{"id":805,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=805"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:32","slug":"13-the-conspirators-at-work-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\/13-the-conspirators-at-work-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-13_The Conspirators at Work.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n


\n
\nThe
\nConspirators at Work<\/span><\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n                            
\nT<\/b>HERE <\/span>is a conspiracy to thwart the desire country to have Mr. Tilak as President
\nof the coming  <\/span>Congress in Calcutta.
\nThis is due to the natural nervousness of
\nthe coterie that have been ruling the Congress all these years, that 
\n<\/span>recognise in the sudden awakening of active interest in asses of the
\ncountry in the work of the Congress a serious menace to their old and
\nautocratic authority; and the object of conspiracy is not merely to keep Mr. Tilak out of the Congress Presidency, but also to kill at its very birth this
\nnew, and in view, <\/span>dangerous
\ndemocratic movement in the Congress. This is <\/span> <\/span>almost
\nthe first time that the message of the Congress has been delivered to large
\nnumbers of the rural population in Bengal. In 
\n<\/span>Chittagong, the meeting which accepted the two resolutions concerning the
\ncoming Congress, was attended by many thousands of people; and the learned
\ncritic who tried in the columns Bengalee <\/i><\/span>to
\nthrow discredit on the estimate of our Chittagong <\/span>Correspondent
\nby referring to the total population of that town, forgot that the crowds that
\ngathered to hear Babu Bepin chandra Pal had come in large numbers from the
\ninterior of the district. Many came by train, a much larger number came on foot
\nfrom neighbouring villages, and many more came by boats. The swadeshi Samaj at
\nwhose instance these meetings were held, hard from the day that Babu Bepin
\nChandra Pal’s presence in the on came to be known, worked up the whole district,
\ninviting the mofussil people to come and hear him; and when Bepin Chandra Pal
\nfailed to be at Chittagong on the first date that they had fixed for his visit,
\nthe Secretary sent an urgent wire to him at Comilla, saying that
\n"thousands" had come to the station to receive him and had gone away
\ndisappointed, and when Bepin Chandra Pal went at last to Chittagong he was
\nexpressly detained there longer than he had intended to do, on the ground that
\ninformation had been sent again to the interior and people 
\n<\/span>could not gather before Sunday, and not in full force
\n 
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-39
\n <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\neven before Monday. Maulavi Kazimali Khan, a local Mahomedan Zemindar, while
\ncommenting on Bepin Babu’s address on Saturday, distinctly said that more than
\nten thousand Mahomedans were present there, and Maulavi Kazimali must have had
\nsome idea as to the number of his own people who had come to the meeting. The
\nChittagong Resolution recommending Mr.Tilak for the Presidency was adopted by
\nat least twelve to fifteen thousand men. The same thing happened in Dacca; over
\nten thousand people, on a most moderate computation, must have adopted this
\nResolution at the meeting at Swamibag last Friday. In Mymensingh the meeting was
\nheld in the premises of the Gauripore house which were fully covered by the
\ncrowd, and large numbers stood on the public road. It is a new thing, this
\nawakening of interest in the public movements of the country, in her rural
\npopulation; and autocracy, whether official or non- official, cannot bear this
\nencroachment, as it thinks, upon its preserve by the man in the street. It is
\nnot, therefore, Mr.Tilak alone, the idol of his people, whose elevation to the
\nleadership of the Congress the autocrats in Bombay and Calcutta so much dread,
\nbut the invasion of their preserve by the people, that has led them to join in a
\nconspiracy to defeat his nomination.<\/p>\n

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


\n            <\/span>Tilak
\nmust not be made the President of the Congress, for Bombay objects to him,
\nMadras objects to him, and the Central Provinces and the United Provinces would
\nnot have him. But is it true? Does Bombay really object to have the one man who
\nhas made her own public life so strong, so organised, and so respected all over
\nIndia, nominated as President of the Congress? Babu Bhupendranath Basu says so,
\nthe Sanjibani <\/i>drawing infallible inspiration from the same source
\nproclaims it; there must, then, be some truth in it. But we have a right to know
\non whose authority Babu Bhupendranath and his confreres <\/i>are making these
\ndeclarations? That the autocrats of Bombay would object to Tilak’s nomination
\nwas known even without a message from Hastings Street or College Square. The
\nMetropolitan Press of Bombay which is ruled by Mr. Mehta and the Parsees, has
\nnever been friendly to Tilak and that they would also oppose Tilak’s nomination
\nwas a foregone conclusion. But what about the great Maharashtra? Do they too
\nobject to have Tilak  <\/span>nominated<\/p>\n

