{"id":2776,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:46","slug":"104-bande-mataram-25-6-07-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\/104-bande-mataram-25-6-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-104_Bande Mataram 25-6-07.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, June 25th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nMorleyism Analysed <\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe fuller reports of Mr.
\nMorley’s speech to hand by mail do not in any essential point alter the
\nimpression that was produced by Reuter<\/i>‘s summary. The whole of the speech
\nturns upon a single sentence as its pivot\u2014 the statement that British rule will
\ncontinue, ought to continue and must continue. Mr. Morley does not say for ever,
\nbut that is understood. It follows that if the continuance of British rule on
\nany terms is the fundamental necessity, any and every means used for its
\npreservation is legitimate. Compared with that supreme necessity justice does
\nnot matter, humanity does not matter, truth does not matter, morality may be
\ntrampled on, the laws of God may be defied. The principles of Liberalism, though
\nthey may have been professed a thousand times over, must be discarded by the
\nEnglish rulers of India as inapplicable to a country of "300 millions of people,
\ncomposite, heterogeneous, of different races with different histories and
\ndifferent faiths". All these things weigh as dust in the balance against the one
\nsupreme necessity. If the continuance of British rule seems to be threatened by
\nany popular activity however legitimate, resort must be had to any weapon, no
\nmatter of what nature, in order to put down that activity. Reasons of State,
\n"the tyrant’s plea, necessity", must be held to be of supreme authority and to
\noverride all other considerations. Mr. Morley admits that the plea is a
\ndangerous one, but sedition is still more dangerous. The danger of the reason of
\nState is that it can cover and will inevitably be stretched to cover the
\nrepetition of "dangers, mischiefs and iniquities in our olden history and,
\nperhaps, in our present history"; in other words Mr. Morley’s reasoning in
\nfavour of the present "iniquities" in India    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 533<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tcan equally well be used to
\n\tjustify every utmost atrocity, cruelty, vileness with which tyrants ancient
\n\tor modern have attempted to put down opposition to their sovereign will.
\n\tWholesale deportation, arbitrary imprisonment, massacre, outrage, police
\n\tanarchy, torture of prisoners, every familiar feature of Russian repression,
\n\tcan be brought under the head of weapons necessary to combat sedition and
\n\tcan be justified by the plea of State necessity. This is the danger of
\n\treason of State, a danger that recent events in India and especially current
\n\tevents in the Punjab show to be by no means so remote as we might have some
\n\tmonths ago imagined. But the danger of sedition is the cessation of British
\n\trule. And in the opinion of Mr. Morley, supported by an almost unanimous
\n\tconsensus of British opinion, the re-enactment by a British government of
\n\tthe iniquities and atrocities of ancient and modern tyranny are preferable
\n\tto the cessation of British rule; it is better to take the risk of these
\n\tthan to take the risk of losing the absolute control of Britain over India.
\n\tThis is Mr. Morley’s argument, approved by Conservative and Radical alike.
\n\tNo, we are not distorting or exaggerating. There it is, plump and plain, in
\n\tthe speech of the great British Radical, the Liberal philosopher, the
\n\tpanegyrist of Burke and Gladstone. It is the last word of England to India
\n\ton the great issue of Indian self-government. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tWhat does Mr. Morley mean by
\n\tBritish rule? Not the British connexion, not the continuance of India as a
\n\tself-governing unit in a federation of free peoples which shall be called
\n\tthe British Empire. No, Mr. Morley is quite as hostile to the Moderate ideal
\n\tof self-government on colonial lines, modified Swaraj, as to the Nationalist
\n\tideal of Swaraj pure and simple. The educated minority in India have the
\n\tpresumption to think themselves capable of working the government of the
\n\tcountry as smoothly as the heaven-born Briton himself, but Mr. Morley is
\n\tpersuaded that they would not work it for a week. This is final. If after a
\n\thundred years of English education and no inconsiderable training in the
\n\tsubordinate conduct of the bureaucratic machinery of government, the
\n\teducated class are not fit to be entrusted even by gradual stages with the
\n\tsupreme government of Indian affairs, then they will never be fit. And we
\n\tmust remember that the policy    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 534<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tof the rulers henceforth will
\n\tbe to control and restrict and not to encourage or promote the spread of
\n\teducation of the higher sort. From our own point of view, we may put it more
\n\tstrongly and say that if a hundred years of dependence and foreign control
\n\thave so immensely impaired that governing capacity of the Indian races which
\n\tthey showed with such splendid results for the last three thousand years,
\n\tthen another century will absolutely and for ever destroy it. Mr. Morley is
\n\ttherefore logically justified in reiterating his conviction that personal
\n\tand absolute foreign control must be the leading feature of Indian
\n\tadministration to the very end of time. This is what Mr. Morley means by the
\n\tcontinuance of British rule, he means the continuance of a personal and
\n\tabsolute British control pervading the administration of affairs in every
\n\tdepartment, in other words, a bureaucratic despotism strongly flavoured by
\n\tthe independent personal omnipotence of local governors and local officials.
