{"id":265,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=265"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:59","slug":"096-bande-mataram-prosecution-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\/096-bande-mataram-prosecution-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-096_Bande Mataram Prosecution.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n\u201cBande Mataram\u201d Prosecution<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>T<\/font><\/b>HE<\/b>
\nprosecution of the Bande Mataram<\/i>, <\/i>the most important of the numerous
\nPress prosecutions recently instituted by the bureaucracy, commenced with a
\nflourish of trumpets, eagerly watched by a hopeful Anglo-India Press, has ended
\nin the most complete and dismal fiasco such as no Indian Government has ever had
\nto experience before in a sedition case. The failure has not been the result of
\nany lukewarmness or halfheartedness in the conduct of the prosecution or any
\nunwillingness to convict on the part of the trying Magistrate. The Police left
\nno stone unturned to get a particular man convicted, the Standing Counsel did
\nnot hesitate to press every possible point and make the most of every stray
\nscrap or faint shadow of evidence against the accused, the Magistrate was a
\nCivilian Magistrate whose leanings have never been concealed, the same who gave
\ntwo years to the Yugantar <\/i>Printer, who sent Bepin Pal before a
\nsubservient Bengali Magistrate with a plain hint to give him a heavy punishment,
\nwho sentenced Sushil Kumar to fifteen stripes, who brushed aside the evidence of
\nbarristers in favour of Police testimony, and every paragraph of whose judgment
\nin the present case shows that he would readily have dealt out a handsome term
\nof hard labour if the evidence had afforded him the slightest justification for
\na conviction. All the winning cards in the game are in the hands of the
\nbureaucracy in such a trial. They can command the best legal knowledge in the
\ncountry, they have a detective and secret service system which for political
\npurposes is popularly supposed to be second only in its elaborateness to the
\nRussian, they have their own servants sitting on the bench to try a case in
\nwhich they are deeply interested, there is no trouble about juries who might be
\nunwilling to convict, the Police have unlimited powers of search and can even
\nturn the Post Office into a branch of the detective department; their methods of
\ndiscovering witnesses are various and effective; yet with all this they were
\nunable to<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-542<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nbring
\nforward a single scrap of convincing evidence to prove that the particular man
\nthey were bent on running down was the Editor. The Magistrate in his judgment
\nand the affectionate Friend of India in Chowringhee in his comments have drawn
\nfrom this failure the lesson that the laws against the freedom of the Press
\nshould be made more stringent. An ordinary unilluminated intelligence would have
\ncome rather to the conclusion that the executive authorities would do well to
\nreform their method of instituting proceedings in a political trial.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The one important lesson of the Bande Mataram <\/i>Case is the light
\nwhich it throws on the spirit in which the bureaucracy have been instituting the
\npolitical prosecutions and persecutions which have latterly seemed to be their
\nonly reason of existence. This spirit has been exposed in a lurid and
\nsensational manner in the Comilla case, when an innocent man with difficulty
\nescaped the gallows to which a political prosecution had condemned him. But in
\nthe Bande Mataram <\/i>Case also there has been a less sensational though
\nsufficient exposure of the same sinister spirit. What has been the whole meaning
\nand aim of this prosecution? Certainly not an honest impartial desire to
\nvindicate outraged law and check without personal animus or any purely political
\naim a wanton tendency to disturb the public tranquillity, which would be the
\nonly excuse for a sedition prosecution. It has been an obvious attempt to crush
\na particular paper and a particular individual. The bureaucracy has sought to
\ncripple or silence the Bande Mataram <\/i>because it has been preaching with
\nextraordinary success a political creed which was dangerous to the continuance
\nof bureaucratic absolutism and was threatening to become a centre of strength
\nround which many Nationalistic forces might gather. It has sought to single out
\nand silence a particular individual because it chose to think that he was, as
\nthe Friend of India expresses it, the master mind behind the policy of the
\npaper. If we are challenged to justify this assertion, it will be sufficient to
\npoint to the conduct of this case from its very inception. The Bande Mataram <\/i>has
\nbeen for over a year attacking without fear and without disguise the present
\nsystem of Government and advocating a radical and revolutionary change. It has
\nadvocated that change on grounds of historical experience,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-543<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nfirst principles of politics and the necessity of national self-preservation. It
\nhas not minced matters or sought to conceal revolutionary aspirations under the
\nveil of moderate professions or ambiguous phraseology. It has not concealed its
\nopinion that the bureaucracy cannot be expected to transform itself, that the
\npeople of India and not the people of England must save India, and that we
