{"id":297,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=297"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:10","slug":"018-a-pusillanimous-proposal-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/018-a-pusillanimous-proposal-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-018_A Pusillanimous Proposal.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nA Pusillanimous Proposal<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n                <\/font>
\n<\/span>WE<\/font><\/b>
\npublished yesterday the letter of Babu Ananda Chandra Roy of Dacca in which he
\ninvites East Bengal to welcome Mr. Hare and establish with the Shillong Government
\nthe ordinary relations of kow-towing and petitioning. We characterised the
\nletter as an indefensible production and a second perusal only confirms us in
\nthe impulse to give it a yet harsher name. What Babu Ananda Chandra proposes
\nunder the cover of lawyer-like arguments and illogical sophistry, is no less
\nthan to betray his country.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The whole of Bengal has registered a solemn vow that let Viceroys do what
\nthey will and Secretaries of State say what they will, the united Bengali nation
\nrefuses and will for ever refuse to acknowledge the Partition. Taxes we may pay,
\nlaws we may obey, but beyond that we have no farther relations with the
\nGovernment of Shillong. The position is clear, beyond sophistry, above dispute.
\nWhatever differences may exist among us, on this there is one unanimous voice.
\nBut Babu Ananda Chandra Roy can no longer bear the deprivation of the fleshpots
\nof Egypt or the strain of self-denial and stern resistance which this resolution
\nimplies and wishing himself to recoil from that arduous position, he invites
\nall his countrymen to follow his lead and countenance him in a cowardly
\nsurrender.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>And why are we to commit this inglorious act of political suicide? In the
\nfirst place, because Mr. Hare is such a nice gentleman and therefore the
\n"grounds and causes" we had for avoiding that bad bold man Sir
\nBampfylde no longer exist. We do not know what grounds and causes Ananda Babu
\nhad for avoiding Sir B. Fuller \u2014 we have a suspicion that it was because
\npublic opinion left him no choice; but the one ground and cause that Bengal had
\nfor this action was the existence of the Partition, that and nothing else. The
\nPartition exists in full force and the "grounds and causes" exist
\ntherefore unabated and unimpaired. The "leadership" which regulates
\ngrave political issues according<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-135<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nto
\nthe personal character and amiability of the ruler for the time being, is a
\nleadership for which India has no longer any use. It is not Hare and Fuller that
\nmatter, but our country and the British system and policy which seeks to keep us
\nin perpetual servitude.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Other of Ananda Babu’s reasons for submission are that it will enable
\nhimself and his friends to enter the Legislative Council of the new province, to
\nact as Honorary Magistrates and visitors of Lunatic Asylums and to get the
\ncirculars for the preference of Mahomedans in appointments modified or
\nabrogated. The fos\u00adsils of the old days of selfish submission are incorrigible.
\nWe should have thought otherwise \u2014 that to advance such contemptible reasons
\nfor acquiescing in the mutilation of one’s country would have been regarded as
\nan act of inconceivable shamelessness.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Ananda Babu, however, will not admit that he is counselling
\nacquiescence, for he is quite willing to mention in every address to the new
\nruler of Shillong that we are weeping for the Partition and will go on weeping
\ninconsolably \u2014 on stated public occasion until it is rescinded! The
\nchildishness of such a suggestion would be amusing if it were not painful to
\nthink that such political ineptitude proceeds from a man who has long been
\nlooked up to as a leader and counsellor in our political movements.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Manifestos and utterances of this kind compel us to ask whether some of
\nour "Swadeshi" leaders are sincere in desiring that the Partition
\nshould be rescinded. The ugliest feature of the Swadeshi agitation has been the
\nrefusal of the members for the East Bengal districts to vacate their seats on
\nthe Legislative Council. Ananda Babu’s letter is another sign of evil omen. But
\nthere is one man among the older leaders whose sincerity cannot be doubted.
\nBabu Surendranath Banerji is the leader of United Bengal; he has just declared
\nhimself at Barisal, the high priest of the mother’s worship. Will he permit this
\ncalm proposal to desecrate her image and perpetuate its mutilation and utter
\nno protest?<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Ananda Babu has other proposals equally remarkable. He proposes to
\nbeseech the Government to help us in the Swadeshi<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-136<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmovement; to smother the Boycott, as an illegtimate child or at least to conceal
\nit as if it were something we were ashamed of; to bow down to the settled fact,
\nas the fiat of the Highest Authority, confusing apparently Mr. John Morley
\nwith that Power which undoes the decrees of Statesmen and Princes! And he asks
\nus, "Save and except showing our disapprobation of the Partition what else can
\nwe gain by avoiding the new L.-G.?" That is a question easy to answer. If we
\npersist in the Boycott both of British goods and of British offices and
\nofficials, we shall gain, if nothing else, the speedy reversal of the Partition.
