{"id":328,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=328"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:21","slug":"062-the-true-meaning-of-the-risley-circular-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\/062-the-true-meaning-of-the-risley-circular-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-062_The True Meaning of the Risley Circular.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe True Meaning of the Risley Circular<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/b>                <\/span>
\n<\/font>W<\/font><\/b>E HAVE<\/b>
\nseen that the effect of Lala Lajpat Rai’s deportation is solely to bring the
\nstruggle between the bureaucracy and the people to a head and the leaders as
\nwell as the rank and file into the range of fire. We have also come to the
\nconclusion that the disturbances in Mymensingh create no new problem but rather
\ncompel us to face as urgencies certain primary necessities we have too much
\nneglected, — the necessity of no longer relying blindly on the purely hypnotic
\nand illusory protection of the Pax Britannica which may at any moment fail us or
\nbe suspended; the necessity of an universal training in the practice of self-defence
\nand a better orgnisation for mutual assistance; the necessity of recognising and
\npractically grappling with the Mahomedan difficulty. But neither of these
\noccurrences has really made impossible, or even altered the conditions of, our
\nprogramme of defensive resistance.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The third fresh departure of the Government of India is the Risley
\nCircular. This circular is only a more comprehensive and carefully studied
\nedition of the Carlyle Circular. It brings therefore no unfamiliar element into
\nthe problem; but there is this very important difference, that while the Carlyle
\nCircular was a local experiment hastily adopted to meet an urgent difficulty and
\ndropped as soon as it was found difficult to work, the Risley Circular is a
\ndeliberate policy adopted by the Supreme Government, with full knowledge of the
\ncircumstances and of its possible effects, in the hope of striking at the very
\nroot of the Swadeshi movement. Everyone will remember the convulsion created by
\nthe Carlyle Circular. Its natural effect would have been to bring about an
\nuniversal students strike, and for a few days it seemed as if such a strike
\nwould actually take place. Unfortunately the movement immediately affected
\ncertain vested interests and the representatives of those interests happened
\nalso to be<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-377<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\npolitical leaders to whom the country and the students especially were
\naccustomed to look for guidance. The leading spirits among the young men in
\nCalcutta were still immature and wanting in grit and tenacity; the influence on
\ntheir minds of their old leaders was very powerful; the new men were
\ncomparatively unknown and influenced the course of events rather by the concrete
\ndirectness of their views, the ardour of their feelings and the fiery energy of
\ntheir speech and activity than by the weight of their personalities. The older
\nleaders were, therefore, able by a strenuous and united effort of their
\nauthority to turn back the impetuous tide and dissipate the enormous
\nmotive-power which had been generated. They were too selfish to sacrifice their
\nimmediate interests, too blind and wanting in foresight to understand that the
\nimmediate loss and difficulty would be repaid tenfold by the inevitable effects
\nof the movement. An universal educational strike at that moment, before the
\nGovernment had become accustomed to the situation, would infallibly have
\nunnerved the hand of power and brought about an almost immediate reconsideration
\nof the partition. Whatever Government may say or do, it cannot afford to lose
\ncontrol of the education of the country; it cannot afford to hand over this
\nimmense mass of material, the India of the future, into the hands of the
\npolitical leaders without the subtle control and check which membership of a
\nGovernment University exercises, without the opportunity of unstringing the
\nnerves of character and soul which the present system of education provides. The
\nGovernment must keep its hold on the mind of the young or lose India. The
\nmagnitude of their blunder was dimly perceived afterwards by some of the leaders
\nand one or two admitted it in private. We only recall that disastrous episode in
\norder to lay stress on the fact that if again repeated the blunder will be worse
\nthan a blunder, it will be an offense against our posterity and a betrayal of
\nthe nation’s future.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>What is the position now? The Risley Circular is a desperate attempt of
\nthe bureaucracy not only to recover and confirm its hold on the student
\npopulation and through them on the future, but to make that hold far more
\nstringent, rigid, ineffugable than it ever was in the past. They do not care
\nvery much if certain academical ideas of liberalism or nationalism are imparted
\nto<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>378<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nyoung by their teachers, but they desire to stop the active habit of patriotism
\nin the young; for they know well that a mere intellectual habit untranslated
\ninto action is of no value in after life. The Japanese when they teach Bushido
\nto their boys do not rest content with lectures or a moral catechism; they make
\nthem practise Bushido and govern every thought and action of their life by the
\nBushido ideal. This is the only way of inculcating a quality into a nation, by
\ninstilling it practically into the minds of its youth at school and college
\nuntil it becomes an ingrained, inherent, inherited national quality. This is
\nwhat we have to do with the modern ideal of patriotism in India. We have to fill
\nthe minds of our boys from childhood with the idea of the country, and present
\nthem with that idea at every turn and make their whole young life a lesson in
\nthe practice of the virtues which afterwards go to make the patriot and the
\ncitizen. If we do not attempt this, we may as well give up our desire to create
\nan Indian nation altogether; for without such a discipline nationalism,
\npatriotism, regeneration are mere words and ideas which can never become a part
\nof the very soul of the nation and never therefore a great realised fact. Mere academical teaching of patriotism is of no avail. The professor may lecture
\nevery day on Mazzini and Garibaldi and Washington and the student may write
\nthemes about Japan and Italy and America without bringing
\nus any nearer to our supreme need,<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2014 <\/span>
\nthe
\nentry of the habit <\/span>of patriotism into our
\nvery bone and blood. The Roman Satirist tells us that in the worst times of
