{"id":327,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=327"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:20","slug":"032-peace-and-the-autocrats-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\/032-peace-and-the-autocrats-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-032_Peace and the Autocrats.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nPeace and the Autocrats<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>E<\/font><\/b><\/span>VER<\/b>
\nsince the differences of opinion which are now agitating the whole country
\ndeclared themselves in the formation of two distinct parties in Bengal, there
\nhas been a class of politicians among us who are never tired of ingeminating
\npeace, peace, deploring every collision between the contending schools and
\nentreating all to lay aside their differences and work for the country. It is
\nall very plausible to the ear and easily imposes on the average unthinking mind.
\nUnion, concord, work for the country are all moving and sacred words and must
\ncommand respect \u2014 when they are not misused. But what is it that these
\npoliticians ask us to do in the name of union, concord and work for the country?
\nThey ask us to sacrifice or stifle our convictions and silence the promptings of
\nconscience in order to follow leaders whom we believe to have lost touch with
\nthe spirit of the times and "work together unitedly" in a line of
\naction which we believe to be ruinous to the country. The demand has been made
\nquite nakedly by enthusiastic adherents of Babu Surendranath Banerji that we
\nshould all follow the leaders blindly even when we disapprove of what they
\nthink, say and do. A more presumptuous demand or one more destructive of all
\npolitical morality and honesty could not be made<\/i>. There is such a thing
\nas a political conscience, even if its existence is not recognised <\/i>by the
\n <\/span>Editor
\nof the Bengalee<\/i>; <\/i>and expediency is not what that veracious journal
\ndeclares it to be, the sole god of politics, but a subordinate guide, itself
\ndetermined by higher considerations.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Of course, many of those who cry out for peace at any price, do not
\nperceive all that is implied in their demand. Is it not possible, they argue, to
\nhave differences of opinion and yet work together? We should be the last to deny
\nit. The whole system of party politics, for example, depends on the
\nsubordination of minor differences by those who are agreed on main and vital
\npoints. So long therefore as the differences are minor and either<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-229<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nessentially
\nor for the moment immaterial, there is no reason why there should not be
\ncomplete unity for all practical purposes; but the moment vital differences
\narise, parties and party struggle become inevitable. The men of peace and unity
\nare never weary of throwing Japan and England in our faces; but they seem not to
\nhave read the history of the countries which they offer us as our examples. Have
\nthey never heard of the struggle between Federalists and Imperialists in Japan
\nor of the civil strife between Federalists and Unionists which preceded and made
\nthe way clear for her marvellous development? It was the time when American guns
\nhad broken open the gates of the country and she was in considerable danger from
\nforeign aggression; yet this was the moment chosen by the most patriotic
\nJapanese for a bitter party struggle attended by mutual assassination and ending
\nin civil slaughter. And what was the point at issue? Simply, whether Shogun or
\nMikado should be leader and sovereign in Japan. Our wise men would have advised
\nthe Japanese to give up their differences and work together under the Shogun
\nbecause he was "the recognised leader"; but the patriots of Japan knew
\nthat the question of Shogun or Mikado involved vital issues which must be
\nsettled at any cost; so with one hand they fended off the common enemy while
\nwith the other they fought out the question among themselves. This is the only
\nsolution to the difficulty which has arisen in India \u2014 to present an united
\nfront to bureaucratic attacks while fighting out the question among ourselves.
