{"id":334,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=334"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:23","slug":"158-conventionalist-and-nastionalist-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\/158-conventionalist-and-nastionalist-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-158_Conventionalist and Nastionalist.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nConventionalist and Nationalist<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/font>
\n                        I<\/font>F WE<\/font><\/b>
\nlook to the pros and cons of the controversy between Conventionalists and
\nNationalists, we shall be placed in a better position to understand the real aim
\nof the Moderates in putting the barrier of a creed between themselves and the
\npeople. In the first place, a part of the quarrel is over ultimate ideals: the
\nConventionalists are for the declaration of Colonial Self-Government as the goal
\nof our efforts, the Nationalists for Swaraj without any qualification. Whatever
\nthe rights of the controversy, the ideal of the Conventionalists has been
\naccepted in the form of a resolution by the Congress, and as a resolution but
\nnot a binding creed it has been submitted to by the Nationalists because it was
\nthe will of the majority. A creed is a matter of belief and conscience, a
\nresolution a matter of policy; \u2014<\/font> and while no conscientious man will accept a creed
\nwhich he does not believe, he can always submit as a good citizen to the will of
\nthe majority in matters of temporary policy. We are not concerned at present
\nwith the question whether such submission is imperative in all cases. It is
\nsufficient that the Nationalists while preserving the liberty of every free mind
\nto propagate their own doctrines and get them enforced wherever possible, have
\nsubmitted to the Colonial Self-Government resolution as a part of the compromise
\nunanimously arrived at in Calcutta. What need was there then of foisting a creed
\non the Congress? The object of the creed is to exclude the Nationalists, but the
\nexclusion of the Nationalists is itself motived by an ulterior object. It is
\nurged on behalf of the Moderates that it is impossible for them to work with the
\nNationalists because they are too violent and unruly to be members of an orderly
\nassembly, but this is a plea too flimsy to bear scrutiny. If the Nationalists
\nare sometimes unruly, it is because they are forced to urge their opinions on
\nthe Congress when they are deliberately ignored and throttled by the misuse of
\nofficial authority to secure party ends. If the Nationalists are unruly, the
\nModerates are autocratic, and it is the auto-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-864<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i>\n<\/div>\n

\ncratic misuse of power which creates the unruliness. Nor is unruliness in a
\nparty any good reason for breaking up a great National Assembly and excluding a
\npowerful force from what professes to be the centre of national growth and
\nstrength. It is evident that a far more powerful motive is behind the policy of
\nthe Conventionalists, and that motive is fear and self-interest. Some are frank
\nenough to confess it, but to put a plausible colour of patriotism on their
\ndeeper motives is to pretend that the Congress will be throttled or that by
\nassociation with men of violent views and actions their work for posterity is
\nhampered and spoiled. In other words; so long as they do not obey the orders of
\nthe Englishman<\/i>, <\/i>the Madras Mail <\/i>and the Times of India<\/i>, <\/i>and
\ndissociate themselves from the new movement and Nationalism, they will not enjoy
\nthe confidence of the bureaucracy or be allowed to approach them with
\nstatesmanlike petitions and co-operate with them in the work of prolonging the
\nsubjection of their countrymen to foreign absolutism. This loss of position and
\nprestige with the bureaucracy is the ruling motive with the Bombay Moderates,
\nthe fear of being involved in the persecution to which the Nationalists
\nwillingly expose themselves, is the dominant thought among the respectabilities
\nof Bengal. Another powerful incentive to the hope of getting rid of the
\nNationalist opposition to their monopoly of influence and control in the country
\nitself when the Nationalists are isolated for the fury of the bureaucracy to
\nwreak on them its vengeance for the awakening of India. "The Nationalists are
\nusing us as a shield,’" the cry goes, "and we refused to be used, in that unheroic capacity." Whether the Nationalists have or have not the courage to
\nface the full fury of bureaucratic persecution and the strength to survive it is
\na question which will probably be decided before another year is out. The
\nModerates, at any rate, imagine that they cannot and rejoice over the pleasant
\nexpectation of seeing this over-energetic and inconveniently independent party
\nbeing crushed out of existence by the common adversary of all. It is the spirit
\nof Mir Jafar, the politics of Jagat Sheth repeating themselves in their
\nspiritual descendants.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            That these ignoble, but perfectly human and intelligible motives are
\nbehind the Conventionalist separatism is further<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-865<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i>\n<\/div>\n

\nevidenced by the attempt to whittle away the resolution on National Education by
\nthe removal of the expression on National lines and National control in order to
\nmake it a colourless approval of a mere academic departure. Mr. Gokhale placed
\nhis justification in his ardent passion for elegant English, but the resolutions
\nof the Congress are not such literary masterpieces that this particular one
\nshould have evoked the dead and gone schoolmaster in Mr. Gokhale’s breast. It
\nis clear that the desire of the former was to get rid of the idea of Nationality
\nfrom the resolution, because the aspiration towards Nationality is offensive to
\nthe bureaucracy and to avoid offence to the bureaucracy is, according to
\nModerate politics, the first condition of political activity in India. The
\nchange of a word for the sake of literary elegance was not surely so essential
\nthat the Moderates had to prefer breaking the Congress to breaking the rules of
\nEnglish rhetoric. The opposition to the Boycott resolution as originally framed
\nhas no root except in fear. No Indian in his heart of hearts can fail to sympathise with the boycott and even when he has not the patriotism or the
\nselflessness to practise it himself; for boycott is the first expression of our
\nnational individuality, the first condition for the success of Swadeshi and the
\nstanding evidence of National revival. But the boycott is as a red rag to John
\nBull and the Moderate therefore is anxious to throw away the red rag or at least
\nput it in his pocket so long as he is in the same field with the bull. "Wore
\nhorns" is the whole significance of the opposition to boycott, whatever
\neconomical or political excuses may be put forward by way of apology. The
\nseparatist policy is a policy of fear, selfishness and spite.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            Is it possible for a policy of this kind to be a force in the
\ncountry or for a party actuated by such motives to keep the people in its hands?<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            Strength against weakness, life against death, aspiration against
\nself-distrust, self-immolation against self-preservation, \u2014 this is the real
\nissue between Conventionalist and Nationalist, and it cannot be doubted which
\nwill survive.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i>
\n<\/font>
\nApril 18, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-866<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conventionalist and Nationalist                             IF WE look to the pros and cons of the controversy between Conventionalists and Nationalists, we shall be placed…<\/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-334","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\/334","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=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}