{"id":258,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=258"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","slug":"117-copturing-the-congress-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/117-copturing-the-congress-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-117_Copturing the Congress.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n\u201c<\/font>Capturing
\nthe Congress<\/font>\u201d<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/font>
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>W<\/font><\/span>E
\nHAVE<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span> asked the Nationalists all over
\nIndia to muster strong at Surat during the Congress session. It is believed in
\nsome quarters that we intend to march upon the Congress and re-enact a Pride’s
\nPurge. Another insinuation is that we form a band of vain, petulant upstarts who
\ndelight in wrecking and breaking for its own sake. The Bengalee <\/i>calls
\nupon the people to repudiate these traitors, and the Tribune <\/i>of Lahore,
\nthe Indu Prakash <\/i>and Social Reformer <\/i>of Bombay, the Indian
\nPeople <\/i>of Allahabad have by this time swelled that cry. The principle that
\nunderlay our attempt to get Lajpat elected to the Presidential chair has not
\nbeen appreciated by the Punjabee<\/i>, <\/i>the Hindu <\/i>and even Lala Lajpat
\nRai himself. Capital is being made of this fact and unworthy motives attributed
\nto the Nationalists. Our enemies have got a splendid opportunity to discredit
\nthe Nationalist movement by saying that even those who are avowedly sympathetic
\ntowards the propaganda cannot support all its senseless manifestation. The
\nemergence of a new school of thought, their vigorous and menacing activity and
\nenthusiasm have always made the votaries of established order uneasy and
\nvindictive. In the frenzied anxiety to retain all power, in a paralysing fear of
\nchange they raise a terrible clamour and try to play upon the timidity and the
\nspirit of routine of the unthinking people. They cry for the blood of the new
\nmessengers without even patiently listening to their message. Even master minds
\nsuccumb to this weakness. When Dr. Price delivered his eloquent sermon on the
\ngreat impetus given to national freedom by the revolutionary propaganda in
\nFrance, Burke became quite unnerved and was so much carried away by an
\nunreasonable fear as to wreck his own reputation as a sedate and practical
\nstatesman by setting to work to write that hysterical diatribe against the
\nFrench Revolution, which even his admirers could not help regretting.<\/font><\/p>\n

              It
\nis no wonder therefore that the Nationalists should be<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-648<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

assailed
\nwith the most unjustifiable vehemence in their attempt to awaken and organise
\nthe people and to shift the centre of power and authority to them. But while the
\nNationalists should pursue their line of action with unabated zeal, they are
\nalso to consider, in view of the fierce and vindictive opposition which they
\nhave provoked not only from the bureaucracy but also a section of their own
\ncountrymen, whether they should not work in their own way without coming into
\ncollusion with those whose ideals and methods of work render any concerted
\naction hardly possible. We invite the Nationalists to Surat not so much to
\ncapture the Congress by violence, as our enemies maliciously put it, but to see
\nthat the Nationalist sentiment and Nationalist programme find their place in the
\ndeliberations and finally prevail. Many of us think that the Nationalists cannot
\npull on with the Moderates and Loyalists who are determined to baffle their
\npatriotic activities to democratise the Congress by a cobweb of malicious
\nmisrepresentation and vilification. The Nationalists indulge in no vague charges
\nagainst the Moderates. They expose their high-handedness with an unequivocal
\nstatement of facts. But these people do not meet us on the charges brought
\nagainst them, but try to evade the real issue by irrelevant and senseless
\ndenunciations. Under the circumstances, some of us thought it wiser and easier
\nfor the Nationalists to have an organ of their own, without giving the Moderates
\nand Loyalists a chance of misrepresenting and vilifying them. The experience of
\nthe Midnapur
\nConference shows that the delegates, young and old, <\/span>all smart under the
\nautocracy of the old workers, which is leading many to think a separatist
\nmovement preferable to a perpetual friction. But for the present we must put all
\nsuch thoughts from us. It has been decided to continue the
\nattempt to fight out the battle of Nationalism in the Congress Pandal until at
\nlast a majority of the delegates declare for our views. To that end we must now
\ndevote all our energies.<\/font><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLala
\nLajpat Rai\u2019s Refusal<\/font><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/b>The
\nrefusal of Lala Lajpat Rai to accept nomination to the Presi-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-649<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

