{"id":276,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=276"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:03","slug":"149-india-and-the-mongolian-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/149-india-and-the-mongolian-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-149_India and the Mongolian.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nIndia and the Mongolian<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>W<\/font><\/span>HEN<\/font><\/b>
\nSrijut Bepin Chandra Pal in his speech at the Federation Ground was speaking of
\nthe possibility of China and Japan overthrowing European civilisation, how many
\nof the audience understood or appreciated the great issues of which he spoke? We
\nhave lost the faculty of great ideas, of large outlooks, of that instinct which
\ndivines the great motions of the world. This huge country, this mighty
\ncontinent, once full of the clash of tremendous forces, stirring with high
\nexploits and gigantic ambitions, loud with the voices of the outside world, has
\nbecome a petty parish; the palace of the Aryan Emperors is now the hut of a
\ncrouching slave, small in his ideas, mean in his aspirations, his head sunk, his
\neyes downcast, so that he cannot see the heavens above him or the magnificent
\nearth around. If one speaks to him of his mighty possibilities of great deeds
\nthat he yet shall do, or seeks to remind him that he is the descendant of kings,
\nhe takes the speaker for a madman talking vain things and a derisive smile of
\npity is his only reply. We hold it to be the greatest injury of all that England
\nhas done us, that she has thus degraded our soul and dwarfed our imagination. It
\nis only by the grace of God that a reawakening has come, that we are once more
\nbecoming conscious of our divine inheritance and the grandiose possibilities of
\nour future.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Of all the minds that have stirred to the breath of God among us,
\nrefreshed themselves from the fountain of strength and inspiration and risen to
\ntheir full height and stature Srijut Bepin Chandra’s is the most penetrating,
\nthe most alive to the thoughts that are filling the modern world, the first to
\ndivine the future and prophesy the movements of God in the nation. While others
\nwere the slaves of Western ideals, his mind first caught the meaning of the
\nsudden arising of India, first proclaimed the spiritual character of the
\nmovement, first discovered that it was not only the body but the soul of India
\nthat was awaking from the sleep of the ages. On Saturday when he spoke<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-813<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nof
\nIndia as the saviour of Europe, he again gave expression to a prophetic thought,
\nagain looked with more than human insight into the future. The truth was not one
\nwhich his hearers could grasp; many must have gone away scoffing, few could
\nhave appreciated the luminous penetration of insight which lay behind the
\nthought of the speaker. The awakening of Asia is the fact of the twentieth
\ncentury, and in that awakening the lead has been given to the Mongolian races of
\nthe. Far East. In the genius, the patriotic spirit, the quick imitative faculty
\nof Japan, — in the grand deliberation, the patient thoroughness, the
\nirresistible organisation of China, Providence found the necessary material
\nforce which would meet the European with his own weapons and outdo him in that
\nscience, strength and ability which are his peculiar pride. The political
\ninstinct of the European races has enabled them to understand the purpose of the
\nAlmighty in the awakening of the Mongol. A terror is in their hearts, a palsy
\nhas come upon their strength, and with blanched lips they watch every movement
\nof the two Eastern giants, each wondering when his turn will come to feel the
\nsword of the Mikado or what will happen when China, the Titan of the world,
\nshall have completed her quiet, steady, imperturbable preparation. The vision of
\na China organised, equipped, full of the clang of war and the tramp of armed
\nmen, preparing to surge forth westwards is the nightmare of their dreams. And
\nanother terror of economic invasion, of the Mongol swamping Europe with cheap
\nlabour and stifling the industries of Europe adds a fresh poignancy to the
\napprehensions which convulse the West. Hence the panic in America, in Australia,
\nin Africa, the savage haste to expel the Asiatic at any cost before the military
\nstrength of China is sufficiently developed to demand entrance for her subjects
\nwith the sword emphasising her demand. This is the Yellow Peril, and every
\nEuropean knows in his heart of hearts that it is only a question of time
\nnecessary for his vision to translate itself into the waking world. But one
\nthing the European has not yet perceived and that is that the Mongolian is no
\nwild adventurer to go filibustering to Australia or bombard with his siege-guns
\nSan Francisco or New York before Asia is free. The first blow given by the
\nMongolian fell upon Russia because she stood across<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-814<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nAsiatic continent barring the westward surge of his destiny. The second blow
\nwill fall on England because she holds India.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The position of India makes her the key of Asia. She divides the Pagan
\nFar East from the Mahomedan West, and is their meeting-place. From her alone can
\nproceed a force of union, a starting-point of comprehension, a reconciliation of
\nMahomedanism and Paganism. Her freedom is necessary to the unity of Asia.
