
\n16<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\tThe
\n Apostasy of the National Council<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                <\/b>
\nW<\/font>e have received an open letter from
\nsome teachers of
\nthe Rangpur National school in which they warn the President
\nof the National Council of Education of the evil effects likely
\nto ensue from the recent National Risley Circular and protest
\nstrongly against the policy underlying it. For reasons of
\nspace we are unable to publish the letter. The signatories point
\nout that the movement took its birth in the boycott movement
\nand was from the first, closely associated with it in nature
\nand sympathy, that the participation of young men in the
\nnational awakening has been one of the chief causes of its rapid
\nprogress and success and that the new policy of the Council not
\nonly divorces education from the life of the country, but destroys
\nthe sympathy and support of the most progressive elements in
\nthe nation. It is also pointed out that the donation made by
\nRaja Subodh Mullik, from which the practicability of the movement took its beginning and the sacrifices made by the teachers
\nand students of the first established schools were intimately connected with the revolt against the Risley Circular, and yet the
\nsame circular is repeated in a more stringent form by the Council
\nitself. There were two conditions attached to Raja Subodh
\nChandra’s gift; the first that the maintenance of the Rangpur
\nand Dacca schools, which were created to give shelter to students
\nwho persisted in taking part in politics in spite of all prohibitions,
\nshould be assisted out of his donation, and second that no form
\nof Government control should be submitted to by the Council.
\nIt would be mere hypocrisy to deny that the issue of the prohibitory telegrams
\nby the Secretary was the result of the Government circular previous to the seventh of August. We do not
\nknow by what morality or law of honour the Council clings to
\nthe donation while infringing in the spirit its most vital condition.
\nPerhaps these things also, no less than courage and sincerity,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 229<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nare considered unessential in this new
\n"national" education.
\nWe notice that Sj. Hirendranath Dutt at Dacca seems to have
\nopenly proclaimed the abjuration of all connection with politics
\nas part of the duty of a "National" school. We must therefore
\ntake the divorce of the National Council from the national movement as part of a deliberate and permanent policy, and not, as
\nit might otherwise have been imagined, a temporary aberration
\ndue largely to the fact that the President and the most active of
\nthe two Secretaries are members of Legislative Councils and
\ntherefore parts of the Government which is supposed to have no
\ncontrol over the institution. All that we can now expect of the
\nCouncil is to be a centre of scientific and technical education; it
\ncan no longer be a workshop in which national spirit and energy
\nare to be forged and shaped.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe
\n Progress of China<\/a><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA recent article in the Amrita Bazar
\nPatrika<\/i> gives a picture of the
\nenormous educational progress made by China in a few years.
\nIn the short time since the Boxer troubles China has revolutionised her educational system, established a network of modern
\nschools of all ranks, provided for a thorough modern education for her princes and nobles, and added to the intellectual
\neducation a thorough grounding in military knowledge and the
\nhabits of the soldier, so that, when the process is complete, the
\nwhole Chinese people will be a nation trained in arms whom the
\ngreatest combination of powers will not care to touch. On another side of national development, a railway has just been opened
\nwhich has been entirely constructed and will be run by Chinese.
\nWhen the process of education is well forward, it is intended by
\nthe Chinese Government to transform itself into a constitutional
\nand Parliamentary government, and in its programme this great
\nautomatic revolution has been fixed to come off in another eight
\nyears. No other race but the Chinese, trained by the Confucian
\nsystem to habits of minute method, perfect organisation and
\nsteady seriousness in all things great and small, could thus calmly
\nmap out a stupendous political, social and educational change, as<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 230<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

if it were the programme of a
\nceremonial function, and carry it
\nout with thoroughness and efficiency. Once the Chinese have
\nmade up their minds to this revolution, they are likely to carry
\nit out with the greatest possible completeness, businesslike
\nmethod, effective organisation, and the least possible waste and
\nfriction. In the history of China, no less than the history of
\nJapan, we are likely to see the enormous value of national will-power using the moral outcome of a great and ancient discipline,
\neven while breaking the temporary mould in which that
\ndiscipline had cast society, thought and government. We in
\nIndia have an ancient discipline much more powerful than the
\nChinese or Japanese; but where is the centre of sovereignty in
\nIndia which will direct the national will-power to the right use of
\nthat discipline ? Where even is the centre of national endeavour
\nwhich will make up for the absence of such a Government ? We
\nhave a Government manned by aliens, out of touch with and
\ncontemptuous of the sources of national strength and culture;<\/font> 
\nwe have an education empty of them
\nwhich seeks to replace our
\nancient discipline by a foreign strength, instead of recovering and
\ninvigorating our own culture and turning it to modern uses; we
\nhave leaders trained in the foreign discipline who do not know
\nor believe in the force that would, if made use of, revolutionise
\nIndia more swiftly and mightily than Japan was or China is being
\nrevolutionised. It is this and not internal division or the drag of
\nold and unsuitable conditions that makes the work in India
\nmore difficult than in any other Asiatic country.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tPartition
\n Day<\/a><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPartition Day comes round again on the
\n16th October. Last
\nyear, executive caprice prevented the day from being celebrated
\nwith all its accustomed ceremonies; this year, there is not likely
\nto be a similar interference, and we trust that all the usual circumstances of the occasion will be observed without any abridgment. On the 7th of August the official organisers were afraid to
\nstart the procession from the College Square; now that Sj. Surendranath is with us, we trust that no such unworthy considerations<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 231<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwill be allowed to mar the fullness and
\nimposing nature of this
\nfeature. From no other centre in Calcutta is an effective procession at all probable, and it was seen last August that the only
\nresult of trying to change it was to break up the procession and
\nmar its effect. The two most essential features, however, of the
\nPartition Day are the Rakhi Bandhan and the reading of the
\nNational Proclamation; it is above all a day of the declaration of
\nBengal’s indivisible unity and these two functions are for that
\nreason the very kernel of the observances. It is unfortunate that
\nthe celebration should coincide this year with the Puja sales, as
\nthis may interfere with the closing of the shops, which is the most
\nsalient sign of protest against the dismemberment. We hope the
\nofficial organisers are taking steps to counteract this unfavourable factor.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 232<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facts and Opinions Volume I – Oct. 9, 1909 – Number 16 The Apostasy of the National Council                   We have received an open…<\/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-1098","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\/1098","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=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}