{"id":326,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=326"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","slug":"025-the-man-of-the-past-and-the-man-of-the-future-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\/025-the-man-of-the-past-and-the-man-of-the-future-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-025_The Man of the Past and the Man of the Future.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe
\nMan of the Past<\/font><\/h1>\n

\nand
\nthe Man of the Future<\/font><\/h1>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>T<\/font><\/b>WO<\/font><\/span> men of the moment stand conspicuously before the
\neyes of the public in connection with the present session of the National
\nCongress. The advent of these two men close upon each other is full of meaning
\nfor us at the present juncture. Both of them are sincere patriots, both have
\ndone what work lay in them for their people and for the land that bore them;
\nboth are men of indomitable perseverance and high ability; but there the
\nresemblance ends. One of them worn and aged, bowed down with the burden of half
\na century’s toils and labours, comes to us as the man of the past, reminding us
\nof a generation that is passing away, ideals that have lost their charm, methods
\nthat have been found to be futile, an energy and hope once buoyant and full of
\nlife but which now live on only in a wearied and decrepit old age phantom-like,
\nstill babbling exploded generalities and dead formulas. The other comes with his
\nface to the morning, a giant of strength and courage bearing on his unbowed
\nshoulders the mighty burden of our future. We do not know yet what will be the
\nnature of Mr. Dadabhai’s Presidential speech; it may contain Pisgah sights of
\nthe future, to a great extent it is likely to be the swan song of the dying
\npast. From Mr. Tilak we expect no great speech and no sensational pronouncement,
\nhis very presence is more powerful than the greatest declamations; for it is not
\nas an orator he stands prominent in spite of his clear incisive utterances, nor
\nas a writer in spite of the immense influence which as the editor of the Kesari
\n<\/i>he exercises on the political ideal of Maharashtra, but as the man who knows
\nwhat has to be done and does it, knows what has to be organised and organises
\nit, knows what has to be resisted and resists it. He is pre-eminently the man
\nwho acts, and action is to be the note of our future political energies.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n        Mr.
\nDadabhai, on the other hand, is the man who remons-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-197<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ntrates;
\nall his life has been spent in one energetic and unceasing remonstrance through
\nbooks, through public speeches, through letters and writings in public print.
\nRemonstrance, not action, was the note of our political energies in the past.
\nAction was, according to the old gospel, the prerogative of the Government
\nwhether in India or in Great Britain, and our only duty was to urge them to act
\njustly and not unjustly, in our interests and not in their own. We expected them
\nto be angels and remonstrated with them when they proved to be merely men; this
\nspur of that remonstrance, it was hoped, would prick them or at least the
\nhome-bred of Englishmen to justify the angelic hues in which they had painted
\nthemselves, for our benefit. To the young generation these hopes nowadays seem
\nso incredibly futile that they are tempted to wonder how men of ability and
\neducation \u2014 many of them had studied something at least of history \u2014 could
\never have cherished them. But when Mr. Naoroji began his career, nothing more
\nreal and solid was possible. The falling in pieces of the Maratha Confederacy
\nand the overthrow of the Sikh power had left the Punjab and the Deccan stupefied
\nand apathetic; the rest of India was politically exhausted and inert. In such
\ncircumstances it was inevitable that the task of reviving the life of the nation
\nshould fall into the hands of a small class of men educated in English Schools
\nand in English ways of thinking. It was the one great service these men did to
\nour country, that they accustomed us to hope once more and live
\npolitically. It was our misfortune rather than their fault that the hopes they
\nproclaimed were delusive and the life they imparted meagre and superficial.
\nDestitute of political experience, they could not avoid basing their political
\ncreed on theories and ideals rather than upon facts; without any education but
\nwhat the rulers chose to impart, they had no choice but to borrow their
\ntheories and ideas from their English teachers; confined to English books and
\ninfluence, cut off from the wide wholesome atmosphere of the world’s culture,
\nthey were obliged to accept Englishmen at their own valuation. They were for the
\nmost part men of talent and ability; and it requires more than talent and
\nability; it needs the eye of genius to dispense with the necessity of experience
\nand see truth with a single intuitive glance.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-198<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\n <\/font><\/span>The
\nideas on which our agitation in the nineteenth century proceeded were therefore
\nfantastic and unfounded; its methods were unsuited to the realities of political
\nlife in this country, its spirit and aim were so purely Westernised as to
\npreclude the possibility of seizing on the whole people and creating a new
\nnational life. The energy expended on it was therefore small, limited both in
\nintensity and area; and the results it brought about were not even commensurate
\nwith the little energy expended. But two
\nthings
\nwere gained<\/span> \u2014
\n<\/span>the renewal of
\npolitical activity in the <\/span>country and of
\npolitical experience. A renewed life might have been brought about in other ways
\nand with greater power and reality; but for experience that long wandering in
\nthe desert of unrealities and futilities was probably indispensable. However
\nthat may be, Mr. Naoroji was among the small knot of able men who first set in
\nmotion the new political activities of the country. And one thing distinguished
\nhim above most of his fellows that while they wasted themselves on things petty
\nand unreal, he seized on one great fact and enforced it in season and out of
\nseason
\non all who could be got to listen,<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>the terrible poverty of India and its rapid
\nincrease under British rule. It was necessary that a persistent voice should din
\nthis into the ears of the people; for what with the incessant pratings about
\nBritish peace, British justice and the blessings of British rule on the one side
\nand the clamour for Legislative Councils, Simultaneous Examinations, High
\nEducation and similar shams on the other\u2026. This one central all-important
\nreality was in danger of being smothered out of sight. It was necessary for the
\nnation but to realise its increasing poverty under British rule; only then could
\nit take the next step and take to heart the fact that British rule and
\nincreasing poverty stood in the relation of cause and effect; last of all comes
\nthe inevitable conclusion that the effect could only be cured by the removal of
\nthe cause, in other words, by the substitution of autonomy in place of a British
\nor British-controlled Government. Mr. Naoroji’s was the persistent voice that compelled
\nthe nation to realise the first two of these fundamental truths; Mr. Romesh Dutt
\nand others powerfully assisted the result, but it was Mr. Naoroji who first
\nforced the question of Indian poverty into prominence, and for this India owes
\nhim a<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-199<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ndebt
\nof gratitude deeper than that due to any other of our older politicians dead or
\nliving. It is true that he has not been able to proclaim the third of the three
\nconnected truths consistently and frankly; especially have those of his
\nutterances, which were meant for purely Indian consumption, been marred by the
\ndesire to qualify, moderate and even conceal a plain fact, which, though it was
\nnecessary, it might yet be dangerous to proclaim. Nevertheless it is something
\nthat a man of his age and traditions should at least
\nhave frankly declared that freedom from foreign rule must needs be the only
\ngoverning ideal of Indian politics. The man who is responsible for that
\ndeclaration ought to be no Moderate. His heart at least should be with us. That
\nin India and in the Presidential chair of the Congress his voice also will be
\nfor us we cannot so confidently forecast. If it is, his venerable sanction will
\nbe a support to our efforts; if not, his reticence or opposition will be no
\nhindrance to our final triumph. For that which Time and Fate intend, no
\nutterances of individuals however venerable or esteemed, can delay or alter.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> December 26, 1906<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font>200<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Man of the Past and the Man of the Future                       TWO men of the moment stand conspicuously before the eyes…<\/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-326","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\/326","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=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}