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


\n <\/p>\n

Page-40
\n <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

for
\nthe <\/span>Presidency of
\nthe Congress? And if Maharashtra cannot
\nspeak in
\nthe name of Bombay, who, pray, can do so? Are we reduced
\n<\/span>to 
\n<\/span>such a pass that we must resign our national cause, <\/span><\/span>
\nwhich has received a new and unprecedented strength and inspiration from the
\npresent boycott and Swadeshi movement to the hands of a coterie of importers of
\nforeign goods in the city of Bombay, who have opposed all these years every
\nmeasure that
\ncontained the
\nleast fear of risk to their trade and their profits? When 
\n<\/span>the whole
\ncountry supported the principle of the Counter-ruling Duty on bounty-fed sugar it
\nwas Bombay City alone that opposed and condemned it. When Babu Baikunthanath Sen
\nwanted to commit the Congress to a very mild and permissive
\ndeclaration
\nto encourage the use of indigenous products as encourage<\/span>ment
\nto home industry, it was Bombay City again that
\nsaw it a menace to her profitable trade in foreign goods and
\nviolently opposed it. And, lastly, what has been Bombay’s
\nattitude towards the present Swadeshi and Boycott Movement?
\nHas Bombay supported it, – that Bombay, we mean, by which
\nBhupendranath and the Sanjibani <\/i>are so piously swearing
\ntoday? On the contrary, has not Bombay, that is, the Mehta- Wacha clique, have
\nthey not offered a most determined hostility 
\n<\/span>Bengal Movement? When Bengal was in distress this time last year,
\nover the question of supply, and went a-begging to Bombay
\nto help her in her trial by just keeping down the price their Mill produce to
\nits normal level, did the Mehta-Wacha clique raise even their little finger to
\nhelp her? On the contrary, when Tilak went
\nbeseeching the Mill-owners from door to door not to use
\nBengal’s calamity as their opportunity and induced a large number
\nof Gujarati Mill-owners to meet at a Conference and devise some reasonable way
\nto help Bengal, who was it, we ask, who prevented that Conference being held and
\nactually dispersed it by  <\/span>bullying?
\nWas it not Mr.Wacha, the General Secretary of the Congress, the right-hand man
\nof Mr.Mehta, the uncrowned king, as a Madras rhapsodist proclaimed him, of
\nIndia? Is Bengal now to bow down to the dictate of this clique, who have no more
\nright to speak in the name of Bombay than Bhupendranath has to speak in the name
\nof Bengal? Is
\nnot Babu Bhupendranath aware of the part that the Mehta-<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>
\nPage-41<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\nWacha clique played in regard to the Boycott movement during the past year? And
\nif Bombay objects to Tilak’s nomination today, did not Bengal also, in the same
\nsense, object to Lalmohan Ghose’s nomination to the Presidency three years back?
\nHave Babu Bhupendranath and his friends such conveniently short memories that
\nthey forget that little and illuminating incident about a telegram having been
\nsent from Calcutta saying, – Bengal will not have Lalmohan?<\/p>\n

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

           
\n<\/span>These are ugly revelations, and we have been reluctant to make them.
\nThere are black sheep in every fold. There are selfish, unscrupulous, designing
\nmen in every country, and they are found in every movement. They have their good
\npoints, for human nature is not essentially bad but good, and the bad is always
\naccidental, the good alone is necessary and permanent. We are anxious not to
\nemphasise, but to ignore the dark side of every man and every party, but when
\nadvantage is taken of reticence to defeat the cause of the country or the
\nnation, such reticence becomes almost sinful and our autocrats must know this
\nthat if they conspire to defeat the present movement in secret, we shall not
\nhesitate to expose them in public.<\/p>\n

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

           
\n<\/span>It is, however, said that not Bombay alone, but Madras and the Central
\nProvinces, and Allahabad and Oudh also would not have Mr. Tilak. We do not know
\nwho are the men in Madras who are speaking,
\n – if
\nthey have spoken at all, – in
\nthe name of Madras in this matter. It must be the same story everywhere. If
\nanybody has actually opposed Mr. Tilak’s nomination from Madras, it must be the
\nautocrats there, and it will have to be seen whether the people of Madras
\nactually support this metropolitan clique. Babu Bhupendranath speaks of the
\nCentral Provinces also, we learn, as opposed to Tilak; will Dr. Moonje of Nagpur
\nand Mr. Khaparde of Amraoti say if it is really so? They ought to have some
\nslight knowledge of the state of public feeling in their own parts. The fact
\nreally is, Babu Bhupendranath knows no Calcutta or Bengal outside what is
\ncovered by himself and his friends, the rest are uninstructed, unillumined,
\nwithout power and without influence, having no right to be counted in such high
\nnational affairs as belonging to the nation except as a faithful following of
\nBabu  <\/span>Bhupendranath and his friends.
\nSo<\/p>\n

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


\nPage-42
\n <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Mr.Meheta<\/span>
\n<\/span>and
\nhis friends constitute the only Bombay; perhaps <\/span>,
\nMr. Mudholkar and Mr. Chitnavis constitute the only C.P.Pandit;  Madanmohan
\nMalavya constitutes the only United <\/span>Provinces<\/span>
\n<\/span>that
\nBabu Bhupendranath knows. The Sanjibani, <\/i><\/span>organ
\n<\/span>of
\nthe Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, which professes <\/span>racy
\neven <\/span>in
\nthe determination of divine truths, might b<\/span>een
\nexpected to know better. But even the Sanjibani <\/i>when it speaks of Bombay
\nor the Central Provinces or the United Provinces means, evidently, the old
\nautocrats of the Congress in those places. This autocracy must be knocked on the
\nhead. This is the meaning and message of the movement that has found expression
\nin the proposals to have Tilak elected as President of the new Congress, and the
\nlatent forces of democracy must be aroused to activity in every Province to
\ndefeat or punish the conspiracy <\/span>that
\nhas been secretly hatched to prevent the nomination o<\/span>f
\nMr. Tilak to the Presidential chair of the coming session Congress <\/span>in
\nCalcutta.<\/p>\n

 
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Bande
\nMataram, September 14, 1906
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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


\nPage-43<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Conspirators at Work                                THERE is a conspiracy to thwart the desire country to have Mr. Tilak as President of the coming  Congress…<\/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-805","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\/805","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=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}