\nFor this amount of concord one condition is absolutely required, that neither
\nparty shall call in the common enemy to injure or crush the other. There must be
\nno suppression of telegrams defending a leader of one party from official
\nimputations, no attempt by editorial paragraphs to implicate him as an
\ninstigator of disorder, no assistance at viceregal interviews in which the
\nbureaucracy is invited to take strong measures against his propaganda.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>If it is argued that the differences dividing us are not vital, we
\nentirely disagree. We are all agreed on one point, that the continuance of
\nunmitigated bureaucratic despotism is ruinous to the country and a change is
\nrequired; but beyond this point<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-230<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthere
\nis more difference than agreement. The new party is composed of various elements
\nand there are minor differences of opinion and even of method among them; but
\nthey are all agreed in one unanimous determination to put an end to despotism,
\nmitigated or unmitigated, and replace it by a free, modern and national
\nGovernment. The old party is also composed of various elements, \u2014
\nultra-loyalist, loyalist, ultra-moderate, moderate, and even semi-demi-extremist;
\nbut they are all agreed on this main attitude, that while they aspire to
\ncolonial self-government they will put up with mitigated despotism for another
\ncentury or two if vigorous petitioning will bring them nothing better. Here is a
\nvital difference of ideal, aim and spirit; and it is necessarily accompanied by
\na vital difference in method. The new party is agreed on a policy of self-help
\nand the organisation at least of passive resistance. The old party is agreed
\nupon nothing except the sacred right of petitioning. Sir Pherozshah Mehta and
\nthe Bombay Moderates would confine our politics within those holy limits. Pundit
\nMadan Mohan and the United Provinces Moderates are willing to add a moderate and
\ninoffensive spice of self-help; Babu Surendranath and the Bengal Moderates will
\neven admit passive resistance within narrow limits and for a special and
\ntemporary purpose. But the difference of all from the new party remains.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Where there are such serious differences and men wish to follow
\ndifferent paths, no lasting composition is possible. The party struggle must go
\non until the country has definitely accepted one or other of the alternative
\nideals and methods. Temporary working compromises are alone possible, and the
\nsoundness of even such compromises is conditional, firstly, on the candour and
\nwhole-heartedness with which they are undertaken on both sides, and secondly, on
\nthe carrying on of the party struggle strictly within the rules of the game. The
\npresent bitterness of the struggle is largely due to the disregard of these
\nelementary conditions. National Education is an accepted part of the political
\nprogramme in Bengal; yet all the best known and most influential of the Moderate
\nleaders are either practically indifferent or passively hostile to the progress
\nof the movement. Boycott is the cry<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>231<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nof
\nboth parties within Bengal; yet the Moderate leaders did not hesitate to
\nstultify the Boycott movement by the support they gave to the Swadeshi-Bideshi
\nExhibition. Moreover, our experience has hitherto been that the Moderates look
\non any compromise in the light of a clever manoeuvre to dish the Extremists or
\na temporary convenience to stave off unpleasant opposition for the moment.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The second condition is equally disregarded. So long as it is sought to
\nsuppress the new spirit by autocratic methods of dishonest manoeuvres, there can
\nbe no talk of peace or unity. The conduct of Pundit Madan Mohan Malaviya and his
\ncaucus at Allahabad has been both autocratic and dishonest. The delegates
\nelected at the Railway Theatre were elected according to methods that have
\nalways been held valid by the Congress and there has never before been any
\nquestion of the right of gentlemen nominated by a large public meeting to sit in
\nCongress or Conference. Yet the Pundit and his crew chose by autocratic
\nResolutions of a temporary Committee which had received no power to alter the
\nCongress constitution, to disallow the nominees of the Railway Theatre meeting!
\nEven the British bureaucracy itself would have blushed to perpetrate so cynical
\nand shameless a piece of autocracy. But these autocratic democrats had not even
\nthe courage of their autocracy. They tried first to exclude the elected of the
\npeople on the ridiculous plea that Mayo Hall would only hold a certain number
\nand therefore \u2014
\n<\/span>mark the logic of Moderatism!
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>this certain number must be composed of
\nMalaviya Moderates and the Railway Theatre Forwards excluded; but they found
\nthat this trick would not serve. They then bolstered up their autocracy by the
\nexcuse that Allahabad must not be over-represented at the Conference. This
\nexcuse was a palpable trick since under the present rules it is impossible to
\nprevent the place of the Conference from being over-represented. As a matter of
\nfact among the few delegates who
\nattended, Allahabad had an overwhelming majority. No sane man can expect concord
\nand compromise between the parties while such trickery is considered a
\nlegitimate party manoeuvre. The penalty this time has been the failure of the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-232<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nAllahabad
\nConference. The penalty next time, unless the caucus learn wisdom, may be open
\nwar and the holding of two separate Conferences in the same province.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> April 3, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-233<\/font><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peace and the Autocrats                   EVER since the differences of opinion which are now agitating the whole country declared themselves in the formation of…<\/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-327","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\/327","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=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}