{"id":2693,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2693"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:16","slug":"74-bande-mataram-11-5-07-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\/74-bande-mataram-11-5-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-74_Bande Mataram 11-5-07.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, May 11th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Crisis
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe last action of the Minto-Morley Government has torn every veil from the situation and the policy of the British rulers.
\nWhatever else may be the result of this vigorous attempt to crush Nationalism in the Punjab, it has the merit of clearing the air. We
\nhave no farther excuse for mistaking our position or blundering into ineffective policies. The bureaucracy has declared with
\nsavage emphasis that it will tolerate a meekly carping loyalism, it will tolerate an ineffective agitation of prayer, protest and
\npetition, but it will not tolerate the new spirit. If the Indian harbours aspirations towards freedom, towards independence,
\ntowards self-government in his mind, let him crush them back and keep them close-locked in his heart; for from English Secretary or Anglo-Indian pro-consul, from Conservative or from Liberal they can expect neither concession nor toleration. Indian
\naspirations and bureaucratic autocracy cannot stall together; one of them must go. The growth of the new spirit had been so
\nlong tolerated in Bengal because the rulers, though alarmed at the new portent, could not at once make up their mind whether
\nit was a painted monster or a living and formidable force. Even when its real nature and drift had become manifest, they waited
\nto see whether it was likely to take hold of the people. They were not prepared for the enormous rapidity with which like a sudden
\nconflagration in the American prairies, the new spirit began to rush over the whole of India. By the time they had realised it, it
\nwas too late to crush it in Bengal by prosecuting a few papers or striking at a few tall heads. For the new spirit in Bengal does not
\ndepend on the presence of a few leaders or the inspiration from one or two great orators. It has embraced the whole educated 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\nclass with one unquenchable flame. If Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal
\nwere deported, and the Bande Mataram<\/i>, Sandhya <\/i>and other Nationalist journals suppressed, the fire would only become
\nsilent, pervading, irresistible. A hundred hands would catch the banner of Nationalism as it fell from the hands of the
\nstandard-bearer and a hundred fiery spirits rush to fill the place of the fallen leader. In Bengal, therefore, other measures have been
\nadopted. But the moment the bureaucrats were sure that the fire had caught in the Punjab, they hastened to strike, hoping by the
\nsuppression of a few persons to suppress the whole movement. The first blow at the
\nPunjabee <\/i>was a disastrous failure. The
\nsecond has been delivered with extraordinary precautions to ensure its success. The whole might of the British Empire has
\nbeen summoned to drive it home. The pomp and prestige of its irresistible might, the tramp of its armies and the terror of
\nits guns, the slow mercilessness of its penal law and the swift fury of its arbitrary statutes have all been gathered round two
\nsmall cities, not to put down a formidable rebellion or effect the capture of dangerous military leaders, but to arrest a few
\nrespectable and unwarlike pleaders and barristers. Enveloped with a surge of cavalry under the mouths of British siege-guns,
\nthese fortunate individuals, most of whose names were till then hardly known outside their own province, have been hurried
\nto British jails and one eminent pleader whirled out of India with a panic haste. All this pomp and apparatus can evidently
\nhave no object but to terrify the new spirit throughout India into quiescence by a display of the irresistible power of Britain.
\nIt is an emphatic warning from Mr. Morley and Lord Minto that they will not suffer the Indian to aspire to freedom or to
\nwork by peaceful self-help and passive resistance for national autonomy.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIn this grave crisis of our destinies let not our people lose their fortitude or suffer stupefaction and depression to seize
\nupon and unnerve their souls. The fight in which we are engaged is not like the wars of old in which when the King or leader fell,
\nthe army fled. The King whom we follow to the wars today, is our own Motherland, the sacred and imperishable; the leader of 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n our onward march is the Almighty himself, that element within
\nand without us whom sword cannot slay, nor water drown, nor fire burn, nor exile divide from us, nor a prison confine. Lajpat
\nRai is nothing, Tilak is nothing, Bipin Pal is nothing! these are but instruments in the mighty Hand that is shaping our destinies
\nand if these go, do you think that God cannot find others to do His will? Lala Lajpat Rai has gone from us, but doubt not that
\nmen stronger and greater than he will take his place. For when a living and rising cause is persecuted, this is the sure result
\nthat in the place of those whom persecution strikes down, there arise, like the giants from the blood of Raktabij, men who to
\ntheir own strength add the strength, doubled and quadrupled by death or persecution, of the martyrs for the cause. It was
\nthe exiled of Italy, it was the men who languished in Austrian and Bourbon dungeons, it was Poerio and Silvio Pellico and
\ntheir fellow-sufferers whose collected strength reincarnated in Mazzini and Garibaldi and Cavour to free their country.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n Let there be no fainting of heart and no depression, and also let there be no unforeseeing fury, no blindly-striking madness.
\nWe are at the beginning of a time of terrible trial. The passage is not to be easy, the crown is not to be cheaply earned. India is
\ngoing down into the valley of the shadow of death, into a great horror of darkness and suffering. Let us realise that what we are
\nnow suffering, is a small part of what we shall have to suffer, and work in that knowledge, with resolution, without hysteria. A
\nfierce and angry spirit is spreading among the people which cries out for violent action and calls upon us to embrace death. We
\nsay, let us be prepared for death but work for life,\u2014 the life not of our perishable bodies but of our cause and country. Whatever
\nwe do, let it be with knowledge and foresight. Let our first and last object be to help on the cause, not to gratify blindly our
\nangry passions. The first need at the present moment is courage, a courage which knows not how to flinch or shrink. The second
\nis self-possession. God is helping us with persecution; we must accept it with joy and use that help, calmly, fearlessly, wisely. On
\nthe manner and spirit in which we shall resist and repel outrage and face repression, while not for a moment playing into the
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\thands of the adversary, will depend the immediate success or
\nfailure of our mission. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t___________<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tLala Lajpat Rai
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tWe publish elsewhere the last letter we received from Lala Lajpat Rai previous to his sudden deportation. Great has been the good
\nfortune of the Punjab leader in being selected as the first and noblest victim on the altar of Motherland. But for our part we
\nmay be pardoned if we indulge a feeling of regret and grief at the sudden parting from a friend. We have not been acquainted
\nwith Lajpat Rai for very long, but even these brief months of acquaintance and increasing friendship have been enough to make
\nus feel the charm of his personality. There was always in Lajpat Rai a singular union of tenderness with strength, of quietness
\nwith fervour, a ready sympathy and kindly feeling which could not fail to attract. This sympathy and kindliness is evident in
\nthe warm phrases of appreciation he wrote to us. And there is a touch in his subscription to the letter which subsequent events
\nhave brought startlingly home to us\u2014 “an humble servant of the motherland, Lajpat Rai.” Happy is he, for his Mother has
\naccepted his service and given it the highest reward for which a patriot can hope, the privilege of not merely serving but suffering
\nfor her. When India raises statues to the heroes and martyrs of her emancipation, it will inscribe on his the simple and earnest
\nphrase which remains behind to us as his modest boast and his sufficient message.
\n    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 399<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 11th, 1907 }   The Crisis   The last action of the Minto-Morley Government has torn every veil from the…<\/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-2693","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\/2693","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=2693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}