{"id":281,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=281"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:04","slug":"048-shall-india-be-free-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\/048-shall-india-be-free-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-048_Shall India be Free.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nShall India Be Free ?<\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n                    <\/font>W<\/font>E
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span>ARE<\/span><\/font><\/b>
\narguing the impossibility of a healthy national development under foreign rule,
\n— except by reaction against that rule. The foreign domination naturally
\ninterferes with and obstructs the functioning of the native organs of
\ndevelopment. It is therefore in itself an unnatural and unhealthy condition, — a
\nwound, a disease, which must result, unless arrested, in the mortification and
\nrotting to death of the indigenous body politic. If a nation were an artificial
\nproduct which could be made, then it might be possible for one nation to make
\nanother. But a nation cannot be made,<\/span> <\/span>
\n—<\/span>
\n <\/span>it is an organism
\nwhich grows under the stress of a principle of life within. We speak indeed of
\nnation-building and of the makers of a nation, but these are only convenient
\nmetaphors. The nation-builder, Cavour or Bismarck, is merely the incarnation of
\na national force which has found its hour and its opportunity, — of an inner
\nwill which has awakened under the stress of shaping circumstances. A nation is
\nindeed the outward expression of a community of sentiment, whether it be the
\nsentiment of a common blood or the sentiment of a common religion or the
\nsentiment of a common interest or any or all of these sentiments combined.
\nOnce this sentiment grows strong enough to develop into a will towards unity and
\nto conquer obstacles and make full use of favouring circumstances, the
\ndevelopment of the nation becomes inevitable and there is no power which can
\nultimately triumph against it. But the process, however rapid it may be, is one
\nof growth and not of manufacture. The first impulse of the developing nation is
\nto provide itself with a centre, a means of self-expression and united actions,
\na chief organ or national nerve-centre with subsidiary organs acting under
\nand in harmony with it, if the need of self-protection is its first overpowering
\nneed. The organisation may be military or semi-military under a single chief or
\na war- like ruling class; if the pressure from outside is not overpowering or
\nthe need of internal development strongly felt, it may take the<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-309<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\nshape of some form of partial or complete self-government. In either case the
\ncommunity becomes a nation or organic State.<\/span><\/p>\n

       
\nWhat, then, is the place of foreign
\nrule in such an organic development? The invasion of the body politic by a
\nforeign element must result either in the merging of the alien into the indigenous nationality or in his superimposition on the latter in a precarious
\nposition which can only be maintained by coercion or by hypnotising the
\nsubject people into passivity. If the alien and
\nthe native-born population are akin in blood and in religion, the fusion will be
\neasy. Even if they are not, yet if the former settles down in the conquered
\ncountry and makes it his motherland, community of interests will in the end
\ninevitably bring about union. The foreigners become sons of the country by
\nadoption and the sentiment of a common motherland is always a sufficient
\nsubstitute for the sentiment of a common race-origin. The difficulty of religion
\nmay be solved by the conversion of the foreigner to the religion of the people
\nhe has conquered, as happened with the ancient invaders of India, or by the
\nconversion of the conquered people to the religion of their rulers, as happened in Persia and other countries conquered by the Arabs. Even if no such
\ngeneral change of creed can be effected, yet the two religions may become
\nhabituated to each other and mutually tolerant, or the sentiment of a common
\ninterest and a common sonhood of one motherland may overcome the consciousness
\nof religious differences. In all these contingencies there is a fusion, complete
\nor partial; and the nation, though it may be profoundly affected for good or
\nevil, need not be disorganised or lose the power of development. India under
\nMahomedan rule, though greatly disturbed and thrown into continual ferment and
\nrevolution, did not lose its power of organic readjustment and development.
\nEven the final anarchy which preceded the British domination, was not a process
\nof disorganisation but an acute crisis,<\/span> <\/span>
\n—<\/span>
\n<\/span>the attempt of
\nNature to effect an organic readjustment in the body politic.
\n        Unfortunately the crisis was complicated by the presence and final domination of
\na foreign body, foreign in blood, foreign in religion, foreign in interest. This
\nbody remains superimposed on the native-born population, without any roots in
\nthe soil. Its<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-310<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

