{"id":1110,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:36","slug":"51-facts-and-opinions-27-11-1909-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\/51-facts-and-opinions-27-11-1909-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-51_Facts and Opinions 27-11-1909.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

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

\nVolume I – Nov. 27, 1909 – Number 21<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t
\n The
\n Bomb Case and Anglo-India<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nT<\/font>he
\ncomments of the Anglo-Indian papers on the result of the appeal in the Alipur case are neither particularly edifying nor
\ndo they tend to remove the impression shared by us with many thoughtful
\nEnglishmen that the imperial race is being seriously demoralised by empire.
\nFrom the Englishman<\/i> we expect nothing better, and in fact we are
\nagreeably surprised at the comparative harmlessness
\nof its triumphant article on the day after the judgment. Its reference to the
\nnonsense about there being no sedition in India and no party of Revolution
\nleaves our withers unwrung. We ourselves
\nbelong to a party of peaceful revolution, for it is a rapid revolution in the
\nsystem of Government in India which is the aim of our political efforts, and
\nit is idle to object to us that there have
\nbeen no peaceful revolutions and cannot be. History gives the lie to that
\nstatement, whether it proceeds from Mr. Gokhale
\nor from Anglo-India. We have also always admitted that there is a Terrorist
\nparty, for bombs are not thrown without hands and men are not shot for
\npolitical reasons unless there is Terrorism in the background. All we have
\ncontended, \u2014 and our contention is not overthrown by the judgment in the Alipur
\nappeal, which merely proves that the conspiracy was not childish, and by no
\nmeans that it was a big or widespread organisation, \u2014 is that the attempt of the
\nAnglo-Indian papers to blacken the whole movement, and especially the whole
\nNationalist Party, is either an erroneous or an unscrupulous attempt, and the
\ndisposition of the police to arrest every young Swadeshi worker as a rebel and
\na dacoit is foolish, wrong-headed, often
\ndishonest, and may easily become fatal to the chances of a peaceful solution of
\nthe dispute between the Government and the people. The Englishman<\/i>,
\nhowever, represents a lower grade of intellect and refinement to which these
\nconsiderations are not likely to present themselves. The<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 283<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\naverage
\nrespectable Englishman is better represented by the Statesman<\/i>, and the
\none dominating note in the Statesman<\/i> is that of regret that the Courts
\nhad to go through the ordinary procedure of the law and could not effect a
\nswift dramatic and terror-striking vindication of the inviolability of the
\nBritish Government. One would have thought that a nation with the legal and
\npolitical traditions of the English people would have been glad that the
\nprocedure of law had been preserved, the chances of error minimised and the
\nState still safeguarded; and that no ground had been given for a charge of
\ndifferentiating between a political and an ordinary trial to the prejudice of
\nthe accused. It is evident, however, that the type of Englishman demoralised by
\nempire and absolute power considers that, in political cases, the Law Courts
\nshould not occupy themselves with finding out the truth, but be used as a
\npolitical instrument for vengeance and striking terror into political
\nopponents.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n The
\n Nadiya President’s Speech<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We congratulate Mr. Aswini Banerji on the able and vigorous speech
\ndelivered by him as the President of the Nadiya Conference. He took up an
\nattitude which was at once manly and free from excess or violence. For
\nourselves the first point we turned to was the pronouncement on the Reforms. We
\ndo not think the judgment of the country on this ill-conceived measure could
\nhave been put with greater truth and force than in the periods of good-humoured
\ncontempt and irony, scathing yet in perfectly good taste, in which Mr. Banerji
\ndisposed of the claims of the Reform Scheme to be a measure of popular
\nself-government. If all public men take the same attitude, the day of a true
\nmeasure of popular control will be much nearer than if we affect a qualified satisfaction with this political
\nbauble. As Mr. Banerji forcibly pointed out, it does not provide for a popular
\nelectorate, it does not admit of the election of popular leaders, it does not create
\na non-Government majority, or, as we would add, even the reasonable
\npossibility of a strong opposition on essential points. What has the country to
\ndo with a reformed Council stripped of these<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 284<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nessentials ?
\nThe Jo-hookums, the self-seekers, the
\nnonentities who wish to take advantage of the exclusion of distinguished and
\nleading names in order to enjoy, at the expense of the country’s interests, the
\nkudos and substantial advantages of a seat on the Councils will scramble for
\nthe newly-created heaven; that is the kind
\nof co-operation which the Government will get from the non-Mussulman part of
\nthe nation under this scheme. The country remains sullen and dissatisfied.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n Mr.
\n Macdonald’s Visit<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe
\ntour undertaken by Mr. Ramsay Macdonald in
\nIndia has been cut short by the call from England summoning him home to take
\nhis part in the great struggle which is the beginning of the end of
\nConservative and semi-aristocratic England. In the peaceful revolution which
\nthat struggle presages and in which it must sooner or later culminate, Mr. Macdonald’s party stands to be the final winners.
\nIt is the semi-Socialistic Radical element in the Ministry attracted toward the Labour party to which the
\nprecipitation of this inevitable struggle is due. The Labour party is now
\npredominatingly Socialistic and is purging itself of the old individualistic
\nleaven which looked forward to no higher ideal than an eight-hours day, Old Age pensions and Trade Union politics. The Labour members, Messrs. Burt and Fenwick, who represent this old-world element,
\nhave received notice to quit from the Labour organisations which helped them
\ninto Parliament and much nonsense of a kind familiar to ourselves is being talked about the ingratitude of Labour to these
\nveterans. The only justification for the existence of these gentlemen in Parliament
\nis that they stand for the new insurgent demos and, if they cannot keep pace
\nwith the advancing sentiment of the people who keep them in Parliament, their
\nduty is to retire, and the ingratitude is theirs if they try to hamper the
\nprogress of their life\u00adlong supporters by fighting the representatives of the
\nnew aspirations in the interests of a middle-class party. Mr. Macdonald
\nbelongs to the new thought, but he is, we believe, one of those who would
\nhasten slowly to the goal. He has not the rugged<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 285<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\npersonality
\nof Mr. Keir Hardie,
\nbut combines in himself, in a way Mr. Hardie scarcely does, the old culture and
\nthe new spirit. He has as broad a sympathy and as penetrating an intelligence
\nas Mr. Nevinson, but not the latter’s quick intensity. Nevertheless, behind the
\nslow consideration and calm thoughtfulness
\nof his manner, one detects hidden iron and the concealed roughness of the force
\nthat has come to destroy and to build, some hint of the rugged outlines of Demogorgon, the claws of Narasingha.
\nFor everyman is not only himself, he is that
\nwhich he represents. Mr. Macdonald has been
\nreserved and cautious during his visit and has spoken out only on the Reforms
\nand Reuter, nor have his remarks on these
\nsubjects passed the limits of what any sincere Liberal would hold to be a
\nmoderate statement of the truth. Mr. Macdonald is one who does not speak out
\nthe whole of himself, he is a politician born, and born politicians do not
\ncare to outpace by too great a stride the speedily accomplishable fact.
\nWhatever wider vistas they may see beyond, they prefer to move steadily towards
\nthem rather than to speak of them. So far as an Englishman
\ncan help India, and that under present circumstances is hardly at all, he
\ncertainly wishes to help. It is not his fault that the blindness of his
\ncountrymen and the conditions of the problem in India make men like him,
\nperforce, little better than sympathetic spectators of the passionate struggle
\nbetween established privilege and a nation in the making that the world watches
\nnow in India.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 286<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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