{"id":358,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=358"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:31","slug":"142-exclusion-or-unity-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\/142-exclusion-or-unity-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-142_Exclusion or Unity.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nExclusion or Unity?<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>WE
\nDEALT<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\nyesterday with the question <\/font> <\/span>of the function
\nof the Congress, whether it should be merely to focus public opinion and proceed
\nno farther or to gather up the life of the nation and deploy its strength in a
\nstruggle for national self-assertion.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>When this question is decided, the next which arises is that of the aim
\ntowards which the Congress is to work. If its function is merely to focus public
\nopinion, its aim can only be to submit grievances to the Government for redress,
\nto beg for privileges and to petition for favours. It will then admit the
\nabsolute authority of the bureaucracy and fulfil the purpose of collective
\npetitioning instead of leaving each individual class or community to approach
\nthe omnipotent seat of power by itself. The absolute rule of the Moghuls
\nadmitted this right of petition; it recognised no status in the applicant; it
\noffered no promise of justice, but decided according to the will of the
\nsovereign. The position of the Congress in that case is no better than that of
\nthe suitor at the justice seat of Akbar or Aurangzebe. To ask without strength,
\nto aspire without effort, to submit if refused by the sovereign power, will be
\nthe limit of its duties. The negation of national life which this attitude
\nimplies, is too reactionary to have a chance of acceptance. If the few who cling
\nto these mediaeval notions, desire to keep the Congress to a role so beggarly,
\nthey must, when they enter the Congress Pandal, leave the nation outside. For a
\ntime by raising party cries and confusing issues they may get the bulk of the
\nModerate Party to follow them, but the moment they show their hand, there will
\nbe a second split and they will be left alone with a handful of well-to-do men
\non the Congress platform.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The function of the Congress must obviously be to gather the life of the
\nnation together for the purpose of national self-assertion. The question which
\ndivides us is as to the nature and extent of that self-assertion. Whether we are
\nto carry the self-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-780<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nassertion
\nto its logical conclusion or to stop halfway, whether we are to separate
\nourselves from association with the Government or combine association with
\nopposition, whether we are to use boycott as a local protest against a local
\ngrievance or a grand universal means of establishing a State within the State,
\nthese are the points at issue between the Moderate Party and the Nationalists.
\nThe Nationalists desire Swaraj, the Moderates desire Colonial Self-government.
\nThe Nationalists wish to exclude all petitionary resolutions, all, that is to
\nsay, which depend on the will of the bureaucracy for their execution and not on
\nour own exertions; they would keep the deliberative side of the Congress for
\nascertaining the sense of the nation as to the work which should be done and the
\nprinciples which should govern it, and would add a working or executive side to
\nreview the work already done, settle the future programme and supervise its
\nexecution. The Moderates wish to keep the petitionary side of the Congress as
\nits chief function, but to admit a certain amount of
\nself-help
\nas a subordinate feature. Finally, the Nationalists pro<\/span>claim
\nthe boycott as a movement of secession by which the nation can gradually
\nwithdraw itself from association with a control in which it has no voice or
\nshare and assert its own and separate life; the Moderates will not have a
\nboycott movement <\/i>at any price and are prepared only to admit a commercial
\nboycott as temporary local action to bring about the redress of local
\ngrievances. The minor questions which divide the parties have no importance by
\nthemselves and would not give any trouble if there were no acute feeling
\nengendered by these important differences of opinion or principle.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The importance of these differences cannot be denied and ought not to be
\nbelittled. We cannot agree with those who try to smooth over difficulties by
\nsaying that they do not exist or that there are no parties. This evasion of
\ngreat political issues,
\nthis attempt to slink<\/span>
\n<\/span>away
\n<\/span>from
\ndisagreeable facts and <\/span>shirk the inevitable
\nis likely to discourage the growth of a robust political sense in the people.