\n\tThe problem which former British statesmen professed to have before them was
\n\tthe problem of gradually training and associating the Indians in an European
\n\tsystem of government until they were fit to take over absolute control of
\n\taffairs and allow their patrons and protectors to withdraw. This problem
\n\tdoes not any longer trouble the peace of British statesmen; on the contrary
\n\tit is definitely and for ever disclaimed and put aside as a chimera\u2014 or a
\n\tpretence. British rule in India will continue, ought to continue and must
\n\tcontinue. What then is the problem which is troubling Mr. Morley? The
\n\tproblem is "the difficulty of combining personal government in our
\n\tdependency with the rights of free speech and free meeting". Personal
\n\tgovernment, absolute government, despotism, that is the supreme necessity
\n\twhich must be continued for ever even at the sacrifice of morality, justice
\n\tand every other consideration. Subject to that necessity Mr. Morley proposes
\n\tto allow a certain amount of free speech if that be possible. Free speech
\n\twas harmless so long as the Indian people had not set their heart on
\n\tself-government; but now that they are resolved to have nothing short of
\n\tself-government, free speech means seditious speech, and sedition is not
\n\tconsistent with the continuance of the absolute and personal British
\n\tcontrol. How then can free speech    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 535<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tand British despotism be
\n\tcombined? How can fire and water occupy the same space? That is the problem,
\n\twhich Mr. Morley refuses to believe insoluble, and he solves it by
\n\tproclaiming the areas where free speech has been chiefly employed,\u2014 and by
\n\testablishing an Advisory Council of Notables. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIt may be asked, if the
\n\tcontinuance of absolute government is the whole policy of British
\n\tstatesmanship, why does Mr. Morley trouble himself about free speech at all
\n\tor propose any reforms? That question can be easily answered by a
\n\tconsideration of the suggested reforms. The first of these reforms is a
\n\tCouncil of Notables. Mr. Morley has told us what is the object of this body;
\n\tit is to be a sort of medium of communication between the Government and the
\n\tpeople. Of course Mr. Morley is quite mistaken in supposing that such a body
\n\tcan really serve the object he has in view, but we are concerned for the
\n\tpresent not with the sufficiency of the means he is devising for his object,
\n\tbut with the object itself. The second reform is an expansion of the
\n\tLegislative Councils and greater facilities to the elected members for the
\n\texpression of their views; in other words the object of the expanded
\n\tLegislative Councils is to keep the Government in India in touch with the
\n\tviews of the educated class. The third reform is the admission of Indian
\n\tmembers to the India Council, and it is obvious that here again the object
\n\tis that these Indian members should keep the Government in England in touch
\n\twith the opinions of educated India, just as the elected members of the
\n\tLegislative Councils are to keep the Government in India in touch with the
\n\tsame opinion. The fourth reform is the decentralisation of the
\n\tadministration so that each local official may become an independent local
\n\tdespot. The object is clearly defined; first, to give him greater
\n\topportunities of being in touch with the people, secondly, to give him a
\n\tgreater power of personal despotic control within his own jurisdiction
\n\tunhampered by the interference of higher authorities. All the reforms have
\n\tone single object, one governing idea,\u2014 an absolute personal despotic
\n\tBritish control
\nin touch with the people. <\/i>That is Mr. Morley’s policy. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe object of keeping in
\n\ttouch with the people and knowing    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 536<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\ttheir opinions is not to
\n\tredress their grievances, still less to allow their opinions any control
\n\tover the administration. The object is quite different. A despotism out of
