{"id":318,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=318"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","slug":"153-the-new-ideal-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\/153-the-new-ideal-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-153_The New Ideal.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nThe
\nNew Ideal<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>T<\/font><\/span>HE<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>need of a great ideal was never more keenly
\nfelt than it is in India at the present day. Nowhere have so many weaknesses
\ncombined to stand in the way of a nation in the whole range of history. Nowhere
\nhave the rulers reduced their subjects to so complete, pervading and abject a
\nmaterial helplessness. When the Mogul ruled, he ruled as a soldier and a
\nconqueror, in the pride of his strength, in the confidence of his invincible
\ngreatness, as the lord of the peoples by natural right of his imperial character
\nand warlike strength and skill. He stooped to no meanness, hedged himself in
\nwith no army of spies, entered into no relations with foreign powers, but,
\ngrandiose and triumphant, sat on the throne of a continent like Indra on his
\nheavenly seat, master of his world because there was none strong enough to
\ndispute it with him. He trusted his subjects, gave them positions of power and
\nresponsibility, used their brain and arm to preserve his conquests and by the
\nroyalty of that trust and noble pride in his own ability to stand by his innate
\nstrength, was able to hold India for over a century until Aurangzebe forgot the
\nKuladharma of hi use and by distrust, tyranny and meanness lost for his
\ndescendants the splendid heritage of his forefathers. The present domination is
\na rule of shopkeepers who are at the same time bureaucrats, a combination of the
\nworst possible qualities for imperial Government. The shopkeeper rules by
\ndeceit, the bureaucrat by the use of red tape. The shopkeeper by melancholy
\nmeanness alienates the subject population, the bureaucrat by soulless rigidity
\ndeprives the administration of life and human sympathy. The shopkeeper uses his
\nposition of authority to push his wares and fleece his subjects, the bureaucrat
\nforgets his duty and loses his royal character in his mercantile greed. The
\nshopkeeper becomes a pocket Machiavel, the bureaucrat a gigantic retail trader.
\nBy this confusion of dharmas<\/i>, varnasankara <\/i>is born in high places and the
\nnation first and the rulers afterwards go to perdition.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-834<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nThis
\nis what has happened in India under the present regime. The bureaucracy have
\nruled in the spirit of a mercantile power, holding its position by aid of
\nmercenaries, afraid of its subjects, with no confidence in its destiny, with no
\ntrust even in the mercenaries who support it, piling up gold with one hand, with
\nthe other holding a borrowed sword over the head of a fallen people. It has
\nsought its strength not in the mission with which God had entrusted it, nor in
\nthe greatness of England, her mastery of the ocean, her pride of unconquered
\nprowess, her just and sympathetic principle of government, but in the weakness
\nof the people. The strength of England has been held as a threat in the
\nbackground, not as a source of quiet and unostentatious self-confidence which
\nenable the rulers to be generous as well as just. The liberal principles of
\nEnglish rule have been chanted as a sort of magic mantra <\/i>to hypnotise the
\nnation into willing subjection, not used as a living principle of government.
