{"id":2835,"date":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2835"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","slug":"94-bande-mataram-8-6-07-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\/94-bande-mataram-8-6-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-94_Bande Mataram 8-6-07.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 8th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Strength of the Idea
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe mistake which despots,
\nbenevolent or malevolent, have been making ever since organised states came into
\nexistence and which, it seems, they will go on making to the end of the chapter,
\nis that they overestimate their coercive power, which is physical and material
\nand therefore palpable, and underestimate the power and vitality of ideas and
\nsentiments. A feeling or a thought, Nationalism, Democracy, the aspiration
\ntowards liberty, cannot be estimated in the terms of concrete power, in so many
\nfighting men, so many armed police, so many guns, so many prisons, such and such
\nlaws, ukases, and executive powers. But such feelings and thoughts are more
\npowerful than fighting men and guns and prisons and laws and ukases. Their
\nbeginnings are feeble, their end is mighty. But of despotic repression the
\nbeginnings are mighty, the end is feeble. Thought is always greater than armies,
\nmore lasting than the most powerful and best-organised despotisms. It was a
\nthought that overthrew the despotism of centuries in France and revolutionised
\nEurope. It was a mere sentiment against which the irresistible might of the
\nSpanish armies and the organised cruelty of Spanish repression were shattered in
\nthe Netherlands, which brought to nought the administrative genius, the military
\npower, the stubborn will of Aurangzeb, which loosened the iron grip of Austria
\non Italy. In all such instances the physical power and organisation behind the
\ninsurgent idea are ridiculously small, the repressive force so overwhelmingly,
\nimpossibly strong that all reasonable, prudent, moderate minds see the utter
\nfolly of resistance and stigmatise the attempt of the idea to rise as an act of
\nalmost criminal insanity. But the man with the idea is not reasonable, not
\nprudent,    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 493<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tnot moderate. He is an
\n\textremist, a fanatic. He knows that his idea is bound to conquer, he knows
\n\tthat the man possessed with it is more formidable, even with his naked
\n\thands, than the prison and the gibbet, the armed men and the murderous
\n\tcannon. He knows that in the fight with brute force the spirit, the idea is
\n\tbound to conquer. The Roman Empire is no more, but the Christianity which it
\n\tthought to crush, possesses half the globe, covering "regions Caesar never
\n\tknew". The Jew, whom the whole world persecuted, survived by the strength of
\n\tan idea and now sits in the high places of the world, playing with nations
\n\tas a chess-player with his pieces. He knows too that his own life and the
\n\tlives of others are of no value, that they are mere dust in the balance
\n\tcompared with the life of his idea. The idea or sentiment is at first
\n\tconfined to a few men whom their neighbours and countrymen ridicule as
\n\tlunatics or hare-brained enthusiasts. But it spreads and gathers adherents
\n\twho catch the fire of the first missionaries and creates its own preachers
\n\tand then its workers who try to carry out its teachings in circumstances of
\n\talmost paralysing difficulty. The attempt to work brings them into conflict
\n\twith the established power which the idea threatens and there is
\n\tpersecution. The idea creates its martyrs. And in martyrdom there is an
\n\tincalculable spiritual magnetism which works miracles. A whole nation, a
\n\twhole world catches the fire which burned in a few hearts; the soil which
\n\thas drunk the blood of the martyr imbibes with it a sort of divine madness
\n\twhich it breathes into the heart of all its children, until there is but one
\n\tovermastering idea, one imperishable resolution in the minds of all beside
\n\twhich all other hopes and interests fade into insignificance and until it is
\n\tfulfilled, there can be no peace or rest for the land or its rulers. It is
\n\tat this moment that the idea begins to create its heroes and fighters, whose
\n\tnumbers and courage defeat only multiplies and confirms until the idea
\n\tmilitant has become the idea triumphant. Such is the history of the idea, so
\n\tinvariable in its broad lines that it is evidently the working of a natural
\n\tlaw. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tBut the despot will not
\n\trecognise this superiority, the teachings of history have no meaning for
\n\thim. He is dazzled by the    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 494<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tpomp and splendour of his own
\n\tpower, infatuated with the sense of his own irresistible strength.
