{"id":794,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=794"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:27","slug":"07-partition-and-the-government-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\/07-partition-and-the-government-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-07_Partition and The Government.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n<\/p>\n

P<\/font><\/span>artition and the Government<\/font>  <\/font><\/span><\/b>   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n  
\n<\/span>        T<\/b><\/font>HE situation in the country is such that the Government will be bound
\nbefore long to devise some effective means to meet it, and what can that means
\nbe except the revocation or some material modification of the Partition of
\nBengal which is the apparent cause of the present crisis. The Government must
\nhave seen already that without some such revocation or modification of the
\nadministrative arrangements in Bengal, as will reunite at least the
\nBengalee-speaking populations of the province under one local Government, the
\npresent discontent will not be allayed. They have tried many things during the
\nlast twelve months; – persecution of school boys, application f regulation
\nlathis, the prostitution of British justice and British administration for
\nsaving British prestige and British trade in the country, have all been tried
\nand all have equally failed create the least impression upon the grim
\ndetermination of e people to boycott British goods; and it must have, by this
\ntime become clear even to the habitually purblind Indian Bureaucracy that the
\nobnoxious Partition measure must be revoked or substantially modified to meet
\nthe irresistible demands if Indian opinion which, unlike what it was before, is
\nnow not an empty, wordy thing, but has a new and growing force behind it .The
\nGovernment cannot be blind to the fact that the boycott of
\nBritish goods, which has already affected British trade to some extent, will not
\nonly increase in volume, inflicting greater injury day by day on England’s
\ncommercial interests in India, but will so be extended to other things than mere
\ngoods and chattels. The<\/span> many
\nstrikes in various parts of the country, the organisation of working men’s unions, and the general upheaval which t<\/span>hese<\/span> indicate, are an ominous<\/span> thing. It shows the new-born capacity
\nof the people of this country for combined and organised opposition to the will
\nof their employers and oppressors; and the lay may not be very distant when
\nthese strikes and combinations will be organised in mercantile concerns and
\nGovernment<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-15<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\noffices, and even in the Police and other State Departments on which the British
\nin India have, naturally, to so entirely depend for the peaceful and
\nuninterrupted discharge of their functions both as rulers of the people and as
\nexploiters of the resources of their country; and if this comes about, who will
\nprevent the people from literally paralysing the whole foreign machinery, both
\nof administration and exploitation in the country, almost any moment they like?
\nThis is the prognosis of the present situation; and neither the Government nor
\nthe foreign mercantile community who, according to Lord Curzon, discharge the
\nsecond of the dual functions of the British Government of India, –<\/span>
\nthe <\/span>function, namely, of exploitation, – can by any means view
\nthis situation without the gravest concern.<\/p>\n

\n             
\n<\/span>And the difficulty of meeting this situation lies in the very nature of
\nthe opposition that the people have resolved to offer to the Government, and the
\nforeign exploiters. Open violence is easy to meet and conquer; especially by a
\nGovernment which is armed with despotic powers and has immense resources both of
\n,<\/span> the Police and the military at
\nits command. But passive resistance is not to be so easily fought and conquered;
\nleast of all can it be conquered by an alien authority when this resistance is
\noffered by a people whose civic life, though destroyed, has found some slight
\ncompensation in the larger and more bold and powerful organisation of their
\nsocial life, and with whom the social boycott is an instrument before which the
\nmightiest political power must ultimately bend its knee and confess its
\nimpotence. Passive resistance is the more difficult to fight among a people who
\nhave been trained by their religion, as well as by the miseries they have been
\nsubjected to for many centuries, under endless vicissitudes of fortune, to bear
\nall ills and deprivations with a more-than-stoic quiet and determination. The
\nconditions of life in a warm climate, which make hunger and cold far easier to
\nbear than these are in colder countries, are also a great and almost invaluable
\nasset on the side of the passive resisters arid strikers in this country. And
\nwhen the day comes, as it is bound to come, if the present agitation continues,
\nthat will see the clerks in the Government offices and the foreign mercantile\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-16<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

