{"id":259,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=259"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:57","slug":"029-british-protection-or-self-protection-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\/029-british-protection-or-self-protection-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-029_British Protection or Self Protection.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n


\nBritish Protection or Self Protection<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/font>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/font>T<\/font><\/b><\/span>HERE<\/b> are two superstitions which have driven such deep
\nroot into the mind of our people that even where the new spirit is strongest,
\nthey still hold their own. One is the habit of appealing to British courts of justice;
\nthe other is the reliance upon the British executive for our protection. The
\nfrequent recurrence of incidents such as the Mymensingh and Comilla
\ndisturbances will have its use if it drives into our minds the truth that in
\nthe struggle we have begun we cannot and ought not to expect protection from
\nour natural adversaries. It is perfectly true that one of the main
\npreoccupations of the executive mind has been the maintenance of order and
\nquiet in the country, because a certain kind of tranquillity was essential to
\nthe preservation of an alien bureaucratic control. This was the secret of the
\nbarbarous system of punishments which make the Indian Penal Code a triumph of
\ncivilised savagery; of the license and the blind support allowed by the
\nMagistracy to a phenomenally corrupt and oppressive Police; of the doctrine of
\nno conviction no promotion, which is the gospel of the Anglo-Indian executive,
\nholding it better that a hundred innocent should suffer than one crime be
\nrecorded as unpunished. This was the reason of the severity with which
\nturbulent offences have always been repressed, of the iniquitous and oppressive
\nsystem of punitive Police and of the undeclared but well-understood Police rule
\nthat any villager of strong physique, skill with weapons and active habits
\nshould be entered in the list of bad characters. By a rigid application of
\nthese principles the bureaucracy have succeeded in creating the kind of
\ntranquillity they require. The Romans created a desert and called the result
\npeace; the British in India have destroyed the spirit and manhood of the people
\nand call the result law and order. It is true, on the other hand, that there
\nhave been exceptions to the promptness and severity with which turbulence of
\nany kind is usually dealt with; and the most notable is the supine-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-215<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nness
\nand dilatoriness, habitually shown by the authorities, in dealing with outbreaks
\nof Mahomedan fanaticism and the gingerly fashion in which repression in such
\ncases is enforced. Fear is undoubtedly at the root of this weakness. The
\nbureaucracy are never tired of impressing the irresistible might of British
\nsupremacy on the subject populations, but in their own hearts they are aware
\nthat that supremacy is insecure and without root in the soil; the general
\nupheaval of any deep-seated and elemental passion in the hearts of the people
\nmight easily shatter that supremacy as so many others have been shattered before
\nit. The one passion which in past times has been proved capable of so upheaving
\nthe national consciousness in India is religious feeling; and outraged religious
\nfeeling is therefore the one thing which the bureaucracy dreads and the
\nslightest sign of which turns their courage into nervousness or panic and their
\nstrength into paralysed weakness. The alarm which the Swadeshi movement created
\nwas due to this abiding terror; for in the Swadeshi movement, for the first time
\npatriotism became a national religion, the name of the motherland was invested
\nwith divine sacredness and her service espoused with religious fervour and
\nenthusiasm. In its alarm Anglo-India turned for help to that turbulent Mahomedan
\nfanaticism which they had so dreaded; hoping to drive out poison by poison, they
\nmenaced the insurgent religion of patriotism with the arming of Mahomedan
\nprejudices against what its enemies declared to be an essentially Hindu
\nmovement. The first fruits of this policy we have seen at Mymensingh, Serajgunge
\nand Comilla. It was a desperate and dangerous, and might easily prove a fatal,
\nexpedient; but with panic-stricken men the fear of the lesser danger is easily
\nswallowed in the terror of the <\/font>
\ngreater.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>It should not therefore be difficult to see
\nthat the demand for official protection in such affairs as the Comilla riots is
\nas unpractical as it is illogical. The object of modern civilised Governments in
\npreserving tranquillity is to protect the citizen not only in the peaceful
\npursuit of his legitimate occupations but in the public activities and
\nambitions natural to a free people; the Government exists for the citizen, not
\nthe citizen for the Government. But the bureaucracy in India is only half-modem
\nand<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-216<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nsemi-civilised.
\nIn India the individual,<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>for there is no
\ncitizen, <\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>exists for the
\nGovernment; and the object in preserving tran<\/span>quillity
\nis not the protection of the citizen but the security of the Government. The
\nsecurity of the individual, such as it is, is only a result and not an object.
