{"id":2836,"date":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:06","slug":"47-bande-mataram-6-4-07-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\/47-bande-mataram-6-4-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-47_Bande Mataram 6-4-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n\t
\n\t{ CALCUTTA, April 6th, 1907<\/b> }<\/b><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nOmissions and Commissions at Berhampur
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe spirit of mendicancy has not been given much play in the proceedings of the Berhampur Conference and so far this year
\nmarks a distinctive advance. Last year’s Conference was totally exceptional; and there could be no certainty that the victory,
\nthen won for reason and patriotism, would be permanent, for the mendicant spirit fled from the Conference Pandal before
\nKemp’s cudgels and the triumph of the gospel of self-help was accomplished in an atmosphere of such excitement that even the
\nchill blood of a Legislative Councillor was heated into seditious utterance. The very moment after the dispersal of the Conference
\nthe mendicant nature reasserted itself, justifying the maxim of the ancients, “Drive out Nature with a pitchfork (or a regulation
\nlathi<\/i>), yet it will come back at the gallop.” But since then Nationalist sentiment in Bengal has grown immensely in volume; and
\nalthough the Conference was held in a Moderate centre, in the peaceful and untroubled atmosphere of West Bengal, no positive
\nmendicancy was permitted. There were, indeed, certain features of the Conference which we cannot view with approval. Last
\nyear the right of raising the cry of the Motherland wherever even two or three of her sons might meet, whether in public places
\nor private, was asserted by the whole body of delegates in spite of police cudgels; this year the right was surrendered because
\nBabu Baikunthanath Sen had pledged his personal honour to a foreign bureaucrat that there would be no breach of the peace.
\nSince this plea was accepted by the delegates, we must take it that all Bengal has acknowledged the shouting of “Bande Mataram”
\nin the streets to be a breach of the peace! Here is a victory for the bureaucracy. And yet the Chairman of the Reception Committee
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 244<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nwas not ashamed to include in his rotund rhetorical phrases
\ncongratulations on our triumph and our scars of victory. The private and personal honour of Babu Baikunthanath was set in
\nthe balance against the public honour of the delegates of Bengal, and the latter kicked the beam. It will be said that the position
\nof Babu Baikunthanath as host precluded the delegates from doing anything which would compromise that estimable gentleman. We deny that Babu Baikunthanath stood in the position of host to the Conference, whatever may have been his relation
\nto individual delegates; in any case the representatives of Bengal went to Berhampur not to eat good dinners and interchange
\nkindly social courtesies, but simply and solely to do their duty by the country. We deny the right of any individual, whatever
\nhis position, to pledge a whole nation to a course inconsistent with courage and with honour. But the leaders seem to have
\naccepted the plea with alacrity as a good excuse for avoiding a repetition of Barisal. “For such another field they dreaded worse
\nthan death.” The incident shows the persistence of that want of backbone which is still the curse of our politics. In any other
\ncountry the very fact that the delegates had been assaulted at one Conference for asserting a right, would have been held an
\nimperative reason for reasserting that right at every succeeding Conference, till it was admitted. Unless we can show the same
\nfirmness, we may as well give up the idea of passive resistance for good and all.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSeveral of the Resolutions seem to us unnecessary in substance and others invertebrate in phrasing. We have no faith
\nwhatever in the Judicial and Executive separation nostrum; we do not believe that it will really remedy the evil which it is
\ndesigned to meet. So long as the executive and judiciary are both in the pay of the same irresponsible and despotic authority,
\nthey will for the most part be actuated by the same spirit and act in unison; the relief given will only be in individual cases.
\nEven that much relief we cannot be sure of; for the moment the functions are separated, it will become an imperious need
\nfor the bureaucracy to tighten their hold on the judiciary, and, with all the power in their hands, they will not find the task
\n   
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 245<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tdifficult. Already the High Court itself has long ceased to be the
\n“palladium of justice and liberty” against bureaucratic vagaries, and the unanimity of the two Services is likely to be intensified
\nby the so-called reform. It is quite possible that the separation will make things worse rather than better. One reform and one
\nalone can secure us from executive oppression and that is to make the people of this country paymasters and controllers of
\nboth executive and judiciary. No patchwork in any direction will be of any avail. What for instance is the use of clamouring
\nabout the Road Cess when we know perfectly well that it was levied not for roads and other district purposes but as a plausible means of circumventing the Permanent Settlement? No one can deny that it is admirably fulfilling the purpose for which it
\nwas levied. It is absurd to think that the bureaucracy will be anxious to open out the country any further than is necessary
\nfor military and administrative purposes and for the greater facility of exploitation by the foreign trader and capitalist. The
\nneeds and convenience of the people are not and can never be a determining factor in their expenditure. For the same reason
\nthey cannot be expected to look to sanitation beyond the limit necessary in order to safeguard the health of Europeans and
\navoid in the world’s eyes manifest self-betrayal as an inefficient, reactionary and uncivilised administration. Really to secure the
\npublic health and effectually combat the plagues that are rapidly destroying our vitality, swelling the death-rate and diminishing the birth-rate, would demand an amount of co-operation with the people for which they will never be willing to pay the
\nprice. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tWith the exception of these minor triflings and of one glaring omission beside which all its omissions and commissions fade into insignificance, the work of the Conference has on the
\nwhole been satisfactory. It is well that it has sanctioned the taking up of sanitation measures by popular agency; it is well
\nthat it has dealt with the question of arbitration and that it has approved of measures for grappling with the urgent question
\nof scarcity and famine. But in failing utterly to understand and meet the situation created by the disturbances in East Bengal,
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 246<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tthe Conference has shown a want of courage and statesmanship
\nwhich is without excuse,\u2014 we wish we could say that it was without parallel. We shall deal with this subject separately as its
\nimportance demands.    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 247<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 6th, 1907 }   Omissions and Commissions at Berhampur   The spirit of mendicancy has not been given much play…<\/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-2836","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\/2836","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=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}