dentship
\nof the Congress as against Dr. Rash Behari Ghose has given great cause for
\nrejoicing to the Moderates and to Anglo-Indian journals like the Empire<\/i>. <\/i>The
\nrefusal is natural enough, for when a man who has not been nominated is under
\nsuch circumstances pressed for a reply to the question whether he will accept
\nnomination or not, he is put into a delicate position in which he must either
\nappear to be wanting in modesty or give away his supporters. This was the
\ndilemma in which the Loyalists have placed Lala Lajpat Rai. Evidently, he has
\nbeen persuaded to think that he was being asked to stand against Dr. Rash Behari
\nGhose and that the proposal of the Nationalists was intended as a personal
\nhonour to himself. Needless to say, the Nationalists have not asked Lajpat Rai
\nto stand as a candidate. The step they have taken is simply to ask from Dr. Rash
\nBehari Ghose the magnanimity to withdraw and leave the field clear so that a
\ngreat principle might be vindicated in the most striking way of which the
\ncircumstances admitted. Had Dr. Ghose shown that magnanimity there would have
\nbeen no necessity for Lajpat Rai to be asked to stand as a candidate; the
\nunanimous will of the country would have called him to the Presidential chair.
\nOur proposal was not meant as an invitation to do honour to a particular
\nindividual, nor, great as is our personal regard for Lajpat Rai, was it dictated
\nby personal affection. We look upon him as the embodiment of an ideal and his
\nnomination as the nation’s answer to the repressions of the bureaucracy. Lala
\nLajpat Rai, out of feelings which we respect, has declined to give us that
\nopportunity. We are sorry to have lost it, but glad at least that of the two men
\nput forward, one should have shown the magnanimity to which the other has not
\nbeen able to rise.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe
\nDelegates\u2019 Fund<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many who are desirous of contributing to the Delegates\u2019
\nFund, have addressed enquiries to us about the manner in which it is to be
\ndisposed of. The object of the fund is to send to Surat a number of delegates
\nwith uncompromising views and of an uncompromising spirit who will see to it, so
\nfar as lies in their<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-650<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

power,
\nthat the Congress at Surat shall make no backward step but, if possible, move a
\nstep further towards associating itself with the new life of the country. We
\nhope that no attempt will be made to take any backward step, but we know that
\nthere is a reactionary element in the Congress which would be only too glad to
\nrecede, and if by negligence we give them their opportunity, the responsibility
\nfor any backsliding will be ours. We hope also that Bengal will present a solid
\nfront against any reaction, but we have no right to be sure of it, and only if
\nthere is the strong moral backing of a number of delegates, who will not
\ncompromise with their principles or allow respect of persons or utter persuasion
\nor browbeating to sway them from their firm position, can we expect the Bengal
\nleaders to stand fast against the pressure that may be brought to bear on them.
\nThe delegates who will be assisted out of the fund must therefore pledge
\nthemselves to stand firm for Boycott as a general principle,
\n<\/span>for the
\nSwadeshi resolution as it was framed last year, for National<\/span> <\/span>Education
\nand Arbitration as prominent planks in the Congress platform and to do their
\nbest to see that the Congress takes up the cause of the Transvaal Indians,
\nrejects Mr. Morley’s reforms or any other sham and simulacrum of self-government
\nand takes a sensible step forward in the direction of national organisation. The
\nprecise proposals which will be pressed upon the Subjects Committee will be
\nformulated after due discussion in the Nationalist Conference which meets on the
\n24th at Surat, but these are the broad lines on which we propose to frame them.
\nWe may mention finally that all we propose to give out of the fund is
\nassistance; no single delegate will be given all his expenses to and from or at
\nSurat. If it should be decided to propose constitutional changes in the
\ndirection of democratising the Congress, our delegates will support such
\nproposals. Those, therefore, who contribute to the Fund should understand that
\nthey are contributing to send delegates who will support progress and to save
\nthe National Assembly from the danger of a disastrous and ignominious relapse
\ninto the past methods and ideas which the nation is fast outgrowing and which
\nBengal has altogether renounced.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>, <\/i><\/font>December 18, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-651<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCapturing the Congress\u201d                     WE HAVE asked the Nationalists all over India to muster strong at Surat during the Congress session. It is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","wpcat-8-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","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=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}