{"id":2697,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:17","slug":"68-bande-mataram-2-5-07-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\/68-bande-mataram-2-5-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-68_Bande Mataram 2-5-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, May 2nd, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nSHALL INDIA BE FREE?
\n<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nUnity and British Rule
\n<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nIt is a common cry in this country that we should effect the
\nunity of its people before we try to be free. There is no cry which is more plausible, none which is more hollow. What is
\nit that we mean when we talk of the necessity of unity? Unity does not mean uniformity and the removal of all differences.
\nThere are some people who talk as if unity in religion, for instance, could not be accomplished except by uniformity. But
\nuniformity of religion is a psychical impossibility forbidden by the very nature of the human mind. So long as men differ in
\nintellect, in temperament, in spiritual development, there must be different religions and different sects of the same religion.
\nThe Brahmo Samaj was set on foot in India by Rammohan Roy with the belief that this would be the one religion of India which
\nwould replace and unite the innumerable sects now dividing our spiritual consciousness. But in a short time this uniting religion
\nwas itself rent into three discordant sects, two of which show signs of internal fissure even within their narrow limits; and all
\nthese divisions rest not on anything essential but on differences of intellectual constitution, variety of temperament, divergence
\nof the lines of spiritual development. The unity of the Hindu religion cannot be attained by the destruction of the present
\nsects and the substitution of a religion based on the common truths of Hinduism. It can only be effected if there is, first, a
\ncommon feeling that the sectarian differences are of subordinate importance compared with the community of spiritual truths
\nand discipline as distinct from the spiritual truths and discipline 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\n
\nof other religions, and, secondly, a common agreement in valuing
\nand cherishing the Hindu religion in its entirety as a sacred and inalienable possession. This is what fundamentally constitutes
\nthe sentiment of unity, whether it be religious, political or social. There must be the sense of a community in something dear and
\nprecious which others do not possess; there must be an acute sense of difference from other communities which have no share
\nin our common possession; there must be a supreme determination to cherish, assert and preserve our common possession
\nfrom disparagement and destruction. But the sentiment of unity is not sufficient to create unity; we require also the practice
\nof unity. Where the sentiment of unity exists and the practice does not, the latter can only be acquired by a common effort to
\naccomplish one great, common and all-absorbing object.
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe first question we have to answer is,\u2014 can this practical
\nunity be accomplished by acquiescence in foreign rule? Certainly, under foreign rule a peculiar kind of uniformity of condition is
\nattained. Brahmin and Sudra, aristocrat and peasant, Hindu and Mahomedan, all are brought to a certain level of equality
\nby equal inferiority to the ruling class. The differences between them are trifling compared with the enormous difference between all of them and the white race at the top. But this uniformity is of no value for the purposes of national unity, except in so
\nfar as the sense of a common inferiority excites a common desire to revolt against and get rid of it. If the foreign superiority is acquiesced in, the result is that the mind becomes taken up with the minor differences and instead of getting nearer to unity disunion
\nis exaggerated. This is precisely what has happened in India under British rule. The sentiment of unity has grown, but in practice
\nwe are both socially and politically far more disunited and disorganized than before the British occupation. In the anarchy that
\nfollowed the decline of the Moghul, the struggle was between the peoples of various localities scrambling for the inheritance
\nof Akbar and Shahjahan. This was not a vital and permanent element of disunion. But the present disorganisation is internal
\nand therefore more likely to reach the vitals of the community.
