{"id":2840,"date":"2013-07-13T01:44:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:44:08","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:08","slug":"103-bande-mataram-24-6-07-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\/103-bande-mataram-24-6-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-103_Bande Mataram 24-6-07.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 24th, 1907 }
\n\t<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\nMore about British Justice
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWe commented the other day on the
\npolicy of refusing bail which has recently been adopted by the bureaucracy in a
\nspirit of petty vindictiveness and the scandalous manner in which men accused of
\npolitical offences are being punished before conviction. Of course it is all
\nunder the law, but that only proves the contention we have always advanced that
\nthe criminal law in this country on which our rulers pride themselves, is
\nbarbarous, oppressive and semi-mediaeval in its spirit and that its provisions
\nare governed far more by the principle of repressing the spirit of the people
\nthan by the principle of protecting the citizen. Moreover, in all judicial
\nadministration there are two elements, the letter of the law on one side, a
\nhumane and equitable practice on the other. To suspend the latter in favour of
\nthe former shows an oppressive and tyrannical spirit. The letter of the law
\nenables the Government to appeal against any and every acquittal in a criminal
\ncase; equitable practice forbids it to take advantage of this barbarous
\nprovision except in important cases where it is convinced there has been a
\nserious miscarriage of justice. But the first principle of bureaucratic rule in
\nIndia is repression, to crush the spirit of the people and keep them down with
\nthe strong hand. Every acquittal is therefore considered by the executive a
\ndefeat to Government prestige and resented. Unless therefore there is a strong
\nand independent High Court, the habit of appealing against acquittals is bound
\nto become a standing feature of British justice. But the idea of a strong and
\nindependent High Court is becoming more and more a legend of the past. Future
\ngenerations will be as sceptical of the possibility of its ever having existed
\nas the modern world is of the existence of gnomes and fairies.   
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\nThere is another equitable
\npractice which has been violated with the most cynical openness in the
\nRawalpindi trial. It is a sound principle of legal procedure that the accused
\nshould not be hampered in his defence but on the contrary should receive every
\nlegitimate facility. The unjust judge who denies proper facilities of defence to
\na man whose life or liberty, honour or reputation is imperilled by an accusation
\nwhich may be false or mistaken, the hanging judge whose diseased brain and
\nmorbid temperament are consumed with the desire to have the accused convicted,
\nare survivals of mediaeval barbarity. Such men are the lineal descendants of
\nJeffreys and Torquemada. In England such men are rarities upon the Bench; in
\nIndia especially among Civilian Magistrates and Judges, they are not uncommon.
\nIn England the prosecuting Counsel will seldom throw unnecessary difficulties in
\nthe way of the defence, in India it is too common for the prosecuting Counsel to
\nregard the defence as an enemy to be beaten down and out-manoeuvred by any means
\nwhich the technicalities of the law leave open to him. For the atmosphere is
\ndifferent. The spirit of bureaucracy in all countries tends to be narrow, hard
\nand domineering, but in a country where a small alien element subsists in a huge
\nnative mass partly by the maintenance of a hypnotic illusion, partly by a cold
\nlegal repressive severity, ubiquitous and watchful to crush down every least
\nunit of strength in the indigenous population, this temper is immensely
\nheightened and exaggerated. Everybody knows that in the local administration of
\nthe law in this country conviction, not impartial justice, is the object. A
\nSubordinate Magistrate is rated not by the soundness of his judgments but by the
\npercentage of convictions to the total number of cases he has tried, and it is
\nby this test that he is promoted. In that single fact we find the true and
\nfundamental tendency of British justice in India. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhen such is the spirit even in
\nthe ordinary administration of the law, it can easily be imagined to what
\nlengths this spirit of semi-mediaeval barbarity is likely to be carried when
\npolitical considerations are imported. To get justice in a Swadeshi case is
\nnowadays almost impossible; even in the High Court only one or two judges have
\nmanaged to keep a judicial frame of    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\tmind in relation to political
\n\tcases. This is of course natural and inevitable. A struggle is going on
\n\tbetween the ruling bureaucracy and the people of the country, and every
\n\tjudge or magistrate is a servant of the bureaucracy, generally a member of
\n\tit and very often himself one of the caste and race whose monopoly of power
\n\tis threatened. In his eyes the accused in a political case is not an
\n\tordinary accused but a rebel prisoner of war; he may not be guilty of the
\n\toffence with which he is charged, but he is guilty of Swadeshism, he is
\n\tguilty of being an opponent of the Government established by law. His
\n\tpunishment is therefore desirable in the interests of the ruling class and
\n\tin the judge’s own interests as a servant and member of that class. The
\n\tjudge is really a party to the case. It is not to be expected that in such
\n\tcircumstances any facilities will be allowed to the defence beyond what the
\n\tletter of the law and bare decency require. A few magistrates may rise
\n\tsuperior to these considerations, but the majority cannot be reasonably
\n\tasked to do so. They are after all human beings\u2014 and Englishmen. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\tStill there is a limit,
\n\t\tthere is something due to decency, and at Rawalpindi it seems to us that
\n\t\tthe limit has been overpassed and the dues have been denied. We have
\n\t\tnothing to say as to the guilt or the innocence of the men under trial.
