{"id":398,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=398"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:45","slug":"108-bureaucratic-policy-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\/108-bureaucratic-policy-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-108_Bureaucratic Policy.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nBureaucratic Policy<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\nT<\/font>HE<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span>policy of the bureaucracy at the
\npresent moment would be a curious study to any dispassionate observer of
\npolitics. It is not an unmixed and fearless policy of repression, yet the
\nrepression, wherever entered on, is as thoroughgoing, ruthless and without
\nscruple as the most virulent advocate of the strong hand could desire. It is not
\na policy of frank and wise concession, though concessions of a kind are fitfully
\nmade with no very apparent rhyme or reason. A Coercion Act is put upon the
\nStatute-book of the most thoroughly Russian severity; it is supposed to be
\npassed in hot haste to meet a crisis of an exceptional kind and to be urgently
\nand imperatively demanded by the Chief Bureaucrats of three provinces who
\ndecline to be responsible otherwise for the preservation of peace and the
\nBritish rule within their respective jurisdictions; yet when it has been passed,
\nit is only applied to a single district in the whole of India. The protests of
\nModerate politicians against the deportations and their urgent pleas for the
\nrelease of the prisoners in Mandalay are brushed aside with contempt, yet the
\nvery next news is that Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh are released and on their way
\nhomeward. Simla, vowing it will ne’er consent, has consented. On the other hand
\nLiakat Hossain is pursued with relentless severity, a politically-minded High
\nCourt Bench discharges with a contemptuous impatience the appeals brought before
\nit in political cases, and the wholesale persecutions of young men in the
\nmofussil centres and the campaign against the Nationalist Press does not relax.
\nThe official explanation given by the Englishman <\/i>is that the Extremists
\nhave collapsed, Sir Pherozshah Mehta is once more master of the situation, the
\nModerate Party has come suddenly by its own and the Government recognising its
\nown victory and the victory of its friends, is willing and can afford to be
\ngenerous. With all respect to Hare Street we will offer another explanation
\nwhich we think will be found nearer to the mark.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            The policy of the Anglo-Indian
\nbureaucrats has always been<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-607<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nchecked by their strong sense of the
\nweakness of their position in India. They know perfectly well that if the whole
\npopulation of India gets to be infected by the enthusiastic beliefs and
\ninsurgent spirit of Nationalism, their present absolute sway over the country
\nwill at once become an impossibility. They know that the almost universal
\nconversion of the educated class to Nationalism is a contingency of the near
\nfuture and that Nationalism having once taken possession of the educated class
\nmust immediately proceed to invade the masses; such a consummation is sure to be
\nimmensely hastened by a policy of unflinching repression which will alienate the
\nwhole educated community. The bureaucracy have indeed no love for the educated
\nclass, and the policy dearest to their hearts would be to create in the masses a
\ncounterpoise to the intellectuals, such as another bureaucracy once hoped to
\ncreate in Russia. It is not likely that they will fix any permanent hope, still
\nless their main hope, on the policy of setting Hindu and Mahomedan by the ears
\nby an unstinted pampering of the latter community, however thoroughly they may
\nhave resorted to that expedient in the terror of the moment; for by doing so
\nthey will not only help to weld the Hindu population into a homogeneous whole,
\nbut they will be creating a new and dangerous power in the country in a
\nMahomedan community excited by new hopes and eager to recover their old
\nascendency. On the other hand, the masses under present circumstances are not
\neasily accessible to a foreign and unsympathetic handful of aliens chiefly known
\nto them through a corrupt, brutal and cruelly oppressive police, while the work
\nof educating them into loyalty will take a long time and may be no less a
\nfailure in the end than the old plan of creating a permanently loyal middle
\nclass as a support to foreign rule against the regrets of the aristocracy and
\nthe possible fanaticism of the masses. Awaiting therefore the launching and
\nsuccess of their experiment with the masses the bureaucrats would like to keep
\nthe more pliable portion of the educated classes as long as possible in their
\nown hands and set them against Nationalism. But they are not prepared to purchase
\nthis support at the sacrifice of any least fragment of their absolute
\nauthority and irresponsible power; they are only willing to appease the rising
\nunrest by sham concessions or any<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-608<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ntemporary and isolated step which will not
\naffect their prestige or their authority. The difficulty is that with the
\nexception of the Loyalist section of the Moderate Party led by men like Sir
\nPherozshah Mehta, no one would be satisfied with apparent concessions sufficient
\nonly to meet the claims of the wealthier upper ten of the educated community to
