{"id":2728,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:29","slug":"99-bande-mataram-19-6-07-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\/99-bande-mataram-19-6-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-99_Bande Mataram 19-6-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t
\n\t<b{
\n\tCALCUTTA, June 12th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{ CALCUTTA, June 19th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Main Feeder of Patriotism
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThere are many people who admit
\nthe superiority of Eastern civilisation, who recognise its humanitarian and
\nsocialistic aspect, who are not blind to its predominating feature of
\nspirituality, who admire the absence of a militant Materialism in it, who praise
\nthe way in which it has balanced the interests of the different classes in the
\nsociety, who are conscious how much attention it gives to the higher needs of
\nhumanity. But still patriotism is not a living and moving impulse with them.
\nApart from the natural attachment which every man has to his country, its
\nliterature, its traditions, its customs and usages, patriotism has an additional
\nstimulus in the acknowledged excellence of a national civilisation. If Britons
\nlove England with all her faults, why should we fail to love India whose faults
\nwere whittled down to an irreducible minimum till foreign conquests threw the
\nwhole society out of gear? But instead of being dominated by the natural
\nambition of carrying the banner of such a civilisation all over the world, we
\nare unable to maintain its integrity in its own native home. This is betraying a
\ntrust. This is unworthiness of the worst type. We have not been able to add
\nanything to this precious bequest; on the contrary we have been keeping
\nourselves and generations yet unborn from a full enjoyment of their lawful
\nheritage. For Eastern civilisation though it is not dead, though it is a living
\nforce, is yet a submerged force, and that not because it has no intrinsic merit
\nbut because it has been transmitted to a class of people devoid of a love for
\nthings their own. It seems as if they have no past to guide, instruct or inspire
\nthem. They are beginning, as it were, with a clean slate and what is worse, a
\nforeign poetaster is calling upon his    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 511<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tcountrymen to take charge of
\n\tthem as "half devil, half child". Is not the humiliation sufficient to
\n\tdisturb our self-complacency? <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tWe make no appeal in the name
\n\tof any material benefit. No desire for earthly gain can nerve a people to
\n\tsuch superhuman activity as the eager hope of maintaining their greatness
\n\tand glory. We must first realise that we are great and glorious, that we are
\n\tproud and noble, and it is through voluntary prostration that we are being
\n\tstamped into the dust. No material ideal of riches and prosperity has ever
\n\tmade a nation. But when the sense of honour has been touched, when the
\n\tconsciousness of greatness has been reawakened, then and then only have the
\n\tscattered units of a fallen nation clustered round one mighty moral force.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is now considered by
\n\tpolitical thinkers to be the chief incentive to conquest? What is the
\n\tmeaning of the imperial sentiment which is "now dominating every English
\n\tbreast"? "If we ask ourselves," says one writer, "seriously the question why
\n\twe glory in the magnitude of our empire, it may be answered: partly because
\n\twe think it adds to our riches, partly because we enjoy the sense of power
\n\tand dominion, partly because we cling to old traditions and remember the
\n\tgreat deeds of history; but beyond and above all these elements of
\n\tsatisfaction we feel that throughout the whole British empire we enforce
\n\tthose ideas of justice, personal freedom and religious toleration which are
\n\tthe results of the constitutional struggles of centuries." We are not
\n\tconcerned here with the discussion whether the Britisher’s boast is well or
\n\till-founded, but rightly or wrongly this sentiment has taken possession of
\n\thim and he is invincible under its influence. For we find the same
\n\texplanation in Mill. Sidgwick also in his Elements of Politics <\/i>harps
\n\ton the same strain. "Besides the material advantages," he says, "there are
\n\tlegitimate sentimental satisfactions derived from justifiable conquest which
\n\tmust be taken into account. Such are the justifiable pride which the
\n\tcultivated members of a civilised community feel in the beneficent exercise
\n\tof dominion and in the performance by their nation of the noble task of
\n\tspreading the highest kind of civilisation, and a more intense though less
\n\televated satisfaction\u2014 inseparable    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 512<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tfrom patriotic sentiment\u2014 in
\n\tthe spread of the special type of civilisation distinctive of their nation,
\n\tcommunicated through its language and literature, and through the tendency
\n\tto catch its tastes and imitate its customs which its prolonged rule,
\n\tspecially if, on the whole, beneficent, is likely to cause in a continually
\n\tincreasing degree." <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThus, according to Sidgwick,
\n\tphysical expansion proceeds from a desire for spiritual expansion and
\n\thistory also supports the assertion. But why should not India then be the
\n\tfirst power in the world? Who else has the undisputed right to extend
\n\tspiritual sway over the world? This was Swami Vivekananda’s plan of
\n\tcampaign. India can once more be made conscious of her greatness by an
\n\tovermastering sense of the greatness of her spirituality. This sense of
\n\tgreatness is the main feeder of all patriotism. This only can put an end to
\n\tall self-depreciation and generate a burning desire to recover the lost
\n\tground.    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 513<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<b{ CALCUTTA, June 12th, 1907 } Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 19th, 1907 }   The Main Feeder of Patriotism   There are many people…<\/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-2728","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\/2728","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=2728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}