{"id":2057,"date":"2013-07-13T01:39:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2057"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:39:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:10","slug":"62-facts-and-opinions-22-vol-08-karmayogin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/08-karmayogin\/62-facts-and-opinions-22-vol-08-karmayogin","title":{"rendered":"-62_Facts and Opinions_22.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tKARMAYOGIN<\/font> <\/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 4th<\/sup> DECEMBER 1909<\/font><\/td>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t{<\/font>
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNo. 22<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/font><\/p>\n

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Facts and Opinions\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tThe Lieutenant-Governor’s Mercy<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The outcry of the Moderates against the exclusion of their best men has led to certain concessions by which apparently the Government hope to minimise or obviate the formidable opposition that is slowly gathering head against the new Councils. These concessions remove not a single objectionable principle from the Bill. They are evidently designed to facilitate the admission into
\n\tthe Council of the two men in Bengal whose opposition may prove most harmful to the chances of the exceedingly skilful
\n\tChinese puzzle called the Councils Regulations, by which the consummate tacticians of Simla hope to preserve full control for the authorities while earning the credit of a liberal and popular reform. The modification by which men who have served three
\n\tyears on a Municipality become eligible even if they are no longer on any such body at the time of election, seems specially designed
\n\tto admit Sj. Bhupendranath Bose who, with all the other well-known men of Bengal, was excluded by the careful provisions of the Scheme. But to have placated Sj. Bhupendranath and at the same time disqualified the greater Moderate leader would obviously have been an infructuous concession. Accordingly, we are now given to understand that the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to intimate to the most powerful man in Bengal that, if he<\/p>\n

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stands for election, the disqualification under which he has been placed, will be waived as a special concession in his favour! We
\n\tdo not know what were the feelings of Sj. Surendranath when he was informed that this back-door had been opened to him by
\n\tthe indulgence of the bureaucracy to its dismissed servant. But to us the permission seems to be more humiliating and injurious
\n\tthan the original exclusion, \u2013to Bengal, if not to Surendranath personally. As things stand, he cannot make use of the concession without forfeiting his already much-imperilled popularity and putting himself uselessly into a ridiculous and undignified position. If he stood now, the whole country would believe that his dissatisfaction with the Reforms was due to his personal
\n\texclusion and not to the vicious principles of the Scheme. He would enter not in his own right, but by the grace and mercy
\n\tof the bureaucracy of whom he has been the lifelong opponent. And to what end? To stand isolated or with a handful of ineffective votes against a solid phalanx of officials, Government nominees, Europeans, Mahomedans and lukewarm waverers or reactionaries. Sj. Surendranath gains nothing for himself or the country by entering the Councils on these shameful terms; he
\n\tgains everything by holding aloof and standing out for better conditions.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tAn Ominous Presage<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The Indian Daily News <\/i>nowadays plays the Statesman’s
\n<\/i>abandoned role of the Friend of India. This journal has been recently harping on the necessity of the reform of the Municipalities
\n\tand throwing out suggestions of the lines on which those reforms should be framed. We cannot imagine anything more
\n\tominous, more fatal to the little of self-government that we possess, than these suggested reforms. We pointed out in our
\n\tarticle on the Reforms that under this scheme the Municipalities were the only weak point in the Government’s armour and we hazarded a prophecy that the Government would follow the policy of thorough and mend this vulnerable part. This is precisely what our Anglo-Indian “friend” earnestly and repeatedly<\/p>\n