\nGeographically, she occupies an impregnable position of strength commanding the
\nEast of Asia as well as the West, from which as from a secure fortress she can
\nstrike the nations of the Persian or the Chinese world. Such a position held by
\nan European Power means a perpetual menace to the safety of Asia. It will
\ntherefore be the first great enterprise of a Chino-Japanese alliance to eject
\nthe English from India, and hold her in the interests of Asiatic freedom and
\nAsiatic unity. This necessity of India’s position is one which neither the
\nEnglish nor the Mongolian can escape. No treaties, no attempts to reconcile
\nconflicting interests will stand against the secret and inexorable necessity
\nwhich forces nations to follow not the dictates of prudence or diplomacy, but
\nthe fiat of their environment. When the inevitable happens and the Chinese
\narmies knock at the Himalayan gates of India and Japanese fleets appear before
\nBombay harbour, by what strength will England oppose this gigantic combination?
\nHer armies which took two years to overcome the opposition of forty thousand
\nuntrained farmers in the Transvaal? Her fleets which have never fought a battle
\nwith a trained foe since Trafalgar? They will be broken to pieces by the science
\nand skill of the Mongolian. And the key of Asia will pass into Mongolian hands
\nand the strength of India, the Sikh and the Rajput and the Maratha, the force of
\nMahomedan valour and the rising energy of new nations in Bengal and Madras will
\nall be at the service and under the guidance of the Mongolian who will not fail
\nto use them as England has failed, letting them run to waste, but will hammer
\nthem into a sword of strength for the fulfilment of his mission, the extrusion
\nof the European from Asia, Africa, Australia, the smiting down of European
\npride, the humiliation of Western statecraft, power and civilisation and its
\nsubordination to the lead of the dominant Asiatic.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-815<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n            The
\ndoom is drawing very near and the awakening of Bengal has come just in time to
\ngive India a chance of recovering her freedom of action. If she strains every
\nnerve to use the chance, if she is able to develop her self-consciousness, her
\nunity, her warlike instincts, her industrial independence, she will be in a
\nposition to assert her own will, to offer herself as an ally and not an
\ninstrument, it may be even, as Bepin Babu suggested, to mediate between the
\ncivilisation of Europe and Asia, both of them so necessary to human development.
\nTwo great obstacles stand in her way. The blindness of the bureaucracy which is
\nstraining every nerve to crush the Indian renascence in the vain hope that it
\ncan continue to rule, is the least of the two. Far more formidable is the
\ngreater though more excusable blindness of the people themselves who still
\npersist in connecting their future with the rule of England. Our Moderate
\npoliticians refuse to allow their minds to shake off the delusion that the
\nBritish rule is a dispensation of Providence and meant to endure. All their
\nthoughts of the future assume that the present is perpetual, that what is, will
\nbe. As one long in darkness cannot see the light when it enters suddenly his
\nprison, so our people even when the dawn has come, cannot believe that it is
\nreally daybreak. They persist in assuming that the night will continue and are
\ncontent with merely turning a little in bed instead of rising and swiftly
\naccoutring themselves for the work of the day. The warning which Srijut Bepin
\nChandra addressed to the British people, is also a warning to the people of
\nIndia. British rule can only continue in India, if India is willing that it
\nshould continue and strong enough to defend it against all comers. If a
\nrejuvenated India decides to be free, it depends on the present action of the
\nbureaucracy whether free India will be a friend of England and a mediator
\nbetween Europe and the triumphant Mongol or an ally of the latter in the
\napproaching Armageddon. Even if the movement in India is crushed, it will not be
\nEngland that will reap the fruit of her crime in strangling an infant
\nNationality. She will before long be swept out of India by the Mongolian broom
\nand the latent forces which she refused to utilise will be used against her by a
\nbolder and more skilful statesmanship. The people of India too will have to reap
\nthe fruits of their present Karma. On<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-816<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthem
\nfar more than on the bureaucracy it depends whether they will meet the coming
\nMongolian as a destined slave and instrument,
\nan ally or an equal whose voice shall override all others <\/span>in
\ndetermining the fate of the world.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nReligion
\nand the Bureaucracy<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nThe
\nmeasure of the panic into which the new movement has thrown the bureaucracy can
\nbe taken from its interference with the religious life of the people. Time was
\nwhen the rulers shrank from any interference with religion lest it should arouse
\nwhat they were pleased to call the fanaticism of the people. But one ghost
\ndrives out another, and the old fear of fanaticism has given place to the
\ngreater fear of the new Nationalism, just as the fear of the Mahomedans has
\ngiven place to the more tangible terror of the resurgent Hindu community. The
\nexpulsion of a religious preacher from Travancore is significant of the
\ndirection in which the fears of the bureaucracy are tending. That this act of
\ntyranny was not the work of the Maharaja goes without saying, since no Hindu
\nprince would dream of interfering with the religion of his subjects. The
\ndictation of the Resident is the only explanation of this political act.
