{"id":2887,"date":"2013-07-13T01:44:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2887"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:44:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:23","slug":"145-bande-mataram-25-9-07-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\/145-bande-mataram-25-9-07-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-145_Bande Mataram 25-9-07.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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

\n

\n

\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, September
\n\t25th, 1907 } <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nBande Mataram <\/i>Prosecution
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe prosecution of the Bande Mataram<\/i>, the most important of the numerous Press prosecutions recently instituted by the
\nbureaucracy, commenced with a flourish of trumpets, eagerly watched by a hopeful Anglo-Indian Press, has ended in the most
\ncomplete and dismal fiasco such as no Indian Government has ever had to experience before in a sedition case. The failure has
\nnot been the result of any lukewarmness or half-heartedness in the conduct of the prosecution or any unwillingness to convict
\non the part of the trying Magistrate. The Police left no stone unturned to get a particular man convicted, the Standing Counsel
\ndid not hesitate to press every possible point and make the most of every stray scrap or faint shadow of evidence against the accused, the Magistrate was a Civilian Magistrate whose leanings have never been concealed, the same who gave two years to the
\nYugantar <\/i>Printer, who sent Bipin Pal before a subservient Bengali Magistrate with a plain hint to give him a heavy punishment,
\nwho sentenced Sushil Kumar to fifteen stripes, who brushed aside the evidence of barristers in favour of Police testimony, and
\nevery paragraph of whose judgment in the present case shows that he would readily have dealt out a handsome term of hard
\nlabour if the evidence had afforded him the slightest justification for a conviction. All the winning cards in the game are in the
\nhands of the bureaucracy in such a trial. They can command the best legal knowledge in the country, they have a detective and
\nsecret service system which for political purposes is popularly supposed to be second only in its elaborateness to the Russian,
\nthey have their own servants sitting on the bench to try a case in which they are deeply interested, there is no trouble about
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 686<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tjuries who might be unwilling to convict, the Police have unlimited powers of search and can even turn the Post Office into a branch of the detective department, their methods of discovering
\nwitnesses are various and effective; yet with all this they were unable to bring forward a single scrap of convincing evidence
\nto prove that the particular man they were bent on running down was the Editor. The Magistrate in his judgment and the
\naffectionate Friend of India in Chowringhee in his comments have drawn from this failure the lesson that the laws against
\nthe freedom of the Press should be made more stringent. An ordinary unilluminated intelligence would have come rather to
\nthe conclusion that the executive authorities would do well to reform their method of instituting proceedings in a political trial.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe one important lesson of the Bande Mataram <\/i>case is the light which it throws on the spirit in which the bureaucracy
\nhave been instituting the political prosecutions and persecutions which have latterly seemed to be their only reason of existence.
\nThis spirit has been exposed in a lurid and sensational manner in the Comilla case when an innocent man with difficulty escaped
\nthe gallows to which a political prosecution had condemned him. But in the Bande Mataram
\n<\/i>case also there has been a less
\nsensational though sufficient exposure of the same sinister spirit. What has been the whole meaning and aim of this prosecution?
\nCertainly not an honest impartial desire to vindicate outraged law and check without personal animus or any purely political aim a wanton tendency to disturb the public tranquillity, which would be the only excuse for a sedition prosecution. It
\nhas been an obvious attempt to crush a particular paper and a particular individual. The bureaucracy has sought to cripple or
\nsilence the Bande Mataram <\/i>because it has been preaching with extraordinary success a political creed which was dangerous to
\nthe continuance of bureaucratic absolutism and was threatening to become a centre of strength round which many Nationalistic
\nforces might gather. It has sought to single out and silence a particular individual because it chose to think that he was, as
\nthe Friend of India expresses it, the master mind behind the policy of the paper. If we are challenged to justify this assertion,
\n   
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 687<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tit will be sufficient to point to the conduct of this case from
\nits very inception. The Bande Mataram <\/i>has been for over a year attacking without fear and without disguise the present system of
\ngovernment and advocating a radical and revolutionary change. It has advocated that change on grounds of historical experience,
\nthe first principles of politics and the necessity of national self-preservation. It has not minced matters or sought to conceal
\nrevolutionary aspirations under the veil of moderate professions or ambiguous phraseology. It has not concealed its opinion that
\nthe bureaucracy cannot be expected to transform itself, that the people of India and not the people of England must save India,
\nand that we cannot hope for any boons but must wrest what we desire by strong national combination from unwilling hands.
\nHundreds of articles have appeared in the paper in this vein and the bureaucrats had only to pick and choose. But they have not
\nattacked one of these articles, nor did their counsel venture to cite even a single one of them to prove seditious intention. The
\nfact is that, however dangerous such a propaganda may be to an absolutist handful desiring to perpetuate their irresponsible rule,
\nno government pretending to call itself civilised can prosecute it as seditious without forfeiting all claim to the last vestige of
\nthe world’s respect. But though the paper could not be characterised as seditious, it was highly inconvenient, and there was