\n\tNaturally, for the signs and proofs of his own power are visible, palpable,
\n\tin his camps and armaments, in the crores and millions which his
\n\ttax-gatherers wring out of the helpless masses, in the tremendous array of
\n\tcannon and implements of war which fill his numerous arsenals, in the
\n\tcompact and swiftly-working organisation of his administration, in the
\n\tprisons into which he hurls his opponents, in the fortresses and places of
\n\texile to which he can hurry the men of the idea. He is deceived also by the
\n\ttemporary triumph of his repressive measures. He strikes out with his mailed
\n\thand and surging multitudes are scattered like chaff with a single blow; he
\n\thurls his thunderbolts from the citadels of his strength and ease and the
\n\tclamour of a continent sinks into a deathlike hush; or he swings the rebels
\n\tby rows from his gibbets or mows them down by the hundred with his
\n\tmitrailleuse and then stands alone erect amidst the ruin he has made and
\n\tthinks, "The trouble is over, there is nothing more to fear. My rule will
\n\tendure for ever; God will not remember what I have done or take account of
\n\tthe blood that I have spilled." And he does not know that the fiat has gone
\n\tout against him, "Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee."
\n\tFor to the Power that rules the world one day is the same as fifty years.
\n\tThe time lies in His choice, but now or afterwards the triumph of the idea
\n\tis assured, for it is He who has sent it into men’s minds that His purposes
\n\tmay be fulfilled. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe story is so old, so often
\n\trepeated that it is a wonder the delusion should still persist and repeat
\n\titself. Each despotic rule after the other thinks, "Oh, the circumstances in
\n\tmy case are quite different, I am a different thing from any yet recorded in
\n\thistory, stronger, more virtuous and moral, better organised. I am God’s
\n\tfavourite and can never come to harm." And so the old drama is staged again
\n\tand acted till it reaches the old catastrophe. The historic madness has now
\n\tovertaken the British nation in the height of its worldwide power and
\n\tmaterial greatness. In Egypt, in India, in Ireland the most Radical
\n\tGovernment of modern times is bracing itself to a policy of repression. It
\n\tthinks    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 495<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tEngland has only to stamp her
\n\tfoot and all the trouble will be over. Yet only consider how many ideas are
\n\tarising which find in British despotism their chief antagonist. The idea of
\n\ta free and self-centred Ireland has been reborn and the souls of Fitzgerald
\n\tand Emmett are reincarnating. The idea of a free Egypt and the Pan-Islamic
\n\tidea have joined hands in the land of the Pharaohs. The idea of a free and
\n\tunited India has been born and arrived at full stature in the land of the
\n\tRishis, and the spiritual force of a great civilisation of which the world
\n\thas need, is gathering at its back. Will England crush these ideas with
\n\tukases and coercion laws? Will she even kill them with maxims and
\n\tsiege-guns? But the eyes of the wise men have been sealed so that they
\n\tshould not see and their minds bewildered so that they should not
\n\tunderstand. Destiny will take its appointed course until the fated end.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tComic Opera Reforms <\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Morley has made his
\n\tpronouncement and a long-expectant world may now go about its ordinary
\n\tbusiness with the satisfactory conviction that the conditions of political
\n\tlife in India will be precisely the same as before. We know now what are the
\n\tmuch-talked-of reforms which are to pave the way for self-government under
\n\tan absolute and personal rule and to quiet Indian discontent. Let us take
\n\tthem one by one, these precious and inestimable boons. They are three in
\n\tnumber, a trinity of marvels; an advisory Council of Notables, enlarged
\n\tLegislative and Provincial Councils, admission of one or two Indians to the
\n\tIndia Council. An advisory Council of Notables\u2014 we can see it in our mind’s
\n\teye. The Nawab of Dacca, the Maharaja of Darbhanga, the Maharajas of
\n\tCoochbehar and Kashmir, the Raja of Nabha, Sir Harnam Singh, a few other
\n\tRajas and Maharajas (not
\n<\/i>including the Maharaja of Baroda), Dr. Rash Behari Ghose, Mr. Justice
\n\tMukherji, a goodly number of non-official Europeans, the knight of the
\n\tumbrella from Bombay, etc. etc. with Mr.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 496<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tGokhale bringing up the tail
\n\tas the least dangerous of those whom Mr. Morley felt that he must
\n\treluctantly call "our enemies". And what will the business of this
\n\tillustrious assembly be? It will find out what the opinion of the country is
\n\t(on which the members will be better authorities no doubt than a highly
\n\tinconvenient Press) and inform the Government; they will also find out the
\n\tmeaning of the Government (if that be humanly possible) and inform the
