{"id":364,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=364"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:33","slug":"069-the-strength-of-the-idea-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\/069-the-strength-of-the-idea-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-069_The Strength of the Idea.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe Strength of the Idea<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n             
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>THE <\/font><\/b>mistake which despots, benevolent or
\nmalevolent, have been making ever since organised states came into existence and
\nwhich, it seems, they will go on making to the end of the chapter, is that they
\noverestimate their coercive power, which is physical and material and therefore
\npalpable, and underestimate the power and vitality of ideas and sentiments. A
\nfeeling or a thought, Nationalism, Democracy, the aspiration towards liberty,
\ncannot be estimated in the terms of concrete power, in so many fighting men, so
\nmany armed police, so many guns, so many prisons, such and such laws, ukases,
\nand executive powers. But such feelings and thoughts are more powerful than
\nfighting men and guns and prisons and laws and ukases. Their beginnings are
\nfeeble, their end is mighty. But of despotic repression the beginnings are
\nmighty, the end is feeble. Thought is always greater than armies, more lasting
\nthan the most powerful and best-organised despotisms. It was a thought that
\noverthrew the despotism of centuries in France and revolutionised Europe. It was
\na mere sentiment against which the irresistible might of the Spanish armies
\nand the organised cruelty of Spanish repression were shattered in the
\nNetherlands, which brought to nought the administrative genius, the military
\npower, the stubborn will of Aurangzebe, which loosened the iron grip of Austria
\non Italy. In all such instances the physical power and organisation behind the
\ninsurgent idea are ridiculously small, the repressive force so overwhelmingly,
\nimpossibly strong that all reasonable, prudent, moderate minds see the utter
\nfolly of resistance and stigmatise the attempt of the idea to rise as an act of
\nalmost criminal insanity. But the man with the idea is not reasonable, not
\nprudent, not moderate. He is an extremist, a fanatic. He knows that his idea is
\nbound to conquer, he knows that the man possessed with it is more formidable,
\neven with his naked hands, than the prison and the gibbet, the armed men and the
\nmurderous cannon. He knows that in the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-411<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nfight
\nwith brute force the spirit, the idea is bound to conquer. The Roman Empire is
\nno more, but the Christianity which it thought to crush, possesses half the
\nglobe, covering "regions Caesar never knew". The Jew, whom the whole
\nworld persecuted, survived by the strength of an idea and now sits in the high
\nplaces of the world, playing with nations as a chess-player with his pieces.
\nHe
\nknows too that his own life and the lives of others are of no value, that they
\nare mere dust in the balance compared with the life of his idea. The idea or
\nsentiment is at first confined to a few men whom their neighbours and countrymen
\nridicule as lunatics or hare-brained enthusiasts. But it spreads and gathers
\nadherents who catch the fire of the first missionaries and creates its own
\npreachers and then its workers who try to carry out its teachings in
\ncircumstances of almost paralysing difficulty. The attempt to work brings them
\ninto conflict with the established power which the idea threatens and there is
\npersecution. The idea creates its martyrs. And in martyrdom there is an
\nincalculable spiritual magnetism which works miracles. A whole nation, a whole
\nworld catches the fire which burned in a few hearts; the soil which has drunk
\nthe blood of the martyr imbibes with it a sort of divine madness which it
\nbreathes into the heart of all its children, until there is but one
\novermastering idea, one imperishable resolution in the minds of all beside which
\nall other hopes and interests fade into insignificance and until it is
\nfulfilled, there can be no peace or rest for the land or its rulers. It is at
\nthis moment that the idea begins to create its heroes and fighters, whose
\nnumbers and courage defeat only multiplies and confirms until the idea militant
\nhas become the idea triumphant. Such is the history of the idea, so invariable
\nin its broad lines that it is evidently the working of a natural law.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>But the despot will not recognise this superiority, the teachings of
\nhistory have no meaning for him. He is dazzled by the pomp and splendour of his
\nown power, infatuated with the sense of his own irresistible strength.
