{"id":2806,"date":"2013-07-13T01:43:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2806"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:43:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:43:56","slug":"106-bande-mataram-27-6-07-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\/106-bande-mataram-27-6-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-106_Bande Mataram 27-6-07.html"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{ CALCUTTA, June 27th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\n"Legitimate Patriotism"
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nLord Minto has given us the historic expression "honest
\nSwadeshi", and it was reserved for an Anglo-Indian publicist to startle the
\nEnglish-knowing world by an equally significant expression, "legitimate
\npatriotism". Honesty, legitimacy and other kindred words of the English
\nvocabulary are being newly interpreted by the Anglo-Indian bureaucrats and
\npublicists. The natural sentiments and aspirations of men are to be regulated
\naccording to their convenience and notions. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf you give preference to the indigenous products of the
\ncountry and ask your friends, relatives and countrymen to do the same, you are
\ndishonest. This is stretching the meaning of honesty to suit the moral sense of
\nour alien and benevolent despots. Today we hear from another Anglo-Indian Sir
\nOracle, the Daily News
\n<\/i>of Calcutta, that there is such a thing as legitimate patriotism. We have
\nlooked up the dictionaries to profit by the enlightenment so kindly vouchsafed
\nto us, but we have failed in our efforts. According to Webster, patriotism
\ncovers all activities to zealously guard the
\nauthority <\/i>and interests of one’s country and we are at a loss to
\nunderstand how what the Indians have hitherto done or proposed to do to ensure
\nthe authority and interests of their country can be stigmatised as illegitimate.
\nWe on the contrary believe, and that according to the best authority, that the
\npatriotism which has hitherto wrested from Mr. Morley only an expanded Council
\nwith an official majority and a comic advisory Board of Notables, falls far
\nshort of the standard of lexicographers. Patriotism will never rest satisfied
\ntill it has recovered the authority of the country, however much the
\nAnglo-Indians try to twist its meaning and implication.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 544<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nIf it is patriotic for an Englishman to say, as their
\ngreatest poet has said, that this England never did nor shall lie at the proud
\nfeet of a conqueror, why should it be unpatriotic and seditious for an Indian to
\ngive expression to a similar sentiment? If it is highly patriotic for a Roman
\n"to die in defence of his father’s ashes and the temples of his gods", why
\nshould it be madness and senseless folly for an Indian to be stirred by a
\nsimilar impulse? If "self-defence is the bulwark of all rights", as Lord Byron
\nhas said, why should an Indian journalist be charged with an attempt to incite
\nto violence when he asks his countrymen of East Bengal to defend the honour of
\ntheir women at any cost? If Campbell is right in saying that virtue is the
\nspouse of liberty, why should an Indian be exposed to the menace of siege-guns
\nwhen entering on a legitimate and lawful struggle for the recovery of his lost
\nfreedom? If each noble aim repressed by long control expires at last or feebly
\nmans the soul, why should not our countrymen benefit by the advice of Goldsmith
\nand begin to chafe at the attempt to prolong this alien control? If Tennyson is
\njustified in taking a pride in his country which freemen till, which
\nsober-suited Freedom chose, where girt with friends or foes a man may speak the
\nthing he will, where freedom slowly broadens down from precedent to precedent,
\nwhy should it be criminal on the part of an Indian to imagine a similar future
\nfor the land of his birth? It will not do to fling in our face the mockery of
\nglittering generalities or blazing ubiquities of natural right with which they
\nridiculed the Declaration of Independence by the American colonists in 1776. Man
\ncannot escape the influence of these glittering generalities and blazing
\nubiquities; the literatures of peoples who struggled for independence in former
\nages have always abounded with them and the awakened East must also talk in the
\nsame language. When some mighty sentiments dominate the human breast, they give
\nrise to language which runs the risk of being scouted as mere platitude, they
\ngive rise to activities and demonstrations which are in danger of being traced
\nto illegitimate sources. The students of Rajamundry wore "Bande Mataram" badges,
\nshouted "Bande Mataram" in the streets, gave a grand reception to a Nationalist
\nspeaker, formed    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 545<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tthemselves into a Balabharat Samiti and the Daily News
\n<\/i>thinks all these to be the outcome of a patriotism hardly legitimate. What
\n\tis then legitimate patriotism, pray? Our contemporary has given us no light
\n\ton the point. We suppose it means a blind loyalty to the alien government, a
\n\thelpless acquiescence in its most despotic measures, bowing our knee to
\n\tevery Anglo-Indian, especially to the dicta of the Editor of the
\nIndian Daily<\/i>
\nNews <\/i>and the Englishman. <\/i>If we do not accept the ethics of the
\n\tBritish and Anglo-Indian press which calls the present patriotic movement
\n\timmoral and ascribes it to the want of moral training in our schools and
\n\tcolleges, we may be guilty according to Anglo-Indian jurisprudence but the
\n\thigher tribunal to whom alone all oppressed peoples look up, knows their
\n\thearts and shapes their destinies accordingly. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tKhulna Oppressions
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is the reason of the extraordinary activity of
\n\tGovernment oppression in the Khulna District. At the present rate Khulna
\n\tpromises to be the Barisal of West Bengal. A District Conference forbidden
\n\tand held, a prosecution for sedition against a leading pleader and
\n\tinfluential citizen of the chief town of the District, a prosecution of a
\n\tlocal Nationalist paper, a summons to all the leading men of a
\n\tSub-divisional town to show cause why they should not be bound down because
\n\tthey intend to hold a Conference, this is no bad record in the course of a
\n\tfew weeks. Of course the reason for this official
\njehad <\/i>against Swadeshi in Khulna is precisely the same as the reason for
\n\tthe jehad<\/i> in Barisal. Barisal has been selected for the most wanton
\n\tand disgraceful series of oppressions solely because it is the <\/i>
\n\tdistrict in East Bengal which is best organized for the work of Swadeshi and
\n\tself-help. It is to break down the organization of Nationalism that the
\n\tbureaucracy is now struggling with all the resources that a system of
\n\tarbitrary, absolute, personal rule places at their disposal. Khulna is the
\n\tfirst district in West Bengal which has set itself heart and soul to the
\n\twork of organizing Swadeshi and <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 546<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tSwaraj and Khulna suffers accordingly. This is the real
\n\treason of the attempts made by the Khulna officials to stop or punish the
\n\tholding of Conferences. These District and Sub-divisional Conferences are
\n\tespecially dreaded by the bureaucracy because they know them to be the first
\n\tstep towards organization. We welcome the oppressions in Khulna because they
\n\tmean the beginning of a true awakening in West Bengal. After its splendidly
\n\tsuccessful Conference Jessore ought to organize itself as Khulna has been
\n\tdoing. The Twenty-four Parganas and Midnapore will soon follow and as the
\n\torganization spreads, the oppression will go with it and with the oppression
\n\twill come the awakening.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 547<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 27th, 1907 }   "Legitimate Patriotism"   Lord Minto has given us the historic expression "honest Swadeshi", and it was…<\/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-2806","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\/2806","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=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}