{"id":299,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=299"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:11","slug":"045-nationlism-not-extremism-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\/045-nationlism-not-extremism-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-045_Nationlism not Extremism.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\tNationalism not Extremism<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n               <\/font> I<\/b><\/font>T
\nIS<\/font><\/b> a curious fact that even after
\nso many months of sustained propaganda and the most clear and definite
\nstatements of the New Politics, there should still be so much confusion as to
\nthe attitude of the Nationalist Party and the elementary issues they have
\nraised. This confusion is to some extent due to wilful
\ndistortion and deliberate evasion of the true issues. The ultra-loyalist
\npublicists especially, Indian or Anglo-Indian, are obliged to ignore the true
\nposition of the party, misnamed Extremists, because they are unable to meet its
\ntrenchant and irresistible logic and common sense. But with the great majority
\nof Indian politicians, the misapprehension is genuine. The political teaching
\nof the New School is so novel and disturbing to their settled political ideas, —
\nor
\nrather the conventional, abstract, second-hand formulas which take the place
\nof ideas — that they cannot even grasp its true nature and turn from it with
\nrepugnance before they have given themselves time to understand it. The most
\nobstinate of these misapprehensions is the idea that the New Politics is a
\ncounsel of despair, a mad revolutionary fury induced by Curzonian reaction. We
\ncan afford to pass over this misapprehension with contempt, when it is put
\nforward by foolish, prejudiced or conceited critics who are merely trying to
\nbring odium on the movement or to express their enlightened superiority over
\nyounger politicians. But when a fair and scrupulous opponent honestly trying to
\nunderstand the nationalist position falls into the same error, we are bound to
\nmeet it and once more clear our position beyond misapprehension or doubt.
\n         Some friends of ours have thought that we were unnecessarily harsh and even
\nunjust in our criticism of Dr. Rash Behari Ghose’s speech in the Supreme
\nLegislative Council. They urge that Dr. Ghose at least presented the Extremist
\nposition with great energy, clearness, courage, and did it with the greater
\neffect as one who himself stood outside our party. We have every respect for
\nDr. Rash Behari Ghose personally; he is perhaps the<\/font><\/p>\n

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\n


\nforemost jurist in India, a scholar and master of the English tongue, a mine of
\nliterature in possession of a style of his own, too rich and scholarly to be
\nturned to such everyday uses as a Legislative Council speech. But eminence in
\nlaw and literature do not necessarily bring with them a grasp of politics. Dr.
\nGhose has only recently turned his attention to this field and has not been long
\nenough in touch with the actualities of politics to get a real grasp of them. It
\nis therefore natural that he should be misled by names instead of penetrating
\nbeyond names to the true aspects of current politics. The ordinary nick-names of
\nModerate and Extremist do not properly describe the parties which they are
\nused to label; and they are largely responsible for much confusion of ideas as
\nto the real difference between the two schools. Dr. Ghose evidently labours,
\nlike many others, under the obsession of the word Extremist. He imagines that
\nthe essential difference between the parties is a difference in attitude and in
\nthe intensity of feeling. The Extremists, in his view, are men embittered by oppression which makes even wise men mad; full of passionate repining at
\ntheir "more than Egyptian bondage", exasperated by bureaucratic
\nreaction, despairing of redress at the hands of the British Government or the
\nBritish nation, they are advocating an extreme attitude and extreme methods in a
\nspirit of desperate impatience. The Extremist propaganda is, therefore, a
\nprotest against misgovernment and a movement of despair driving towards
\nrevolt. We are unable to accept this statement of the nationalist position. On
\nthe contrary, it so successfully represents the new politics to be what they are
\nnot, that we choose it as a starting-point for our explanation of what they are.
\n        The new movement is not primarily a protest against bad Government<\/span> <\/span>
\n—<\/span>
\n <\/span>it is a protest
\nagainst the continuance of British control; whether that control is used well or
\nill, justly or injustly, is a minor and unessential consideration. It is not
\nborn of a disappointed expectation of admission to British citizenship, —
\nit is born of a conviction that the time has come when India can, should and
\nwill become a great, free and united nation. It is not a negative current of
\ndestruction, but a positive, constructive impulse towards the making of modern
\nIndia. It is not a cry of revolt and despair, but a gospel of national faith
\nand hope. Its true<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

\n
\ndescription is not Extremism, but Democratic Nationalism.
\n        These are the real issues. There are at present not two parties in India, but
\nthree, — the Loyalists, the Moderates and the Nationalists. The Loyalists would
\nbe satisfied with good Government by British rulers and a limited share in
\nthe administration; the Moderates desire self-government within the British
\nEmpire, but are willing to wait for it indefinitely; the Nationalists would be
\nsatisfied with nothing less than independence whether within the Empire, if that
\nbe possible, or outside it; they believe that the nation cannot and ought not to
\nwait, but must bestir itself immediately, if it is not to perish as a nation.
\nThe Loyalists believe that Indians have not the capacities and qualities
\nnecessary for freedom and even if they succeed in developing the necessary fitness, they would
\ndo better for themselves and mankind by remaining as a province of the British
\nEmpire; any attempt at freedom will, they think, be a revolt against Providence
\nand can bring nothing but disaster on the country. The Loyalist view is that
\nIndia cannot, should not and will not be a free, great and united nation. The
\nModerates believe the nation to be too weak and disunited to aim at freedom;
\nthey would welcome independence if it came, but they are not convinced that we
\nhave or shall have in the measurable future the means or strength to win it or
\nkeep it if won. They therefore put forward Colonial Self-Government as their
\naim and are unwilling to attempt any methods which presuppose strength and
\ncohesion in the nation. The Moderate view is that India may eventually be
\nunited, self-governing within limits and prosperous, but not free and great. The
\nNationalists hold that Indians are as capable of freedom as any subject nation
\ncan be and their defects are the result of servitude and can only be removed by
\nthe struggle for freedom; that they have the strength, and, if they get the
\nwill, can create the means to win independence. They hold that the choice is not
\nbetween autonomy and provincial Home Rule or between freedom and dependence,
\nbut between freedom and national decay and death. They hold, finally, that the
\npast history of our country and the present circumstances are of such a kind
\nthat the great unifying tendencies hitherto baffled by insuperable obstacles
\nhave at last found the right conditions for success. They believe that the fated<\/font><\/p>\n

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\n

\n
\nhour for Indian unification and freedom has arrived. In brief, they are
\nconvinced that India should strive to be free, that she can be free and that she
\nwill, by the impulse of her past and present, be inevitably driven to the
\nattempt and the attainment of national self-realisation. The Nationalist creed
\nis a gospel of faith and hope.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i>April 26, 1907<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Page-299<\/p>\n

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