{"id":2036,"date":"2013-07-13T01:39:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:39:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:03","slug":"65-facts-and-opinions-24-vol-08-karmayogin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/08-karmayogin\/65-facts-and-opinions-24-vol-08-karmayogin","title":{"rendered":"-65_Facts and Opinions_24.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tKARMAYOGIN<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA WEEKLY
\n\t\t\tREVIEW <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tof National
\n\t\t\tReligion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c.,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tVol. I <\/font>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t }<\/font><\/td>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSATURDAY 18th<\/sup> DECEMBER 1909<\/font><\/td>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t{<\/font>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNo. 24<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/font><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFacts and Opinions<\/font> <\/font>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tSir Pherozshah's Resignation<\/a> <\/font>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe
\nresignation of Sir Pherozshah Mehta took all India by surprise. It was as much
\na cause of astonishment to his faithful friends and henchmen as to the outside
\nworld. The speculation and bewilderment have been increased by the solemn mystery
\nin which the Dictator of the Convention has shrouded his reasons for a step so
\nsuddenly and painfully embarrassing to the body he created and now rules and
\nprotects. A multitude of reasons have been severally alleged for this sudden move
\nin the game by ingenious speculators, but they seem mostly to be figments of
\nthe imagination. It was an ingenious guess that Sir Pherozshah has been appointed,
\nas a reward for his great services to the Government, on the India Council and
\ncould, therefore, take no farther part in party politics. But until the
\nappointment, if real, is announced, such self-denial is not obligatory, and
\nsurely Lord Morley would be quite willing to give his choice ten days' grace in
\n\t\t\torder that he might pilot through this crisis in its fortunes a body
\n\t\t\tso useful
\nto the Government as the Convention that is striving this year to meet at Lahore.
\nWe ourselves lean to the idea that it is the complications ensuing on the
\nunmasking of the Reforms that are chiefly responsible for the move. The Reforms
\nare exasperating to Hindu sentiment, destructive to popular interests and a blow<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-351<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\teven to the Loyalist Hindus who were loudest in acclaiming
\n\t\t\tthe advent of the millennium. The Bombay leaders cannot accept the
\n\t\t\tReforms without
\nexasperating the people or refuse them with-out offending the Government. They
\nare in that embarrassing position which is vulgarly called being in a cleft
\nstick. It is not surprising in a tactician of Sir Pherozshah's eminence that,
\nat such a critical juncture, he should prefer to guide the deliberations of the
\nLahore Convention from behind the veil rather than stand forward and become
\npersonally responsible for whatever he may think it necessary to compel the
\nConvention to do. The Bengal Conventionists are already in danger of drifting
\naway from the moorings and the new Regulations have, we believe, created
\n\t\t\tthe imminence of another dissension among the remaining faithful.
\n\t\t\tThe resignation
\nof Sir Pherozshah makes it easier for the Bengal Moderates to attend the Lahore
\nCongress, and that may not have been absent from the thoughts of the master
\ntactician. But we never thought that Sir Pherozshah would care so much for the
\nco-operation of the Bengalis as to allow Srijut Surendranath to be President, as
\ncertain sanguine gentlemen in Bengal seem to have expected. Failing Sir
\nPherozshah and Mr. Gokhale, who for obvious reasons cannot be put forward so soon
\nafter the Benares Presidentship, Mr. Madan Mohan Malaviya was evidently the man,
\nand we find accordingly that he has been designated for the succession by the
\nobedient coterie at Bombay. We await with interest the upshot of this very
\nattractive entanglement and the method by which the Convention will try to
\nwriggle out of the very difficult hole into which Lord Morley has thrust it. <\/font>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe
\nCouncil Elections<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe elections for the Reformed Councils, so far as they
\n\t\t\thave proceeded, entirely justify the description of the new bodies
\n\t\t\twhich we gave
\nin our article on the Reforms. The elections for the United Provinces give a fair
\nsample of the results which are sure to obtain all over India. With the exception
\nof two or three gentlemen of the type of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, there is
\nnone on the Council to represent the educated wealthy, much<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-352<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tless the people at large; all the rest are Europeans,
\n\t\t\tMahomedans
\nand grandees. It is a Council of Notables, not a reformed Legislative Council
\nrepresenting both the Government and the people. In Bengal two gentlemen have
\nbeen elected who represent the most lukewarm element in the popular party, for
\n\t\t\tSj. Baikunthanath Sen and Mr. K. B. Dutt stand not for the new
\n\t\t\tmovement in Bengal
\nso much as for the old antiquated Congress politics which Bengal, even in its
\nModerate element, has left far behind. Behar sends one independent man in Mr.
