{"id":781,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=781"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:22","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:22","slug":"22-no-common-ideal-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\/22-no-common-ideal-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-22_No Common Ideal.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nNo
\nCommon Ideal<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n                   
\n<\/span><\/span>T<\/b><\/font>HE
\nsurcharged state of the political atmosphere is not favourable to the growth of
\nModerate politics; and the present policy of the Government has made many mild
\nModerates realise the utter impossibility of securing our political rights by
\nfollowing the old course of the so-called constitutional agitation. And we are
\nglad to note that some of our Moderate contemporaries have begun to show a
\ndistinct liking for what they used to abhor as "Dangerous Extremist
\npolitics." The Indian Patriot <\/i>of Madras, so well known for its
\nopposition to the New Thought, has the following:
\n–<\/p>\n

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

           
\n<\/span>"The fight between Moderates and Extremists, which has been going on
\nnow for over a year and a half, and which seemed to strain the feelings between
\nthe two to the breaking point at the last Congress, seems no longer destined to
\nbe a marked feature of Indian politics; for in the face of the danger which
\nthreatens law and liberty in the land, the fight will cease, and both will
\njoin
\nin self-defence. Whatever may be their differences as regards principles and
\nmethods, and even as regards their aims, both will readily agree that the
\nliberty of the subject should be respected, and that we should have freedom even
\nin the midst of servitude. It is the interest of both to secure law and liberty
\nagainst the aggression of the executive. All other considerations, every
\ndifference as regards opinions and principles, will be subordinated to this one
\nend; for most educated Indians will recognise that liberty of persons and
\nliberty of discussion are the chief safe- guards of all other liberties, and
\nthese it is impossible to maintain if the executive can by their mere will
\narrest and deport persons and prohibit public meetings. Hitherto the Moderates
\nand the Extremists have been pulling violently in opposite directions, the one
\nbelieving in the possibility of a remedy being found for every evil within the
\nconstitution itself, the other relying on dissociation with Government and
\nquasi-Government institutions.<\/p>\n

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


\n
\nPage-59<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In
\nother words, the vast majority of educated Indians have believed in no progress
\nexcept by means of association with the rulers of the land, while a growing
\nminority have been urging methods of boycott as the only means of compelling
\nreform."
\n           
\n<\/span>But afraid lest the words quoted above should be taken as an expression
\nof Extremist opinion by Anglo-India, the Patriot <\/i>hastened to disown any
\nfaith in the "unpractical" remedy recommended by the Extremists. But
\ncontradictory opinions are hard to reconcile, and in the very next sentence the Patriot
\n<\/i>again said, more in sorrow than in anger, that the Government had by its
\nrecent action allowed the Extremists to score a point. "The power," it
\nadmitted, "which the Government have exercised is a sort of dispensing
\npower; they have for the time being dispensed with the laws of the land."
\nThis admission that the laws of the land have been dispensed with by the
\nGovernment,~ together
\nwith the opinion expressed by our contemporary on the "unexpected
\nproceedings of the Government" which it calls "aberrations of
\nauthority", – should
\nhave convinced at least our contemporary that it is not possible to get our
\npolitical rights as gifts from a Government which has "dispensed with the
\nlaws of the land" and indulged in "aberrations of authority".
\n <\/span><\/font>           
\nOur contemporary’s comments on the attitude of the Anglo- Indian Press
\ntowards the present agitation are even more hopeful. And though our
\ncontemporary’s firm but misplaced faith in the Englishman’s love of liberty and
\nliking for the right of public discussion has made him express his surprise at
\nthe fact "that Englishmen should so largely approve of the liberty of the
\nsubject and of the right of public discussion being placed at the mercy of the
\nexecutive", yet even to our contemporary "it shows, if any- thing,
\nthat there can be no common ideal for Indians and English- men in India; and the
\nlanguage used by the London Times, <\/i>that the aims of the Congress are
\ninconsistent with the fundamental,
\nprinciples of British rule, conclusively establishes that progress according to
\nthe ideals of English-educated Indians is impossible of realisation".
\nExactly so. While the ideal of the Englishman in India is to keep the people
\nhere in perpetual servitude for his own benefit, the ideal of the Indian is to
\nsecure for himself those<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-60
\n <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

rights
\nwhich alone make national existence worth enjoying.
\n            We wish our
\nModerate contemporary had stopped here. But the sudden flash that had revealed
\nto him the real situation dies out as suddenly and he goes back to the old
\nsuperstitions which they say die hard. What, asks our contemporary,-
\n           
\n<\/span>"Is then the hope for India and Indians? If we accept the dictum of
\nthe Times, <\/i>there is none. We hope, however, that this is only a passing
\nphase of political thought and not a deliberate declaration of an immutable
\nprinciple. The Extremists would welcome nothing more cheerfully than such a
\ndeclaration; for it gives strength to their theories, and sustenance to their
\nopinions. They have no faith in appeals to authority; they" are against
\nsubmitting petitions to Government. The idea may be chimerical. Still it is
\ntheir idea, and they cherish it with hope. Amidst such a conflict of opinions,
\nwe can regard nothing as more unfortunate than such a declaration as that which
\nthe Times <\/i>has made."<\/p>\n

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

           
\n<\/span>Is it too much to hope that in the light of Mr. Morley’s Budget speech
\nand the spirit which pervaded it, Moderate publicists like the Patriot <\/i>will
\nget rid of this last lingering delusion that "this is only a passing’ phase
\nof political thought"? The Patriot <\/i>is very sorry that facts should
\nbe justifying the Extremist theories. Why? Surely, what we want in India is a
\nsound and sensible policy based upon the truth, and if it turns out that the
\nEnglish professions of liberalism in which the Patriot <\/i>put faith were
\ndelusions and that the Extremist view is the right one, the discovery of the
\ntruth, however unexpected and momentarily unpalatable, should be welcomed by
\nevery sincere patriot. Least of all should the Patriot <\/i>think it
\ndeplorable that the’ Times <\/i>and Mr. Morley should throw off the mask. What
\nwould have been deplorable was the continued resort to the mask and undue delay
\nin the inevitable awakening.
\n  <\/font><\/p>\n

Bande
\nMataram, <\/i>June 11, 1907<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-61<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Common Ideal                       THE surcharged state of the political atmosphere is not favourable to the growth of Moderate politics; and the present policy…<\/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-781","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\/781","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=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}