{"id":386,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=386"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:41","slug":"014-its-limits-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\/014-its-limits-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-014_Its Limits.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nS<\/font>IX<\/font><\/b> \n<\/p>\n

\nIts Limits<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\n<\/span><\/font>
\nT<\/span><\/font>HE<\/font><\/b>
\nthree canons of the doctrine of passive
\nresistance are in reality three necessities which must, whether we like it or
\nnot, be accepted in theory and executed in practice, if passive resistance is to
\nhave any chance of success. Passive resisters, both as individuals and in the
\nmass, must always be prepared to break an unjust coercive law and take the legal
\nconsequence; for if they shrink from this obligation, the bureaucracy can at
\nonce make passive resistance impossible simply by adding a few more enactments
\nto their book of statutes. A resistance which can so easily be snuffed out of
\nbeing is not worth making. For the same reason they must be prepared to disobey
\nan unjust and coercive executive order whether general or particular; for
\nnothing would be simpler than to put down by a few months’ coercion a resistance
\ntoo weak to face the consequences of refusing submission to Government by ukase.
\nThey must be prepared to boycott persons guilty of deliberate disobedience to
\nthe national will in vital matters because, if they do not, the example of
\nunpunished treason will tend to be repeated and destroy by a kind of dry rot the
\nenthusiastic unity and universality which we have seen to be necessary to the
\nsuccess of passive resistance of the kind we have inaugurated in India. Men in
\nthe mass are strong and capable of wonder-working enthusiasms and irresistible
\nmovements; but the individual average man is apt to be weak or selfish and,
\nunless he sees that the mass are in deadly earnest and will not tolerate
\nindividual treachery, he will usually, after the first enthusiasm, indulge his
\nweakness or selfishness to the detriment of the community. We have seen this
\nhappening almost everywhere where the boycott of foreign goods was not enforced
\nby the boycott of persons buying foreign goods. This is one important reason why
\nthe boycott which has maintained itself<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-113<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

in
\nEast Bengal, is in the West becoming more and more of a failure.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>The moment these three unavoidable obligations are put into force, the
\npassive resistance movement will lose its character of inoffensive legality and
\nwe shall be in the thick of a struggle which may lead us anywhere. Passive
\nresistance, when it is confined
\n<\/span>\u2014 as at
\npresent \u2014 to lawful abstention from actions which <\/span>it
\nlies within our choice as subjects to do or not to do, is of the nature of the
\nstrategical movements and large manoeuvrings previous to the meeting of armies
\nin the field; but the enforcement of our three canons brings us to the actual
\nshock of battle. Nevertheless our resistance still retains an essential
\ncharacter of passivity. If the right of public meeting is suspended by
\nMagisterial ukase, we confine ourselves to the practical assertion of the right
\nin defiance of the ukase and, so long as the executive also confines itself to
\nthe dispersal of the meeting by the arrest of its conveners and other peaceful
\nand legal measures, we offer no active resistance. We submit to the arrest,
\nthough not necessarily to the dispersal, and quietly take the legal
\nconsequences. Similarly, if the law forbids us to speak or write the truth as we
\nconceive it our duty to speak it, we persist in doing our duty and submit
\nquietly to whatever punishment the law of sedition or any other law coercive
\ningenuity may devise, can find to inflict on us. In a peaceful way we act
\nagainst the law or the executive, but we passively accept the legal
\nconsequences.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>There is a limit however to passive resistance. So long as the action of
\nthe executive is peaceful and within the rules of the fight, the passive
\nresister scrupulously maintains his attitude of passivity, but he is not bound
\nto do so a moment beyond. To submit to illegal or violent methods of coercion,
\nto accept out-rage and hooliganism as part of the legal procedure of the country
\nis to be guilty of cowardice, and, by dwarfing national manhood, to sin against
\nthe divinity within ourselves and the divinity in our motherland. The moment
\ncoercion of this kind is attempted, passive resistance ceases and active
\nresistance becomes a duty. If the instruments of the executive choose to
\ndisperse our meeting by breaking the heads of those present, the right of
\nself-defence entitles us not merely to defend our heads but to retaliate on<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-114<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

