{"id":2683,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:13","slug":"201-bande-mataram-21-3-08-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\/201-bande-mataram-21-3-08-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-201_Bande Mataram 21-3-08.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, March 21st, 1908 } <\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Fund for Sj. Pal
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe question of a fund for Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal was raised at first in a private way and without the idea of a public appeal,
\nbut as soon as it was suggested to the leaders of the Nationalist party, they rejected the idea of any action which would seem
\nlike an appeal to the private charity of the friends, admirers and sympathisers of Srijut Bipin Chandra. They resolved to ask
\nthe public for funds to present to Srijut Pal as a recognition of his services to the country, well knowing that he would insist
\non the money being utilised for further service to his country instead of for his own personal benefit. Nevertheless certain
\nfriends and fellow-workers are under the impression that the purse will be a personal gift to the Nationalist leader to be used
\nfor his personal benefit, and they have questioned the suitability of the form which the appreciation of his services has taken.
\nAmong others Sj. Rabindranath Tagore while associating himself with the appeal wrote to us suggesting that the question of
\nthe advisability of introducing this European form of material recognition into the more spiritual atmosphere of India might be
\npublicly discussed in our columns. The question is an important one and since it is likely to recur as our political life develops, it
\nis as well to clear the air from the beginning.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe principle of rewarding distinguished public services by
\nmaterial forms of recognition as well as by honours and titles is common to East and West; not only so but rank and title
\nwere usually associated with the gift of an estate or jagir <\/i>to support the expenditure suitable to the rank and the dignity of
\nthe title. Sometimes gifts of land were given by the State without any fresh rank or title either as a reward or as a security for
\n   
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\n <\/p>\n

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\n\tfuture service. In modern times the State has no land to give
\nand the only material appreciation it can show of great merit or distinguished services is either a pension or annuity for the
\nformer or a vote of money for the latter. An annuity serves the purpose of securing a man of ability against want and enabling
\nhim to devote himself entirely to the work which has procured him the recognition and therefore serves the purpose of securing
\nthe future services to the community once guaranteed by the State gift of land. The vote of money on the other hand is
\nusually given to a distinguished man who is above want and is a substitute for the
\njagir <\/i>of feudal times. No European soldier
\nor statesman, however great his position, his rank or his wealth, would consider it a degradation to accept such a gift from the
\nnation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\tIn India the State is not the people, and the servants of the
\npeople are likely to fall under the displeasure of the State to be persecuted and even ruined by official wrath rather than to
\nenjoy honours, dignities and rewards at its hands. It is therefore the duty of the people to show its own appreciation of their services, not because they demand such recognition, but as a duty to itself and an assertion of its own dignity and claims. Many
\nof those who suffer for its sake are ruined by the persecution of the bureaucrats and leave their families to want or even to
\ndestitution, and in such cases the people are bound to come to their assistance. Such funds as the Basanta Bhattacharjee Fund
\nbelong to this category, and there can be no question about their fitness, nor can any blot come to the honour of the recipient by
\nhis acceptance. But public vote of money to a leader falls under a different head and introduces new questions of propriety. There
\ncan be no question either of the right of the public to offer such a substantial mark of recognition or of this right under certain
\ncircumstances becoming a duty; and until the new movement there would have been no question of the propriety of a public
\nleader accepting such a gift; for in those days the standard was a Western standard and whatever was held right and honourable
\nby the Western standard, was necessarily right and honourable in Indian
\n\tpolitics. But the new movement has abolished the <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\tWestern standard and returns to national ideals and principles.
\nThe first question is whether the public ought to be allowed to give a purse, the second whether the leader should accept it. To
\nthe first question the answer is that the purse takes the place of the feudal
\njagir <\/i>which either secures the services of ability by
\nplacing it above want or is meant as a substantial recognition of past services. The public is entitled to adopt this form because
\nthere is no other, except such titles and honours as have been given by common consent to men like Raja Subodh Chandra
\nMallik or the brilliant but passing honour of a public reception. But this right is limited by the obligation not to demoralise the
\npeople’s servants, not to stain the purity of their motives or lower the high ideal of self-sacrifice and self-effacement which
\nis growing up in our midst. The new servant of the people is a different type from the old political leader. He is as often as not
\na man who is poor, without resources, pursued by difficulties in his private life, yet is debarred from devoting himself to earning
\nhis private bread except by such occupations as are themselves an act of service to the people. This poverty, this indigence is
\nthe glory of the man and his great honour. Such an ideal, like that of the Brahmin, is a possession of great price which should
\nnot be lightly thrown away. If the presentation of a purse destroys it, then this form of recognition should be eschewed. But
\nhow then is the public to mark its sense of appreciation, to put something in the balance against the material injuries which the
\nbureaucracy have it in their power to inflict just as they are able to outweigh the moral stigma of the jail or legal condemnation
\nby marks of their love and admiration? The solution lies in such rare instances as that of Sj. Bipin Chandra in the public
\nexercising its right and leaving it to the representative of the New Spirit to deal with their gift in the new spirit. We expect
\nthe people of India to show by the substantial nature of the purse their high appreciation of the services of the great Nationalist leader, of his noble self-immolation and of the oppressive nature of the monstrous sentence which was inflicted on him.
\nThey may safely leave it to Sj. Bipin Chandra to make such a disposition of their gift as will effect the purpose for which it was
\n   
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\n\t <\/p>\n

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\n\tgiven and yet preserve the ideal purity of the standards which
\nhe himself has done so much to bring into public favour and acceptance.
\n    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 950<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 21st, 1908 }   The Fund for Sj. Pal   The question of a fund for Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal…<\/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-2683","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\/2683","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=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}