firms
\nsimultaneously refusing work, for political reasons, the British authorities and
\ntheir kinsmen will both find themselves suddenly so hopelessly stranded that
\nboth administration and exploitation will become equally impossible at once.
\nBengal, at any rate, is fast moving towards this contingency, and. the very thought
\n<\/span>of it must paralyse the stoutest and most optimistic official in the
\ncountry.
\n               
\n<\/span>Nor are the authorities in England altogether blind to these
\ndangers, The Liberals, whether they are juster and more really symppathetic
\ntowards the civic aspirations of subject races or not, have, however, it must be
\nadmitted, a much clearer perception the dangers of refusing to give people a
\nlegitimate field for civic expansion than the Tories; and the present Liberal
\nGovernment , therefore, likely to realise the dangers ahead more vividly than
\nthe conservatives were likely to do; and it may be taken for granted that they
\nwill be, – if they are not already, – sincerely anxious<\/span> to calm down the present unrest and allay the present
\n;content in India; and as a first step in this direction they will naturally be
\nwilling to reopen the Partition question and probably to revoke it altogether,
\nor adopt some such modification of it as will keep the Bengalee-speaking peoples
\ntogether, under<\/span> the same
\nadministration. This they must already be seriously thinking of doing, or Babu
\nRamesh Chandra Dutt would not have been so hopeful about the repeal of the
\nPartition as he is reported to be. But it would, as we pointed yesterday, be a
\ngrave tactical blunder for our people present any fresh petition to the
\nSecretary of State for India<\/span>, and
\nthus help him and his colleagues to undo the Partition without any humiliating
\nconfession of defeat and failure. If future progress in civic life depends a
\ngood deal upon our ability to wring out these humiliating confessions from the
\npresent despotism. Every such confession of failure to carry out their
\nirresponsible and despotic measures, in the face of popular opposition means an
\nimmense accession of fresh strength to that position, and an increase in the
\nsaving sense of the subject population to regulate and control the action of the
\nGovernment the force of their own organised public opinion. Half the\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-17<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nbattle of freedom in India will be won the day when a measure that the
\nGovernment had set their hearts on, as they clearly had done in the present
\ncase, is subverted and repealed by pressure of organised and resistful popular
\nopinion in the country. It seems surprising that there is such precious little
\npolitical sense in the old leadership of our political life that this elementary
\nfact is not recognised by it, but has to be so persistently hammered into its
\nhead. We can well understand why Sir William Wedderburn, or Sir Henry Cotton, or
\neven Mr. A.O. Hume and other British friends should suggest, if they have not
\ndistinctly advised, the presentation of another petition to the Indian Secretary
\nto give him a decent plea for reopening the question, for such a petition will
\nsave his dignity and the prestige of the Government while at the same time
\ngranting them all an excuse for going back upon their old proclamations
\nregarding administrative urgency and settled facts. But why should we, whose
\ndistinct interest clearly is to increase the power of the people and weaken the
\nunholy prestige of the Government, agree to such a course? If the old leaders in
\nCalcutta are able to read the trend of public opinion in Bengal they must see
\nhow strongly opposed people are to the idea of approaching the authorities with
\nany fresh prayer or petition. The way in which this suggestion was considered at
\nthe recent conference of delegates at the Bengal Landholders’ Association, – and
\nformally rejected, – is a very clear indication of the trend of popular
\nsentiment in the country in regard to this matter. The Comilla Resolution wired
\nby our Comilla Correspondent day before yesterday is extremely significant. This
\nResolution is a distinct proof of the birth of a new political force and the
\nquickening of true political wisdom in the community. The reality of this new
\nforce is proved by the very form in which the Comilla Resolution has been cast.
\nIt is not a mere statement of opinion, unsupported by arguments and facts such
\nas our Resolutions both at the Congress and elsewhere have hitherto been. It is
\nframed after the Resolutions that are usually discussed and adopted at public
\nmeetings and conferences in Europe and America where there is an intense reality
\nin political work and agitation and honest desire in the leaders to take the
\npeople into\n<\/p>\n

           
\nP<\/font><\/span>age-18<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

their 
\n<\/span>fullest confidence in regard to every matter of public interest and
\neducate them up to an intelligent understanding of all He questions. In the face
\nof the Comma Resolution it will be sinful, we hold, on the part of the Calcutta
\nclique even to send any suggestions to the Indian Secretary in regard to the
\nPartition of Bengal.\n<\/p>\n

Bande
\nMataram, September 3, 1906<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-19<\/font>\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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