those
\nof the head-breakers. For the myrmidons of the law have ceased then to be
\nguardians of the peace and become breakers of the peace, rioters and not
\ninstruments of authority, and their uniform is no longer a bar to the right of
\nself-defence. Nor does it make any difference if the instruments of coercion
\nhappen to be the recognised and usual instruments or are unofficial hooligans in
\nalliance or sympathy with the forces of coercion. In both cases active
\nresistance becomes a duty and passive resistance is, for that occasion,
\nsuspended. But though no longer passive, it is still a defensive resistance. Nor
\ndoes resistance pass into the aggressive stage so long as it resists coercive
\nviolence in its own kind and confines itself to repelling attack. Even if it
\ntakes the offensive, it does not by that mere fact become aggressive resistance,
\nunless the amount of aggression exceeds what is necessary to make defence
\neffective. The students of Mymensingh, charged by the police while picketing,
\nkept well within the right of self-defence when they drove the rioters off the
\nfield of operations; the gentlemen of Comilla kept well within the rights of
\nself-defence if they attacked either rioters or inciters of riot who either
\noffered, or threatened, or tried to provoke assault. Even the famous shot which
\nwoke the authorities from their waking dreams, need not have been an act of
\naggression if it was fired to save life or a woman’s honour or under
\ncircumstances of desperation when no other means of defence would have been
\neffective. With the doubtful exception of this shot, supposing it to have been
\nfired unnecessarily, and that other revolver shot which killed Mr. Rand, there
\nhas been no instance of aggressive resistance in modern Indian politics.<\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>The new politics, therefore, while it favours passive resistance, does
\nnot include meek submission to illegal outrage under that term; it has no
\nintention of overstressing the passivity at the expense of the resistance. Nor
\nis it inclined to be hysterical over a few dozen of broken heads or exalt so
\nsimple a matter as a bloody coxcomb into the crown of martyrdom. This sort of
\nhysterical exaggeration was too common in the early days of the movement when
\neveryone who got his crown cracked in a street affray with the police was
\nencouraged to lift up his broken head before the world and cry out, "This
\nis the head of a martyr."<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-115<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

The
\nnew politics is a serious doctrine and not, like the old, a thing of shows and
\npolitical theatricals; it demands real sufferings from its adherents, \u2014
\nimprisonment, worldly ruin, death itself, before it can allow him to assume the
\nrank of a martyr for his country. Passive resistance cannot build up a strong
\nand great nation unless it is masculine, bold and ardent in its spirit and ready
\nat any moment and at the slightest notice to supplement itself with active
\nresistance. We do not want to develop a nation of women who know only how to
\nsuffer and not how to strike.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

           
\n<\/span>Morever, the new politics must recognise the fact that beyond a certain
\npoint passive resistance puts a strain on human endurance which our natures
\ncannot endure. This may come in particular instances where an outrage is too
\ngreat or the stress of tyranny too unendurable for anyone to stand purely on the
\ndefensive; to hit back, to assail and crush the assailant, to vindicate one’s
\nmanhood becomes an imperious necessity to outraged humanity. Or it may come in
\nthe mass when the strain of oppression a whole nation has to meet in its unarmed
\nstruggle for liberty, overpasses its powers of endurance. It then becomes the
\nsole choice either to break under the strain and go under or to throw it off
\nwith violence. The Spartan soldiers at Plataea endured for some time the
\nmissiles of the enemy and saw their comrades falling at their side without any
\nreply because their general had not yet declared it to be the auspicious time
\nfor attack; but if the demand on their passive endurance had been too long
\ncontinued, they must either have broken in disastrous defeat or flung themselves
\non the enemy in disregard of their leader’s orders. The school of politics which
\nwe advocate is not based upon abstractions, formulas and dogmas, but on
\npractical necessities and the teaching of political experience, common sense and
\nthe world’s history. We have not the slightest wish to put forward passive
\nresistance as an inelastic dogma. We preach defensive resistance mainly passive
\nin its methods at present, but active whenever active resistance is needed; but
\ndefensive resistance within the limits imposed by human nature and by the
\ndemands of self-respect and the militant spirit of true manhood. If at any time
\nthe laws obtaining in India or the executive action<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-116<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

of
\nthe bureaucracy were to become so oppressive as to render a struggle for liberty
\non the lines we have indicated, impossible; if after a fair trial given to this
\nmethod, the object with which we undertook it, proved to be as far off as ever; or if passive resistance should turn out either not feasible or necessarily
\nineffectual under the conditions of this country, we should be the first to
\nrecognise that everything must be reconsidered and that the time for new men and
\nnew methods had arrived. We recognise no political object of worship except the
\ndivinity in our Motherland, no present object of political endeavour except
\nliberty, and no method or action as politically good or evil except as it truly
\nhelps or hinders our progress towards national emancipation.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-117<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SIX  Its Limits                           THE three canons of the doctrine of passive resistance are in reality three necessities which must, whether we like it…<\/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-386","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\/386","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=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}