presence, so long as it is neither merged in the nation nor dislodged, must
\nmake for the disorganisation and decay of the subject people. It is possible
\nfor a foreign body differing in blood, religion and interest, to amalgamate
\nwith the native organism but only on one of two conditions; either the foreign
\nbody must cut itself off from its origin and take up its home in the conquered
\ncountry, — a course which is obviously impossible in the present problem, — or
\nit must assimilate the subject State into the paramount State by the removal of
\nall differences, inequalities, and conflicting interests. We shall point out the
\ninsuperable difficulties in the way of any such arrangement which will at once
\npreserve British supremacy and give a free scope to Indian national
\ndevelopment. At present there is no likelihood of the intruding force
\nsubmitting easily to the immense sacrifices which such an assimilation would
\ninvolve. Yet if no such assimilation takes place, the position of the British
\nbureaucracy in India in no way differs from the position of the Turkish
\ndespotism as it existed with regard to the Christian populations of the Balkans
\nprevious to their independence or of the Austrians in Lombardy before the
\nItalian Revolution. It is a position which endangers, demoralises and
\neventually weakens the ruling nation as Austria and Turkey were
\ndemoralised and weakened, and which disorganises and degrades the subject
\npeople. A very brief consideration of the effects of British rule in India will
\ncarry this truth home.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>, <\/i>April 30, 1907<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n


\nMoonshine
\nfor Bombay Consumption<\/font><\/a>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Calcutta
\ncorrespondent of the lndu Prakash <\/i>seems to be an adept in fitting his
\nnews to the likings of the clientele. He has discovered that the old party and
\nthe new are united not against the Government but against the Mahomedans. All
\nare looking to the Government with a reverent expectation of justice from that
\nimmaculate source. We do not know who this anti-Mahomedan and pro-Government Calcutta
\ncorrespondent may be; but we hope the Bombay public will not be deceived by his
\ninventions. If there is one overmastering feeling in Bengal it is indigna-<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-311<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

tion with the
\nGovernment for allowing or countenancing the outrages in the Eastern
\ndistricts. Even the Loyalist organs are full of expressions of uneasiness and
\nperturbed wonder at the inaction of the authorities while Moderate organs like
\nthe Bengalee <\/i>and Moderate leaders like Babu Surendranath Banerji have expressed plainly an adverse view of the action and spirit of the Government.
\nThere is no doubt considerable resentment against men like Nawab Salimullah for
\nfomenting the disturbances; but there is no deep-seated resentment against the
\nlow-class Mahomedans who are merely the tools of men who themselves keep safely
\nunder cover. The fight is not a fight between Hindus and Mahomedans but between
\nthe bureaucrats and Swadeshists.<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n
\nThe "Reformer" on Moderation<\/a><\/font><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/font><\/b>
\n
\nThe Indian Social Reformer <\/i>has discovered that the Moderate programme
\nneeds revision. Moderation is defined by this authority as a desire to preserve
\nthe British Raj until social reform has accomplished itself, for the reason
\nthat an indigenous Government is not likely to favour social reform so much as
\nthe present rulers do. The Reformer <\/i>would therefore like the Moderate
\nprogramme to be modified in order to tally with its own definition of
\nmoderation. We presume that, in its view, the Congress instead of demanding
\nLegislative Councils should ask for the forcible marriage of Hindu widows;
\ninstead of the separation of the judicial and executive, the separation of
\nreformed wives from unreformed husbands or vice versa; <\/i>instead of the
\nrepeal of the Arms Act, the abolition of the Hindu religion. This introduction
\nof social details into a political programme is a fad of a few enthusiasts and
\nis contrary to all reason. The alteration of the social system to suit present
\nneeds is a matter for the general sense of the community and the efforts of
\nindividuals. To mix it up with politics in which men of all religious views and
\nvarious social opinions can join is to confuse issues hopelessly. It is not true
\nthat by removing the defects of our social structure we shall automatically
\nbecome a nation and fit for freedom. If it were so, Burma would be a free nation
\nat present. Nor can we<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-312<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\nbelieve that the present system is favourable to social reconstruction or that
\nself-government would be fatal to it. The reverse is the case. Of course, if
\nsocial reform means the destruction of everything old or Hindu because it is old
\nor Hindu, the continuance of the present political and mental dependence on England and English ideals is much to be desired by the social
\nreformers;
\nfor it is gradually destroying all that was good as well as much that was
\ndefective in the old society. With the programme of becoming a nation by
\ndenationalisation we have no sympathy. But if a healthy social development be
\naimed at, it is more likely to occur in a free India when the national needs
\nwill bring about a natural evolution. Society is not an artificial manufacture
\nto be moulded and remodelled at will, but a growth. If it is to be healthy and
\nstrong it must have healthy surroundings and a free atmosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBande Mataram<\/i>, <\/i>May 1, 1907<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-313<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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