{"id":2719,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2719"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:26","slug":"59-bande-mataram-22-4-07-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\/59-bande-mataram-22-4-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-59_Bande Mataram 22-4-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{ CALCUTTA, April 22nd, 1907 }<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Gospel according to Surendranath
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe appearance of Babu Surendranath Banerji as an exponent of the “New Nationalism” is a phenomenon which shows the
\nspread of the new spirit, but, we fear, nothing more. We congratulate Babu Surendranath on his conversion to the New
\nNationalism, but we are not sure that we can congratulate the New Nationalism on its convert. Nationalism is, after all, primarily an emotion of the heart and a spiritual attitude and only secondarily an intellectual conviction. Its very foundation is the
\nworship of national liberty as the one political deity and the readiness to consider all things well lost if only freedom is won.
\n“Let my name be blasted,” cried Danton, “but let France be saved.” “Let my name, life, possessions all go,” cries the true
\nNationalist, “let all that is dear to me perish, but let my country be free.” But Babu Surendranath is not prepared to consider
\nthe world well lost for liberty. He wishes to drive bargains with God, to buy liberty from Him in the cheapest market, at the
\nsmallest possible price. Until now he was the leader of those who desired to reach a qualified liberty by safe and comfortable
\nmeans. He is now for an unqualified liberty; and since the way to absolute liberty cannot be perfectly safe and comfortable,
\nhe wants to make it as safe and comfortable as he can. It is evident that his conversion to the new creed is only a half and
\nhalf conversion. He has acknowledged the deity, but he is not prepared for the sacrifice. It is always a danger to a new religion
\nwhen it receives converts from among strong adherents of the old, for they are likely to bring in with them the spirit of the
\noutworn creed and corrupt with it the purity of the new tenets. If leaders of the old school wish to be accepted as exponents of 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\n the New Nationalism, they must bring to it not only intellectual
\nassent, but a new and changed heart\u2014 a new heart of courage and enthusiastic self-sacrifice, to replace the old heart of selfish
\ntimidity and distrust of the national strength.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n In the leading article of last Friday’s
\nBengalee <\/i>some very
\nimportant admissions are made. The unlimited possibilities of the organised national strength of India are acknowledged without reservation. “There is no limit to what they can do. We at any rate would set no limits to their ambition. . . . We want our
\ncountry to be as great in its own way as other countries are in theirs. And we are determined to secure our rightful place in the
\nfederation of humanity by methods which are least wasteful in their nature and would
\nsoonest bring us to the assured destination<\/i>.” The federation of humanity is one of those sounding phrases, dear to Babu Surendranath, which have no relation to
\nactualities; but the rightful place of India among the nations, federated or unfederated, is one which cannot admit of any
\nthe least restriction on her liberty. And the description of the methods to be used at least rules petitioning out of court; for
\npetitioning is certainly wasteful in its nature and would not bring us soonest,\u2014 nor, indeed, at all\u2014 to our assured destination.
\nThere is more behind. “Where is the room for compromise in<\/i> spiritual life?
\n<\/i>Nobody has a right to tell us in regard to a question
\nlike this, thus far you shall go and no farther. National expansion and self-realisation is a sacred duty which we cannot lay aside
\nat the bidding of any authority above or below. The charter here is a charter from on high and no mundane authority has a right
\nto undo it.” All this is admirable. It is true that the writer in the next breath says, “We have no quarrel with anybody who does
\nnot stand in our way”\u2014 an obvious truism,\u2014 and invites the Government “not to block the way”, promising it as a reward
\n“a happy and not inglorious transformation at no distant date”. But the bureaucracy knows, as well as the writer knows, that
\ntransformation is only an euphemism for translation to a better world, and there is not the slightest chance of its listening to
\nthis bland invitation. However, the fact stands out that Babu Surendranath has declared for absolute autonomy to be arrived 
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\tat by methods which among other things, would soonest bring<\/i>
\nus to the assured destination<\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tUnfortunately the rest of the article is devoted to carefully
\nundoing the effect of the first half. It is practically an attempt to controvert the position which we have taken up in this journal.
\nOur position is that it is imperatively necessary for this nation to enter into an immediate struggle for national liberty which
\nwe must win at any cost; that in this struggle we must be inspired and guided by the teachings of history and those glorious
\nexamples which show how even nations degraded, enslaved and internally disunited, can rapidly attain to freedom and unity;
\nand that for this purpose the great necessity is to awake in the nation a burning, an irresistible, an unanimous will, to be free.
\nThe Bengalee <\/i>denies all these positions. We must win liberty, it holds, not by an immediate struggle but by a long and weary
\njourney; not by heavy sacrifices, but in the spirit of a Banya by grudging, limited and carefully-calculated sacrifices. We are not
\nto be guided by the concrete lessons of history, but by vague and intangible rhetorical generalisations about “our increased
\nknowledge and wisdom, our enlarged affections and interests of the present day”. We are to curb our will to be free by a “trained
\nintelligence” which teaches us that we are not a homogenous nation and must therefore tolerate differences.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWe will content ourselves at present with pointing out that the Bengalee<\/i>‘s answer to us is neither objective nor
\n\tself-consistent. We have tried to establish our position by definite arguments and appeals to well-known facts of human nature and
\nhuman experience; the Bengalee <\/i>simply denies our conclusions in general terms without advancing a single definite argument.
\nWe can only conclude that our contemporary has no definite arguments to advance. The confusion of his ideas is appalling.
\nWe are to choose for the attainment of liberty the method which will bring us soonest to our destination; but we must at the
\nsame time insist on making it a long and weary journey. We must have the determination to get liberty “at any cost”; but we
\nmust not carry out that determination in practice; no, in practice we must get it not at any cost but at the smallest cost possible. 
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\n We must really ask the Bengalee <\/i>to clear up this tangle of ideas
\nand discover some definite arguments before it again asks the Nationalists to confine themselves to realising their ideas in
\npractice and to abstain from “quarrelling with everybody who differs from them”. It would be no doubt very gratifying to the
\nBengalee <\/i>not to be quarrelled with, in other words, to escape from the annoyance of finding its intellectual positions and its
\nmethods assailed; but we cannot gratify it. So far as possible, our ideas are being realised in practice wherever Nationalism
\nis strong; but for their full effectiveness they need the whole nation at their back and it is therefore our first duty to convince
\nthe nation by exposing pseudo-Nationalism in all its workings.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n We shall meet the
\nBengalee<\/i>‘s positions one by one hereafter.
\nMeanwhile we take the liberty of offering one suggestion to Babu Surendranath Banerji. This veteran leader is a declared opportunist, who believes, as he has himself said, in expediency more than in principles. He seeks to lead the nation not by instructing
\nit but by watching its moods and making use of them. Well and good; but even an opportunist leader must keep pace with public
\nopinion, if he does not even go half a step in front of it; he must know which way it is going to leap before the leap is taken,
\nand not follow halting some paces behind. The nation moves forward with rapidity; Babu Surendranath pants ineffectually
\nafter it. It is not by such hesitating pronouncements that he can retain the national leadership. The times are revolutionary, and
\nrevolutionary times demand men who know their own mind and are determined to make it the mind of the nation. 
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 334<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 22nd, 1907 }   The Gospel according to Surendranath   The appearance of Babu Surendranath Banerji as an exponent of…<\/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-2719","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\/2719","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=2719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}