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calls on them to do without farther delay. The principle to be enforced is that same false, vicious and antidemocratic principle
\n\tof the representation of separate interests which has made the new Reforms a blow straight at the heart of progress instead
\n\tof an important step in progressive development. It is true that the Daily News
\n<\/i>deprecates separate electorates and advocates
\n\tofficial control veiled and occasional instead of official control insistent, naked and unashamed. But we know perfectly well that
\n\tofficial control veiled and occasional, as in the universities, can be made as potent and effective a weapon for the suppression
\n\tof independent action as official control direct and habitual. And if the European, the Mahomedan and the landlord are to
\n\tpredominate in the Municipalities as in the reformed Councils and the representation of the “professional classes” carefully
\n\trestricted, we do not care whether it is done by separate electorates or by some other equally careful manipulation of the
\n\telectoral lists. The result will be the same. The Daily News<\/i> seems to be inspired in its anxiety for reform by two lofty
\n\tmotives, the predominance of the European vote, wealthy but small in numbers, and the distinction of the predominance of
\n\tthe professional men who, under present circumstances, can alone represent educated India. On the Councils the non-official
\n\tEuropean representation is small, not in proportion to the numbers of its constituency, but in its comparative voting power,
\n\tyet this class is on the whole satisfied, because it not only gets what it knows to be disproportionately large representation but
\n\tcan be sure of the co-operation of the official in farthering its interests. On the Municipalities, if the direct official control disappears, it will be necessary for the European vote to be dominant so as to prevent a combination of other elements from
\n\tpushing other interests to the detriment of European privilege or monopoly. The distinction which this journal, in common
\n\twith other Anglo-Indian papers, draws between men with a real stake in the country and educated men, who apparently
\n\tbecause of their education have none, sheds a flood of light on the kind of friendship which it cherishes for the people of this
\n\tcountry.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tChowringhee Humour<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The Statesman <\/i>as a friend was intolerable; as a humorist it is
\n\thardly less difficult to bear. There was an elephantine attempt at sardonic humour in a recent article in which it weightily urged the educated community to overlook defects and take full and generous advantage of the great opportunity from the benefits
\n\tof which they have been excluded. That is the peculiar humour of these reforms. They are a Barmecide’s feast, gorgeous dishes and silver covers with only unsubstantial air inside, and even from that chameleon’s feast the educated classes are carefully
\n\texcluded, except in a pitifully infinitesimal degree. Yet the Anglo-Indian papers are indignantly remonstrating with the educated classes for not crowding to the table where there are no seats for them and feasting themselves fat on the dainty invisible meats
\n\twhich others are so eager to partake of. It may be asked why others are so anxious for these aerial privileges. Well, that is
\n\tbecause it is only the educated classes who are really hungry for substantial political food, the others are eager to see and
\n\thandle the gorgeous dishes and the silver covers, to say nothing of the kudos of having dined at so rich a house and its material
\n\tadvantages to the individual. But the educated Hindus have had a surfeit of specious outsides and are learning to merge the
\n\tinterests of the individual in the good of the nation. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tThe Last Resort<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The resort to boycott is becoming instinctive in men’s blood; not only in India but everywhere, men confronted by opposition of
\n\ta nature which renders it impossible to deal with it effectively, take to boycott with an admirable spontaneity. The rapid spread
\n\tof this ancient Indian device since China and India applied it for the first time on the gigantic Asiatic scale, is a sign of the times.
\n\tWe can naturally understand the feeling of discomfort which leads the Anglo-Indian papers to deprecate this move on the
\n\tpart of the Moderates. It is true that the reported agreement to boycott the Councils has been denied by representatives of<\/p>\n

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Moderate opinion, but, whether a formal resolution to the effect was recorded or not at the momentous meeting in the Indian
\n\tAssociation’s rooms, it is this policy which the Moderates are following, for the excellent reason that there is no other. As they
\n\tpathetically complain, it is not they who have boycotted the Government but the Government which has boycotted them.
\n\tThat is not, of course, literally true. Sj. Ambikacharan Majumdar who has refused to stand as a candidate, is eligible under the Government rules; the disabilities in the way of Sjs. Bhupendranath and Surendranath have been waived or removed. But this the Government has taken care to ensure, that if they enter, and evidently the Government desires that they should
\n\tenter, it shall be as grandiose nonentities, stripped of all powerful backing, individual voices and nothing more. Co-operation
\n\ton such conditions would be the end of the Moderate party in Bengal and the absolute destruction of the Moderates is an event,
\n\twhich, we confess, we could not contemplate with equanimity. We need a party which will form a convenient channel through
\n\twhich the Government can glide gradually down the path of concession until events have educated our bureaucracy to the
\n\tpoint of recognising the necessity of negotiation with the Nationalists. We are therefore glad that the Government has made it imperative on the Moderates to answer boycott with boycott. We have expressed our admiration of the skill with which the
\n\tReform Regulations have been framed, but it is the skill of the keen-eyed but limited tactician cleverly manipulating forces for
\n\ta small immediate gain, not of the far-seeing political strategist. On the contrary, the framers have flung away supports which
\n\tthey ought to have secured and secured others which are either weak or unreliable. The nonentities who are scrambling for a
\n\tseat in the Council cannot hold the fort for them; the support of the landholders is lacking in sincerity and they are, besides,
\n\ta force the bureaucracy themselves have stripped ruthlessly of their ancient strength and leadership, which cannot now be recovered by a seat on the Councils; the Musulmans have suddenly been raised by the amazingly shortsighted policy of Lord Morley into an eager, ambitious and pushing political force which will<\/p>\n

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demand a higher and ever higher price for its support. On the other hand the Moderates have been humiliated in the sight of all
\n\tIndia and made a general laughing stock, and the entire Hindu community, always the mightiest in potentiality in the land and
\n\tnow growing conscious of its might, has been put far on the way to becoming a permanent and embittered opposition. O
\n\twonders of Anglo-Indian statesmanship! <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

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OTHER WRITINGS BY SRI AUROBINDO IN THIS ISSUE\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t<\/p>\n

The Men that Pass\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The National Value of Art III<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tPage-339<\/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 4th DECEMBER 1909 { No. 22   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-2057","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\/2057","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=2057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}