\nNaturally, for the signs and proofs of his own power are visible, palpable, in
\nhis camps and armaments, in the crores and millions which his tax-gatherers
\nwring out of the helpless masses, in the tremendous array of cannon and
\nimplements of war which fill his numerous arsenals,<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-412<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nin
\nthe compact and swiftly-working organisation of his administration, in the
\nprisons into which he hurls his opponents, in the fortresses and places of exile
\nto which he can hurry the men of the idea. He is deceived also by the temporary
\ntriumph of his repressive measures. He strikes out with his mailed hand and
\nsurging multitudes are scattered like chaff with a single blow; he hurls his
\nthunderbolts from the citadels of his strength and ease and the clamour of a
\ncontinent sinks into a deathlike hush; or he swings the rebels by rows from his
\ngibbets or mows them down by the hundred with his mitrailleuse and then stands
\nalone erect amidst the ruin he has made and thinks, "The trouble is over,
\nthere is nothing more to fear. My rule will endure for ever; God will not
\nremember what I have done or take account of the blood that I have
\nspilled." And he does not know that the fiat has gone out against him,
\n"Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee." For to the
\nPower that rules the world one day is the same as fifty years. The time lies in
\nHis choice, but now or afterwards the triumph of the idea is assured, for it
\nis He who has sent it into men’s minds that His purposes may be fulfilled.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The story is so old, so often repeated that it is a wonder the delusion
\nshould still persist and repeat itself. Each despotic rule after the other
\nthinks, "Oh, the circumstances in my case are quite different, I am a
\ndifferent thing from any yet recorded in history, stronger, more virtuous and
\nmoral, better organised. I am God’s favourite and can never come to harm."
\nAnd so the old drama is staged again and acted till it reaches the old
\ncatastrophe. The historic madness has now overtaken the British nation in the
\nheight of its world-wide power and material greatness. In Egypt, in India, in
\nIreland the most Radical Government of modern times is bracing itself to a
\npolicy of repression. It thinks England has only to stamp her foot and all the
\ntrouble will be over. Yet only consider how many ideas are arising which find in
\nBritish despotism their chief antagonist. The idea of a free and self-centred
\nIreland has been reborn and the souls of Fitzgerald and Emmett are
\nreincarnating. The idea of a free Egypt and the Pan Islamic idea have joined
\nhands in the land of the Pharaohs. The idea of a free and united India has been
\nborn and arrived at full stature in the land of the Rishis, and the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-413<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nspiritual
\nforce of a great civilisation of which the world has need is gathering at its
\nback. Will England crush these ideas with ukases and coercion laws? Will she
\neven kill them with maxims and siege-guns? But the eyes of the wise men have
\nbeen sealed so that they should not see and their minds bewildered so that they
\nshould not understand. Destiny will take its appointed course until the fated
\nend.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

Comic Opera Reforms<\/a><\/font><\/h2>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nMr.
\nMorley has made his pronouncement and a long-expectant world may now go about
\nits ordinary business with the satisfactory conviction that the conditions of
\npolitical life in India will be precisely the same as before. We know now what
\nare the much talked of reforms which are to pave the way for self-government
\nunder an absolute and personal rule and to quiet Indian discontent. Let us take
\nthem one by one, these precious and inestimable boons. They are three in number,
\na trinity of marvels: an advisory Council of Notables, enlarged Legislative and
\nProvincial Councils, admission of one or two Indians to the India Council.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>An advisory Council of Notables \u2014<\/span>
\nwe can see it in our mind’s eye. The Nawab of Dacca and the Maharaja of
\nDarbhanga, the Maharajas of Coochbehar and Cashmere, the Raja of Nabha, Sir
\nHarnam Singh, a few other Rajas and Maharajas (not <\/i>including the Maharaja
\nof Baroda), Dr. Rash Behari Ghose, Mr. Justice Mukherji, a goodly number of
\nnonofficial Europeans, the knight of the umbrella from Bombay, etc. etc. with
\nMr. Gokhale bringing up the tail as the least dangerous of those whom Mr. Morley
\nfelt that he must reluctantly call "our enemies". And what will the
\nbusiness of the illustrious assembly be? It will find out what the opinion of
\nthe country is (on which the members will be better authorities no doubt than a
\nhighly inconvenient Press) and inform the Government; they will also find out
\nthe meaning of the Government (if that is humanly possible) and inform the
\ncountry. We suppose it would be seditious to laugh at a Secretary of State, for
\nis he not part of the Government established by law? So we will merely say that
\nthe right place for this<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-414<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ntruly
\ncomic Council of Notables with its yet more comic functions is an opera by
\nGilbert and Sullivan and not an India seething with discontent and convulsed by
\nthe throes of an incipient revolution.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>As to the "enlarged" Legislative Councils we can say little.
