{"id":387,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=387"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:42","slug":"133-welcome-to-the-prophet-of-nationalism-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\/133-welcome-to-the-prophet-of-nationalism-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-133_Welcome to the Prophet of Nationalism.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nWelcome to the Prophet of Nationalism<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>T<\/font><\/b><\/span>ODAY<\/font><\/b>
\nSrijut Bepin Chandra Pal is due in Calcutta, a free man once more until it shall
\nplease irresponsible Magistrates and easily-twisted laws to repeat his seclusion
\nfrom the work which God has given him to do. A true leader of men today in India
\nholds his liberty as a light thing to be lost at a moment’s notice; when he
\nchooses to defend himself, he does so with the knowledge that no skill of
\ndefence but the choice of his prosecutors is the arbiter of the trial, no
\nsoundness of the law in his favour, but the convenience of those who employ and
\npay his judge, determines whether he goes free or incurs the honourable pains of
\nmartyrdom \u2014 brief or long according to the caprice or policy of his political
\nadversaries. To one who loves his country above all things, life in India today
\nis as insecure as in the worst days of despotic caprice and arbitrariness from
\nwhich British benevolence is fabled to have rescued us; he walks about under the
\nconstant sense of an insecurity which is the condition of his labours, not
\nknowing whether the next day will not see him under arrest with the practical
\ncertainty of a sentence already fixed and awaiting only the idle formalities of
\na nominal trial for its confirmation. The price of safety, if he desires it, is
\nthe sacrifice of his soul, to be silent when God has bidden him to speak, to
\nrefrain from action which his duty and conscience call on him to perform.
\nBureaucracy sometimes promises him safety for the moment at an apparently
\nlighter price, the loss of personal self-respect and honour. It does not, as it
\nonce did, call upon him to fall down and worship it, it does not demand
\naffection from its opponents; but it is content to barter acquittal for an
\napology. Recantation was the alternative which the old persecutors of
\nChristianity and the Christian persecutors of Jews and heretics offered to those
\nwhom they threatened with the cross and the arena, with the rack and the fire,
\nand it was offered for the same reason that it is offered today to the political
\nmartyr. The force with which the old religious persecutors had to struggle<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-740<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nwas
\na moral force which fought tyranny not with material weapons but with the
\nweapons of the spirit and it was by intimidating the spirit and breaking the
\nmoral force of the resistance that they hoped to destroy the movement which they
\nfeared.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Recantation meant a diminution of the moral force of the movements, so
\nmuch to the credit of the tyrant, to the loss of the cause. Today also it is a
\ngreat religious movement disguised for the moment in a political and Western
\ngarb with which the bureaucracy is faced and the weapons which it uses are the
\nweapons of the spirit, the force which makes it formidable is a spiritual force.
\nWe have nothing to oppose to the immense material engines of the bureaucracy
\nexcept the exalted faith, the unflinching courage, the unswerving devotion to
\nprinciple which has been so strangely, suddenly born in the hearts of this
\ngeneration of young men in Bengal. There lies the true strength of Nationalism
\nand the enemies of Nationalism instinctively feel it. They are concerned
\ntherefore not so much to crush the inadequate and rudimentary material means
\nwhich the movement has so far generated but to destroy the moral force which
\nmakes it a power. They are willing to forego the satisfaction of vindictiveness,
\nif they can secure the solid advantage of an apology or recantation of some kind
\nsuch as would fatally injure the moral force of at least one champion of
\nNationalism and by cumulative examples beat down the enthusiastic
\nself-confidence of the nation. Once or twice they have succeeded, but these
\nsolitary instances of weakness have been a beacon-light of warning to the
\ncountry and the stern resolution not to flinch has been strengthened by the
\nperception of the incalculable harm a single instance of recantation can do to
\nthe whole cause. On the other hand, every one who can say to the bureaucratic
\ntempter, "Get thee beind me, Satan", is scoring a victory for the
\ncause of his country.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>Yet, there are signs that the counsels of prudence and the wisdom of the
\ndiplomat are beginning to gain upon us, we are growing wise in our generation
\nand calculate the harm that can be done to the success of the movement by
\nrashness or the advantages to be gained by a little care and economy of life or
\nsuffering. The exaltation of the movement is in danger of being lowered by an
\naccommodating spirit. We have referred before to this grow-<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-741<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ndanger
\nand we are led to dwell on it by a perception of the relaxation in popular
\nenthusiasm and fire which is apparent in Bengal. Now that Bepin Chandra is
\ncoming out of prison, we look to his triumphant oratory, the Pythian inspiration
\nof his matchless eloquence to reawaken the spirit of lofty idealism, of
\nunflinching devotion to principle which it was his mission to confirm if not
\nawaken, and which is now more evident in Madras where his influence is the chief
\ninspiring force than in Bengal, the home of Nationalism. The voice of the
\nprophet will once more be free to speak to our hearts, the voice through which
\nGod has more than once spoken. We shall remember once more that the movement is
\na spiritual movement for prophets, martyrs and heroes to inspire, help and lead,
\nnot for diplomats and pinchbeck Machiavels; we shall realise that the spirit of
\nIndia reawakened is the life of the movement and not a borrowed Western
\npatriotism; we shall shrink once more from accommodation and paltering with the
\nhigh call of our conscience as a fatal concession to the adversary and feel
\nagain that only by perfect faith, perfect self-sacrifice, perfect courage can we
\ngenerate that Brahmatej in the nation which will raise up the Kshatriya spirit
\nto protect it. Without this Brahmatej, this spiritual force in our midst, all
\nelse will be vain; Swadeshi will cease, National Education fail, the great hopes
\nand schemes now forming in our midst disappear like idle wreaths of smoke and
\nthe whole movement stain the pages of history as an abortive and premature
\nimpulse, a great chance of freedom lost because the body of the nation was not
\nstrong enough and the soul of the nation was not pure enough to sustain the
\ntremendous inrush of spiritual force which had suddenly come upon it. Bepin
\nChandra stands before India as the exponent of the spiritual force of the
\nmovement, its pure ‘Indianity’, its high devotion to principle; this has been
\nthe kernel of his teaching, the secret of the almost miraculous force which
\noften breathed from his eloquence. To give this message was the work
\nparticularly chosen for him. We need that message to be repeated in yet mightier
\nlanguage and with more convincing logic; the voice has been too long silent, the
\nword of inspiration wanting. We welcome back today not Bepin Chandra Pal, but
\nthe speaker of a God-given message; not the man but the voice of the Gospel<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-742<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nof
\nNationalism. He comes to us purified by an act of self- immolation, with a soul
\ndeepened by long hours of solitude and self-communion to repeat the word of hope
\nand inspiration, to call us once more to the task of national self-realisation.
\nWelcome to him and thrice welcome.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> March 10, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>743<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Prophet of Nationalism                   TODAY Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal is due in Calcutta, a free man once more until it shall…<\/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-387","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\/387","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=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}