{"id":1116,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:38","slug":"53-facts-and-opinions-4-12-1909-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\/53-facts-and-opinions-4-12-1909-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-53_Facts and Opinions 4-12-1909.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

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

Volume <\/b> I –
\nDec. 4, 1909 – Number 22<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\n Lieutenant-Governor’s Mercy<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nT<\/font>he outcry of the
\nModerates against the exclusion of their best men has led to certain
\nconcessions by which apparently the Government hope to minimise or obviate the
\nformidable opposition that is slowly gathering head against the new Councils.
\nThese concessions remove not a single objectionable principle from the Bill.
\nThey are evidently designed to facilitate the admission into the Council of the
\ntwo men in Bengal whose opposition may prove most harmful to the chances of the
\nexceedingly skilful Chinese puzzle called the Councils Regulations, by which
\nthe consummate tacticians of Simla hope to preserve full control for the
\nauthorities while earning the credit of a liberal and popular reform. The
\nmodification by which men who have served three years on a Municipality become
\neligible even if they are no longer on any such body at the time of election,
\nseems specially designed to admit Sj. Bhupendranath Bose
\nwho, with all the other well-known men of Bengal, was excluded by the careful
\nprovisions of the Scheme. But to have placated Sj. Bhupendranath
\nand at the same time disqualified the greater Moderate leader would obviously
\nhave been an infructuous concession.
\nAccordingly, we are now given to understand that the Lieutenant-Governor has
\nbeen pleased to intimate to the most powerful man in Bengal that, if he stands
\nfor election, the disqualification under which he has been placed, will be
\nwaived as a special concession in his favour ! We do not know what were the
\nfeelings of Sj. Surendranath when he was
\ninformed that this back-door had been opened to him by the indulgence of the
\nbureaucracy to its dismissed servant. But to us the permission seems to be
\nmore humiliating and injurious than the original exclusion, \u2014 to Bengal, if not
\nto Surendranath personally. As things stand, he cannot make use of the
\nconcession without forfeiting his already much-imperilled popularity and
\nputting him-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 290<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n


\nself uselessly into a ridiculous and undignified position. If he stood now, the
\nwhole country would believe that his dissatisfaction with the Reforms was due
\nto his personal exclusion and not to the vicious principles of the Scheme. He
\nwould enter not in his own right, but by the grace and mercy of the bureaucracy
\nof whom he has been the lifelong opponent. And to what end ? To stand isolated or with a handful of
\nineffective votes against a solid phalanx of officials, Government nominees,
\nEuropeans, Mahomedans and lukewarm waverers or reactionaries. Sj. Surendranath gains nothing
\nfor himself or the country by entering the Councils on these shameful terms; he gains everything by holding aloof and
\nstanding out for better conditions.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n An
\n Ominous Presage<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Indian
\nDaily News<\/i> nowadays plays the Statesman<\/i>‘s
\nabandoned role of the Friend of India. This journal has been recently harping on
\nthe necessity of the reform of the Municipalities and throwing out suggestions
\nof the lines on which those reforms should be framed. We cannot imagine
\nanything more ominous, more fatal to the little of self-government that we
\npossess, than these suggested reforms. <\/b> We pointed out in our article on
\nthe Reforms that under this scheme the Municipalities were the only weak point
\nin the Government’s armour and we hazarded a prophecy that the Government would
\nfollow the policy of thorough and mend this vulnerable part. This is precisely
\nwhat our Anglo-Indian "friend" earnestly and repeatedly calls on them
\nto do without farther delay. The principle to be enforced is that same false,
\nvicious and anti-democratic principle of the representation of separate
\ninterests which has made the new Reforms a blow straight at the heart of
\nprogress instead of an important step in progressive development. It is true
\nthat the Daily News <\/i>deprecates separate electorates and advocates
\nofficial control veiled and occasional instead of official control insistent,
\nnaked and unashamed. But we know perfectly well that official control veiled
\nand occasional, as in the universities, can be made as potent and effective a
\nweapon for the suppression of independent<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 291<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

action
\nas official control direct and habitual. And if the European, the Mahomedan and the landlord are to predominate in
\nthe Municipalities as in the reformed Councils and the representation of the
\n"professional classes" carefully restricted, we do not care whether
\nit is done by separate electorates or by some other equally careful
\nmanipulation of the electoral lists. The result will be the same. The Daily
\nNews<\/i> seems to be inspired in its anxiety for reform by two lofty motives,
\nthe predominance of the European vote, wealthy but small in numbers, and the
\ndistinction of the predominance of the professional men who, under present
\ncircumstances, can alone represent educated India. On the Councils the
\nnon-official European representation is small, not in proportion to the numbers
\nof its constituency, but in its comparative voting power, yet this class is on
\nthe whole satisfied, because it not only gets what it knows to be disproportionately
\nlarge representation but can be sure of the co-operation of the official in farthering its interests. On the Municipalities, if the direct official control
\ndisappears, it will be necessary for the European vote to be dominant so as to
\nprevent a combination of other elements from pushing other interests to the
\ndetriment of European privilege or monopoly. The distinction which this
\njournal, in common with other Anglo-Indian papers, draws between men with a
\nreal stake in the country and educated men, who apparently because of their
\neducation have none, sheds a flood of light on the kind of friendship which it
\ncherishes for the people of this country.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n Chowringhee
\n Humour<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Statesman<\/i>
\nas a friend was intolerable; as a humorist it is hardly less difficult to bear.
\nThere was an elephantine attempt at sardonic humour in a recent article in
\nwhich it weightily urged the educated community to overlook defects and take
\nfull and generous advantage of the great opportunity from the benefits of which
\nthey have been excluded. That is the peculiar humour of these reforms. They are
\na Barmecide’s feast, gorgeous dishes and silver covers with only unsubstantial
\nair inside, and even<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 292<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