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThis disorganisation is the natural and inevitable result of 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\t
\n\t
\n foreign rule. A state which is created by a common descent,
\nreal or fictitious, by a common religion or by common interests welding together
\ninto one a great number of men or group of men, is a natural organism which so
\nlong as it exists has always within it the natural power of revival and
\ndevelopment. But as political science has pointed out, a state created by the
\nencampment of a foreign race among a conquered population and supported in the
\nlast resort not by any section of the people but by external force, is an
\ninorganic state. The subject population, it has been said, inevitably becomes a
\ndisorganised crowd. Consciously or unconsciously the tendency of the intruding
\nbody is to break down all the existing organs of national life and to engross
\nall power in itself. The Moghul rule had not this tendency because it
\nimmediately naturalised itself in India. British rule has and is forced to have
\nthis tendency because it must persist in being an external and intruding
\npresence encamped in the country and not belonging to it. It is doubtful whether
\nthere is any example in history of an alien domination which has been so
\nmonstrously ubiquitous, inquisitorial and intolerant of any centre of strength
\nin the country other than itself as the British bureaucracy. There were three
\nactual centres of organised strength in pre-British India,\u2014 the supreme ruler,
\nPeshwa or Raja or Nawab reposing his strength on the Zamindars or Jagirdars; the
\nZamindar in his own domain reposing his strength on his retinue and tenants; and
\nthe village community independent and self-existent. The first result of the
\nBritish occupation was to reduce to a nullity the supreme ruler, and this was
\noften done, as in Bengal, by the help of the Zamindars. The next result was the
\ndisorganisation of the village community. The third was the steady breaking-up
\nof the power of the Zamindars with the help of a new class which the foreigners
\ncreated for their own purposes,\u2014 the bourgeois or middle class. Unfortunately
\nfor the British bureaucracy it had, in order to get the support and assistance
\nof the middle class, to pamper the latter and allow it to grow into a strength
\nand develop organs of its own, such as the Press, the Bar, the University, the
\nMunicipalities, District Boards, etc. Finally, the situation with which British
\nstatesmen had to deal was this: <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\t
\n\t
\n\tthe natural sovereigns of the land helpless and disorganised, the
\nlanded aristocracy helpless and disorganised, the peasantry helpless and disorganised, but a middle class growing in strength,
\npretensions and organisation. British statesmanship, following the instinctive and inevitable trend of an alien domination, set
\nabout breaking down the power it had established in order to destroy the sole remaining centre of national strength and possible
\nrevival. If this could be done, if the middle class could be either tamed, bribed or limited in its expansion, the disorganisation
\nwould be complete. Nothing would be left of the people of India except a disorganised crowd with no centre of strength or
\nmeans of resistance. <\/font>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t
\n \tIt was in Bengal that the middle class was most developed
\nand self-conscious; and it was in Bengal therefore that a quick succession of shrewd and dangerous blows was dealt at the
\nonce useful but now obnoxious class. The last effort to bribe it into quietude was the administration of Lord Ripon. It was
\nnow sought to cripple the organs through which this strength was beginning slowly to feel and develop its organic life. The
\nPress was intimidated, the Municipalities officialised, the University officialised and its expansion limited. Finally the Partition
\nsought with one blow to kill the poor remnants of the Zamindar’s power and influence and to weaken the middle class of
\nBengal by dividing it. The suppression of the middle class was the recognised policy of Lord Curzon. After Mr. Morley came to
\npower, it was, we believe, intended to recognise and officialise the Congress itself if possible. Even now it is quite conceivable, in
\nview of the upheaval in Bengal and the Punjab, that an expanded Legislature with the appearance of a representative body but the
\nreality of official control, may be given, not as a concession but as a tactical move. The organs of middle-class political life can
\nonly be dangerous so long as they are independent. By taking away their independence they become fresh sources of strength
\nfor the Government,\u2014 of weakness for the class which strives to find in them its growth and self-expression.
\n\t<\/font>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n \tThe Partition opened the eyes of the threatened class to the nature of the attack that was being made on it; and the 
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 375<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n result was a widespread and passionate revolt which has now
\nspread from Bengal to the Punjab and threatens to break out all over India. The struggle is now a struggle for life and death.
\nIf the bureaucracy conquers, the middle class will be broken, shattered, perhaps blotted out of existence; if the middle class
\nconquers, the bureaucracy are not for long in the land. Everything depends on the success or failure of the middle class in
\ngetting the people to follow it for a common salvation. They may get this support by taking their natural place as awakeners
\nand leaders of the nation; they may get it by the energy and success with which they wage their battle with the bureaucracy.
\nIn Eastern Bengal, for instance, the aid of a few Mahomedan aristocrats has enabled the bureaucracy to turn a large section of
\nthe Mahomedan masses against the Hindu middle class; and the educated community is fighting with its back to the wall for its
\nvery existence. If it succeeds under such desperate circumstances, even the Mahomedan masses will eventually follow its leading.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n This process of political disorganisation is not so much a deliberate policy on the part of the foreign bureaucracy, as
\nan instinctive action which it can no more help than the sea can help flowing. The dissolution of the subject organisation
\ninto a disorganised crowd is the inevitable working of an alien despotism. 
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 376<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 2nd, 1907 }   SHALL INDIA BE FREE?   Unity and British Rule   It is a common cry in…<\/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-2697","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\/2697","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=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}