\ncannot hope for any boons but must wrest what we desire by strong national
\ncombination from unwilling hands. Hundreds of articles have appeared in the
\npaper in this vein and the bureaucrats had only to pick and choose. But they
\nhave not attacked one of these articles, nor did their counsel venture to cite
\neven a single one of them to prove seditious intention. The fact is that,
\nhowever dangerous such a propaganda may be to an absolutist handful desiring to
\nperpetuate their irresponsible rule, no government pretending to call itself
\ncivilised can prosecute it as seditious without forfeiting all claim to the last
\nvestige of the world’s respect. But though the paper could not be characterised
\nas seditious, it was highly inconvenient, and there was a growing clamour which
\nextended even to the cloudy home of the Thunderer in London, for its prosecution
\nand, if possible, suppression. And so watch is kept to find the paper tripping
\nover some trifle, for which it can be hauled up and got into trouble on a side
\nissue. What
\nis the matter for which the Bande
\nMataram <\/i>was prosecuted? A reprint of
\nthe official translations of certain articles from a vernacular paper,
\ntranslations issued as part of a case in the law courts and reproduced as such,
\n\u2014 that is one count; and an insignificant correspondence which does not even
\nprofess to give voice to the policy of the paper, \u2014 that is the second and
\nthird; and there is no other. The Yugantar <\/i>was prosecuted on articles
\nexpressing its essential policy; the Sandhya <\/i>has been proceeded against
\non articles expressing its views on important matters; but it was sought to
\ncrush the Bande Mataram <\/i>partly for a technical offence and partly on a
\nside issue. So eagerly, so carelessly is the casual chance given snatched at
\nthat the executive do not even trouble to know what is the article on which
\naction is being taken; they give sanction to prosecute on an advertisement in
\nthe righthand corner of the paper, and but for the compassionate correction
\nvouchsafed by an officer of the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-544<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ncompany
\nthe mistake would have had to be rectified in the course of the trial itself.
\nSanction is given to prosecute a nameless Editor and the Police at once proceed
\nto ask for a warrant against Aurobindo Ghose. It is in evidence that they had
\nnothing better to go on than hearsay. But they had no hesitation in immediately
\npouncing on one particular writer of the Bande Mataram <\/i>without possessing
\nthe least scrap of evidence against him. Obviously they cannot have done this
\nwithout instructions. It was popularly believed that Srijut Aurobindo Ghose was
\nall in all on the Bande Mataram <\/i>staff, that all the best articles were
\nwritten by him, that he gave the tone of the paper and that it could not last
\nwithout him. Why did the Police take a body-warrant against Aurobindo Ghose to
\nthe office and why, having taken it, did they not arrest him? Obviously they
\ntook it because they thought that they would find plenty of evidence against him
\nin the search, and they did not execute it because they found that not a scrap
\nof proof rewarded their efforts. After that there was a pause till Anukul Mukherjee’s testimony was secured, and on that flimsy evidence the trial was
\nstarted. Had it been honestly intended to deal only with the Editor, whoever he
\nmight turn out to be, the proceedings against Aurobindo Ghose would have been
\ngiven up, but the Police made no secret of the fact that it was this one man who
\nwas wanted and that no other, whatever the evidence against him, would be
\nthought worth capture. Even when the case for the prosecution was complete
\nwithout any evidence fit to raise more than a flimsy presumption, the Standing
\nCounsel would not give up, but in an outrageous address in which he rode
\nroughshod over the higher traditions of his office, pressed weak points and
\nwrested ambiguous evidence to get the charge framed. And after Anukul had broken
\ndown in cross-examination and made admissions fatal to their case, still the
\nprosecution struggled for a verdict. And with what result? Even a Civilian
\nMagistrate willing to support the prestige of the Government had more sense of
\nlaw and justice than the bureaucracy and its advisers and was able to see that a
\nman could not be sent to two years’ rigorous imprisonment without any shadow of
\nevidence. Their prey escaped them; the Manager who seems to have been arrested
\non spec and tried without even any pretence that there<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-545<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwas
\nany evidence against him was acquitted, and only an unfortunate Printer who knew
\nno English and had no notion what all the pother was about, was sent to prison
\nfor a few months to vindicate the much-damaged majesty of the almighty
\nbureaucracy.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font>
\nSeptember 25, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-546<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBande Mataram\u201d Prosecution                           THE prosecution of the Bande Mataram, the most important of the numerous Press prosecutions recently instituted by the bureaucracy, commenced…<\/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-265","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\/265","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=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}