\nWhat have been the real sources of bureaucratic strength? An Arms act, a corrupt
\nand oppressive police, an army of spies, a mercenary military force officered by
\nEnglishmen, a people emasculated, kept ignorant, out of the world’s life, poor,
\nintimidated, abjectly under the thumb of the police constable or the provincial
\nprefect. Such a principle of rule cannot endure. It contradicts the law of God
\nand offends the reason of man; it is as unprofitable as it is selfish and
\nheartless.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The nation which has passed through a century of such a misgovernment
\nmust necessarily have degenerated. The bureaucracy has taken care to destroy
\nevery centre of strength not subservient to itself. A nation politically
\ndisorganised, a nation morally corrupted, intellectually pauperised, physically
\nbroken and stunted is the result of a hundred years of British rule, the account
\nwhich England can give before God of the trust which He placed in her hands. The
\ncondition of the people is the one answer to all the songs of praise which the
\nbureaucrats sing of their rule, which the people of England chorus with such a
\nsmug self-satisfaction and which even foreign peoples echo in the tune of
\nadmiration and praise. But for us the people who have suffered, the victims of
\nthe miserable misuse which bureaucrats have made of the noblest opportunity God
\never gave to a nation, the song has no longer any charm, the mantra <\/i>has
\nlost its hypno-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-835<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ntic
\nforce, the spell has ceased to work. While we could we deceived ourselves, but
\nwe can deceive ourselves no longer. Pain is a terrible disillusioner and the
\npangs which had come upon us were those of approaching dissolution. It was at
\nthe last moment, when further delay would have meant death, that a higher than
\nearthly physician administered through a proud viceroy the potent poison of
\nPartition and saved the life of India. The treatment of the disease has been
\ndrastic and will continue to be drastic. There are those who dream of mild
\nremedies, whose beautiful souls will not bear to think of the fierceness of
\nstrife, hatred or agony which a revolution implies; but strong poisons are the
\nonly salvation in desperate diseases and we fear that without these poisons
\nIndia will not easily or ever recover from the fatal and consuming disease which
\nhas overtaken her. What will support her under the stress of the agony she will
\nhave to undergo? What strength will help her to shake off the weaknesses which
\nhave crowded in on her? How will she raise herself from the dust whom a thousand
\nshackles bind down? Only the strength of a superhuman ideal, only the gigantic
\nforce of a superhuman will, only the vehemence of an effort which transcends all
\nthat man has done and approaches divinity. Where will she find that strength,
\nthat force, that vehemence? In herself. We have seen Ramamurti, the modern
\nBhimasen, lie motionless, resistant, with a superhuman force of will-power acting
\nthrough the muscles while two carts loaded with men are driven over his body.
\nIndia must undergo an ordeal of passive endurance far more terrible without
\nrelaxing a single fibre of her frame. We have seen Ramamurti break over his
\nchest a strong iron chain tightened round his whole body and break it by the
\nsheer force of will working through the body. India must work a similar
\ndeliverance for herself by the same inner force. It is not by strength of body
\nthat Ramamurti accomplishes his feats, for he is not stronger than many athletes
\nwho could never do what he does daily, but by faith and will. India has in
\nherself a faith of superhuman virtue to accomplish miracles, to deliver herself
\nout of irrefragable bondage, to bring God down upon earth. She has a secret of
\nwill power which no other nation possesses. All she needs to rouse in her that
\nfaith, that will, is an ideal which will<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-836<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ninduce
\nher to make the effort. That ideal is now being preached by Srijut Bepin Chandra
\nPal in every speech he delivers and never has it been delivered with such beauty
\nof expression, such a passion of earnestness and pathos, such a sublimity of
\nfeeling as at Uttarpara on Sunday when he addressed a meeting of the people in
\nthe compound of the Uttarpara Library. The ideal is that of humanity in God, of
\nGod in humanity, the ancient ideal of the sanā<\/font>tana dharma <\/i>but applied,
\nas it has never been applied before, to the problem of politics and the work of
\nnational revival. To realise that ideal, to impart it to the world is the
\nmission of India. She has evolved a religion which embraces all that the heart,
\nthe brain, the practical faculty of man can desire but she has not yet applied
\nit to the problems of modern politics. This therefore is the work which she has
\nstill to do before she can help humanity; the necessity of the mission is the
\njustification for her resurgence, the great incentive of saving herself to save
\nmankind is the native power which will give her the force, the strength, the
\nvehemence which can alone enable her to realise her destiny. No lesser ideal
\nwill help her through the stress of the terrible ordeal which she will in a few