\na growing clamour which extended even to the cloudy home of the Thunderer in London, for its prosecution and, if possible,
\nsuppression. And so watch is kept to find the paper tripping over some trifle, for which it can be hauled up and got into
\ntrouble on a side issue. What is the matter for which the Bande<\/i> Mataram
\n<\/i>was prosecuted? A reprint of the official translations
\nof certain articles from a vernacular paper, translations issued as part of a case in the law-courts and reproduced as such, that is one count; and an insignificant correspondence which does not even profess to give voice to the policy of the paper, that is the second and third; and there is no other. The Yugantar<\/i> was prosecuted on articles expressing its essential policy; the
\nSandhya <\/i>has been proceeded against on articles expressing its views on important matters; but it was sought to crush the
\nBande<\/i>
\n   
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 688<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\tMataram <\/i>partly for a technical offence and partly on a side-issue.
\nSo eagerly, so carelessly is the casual chance given snatched at that the executive do not even trouble to know what is the article
\non which action is being taken; they give sanction to prosecute on an advertisement in the right-hand corner of the paper, and
\nbut for the compassionate correction vouchsafed by an officer of the Company the mistake would have had to be rectified
\nin the course of the trial itself. Sanction is given to prosecute a nameless Editor and the police at once proceed to ask for a
\nwarrant against Aurobindo Ghose. It is in evidence that they had nothing better to go on than hearsay. But they had no hesitation
\nin immediately pouncing on one particular writer of the Bande<\/i> Mataram
\n<\/i>without possessing the least scrap of evidence against
\nhim. Obviously they cannot have done this without instructions. It was popularly believed that Srijut Aurobindo Ghose was all
\nin all on the Bande Mataram <\/i>staff, that all the best articles were written by him, that he gave the tone of the paper and that it
\ncould not last without him. Why did the police take a body-warrant against Aurobindo Ghose to the office and why, having
\ntaken it, did they not arrest him? Obviously they took it because they thought that they would find plenty of evidence against him
\nin the search, and they did not execute it because they found that not a scrap of proof rewarded their efforts. After that there was
\na pause till Anukul Mukherji testimony was secured, and on that flimsy evidence the trial was started. Had it been honestly
\nintended to deal only with the Editor, whoever he might turn out to be, the proceedings against Aurobindo Ghose would
\nhave been given up, but the police made no secret of the fact that it was this one man who was wanted and that no other,
\nwhatever the evidence against him, would be thought worth capture. Even when the case for the prosecution was complete
\nwithout any evidence fit to raise more than a flimsy presumption the Standing Counsel would not give up, but in an outrageous
\naddress in which he rode roughshod over the higher traditions of his office, pressed weak points and wrested ambiguous evidence
\nto get the charge framed. And after Anukul had broken down in cross-examination and made admissions fatal to their case, still
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 689<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tthe prosecution struggled for a verdict. And with what result?
\nEven a civilian Magistrate willing to support the prestige of the Government had more sense of law and justice than the
\nbureaucracy and its advisers and was able to see that a man could not be sent to two years’ rigorous imprisonment without
\nany shadow of evidence. Their prey escaped them; the Manager who seems to have been arrested on spec and tried without
\neven any pretence that there was any evidence against him was acquitted, and only an unfortunate Printer who knew no English
\nand had no notion what all the pother was about, was sent to prison for a few months to vindicate the much-damaged majesty
\nof the almighty bureaucracy. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPioneer <\/i>or Hindu Patriot<\/i>?
\n<\/b>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tHere is a precious paragraph from the Patriot<\/i>!\u2014
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t“THE following Press
\ncommunique <\/i>has been issued: `There
\nis no truth whatever in the rumour that questions affecting the Permanent Settlement in Bengal are under the consideration of
\nGovernment. It would not have been thought necessary to take any notice of the absurd reports in circulation, but for the numerous references to the matter which have appeared in the Press.’ What says now the `official
\nPioneer<\/i>?”‘
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWe can well understand the chagrin of the Hindu Patriot<\/i> at the Pioneer
\n<\/i>being still recognised as the organ of Anglo
\nIndian officialdom. For who is there so ignorant of things as not to know that since the assumption of the reins of the Bengal
\nGovernment by Sir Andrew Fraser the Hindu Patriot <\/i>has conveniently combined the functions of the apologist in ordinary to the
\nBengal Government with those of the organ of the British Indian Association; and like the clever equestrian in the circus arena the
\nEditor of the paper has been riding the two horses simultaneously? Let the future historian of our own times note that it
\nwas he who accompanied, though suffering from high fever, Sir Andrew Fraser to Bombay when the latter went to England
\non leave; and it was he again who fell ill when accompanying   
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 690<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\tSir Lancelot Hare to Shillong. He should further note that this
\namiable Editor is now at Darjeeling, no doubt busy advising the Bengal Government on matters political.
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 691<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 25th, 1907 }   Bande Mataram Prosecution   The prosecution of the Bande Mataram, the most important of the numerous…<\/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-2887","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\/2887","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=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}