{"id":354,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=354"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:30","slug":"089-barbarities-at-rawalpindi-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\/089-barbarities-at-rawalpindi-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-089_Barbarities at Rawalpindi.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nBarbarities at Rawalpindi<\/font><\/b><\/P>
\n

 <\/P>
\n


\n
\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/SPAN>T<\/font><\/B>HE<\/b> process of
\nterrorism that is going on at Rawalpindi
\nin the name of administering justice is too open and transparent to
\nrequire any unravelling. Of course, every one who takes politics seriously
\nthought that the British law and administration would at once reveal their true
\nnature if the people were to enter on a real struggle for self-improvement and
\nthe repression that is being resorted to in the Punjab under the pretext of
\ntrial has caused no surprise to those with whom the work for the nation’s future
\nis a duty demanding enormous self-sacrifice. But the series of episodes
\nconnected with the Rawalpindi trial
\nin which humanity has been outraged and decency defied should nevertheless be
\ntaken to heart by the people. They demand an adequate response of stern and
\nresolute work as an atonement and recompense for the sufferings of these
\nmartyrs. No patriot would shrink even from the agonies to which the accused are
\nbeing subjected during the course of their trial at
\nRawalpindi if he could at least
\nfaintly hope from the attitude of his countrymen that they would carry on the
\npatriotic work undaunted and with a greater amount of determination and energy.
\nThe man of faith no doubt is never depressed. His faith is always his stay and
\nsupport. But the martyrdom becomes easier if there is the prospect of some
\nimmediate benefit to the country resulting from his sufferings.<\/font><\/P>
\n

           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/SPAN>From the very beginning of the
\nRawalpindi trial, the bureaucratic
\nlaw seems to have been whetted against the alleged offenders. The refusal of
\nbail to the accused amongst whom there are men of unquestioned respectability
\nand integrity testifies to the petty vindictiveness of the judiciary which
\nostensibly exists to diminish crimes and not to exasperate people into their
\nperpetration. The ill-treatment of the accused can without the least
\nexaggeration be characterised as wanton cruelty. The accused after their
\nexperience of the British law courts will find it difficult to distinguish a
\njudge from a mediaeval executioner. The Judge<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-508<\/font><\/P>
\n

<\/p>\n

\ncould not be moved to the most elementary
\nfeeling of humanity when the accused were overwhelmed by the most painful
\ndomestic calamities. One man was not allowed to see his dying son till he
\nactually expired and was past all help or need of help. This ferocity on the
\npart of a tribunal, whose special study should be to abstain from writing the
\nleast punishment on a man till his guilt has been fairly established is a
\nviolation of the first principle of justice and turns a court of law into a
\ntorture chamber. A judge should not lack firmness in repressing crime but to
\npursue an alleged offender with implacable wrath from the moment of his arrest
\nis an exhibition of vindictiveness and not of due judicial austerity. The trial
\nhas now extended over nearly two months and the sickening details of inhumanity
\npractised upon the accused continue to be as distressing as ever.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n             Lala Hansraj and two or three others
\nof his position have been detained in the prison without any justification. They
\nare not the men who can even think of shirking the consequences of their
\npatriotic actions under an alien rule. But why anti-date their punishment from
\nthe very time of their arrest. They are not men accustomed to privations and
\nthey have all been showing signs of failing health during this pretty long
\nperiod of police custody. They have already served out a term of punishment
\ndisproportionate to the nature of their alleged offence. It is a brand new
\nfeature of British Justice to go on with the trial of men stretched on their
\nsick-bed in the court room. Our latest telegram<\/font> <\/font>
\nfrom Rawalpindi says that on the 16th Lala
\nHansraj was shaking with fever and ague on a string cot borrowed from a
\nconstable. The internal pain was so intense that tears ran down his cheeks
\nthough he tried to be firm and cheerful and pretended that something had
\nfallen into his eyes.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n    We need not multiply the details of
\nthe prisoner’s sufferings. We have already sampled the treatment which the Pindi
\nmartyrs are receiving at the hands of the judiciary. We expect no mitigation of
\ntheir sufferings. The alleged offence of rousing people to a spirit of active
\nresistance perhaps justifies these barbarities in the eyes of the ruling class.
\nThey are innocent of all compunction and are calmly watching the effect on the
\npeople. The Englishman <\/i> once opined that even the suspected offence of
\n<\/font> incit-<\/p>\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-509<\/font><\/P><\/p>\n

\n


\ning to a riot excuses the most monstrous treatment of
\nthe offenders. But we believe their lesson will not be lost on our own
\ncountrymen. The heavy price that these men are paying for inducing the spirit of
\nself-assertion in us should nerve others to greater and greater sacrifices in
\nthe service of the Motherland.<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe High Court Miracles<\/font><\/a><\/B><\/P>
\n


