{"id":2847,"date":"2013-07-13T01:44:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:44:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:10","slug":"02-india-and-the-british-parliament-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\/02-india-and-the-british-parliament-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-02_India and the British Parliament.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t
\n\tNew Lamps for Old
\n\t<\/font><\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\twith
\n\t<\/font><\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tIndia and the British Parliament
\n\t<\/font><\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tThe nine articles comprising New Lamps for Old
\nwere published
\nin the Indu Prakash of Bombay from 7 August 1893 to 6 March 1894. A preliminary article, “India and the British Parliament”,
\nwas published in the same newspaper on 26 June 1893.  
\n  
\n\t<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tIndia and the British Parliament
\n\t<\/font><\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tA great critic has pronounced that the aim of all truly helpful
\ncriticism is to see the object as it really is. The Press is the sole contemporary critic of politics, and according as its judgments
\nare sound or unsound, the people whose political ideas it forms, will be likely to prosper or fail. It is therefore somewhat unfortunate that the tendency of journalists should be to see the object not as it really is, but as they would like it to be. In a country
\nlike England this may not greatly matter; but in India, whose destinies are in the balance, and at a time when a straw might
\nturn the scale, it is of the gravest importance that no delusion, however specious or agreeable, should be allowed to exist. Yet in
\nthe face of this necessity, the Indian Press seems eager to accept even the flimsiest excuse for deluding itself.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tIf we want a striking example of this, we need only turn to the recent vote in the House of Commons on the subject of
\nsimultaneous examinations for the Civil Service of India. On this occasion a chorus of jubilant paeans arose from the Press, resembling
\n\tnothing so much as the joyful chorus of ducks when the monsoon arrives. Had
\n\tthen some political monsoon arrived raining down justice and happiness on this parched and perishing country? What was the fountain-head from which this torrent
\nof dithyrambs derived its being? Was it a solemn and deliberate pronouncement by the assembled representatives of the English
\nnation that the time was now come to do justice to India? Was it a resolution gravely arrived at in a full House, that the cruel
\nburden of taxation which has exhausted our strength, must be alleviated without delay? Or was it a responsible pledge by a person in authority that the high-sounding promises of ’58 should at last become something more than a beautiful chimera? No, it
\nwas simply a chance vote snatched by a dexterous minority from a meagre and listless House. As a fine tactical success it reflects
\n   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 7<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tevery credit on the acuteness and
\nsavoir faire of our friends in
\nParliament, but no more expresses the real feeling of the English people than a decree of the Chinese Emperor would express it.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tThe vote was by no means a mandate of the British Parliament, as some have sonorously phrased it; it was merely a pious
\nopinion. It will have to meet not only the bitter antagonism of the Indian Government, but the opposition, open or veiled,
\nof a vast majority in the Commons. How then can it possibly be enforced? Can our handful of philo-Indian members help
\nto eject a Government that will not ratify its empty triumph? It would be too absurd even to dream of such a thing: and
\neven if any of them were so impossibly rash, their constituencies would quickly teach them that they were sent to Parliament to
\nsupport Mr. Gladstone and not to do justice to India. The vote is nothing but a tactical advantage; and yet on this flimsy basis
\nwe have chosen to erect the most imposing castles in the air. Yet if this were an isolated instance of blindness, it might be allowed
\nto pass without comment; but it is only one more example of a grave illusion that possesses the Indian mind. We constantly find
\nit asserted that the English are a just people and only require our case to be clearly stated in order to redress our grievances. It is
\nmore than time that some voice should be raised -even though it may be the voice of one crying in the wilderness -to tell the
\nPress and the public that this is a grave and injurious delusion, which must be expunged from our minds if we would see things
