{"id":382,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=382"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:40","slug":"106-nagpur-and-loyalist-methods-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\/106-nagpur-and-loyalist-methods-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-106_Nagpur and Loyalist Methods.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nNagpur and Loyalist Methods<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/font><\/b>                       
\n<\/font>
\nT<\/font>HE<\/font><\/b> <\/span>decision of the All-India Congress
\nCommittee, holding its session appropriately enough not in any place of meeting
\nsuitable to its character as a public body but in "Sir Pherozshah Mehta’s
\nbungalow", has put the crown on one of the most discreditable intrigues of which
\neven Bombay Loyalism is capable. We held our peace about the real meaning of the<\/p>\n

Nagpur affair so long as there was the
\nremotest possibility of the sense of shame and decency reawakening among even a
\nsection of the Nagpur Loyalists, lest a too trenchant exposure of the whole
\nintrigue might imperil that slender chance. Now that the die is cast, it is time
\nfor us to speak our minds. From the whole course of the Loyalist manoeuvres in<\/p>\n

Nagpur since the strength of the Nationalist
\nParty in the<\/p>\n

Central Provinces became apparent, it was
\nquite evident that from the first the Loyalists had made up their minds under
\ninspiration from<\/p>\n

Bombay to prevent the holding of the Congress
\nat<\/p>\n

Nagpur. To effect this object they were
\nprepared to bring about a public scandal of the most shameful kind and bring
\ndiscredit on the Congress if only their party might win a tactical advantage
\nand, as the chief Moderate organ in Bombay frankly put it, keep the Congress out
\nof the hands of the Extremists. It was in order to keep the Congress out of the
\nhands of the Extremists that the session was originally arranged to be held at<\/p>\n

Nagpur and .the prior claims of the
\nPunjab ignored. For Nagpur was then supposed to be a
\nsleepy hollow of politics, a happy hunting-ground of Rai Bahadurs and Government
\npets and tame patriots with the official collar round their necks, where there
\nwas no fear of Mr. Tilak’s nomination becoming even a remote possibility and Sir
\nPherozshah Mehta might safely hope to retrieve the crushing blow his
\ndictatorship had received at Calcutta. The Congress cabal had, unfortunately for
\nthemselves, reckoned without the fiery energy and indomitable self-confidence
\nwhich have always been the characteristics of Nationalism in every country and
\nevery age of<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-590<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nits emergence. The Nationalists of the
\nBerar and Central Provinces took the work of proselytisation in hand and as the
\nresult of several tours undertaken by leading members of the party from town to
\ntown and village to village the sleepy hollow awoke to life, a great revolution
\nof opinion was effected and Nationalism became in a few months a power to be
\nreckoned with. It soon appeared that in<\/p>\n

