{"id":381,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=381"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:39","slug":"046-shall-india-be-free-t-l-g-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\/046-shall-india-be-free-t-l-g-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-046_Shall India be Free (T. L. G.).htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\n
\nShall India be Free ?<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n
\nT<\/font>HE <\/font>LOYALIST <\/font>GOSPEL<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n   <\/font><\/b>                   <\/span>
\n<\/font>L<\/font>IBERTY<\/font><\/b>
\nis the first requisite for the sound health and vigorous life of a nation. A
\nforeign despotism is in itself an unnatural condition and if permitted, must
\nbring about other unhealthy and unnatural conditions in the subject people which
\nwill lead to fatal decay and disorganisation. Foreign rule cannot build up a
\nnation — only the resistance to foreign rule can weld the discordant elements of
\na people into an indivisible unity. When a people, predestined to unity, cannot
\naccomplish its destiny, foreign rule is a provision of Nature by which the
\nnecessary compelling pressure is applied to drive its jarring parts into
\nconcord. The unnatural condition of foreign rule is brought in for a time in
\norder to cure the previous unnatural condition of insufficient cohesiveness; but
\nthis can only be done by the resistance of the subject people; for the incentive
\nto unity given by the alien domination consists precisely in the desire to get
\nrid of it; and if this desire is absent, if the people acquiesce, there can be
\nno force making for unity. Foreign rule was therefore made to be resisted; and
\nto acquiesce in it is to defeat the very intention with which Nature created it.
\n         These considerations are not abstract ideas, but the
\n undeniable teaching of
\nhistory which is the record of the world’s experience. Nationalism takes its
\nstand upon this experience and calls upon the people of India not to allow
\nthemselves to fall into the acquiescence in subjection which is the death-sleep
\nof nations, but to make that use of the alien domination which Nature intended,
\n— to struggle against it and throw it off for unity, for self-realisation, as an
\nindependent national organism. In this country, however, there is a class of
\nwise men who regard the rule of the British bureaucracy as a dispensation of
\nProvidence, not only to create unity but to preserve it. They preach therefore a
\ngospel of faith in the foreigner, distrust of our countrymen and acquiescence in
\nalien rule as a godsend from on<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-300<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nhigh and an
\nindispensable condition for peace and prosperity. Even those whose hearts rebel
\nagainst a doctrine so servile, are intellectually so much dominated by it that
\nthey cannot embrace Nationalism with their whole heart and try to arrive at a
\ncompromise between subjection and independence,<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span>
\n—
\na half-way house between
\nlife and death. Their ingenuity discovers an intermediate condition in which the
\nblessings of freedom will be harmoniously wedded with the blessings of
\nsubjection; and to this palace in fairyland they have given the name of Colonial
\nSelf-Government. If it were not for the existence of this Moderate opinion and
\nits strange parti-coloured delusions, we would not have thought it worth while
\nto go back to first principles and show the falsity of the Loyalist gospel of
\nacquiescence. But the Moderate delusion is really a by-product of the Loyalist
\ndelusion; and the parent error must be demolished first, before its offspring
\ncan be corrected. The Moderates are a hybrid species, emotionally nationalist,
\nintellectually loyalist. It is owing to this double nature that their delusions
\nacquire an infinite power for mischief. People listen to them because they claim
\nto be Nationalist and because a sincere Nationalist feeling not infrequently
\nbreaks through the false Loyalist reasoning. Moreover by associating themselves
\nwith the Moderates on the same platform the Loyalists are enabled to exercise an
\ninfluence on public opinion which would otherwise
\nnot be
\naccorded to them. The gospel according to Sir Pherozshah Mehta would not have
\nsuch power for harm if it were not allowed to represent itself as one and the
\nsame with the gospel according to Mr. Gokhale.