\nas they really are.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe English are not, as they are fond of representing themselves, a people panting to do justice to all whom they have to govern. They are not an incarnation of justice, neither are they
\nan embodiment of morality; but of all nations they are the most sentimental: hence it is that they like to think themselves, and to
\nbe thought by others, a just people and a moral people. It is true that in the dull comedy which we call English politics, Truth
\nand Justice -written in large letters -cover the whole of the poster, but in the actual enactment of the play these characters
\nhave very little indeed to do. It was certainly not by appealing to the English sense of justice that the Irish people have come
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tPage \u2013
\n\t8<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\twithin reach of obtaining some measure of redress for
\n\ttheir grievances. Mr. Parnell was enabled to force Mr. Gladstone’s hand
\n\tsolely because he had built up a strong party with a purely Irish policy:
\n\tbut we unfortunately have neither a Parnell nor a party with a purely Indian
\n\tpolicy. We have Mr. Naoroji and Sir W. Wedderburn, both staunch friends of
\n\tIndia; we have Mr. Swift McNeill, true son of a high souled and chivalrous
\n\trace; we have Mr. Mclaren, Mr. Paul and many others pledged to champion the
\n\tCongress movement: but well nigh all these are Liberal members who must give
\n\ttheir support to Mr. Gladstone, whether he is inclined to do justice to
\n\tIndia or no. It is evident that if we wish to obtain any real justice from
\n\tthe British Parliament we must secure the pledges not of individual Liberals
\n\tbut of the responsible heads of the party, and that is just what we are
\n\tleast likely to obtain. For we must remember that within the last 20 years
\n\tthe immense personal influence of Mr. Gladstone has been leavening and
\n\tindeed remoulding English political life; and the tendency of that influence
\n\thas been to convert politics into a huge market where statesmen chaffer for
\n\tvotes. In this political bazaar we have no current coin to buy justice from
\n\tthe great salesman, and if he is inclined to give the commodity gratis, he
\n\twill jeopardise many of the voters he has already in his hand. What lever
\n\thave we then by which we can alter the entire fuse of English opinion on
\n\tIndian matters? It is clear that we have none. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tMoreover the lessons of experience do not differ from the lessons of common
\n\tsense. After years of constant effort and agitation a bill was brought
\n\tforward in Parliament professing to remodel the Legislative Councils. This
\n\tbill was nothing short of an insult to the people of India. We had asked for
\n\twheaten bread, and we got in its place a loaf made of plaster-of-Paris and
\n\twhen Mr. Schwann proposed that the genuine article should be supplied, Mr.
\n\tGladstone assured him on his honour as a politician that the Executive
\n\tauthority would do its best to make plaster-of-Paris taste exactly like
\n\twheat. With this assurance Mr. Schwann and the Indian people were quite
\n\tsatisfied. Happy Indian people! And yet now that the loaf has actually
\n\treached their hands, they seem a little inclined to quarrel with the gift:
\n\tthey have even   
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 9<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tcomplained that the proportion of plaster in its
\n\tcomposition is extravagantly large. Nevertheless we still go on appealing to
\n\tthe English sense of justice.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe simple truth of the matter is that we shall not get
\n\tfrom the British Parliament anything better than nominal redress, or at the
\n\tmost a petty and tinkering legislation. This is no doubt a very disagreeable
\n\ttruth to the sanguine among us who believe that India can be renovated in a
\n\tday, but we shall gain nothing by shutting our eyes to it. Rather we shall
\n\tlose: for the more we linger in the wrong path, the further we shall wander
\n\tfrom our real and legitimate goal. If we are indeed to renovate our country,
\n\twe must no longer hold out supplicating hands to the English Parliament,
\n\tlike an infant crying to its nurse for a toy, but must recognise the hard
\n\ttruth that every nation must beat out its own path to salvation with pain
\n\tand difficulty, and not rely on the tutelage of another. It is not within
\n\tthe scope of the present article to point out how this may be done. But
\n\tuntil we recognise these simple truths, half of our efforts will fail \u2014 
\n\tas they are now failing \u2014  through misdirection and want of real
\n\tinsight.  
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 10<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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