{"id":397,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=397"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","slug":"134-the-voice-of-the-martyrs-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\/134-the-voice-of-the-martyrs-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-134_The Voice of the Martyrs.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe Voice of the Martyrs<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>W<\/font><\/b><\/span>E
\nARE<\/font><\/span><\/b> now rejoicing over the release of
\nSrijut Bepin Chandra Pal, but who among us is prepared to forget that so many
\nhave suffered for the country not less or more than he, and are still suffering?
\nYesterday when we welcomed the great orator, the man of high thoughts and
\ninspired eloquence, the prophet of new ideas to his people, our thoughts went
\nfor a while to those who are now in British prisons, to Bhupen, to Basanta, to
\nthe Editor of the Barisal Hitaishi <\/i>and the Rangpur Vartabaha<\/i>, <\/i>to
\nthe aged Moulavi spending the last years of his noble life in the severities of
\na criminal jail, to our fellow martyrs of East Bengal, to the few who are
\nsuffering in other provinces. For what are these men suffering? What was the
\nhope that stirred them to face all rather than be unworthy of the light that had
\ndawned in their hearts? No petty object fired their soul, no small or partial
\nrelief was the hope in which they were strong. It was the star of Swaraj that
\nshone upon them from the darkness of the night into which they willingly
\ndeparted, it is the light of Swaraj which creates a glory of effulgence in the
\nsqualid surroundings of the jail and makes each hour of enforced labour a
\nsacrament and an offering on the most sacred of earthly altars. Today let us
\nremember these brothers of ours even as yesterday was devoted to the joy of
\nwelcoming our beloved leader back into our midst. Today let us recall what it is
\nthat they expect from us; forgetting for a while our selfish preoccupations, our
\nlittle fears, our petty ambitions, let us identify ourselves in heart with these
\nnobler spirits whom it is our privilege to call fellow-countrymen, and ask
\nourselves whether we are really working to bring about the great ideal for which
\nthey have immolated themselves. Who is there who can really say that his work is
\nworthy of these heroic martyrs? Prometheus chained to the rock and gnawed by the
\nvulture’s beak endured in the strong hope of man’s final deliverance from the
\ntyrant powers of the middle-heaven who sought to keep him from his divine
\ndestiny;<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-744<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nbut
\nthe human race for whom he suffered forgot Prometheus, forgot the dazzling hope
\nto which his life had pointed them and, involved in petty cares and mean
\nambitions, allowed their champion to suffer in vain and their destiny to call
\nthem to no purpose. We, like the woman whom Christ censured, the careful,
\nprudent woman of the world, are busied with many things, but forget the one
\nthing needful. We are waiting to see whether the Congress will be revived or
\nnot, or we are watching the progress of Swadeshi with self-satisfaction, or we
\nare anxious for this or that National School, while the fight for Swaraj seems
\nto have ceased or passed away from us into worthier hands. Madras has taken up
\nthe herol <\/i>out of our hands, and today it is over Tuticorin that the gods
\nof the Mahabharat hover in their aerial cars watching the chances of the fight
\nwhich is to bring back the glorious days of old. Gallant Chidambaram, brave
\nPadmanabha, intrepid Shiva defying the threats of exile and imprisonment;
\nfighting for the masses, for the nation, for the preparation of Swaraj, these
\nare now in the forefront, the men of the future, the bearers of the standard.
\nThe spirit of active heroism and self-immolation has travelled southward. In
\nBengal the spirit of passive endurance is all that seems to remain and the bold
\ninitiative, the fiery spirit that panted to advance is dead or sleeping.
\n"Work, there is no need to aspire; labour for small things and the great
\nwill come in some future generation\u201d, is the spirit which seems to be in the
\nascendant. But the voices of the martyrs from their cells cry to us in a
\ndifferent key, "Work, but aspire, so that your work may be true to the call
\nyou have heard and which we have obeyed; labour for great things first and the
\nsmall will come of themselves. Cherish the might of the spirit, the nobility of
\nthe ideal, the grandeur of the dream; the spirit will create the material it
\nneeds, the ideal will bring the real to its body and self-expression, the dream
\nis the stuff out of which the waking world will be created. It was the strength
\nof the spirit which stood with us before the alien tribunal, it was the force of
\nthe ideal which led us to the altar of sacrifice, it is the splendour of the
\ndream which supports us through the dreary months and years of our martyrdom.
