{"id":331,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=331"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:22","slug":"109-the-new-faith-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\/109-the-new-faith-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-109_The New Faith.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe New Faith<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\nT<\/font>HE<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span>political struggle in India is
\nentering on a new phase; and now that the Nationalists have been given a
\nforetaste of its persecuting ability, the bureaucracy is making an awkward
\nattempt to patch up a reconciliation with the Moderate leaders. The olive branch
\nhas been already held out; Lala Lajpat Rai and Sirdar Ajit Singh have been
\nreleased, and vague rumours of other conciliatory measures are in the air. Press
\nprosecutions, deportations and police hooliganism have done their work. It is
\nnow fondly believed that Nationalism is crushed and what remains is but to
\nexchange a complimentary smile with Moderate politicians and swear eternal peace
\nand good will. The bureaucracy has acted its part well; and in fact we expected
\nfrom it no less, no more. But what the country is eagerly waiting to see is,
\nwhether those who profess to guide public opinion will forfeit their leadership
\nand swallow the bait. They may hail with delight the relaxation of stringent
\nmeasures and offer loud assurances of good will but they will have lost the
\nauthority of doing it in the name of the people.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n            The centre of authority has
\nbeen shifted during the recent popular upheaval. The nation has become
\nself-conscious and knows its mission, and individuals, however gifted and
\ninfluential, will not be allowed to pass off their own opinions for those of the
\npeople. The real issue at stake has been revealed. All compromise is now out of
\nthe question, and Freedom’s battle once begun must be carried on to the bitter
\nend. The tortures undergone by the people have been for them an initiation in
\nthe worship of liberty, and if their sufferings have been great, the energy of
\ntheir rising will be equally so. They have now learnt a truth with every tear
\nand every month of their suffering has been for them a preparation for complete
\nredemption. Will they now tolerate men who have no faith in popular strength and
\nwho have never understood the genius of the country to trifle with their sorrows
\nand act as their spokes-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-612<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmen before the alien bureaucracy? These
\nleaders have never had sufficient insight to perceive that it is not strength
\nbut the consciousness of strength that we lacked in the past; and now that the
\nstruggle with opposing forces has evoked the national consciousness, it is too
\nlate to talk of a compromise. Compromise here cannot be from the very nature of
\nthe case, for it is not a question of removing particular grievances and setting
\nthe machinery of government in order, but of changing our political status as a
\nnation. Decentralisation Commissions and Advisory councils can help us no
\nlonger. Even in the midst of the din and bustle of the struggle, the people have
\ncaught a glimpse of the glorious future and they will not be easily accessible
\nto discouragement.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            The bureaucracy will not have
\nto reckon this time with a few self-styled leaders who are only too eager to
\nfall down and worship the idol of the hour, but with a newly-awakened people to
\nwhom the political freedom of the country has been elevated to the height of a
\nreligious faith. The mist that clouded their intellect for ages has at least
\npartially cleared away; and they have begun to feel that if only they will, they
\ncan and therefore ought to make themselves in their own country what other
\nnations are in theirs. The political strife has assumed a religious character,
\nand the question now before the people is whether India \u2014 the India of the holy
\nRishis, the India that gave birth to a Rama, a Krishna and a Buddha, the India
\nof Sivaji and Guru Gobinda \u2014 is destined for ever to lie prostrate at the proud
\nfeet of a conqueror. Are we going to sacrifice our national destiny to the whims
\nand interest of the foreigner or are we again to take ourselves seriously and
\nstruggle for the right to live that we may fulfil in this world our
\nHeaven-appointed mission? It is well to state clearly the real nature of the
\nissue, for no nation has been regenerated by a lie. Those who want liberty must
\nbuy it for themselves, and it is poor statesmanship to try to hide the real
\nnature of the struggle by a falsehood which, after all, deceives nobody and
\nleast of all our alien lords. <\/span>Plain
\nspeaking may be <\/span>unpalatable and persecutions may follow, but persecutions
\nhave never yet killed a religious faith, and a self-conscious India is too
\nmighty a power to be put down by a despot’s rod. Persecutions<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-613<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ndo not crush but only fortify conviction
\nand no power on earth can exterminate the seed of liberty when it has once
\ngerminated in the blood of earnest and sincere men.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            The days of timid dabblers in
\npolitics are over and men who have no faith in enthusiasm and who cannot believe
\nin anything beyond the cold calculations of diplomacy by which they have been a
\nthousand times bought and sold and who cannot believe in the possibility of
\nuniting the people in a single aim and purpose have no more business to loiter
\nin the political field. They have no right to assume the direction of an
\nenterprise they are incapable of grasping or conceiving in its entirety. Those
\nhugely credulous worthies who have still the heart to lend their ears to the
\nsiren voice of a Morley, have never understood the true way to salvation, and
\ndismayed by the greatness of the undertaking, have contented themselves by
\nscoffing at an enthusiasm they extinguished by their timidity and hesitation.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            But every error they have
\ncommitted has served as a stepping-stone to truth. The effect of their
\naccumulated errors has been to dispel the illusion, and new circumstances today
\nhave called forth new men, men untrammelled by old habits and systems, men in
\nwhom the great Idea is incarnate, who have realised that the true secret of
\npower is faith, who know that true virtue is sacrifice and that the true policy
\nis to prove one’s self strong.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            To them belongs the future.
\nThe line of work is to mix with the masses and to organise and reduce to a
\nsystem the ideas and aspirations now scattered and disseminated. They will put
\ntheir trust in the nation and they will make all compromise impossible till the
\nIndian soil is free.<\/font><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i>
\n<\/font>November 30, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-614<\/font><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Faith                   THE political struggle in India is entering on a new phase; and now that the Nationalists have been given a…<\/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-331","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\/331","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=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}