{"id":321,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=321"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:18","slug":"055-mr-morleys-pronouncement-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\/055-mr-morleys-pronouncement-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-055_Mr.Morley^s Pronouncement.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nMr. Morley’s
\nPronouncement<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span>
\n                <\/font>
\n<\/span>
\nT<\/span><\/font>HE<\/font><\/b>
\nattitude assumed by Mr. John Morley in answer to the questions parliament about
\nthe latest act of mediaeval tyranny, cannot surprise those who have something
\nmore than surface knowledge of English politics and English politicians. Those
\nwho have been behind the scenes in English political life, know perfectly well
\nthat there sincerity is an element which does not exist. Professions,
\nprinciples, ideals are the tinsel and trappings of the stage; each politician is
\nan actor who has a part to play and plays it, certain set sentiments to mouth
\nand mouths them. But the only reality behind is a mass of interests, personal
\ninterests, class interests, party interests, and the ruling principle of action
\nis to "catch votes" and avoid the loss of votes. We have all noticed how
\npersistently the Anglo-Indian Press out here talk of every movement as being
\nartificial and the work of "professional agitators", and how persistently they
\nrefuse to credit the popular leaders, even when they are men of high moral worth
\nlike Lala Lajpat Rai, with sincerity. We generally put this
\ndown to the perverseness and wilful misrepresentation of a reptile press; the
\nreal truth is that they are judging us from their knowledge of their own
\ncountry. They are perfectly well aware that in England politics is a huge piece
\nof humbug; it professes to be a conflict of principles and is really a conflict
\nof more or less sordid interests. They know that in England, a sincere
\npolitician is a contradiction in terms. They are therefore unable to believe in
\nthe existence in India of a sincerity and reality for which their own country
\noffers no precedent. The only exceptions to the general rule of insincerity are
\nthe novices in politics \u2014 the maiden innocence of whose souls is soon rubbed
\noff by a few Parliamentary sessions, \u2014 and a handful of independent-minded
\neccentrics who have no chance whatever of rising to influence, much less to
\noffice. Occasionally a man of absolute sincerity like Mr.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-342<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Bradlaugh
\nbreaks the record, but that is only once in half a century.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>When Mr. John Morley entered politics, he entered as a literary man and
\naustere philosopher and brought the spirit of philosophy into politics. His
\nunbending fidelity to his principles earned him the name of Honest John, and
\nthis soubriquet, with the reputation for uprightness of which it was the badge,
\nhas survived long after the uprightness itself had perished in the poisoned air
\nof office. No one can be long a Cabinet Minister in England and yet remain a man
\nof unswerving principle. As Indian Secretary, Mr. Morley could not be expected
\nto carry his philosophic principles into the India Office. On the contrary,
\nthere were several reasons why he should be even more reactionary than ordinary
\nSecretaries of State. The Secretary of State does not represent India or stand
\nfor her interests; he represents England and his first duty is to preserve
\nBritish supremacy; but Mr. Morley is also one of the foremost exponents of the
\nmost arrogant and exclusive type of enlightenment in nineteenth-century Europe,
\nthe scientific, rationalist, agnostic, superior type. As such he was the last
\nman to think well of or understand Asiatics or to regard them as anything but
\nsemi-barbarous anachronisms. Moreover, as the Bengalee<\/i>‘s <\/i>London
\ncorrespondent pointed out this week, he is evidently showing signs of senile
\ndecay which is shown partly in his growing ill-temper and intolerance of
\ncontradiction, but most in the mental languor which prevents him from
\nquestioning or scrutinising the opinions and information served up to him by the
\nIndia Office. The verbatim fidelity with which he reproduces whatever
\nAnglo-India tutors him to say, is strikingly evidenced by his answers to Messrs.
\nRutherford and O’Grady. His remarks on the situation in East Bengal might have
\nbeen taken for an extract from the Englishman<\/i>‘s <\/i>editorials or from the
\nimaginative reports of the special correspondent of the Empire<\/i>.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span><\/i>Mr. Morley makes no attempt to justify
\nthe arbitrary action he has sanctioned except on the plea of necessity, the
\ntyrant’s plea, which no one in former days would have held up more eloquently to
\ncondemnation and ridicule than Mr. Morley himself.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-343<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He
\ndoes not tell us why Lala Lajpat Rai was deported or what were the charges
\nagainst him; probably he does not himself know, but simply accepted the
\nassurance of the able and experienced Denzil and the level-headed Minto that,
\nthe step was necessary. For they are the men on the spot, and Mr. Morley’s
\nconception of his position in the India Office is that he is there to act as a
\nbuffer between the men on the spot and adverse criticism. We need not discuss
\nhis utterances; they are merely faithful echoes of Anglo-Indian special
\npleading, in which there is nothing that is new and very little that is true.