\n\t\t\tDeepnarain Singh. All the rest are of the dignified classes who either
\n\t\t\thave no
\npatriotic feelings or dare not express them. It is possible that Sir Edward
\nBaker, in order to remove the stigma of unrepresentative subserviency from his
\nCouncil, may try to nominate two or three who will help to keep Sj. Baikunthanath
\nand his friend in countenance, but that purely personal grace will not
\n\t\t\tmend matters. The Bengal Council is likely to be an even more select
\n\t\t\tand
\nunrepresentative body than we expected. We counted the District Boards as
\npossible constituencies for representatives of opposition and independent
\nopinion, but, for the most part, they might almost as well have been preserves
\nfor the aristocracy. In East Bengal it is evident that the Councils will be a
\n\t\t\tMahomedan and European body. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tBritish Unfitness for
\n\t\t\tLiberty<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy all Anglo-Indian
\npapers it was triumphantly announced as a conclusive proof of the unfitness of
\nthe Indian people for self-government that the Surat Congress should have been
\n\t\t\tbroken up by the storming of the platform when passions were highly
\n\t\t\texcited and
\nrelations between parties at breaking-point. Every ordinary sign of excitement at
\na public meeting is telegraphed to England under some such graphic title as
\n"Uproarious proceedings at the Provincial Conference". But if rowdyism is a
\nsign of unfitness for liberty, there is no country so unfit as England itself
\n\t\t\tand
\nlogically, as lovers of England, our Anglo-Indian friends ought to pray that
\nGermany, which knows how to sternly stop such disturbances, or Russia, which
\nknows how to punish them,<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-353<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tshould take
\ncharge of England and teach her people respect for law and order. The excitement
\nof the great revolutionary struggle now proceeding in England has already in
\nthese few days induced such lawlessness and disorder that it is becoming almost
\nimpossible for Conservative speakers to command a public hearing. At first it
\nwas the Liberal Minister, Mr. Ure, whose meetings were systematically interrupted
\nand broken up by organised Conservative rowdyism. Since then the Radicals
\n\t\t\thave retaliated with much greater effect, first, with
\n"good-humoured" interruption, then with more formidable tumult and, finally,
\n\t\t\twe see the temper rising to absolute ferocity. Not only do we read
\n\t\t\tin one telegram
\nof four Conservative meetings which were of a disorderly nature, while Lord
\nKesteven and Lord Harris were refused a hearing, but the windows at Mr. Ure's
\nlast meeting were broken with a battering-ram and several of his audience
\n\t\t\twere cut; and the other day a Conservative meeting was broken up,
\n\t\t\tthe agent left
\nsenseless by his assailants and the candidate only saved by a skilful flight. Nor
\nwere the worst excesses of which our young men were accused in the prosecution of
\nthe Boycott and picketing, anywhere near the violence and recklessness of which
\nEnglishwomen have been systematically guilty during the last few months. Clearly
\nit is time that a more capable nation conquered and took charge of England. <\/font>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe
\nLahore Convention<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe prospects of the Lahore Convention seem to be
\n\t\t\texceedingly clouded. In the matter of the Presidentship the fiat has
\n\t\t\tgone forth
\nfrom Bombay that Pandit Madan Mohan shall be President and, unless the
\ndissatisfaction with the Mehta leadership has extended itself to the subservient
\nCongress Committees, it is likely that the Bombay nomination will give the lead
\nto the rest of the Conventionist coteries, excepting perhaps Burma and Bengal. The
\nConvention is now at a critical stage of its destinies. Disowned by the Punjab,
\ntroubled by strained relations between Bombay and Bengal, it has received the
\ncrowning blow from the Government which supports it; its policy has been
\n\t\t\tdiscredited<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-354<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tbefore the country and once more it has
\nbeen proved to a disgusted people that the methods of the Conventionists lead
\n\t\t\tto nothing but rebuffs, humiliation and political retrogression in
\n\t\t\tthe name of
\nreform. If this body is to survive, there is need of a strong hand and skilful
\nguidance, otherwise the present session is likely to be the last. Already the
\nConvention is becoming the refuge of an out-of-date and vanishing coterie who no
\n\t\t\tlonger command the confidence of the country. By its very
\n\t\t\tconstitution the
\nConvention has cut itself off from the people and a few men meeting in conclave
\nelect the delegates in the name of an indifferent or hostile public. The dying
\npast in vain strives to entrench itself in this insecure and crumbling fortress.
\nEvery day will serve to undermine it more and more and the Nationalists are
\ncontent to let time and inevitable tendency do their work for them. Only by a
\nradical self-purification and change of policy can the Convention hope to
\nsurvive.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-355<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARMAYOGIN A WEEKLY REVIEW of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c., Vol. I  } SATURDAY 18th DECEMBER 1909 { No. 24   Facts and Opinions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-08-karmayogin","wpcat-44-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","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=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}