\nFor these are the truth and the divinity within the movement."<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-745<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n
\nConstitution-making<\/font><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nSchemes
\nfor the constitution of the Congress are now being drawn up in various quarters
\nbut we fear that some important and indeed essential points are being lost sight
\nof by the framers. A constitution may be drawn up with one of two motives,
\neither to suit the convenience of a party or to assure the orderly and
\nharmonious procedure of a representative assembly in which conflicting opinions
\nare to be allowed free entrance. In the former case the country at large is not
\ninterested in the result, for a party organisation is free to make the
\narrangements most suitable to itself. But if the Congress is to be a Congress of
\nall opinions and not of one section only, the Constitution must be so drafted as
\nto remove the causes of quarrel which led up to the Surat fiasco. One of these
\nwas the conflict between authority and freedom in the proceedings of the
\nsession. The Moderates stand for official authority, the Nationalists for the
\nfreedom of debate and the rights of the delegate as a popular representative.
\nThe conflict between the Chairman of the Reception Committee and Mr. Tilak was
\non the issue whether the authority of the President or Chairman is absolute and
\nautocratic or whether the individual delegate has a right to be heard according
\nto the rules observed in all free assemblies and to appeal to the full assembly
\nif his right is unjustly denied. The Moderates desire to establish a sort of
\nofficial oligarchy in the Congress; the leaders officially recognised in
\nprevious years, must be implicitly obeyed; the voice of the President is to be
\nabsolute and final irrespective of the validity of his decision or the rights of
\nfree discussion. The Nationalists contend that the President is a servant of the
\nCongress and not its master: \u2014<\/span> his function is to administer the rules of debate
\nand not to make his own will and pleasure the law. There can be no doubt which
\nattitude is in consonance with the practice of free peoples, the spirit of
\nmodern politics and the principles of democracy.
\nMr. Tilak has established his position by his articles <\/span>in
\nthe Kesari <\/i>and Maratha <\/i>with the most crushing completeness and
\nthere is no possible answer to the array of authorities, precedents and sound
\nargument which he has marshalled in those pieces of perfect political reasoning
\nunrivalled in their force and<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-746<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nclearness
\nof exposition. Whoever wishes to draft a constitution for the Congress must take
\nthis great issue into consideration and lay down clearly, first the powers of
\nthe President and their limits, secondly the proper procedure with regard to the
\nSubjects Committee, and thirdly, the rights of the delegates in full Congress as
\nagainst the President and the Subjects Committee. We propose to take up this
\nquesition of the constitution and deal with it at length, for it is a subject of
\nimmense importance and it is essential that those who handle it should try to
\ngrasp the principles involved. We wish to take the Congress seriously as a body
\nwhich may and ought to form a seed out of which the future Indian Parliament
\nmust grow, and not a sham representative assembly meant for passing exigencies
\nthe constitution of which can be settled offhand.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nWhat
\nCommittee?<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

There are signs that the compromise arrived at at Pabna
\nwill be ignored by the Moderates at Allahabad. We have received a communication
\nfrom two leading gentlemen of Barisal enclosing a draft constitution for the
\nCongress which seems to be a reply to another draft forwarded in the name of
\nsome Calcutta Committee. This is described in the forwarding letter as a
\ncommittee of "our leaders". If it is the Calcutta Committee of the
\nSurat Convention, it should have made its origin and nature clear while
\nforwarding its views to the Mofussil. We are entirely unaware of any general
\nCommittee having been formed of the leaders in Calcutta which can speak
\nauthoritatively to Bengal, or of any draft constitution prepared by the common
\nconsent of Bengal’s foremost men. The Convention Calcutta Committee met in
\nsecret and seem to have issued their draft in secret to a select few in the
\nMofussil. The Mofussil gentlemen who sent their draft appear to be under the
\nimpression that the leaders of the Nationalist Party are in the know. We must
\nremind them that there are two Committees, one appointed by the Moderate
\nConvention at Surat, the other by a meeting of the delegates pledged to the four
\nCalcutta resolutions. No attempt to arro-<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-747<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ngate
\nto the Convention Committee the sole inheritance of the Congress can succeed;
\nand if the people of Bengal desire union on the lines of the Pabna resolution
\nthey must insist either on the All-India Congress Committee being entrusted with
\nthe work of reviving the Congress or on both the Surat Committees uniting to
\narrange the lines on which the Congress shall be reconstructed. A section has no
\nright to lay down a law by which the whole will be bound and if they persist in
\nthe attempt they will be only inviting a permanent secession.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> March 11, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-748<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Voice of the Martyrs                   WE ARE now rejoicing over the release of Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal, but who among us is prepared…<\/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-397","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\/397","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=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}