\nPeople with a sound political instinct always take care to recognise and give
\ntheir proper importance to great issues. They welcome keen discussion and even
\ncontention and eager struggle over them, but they do not allow<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-781<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthese
\ndifferences to override the sense of national unity or the struggle of parties
\nto degenerate into a war of factions. This is the only sound way to deal with
\nthe difficulty, not by the principle of exclusion, not by breaking apart into
\nsectional bodies and destroying the chance of a regular progression towards a
\nsingle coherent and self-conscious political life, but by the principle of
\ninclusion, by admitting differences of opinion, regulating procedure and
\naccepting the result. The Nationalists are not in favour of Colonial
\nSelf-government as an ultimate ideal, but they accepted the resolution on
\nSelf-government as an expression of the immediate aim of the Congress at
\nCalcutta, because they knew that the bulk of the nation was not yet prepared to
\naccept Swaraj as an immediate purpose. They are in favour of boycott as an
\nuniversal movement throughout India, but they accepted its restriction to Bengal
\nbecause other provinces were not yet ready to declare in favour of boycott. They
\nare always ready in principle to accept the decision of the Congress for the
\ntime being, reserving the right to get that decision altered in the future. The
\nseverity of the struggle at Surat was due to the attempt to use a local majority
\nin order to effect a revolution in the Congress constitution, which would turn
\nit into a Moderate Congress and exclude the Nationalist element altogether. They
\ntook strong exception to any use of this local majority for altering the mutual
\ncomposition arrived at by common consent at Calcutta, and decided to record
\ntheir protest by opposing on all contested points beginning from the election of
\nthe President, but they had no intention of seceding even if the Calcutta
\nresolutions were dropped or modified; they would simply have strained every
\nnerve to get the wrong redressed at the next session. This attitude which was
\nclear from the speech and action of the Nationalist leaders throughout, has been
\nobscured by the cry raised against them of wrecking the Congress and the
\nfalsehoods which not only attributed the whole blame of the second day’s
\ndisturbance to them but represented it as preconceived by them and deliberately
\nplanned. The Nationalist Party recognises only one sufficient ground for
\nsecession, a resolution, constitution or procedure expressly or practically
\nexcluding them from the pale of the Congress. Temporary withdrawal as a protest
\nnot against<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-782<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nnature of the resolutions passed but against unconstitutional procedure, stands
\non a different footing and has been often practised, by the Punjab, for
\ninstance, when it abstained for several years from the Congress because of the
\narbitrary refusal to allow the question of the constitution to be dealt with or
\nproperly raised.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>This we hold to be the only possible attitude if an organised political
\nunity is to be achieved. Full right of discussion, free use of every legitimate
\nmeans of protest, but not secession on account of opinions. The Moderate Party
\noutside Bengal is, at present, keen for separation. It holds the view, loudly
\npreached by the Bombay papers, that if certain resolutions are passed, if a
\ncertain colour is given to the proceedings of the body or to agitation carried
\non by any section of its members in the country, they are not only entitled but
\nbound to withdraw if they are in the minority or to expel the Nationalists if
\nthey are in the majority. They seem to base this view on two grounds, first,
\nthat they cannot allow opinions not their own to be expressed in Congress
\nresolutions, secondly, that such opinions or poitical association with those who
\nhold them, will discredit Congress in the eyes of the Government. The first
\npresupposes either a claim to hold the Congress as their personal property or an
\nintolerance which is consistent with the essential conditions of a
\nself-governing body; the second, either a dependence on bureaucratic in place of
\npublic opinion which is also incompatible with the spirit of self-government or
\nan implied right of control by bureaucratic influence which no patriot will
\nadmit. We assert the right of the Congress to determine its own aims, functions,
\naspirations, constitution; we do not admit the right of any party sitting in
\nconvention to determine them for the Congress. If the Moderates desire to have
\nthe creed of the Congress fixed, they must get it done by the Congress, which is
\nalone competent to decide the question, they must not couple it with a proviso
\nof exclusion against those who cannot subscribe to every article of the creed.
\nThe ideal of the Congress may be complete Self-government or it may be partial,
\nits methods may be petitionary or they may be self-assertive. That is a question
\nnot of constitution but of the balance of opinion. The only constitutional
\nquestion to be de-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-783<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ncided
\nin connection with the determination of the aim or ideal is whether those who
\npitch their ideal either higher or lower than the precise key settled at a
\nparticular session are to be excluded in future or admitted, whether the
\nCongress is to be a stationary and sectional body or comprehensiveness is to be
\naimed at and progress and movement to be allowed.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nBiparita
\nBuddhi<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\nThe
\ninfatuation which drives men to destroy themselves seems to have taken full
\npossession of the bureaucrats in this country. So long as they touched only the
\npolitical or commercial interests of their subjects, the Lord of karma <\/i>might
\ndelay his avenging hand; but the bounds are exceeded when the hand of power is
\nturned against philanthropy and religion. The news published in our yesterday’s
\nissue that the bureaucratic police are interfering with the famine work of Lala
\nLajpat Rai and intimidating his agents, is a sign that the cup is growing full
\nand will soon brim over. It is when the soul of India is attacked that Nemesis
\nfeels the call and turns her eyes on the transgressor. Power may do its worst
\nagainst power but when it becomes the enemy of the saint, the helpless, the
\ninnocent, it is then that God is bound to interfere. The Lala’s work of famine
\nrelief is a saintly work, spontaneous, unforced, not called for as a duty of
\nposition or power, taking its root in love and disinterested service, it is a
\nwork of tapasyā<\/font> <\/i>which generates brahmatejas <\/i>in the doers, and
\nwhen obstructed, the fire will turn upon the assailant and consume him. The
\njealousy and fears of the bureaucracy are hurrying them into all the excesses
\nthat prepare a disastrous recoil and bring about the fall of the proud and the
\ndestruction of the mighty.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> March 24, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font>784<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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