\n\tcountry. We suppose it would be seditious to laugh at a Secretary of State,
\n\tfor is he not part of the Government established by law? So we will merely
\n\tsay that the right place for this truly comic Council of Notables with its
\n\tyet more comic functions is an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan and not an
\n\tIndia seething with discontent and convulsed by the throes of an incipient
\n\trevolution. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAs to the "enlarged"
\n\tLegislative Councils, we can say little. Mr. Morley does not enlighten us as
\n\tto their composition but he has explicitly said that the official majority
\n\twill be maintained\u2014 a piece of information, by the way, which the
\n\tBengalee’<\/i>s "Own Correspondents" forget to cable out to Colootola. That
\n\tis enough for it means that the Legislative Councils are to be precisely
\n\twhat they were before, only bigger. The people are not to be given any
\n\teffective control or check on the management of their own affairs. We had
\n\tgilded shams before; they will be bigger shams with more gilt on them, but
\n\tstill shams and nothing but shams. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, Mr. Morley says that
\n\tthe time has come when it will be really quite safe to have an Indian or
\n\teven two (what reckless daring!) on the India Council. Really? A year or two
\n\tago, we suppose, it would have been very dangerous,\u2014 indeed, brought the
\n\tEmpire down with a sudden crash. So Mr. Romesh Dutt and Justice Amir Ali’s
\n\texpectations may at last be satisfied and we shall have two Indian tongues
\n\tin the Council of India. We wish them luck; but for all the use they will be
\n\tto India, they might just as well be in Timbuctoo or the Andamans. Indeed
\n\tthey would probably be of much more use in the Andamans. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWe find it impossible to
\n\tdiscuss Mr. Morley’s reforms seriously, they are so impossibly burlesque and
\n\tfarcical. Yet they    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 497<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\thave their serious aspect.
\n\tThey show that the British despotism, like all despotisms in the same
\n\tpredicament, is making the time-honoured, ineffectual effort to evade a
\n\tsettlement of the real question by throwing belated and now unacceptable
\n\tsops to Demogorgon. We shall return to this aspect of the subject hereafter.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tParadoxical Advice
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tMr. G. C. Bose, principal and
\n\tproprietor of the Bangabasi College, has published a short signed article in
\n\tthe
\nBangabasi <\/i>in which he sets forth very emphatically what he considers to
\n\tbe the duty of the students and their guardians in this critical moment. Mr.
\n\tBose is an educationist pure and simple who has never mixed himself up in
\n\tpolitics, unlike another well-known principal whose weekly incursions into
\n\tpolitics are more remarkable for their manner than for their matter. If
\n\ttherefore Mr. Bose had confined himself to the educational aspect of the
\n\tquestion and the extent to which students may permissibly interest
\n\tthemselves in politics, we should have had nothing to say. Unfortunately Mr.
\n\tBose has allowed himself to be tempted by the prevailing political
\n\tatmosphere outside his true province. He refrains from discussing the merits
\n\tof the Risley Circular and merely advises the public to leave no stone
\n\tunturned to get the circular withdrawn but to refrain scrupulously from
\n\tdefying it while it is in force. This is very much like telling us to leave
\n\tno stone unturned to get our dinner cooked but at the same time refrain
\n\tscrupulously from lighting a fire. Everyone, even the veriest political
\n\ttyro, can see that if we submit to the circular it will remain with us in
\n\tperpetuity; no amount of representations such as it is now proposed to send
\n\tto the Government, will get the circular recalled. Our only chance of
\n\tgetting rid of it is to make it a dead letter by a general refusal to abide
\n\tby it. Mr. Bose represents a vested interest which will be seriously
\n\tinconvenienced by an educational strike or a general refusal to abide by the
\n\tcircular and we fear the natural anxiety to avoid    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 498<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tthis inconvenience has
\n\tblinded him to this very simple political fact. But will the student class
\n\tlisten to Mr. Bose’s dulcet pipings? The wave of Nationalism in the land is
\n\tsurely not so spent, but will rise the higher for the obstacles thrown in
\n\tthe way of its advance.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 499<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 8th, 1907 }   The Strength of the Idea   The mistake which despots, benevolent or malevolent, have been making…<\/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-2835","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\/2835","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=2835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}