\nimperial despotism in Rome the favourite theme of teachers and boys in the
\nschools was liberty and tyrannicide;
\n<\/span>\u2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>but neither liberty nor tyrannicide was
\npractised by the boys when they became men; rather they grew up into submissive
\nslaves of the single world-despot. It is for this reason that the men of the new
\nparty have welcomed the active association of our students with political
\nmeetings, with the propagation and actual practice of Swadeshi, with the
\nvolunteer movement in its various forms,
\n<\/span>\u2014 not, as has
\nbeen malevolently <\/span>suggested, out of a
\nturbulent desire to make use of unripe young minds to create anarchy and
\ndisorder, but because they see in this political activity in the young the
\npromise of a new generation of Indians who will take patriotism earnestly as a
\nthing to live and<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-379<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ndie
\nfor, not as the pastime of leisure hours. Nobody who believes that such
\npatriotism is the first need of this country can consistently oppose the
\nparticipation of students in politics. When Indian nationality is a thing
\nrealised and the present unnatural conditions have been remedied, then indeed
\nthis active participation may be brought under restriction and regulation; for
\nthen the inherited habit of patriotism, the atmosphere of a free country and the
\npractice and teaching of the Bushido virtues within the limits of home and
\nschool life will be sufficient. But before them to submit to restrictions is to
\ncommit national suicide.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>If our educated men do not understand this
\n<\/span>\u2014 as, indeed,
\n<\/span>with our want of direct political experience it is difficult for them to
\nunderstand it, \u2014 our English rulers at least have grasped the situation. Study
\ntheir circular and you will see what it means. School students are not even to
\nattend political meetings nor school teachers to teach them patriotism. Why?
\nBecause at that age the mind is soft and impressionable and what is seen and
\nheard, sinks deep and tends to crystallise not merely into fixed ideas, but into
\ncharacter<\/i>. <\/i>A teacher may by his personal influence and teachings so
\nsurround the minds of his students with the idea of the country, of work for the
\ncountry, of living and dying for the country that this will become the dominant
\nidea of their minds and, if associated with any kind of patriotic discipline or
\nteaching in action, the dominant note in their character. The attendance of
\nschoolboys as volunteers at political meetings, their work in the reception and
\nservice of men honoured by the country for patriotic service, their active
\nparticipation in semi-political, semi-religious Utsavas are all part of such a
\npatriotic discipline. It is this against which the efforts of the bureaucracy
\nare being directed, by the Risley Circular, by the prohibition of the Shivaji
\nUtsava outside the Deccan, by the attack on our Melas and other public occasions
\nwhere such training is possible. For the same reason the active <\/i>participation
\nof College students in political meetings is forbidden. At the age of College
\nstudents ideas may be modified, the intellect may be powerfully influenced by
\nwhat they hear and see, but character can only be influenced and modified by
\naction. And it is of character <\/i>in action that the bureaucracy is afraid,
\nnot so much of mere ideas, mere speeches, mere<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>380<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nwritings.
\nLet the College students attend political meetings and Utsavas \u2014 that by
\nitself will not hurt the bureaucracy; but let them not organise or take part in
\nthem, for that means the character affected, the habit of political action
\nformed, the first elementary beginnings of service to the country commenced.
\nPicketing and active participation in Swadeshi work is of course still more
\nobjectionable from the bureaucratic standpoint. For the same reason, again,
\nCollege Professors are forbidden to influence their students or lead them to
\npolitical meetings: for that brings in the powerful impetus of leading and
\nexample and threatens the bureaucracy with the beginnings of organisation. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n         <\/font>
\nThe
\nRisley Circular, with its sanctimonious professions of anxiety for the best
\ninterests of students and guardians, is in reality a powerful attack on the
\ngrowing spirit of Nationalism at its most vital point. As such we must
\nunderstand it and as such resist it.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> May 28, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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

The Effect of Petitionary Politics<\/a><\/font><\/h2>\n

\n <\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nWe
\nare glad to notice a ring of boldness and sincerity in all the writings of the Indu
\nPrakash <\/i>relating to the deportation of Lajpat Rai. We hope this tone will be
\nan enduring change for the better. Mr. Gokhale’s resort to the Anglo-Indian
\nPress in preference to the Indian, on which its observations are very pertinent,
\nis an example of the very common, almost inevitable effect of petitionary
\npolitics on patriotism. That a prominent leader of the Congress Party should
\nshow such an unreasonable partiality for the Anglo-Indian Press, whose recent
\ncampaign of misrepresentation and vituperation has been unpardonable in the eyes
\nof every self-respecting Indian, is surprising at the first glance. But, in
\nreality, it is the natural demoralizing effect of the association cum <\/i>opposition
\npolitics. The very basis of constitutional agitation is reliance on the
\nforeigner and the habit of appealing to him, which is the reverse side of a
\ndistrust and certain contempt for their own people. That this feeling should be,
\nhowever unconsciously, betrayed by a man of Mr. Gokhale’s position and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-381<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ncharacter,
\nis deplorable but inevitable. It is the logical outcome of that moderation and
\nspirit of dependence which our contemporary has been so long preaching without
\nperceiving, apparently, where its own dogmas led.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> May 29, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-382<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The True Meaning of the Risley Circular                     WE HAVE seen that the effect of Lala Lajpat Rai’s deportation is solely to bring…<\/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-328","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\/328","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=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}