from
\nthat chameleon’s feast the educated classes are carefully excluded, except in a
\npitifully infinitesimal degree. Yet the Anglo-Indian papers are indignantly
\nremonstrating with the educated classes for not crowding to the table where
\nthere are no seats for them and feasting themselves fat on the dainty invisible
\nmeats which others are so eager to partake of. It may be asked why others are
\nso anxious for these aerial privileges. Well, that is because it is only the
\neducated classes who are really hungry for substantial political food, the
\nothers are eager to see and handle the gorgeous dishes and the silver covers,
\nto say nothing of the kudos of having dined at so rich a house and its material
\nadvantages to the individual. But the educated Hindus have had a surfeit of
\nspecious outsides and are learning to merge
\nthe interests of the individual in the good of the nation.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t
\n The Last
\n Resort<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nThe resort to boycott is becoming
\ninstinctive in men’s blood; not only in India but everywhere, men
\nconfronted by opposition of a nature which renders it
\nimpossible to deal with it effectively, take to boycott with an admirable
\nspontaneity. The rapid spread of this ancient Indian device
\nsince China and India applied it for the first time on the gigantic Asiatic scale, is a sign of the times. We can naturally understand the feeling of discomfort which leads
\nthe Anglo-Indian papers to deprecate this move on the part of the Moderates. It
\nis true that the reported agreement to boycott the Councils has been denied by
\nrepresentatives of Moderate opinion; but,
\nwhether a formal resolution to the effect was recorded or not at the momentous
\nmeeting in the Indian Association’s rooms, it is this policy which the
\nModerates are following, for the excellent reason that there is no other. As
\nthey pathetically complain, it is not they who have boycotted the Government
\nbut the Government which has boycotted them. That is not, of course, literally
\ntrue. Sj. Ambikacharan Majumdar who has refused to stand as a
\ncandidate, is eligible under the Government rules; the disabilities in the way
\nof Sj. Bhupendranath and Surendranath have been waived or removed. But this<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 293<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

the
\nGovernment has taken care to ensure, that if they enter, and evidently the
\nGovernment desires that they should enter, it shall be as grandiose
\nnonentities, stripped of all powerful backing, individual voices and nothing
\nmore ! Co-operation on such conditions would be the end of the Moderate party in
\nBengal and the absolute destruction of the Moderates is an event, which, we
\nconfess, we could not contemplate with equanimity. We need a party which will
\nform a convenient channel through which the Government can glide gradually down
\nthe path of concession until events have educated our bureaucracy to the point
\nof recognising the necessity of negotiation with the Nationalists. We are
\ntherefore glad that the Government has made it imperative on the Moderates to
\nanswer boycott with boycott. We have expressed our admiration of the skill with
\nwhich the Reform Regulations have been framed, but it is the skill of the
\nkeen-eyed but limited tactician cleverly manipulating forces for a small
\nimmediate gain, not of the far-seeing political strategist. On the contrary,
\nthe framers have flung away supports which
\nthey ought to have secured and secured others which are either weak or unreliable.
\nThe nonentities who are scrambling for a seat in the Council cannot hold the fort
\nfor them; the support of the land\u00adholders is
\nlacking in sincerity and they are, besides, a force the bureaucracy themselves
\nhave stripped ruthlessly of their ancient strength and leadership, which
\ncannot now be recovered by a seat on the Councils;
\nthe Mussulmans have suddenly been raised by the amazingly short-sighted policy
\nof Lord Morley into an eager, ambitious and
\npushing political force which will demand a higher and ever higher price for
\nits support. On the other hand the Moderates have been humiliated in the sight
\nof all India and made a general laughing stock, and the entire Hindu community,
\nalways the mightiest in potentiality in the land and now growing conscious of
\nits might, has been put far on the way to becoming a permanent and embittered opposition.
\nO wonders of Anglo-Indian statesmanship !<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 294<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facts and Opinions Volume I – Dec. 4, 1909 – Number 22 The Lieutenant-Governor’s Mercy   The outcry of the Moderates against the exclusion of…<\/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-1116","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\/1116","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=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}