\nBut the threat which he held out to the Moderate Party is worth noting. For some
\ntime Mr. Morley and Lord Minto, with whom the Secretary of State rather
\nsuperfluously assures us that he has an excellent understanding, have been
\ntalking big of some wonderful reform that they have up their sleeves and
\nfeverishly assuring the world that these fine things are all their very own idea
\nand by no means forced on them by Indian agitation. And now we are told or
\nrather the Moderate leaders are told that they will lose these pretty toys if
\nthey do not help the bureaucracy to put down "disorder", or, in other
\nwords, to put down Nationalism. Mr. Morley offers them a certain administrative
\nreform if they can give up for themselves or can induce their countrymen to give
\nup the aspiration towards freedom. The Anglo-Indian journals all take up the cry
\nand the absolute insincerity of it is sufficiently shown by the fact that even
\nso venomous, reactionary and anti-Indian a print as the Englishman <\/i>proses
\nsolemnly on the theme! The object of these threats is manifest. The sudden
\nsuccession of coercive measures may for a moment have stunned the people, it may
\nfor a few days dismay the more timid, but it has certainly created a deep and
\nsettled exasperation throughout the country. The dismay is temporary, the
\nexasperation will be permanent. Mr. Morley and Anglo-India hope to take
\nadvantage of the moment of dismay in order to half-bribe, half-intimidate the
\nModerate Party into detaching themselves from any opposition to these coercive
\nmeasures. This is a vain hope. For even to the meanest political intelligence
\ntwo considerations will at once occur. The first is that there is such a thing
\nas buying a pig in a poke. Even<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-344<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

the
\nsimplest buyer will want to see the animal before he puts down its price, and
\neven the most confiding Moderate will want to know what is this wonderful reform
\nof Mr. Morley’s before he sells the country’s future and risks his influence
\nwith the people for its sake. But on this point Mr. Morley preserves as studious
\na silence as on the charges against Lajpat Rai. Again, Mr. Morley and Lord Minto
\nhave hinted that their measure is an instalment of self-government, yet Mr.
\nMorley emphatically declares that he will never strip the bureaucracy of any
\nmeans of repression they possess, however barbarous and antiquated. It is
\nevident therefore that whatever "self-government" may be in store for
\nus, it is a "self-government" in which executive despotism will remain absolutely undiminished and unmodified. We have heard of a despotism
\ntempered by epigrams and a despotism tempered by assassination, but this is the
\nfirst time we hear of a self-government tempered by deportation. We do not think
\nany section of Indian opinion is likely to rise to this lure. The Bengalee <\/i>has
\nalready rejected the one-sided bargain with scorn and even the Indian Mirror <\/i>has
\nreceived it without enthusiasm. Coerce, if you will \u2014 we welcome coercion, but
\nbe sure that it will rank the whole of India against you without distinction of
\nparties.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\nWhat does Mr. Hare Mean?<\/a><\/b><\/font><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/span>        Writes
\nthe Indian Mirror<\/i>: <\/i><\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n"<\/span><\/font>For one full week we have it cons<\/span>tantly
\ndinned into our ears, that Mr. Hare intends to visit the scenes of disturbance.
\nYet he has not left Shillong as yet, and disturbances are as rife as ever. What
\ndoes Mr. Hare mean?"<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>Even Homer nods; and even Mahatmas are at times slow to understand the
\nsignificance of events. Our contemporary declines to accept the Jamalpur affair
\nas a link in a chain that has been <\/span>forged
\nby the people interested in the suppression not so much of <\/span>Swadeshi
\nand Boycott as of the spirit of nationalism. The Harrison Road case might have
\nbeen a blow aimed at boycott, for at that time the new spirit had not made
\nitself prominently manifest in Bengal and other parts of India. But the Barisal
\nbarbarities left no room for doubt. Then came the Comilla excesses.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-345<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Are
\nwe to believe that the Moslem population of East Bengal has really been deluded
\ninto the idea that East Bengal belongs to Salimullah? Are we, again, to believe
\nthat the British Government which now sees wraiths even in wreaths of smoke,
\ncontemplates with a sense of security, if not satisfaction also, the growth of
\nthis idea in the truculent population of the province and the consequent growth
\nof the influence and power of an ordinary Zemindar? Are we then to believe that
\nthe British Government is too weak to check the spread of rowdyism in East
\nBengal and the distribution of the "red pamphlet"? Then comes the
\ndeportation of the Punjab leader by the Government in a manner which reminds one
\nof the conduct of "Cunning old Fury" in Alice in Wonderland<\/i>, <\/i>who
\nwanted to play the parts of judge and jury to convict the defendant in a case in
\nwhich he himself was the plaintiff. The crowning act comes from Mr. Morley,
\nonce extolled by the Friend of India as the beau id\u00e9al <\/i>of a man and a
\npolitician, who expresses his determination "not to strip the Government of
\nIndia of any weapon or law for the suppression of native disorders\u201d.<\/font><\/p>\n

       
\n<\/span>The Jamalpur affairs are only a link in the chain. Accept this view and
\nthe whole situation, as well as the attitude of the local officers will be
\nclear. We need no longer fight shy of the real significance of things. Let us
\ntake things as they are and face the situation boldly irrespective of
\nconsequences to individuals in the discharge of their duties.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>, <\/i>May 16, 1907<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-346<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Morley’s Pronouncement                     THE attitude assumed by Mr. John Morley in answer to the questions parliament about the latest act of mediaeval…<\/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-321","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\/321","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=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}