{"id":784,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=784"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:23","slug":"04-reconstitution-of-the-congress-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\/04-reconstitution-of-the-congress-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-04_Reconstitution of the Congress.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nReconstitution of the Congress<\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n                      
\n<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span>T<\/font><\/span><\/b>HE new demand for
\na constitution for the Indian National Congress is, – as we pointed out
\nyesterday, – <\/span>only a necessary
\ncorollary to that other and more radical demand for a thorough reconsideration
\nand reconstruction of the entire plan and programme of that great national
\nmovement which has, since<\/span> some<\/span>
\ntime past, been so persistently urged
\nupon the atten<\/span>tion of the leaders by a large and increasing body of
\nCongress- men almost in every part of the country. The Congress originally came into
\nbeing with the express object of helping the Govern<\/span>ment by furnishing it
\nwith an unauthorised, but therefore none the less useful, instrument for
\nascertaining the trend and strength of educated public opinion in the country.
\nThis was the view evidently which Lord Dufferin took of it. This was the logic
\nalso of the attitudes and ideals of almost every Congress leader in the early
\nyears of the life of this institution from Hume downwards, as it is clearly that
\nof most, if not of all of our Anglo-Indian friends at Palace Chambers. To urge
\nthe will of the people, or more<\/span>
\ncorrectly speaking the will of their
\neducated leaders, upon the governors of the country, and thus to make the
\nadministration more popular than what it was and could otherwise ever <\/span>expect<\/span>
\nto be, this was clearly the object of even the most radical <\/span>Congressmen
\nin the country twenty years ago. All the reforms that<\/span>
\nthe Congress urged upon the attention of
\nthe Government <\/span>were<\/span>
\ndirected towards this end. The reform
\nand expansion of <\/span>the Legislative Councils along popular lines by the
\nintroduction of
\nsome<\/span> measure of election in their
\nconstitution; the reform of <\/span>the Indian Civil Service with a view to make
\nroom for a larger number<\/span>
\nof Indians in it; the reconstitution of
\nthe public services <\/span>with
\nthe same<\/span> purpose; the development
\nof local self-government <\/span>through<\/span>
\nexisting Local and District Boards; –
\nall these were <\/span>urged
\nupon<\/span> the tacit acceptance of the
\nabsolute sovereignty of <\/span>the British people in India as both desirable and
\nunalterable. The Congress<\/span>
\nwanted to make England’s yoke in India
\neasy, and its
\n  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-3<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

burden light, but not to remove
\nthat yoke altogether. Indian politicians then, played really the part of British
\nstatesmen, working together, in the Congress, to secure the permanence of the
\npresent subjection, by placing England’s rule in India "broad- based upon
\nthe wishes of the people". The idea that India shall always occupy a
\nsubordinate and dependent position in world- politics, and play, even in her
\nmost advanced stage, only second fiddle to her British masters, was not
\nrepellent to the patriots of the Indian National Congress in those days, as it
\nis not repel- lent to some of the Congress leaders even now. But the attitude of
\nthe country has undergone a more or less radical change in course of these
\ntwenty years. A new patriotism, more sensitive than the patriotism of the old
\ndays, has commenced to grow in the country. The conflict of colour has become
\nkeener between the people and the Government than what it was before; and the
\nconviction has taken a deep root in many minds, even in the ranks of old
\nCongressmen, that British Liberalism will never be strong or sincere enough to
\naccept India as a co-sharer in the great British Empire, standing on terms of
\nperfect equality with its other parts; but that so long as this British
\nconnection lasts, India must hold a subordinate and more or less dependent
\nposition in the federation of that Empire. The representatives of Government
\nhave themselves become more outspoken in these matters than they were before,
\nand not only did Lord Curzon put a new interpretation on the Queen’s
\nproclamation, and openly declare that so long as the Government in India
\ncontinued to be British, the, highest and most responsible positions in the
\nState must be the absolute monopoly of the Britisher, but even a Liberal
\nstatesman like Lord Reay, – who had hitherto been regarded as almost friendly to
\nIndia- and as sympathetic towards the political aspirations of her people as
\nLord Ripon, – repeated the same sentiments only the other day at the meeting of
\nthe East India Association when Mr. Gokhale read his paper there on
\nself-government in India. Radicals and Conservatives are thus alike anxious to
\nperpetuate the present despotism in this country. Indian reformers can expect
\nabsolutely no help from either party in their struggles for political freedom.
\nThis conviction is fast growing among our people, and it has, naturally,
\ncommenced to<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n Page-4<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

turn our eyes away not only from
\nthe Government of India, but <\/span>also
\nsimultaneously from the British nation across the seas.<\/p>\n

               
\n<\/span>If India ever attains
\npolitical freedom it will be by her own unaided effort, –<\/span>
\nthis is the new idea in the country. And
\nthe <\/span>history of the last twelve months, the sudden awakening of the nation
\nthat is being witnessed on all sides, the sudden and miraculous union between
\nthe masses and the classes in the pursuit of common patriotic end, such as has
\nbeen seen in the present Boycott Movement, all these have evolved a new faith
\nout of this new idea, – a new faith in
\nthe capacity of the people to <\/span>work out their own destiny, – and have
\nopened up immense possibilities before this ancient and suffering nation. The
\ndemand for a reconsideration of the plan and programme of the Congress has been prompted
\n<\/span>by this new faith, and a constitution for the Congress wanted to organise
\nthese new ideas in the country, and furnish adequate organs and instruments for
\nthe application of the combined activities of the people to the work of
\nnation-building that lies  <\/span>before us
\njust now.<\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span>Bande Mataram, <\/i>August 21\/22,
\n1906<\/p>\n

\nPage-5<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reconstitution of the Congress                          THE new demand for a constitution for the Indian National Congress is, – as we pointed out yesterday, –…<\/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-784","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\/784","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=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}