\nBut the security of the Government, if by Government we understand the present
\nirresponsible bureaucratic control, is directly threatened by the Swadeshi
\nmovement; for the declared object of that movement is Swaraj, which means the
\nentire elimination of that control. To ask the bureaucracy, therefore, to
\nprotect us in our struggle for Swaraj is to ask it to assists in its own
\ndestruction.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>This plain truth is obviously recognised by the officials of the Shillong
\nGovernment. The attitude taken up by the Magistrates of Mymensingh and Comilla
\nwas identically the same; they saw no necessity for interfering; the Hindus by
\ntheir Swadeshi agitation had brought the Mahomedan storm upon themselves and
\nmust take the consequences. The unexpressed inference is plain enough. The
\nbureaucratic "constitution", under which we are asked to carry on
\n"constitutional" Government, assures us British peace and security
\nonly so long as we are not Swadeshi. The moment we become Swadeshi, British
\npeace and security, so far as we are concerned, automatically come to an end,
\nand we are liable to have our heads broken, our men assaulted, our women
\ninsulted and our property plundered without there being any call for British
\nauthority to interfere. The same logic underlies the imputation of the
\nresponsibility for the riot to Babu Bepin Chandra Pal’s inflammatory eloquence,
\nwhich was made, we believe, in both instances and in this last has received the
\nsupport of the loyalist press. Whom or what did Bepin Babu inflame? Not the
\nMahomedans to attack the Hindus certainly, \u2014 that would be too preposterous a
\nstatement for even an Anglo-Indian Magistrate to make,
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>but all Indians, Hindus and Mahomedans
\nalike, to work enthusiastically for Swadeshi and Swaraj. By raising the cry of
\nSwadeshi and Swaraj, then, we <\/font>
\nforfeit
\nthe protection of the law.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Stated so nakedly, the reasoning sounds
\nabsurd; but, in the light of certain practical considerations we can perfectly
\nappreciate the standpoint of these bureaucrats. Arguing as philo-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-217<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nsophers,
\nthey would be wrong; but arguing as bureaucrats and rulers of a subject people,
\ntheir position is practical and logical. The establishment of Swaraj means the
\nelimination of the British bureaucrat. Can we ask the British bureaucrat to make
\nit safe and easy for us to eliminate him? Swadeshi is a direct attack on that
\nexploitation of India by the British merchant which is the first and principal
\nreason of the obstinate maintenance of bureaucratic control. The trade came to
\nIndia as the pioneer of the flag; and the bureaucrat may reasonably fear that if
\nthe trade is driven out, the flag will leave in the wake of the trade. With that
\nfear in his mind, even apart from his natural racial sympathies, can we ask him
\nto facilitate the expulsion of the trade? On the contrary, the official
\nrepresentative of the British shop-keeper is morally bound, be he Viceroy,
\nLieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State or be he a mere common District
\nMagistrate, to put down Swadeshi by the best means in his power. Sir Bampfylde
\nthought violence and
\nintimidation, Gurkha Police and Regulation lathis the very best means; Mr.
\nMorley believes Swadeshi can be more easily smothered with soft pillows than
\nbanged to death with a hard cudgel. The means differ; the end is the same. At
\npresent the bureaucracy have two strings to their bow \u2014 general Morleyism with
\nthe aid of the loyalist Mehtaite element among the Parsis and Hindus; and
\noccasional Fullerism with the aid of the Salimullahi Party among the Mahomedans.
\nWith the growth of the new spirit and the disappearance of a few antiquated but
\nstill commanding personalities, the former will lose its natural support and the
\nlatter will be left in possession of the field. But we know by this time that
\nSalimullahism means a repetition of the outbreaks of Mymensingh, Serajgunge and
\nComilla, and the attitude of the Comilla heaven-born will be the attitude of
\nmost heaven-borns wherever these outbreaks recur. It is urgently necessary
\ntherefore that we should shake off the superstitious habit of praying for
\nprotection to the British authorities and look for help to the only true,
\npolitical divinity, the national strength which is within ourselves. If we are
\nto do this effectually, we must organise physical education all over the country
\nand train up the rising generation not only in the moral strength and courage
\nfor which Swadeshism has given us the mate-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-218<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nrials,
\nbut in physical strength and courage and the habit of rising immediately and
\nboldly to the height of even the greatest emergency. That strength we must train
\nin every citizen of the newly-created nation so that for our private protection
\nwe may not be at the mercy of a Police efficient only for harassment, whose
\nappearance on the scene after a crime means only a fresh and worse calamity to
\nthe peaceful householder; but each household may be a protection to itself and
\nwhen help is needed, be able to count on its neighbour. And the strength of the
\nindividuals we must carefully organise for purposes of national defence, so that
\nthere may be no further fear of Comilla tumults or official Gurkha riots
\ndisturbing our steady and rapid advance to national freedom. It is high time we
\nabandoned the fat and comfortable selfish middle-class training we give to our
\nyouth and make a nearer approach to the physical and moral education of our old
\nKshatriyas or the Japanese Samurai.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> March 18, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\nBy The Way<\/a><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\nSays
\nthe Englishman<\/i>: \u2014<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>It is interesting and to the man with a wicked sense of the ludicrous not
\nunamusing to see the heroism with which various Bengali papers call upon the
\nnations of India to arise, fling out the Feringhee, and establish vast
\nsecretariats replete with fat billets in which, secured by the warlike races,
\nsixty million sons of the Lower Provinces will dream and scribble for the
\nbenefit of the sixty million. "Motherland" is sadly of opinion that
\nbut for the system of education forced upon India, and the presence of Indians
\nin Government Service, foreign dominion in India would be impossible and the
\n"male family members" of its editor’s tribe would all be Togos and
\nKurokis. Bande Mataram <\/i>has "found out the natural antagonism between
\na handful of aliens and the oppressed and down-trodden children of the
\nsoil", and yearning heroically for the inevitable struggle to come,
\nsniffing the battle afar off snorts, "if the aliens are determined to
\npreserve their own superiority, let them make a fresh attempt and see how<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>219<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nevents
\nturn out". Other papers look back with regret upon the glorious deeds of
\nthe Spartan warriors who, Heraclidae and Bayards all, filled Bengal before the
\nrecreant English, in coward fashion seduced the people to the paths of peace.
