{"id":2900,"date":"2013-07-13T01:44:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:44:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:44:27","slug":"197-bande-mataram-16-3-08-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\/197-bande-mataram-16-3-08-vol-06-07-bande-mataram","title":{"rendered":"-197_Bande Mataram 16-3-08.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
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\n\tBande Mataram<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\t
\n\t{
\n\tCALCUTTA, March 16th, 1908 } <\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nAsiatic Democracy
\n<\/b>
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\n <\/p>\n

\nAsia is not Europe and never will be Europe. The political ideals of the West are not the mainspring of the political movements
\nin the East, and those who do not realise this great truth, are mistaken; for they suppose that the history of Europe is a sure
\nand certain guide to India in her political development. A great deal of the political history of Europe will be repeated in Asia,
\nno doubt; democracy has travelled from the East to the West in the shape of Christianity, and after a long struggle with the
\nfeudal instincts of the Germanic races has returned to Asia transformed and in a new body. But when Asia takes back democracy
\ninto herself she will first transmute it in her own temperament and make it once more Asiatic. Christianity was an assertion
\nof human equality in the spirit, a great assertion of the unity of the divine spirit in man, which did not seek to overthrow
\nthe established systems of government and society but to inform them with the spirit of human brotherhood and unity. It was
\ngreatly hampered in this work by the fact that the European races were in a state of transition from the old Aryan civilization
\nof Greece and Rome to one less advanced and enlightened. The German nations were wedded to a military civilisation which
\nwas wholly inconsistent with the ideals of Christianity, and the new religion in their hands became a thing quite unrecognizable
\nto the Asiatic mind which had engendered it. When Mahomedanism appeared, Christianity vanished out of Asia, because it
\nhad lost its meaning. Mahomed tried to re-establish the Asiatic gospel of human equality in the spirit. All men are equal in Islam,
\nwhatever their social position or political power, nor is any man debarred from the full development of his manhood by his birth
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\n\tor low original station in life. All men are brothers in Islam
\nand the bond of religious unity overrides all other divisions and differences. But Islam also was limited and imperfect, because it
\nconfined the ideal of brotherhood and equality to the limits of a single creed, and was farther deflected from its true path by
\nthe rude and undeveloped races which it drew into its embrace. Another revelation of the old truth is needed.
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIndia from ancient times had received the gospel of Vedanta which sought to establish the divine unity of man in spirit; but
\nin order to secure an ordered society in which she could develop her spiritual insight and perfect her civilization, she had invented
\nthe system of caste which by corruptions and departures from caste ideals came to be an obstacle to the fulfilment in society of
\nthe Vedantic ideal. From the time of Buddha to that of the saints of Maharashtra every great religious awakening has sought to
\nrestore the ancient meaning of Hinduism and reduce caste to its original subordinate importance as a social convenience, to
\nexorcise the spirit of caste pride and restore that of brotherhood and the eternal principles of love and justice in society. But the
\nfeudal spirit had taken possession of India and the feudal spirit is wedded to inequality and the pride of caste.
\nWhen the feudal system was broken in Europe by the rise of the middle class, the ideals of Christianity began to emerge
\nonce more to light, but by this time the Christian Church had itself become feudalized, and the curious spectacle presents itself of Christian ideals struggling to establish themselves by the destruction of the very institution which had been created to
\npreserve Christianity.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity were declared at the time of the French Revolution
\nand mankind demanded that society should recognise them as the foundation of its structure, they were associated with a fierce
\nrevolt against the relics of feudalism and against the travesty of the Christian religion which had become an integral part of that
\nfeudalism. This was the weakness of European democracy and the source of its failure. It took as its motive the rights of man
\nand not the dharma <\/i>of humanity; it appealed to the selfishness of the lower classes against the pride of the upper; it made hatred
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\n\tand internecine war the permanent allies of Christian ideals and
\nwrought an inextricable confusion which is the modern malady of Europe. It was in vain that the genius of Mazzini rediscovered the heart of Christianity and sought to remodel European ideas; the French Revolution had become the starting point of
\nEuropean democracy and coloured the European mind. Now that democracy has returned to Asia, its cradle and home, it
\nwill be purged of its foreign elements and restored to its original purity. The movements of the nineteenth century in India were
\nEuropean movements, they were coloured with the hues of the West. Instead of seeking for strength in the spirit, they adopted
\nthe machinery and motives of Europe, the appeal to the rights of humanity or the equality of social status and an impossible dead
\nlevel which Nature has always refused to allow. Mingled with these false gospels was a strain of hatred and bitterness, which
\nshowed itself in the condemnation of Brahminical priestcraft, the hostility to Hinduism and the ignorant breaking away from
\nthe hallowed traditions of the past. What was true and eternal in that past was likened to what was false or transitory, and
