{"id":771,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=771"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:18","slug":"12-congress-and-democracy-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/27-supplement-volume-27\/12-congress-and-democracy-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-12_Congress and Democracy.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\n\t\t
\n\t\tCongress
\n<\/font>
\nand Democracy<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n                    
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/font>
\nT<\/font><\/b>HE principles
\nof Democracy, so difficult
\nto learn everywhere, are the most difficult to imbibe in a country has been,
\nlike ours, for so many centuries under foreign despotism. We are not, therefore,
\nsurprised at the autocratic ways of our own democratic leaders. Ever since the
\nbirth of the Congress, those who have been in the leadership of this great
\nNational movement  <\/span>have persistently
\ndenied the general public in the try the right of determining what shall and
\nwhat shall not be or done on their behalf and in their name. The delegates been
\ngathered from all parts of the country, not to deliberate , public matters, but
\nsimply to lend their support to the decisions that had already been arrived at
\nby secret conclaves of half
\na dozen men. In the earlier years, the practical work of the Congress was done in an absolutely
\nhole-and-corner way, and the
\ngeneral body of
\nthe delegates had nothing else to do but to dance to
\nthe tune of Messrs. Hume and Company, and the very birth e institution now known
\nas the Subjects Committee was due threat held out twenty years ago at the First
\nMadras Congress by a young delegate, to publicly defy the decisions of the co-
\nwhich prepared the programme of the Congress by asserting 
\n<\/span>his right to
\nmove any resolution he liked, before the Congress, leaving
\nit to the delegates to accept or reject it as they pleased.
\nIt was to avoid the possibility of such scenes that the old coterie had
\nto<\/span> abdicate<\/span>
\ntheir right to dictate to the Congress as to what it shall
\ndiscuss and to accept the suggestion of leaving the settlement of the Congress
\nprogramme to a representative Committee duly elected
\nby the delegates present. This Subjects Committee is the only constitutional
\nsafeguard provided so far by the Congress against the exercise of autocratic
\npower by any individual congressman or any clique or coterie of the delegates.
\nBut it has proved<\/span>
\nduring the last twenty years to be more or less a paper guard
\nand sometimes through impatience, occasionally even pen bullying, half a dozen
\nmen, led by the masterful perso-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-35
\n <\/font>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

nality
\nof Pherozshah Mehta, have converted the Congress into practically a private
\nconcern. Presidents are selected from year to year without the slightest regard
\nfor the feelings and sentiments of the general body of Congressmen in the
\ncountry, topics for discussion are selected and rejected just as they suit the
\nwishes or offend the susceptibilities of these half a dozen men. It was thus
\nthat Babu Surendranath Banerji came to be nominated for the Presidency of the
\nCongress a second time, while Babu Kali Charan Banerjee, another distinguished
\nleader of Bengal, was kept out of it altogether. It was thus again that a
\nyounger and much less influential man in his own community like Mr. Gopal
\nKrishna Gokhale came to be called to the President’s chair of the Congress,
\nwhile a man like Mr. Bal Gangadhar Tilak who holds a unique position in the
\ncountry, both as a scholar and a leader of
\n his
\npeople, than whom no man among us has made greater sacrifices or suffered more
\ncruelly for his love of his people, has not yet been thought of as a fit man for
\nthe Congress Presidency. Those who have attended the meetings of the Subjects
\nCommittee know from bitter personal experience how almost impossible it is for
\nany man to get even a decent hearing from his colleagues on that Committee if
\nhis views do not fall in completely with those of the three or four gentlemen
\nwho have all these years usurped the guidance of the Congress. Neither so
\nuniversally respected a leader like Babu Baikunthanath Sen of Berhampur, nor a
\nman so universally loved of his people as Babu Aswinikumar Dutt of Barisal, nor
\nso thoughtful a politician as Pandit Bishnu Narayan Dhar could get oftentimes a
\ndecent hearing from the three or four men who have practically kept the Congress
\napron-strings since Mr. Hume’s departure from India. It is these men who,
\naccustomed to run the show according to their sweet will and pleasure, have
\nconstantly obstructed every attempt to give a proper constitution to this great
\nNational Institution. Every year, for some time past, this proposal has been
\npressed on the Subjects Committee and every year it has been shelved by being
\nreferred to a Committee whose want of ability or inclination to do the work
\nentrusted to them had always been a foregone conclusion. In consequence of this
\nautocracy, public interest in the actual work of the Congress has rapidly
\ndeclined almost everywhere. <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\nPage-36<\/p>\n

