{"id":2682,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2682"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:12","slug":"143-bande-mataram-20-9-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/06-07-bande-mataram\/143-bande-mataram-20-9-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-143_Bande Mataram 20-9-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBande Mataram<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, September
\n\t20th, 1907 } <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe Un-Hindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Bengalee <\/i>reports Srijut Bal Gangadhar Tilak to have made a definite pronouncement on the caste system. “The prevailing idea of social inequality is working immense evil”, says the Nationalist leader of the Deccan. This pronouncement is only
\nnatural from an earnest Hindu and a sincere Nationalist like Srijut Tilak. The baser ideas underlying the degenerate perversions of the original caste system, the mental attitude which bases them on a false foundation of caste, pride and arrogance,
\nof a divinely ordained superiority depending on the accident of birth, of a fixed and intolerant inequality, are inconsistent with
\nthe supreme teaching, the basic spirit of Hinduism which sees the one invariable and indivisible Divinity in every individual
\nbeing. Nationalism is simply the passionate aspiration for the realisation of that Divine Unity in the nation, a unity in which
\nall the component individuals, however various and apparently unequal their functions as political, social or economic factors,
\nare yet really and fundamentally one and equal. In the ideal of Nationalism which India will set before the world, there will
\nbe an essential equality between man and man, between caste and caste, between class and class, all being as Mr. Tilak has
\npointed out different but equal and united parts of the Virat Purusha as realised in the nation. The insistent preaching of
\nour religion and the work of the Indian Nationalist is to bring home to every one of his countrymen this ideal of their country’s
\nreligion and philosophy. We are intolerant of autocracy because it is the denial in politics of this essential equality, we object
\nto the modern distortion of the caste system because it is the denial in society of the same essential equality. While we insist
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 679<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\ton reorganising the nation into a democratic unity politically,
\nwe recognise that the same principle of reorganisation ought to and inevitably will assert itself socially; even if, as our opponents
\nchoose to imagine, we are desirous of confining its working to politics, our attempts will be fruitless, for the principle once
\nrealised in politics must inevitably assert itself in society. No monopoly racial or hereditary can form part of the Nationalist’s
\nscheme of the future, his dream of the day for the advent of which he is striving and struggling.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe caste system was once productive of good, and as a fact has been a necessary phase of human progress through
\nwhich all the civilizations of the world have had to pass. The autocratic form of government has similarly had its use in the
\ndevelopment of the world’s polity, for there was certainly a time when it was the only kind of political organisation that
\nmade the preservation of society possible. The Nationalist does not quarrel with the past, but he insists on its transformation,
\nthe transformation of individual or class autocracy into the autocracy, self-rule or Swaraj, of the nation and of the fixed,
\nhereditary, anti-democratic caste-organisation into the pliable, self-adapting, democratic distribution of function at which socialism aims. In the present absolutism in politics and the present narrow caste-organisation in society he finds a negation of that
\nequality which his religion enjoins. Both must be transformed. The historic problem that the present attitude of Indian Nationalism at once brings to the mind, as to how a caste-governed society could co-exist with a democratic religion and philosophy,
\nwe do not propose to consider here today. We only point out that Indian Nationalism must by its inherent tendencies move
\ntowards the removal of unreasoning and arbitrary distinctions and inequalities. Ah! he will say, this is exactly what we English
\nmen have been telling you all these years. You must get rid of your caste before you can have democracy. There is just a little
\nflaw in this advice of the Anglo-Indian monitors, it puts the cart before the horse, and that is the reason why we have always
\nrefused to act upon it. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt does not require much expenditure of thought to find
\n   
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 680<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tout that the only way to rid the human mind of abuses and
\nsuperstitions is through a transformation of spirit and not merely of machinery. We must educate every Indian, man, woman and
\nchild, in the ideals of our religion and philosophy before we can rationally expect our society to reshape itself in the full and
\nperfect spirit of the Vedantic gospel of equality. We dwell on this commonsense idea here at the risk of being guilty of repetition.
\nEducation on a national scale is an indispensable precondition of our social amelioration. And because such education is impossible except through the aid of state-finance, therefore, even if there were no other reason, the Nationalist must emphasise
\nthe immediate need of political freedom without which Indians cannot obtain the necessary control over their money. So long
\nas we are under an alien bureaucracy, we cannot have the funds needed for the purpose of an adequate national education, and
\nwhat little education we are given falls far short of the Nationalist ideal, being mainly concerned with the fostering of a
\nspirit of sordid contentment with things that be. Apart from the question of the cultivation of those virtues which only come in
\nthe wake of liberty, apart from the question of reorganisation of the country, if we were to look into the problem in its purely
\nsocial aspect, even then we are confronted with the primary need of political emancipation as the condition precedent of further
\nfruitful activity. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Nationalist has been putting the main stress on the
\nnecessity of political freedom almost to the exclusion of the other needs of the nation, not because he is not alive to the vital
\nimportance of those needs of economic renovation, of education, of social transformation, but because he knows that in order
\nthat his ideal of equality may be brought to its fullest fruition, he must first bring about the political freedom and federation of
\nhis country.   
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 681<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 20th, 1907 }   The Un-Hindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity   The Bengalee reports Srijut Bal Gangadhar Tilak to have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-06-07-bande-mataram","wpcat-54-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682","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=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}