{"id":341,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=341"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:25","slug":"039-an-ineffectual-sedition-clause-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\/039-an-ineffectual-sedition-clause-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-039_An Ineffectual Sedition Clause.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nAn
\nIneffectual Sedition Clause<\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n   <\/font>
\n                
\n<\/span>W<\/font>E<\/font><\/b> <\/font>
\ncommented yesterday on the folly of the Punjab Government in
\nprosecuting the Punjabee
\n<\/i>and
\nthe ridiculous and unenviable position in which the practical collapse of that
\nprosecution has landed them. The absolute lack of courage, insight and
\nstatesmanship in the Indian government has been always a subject of wonder to
\nus. The English are an exceedingly able and practical nation, well versed in the
\nart of keeping down subject races at the least expense and with the greatest
\nadvantage to themselves. It is passing strange to see such a race floundering
\nabout and hopelessly at sea in dealing with the new situation in India. There
\nare three possible policies by which it could be met. We could understand a
\npolicy of Russian repression, making full use of the means of coercion their
\ndespotic laws and practice keep ready to their hand in order to stamp out the
\nfire of nationalism before it had spread. We could understand a policy of firm
\nrepression of disorder and maintenance of British supremacy, coupled with full
\nand generous concessions in the sphere of local and municipal self-government.
\nWe could understand a frank association of the people in the government with
\nprovincial Home Rule as its eventual goal. The first policy would be strong and
\ncourageous but unwise; for, its only effect on a nation which has a past and
\nremembers it would be to expedite the advent of its future. The second, if
\nimmediately undertaken, might be temporarily effective but could not for long
\nsatisfy national aspirations. The third is a counsel of perfection to which,
\nfortunately for India’s future greatness, Mr. Blair will hardly get his
\ncountrymen to listen. Nevertheless, any of these three would be a rational and
\nsensible
\npolicy; but the present attitude of the Government is neither. It is an
\nimpossible mixture of timid and flabby coercion with insincere, grudging and
\ndilatory conciliation. The Government looses a Fuller on the people and then at
\nthe first check withdraws him. It promises a reform and then hesitates and
\nrepents and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-269<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

cannot make
\nup its mind to give it either promptly or frankly. It has stored up any number
\nof legal brahm\u00e4<\/font>stras<\/i> and n\u00e4<\/font>gapāśas<\/i> to bind down and destroy
\nopposition, but it has not the courage to use them. It would like to crush the
\npeople, but it dare not; it feels it necessary to make concessions, but it will
\nnot. This is the way Empires are lost. The only instance of a coherent policy is
\nin East Bengal where the bureaucracy has envisaged the situation as an unarmed
\nrebellion and is treating it on the military principle of isolating the
\ninsurgent forces and crushing them with the help of local allies before the
\nopposition can become organised and universal. It is an acute and skilful policy
\nbut it needs for its success two conditions — <\/span>
\nweakness, vacillation
\nand cowardice on the part of the Calcutta leaders, and want of tenacity in the
\nstrong men of East Bengal. But the situation in East Bengal is only a local
\nsymptom. In dealing with the general disease, the Government policy is mere
\nconfusion.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

       
\n<\/span>
\nWe may take its treatment of sedition as an instance. The clause
\ndealing with sedition in the Penal Code is a monument of legal ferocity, but at
\npresent, of futile ferocity. The offence is that of exciting contempt and hatred
\nagainst the Government. The Government means the bureaucracy collectively and
\nindividually. Anything therefore in the nature of plain statement and strong
\ncomment on any foolish or arbitrary conduct on the part of an official or on any
\nunwise or oppressive policy on the part of the Government, Viceregal or
\nProvincial, or on any absurd or odious feature in the bureaucratic system, or
\nany attempt to prove that the present administration is responsible for distress
\nand suffering in India or that bureaucratic rule is doing material
\nand moral injury to the people and the country, falls within the scope of this
\ninsane provision. For, such statements, comments and attempts must inevitably
\nprovoke contempt and "want of affection" in the people; and the writer
\ncannot help knowing that they will have that effect. Yet these are things that
\nfall within the natural duty of the journalist in every country which is not
\nstill in the Dark Ages.
\n        The alternative punishments — the minor, running to two years’ rigorous
\nimprisonment, the major, to the utmost penalty short of the gallows, — are of a
\nRussian ferocity. Yet this terrible<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Page-270<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

sword is hung
\nin vain over the head of the Indian journalists; for, mere imprisonment has no
\nlonger any terrors for Indian patriotism and really crushing penalties can only
\nbe imposed at the risk of driving the people to secret conspiracy and nihilistic
\nforms of protest. The lower grades of the executive and judiciary are not
\naffected by scruples, for they are neither called upon to consider ultimate
\nconsequences or exposed to external censure; but the higher one rises in the
\nofficial scale, the greater is the deterrent effect of the fear of consequences
\nand the fear of the world’s censure. This is the reason why ferocious sentences
\nlike that on the Punjabee<\/i> are minimised in successive appeals — a phenomenon an Anglo-Indian contemporary notices with great disgust. The clauses
\n124A and 153A are therefore weapons which the Government cannot effectually utilise and to employ them ineffectually is worse than useless. If the
\njournalist is acquitted, it is a popular victory; if lightly sentenced, public
\nfeeling is irritated, not intimidated; if rigorously dealt with, a great
\nimpulse is given to the tide of nationalism which will sweep onward till this
\nplace of civilised savagery ceases to pollute the statute-books of a revolutionised and modernised administration.
\n<\/span><\/font>
\n
\n<\/span>
\nThe
\n"Englishman" as a Statesman<\/font><\/a><\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>The Englishman<\/i> has a confused and wordy article in yesterday’s issue which it considers
\nespecially fit "for such a time as this"; but the meaning is a little
\ndifficult to disentangle. Our contemporary has a dim perception that there is
\na "crisis" in the country, the nature of which it is unable to
\ndetermine; but it is a very
\nterrible sort of crisis, anyway, — a monster horrible, shapeless and huge.
\n"When it matures, influences may be shot forth into the country, and
\npossibly also in Asia, if not also back into Europe through Russia, whose final
\nissues no man can foresee." It acknowledges that there "are some
\nhopes" in the hearts of the people "which it would be fatuous to mock,
\nmadness to ignore."
\nSo far as we can make out, the Englishman<\/i> has discovered a very original
\nway of respecting and recognising<\/font>
\n<\/span> these hopes. It
\nproposes to satisfy them by
\nappointing a large number of non-<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Page-271<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

official
\nEuropeans in Mr. Morley’s new Legislative Council along with the Nawab of Dacca
\nand any other equally rare specimens bureaucratic research can discover among
\nthe "manlier races of the North who, if they grew turbulent, might prove
\nmore troublesome than populations of another class from further South, who,
\nif more effeminate, are also more contented". The .meaning of this
\nextraordinarily slip-shod rigmarole is that the Englishman<\/i> has been
\nfrightened by the disturbances in Lahore which followed on the final
\nconviction of the Punjabee<\/i> and is also a little uneasy at the prospect of
\nunwelcome changes in the Legislative Councils. Hence its unusual and
\nunsuccessful attempt to overcome its customary "fatuity" and
\n"madness". For our part, we prefer the Englishman<\/i> fatuous and
\nmad to the Englishman<\/i> trying in vain to be sensible. In its natural
\nstate, it is at least intelligible.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Bande
\nMataram<\/i>, <\/i>April 19, 1907<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-272<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Ineffectual Sedition Clause                        WE commented yesterday on the folly of the Punjab Government in prosecuting the Punjabee and the ridiculous and…<\/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-341","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\/341","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=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}