 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Meetings
\nfor organising the work of the Congress can no longer
\nfor want of people willing to attend them. Delegates are in most places,
\nelected, if it may be called an election at all by moribund and sometimes even
\ndefunct organisations and it does not infrequently happen that half a dozen
\nlawyers, meeting in a way at the local Bar Library, elect thirty delegates from
\ntheir district for the Congress and the superhuman feat is recorded by wire in
\nthe daily papers as a crowded meeting where public enthusiasm for the Congress
\ncause rose to white heat. The sham has continued for too long, the deceit has
\nbeen practised e people far too frequently and shamelessly, and the time has
\ncome when a new departure must be made if the Congress is realise in any measure
\nthe promises of its early days. One of the most hopeful signs of the times is
\nthe quickening of new of civic life and patriotic duty in the country, and there
\nis a desire among thinking people everywhere and more particularly in the
\nmofussil districts of Bengal, to utilise the Congress organisation of the new
\ndemocratic spirit in the country do this work properly and well, the existing
\nautocratic and tendencies in the present leadership of the Congress will have to
\nbe put down with a strong hand by means of an organised effort on the part of
\nthose who believe in democracy and have too sincere and strong a love for their
\ncountry to hesitate do the cruellest work for its sake.
\n <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

       
\n 
\n<\/span>That there is a growing desire in the country to place the Congress upon
\na sounder and more democratic and popular evidenced by the meetings that are
\nbeing held all over the country  <\/span>to
\nplace the Congress upon a sounder and more democratic and popular basis is
\nevidenced by the meetings that are being held all over the country to have Mr.
\nBal Gangadhar Tilak elected as President of the coming session of the Congress
\nin Calcutta. It will be the affectation to deny that these meetings are
\norganised by ends of the New Party in this province; we have no desire to
\nconceal that fact. At the same time, though the articulation of the sentiments
\nthat stand at the back of these demonstrations is due to outside stimulus, the
\ngenuineness of these sentiments cannot be honestly questioned, and the fact that
\nthese sentiments have ,articulated in the face of a most disingenuous attempt by
\npeople to thwart Mr. Tilak\u2019s nomination, speaks a great deal or the intensity
\nof the feelings of the people towards Mr.<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-37
\n <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Tilak. Baffled in secretly "appointing some harmless" man as President
\nof the coming Congress the old leaders have been playing a new trick. The only
\nman who could keep Mr. Tilak out is Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji. Mr. Naoroji being
\nasked, by whomsoever it may be, to come and guide our deliberations this year,
\nin place of Mr. Tilak, whom it would be difficult in any case to induce to
\naccept the President’s chair, would himself stoutly refuse to be nominated. It
\nis clear from Babu Bhupendranath Bose’s letter that the invitation to Mr.
\nNaoroji has been given, not in order to get Mr. Naoroji in but to keep Mr. Tilak
\nout. We wonder what, Mr. Naoroji’s feelings will be when he learns, as he
\ncertainly will, to what an unworthy use he has been put by the Calcutta
\nautocracy.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Bande
\nMataram, <\/span><\/i>September<\/span>
\n<\/span>13,
\n1906
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-38<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congress and Democracy                        THE principles of Democracy, so difficult to learn everywhere, are the most difficult to imbibe in a country has been,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-27-supplement-volume-27","wpcat-16-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","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=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}