\nthe nation was in danger of losing its soul by an insensate surrender to the aberrations of European materialism. Not in
\nthis spirit was India intended to receive the mighty opportunity which the impact of Europe gave to her. When the danger was
\ngreatest, a number of great spirits were sent to stem the tide flowing in from the West and recall her to her mission; for, if
\nshe had gone astray the world would have gone astray with her. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tHer mission is to point back humanity to the true source of human liberty, human equality, human brotherhood. When
\nman is free in spirit, all other freedom is at his command; for the Free is the Lord who cannot be bound. When he is liberated
\nfrom delusion, he perceives the divine equality of the world which fulfils itself through love and justice, and this perception
\ntransfuses itself into the law of government and society. When he has perceived this divine equality, he is brother to the whole
\nworld, and in whatever position he is placed he serves all men as his brothers by the law of love, by the law of justice. When this
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\n\tperception becomes the basis of religion, of philosophy, of social
\nspeculation and political aspiration, then will liberty, equality and fraternity take their place in the structure of society and
\nthe Satya Yuga return. This is the Asiatic reading of democracy which India must rediscover for herself before she can give it
\nto the world. It is the dharma <\/i>of every man to be free in soul, bound to service not by compulsion but by love; to be equal
\nin spirit, apportioned his place in society by his capacity to serve society, not by the interested selfishness of others; to be
\nin harmonious relations with his brother men, linked to them by mutual love and service, not by shackles of servitude, or the
\nrelations of the exploiter and the exploited, the eater and the eaten. It has been said that democracy is based on the rights of
\nman; it has been replied that it should rather take its stand on the duties of man; but both rights and duties are European ideas.
\nDharma is the Indian conception in which rights and duties lose the artificial antagonism created by a view of the world which
\nmakes selfishness the root of action, and regain their deep and eternal unity. Dharma is the basis of democracy which Asia must
\nrecognise, for in this lies the distinction between the soul of Asia and the soul of Europe. Through Dharma the Asiatic evolution
\nfulfils itself; this is her secret. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tCharter or No Charter
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\tWe have already said what we had to say on Mrs. Besant’s idea of a National University. In her speech on Education delivered
\nat the Corinthian Theatre, she referred again to the subject of the Charter and invited the National Council of Education to
\nget a Royal Charter to confer degrees. She gave the instance of the English Universities which have got such a Charter from
\nthe King, but “it did not follow that those Universities were under Government control, the Charter being but a guarantee
\nfor the education which the University undertook to give”. It is surprising that so acute an intellect as Mrs. Besant
\n\tshould not perceive the fallacy of appealing to English precedents. An 
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\n\tarrangement which works in England for the benefit of the
\ncountry, may easily be worked in India to its disadvantage, for the simple reason that in India the interests of the governing
\nbureaucracy and the people are not identical, while in England the people and the Government are one. Socialistic State control
\nmay work well in England, in India it means the control of public business in the interests of a small and alien caste. So with the
\nproposed Charter. Mrs. Besant gives away her case when she admits that the Charter is a guarantee for the education given
\nin the University. Certainly, the authority having the guarantee has the right to see that the guarantee is not abused and that
\nthe education is up to a standard consistent with the dignity of a Royal Charter. This means at least potential State control. In
\nEngland the control is not exercised, because no public interest can be served by interfering with the work of the educational
\nexperts who conduct these Universities, but if the Universities were to fall very much behind in their educational standard,
\nit is conceivable that the potential right of interference might be exercised. If the National Council of Education were to get a
\nRoyal Charter, this potential right of interference would be in the hands of the authority issuing the Charter, in other words with
\nthe King, which means, for India, with the Secretary of State, which again means with the Anglo-Indian bureaucracy; and we
\nknow how that bureaucracy would be likely to use the power. At any moment the Council might have to face the alternative
\nof either accepting practical control by officialdom or sacrificing the Charter; this would mean a crisis which might wreck the new
\neducation altogether. Quite apart, therefore, from the sacrifice of that principle of robust independence and faith in its own
\nfuture which is its true strength, the Council would be guilty of an impolitic step, if it accepted, much more if it asked for a
\nCharter. The latter idea is indeed inconceivable. The exclusion of the Council’s students from the learned professions means
\nonly exclusion from the Government service and the Law, and it is more wholesome for the new institution to be removed
\nfrom these temptations till it is strong enough to make these professions seek for its students instead of its students seeking
\n    <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n\tfor them. The hankering after a Charter is born of weakness and
\ndeficient faith; it will be no gain to National Education and may easily be fatal to it.
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage \u2013 934<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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