\nyears be called to face. No hope less pure will save her from the demoralisation
\nwhich follows revolutionary strife, the growth of passions, a violent
\nselfishness, sanguinary hatred, insufferable licences, the disruption of
\nmoralities, the resurgence of the tiger in man which a great revolution is apt
\nto foster. Srijut Bepin Chandra speaks under an inspiration which he himself is
\nunable to resist. The public wish to hear
\nhim
\non Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education <\/span>
\n\u2014<\/span>
\nthe <\/span>old subjects of his unparalleled
\neloquence, and he himself may desire to speak on them, but the voice of a
\nprophet is not his own to speak the thing he will, but another’s to speak the
\nthing he must. India needed the gospel of Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National
\nEducation to nerve her to her first effort, but now that she is drawing nearer
\nto the valley of the shadow of Death she needs a still mightier inspiration, a
\nstill more enthusiastic and all-conquering faith. The people have not yet
\nunderstood, but the power to understand is in them, and if any voice can awake
\nthat power, it is Bepin Chandra’s.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> <\/span>
\nApril
\n7, 1908<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-837<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n
\nThe
\n"Indu" and the Dhulia Conference<\/font><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nNon-Party
\nLines<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Reception Committee of the Dhulia
\nConference has fallen under the ban of the Indu Prakash <\/i>because it has
\ndared to attempt a compromise in which the views of the "Extremists"
\nhave not been completely ignored. The only "compromise" which
\nModerates are prepared to accept is one in which Nationalism is ignored and the
\nNationalists make a complete surrender. It is strange to find these
\nirreconcilable fanatics of separatism posing as men of sobriety and moderation,
\nthese ignorers of every principle of constitutional action posing as
\nconstitutionalists. The framing of two or three resolutions of self-help and
\nthe repetition of three of the Calcutta Congress resolutions is described by the
\norgan of Sir Pherozshah as the capture of the Conference by Extremism. The Dhulia Reception Committee have framed fifteen resolutions of which the first
\nthree are the Congress resolutions on Self-Government, Swadeshi and National
\nEducation; the fourth is a resolution for an united Congress on the lines
\nsettled at the Calcutta Congress; the fifth is for village organisation and
\narbitration; the ninth advocates physical culture. These six resolutions are the
\nonly ones which have the slightest nationalist tinge, and it must be remembered
\nthat the first is a Moderate and not a Nationalist resolution. The rest are
\npetitionary resolutions of the ancient type, the last of them compromising a
\nrespectable-sized omnibus full of petitions. To our mind, it seems that the
\nDhulia Nationalists have com<\/span>promised
\nwith a vengeance and if ever there was a Conference
\nframed on non-party lines, this deserves the description. B<\/span>ut
\nour excellent old Moonshine <\/i>will not allow anything to be non-party which
\nis not entirely Moderate.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nPrescriptive
\nRights<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

The first offence of the Conference is that it has not
\nsaid ditto to the suggestion of the Bombay. Presidency Association to postpone
\nthe Conference till October by which time the Mode-<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-838<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nrates
\ncould have made all arrangements for holding the Congress according to their
\nwill and pleasure and would have pleaded that it was too late to make any
\nchange. The Association has by prescription been organising Conferences, says
\nthe Indu<\/i>, <\/i>and so to ignore its opinion is Extremism. The idea of an
\nAssociation in Bombay city having the prescriptive right to organise Conferences
\nand dictate to the Reception Committee, is one of those staggering assumptions
\nwhich the Bombay Moderate brain puts forth with an appallingly cheerful defiance
\nof common sense, logic and constitutional principles unintelligible to the
\nordinary man. Might we be allowed to suggest that the early part of the year is
\nnow generally accepted as the proper time for a Provincial Conference and that
\nthe Bombay Association has no more right to be obeyed in this or any other
\nmatter than, say, the Moderate Convention?<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe
\nCalcutta Resolutions<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nThe
\nIndu <\/i>proceeds to put forward the remarkable argument that the Conference
\ncould have been an united success only if all contentious matter relating to
\nCongress politics had been scrupulously omitted, considering that almost all
\nmatters which come before the Congress now involve more or less the contentions
\nas to principles which divide the Congress, this amounts to saying that an
\nunited Conference is impossible, \u2014 a confession of the country’s political
\nincapacity which is redolent of Sir Pherozshah Mehta. The next complaint is that
\nthe Moderates did not try to force their creed on the Conference, while the