\nMr. Morley does not enlighten us as to their composition but he has explicitly
\nsaid that the official majority will be maintained
\n\u2014<\/span>
\na piece of information, by the way, which the Bengalee’<\/i>s <\/i>"Own
\nCorrespondents" forget to cable out to Colootola. That is enough for it
\nmeans that the Legislative Councils are to be precisely what they were before,
\nonly bigger. The people are not to be given any effective control of check on
\nthe management of their own affairs. We had gilted shams before; they will be
\nbigger shams, with more gilt on them, but still shams and nothing but shams.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Finally, Mr. Morley says that the time has come when it will be really
\nquite safe to have an Indian or even two (what reckless daring!) on the India
\nCouncil. Really? A year or two ago, we suppose, it would have been very
\ndangerous, \u2014<\/span>
\nindeed, brought the Empire down with a sudden crash. So Mr. Romesh Dutt and
\nJustice Amir Ali’s expectations may at last be satisfied and we shall have two
\nIndian tongues in the Council of India. We wish them luck; but for all the use
\nthey will be to India, they might just as well be in Timbuctoo, or the Andamans.
\nIndeed they would probably be of much more use in the Andamans.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>We find it impossible to discuss Mr. Morley’s reforms seriously, they are
\nso impossibly burlesque and farcical. Yet they have their serious aspect. They
\nshow that the British despotism, like all despotisms in the same predicament, is
\nmaking the time-honoured, ineffectual effort to evade a settlement of the real
\nquestion by throwing belated and now unacceptable sops to Demogorgon. We shall
\nreturn to this aspect of the subject hereafter.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

Paradoxical Advice<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/h2>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nMr.
\nG. C. Bose, principal and proprietor of the Bangabasi Col-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-415<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nlege,
\nhas published a short signed article in the Bangabasi <\/i>in which he sets
\nforth very emphatically what he considers to be the duty of the students and
\ntheir guardians in this critical moment. Mr. Bose is an educationist pure and
\nsimple who has never mixed himself up in politics, unlike another well-known
\nprincipal whose weekly incursions into politics are more remarkable for their
\nmanner than for their matter. If therefore Mr. Bose had confined himself to the
\neducational aspect of the question and the extent to which students may
\npermissibly interest themselves in politics, we should have had nothing to say.
\nUnfortunately Mr. Bose has allowed himself to be tempted by the prevailing
\npolitical atmosphere outside his true province. He refrains from discussing the
\nmerits of the Risley Circular and merely advises the public to leave no stone
\nunturned to get the circular withdrawn but to refrain scrupulously from defying
\nit while it is in force. This is very much like telling us to leave no stone
\nun-turned to get our dinner cooked, but at the same time refrain scrupulously
\nfrom lighting a fire. Everyone, \u2014<\/span>
\neven the veriest political tyro can see that if we submit to the circular it
\nwill remain with us in perpetuity, no amount of representations, such as it is
\nnow proposed to send to the Government, will get the circular recalled. Our only
\nchance of getting rid of it is to make it a dead letter by a general refusal to
\nabide by it. Mr. Bose represents a
\nvested interest which will be seriously inconvenienced by an edu<\/span>cational
\nstrike or a general refusal to abide by the circular and we fear the natural
\nanxiety to avoid this inconvenience has blinded him to this very simple
\npolitical fact. But will the student class listen to Mr. Bose’s dulcet pipings?
\nThe wave of Nationalism in the land is surely not so spent, but will rise the
\nhigher for the obstacles thrown in the way of its advance.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande
\nMataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font>June 8, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-416<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Strength of the Idea                 THE mistake which despots, benevolent or malevolent, have been making ever since organised states came into existence 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-364","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\/364","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=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}