\n\ttouch with the people is a despotism continually in danger; ignorant of the
\n\tcurrents of opinion, ignorant of the half-visible activities among its
\n\tsubjects, ignorant of the perils gathering in the vast obscurity, it must
\n\tone day be suddenly surprised and perhaps overthrown by the unforeseen
\n\toutburst of activities and dangers it had not anticipated. It is in order to
\n\tavoid these dangers that Mr. Morley wishes to employ various means of
\n\tkeeping in touch with public opinion and its manifestations. He talks in his
\n\tspeech of the necessity of the rulers putting themselves in the skins of the
\n\truled, in other words, of thoroughly understanding their thoughts, feelings
\n\tand point of view. This does not mean that they shall rule India according
\n\tto the sentiments, views and wishes of the Indian people. The whole conduct
\n\tof Mr. Morley and the whole trend of his utterances show that he means the
\n\topinions of the Government to prevail without regard to Indian opinions and
\n\tsentiments. The rulers are to understand the ruled so that they may know how
\n\ttheir measures are likely to affect the minds of the latter, how opposition
\n\tcan best be persuaded or samjaoed <\/i>into quiescence and how, if
\n\tpersuasion is useless, it can most swiftly and successfully be crushed.
\n\tThrough the Council of Notables, the Legislative Councils and the Indian
\n\tmembers of the India Council, the Government will come to know the ideas,
\n\tviews and feelings of the people; through the two former bodies they will
\n\ttry to present unpopular measures in such a way as to coax, cajole, delude
\n\tor intimidate public opinion into a quiet acceptance. If they cannot do
\n\tthis, then through the decentralised local officers they can keep in touch
\n\twith the popular temper, learn its manifestations and activities and
\n\tsuccessfully and promptly put down opposition by local measures, if
\n\tpossible, otherwise by imperial rescripts, laws and ordinances and every
\n\tpossible weapon of despotic repression. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWe have analysed Mr. Morley’s
\n\tspeech at length, because people in India have not the habit of following
\n\tthe turns of British parliamentary eloquence or reading between the lines of   
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 537<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tthe speech of a Cabinet
\n\tMinister. They are therefore likely to miss its true bearings and fail to
\n\tunderstand the policy it enunciates. Read by an eye accustomed to the
\n\treservations and implications by which a British Minister makes himself
\n\tintelligible without committing himself unnecessarily, Mr. Morley’s speech
\n\tis an admirably clear, connected, logical and, let us add, unusually and
\n\tamazingly frank expression of a very straightforward and coherent policy. To
\n\tmaintain in India an absolute rule as rigid as any Czar’s, to keep that rule
\n\tin close touch with the currents of Indian sentiment, opinion and activity
\n\tand to crush any active opposition by an immediate resort to the ordinary
\n\tweapons of despotism, ordinances, deportations, prosecutions and a swift and
\n\truthless terrorism, this is Morleyism as explained by its author. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPolitical or Non-Political
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tWe are glad to see that both
\n\tat Jessore and Pabna the foolish idea of excluding politics from a political
\n\tconference has been entirely abandoned. The attempt to parcel off our
\n\tnational progress into water-tight compartments, the attempts especially to
\n\tput off political activity and political development to a far-distant area
\n\tis, when not dictated by weakness or cowardice, a narrow, one-sided and
\n\tshort-sighted attempt. In one sense everything that concerns the welfare of
\n\tthe
\npolis<\/i>, the state or community, is political. Education, social
\n\treconstruction, sanitation, industrial expansion, all these are a necessary
\n\tpart of politics; but the most important part of all is that to which the
\n\tterm politics is especially applied, the organisation of the state and its
\n\tindependence; for on these all the others depend. Just as an organism must
\n\tfirst live and then attend to other wants and must therefore give the