\n\t\tWe will assume that they are guilty, we will assume that their
\n\t\tconviction is a thing settled. But still until the trial is over, they
\n\t\tare in law regarded as men who are possibly innocent and should be
\n\t\tallowed ordinary facilities to prove their innocence. One of the
\n\t\tprincipal safeguards of accused innocents in India is the necessity of
\n\t\tidentification under stringent rules which prevent collusion between the
\n\t\tpolice and the witnesses. In the Rawalpindi trial it has been repeatedly
\n\t\tstated that the identification has been a scandalous farce; the
\n\t\tprisoners have been under police custody all the time and have been
\n\t\trepeatedly shown to the witnesses in the jail, and as if this were not
\n\t\tenough, the police in Court are allowed to make signs to the witnesses
\n\t\tso that they may be sure to identify the right persons. These statements
\n\t\thave not been denied. They may be true or they may be false; but when
\n\t\tsuch statements are advanced by the defence, it is the duty of an
\n\t\timpartial judge to    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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\n

\n\tinquire into them and take
\n\tevery precaution against the barest possibility of such practices. Piteous
\n\tcomplaints have been made by several of the accused of police violence and
\n\tcruelty in
\nhajat<\/i>. Into this also no inquiry has been made and the only answer the
\n\tunfortunate men have received is a rough and uncivil command to keep
\n\tsilence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIf this were all, it would be
\n\tscandalous enough, but the recent developments have been still more
\n\tstaggering. A hooligan crusade has been started against the pleaders for the
\n\tdefence, so shamelessly persistent and open as to drive them to throw up
\n\ttheir briefs. Sirdar Beant Singh’s house has been invaded, himself and his
\n\tbrother brutally assaulted, his ladies’ apartments entered and an ornament
\n\tsnatched from the person of his wife. While these brutal outrages were being
\n\tcommitted, the police remained quiet in their
\nthana <\/i>which is in the same compound as the Sirdar’s house and made no
\n\tattempt to give assistance, nor do we hear of any attempt to trace and
\n\tpunish the miscreants. The houses of other defence pleaders have been
\n\texposed to a campaign of theft and pilfering and none of them is safe
\n\tagainst a repetition of the kind of intimidation which has been used against
\n\tBeant Singh. All India has drawn its own conclusions from these singular
\n\toccurrences, for indeed, the conclusions are not difficult to draw. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBut the crowning scandal of
\n\tall was the treatment of the witness Abdullah. It is possible that seditious
\n\tspeeches were delivered by the accused, but it is certain that the amazing
\n\tliteral unanimity of the witnesses has created, rightly or wrongly, an
\n\timpression that their evidence was given according to police dictation.
\n\tWhen, therefore, a Mahomedan witness actually declared in the witness box
\n\tthat his first evidence has been given under fear of the police, it was
\n\tobvious that the whole foundation of the prosecution case was threatened;
\n\tfor the example of recantation might easily be followed. Then ensued a scene
\n\twhich we hope, for the credit of humanity at large, has never had a parallel
\n\tin recent judicial history. Immediately the prosecuting counsel leaps up and
\n\tdemands that this inconvenient witness be at once prosecuted for perjury and
\n\thanded over to the tender mercies    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
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\n

\n\tof the police against whom he
\n\thas given evidence; immediately the judge complies with this amazing demand;
\n\timmediately the unfortunate witness is hustled out of court into the grip of
\n\tthe police. It is not surprising that the miserable Abdullah should recant
\n\this recantation and balance his charge against the police by a charge
\n\tagainst the leading pleader for the defence. And this too is British law and
\n\tBritish justice. Nay, it is the climax, the apex, the acme, the culminating
\n\tpoint which British justice has reached in this too fortunate country. After
\n\tall, the British Empire must be saved at any cost.    <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 532<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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