\n <\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe situation in
\nBengal is one of
\na very peculiar kind and of extraordinary interest. There is a deep and
\nwidespread unrest in the country; a movement has commenced which the bureaucracy
\nholds to be fraught with serious danger certainly to the British monopoly of
\ncommercial exploitation, possibly to the supremacy of British officialdom. In
\norder to save these threatened citadels the bureaucrats in the
\nPunjab and Eastern Bengal have
\nembarked on a policy of thoroughgoing repression in which the practically
\nunlimited and arbitrary power of an autocratic executive is backed up and
\nconfirmed by a zealous judiciary. The union of these two forces is essential to
\nthe success of the bureaucratic plan of campaign; for the strength of the
\nbureaucratic position lies in the fact that all the powers of legislation and
\nadministration are centred unreservedly and without limitation in its hands. It
\ncontrols the men by whom the law and the executive administration are carried
\nout, for it not only exercises all the patronage of both services, but wields
\nimmense disciplinary powers. It can appoint and favour such men as are likely to
\ndo its will and it can punish with substantial marks of its displeasure those
\nwho disregard its interests or do not act according to its expectations. In an
\nhour of crisis like the present when there is a powerful movement undisguisedly
\ndirected against the continued supremacy of the present ruling community in all
\nits aspects, this concentration of all powers against the insurgence of the
\nsubject peoples is of the most vital importance. The executive must have a free
\nhand to deal with the opposition of the demos without being hampered by
\ninconvenient and trammelling considerations of legal procedure and the narrow
\nlimits of legality. But in a fight with an acute and intelligent people, a<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-510<\/font><\/P>
\n

<\/p>\n


\nnation of born lawyers, this is only possible on
\ncondition that the judiciary are willing to support and confirm the actions of
\nthe executive unhesitatingly and without a qualm. These conditions have been
\nsecured in East Bengal and still more completely in the
\nPunjab. But there is one weak point, the Achilles’ heel
\nin the otherwise invulnerable constitution of the bureaucracy, and that is
\n<\/I>the High Court of Bengal. The oldest and most venerable institution of
\nBritish rule with the most honourable traditions of integrity and independence
\nmaintained by a series of judges learned in the law, trained to the love of
\njustice and equity and a calm judicial habit of mind, the High Court had become
\na thing cherished and valued, a refuge to the oppressed, a guarantee of eventual
\nrelief against executive vagaries. It had therefore attracted an almost
\nsuperstitious reference and was the chief moral asset of British rule. But the
\ninevitable tendency of bureaucratic rule when threatened by the increasing
\nself-assertion of the people, began eventually to affect the High Court. It is
\ntrue that the High Court is independent of the executive authorities, but it is
\nunder the control of the Chief Justice, and by the simple device of securing a
\nChief Justice of weak personality and multiplying civilian judges of the right
\nkind the institution can easily be converted into a source of strength to the
\nbureaucracy instead of a source of weakness. Since the beginning of the
\nreactionary policy which followed the Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, this has been
\nthe increasing tendency of the High Court and the trust and reverence of the
\npeople has decreased proportionately, and the hold of British rule on their
\nimaginations has decreased with it. We have always held that British justice as
\nbetween Indians and Europeans or in cases in which the bureaucracy was judge,
\njury and accuser, must obviously and inevitably be a farce unless and until
\nhuman nature ceases to have any resemblance to its present self. Neither had we
\nany of that enthusiastic admiration for British Jaw and its administration which
\nwas not so very long ago the fashion among Indians of the educated class. On the
\ncontrary we were compelled to regard its procedure as costly, dilatory and often
\ncalculated to defeat justice, its penal system repressive and its punishments
\nsavage and barbarous with the cold civilised brutality of a half-baked
\nincomplete civilisation. Our respect for the High Court<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-511<\/font><\/P>
\n

<\/p>\n


\nwas tempered by a perception of the ease with which it
\ncould be captured by the bureaucracy for its own ends. We have therefore always
\ndecried the old moribund belief in the excellence of the British courts and the
\ntendency to run to them for protection in all cases of oppression and injustice.
\nHave the recent transactions in the High Court proved us wrong? They have
\ncertainly proved that there are still Judges Indian and English who can rise
\nabove the depressing atmosphere and lowered traditions of this once venerated
\ninstitution and equal the distinguished record of these strong fearless Judges
\nwho have now become a memory, almost a legend of the past. There has been
\nnothing like the series of important decisions given in a few days by Justices
\nMitter and Fletcher since the 7 Bishops were acquitted. The bold opposition of
\nthe sense of justice and respect for law to the interests of an irritated and
\ndetermined government in a time of great political unrest and disturbance, is an
\nepisode which history will love to record. But is it more than an episode? We
\napprehend it is the last flaring up of the old fire previous to extinction. The
\nexecutive will surely take care not to repeat the error by which a fearless,
\njust and religious Hindu lawyer has been placed on the Criminal Bench side by
\nside with a young barrister Judge fresh from
\nEngland and
\nstill full of the uncorrupted moral temper natural in a free country. The
\nbureaucracy has blundered in its management of the High Court, but the power to
\nutilise it is still on its hands and will no doubt be better handled in the near
\nfuture than in the past. Let us not be unduly elated by the victory in the High
\nCourt; great as it has been its causes are transient and its tenure
\ninsecure.<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nJustice Mitter and Swaraj<\/font><\/a><\/B><\/P>
\n