Nagpur there was on one side the small body of
\nwealthy, respectable and successful elders with their dependents, hangers-on and
\nsatellites and on the other side, behind a growing body of true patriots among
\nthe men of name and standing, the great bulk of the young men and the poorer
\nmiddle class. When a trial of strength came over the question of Mr. Tilak’s
\nnomination the Loyalists could muster a large body of votes on the Reception
\nCommittee only by the wealthy men paying for the admission of their dependents
\nand hangers-on, while even so against the Rs. 21,000 they could muster, the
\nRashtriya Mandal was able to show a total of more than Rs. 30,000 representing
\nwhat would have been a substantial majority of votes if the rule of a
\nthree-fourths majority had not been in force. It thus became apparent that the
\nNationalist Party might easily command a majority of the local delegates and,
\nsince the place of session was within easy reach of Bengal and a strong body of
\nNationalist votes from the North, from Madras and from the Deccan might be
\nexpected, Loyalism was evidently in danger of a serious reverse compared with
\nwhich its experiences at Calcutta might sink into insignificance. Nor was the
\noutlook made rosier by the fact that there was on the Nagpur Executive Committee
\nan active Nationalist majority led by a strong and fearless stalwart. It had
\nbecome imperative, if the primary object of loyalist politics, "to keep the
\nCongress out of the hands of the Extremists" and so avoid a rupture with the
\nbureaucracy, was not to be hopelessly frustrated, either to drive the Extremists
\nout of the Executive Committee and turn it into a convenient instrument for Sir
\nPherozshah Mehta’s masterly manoeuvres or to transfer the Congress to a less
\ncentral and thoroughly Loyalist locality where the Dictator’s will could reign
\nsupreme.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            From this point onward the
\nhand of the great wire-puller behind the scenes can be observed in all the
\ndevelopments on the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-591<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nNagpur stage. Left to themselves there is
\nlittle doubt that the two local parties would have come to some understanding;
\nnor can it be for a moment supposed that the audacious and high-handed attempt
\nat a shamelessly unconstitutional coup d\u2019\u00e9<\/span>tat
\n<\/i>on the 22nd September was conceived in the brain of so harmless and
\ninsignificant a personality as Mr. Chitnavis. The attempt to expel Dr. Munje and
\nhis Nationalist colleagues from the Executive Committee was a failure because
\nleonine tactics require a leonine personality to carry them through and Mr.
\nChitnavis was trying to wear the giant’s robe without possessing the bulk and
\nsinews of the giant. But their failure and the disturbance that followed it
\nserved the alternative plan of the Loyalists. That disturbance was obviously not
\nengineered by the Nationalist leaders since, their point having been gained, it
\ncould serve no purpose whatever and on the contrary might do them harm, as it
\nwas bound to give and did give the Loyalists a handle for discrediting the
\nNationalists and stood them in good stead as a convenient and always serviceable
\npretext for breaking the Nagpur session if every other trumped-up excuse should
\nfail. The same guiding hand is seen in the skill with which the very success of
\nthe Rashtriya Mandal, was turned to the uses of the intrigue by the preposterous
\nand cynical demand that the condition under which money had been paid in to it
\nshould be disregarded and a breach of faith with the public committed. Neither
\ncan we regard seriously the much advertised visits of Moderate leaders to Nagpur
\nto effect a reconciliation, followed as they were by ostentatiously sorrowful
\nand misleading telegrams to the effect that both sides refused to accept any
\ncompromise while the simple truth was that the Nationalists in their eagerness
\nto have the session at Nagpur were making every time larger and larger
\nconcessions and it was the Loyalists who throughout showed themselves
\nintractable. It is not to be believed that if such influential peacemakers had
\nbeen in earnest, the Nagpur Loyalists would have showed this spirit of
\ninflexibility; it was obviously not a local product but made in Bombay, and all
\nthese attempts at conciliation were simply meant to prepare the public mind
\nfor the transfer to Surat which had already been decided on by the master mind
\nin Bombay. Meanwhile<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-592<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe wires were pulled at<\/p>\n

Surat and<\/p>\n

Madras and the<\/p>\n

Surat respectables and Mr. Krishna Swami Aiyer
\nand his Mahajan Sabha danced to the skilful manipulation. We do not believe the
\nMadras offer was anything but a feint, for Madras is much too near to Bengal and
\nthere is already a strong Nationalist Party in the northern parts of that
\nprovince; but to have only the single offer from Surat would have been to leave
\nthe whole intrigue too bare to the public eye. Our belief is confirmed by the<\/p>\n

Bombay correspondent of the Bengalee<\/i>, <\/i>
\nwho openly says that<\/p>\n

Madras was not chosen because there were men
\nin<\/p>\n

Madras pledged to Extremist views. Finally,
\nthe last act of the farce supplies the key to all that has gone before. An
\ninformal and unofficial representation from a minority of the Reception
\nCommittee is precipitately seized upon by the All-India Congress Committee, a
\nmeeting is announced not at Nagpur where the members might have gone into the
\nmatter on the spot and arranged a working compromise, but in Bombay and at Sir
\nPherozshah Mehta’s bungalow, as if the Committee and the Congress itself were
\nSir Pherozshah’s personal movable property; and instead of calling for a report
\nof the Reception Committee or taking cognisance of the fact that there were
\ncitizens of Nagpur willing and able to reconstitute the Committee and hold the
\nsession as arranged at Calcutta, the Moderate majority records a predetermined
\ndecision to transfer Sir Pherozshah’s movable property to Surat at a safe
\ndistance from Bengal where the Loyalist position is as yet unbreached and there
\nis no time for the Nationalists to instruct public opinion before the holding of
\nthe session.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            The intrigue is now complete,
\nto the huge delight of the Englishman<\/i>, <\/i>and officialdom is full of hope
\nthat Sir Pherozshah will this year save the
\nBritish Empire. For the Nationalists it should be a spur
\nto redoubled efforts to spread their creed into every corner of the country so
\nthat Loyalism may nowhere find a secure resting place for its footsoles. As to
\nthe Surat Pherozshah Congress it would be the logical course for us regarding
\nthe decision of the All-India Committee meeting as a misuse of the powers of
\nthat body, to abstain and allow the Loyalists to hold a purely Moderate Congress
\nof their own. The other alternative is to arrange forthwith the organisation of
\nNationalist propaganda<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-593<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nin Gujerat and make full use of the
\nopportunity such as it is which the session will provide. In either case, a
\nconference of our party is necessary, for, in view of the bureaucratic campaign
\non one side and the danger of a retrograde step on the part of the Congress on
\nthe other, the times are critical and concerted action imperative.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

November 16, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-594<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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