{"id":267,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=267"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:00","slug":"085-the-khulna-comedy-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\/085-the-khulna-comedy-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-085_The Khulna Comedy.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe Khulna Comedy<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>T<\/font><\/span><\/b>HE<\/b>
\nresult of a political case is always a foregone conclusion in this country in
\nthe present era of Anti- Swadeshi repression, for the object of the proceedings
\nis not to detect and punish crime but to put down Swadeshi under the forms of
\nlaw; whether the accused is innocent or guilty of the particular charge it has
\nbeen thought convenient to formulate against him, is a matter of very trifling
\nimportance. Neither the people nor the bureaucracy really accept a conviction as
\nproof of any offence against the law. Indeed it is more or less a matter of
\ncaprice or convenience whether one offence or another is selected. When the
\ncrime is not chosen with a view to the punishment it is desired to inflict, or
\nthe greater ease of securing evidence, or the necessity of convicting when there
\nis no evidence, the problem is probably determined by the sense of humour of the
\nprosecuting Magistrate or by an aesthetic perception of the fitness of things.
\nGenerally the Swadeshi worker is charged with sedition or assault or breach of
\nthe peace or wishing to break the peace, or thinking of doing something which
\nsomebody in authority pretends to believe likely to break the peace; but he
\nmight just as well be charged with burglary or abduction or with contempt of the
\nMagistrate’s Khansamah or with the Bengal stare or the Coconada grimace. The
\nmain object is to send him to prison or bind him over not to do any work for
\nSwadeshi for six months or a year, and the pretext is a mere bagatelle. The real
\npoint is not whether the accused is innocent or guilty of the particular offence
\nbut whether he is innocent or guilty of Swadeshi, whether he is innocent or
\nguilty of patriotism, whether he is innocent or guilty of Nationalism. For this
\nreason no disgrace attaches to conviction,  rather it is the passport to
\nfame, honour and public esteem. The prosecution is a farce, the defence is a
\nfarce, and the judgment is the most exquisite farce of all. The bureaucracy go
\nthrough the farce because they cling to the shadow of moral prestige even when
\nthe<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-484<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\n <\/span><\/i>\n<\/div>\n

\nsubstance of it is gone; they like to adopt Russian methods, but they do not
\nlike them to be called Russian and still hug the delusion that by going through
\nthe legal forms of which Justice makes use they can cover the nakedness of their
\ntyranny with the rags of law. The accused go through the farce with the sole
\nobject of so managing the defence as to dispel even the last shadow of the old
\nmoral prestige and to expose the nakedness of bureaucratic oppression more and
\nmore. It is a political fight with the law courts for its scene.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>In no recent political case except Rawalpindi has the veil of law been so
\nridiculously thin as in the Khulna case. Partly, no doubt, this is due to the
\npersonal gifts of the prosecuting Magistrate who decided the case. Mr. Asanuddin
\nAhmed is a very distinguished man. The greatest and most successful achievement
\nof his life was to be a fellow-collegian of Lord Curzon. But he has other
\nsufficiently respectable if less gorgeous claims to distinction. Arithmetic,
\nlogic, English and Law are his chief fortes. His mastery over figures is so
\ngreat that arithmetic is his slave and not his master; it is even said that he
\ncan assess a man at Rs. 90 one day and bring him down 200 per cent in estimation
\nthe other. It is whispered that it was not only for a masterly general
\nincompetence but also for this special gift that he was transferred to Khulna.
\nHis triumphant dealings with logic were admirably exampled by the original
\nsyllogism which he presented to the startled organisers of the District
\nConference. "I, Asanuddin, am the District Magistrate; the District
\nMagistrate is the representative of the District; ergo, I, <\/b>Asanuddin, am
\nthe one and only representative of the district. Now only a representative of
\nthe district has a right to hold a District Conference or to do anything in the
\nname of the district, or to use any expression in which the word district
\noccurs; I, <\/b>Asanuddin, am the sole and only representative of the
\ndistrict; ergo, I, <\/b>Asanuddin, have the sole and only right to call a
\nDistrict Conference." Mr. Ahmed’s English is the delight of the judges of
\nthe High Court, who are believed to spend sleepless nights in trying to make out
\nthe meaning of his judgments. In one case at least, it is said, a distinguished
\njudge had to confess with sorrow and humiliation that he could make nothing of
\nthe English of the<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-485<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nlearned
\nMagistrate and after reading the judgment in the present case, we can well
\nbelieve the story. As for his knowledge of law, the best praise we can give it
\nis that it is on a level with his knowledge of, say, English. Such was the
\nbrilliant creature who appointed himself prosecutor, jury and judge in the
\nKhulna sedition case.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Under such auspices the conduct of the case was sure to be distinguished
\nby a peculiarly effulgent brilliancy. In order to prove that Venibhushan Rai
\ntalked sedition it was thought necessary to prove how many volunteers were
\npresent at the Conference. This is a fair example of the kind of evidence on
\nwhich the case was decided and which the great Asanuddin declared to be
\nparticularly relevant. Beyond evidence of this stamp there was no proof against
\nthe accused except the evidence of police officers unsupported by any verbatim
\nreport, while on the other side were the statements of the respectable pleaders,
\nthe verbatim copy of the speech and a whole mass of unshaken testimony. But our
\none and only Asanuddin declared that the evidence of respectable men was not to
\nbe believed because they were <\/i>respectable and graduates of the Calcutta
\nUniversity and partakers in the Conference; the police apparently were the only
\ndisinterested and truthful people in Khulna. But the most remarkable dictum of
\nthis remarkable man was that when one is charged with sedition it is not
\nnecessary to prove the use of any particular seditious utterances; it is quite
\nenough for the Magistrate to come to the conclusion that something untoward
\nmight, could or should have happened as the result of the accused having made a
\nspeech. In fact, it is hardly necessary under the section as interpreted by
\nDaniels of this kind, to prove anything against the accused; the only thing
\nnecessary is that the Magistrate should think it better for convenience official
\nor unofficial that he should be bound over. The section answers the same purpose
\nin minor cases which the Regulation of 1818 answers in the case of more powerful
\nopponents of irresponsible despotism.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The Khulna case has been from the point of view of Justice an undress
\nrehearsal of the usual bureaucratic comedy; from the point of view of Mr.
\nAsanuddin Ahmed it has been a brilliant exhibition of his superhuman power of
\nacting folly and talking<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-486<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nnonsense;
\nfrom the point of view of Srijut Venibhushan Rai it has been a triumph greater
\nthan any legal victory, a public certificate of patriotism, courage and
\nsincerity, an accolade of knighthood and nobility in the service of the
\nMotherland.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> July 20, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