\n <\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/B><\/P>
\n


\nJustice Mitter’s conduct in connection with the cases
\nwhich were more or less of a political nature, has been a surprise to many of
\nhis own countrymen. He has risen high above the servile impulses which our
\neducation, surroundings and life raise in us, and is giving his country the full
\nbenefit of the advantageous position he holds under an alien bureaucracy. His
\nnative indepen-<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-512<\/font><\/P>
\n

<\/p>\n


\ndence and uncommon intellectuality seem to have been
\nspecially invigorated by the spiritual re-awakening of which the whole country
\nis giving some indication, and in all the cases he has lately tried he has done
\nhis utmost to annihilate the vast distance between absolute and bureaucratic
\njustice. He has shewn the service-holding section of his countrymen an example
\nwhich they will do well to imitate in the interests of their country and
\nhumanity. The moral of his conduct is that our duty as men and Indians should
\nalways get the precedence of our duty as servants. If we be true to ourselves,
\nwe cannot be false to anyone. Self-reverence cannot fail to extort respect even
\nfrom our enemies. But this is by the way.<\/font><\/P>
\n

           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/SPAN>Justice Mitter’s explanation of Swaraj is now the subject of talk amongst
\nthe thinking portion of our people. It has almost thrown into comparative
\noblivion his luminous and unexceptionable judgment in the now famous Comilla
\nCase. And we propose to offer our opinion on his interpretation of Swaraj. His
\nexplanation of Swaraj as Home Rule under British control no doubt echoes the
\nsentiment of Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji who is considered the prophet of this new
\nmessage. But Saroda Charan is not only a Justice but a scholar too. Without
\nseeking to justify the ideal of Swaraj under the somewhat narrow meaning which
\nMr. Naoroji has given to it, Justice Mitter might have taken an excursion into
\nour Vedic literature, traced the word to its very source, and pointed out that
\nit represents an ideal which, having regard to its inspired scriptural origin
\nand high moral and spiritual significance can never lack the sanction of law and
\njustice, if law and justice are of divine origin and concern themselves with
\npromoting the real welfare of mankind. The Vedas say that if we pursue real
\nhappiness we must seek the great, the universal. Our aspiration can be satisfied
\nwith nothing short of the Omnipresent. In littleness there is no bliss. So we
\nmust not run after petty ideals. The Universal alone should be the one object of
\nour knowledge and pursuit. Then the Vedas explain the nature of the Universal.
\nIt is independent, self-protecting, and stands by its greatness, and in its
\ngreatness \u2014 stands sva-mahimni<\/I>, <\/I>as we have it in the text. This
\nsva-mahimni <\/I>is synonymous with Swaraj as everyone who understands
\nSanskrit can very well see. Accord-<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-513<\/font><\/P>
\n

<\/p>\n


\ning to the Vedanta which is only the philosophical
\nexposition of the Vedas, every individual self is nothing but divinity itself
\nand should stand by and in its own greatness. To be impressed with the dignity
\nof one’s own self, to realise its identity with the Universal is the goal of our
\naspiration, the end of our being. If this is the object of an individual life,
\nthe nation also should set its heart on the same ideal. The nation also should
\ntry to know itself, to work out its potentialities, to realise its mightiness
\nand identity with the Universal. Such an ideal does not at all brook the notion
\nof dependence. The very radical meaning of the term Swaraj excludes it. Swaraj emphasises the idea of self-sufficiency and insists on it. It mitigates against
\nthe idea of there being any limit to our expansion. We must be full, we must be
\nperfect, we are the divinity in embryo and when fully developed we shall be
\ncoextensive with God Himself. This is what Swaraj unmistakably means. It at once
\nembodies the ideals of independence, unity, liberty. It can never compromise
\nitself with anything having a limit. It is the ideal of infinite possibility and
\nJustice Mitter has not fully used the opportunity to point out to his countrymen
\nthe ideal which alone should engage their attention if they really mean
\nself-improvement as a nation. But what he has done is so much, in his position,
\nthat the admiration and respect of the whole country for his fearless sense of
\nJustice is no more than his right.<\/font><\/P>
\n


\nBande Mataram<\/I>,
\n<\/I> <\/font> August, 19-20, 1907<\/font><\/P>
\n


\n <\/P>
\n


\nPage-514<\/font><\/P>\n\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbarities at Rawalpindi                           THE process of terrorism that is going on at Rawalpindi in the name of administering justice is too open 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-354","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\/354","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=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}