\nIt is a pity that our leaders understand so little of British politics,
\notherwise they would understand that it is only in this way that Mr. Morley’s
\ngame of bluff can be met. The Partition cannot be maintained against a
\npermanently alienated and restless Bengal. But there is one way in which we can
\nperpetuate Lord Curzon’s work, and that is to submit, to give up the fight and
\nbow the knee betraying, for individual advantages and temporary gains, our
\nmother.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram, <\/font><\/i>August 25, 1906<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/p>\n

\n BY
\n THE WAY<\/a><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt
\nis sad to watch the steady intellectual degeneration of our once vigorous
\ncontemporary the Indian Mirror<\/i>. <\/i>Commenting on the formation of Labour
\nUnions, the Mirror <\/i>advises the promoters to make the suppression <\/i>of
\nstrikes the principal object of their efforts! Certainly, the strike is the last
\nweapon in the hands of labour and should not be used as the first. But the idea
\nof organising Labour Unions to suppress strikes is a masterpiece of unconscious
\nhumour. We shall next hear that Mahomedan Educational Conferences should be
\norganised to discourage Mahomedan education, that the anti-circular laws should
\nmake it their chief object to put down picketing, and perhaps that a League is
\nbeing formed with Babu Narendra Nath Sen at its head to "suppress" the
\n<\/font>
\n
\nIndian Mirror<\/i>.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/i> <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-137<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>
\nWe do not think the amazing timidity of our political leaders can be
\nparalleled in any other country in the world. Is a National Congress
\nestablished? Its object, one would think, must be to concentrate the strength of
\nthe nation and fight its way to power. Oh, by no means, it is only to advise
\nand assist the Government! Is a national Council of Education instituted? Of
\ncourse, it has arisen to rival and replace the alien-ruled University. Not at
\nall, not at all; it is meant not to stand in opposition to but to supplement the
\nold University! Does Labour rise in its strength and band itself into
\nformidable combinations? Their work will be, then, to resist the greed and
\nheartlessness of Capital and vindicate the claims of the toiler to just treatment
\nand a man’s wages for a man’s work. O God indeed! These Unions are rather meant
\nto suppress strikes and establish kindly relations between the employers and the
\nemployed! Are we, after all, one wonders sometimes, a nation of cowards and old
\nwomen?<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n *<\/font><\/p>\n

\n  <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>The excuse usually urged for these pitiful insincerities is that it is
\nall diplomacy. The diplomacy of grown-up children! The diplomacy of the ostrich
\nhiding its head in the sand? What a poor idea these "leaders" must
\nhave formed of the political intelligence of the British Government and of
\nEnglishmen generally, if they think they can be deceived by such puerile
\nevasions. Bureaucracy and Anglo-India take advantage of these professions and
\nlaugh in their sleeves. Meanwhile, the country loses the inspiration of great
\nideals, the exaltation of frank and glorious conflict, the divine impulse that
\nonly comes to those who know they are battling bravely and openly for the
\nfreedom of their country, not to men who cringe to the enemy and lie and palter
\nwith their consciences.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Truth and bold straight dealings we believe to be not only our noblest
\nbut our wisest policy in our struggle with the alien. Our leaders have no faith
\nin the nation; they believe it is weak and impotent, and shuffiings, evasions
\nand shallow insincerities are the weapons of the weak. We for our part believe
\nin the im-<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-138<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmense
\nstrength of the nation and demand that our leaders shall bring it face to face
\nwith the enemy. Still if they must have diplomacy let them give some diplomacy
\nworth the name. If the shades of Cavour and Bismarck have leisure to listen to
\nsuch senilities, what a smile of immortal contempt must pass over their lips as
\nthey watch the "diplomacy" of our leaders.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram, <\/font><\/i>August 27, 1906<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-139<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Pusillanimous Proposal                   WE published yesterday the letter of Babu Ananda Chandra Roy of Dacca in which he invites East Bengal to welcome…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","wpcat-8-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","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=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}