{"id":406,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=406"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:48","slug":"086-the-issue-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\/086-the-issue-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-086_The Issue.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\n\t\tThe
\nIssue<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n                       
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>THE<\/b> bureaucracy as usual has over-reached itself in instituting a case
\nunder the sedition clause against the editor of the Yugantar<\/i>. <\/i>The
\nPunjabee prosecution did untold harm to their prestige and helped to shatter the
\nnot over-abundant remnants of their moral ascendancy; its work was negative and
\ndestructive. But the Yugantar <\/i>prosecution has been a positive gain to the
\nnational cause; it has begun the positive work of building up the moral
\nascendancy of the people which is to replace that of the alien and nullify his
\nmere material superiority. This momentous result the editor of the Yugantar <\/i>has
\nbrought about by his masterly inactivity. His refusal to plead has been worth
\nmany sensational trials. It has produced an enormous effect on the public mind
\nall over India, not only as an individual instance of moral courage and
\nreadiness to suffer quietly and simply, without ostentation and
\nself-advertisement, as a matter of course and one’s plain duty to the country,
\nbut as the first practical application in the face of persecution of the sheer
\nuncompromising spirit of Swarajism. For the first time a man has been found who
\ncan say to the power of alien Imperialism, "With all thy pomp of empire and
\nsplendour and dominion, with all thy boast of invincibility and mastery
\nirresistible, with all thy wealth of men and money and guns and cannon, with all
\nthy strength of the law and strength of the sword, with all thy power to
\nconfine, to torture or to slay the body, yet for me, for the spirit, the real
\nman in me, thou art not, thou art only a phase, a phenomenon, a passing
\nillusion, and the only lasting realities are my Mother and my freedom."<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>It is well that we should understand the real issue which is not
\nprimarily one of law or of political forms and institutions, but a spiritual
\nissue on which all others depend and from which they arise. The question is not
\nwhether one Bhupendranath Dutt published matter which he knew to be likely to
\nbring the Government established by law, to wit certain mediocrities in
\nBelvedere,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-490<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nDarjeeling,
\nShillong or Simla who collectively call themselves the Government of Bengal or
\nof India, into contempt or hatred or to encourage a desire to resist or subvert
\ntheir lawful authority. If that were all, we might argue the question whether
\nwhat he did was wise or what he wrote was true or mistaken, legal or illegal. As
\nit is, these things do not matter even to the value of a broken cowrie. The real
\nissue for us Nationalists is something quite different and infinitely more
\nvital. It is this, "Is India free?" \u2014 not
\neven "Shall India be free?" but, is India free and am I as an Indian
\nfree or a slave bound to the service, the behest or forced guidance of something
\noutside and alien to myself and mine, something which is anā<\/font>tman<\/i>, <\/i>not myself? Am I, are my people part of
\nhumanity, the select and chosen temple of the Brahman, and entitled therefore to
\ngrow straight in the strength of our own spirit, free and with head erect before
\nmankind, or are we a herd of cattle to live and work for others? Are we to live
\nour own life or only a life prescribed and circumscribed for us by something
\noutside ourselves? Are we to guide our own destinies or are we to have no
\ndestiny at all except nullity, except death? For it is nonsense to talk of
\nother people guiding our destinies, that is only an euphemism for killing our
\ndestinies
\naltogether; it is nonsense to talk of others giving us enlightenment, civilisation, political training, for the enlightenment that is given and not
\nacquired brings not light but confusion, the civilisation that is imposed from
\noutside kills a nation instead of invigorating it, and the training which is not
\nacquired by our own experience and effort incapacitates and does not make
\nefficient. The issue of freedom is therefore the only issue. All other issues
\nare merely delusion and Maya, all other talk is the talk of men that sleep or
\nare in intellectual and moral bondage.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>We Nationalists declare that man is for ever and inalienably free and
\nthat we too are, both individually as Indian men and collectively as an Indian
\nnation, for ever and inalienably free. As freemen we will speak the thing that
\nseems right to us without caring what others may do to our bodies to punish us
\nfor being freemen, as freemen we will do what we think good for our country, as
\nfreemen we will educate ourselves in our own schools, settle our differences by
\nour own arbitrators, sell and buy our own<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-491<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ngoods,
\nbuild up our own character, our own civilisation, our own national destinies.
\nYour schools, your administration, your Law Courts, your manufactured articles,
\nyour Legislative Councils, your Ordinances and sedition laws are to us things
\nalien and unreal, and we eschew them as Maya, as anā<\/font>tman<\/i>. <\/i>If men and nations are for ever and
\ninalienably free, then bondage is an illusion, the rule of one nation over
\nanother is against natural law and therefore a falsehood, and falsehood can only
\nendure so long as the Truth refuses to recognise itself. The princes of Bengal
\nat the time of Plassey did not realise that we could save ourselves. We were not
\nenslaved by Clive, for not even a thousand Clives could have had strength enough
\nto enslave us, we were enslaved by our own delusions, by the false conviction of
\nweakness. And the moment we get the full conviction of our strength, the
\nconviction that we are for ever and inalienably free, and that nobody but
\nourselves can either take or keep from us that inalienable and priceless
\npossession, from that moment freedom is assured. So long as we go on crying
\n"We are unfit, we are unfit", or even doubt our fitness, so long we
\nshall make and keep ourselves unfit. It is only the conviction of fitness for
\nfreedom and the practice of freedom that makes and keeps men fit for freedom. To
\ncreate that conviction, to encourage and make habitual that practice is the
\nwhole aim of the new movement. Nationalism is the gospel of inalienable freedom.
\nBoycott is the practice of freedom. To break the Boycott and to stop the
\npreaching of Nationalism is the whole object of the bureaucracy. The Times <\/i>saw
\nthis when it singled out the writings of Bande Mataram <\/i>and Yugantar<\/i>, <\/i>the
\nspeeches of Bepin Chandra Pal and his like and above all, the Boycott as the
\nroot of all evil. Behind all technicalities this is the true and only issue in
\nthese sedition cases. The Nationalists declare that Indians are for ever and
\ninalienably freemen and vindicate their right to preach this gospel; Mr. Morley
\nand the bureaucrats tell us we are for ever and inalienably the property of
\nEngland and would pursue our preaching as a crime. Who or what shall reconcile
\nthis fundamental and irreconcilable opposition?<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> July 29, 1907<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-492<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Issue                           THE bureaucracy as usual has over-reached itself in instituting a case under the sedition clause against the editor of the Yugantar….<\/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-406","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\/406","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=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}