{"id":2721,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2721"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:27","slug":"121-bande-mataram-20-7-07-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\/121-bande-mataram-20-7-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-121_Bande Mataram 20-7-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{ CALCUTTA, July 20th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Khulna Comedy
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe result of a political case is
\nalways a foregone conclusion in this country in the present era of anti-Swadeshi
\nrepression, for the object of the proceedings is not to detect and punish crime
\nbut to put down Swadeshi under the forms of law. Whether the accused is innocent
\nor guilty of the particular charge it has been thought convenient to formulate
\nagainst him, is a matter of very trifling importance. Neither the people nor the
\nbureaucracy really accept a conviction as proof of any offence against the law.
\nIndeed it is more or less a matter of caprice or convenience whether one offence
\nor another is selected. When the crime is not chosen with a view to the
\npunishment it is desired to inflict, or the greater ease of securing evidence,
\nor the necessity of convicting when there is no evidence, the problem is
\nprobably determined by the sense of humour of the prosecuting Magistrate or by
\nan aesthetic perception of the fitness of things. Generally the Swadeshi worker
\nis charged with sedition or assault or breach of the peace or wishing to break
\nthe peace or thinking of doing something which somebody in authority pretends to
\nbelieve likely to break the peace but he might just as well be charged with
\nburglary or abduction or with contempt of the Magistrate’s
\nkhansamah <\/i>or with the Bengal stare or the Coconada grimace. The main
\nobject is to send him to prison or bind him over not to do any work for Swadeshi
\nfor six months or a year, and the pretext is a mere bagatelle. The real point is
\nnot whether the accused is innocent or guilty of the particular offence but
\nwhether he is innocent or guilty of Swadeshi, whether he is innocent or guilty
\nof patriotism, whether he is innocent or guilty of Nationalism. For this reason
\nno disgrace attaches to conviction,   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 604<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nrather it is the passport to
\nfame, honour and public esteem. The prosecution is a farce, the defence is a
\nfarce, and the judgment is the most exquisite farce of all. The bureaucracy go
\nthrough the farce because they cling to the shadow of moral prestige even when
\nthe substance of it is gone: they like to adopt Russian methods, but they do not
\nlike them to be called Russian and still hug the delusion that by going through
\nthe legal forms of which Justice makes use they can cover the nakedness of their
\ntyranny with the rags of law. The accused go through the farce with the sole
\nobject of so managing the defence as to dispel even the last shadow of the old
\nmoral prestige and to expose the nakedness of bureaucratic oppression more and
\nmore. It is a political fight with the law-courts for its scene. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIn no recent political case
\nexcept Rawalpindi has the veil of law been so ridiculously thin as in the Khulna
\ncase. Partly, no doubt, this is due to the personal gifts of the prosecuting
\nMagistrate who decided the case. Mr. Asanuddin Ahmed is a very distinguished
\nman. The greatest and most successful achievement of his life was to be a
\nfellow-collegian of Lord Curzon. But he has other sufficiently respectable if
\nless gorgeous claims to distinction. Arithmetic, logic, English and Law are his
\nchief fortes. His mastery over figures is so great that arithmetic is his slave
\nand not his master; it is even said that he can assess a man at Rs. 90 one day
\nand bring him down 200 per cent in estimation the other. It is whispered that it
\nwas not only for a masterly general incompetence but also for this special gift
\nthat he was transferred to Khulna. His triumphant dealings with logic were
\nadmirably exampled by the original syllogism which he presented to the startled
\norganisers of the District Conference. "I, Asanuddin, am the District
\nMagistrate; the District Magistrate is the representative of the district; ergo,
\nI, Asanuddin, am the one and only representative of the district. Now only a
\nrepresentative of the district has a right to hold a District Conference or to
\ndo anything in the name of the district, or to use any expression in which the
\nword district occurs; I, Asanuddin, am the sole and only representative of the
\ndistrict; ergo, I, Asanuddin, have the sole and only right to call a District
\nConference." Mr. Ahmed’s    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 605<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tEnglish is the delight of the
\n\tjudges of the High Court, who are believed to spend sleepless nights in
\n\ttrying to make out the meaning of his judgments. In one case at least, it is
\n\tsaid, a distinguished judge had to confess with sorrow and humiliation that
\n\the could make nothing of the English of the learned Magistrate and after
\n\treading the judgment in the present case we can well believe the story. As
\n\tfor his knowledge of law, the best praise we can give it is that it is on a
\n\tlevel with his knowledge of, say, English. Such was the brilliant creature
\n\twho appointed himself prosecutor, jury and judge in the Khulna sedition