\nExtremists have unblushingly pushed their hobby of the Calcutta positions. We
\ninvite the attention of the country to the practical admission that the
\nModerates are opposed to the Calcutta resolutions, an admission which may be
\nadvantageously compared with the repeated Moderate protestations that there
\nwas never any intention of drawing back from the Calcutta positions. Our answer
\nto the contention is that the Calcutta resolutions are in the nature of a
\ncompromise by which both parties with their programmes are given scope in the
\nCongress and are<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>839<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ntherefore
\nnot of a party character but the sole possible basis for united work; the creed
\non the other hand is avowedly of a party character and intended to exclude
\nNationalists from the Congress. It was for this reason that the Moderates and
\nNationalists at Dhulia, being sincerely desirous of union, accepted the former
\nand avoided the latter. This is a fact which the Bombay Moderates find it
\nconvenient to misrepresent, but it has been clearly
\nrecognised
\nboth at Pabna and Dhulia;<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>the Calcutta
\nresolutions <\/span>are not "Extremist"
\npositions, but a compromise between the parties; as such the Nationalists hold
\nto them and not as a hobby or as their "creed".<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIgnoring and Defying<\/font><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThis
\nresolution, says the Indu<\/i>, <\/i>is an attempt "to ignore and defy the
\nConvention Committee (and commit the Conference to the lines of the Bodas Ghose
\nCommittee) the unconstitutionalism of which we exposed the other day." We have
\nunfortunately missed this no doubt luminous exposure, but we are curious to know
\nby what principle of constitutionalism the Convention Committee enjoys any
\nauthority over a Provincial Conference for it to defy, or holds any position
\nwhich it is not at perfect liberty to ignore. What part has a Convention which
\nwas avowedly a party Convention excluding over six hundred Congress delegates,
\nin the constitution of the Congress? The Provinces are at liberty to ignore both
\nCommittees equally, for neither has at present any constitutional authority or
\nposition, if the Congress is alive. If the Congress is dead, there can be no
\ntalk of constitution; at most the Convention and the Conference are co-legators
\nand divide the property. The question for a Provincial Conference is not between
\none committee and another, but between union and division, the death of the
\nCongress or its resuscitation.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

The Calcutta Compromise<\/font><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nFinally,
\nthe Indu <\/i>after sneering at the Calcutta resolutions as an<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-840<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nExtremist
\ncreed, itself charges the Reception Committee with disloyalty to the Calcutta
\nposition, because they have adopted the Self-Government resolution without
\ntaking on a rider about Legislative Councils and other "steps" to
\nSelf-Government. We know it is the position of the Mehta clique that even
\nSelf-Government is a far off, almost impracticable dream and that we should in
\nthe meanwhile be satisfied with small reforms. The Calcutta Congress fixed
\nColonial Self-Government as a practical demand, a thing which should be extended
\nto India, but it did not as the Indu <\/i>pretends, fix a far off date for the
\nextension, only knowing that its demand, though perfectly and immediately
\npractical (otherwise the expression "should be extended" has no
\nmeaning) would not be granted, it demanded certain reforms as steps towards
\nColonial Self-Government. The Dhulia Conference does precisely the same though
\nthe "steps" are asked for in separate resolutions. The Calcutta
\nCongress, as a compromise, combined petitions with self-help, a resolution for
\nNational Education with a prayer for the extension of Government education. The
\nDhulia Conference does precisely the same. The Indu <\/i>discovers the
\ninconsistency of this position with the air of Newton discovering the law of
\ngravitation. Inconsistent it is, but the Calcutta resolutions are not an essay
\nin logic, they are a compromise between two entirely different programmes, of
\nwhich the fittest will survive. We have noticed the arguments of the Indu <\/i>at
\nlength because it is necessary for the country to realise the sort of shufflings
\nby which it is sought to justify the policy of "divide and serve" on
\nwhich the Bombay clique has set its heart. If we can save the Congress, we will,
\nbut if it is broken, this time at least the responsibility shall rest on the
\nright shoulders.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> April 8, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-841<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Ideal                           THE need of a great ideal was never more keenly felt than it is in India at the present day….<\/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-318","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\/318","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=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}