{"id":2711,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:23","slug":"168-bande-mataram-14-12-07-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\/168-bande-mataram-14-12-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-168_Bande Mataram 14-12-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, December 14th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nReasons of Secession
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWe have now placed all the facts of the Midnapore Conference before the public and the reasons which made a Nationalist
\nsecession inevitable are sufficiently obvious. The Loyalist legend that the Nationalists came prepared to break up the Conference
\nby force, but were either baffled, say some authorities, by the “mingled tact and firmness” of Mr. K. B. Dutt, or overawed, say
\nothers, by the presence of the President’s bureaucratic friends and allies, and in their rage and disappointment seceded and
\nheld a separate meeting, is too contemptible a lie to be treated seriously. “Why should they secede? What was the necessity of a
\nsecond Conference?” ask our opponents with a holy simplicity. “Did we not pass the same resolutions? Was not a translation
\nof the President’s marvellous address offered to the audience? What does it matter if the President broke his word? As for
\nthe interpretation of Swaraj as colonial self-government it is an unimportant matter, a prejudged matter; no Conference pretending to be a branch of the Congress organisation has any right to pass a resolution for Swaraj pure and simple and no
\nresponsible politician can support such a resolution. The Police Superintendent? Well, he was there only to see that the
\ntrain-wrecking outrage was not repeated by the Nationalists in the Conference Pandal!”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nLet us clear the matter of this jungle of irrelevancies. It was not over the resolutions passed by the Moderate Subjects Committee and Conference that the secession took place. When the Moderates saw that they had succeeded in disgusting and tiring
\nout their opponents and had the field themselves they quietly adjourned to the Bailey Hall and held their own Committee and
\n   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\npassed their own resolutions;\u2014 this is a favourite trick with
\nthis party which they perform in the full confidence that their opponents will in the end acquiesce in the accomplished fact
\nfor the sake of “unity”. We are informed that two resolutions were seriously modified in Committee at the command of the
\nPresident, but whether these modifications stood or repentance came with the morning, does not matter: for the resolutions were
\nnot the cause of the secession. The question of the language in which the President’s speech should be delivered was a detail
\non which the Mofussil delegates felt strongly and it is obvious that if these Conferences are to serve the purpose for which they
\nare created, the vernacular must be the medium employed. It is absurd to have the President’s speech in English and then to
\npatch up matters by offering a translation, when the audience is already wearied out by listening to a long address in a foreign
\ntongue which they do not understand. If Mr. K. B. Dutt had to address all India, though no one asked him to, he could have
\ndelivered a lecture in the British Indian Association or published a pamphlet or written an article in the
\nBengalee<\/i>; the Conference
\nPandal was not the place for his dissertation. But in any case the question of language was not a determining cause of the
\nsecession. Again we do not think it a light thing that a gentleman who fills the important and dignified position of the President of
\na District Conference, should, after he has been nominated without opposition on the strength of a clear promise, go back upon
\nhis word and yet cling to his post. Honour is not a light thing, a public undertaking is not a light thing, and that the President
\ndid promise, has been testified to by honest Moderates as well as Nationalists who were present on the occasion. But the seceders
\ndid not take this ground for secession, for they had consented, on the strength of Srijut Surendranath’s qualified assurance, to
\nthe election which, once made, could not be unmade. As to Swaraj, we do not think it an unimportant matter, nor can we
\nsee that a District or Provincial Conference is debarred from passing a resolution in its favour; for by this rule several District
\nConferences, including the Bhola Conference, presided over by Srijut Ambikacharan Majumdar, have forfeited their right to be
\n   
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\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\tconsidered branches of the Congress organization. But we will
\nlet that too go, for it was not to pass a resolution on unqualified Swaraj that a second Conference was held. The secession took
\nplace because of the arbitrary conduct of the President supported by his party in evading the right of the whole body of delegates to
\nexpress its opinion effectively on disputed matters and because of the use made by him of his alliance with the Police to support
\nhis arbitrary authority. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\tThe emergence of two distinct parties in Indian politics has
\naltered the whole nature of our political problems and our political activity and it is absolutely necessary that the constitution,
\nmethods and procedure of the Congress and the subordinate bodies should be constructed accordingly. Formerly it mattered
\nnothing how the Congress was conducted, because there was no overt difference of opinion and whatever the Congress chiefs
\ndid or thought good was accepted without question or murmur. If there were dissentients they were easily silenced. But
\nnow there are two distinct parties with different ideals, different methods of work, a different spirit and standpoint, each
\nstruggling to get the ear of the country and the control of our public activities. It is clear that if these two parties are to live
\ntogether in the Congress, there must be some procedure which both can recognise as just, some means of determining their
\nrelative strength and giving each a means of influencing the course of Congress work in proportion to its strength. This
\ncan be done by constituting the Subjects Committee so that each party shall be represented according to the strength it
\ncan muster or by allowing each section of the delegates to choose by vote its own representatives; the representatives of
\nboth sides can come to an agreement in Committee on disputed points and where agreement is impossible, the majority
\nof votes will decide the matter, subject always to an inalienable right of appeal by amendment to the whole body of delegates.
\nWith such rules of procedure there would be no reason why two parties should not exist side by side and the deliberations
\nof the Congress and Conferences be conducted with decorum, order and dignity. But if one side refuses to acknowledge the
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t existence of the other, if it tries, when it cannot ignore it, to
\nput it down by bullying or by the personal authority of its own leaders, and when even that is not possible by what it calls
\na combination of tact and firmness but the other side calls a mixture of trickery and arbitrariness, when it keeps procedure
\nvague and disregards the rules common to all public assemblies, then to live together seems almost impossible. This is the
\nreason why the fight over the nomination of the President is so unnecessarily bitter. One side feels that it cannot allow the
\nelection of a Nationalist President because that would mean official recognition of the right of the other to share in influencing and guiding the Congress work. The other side feels that a Moderate President will simply be an instrument for Moderate
\ntactics, not an impartial speaker of the House. He will rule Nationalist proposals and amendments out of order, refuse to
\ntake the sense of the House when called upon and by other arbitrary exercise of his authority serve his party. The rowdiness of which the Moderates complain is simply the clamorous persistence which is the sole means left to the other party to
\ncompel justice and a hearing. All this the Nationalists have again and again endured in the hope that by sheer persistence they
\nmight get their existence recognised and such rules formulated as would permit of differences being automatically settled. But
\nwhen the Moderates go so far as to call in a third party is to weigh down the balance in their favour and that third party
\nthe common enemy, the bureaucrat and his police, the limit of sufferance is over-passed and nothing is left but to separate
\nbefore difference of opinion degenerates into civil war. This was the stage which by the grace of Mr. K. B. Dutt was reached
\nat Midnapore. We bring no charge against the Calcutta leaders except that of supporting a man instead of considering the interests of the country; we prefer to believe that they had nothing to do with the underhand methods of their local lieutenant;
\nbut the support they rendered him made him impervious to reason and left the Nationalists no recourse but secession. The
\nNationalist Conference, the Nationalist organisation is now an accomplished fact. If the local Moderates come to their senses
\n   
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\ta modus vivendi <\/i>may in future be found, but in any case our
\nConference and Association will remain and work. Midnapore has taken the initiative in giving Nationalism an organised shape
\nand form.    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 794<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, December 14th, 1907 } Reasons of Secession   We have now placed all the facts of the Midnapore Conference before 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-2711","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\/2711","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=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}