\n\tcase. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tUnder such auspices the
\n\tconduct of the case was sure to be distinguished by a peculiarly effulgent
\n\tbrilliancy. In order to prove that Venibhushan Rai talked sedition it was
\n\tthought necessary to prove how many volunteers were present at the
\n\tConference. This is a fair example of the kind of evidence on which the case
\n\twas decided and which the great Asanuddin declared to be particularly
\n\trelevant. Beyond evidence of this stamp there was no proof against the
\n\taccused except the evidence of police officers unsupported by any verbatim
\n\treport, while on the other side were the statements of the respectable
\n\tpleaders, the verbatim copy of the speech and a whole mass of unshaken
\n\ttestimony. But our one and only Asanuddin declared that the evidence of
\n\trespectable men was not to be believed because they were <\/i>respectable
\n\tand graduates of the Calcutta University and partakers in the Conference;
\n\tthe police apparently were the only disinterested and truthful people in
\n\tKhulna. But the most remarkable dictum of this remarkable man was that when
\n\tone is charged with sedition it is not necessary to prove the use of any
\n\tparticular seditious utterances; it is quite enough for the Magistrate to
\n\tcome to the conclusion that something untoward might, could or should have
\n\thappened as the result of the accused having made a speech. In fact, it is
\n\thardly necessary under the section as interpreted by Daniels of this kind,
\n\tto prove anything against the accused; the only thing necessary is that the
\n\tMagistrate should think it better for convenience official or unofficial
\n\tthat he should be bound over. The section answers the same purpose in minor
\n\tcases which the regulation of 1818 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 606<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tanswers in the case of more
\n\tpowerful opponents of irresponsible despotism. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Khulna case has been from
\n\tthe point of view of Justice an undress rehearsal of the usual bureaucratic
\n\tcomedy; from the point of view of Mr. Asanuddin Ahmed it has been a
\n\tbrilliant exhibition of his superhuman power of acting folly and talking
\n\tnonsense; from the point of view of Srijut Venibhushan Rai it has been a
\n\ttriumph greater than any legal victory, a public certificate of patriotism,
\n\tcourage and sincerity, an accolade of knighthood and nobility in the service
\n\tof the motherland. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t__________<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tA Noble Example
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\tThe proprietors of the
\n\t\tAhmedabad Fine Mills have been doing substantial work not only for the
\n\t\tindustrial progress of the country but for Indian unity. At the First
\n\t\tIndustrial Conference held at Benares in December, 1905, Dewan Bahadur
\n\t\tAmbalal Sakerlal Desai promised on behalf of this firm that they would
\n\t\tundertake to train Indian students in the art of weaving free of charge
\n\t\tin their mill. Since then no less than thirty students have started for
\n\t\tAhmedabad and are there receiving instruction, some in weaving and some
\n\t\tin spinning and Mechanical Engineering. Another leading mill in the
\n\t\tcountry offered to teach weaving through a six months’ course for a fee
\n\t\tof no less than one thousand rupees; the Ahmedabad Mill has undertaken
\n\t\tit as a labour of love. The students will be taken through a three
\n\t\tyears’ course, and if any of them wants to be specially trained as an
\n\t\texpert he will have to stay on for a longer period. The proprietors are
\n\t\twilling to take a fresh batch of students, but as they want to make sure
\n\t\tthat the students trained by them should not suffer from lack of
\n\t\temployment and as no fresh mills are being started in Bengal, they have
\n\t\tfor the present stopped taking in fresh students. The capitalists of
\n\t\tBengal should take note of this and now that there will be no lack of
\n\t\ttrained experts should see that their expert knowledge is not wasted
\n\t\tsimply because there are no enterprising capitalists to utilise them.
\n\t\tThe whole country, and    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 607<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n specially Bengal, owes a deep
\n\tdebt of gratitude to the authorities of the Ahmedabad Fine Mills, and most
\n\tof all to the weaving master, Mr. Keshub Lall Mansukram Mehta, not only for
\n\ttheir generous and patriotic work, but also for the almost paternal care
\n\tthey are bestowing on the young men placed under their charge. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n We remember in this connection
\n\tthat Mr. Giridhari Lal, Government Pleader, Delhi, also promised at the same
\n\tConference that he would undertake to make provision for teaching the art of
\n\tspinning free of charge to Indian students in a certain cotton mill. We have
\n\tnot heard if this offer also has been taken advantage of, like the above, by
\n\tintending students, and should be glad to have further information on the
\n\tsubject.    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 608<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 20th, 1907 }   The Khulna Comedy   The result of a political case is always a foregone conclusion 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-2721","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\/2721","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=2721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}