\n        What then are the original ideas from which the Loyalist gospel proceeds? It has
\na triple foundation of error. First comes the postulate that disunion and
\nweakness are ingrained characteristics of the Indian people and an outside
\npower is necessary in order to arbitrate, to keep the peace and to protect the
\ncountry from the menace of the mightier nations that ring us in. Proceeding from this view and supporting it, is the second postulate that there must be
\nan entire levelling down and sweeping away of all differences, aristocrat and
\npeasant, Brahmin and Sudra, Bengali, Punjabee and Maratha, all must efface their
\ncharacteristics and differences before any resistance to foreign domination can
\nbe<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-301<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nattempted,
\neven if such resistance were desirable. The third postulate is that a healthy
\ndevelopment is possible under foreign domination and that this healthy
\ndevelopment must be first effected before we can dream of freedom or even of
\nbecoming a nation. If these three postulates are granted, then the Loyalist
\ncreed is unassailable; if they are proved unsound, not only the Loyalist creed
\nbut the standpoint of the Moderates ceases to have any basis of firm ground and
\nbecomes a thing in the air. The Nationalist contention is that all these three
\npostulates are monuments of political unreason and have no firm foundation
\neither in historical experience or in the facts we see around us or in the
\nnature of things. They are inconsistent with the fundamental nature of foreign
\ndomination; they ignore the experience of all other subject nations; they
\ndisregard human nature and the conditions of human development in communities.
\nThe Loyalist gospel is as untrue as it is ignoble.<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n
\nThe Mask is Off<\/a><\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n
\nThe Anglo-Indian journals are trying to assure the public that everything is
\nquiet in Jamalpur under the shadow of the British sword. The accounts that are
\nappearing in various Indian journals put a very different complexion on the
\nsituation. It appears, to begin with, that the Gurkhas who were called in to
\npreserve the peace are being allowed in cooperation with local hooligans to
\nbreak it. The case of image-breaking is being deliberately put off and the whole
\nenergy of the executive is devoted to terrorising the Hindus. Several
\npleaders, a Muktear, a Naib of Ramgopalpur and a Superintendent of the
\nGauripur estate, along with other leading gentlemen of Jamalpur have been
\narrested. "The number of Mahomedan arrests," writes one correspondent,
\n"is simply nil<\/i>". <\/i>Comment is hardly necessary. The alliance of
\nthe British bureaucracy with hooliganism stands confessed. To take advantage of
\nMahomedan riots in order to further terrorise by legal proceedings the assaulted
\nHindus, is the first preoccupation of the local magistrates. We have pointed
\nout already that the procedure is to give scope and room enough for anti-Swadeshi<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-302<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nviolence and pillage and then to punish the Swadeshists for the crime of self-defence
\nor even simply for the crime of being assaulted. The mask is off.<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n
\n
\nA Loyalist in a Panic<\/a><\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n
\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Not only the Englishman
\n<\/i>but the Indian Mirror <\/i>has been seriously frightened by the course of
\nevents in the Punjab. No wonder. The lion spirit of the Punjab was not burned on
\nthe pyre with Runjit Singh; it only went to sleep for a while after Chilianwala
\nand is now again awake. The Mirror <\/i>is uneasy for the safety of the
\nEmpire. The Mirror <\/i>does not mind very much what may happen in East
\nBengal, but if discontent spreads to the Punjab, it may affect the Sikhs, and
\nthen what would become of the British Empire and the Indian Mirror<\/i>? <\/i>The
\nremedy proposed by our senile contemporary is that we should stop all political
\nagitation by putting off all public meetings until the country is quiet and that
\nBabu Bepin Chandra Pal should not go about stirring up the people of Southern
\nIndia "as regards Swadeshi, Boycott, Swaraj and other things". Sir
\nDenzil Ibbertson is also advised to cure the evil by kindness, — a wise counsel
\nto which, no doubt, he will incline his patient ear; for where can he find a
\nbetter well-wisher
\nthan the Indian Mirror<\/i>? <\/i>It appears that the meetings addressed by Srijut Bepin Chandra
\n"are not likely to lessen the political unrest; on the contrary, they are
\ndecidedly adding fuel to the fire". Well, what else should be their object?
\nTo lull the country back into sleep and submission? The Mirror <\/i>reminds us
\nof a venerable old woman awakened at night by the noise of burglars in the house
\nand recommending everybody to turn over and sleep or pretend to sleep until the
\nhouse is quiet, — and the burglars, unopposed, have done their business. But
\nwe thought that the Mirror <\/i>had discovered the Extremists to be a small
\nand insignificant party without any following in the country. What does it matter what such
\na party is or is not doing? The country, the Mirror <\/i>declared, is at the
\nback of the Moderate Party. Has that comforting belief so soon gone to pieces?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBande Mataram<\/i>, April 27, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-303<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shall India be Free ?   THE LOYALIST GOSPEL                          LIBERTY is the first requisite for the sound health and vigorous life of a…<\/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-381","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\/381","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=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}