\n\thighest importance to the preservation of life, so also a state or nation
\n\tmust first win or maintain an organised independence, otherwise it will find
\n\titself baffled in all its attempts to satisfy its other wants. Swadeshi,
\n\tBoycott, Arbitration, National Education, are all doomed to failure if   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 538<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tpursued separately and for
\n\ttheir own sake; but as part of a single co-ordinated attempt to attain an
\n\torganised independence they are the necessity of the present time. They are
\n\tmerely component parts of Swaraj, which is made of all of them put together
\n\tand harmonised into a single whole. It is mere ostrich politics to pretend
\n\tto give up Swaraj, and confine oneself to its parts for their own sake. By
\n\tsuch an attempt we may succeed in deceiving ourselves; we shall certainly
\n\tnot deceive anybody else. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tHare Street Logic
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Englishman <\/i>has
\n\tfound out a new reason for refusing self-government to Indians on the plea
\n\tof unfitness. Their unfitness for self-government is shown by their
\n\tunanimity in demanding self-government. Our contemporary arrives at this
\n\tconclusion in a way peculiar to himself. Mr. S. M. Mitra, that great and
\n\tsolitary admirer of Anglo-India and all its works, has recently discovered
\n\tthat Mr. R. C. Dutt in his green and callow days held views diametrically
\n\topposed to those of his ripe and reflective manhood\u2014 views entirely in
\n\tagreement with official opinion. Now that officials should be unanimous and
\n\tMr. Dutt along with them, the Englishman <\/i>thinks quite right and
\n\tproper; but that Indian politicians should be unanimous and Mr. Dutt along
\n\twith them is disgraceful and reprehensible. How is it, asks the Hare Street
\n\tSir Oracle, that Indians are all agreed about Permanent Settlement and other
\n\tpolitical questions. It shows they do not think independently about politics
\n\tand people who do not think independently about politics cannot be fit for
\n\tself-government. We will ask the
\nEnglishman <\/i>one question. If the
\nEnglishman<\/i>, the Daily News <\/i>and the Statesman <\/i>were all laid
\n\tflat on their backs and subjected to the torture called <\/span>
\n\t
\npeine<\/i>
\nforte et dure<\/i><\/span>, if,
\n\tfor instance, the Nawab of Dacca were dumped down on the
\nEnglishman<\/i>‘s chest and Mr. Curshetji upon his master and the Nawab’s
\n\tMaulavi, one after the other added to the heap, and if Mr. N. N. Ghose were
\n\tsimilarly seated on the editor of the Statesman <\/i>and Mr. Narendranath
\n\tSen on Mr. N. N.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 539<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tGhose and Pandit Kaliprasanna
\n\tKabyabisharad were piled upon Mr. Sen like Pelion upon Ossa, and the editor
\n\tof the Daily News<\/i> were similarly treated; then if under this pressure
\n\tthese three jarring powers were to become suddenly unanimous and struck out
\n\tan appeal to have this loving burden or some of it taken off their chests,\u2014
\n\twould that prove their inability to think independently? India is suffering
\n\teconomically and politically from the <\/span>
\npeine forte et dure<\/span>
\n\t<\/span> <\/i>and it is only to
\n\tbe expected that we should be unanimous in requesting that it should be
\n\tstopped or reduced. But then the Englishman <\/i>is so hard to please. If
\n\twe differ among ourselves, he cries, "Look, look, you cannot agree among
\n\tyourselves, and yet you ask for self-government." When we do agree among
\n\tourselves he shouts, "Look, look, you cannot disagree among yourselves, and
\n\tyet you ask for self-government." It is a case of heads I win, tails you
\n\tlose.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 540<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 25th, 1907 }   Morleyism Analysed   The fuller reports of Mr. Morley’s speech to hand by mail do not…<\/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-2776","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\/2776","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=2776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}