The Korean Crisis<\/a><\/font><\/h2>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe
\nchorus of jubilation with which the English Press receives news of any danger to
\nthe last shred of independence of any ancient people is characteristic. The
\nKoreans cannot see their way to acquiesce in Japanese rule, ergo, they are
\narch-intriguers. Europe in her present temper seems to be the most
\nuncompromising enemy of the liberty of all peoples except her own. The
\ndisturbances that have followed the deputation to the Hague, the meeting of the
\nKorean troops and the active participation of the populace in the same, seem to
\nhave filled Europe with a grim gratification at the prospect of Korea being
\nplaced permanently under the heel of Japan. Europe is a worshipper of success,
\nand we need not wonder if she is glad to see an Eastern power taking a leaf out
\nof her book, in threatening the liberty of Nations.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> July 22, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

One More for the Altar<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSrijut
\nBhupendranath Dutt has been sentenced to one year’s rigorous imprisonment for
\ntelling the truth with too much emphasis. As to that we have nothing to say, for
\nit is a necessary part of the struggle between Anglo-Indian bureaucracy and
\nIndian democracy. The bureaucracy has all the material power in its hands and it
\nmust necessarily struggle to preserve its unjust and immoral monopoly of power
\nby the means which material strength places in its hands, by the infliction of
\nsuffering on the bodies of its opponents and on their minds, so far as they
\nallow the suffering of the body to affect the mind, by forcible inter-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-487<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nference
\nwith the outward expression of their feelings, by intimidation and a show of
\nbrute power and force. But if the bureaucracy has all the material power in its
\nhands, the democracy has all the spiritual power, the power and force of
\nmartyrdom, of unflinching courage, of self-immolation for an idea. Spiritual
\npower in the present creates material power in the future and for this reason we
\nalways find that if it is material force which dominates the present, it is
\nspiritual which moulds and takes possession of the future. The despot in all
\nages can lay bonds and stripes and death on our body; his power is only limited
\nby his will, for law is an instrument forged by himself and which he can turn to
\nhis own uses and morality is a thing which he regards not at all, or if he
\naffects to regard it, he is cunning enough to throw a veil of words over his
\nactions and mislead the distant and ill-informed opinion which is all he cares
\nfor. But if the despot can lay on the body the utmost ills of the scourge and
\nthe rack and the sword, if he can directly or indirectly plunder the goods of
\nthose who resist him and seek to crush them by wounding them in their dearest
\npoint of honour, the enthusiast for liberty can also turn suffering into
\nstrength, bonds into a glorious emancipation and death into the seed of a
\nsplendid and beneficent life. He can refuse to allow the tortures of the body to
\naffect the calm and illumined strength of his soul where it sits, a Divine Being
\nin the white radiance of its own self-existent bliss, rejoicing in all the
\nglorious manifestations of its Will, rejoicing in its pleasures, rejoicing in
\nits anguish, rejoicing in victory, rejoicing in defeat, rejoicing in life,
\nrejoicing in death. For we in India who are enthusiasts for liberty, fight for
\nno selfish lure, for no mere material freedom, for no mere economic
\npredominance, but for our national right to that large freedom and noble life
\nwithout which no spiritual emancipation is possible; for it is not among an
\nenslaved, degraded and perishing people that the Rishis and great spirits can
\nlong continue to be born. And since the spiritual life of India is the first
\nnecessity of the world’s future, we fight not only for our own political and
\nspiritual freedom but for the spiritual emancipation of the human race. With
\nsuch a glorious cause to battle for, there ought to be no craven weakness among
\nus, no flinching, no coward evasion of the consequences of our action.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-488<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nIt
\nis a mistake to whine when we are smitten, as if we had hoped to achieve liberty
\nwithout suffering. To meet persecution with indifference, to take punishment
\nquietly as a matter of course, with erect head and undimmed eyes, this is the
\nspirit in which we must conquer.<\/font><\/p>\n


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

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-489<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Khulna Comedy                           THE result of a political case is always a foregone conclusion in this country in the present era of Anti-…<\/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-267","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\/267","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=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}