\ntitles, honour and position; the more advanced section which places patriotism
\nbefore loyalty demand in addition such a substantial concession as would in
\ntheir opinion pave the way for complete self-government in the future; but this
\nthe bureaucracy are not prepared to concede. Yet the Loyalists are precisely
\nthose whose support is least worth having. Really strong in commercial centres
\nlike Bombay and Surat, wearing an appearance only of strength, in other parts
\nwhere Nationalism has not yet put forth a strength, it is a waning force
\nconstitutionally prone to inertia and incapable of exciting enthusiasm.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            Such is the position which the
\nbureaucrats have to face, and once we realise it their policy becomes quite
\ncoherent and intelligible. They have to be prepared against the possibility of
\nthe flood of Nationalism submerging the whole country in spite of all the dams
\nthey may erect, and for this reason they are arming themselves with
\nextraordinary powers which will enable them to check its future expansion and
\ncrush it where it has already established itself. At the present moment they
\nhope to get it under without persisting in a general repression which would
\ndrive the whole educated community into the Nationalist camp. They have got
\nBepin Pal and Liakat under lock and key, Brahmabandhab is dead, Aswin Dutta may
\nbe paralysed by a rigorous enforcement of the new Act in Backergunge, and of all
\nthe more powerful Nationalist speakers and writers one or two only have so far
\nescaped the attack made upon them. The bureaucracy may well hope that the back
\nof the movement is broken and relax their legal thumbscrew, at least until
\nthey have seen what Sir Pherozshah can do at Surat. Any fresh development of
\nNationalism they are prepared to meet by ruthless repression. Wherever they see
\nit spreading itself by open propaganda, they will forthwith apply the Gagging
\nAct; wherever it spreads by its own force without the aid of the platform they
\nwill attack it<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-609<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthrough the young men as at Rangpur,
\nDinajpur, Dacca and Midnapur, and whatever leader or active propagandist comes
\nforward, they will find some pretext to thrust into prison. Meanwhile they
\nwill pursue their policy of isolating the movement, locally by crushing it where
\nit is bold and vehement while they will play with and indulge it for a time
\nwhere it is milder and more cautious, politically by setting all other forces in
\nthe country against it.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n            This is their second line of
\ndefence, to find for themselves as many points of support as possible against
\nIndian Nationalism amongst the Indians themselves. Their first hope is in the
\nMahomedans whom they will encourage enough to buy their hostility to the Hindus,
\nbut not enough to make them really powerful or give an impetus to a Mahomedan
\nrevival. Their second hope is in the landed aristocracy whom they broke and
\nground into the dust with the aid of the newly created middle class and would
\nnow call in in their turn to help in crushing that very middle class grown too
\npowerful for its creator. Their third hope is in the masses whom they expect to
\ndominate partly by a carefully-conceived primary education, partly by
\ndecentralising their administration sufficiently to give the District Officer
\ndirect touch with and autocratic control over the peasantry and partly by
\ncreating in officially-controlled Panchayets instruments of check and
\nsupervision among the masses themselves. Their fourth point of support is in the
\nLoyalist-cum-Moderate Party in the Congress. It is to keep the way open for a
\nreconciliation with that party that Lajpat Rai has been released, the Gagging
\nAct kept in abeyance outside Backergunge and overtures made in the demi-official
\nPress, notably in such foul-mouthed revilers of all educated India as the C.
\nM<\/i>.
\nGazette <\/i>and the Englishman <\/i>to the more sensible and sober elements
\nin the Congress. The word has gone round to rally the Moderates to the
\nGovernment and that party is notified by act and word that if they will accept
\nthe olive branch, be even temporarily satisfied with Mr. Morley’s reforms and
\ndissociate themselves from Boycott, Swaraj and Extremism, the bureaucracy will
\nnot confound them in one common ruin with the Extremists, but on the contrary
\ngive them its paternal blessing and a fair number of new playthings.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-610<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nSuch is the complete Minto-Morley policy
\nas it now stands developed, and nobody will deny that, subject to the incurable
\ndefects of the bureaucratic position in India and the overruling decrees of
\nProvidence, it is a well-planned and skilful policy. The question is "what
\nchance has it of success? and what should be the line taken by the Nationalist
\nParty to frustrate this curious mixture of force and guile?" That is the chief
\nproblem to which we have now to turn our attention.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i>
\n<\/font>November 19, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-611<\/font><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bureaucratic Policy                   THE policy of the bureaucracy at the present moment would be a curious study to any dispassionate observer of politics. 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-398","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\/398","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=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}