\nAll express ardent longings for the coming of the day of Armageddon when the
\nstrong man armed will wake from his poppied sleep and a wave 400 million strong
\nwill blot out the white specks who think that they govern India. In the
\nmeanwhile, we would commend to the attention of our militant friends of the
\nperfervidly patriot press the moral to be drawn from the little drama in Market
\nStreet on Sunday. The lads became possessed of a loaded double-barreled pistol
\n\u2014 they may have borrowed it from the armoury of some hopeful patriot. They
\ntook it to a tinsmith, and he got playing with it. It went off and a woman was
\nshot in the back. A crowd collected and one man picked up the weapon which went
\noff again and shattered his hand. There was nearly a panic and at length a
\nstring was tied to the pistol butt, and it was dragged to the police station.
\nThe two boys who had brought the pistol ran away. There is no need to labour the
\nmoral, but revolutions are more dangerous than loaded pistols and none can tell
\nwho will get badly hurt. All that can be predicted with safety is that the real
\nauthors of the trouble will get away early.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>"The wicked sense of the ludicrous" has become a little too
\nkeen in the Englishman<\/i>. <\/i>It is no doubt ludicrous that anybody should
\nquestion the Englishman<\/i>‘s <\/i>natural right to hold down others. It is no
\ndoubt ludicrous that two Bengali boys in their teens, only lads according to the
\nEnglishman<\/i>‘s <\/i>own version, should not know the use of a loaded
\ndouble-barreled pistol. It is far more ludicrous that a Bengali crowd should not
\nknow what a gun is like when the benign Government has made it penal even for
\nrespectable gentlemen to be in possession of that formidable weapon. It is still
\nmore ludicrous that the Bengalis should fail to be heroes when the Englishman
\n<\/i>has advised the Government not to give them any offensive weapon lest their
\nnaked valour should suffer. It is ludicrous indeed that the Bengalis do not rise
\nto their full height notwithstanding the faculties which the Englishman<\/i>‘s <\/i>countrymen
\nhave provided for them. There is no cowardice in emasculating a man in every way<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-220<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nand
\nthen twitting him with his symptoms of weakness.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The Englishman <\/i>is making capital out of the Market Street
\nincident. He thinks he has scored a point against the Revolutionists who, when
\ntheir ignorant crowd get dazed at the going off of a pistol, "call upon the
\nnations of India to arise and fling out the Feringhees". We have been
\nfurther told that revolutions are more dangerous than loaded pistols; and if the
\nworst comes to happen the real authors of the trouble will get away early.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>We are glad the Englishman <\/i>has dissipated our ignorance. Till now,
\nwe were under the impression that revolutions were far easier than quill-driving
\nin a Chowringhee office, under the electric fan attended by a thousand liveried
\nservants. We have yet to learn that all Englishmen are Heraclidae and Bayards
\nand there is none amongst them whom even our demoralised crowd would put to
\nshame. Every stick is good enough to beat the dog with; and the Market Street
\nincident has very rightly been pounced upon by the Englishman <\/i>to
\npooh-pooh the aspirations of the perfervidly patriotic press. It is rather late
\nin the day to smile the New Spirit away. The perfervid press have by this time
\nlearnt that two and two makes four and can be spared the Englishman<\/i>‘s <\/i>enlightenment
\nas to what revolution is like. The Bengalis are quick-witted and only a day’s
\nexperience, we believe, has befitted the Market Street crowd to take part in a
\nrevolution, if the Englishman <\/i>can bring about any. The real truth is that
\nso many gun-shot incidents are ominous to the <\/font>
\nEnglishman<\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> March 21, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font>221<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Protection or Self Protection    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 THERE are two superstitions which have driven such deep root into the mind of our people that even…<\/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-259","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\/259","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=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}