\nWhatever activity may help the growth of national spirit or foster self-respect
\nin the people, is now suspect to the rulers and will be stopped wherever
\npossible, impeded where direct prohibition cannot be exercised. The famine
\nrelief work of Lala Lajpat Rai is being interfered with as seditious, and the
\nreligious preaching of the Madras Brahman has been vetoed because it calls on
\nthe people to revive the spiritual glories of ancient India. The struggle will
\nsoon overpass the political limits; for the next stage in Swadeshi will be a
\nreturn of the nation to its old spirituality and active habit of philanthropy
\nwith the revival of the nation as its motive. When the bureaucracy interferes
\nwith this development as it will be driven to interfere by the instinct of
\nself-preservation, as it has already begun to interfere, the true struggle will
\nbegin, the Avatar will be ready to manifest himself and the end will come.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-817<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe
\nMilk of Putana<\/font><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA
\nspirit of conciliation is evident in some of the recent acts of the bureaucracy,
\nsuch as the separation of Judicial and Executive of which Sir Harvey Adamson has
\ngiven the details in his speech in Council. The policy of Sir Sydenham Clarke in
\nBombay is of the same type, and from the Mofussil we hear of politician
\nMagistrates who are busy re-establishing the use of foreign articles by skilful
\nexhibitions of sympathy attended with intimidating of Swadeshists carried out
\nthrough the instrumentality of Indian subordinates on whom the whole blame is
\nthrown. This is the milk of Putana by which Kamsa hoped to poison the infant
\nKrishna. The modern Kamsa comes of a shopkeeping breed and is careful only to
\nlet the infant have as much of the milk and no more as will do his business for
\nhim. The separation of Judicial and Executive functions, the pet scheme of the
\nold mendicancy, will be carried out only in a district or two of Eastern Bengal
\nas an experiment. The policy of Sir Sydenham Clarke has confined itself to sweet
\nwords and abstention from repression, and the milk of Mr. Morley\u2019s sympathy is
\nlimited to so much as can be bottled for use in a Council of Notables. So too
\nthe politician Magistrates take care to do nothing except occasionally rescind
\noppressive orders which they have already issued in the names of their Indian
\nsubordinates. Their policy is to throttle Swadeshi with one hand while stroking
\nthe District paternally on the head with the other. What shall we do with this
\nmilk of Putana? Sri Krishna drained the breasts of Putana and killed her, and if
\nthe bureaucracy begins giving real concessions, that will be its fate. But this
\nwatered milk of Morleyan sympathy is a different matter. To drink it is to
\nweaken ourselves and help the adversary.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> April 1, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nOligarchy
\nRampant<\/font><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe
\nIndu Prakash<\/i>, <\/i>commenting on the Poona District Conference, again raises
\nthe note of dissension. It draws attention to<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-818<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nconflicting nature of the reports telegraphed respectively to the Hindu <\/i>from
\nNationalist sources and to the Tribune <\/i>from a Moderate correspondent. The
\nPoona Conference had passed a resolution in favour of an united Congress, and
\nthe telegram in the Hindu <\/i>represents this as a fiat <\/i>to the
\nCongress leaders, the telegram to the Tribune <\/i>as a pious wish meant only
\nto operate if the leaders chose to agree. The Indu <\/i>resents the speech of
\nthe President and the Nationalist interpretation of the resolution as a threat
\nto the leaders menacing them with the intervention of the nation if they refuse
\nto compose their quarrels. Whatever may have been the circumstances under
\nwhich the resolution was passed, the speech of the President was unmistakable;
\nit asserted the sovereignty of the nation, the purely delegatory character of
\nthe power of the leaders and the right of the former to dictate to the latter.
\nThe Bombay organ of Moderatism resents the claim of the nation to dictate to the
\nleaders; it holds that it is the leaders who ought to dictate to the nation. In
\nour articles on the Congress Constitution we described the present constitution
\nof the Congress as an oligarchy and we hear that some of our Moderate readers
\nresented this description. We ask them whether this attitude of the Indu <\/i>is
\nnot the very spirit of oligarchy? Can any more narrow and exclusive claim be set
\nup for a small circle of men than this that the nation shall have no right to
\ndictate to them their course in a crisis when the whole future of the country
\ndepends on their action? The Indu <\/i>says that an united Congress shall only
\nbe held if the leaders were willing to hold it. Again pure oligarchy! It does
\nnot matter what the nation thinks, but because Mr. Gokhale and Mr. Tilak cannot get on together, or because Sir Pherozshah Mehta or Dr. Rash Behari Ghose
\nare of a different opinion from Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal, the nation has to see
\nthe Congress broken asunder for ever. And such considerations are to rule the
\ndestiny of a great people!<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> April 2, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font>819<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India and the Mongolian                           WHEN Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal in his speech at the Federation Ground was speaking of the possibility of China…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","wpcat-8-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","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=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}