{"id":816,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=816"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:36","slug":"18-government-by-panic-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\/18-government-by-panic-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-18_Government by Panic.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nGovernment
\nby Panic<\/font>     <\/span>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n                     
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>O<\/font><\/b>NE <\/b><\/font> <\/span>does
\nnot know precisely how to take the extraordinary accounts of the charges against
\nLala Lajpatrai and the panic among Europeans which have been reaching us from
\nthe North. We used to think the English deficient in imagination, but the vivid
\nand fluorescent powers of fancy which this panic has revealed, puts all our
\npreconceived ideas to rout. Not only have the Government given vent t6 an
\noutburst of poetical fancy beyond all parallel but they have insisted on staging
\nand enacting their dramatic creation in real life. Sir Denzil Ibbetson reminds
\nus of that great aesthetic realist, Nero, who made slaves and prisoners enact
\nthe parts of classic tragedy and had them actually stabbed or crucified or torn
\nby real wild beasts to embody his mimic imaginations. Sir Denzil has conceived a
\nsplendid melodramatic tragedy called The Rebellion Forestalled <\/i>or British
\nEmpire Saved <\/i>and the Punjab Bar have been obliged to play the leading parts.
\nThe conception is admirable. An inoffensive pleader sitting among his briefs, to
\nall appearance harmless, un- military, civilian, but in reality a masked
\nTamerlane, Napoleon or Shivaji, full of dark and tremendous schemes; a disarmed
\nand helpless mob of workmen and peasants who are really a dangerous,
\nwell-equipped and well-organised army of a hundred thousand Jats capable of
\noverthrowing the British Empire; a wide- spread and diabolically complex plot on
\nthe bursting point, Lahore Fort to be seized and, we presume, Lajpat to be
\ncrowned the first Punjabi Emperor of India, – when suddenly, lo and behold! the
\nglorified and splendiferous figure of Sir Denzil Ibbetson appears, hurling
\nlightnings and clothed in majesty, catches up the arch-conspirator in his mighty
\nhand and a motor-car tosses him over the continent to Rangoon or the Andamans,
\nenvelops the rebel province in a cloud of cavalry and siege-guns and the British
\nEmpire, – and incidentally Lahore Fort, –
\nis saved. A most admirably dramatic denouement! And to add the right
\nShakespearian touch of grotesque humour, we are told that this<\/p>\n

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

  <\/span><\/font>
\nPage-51<\/p>\n

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

\n


\nphantom army foreshadows its attack by throwing stones at the gate of Lahore
\nFort, whose feelings must have been deeply hurt by such contumelious behaviour,
\n– either as a sort of chivalrous warning to the garrison or as a symbolic
\nrehearsal of the intended storm!<\/p>\n

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

           <\/span><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/span>Are these the imaginations of sane men, or the diseased and distorted
\nphantasmagoria which presents itself to bemused intellects in a Chinese
\nopium-den? If it had been a little more plausible, we might have thought it a
\nMachiavellian invention of Anglo- Indian statesmen to justify their instituting
\na – Russian policy of repression. But a lawyer militarist leading an army of
\nIndian peasants, Lahore Fort to be stormed by an unarmed mob with their fists, –
\nor with stones, the British Empire to be over- thrown by this extraordinary
\narmy, – the whole is a wild nightmare of panic-stricken brains. We are told that
\nthe Europeans were so panic-stricken, many of them passed the night on the rail-
\nway platform, ready for flight. The Civil and Military Gazette <\/i>also
\nsolemnly affirms that Lajpatrai was an arch-rebel with a hundred thousand men
\nunder his orders and hints pretty plainly that the prompt action of Sir Denzil
\nIbbetson saved the British from a rebellion. And these are the men who think
\nthat they can go on ruling a nation of three hundred millions by mere repression
\nand the terror of the sword, after the moral bases of their supremacy are gone!
\nThe great strong successful despots of the world were not men who started at
\nevery shadow and took every bush in the darkness for an enemy. Government by
\npanic has never yet been a success and we doubt whether it will be any more
\nsuccessful in India than elsewhere. But here we find panic initiating a policy,
\nbewilderment approving of it and alarm sanctioning it. Not only the Punjab
\nGovernment, not only the "level- headed" Lord Minto, but even the
\naustere and philosophical Mr. Morley has committed himself to government by
\npanic. It is for us to take full advantage of the mistakes of our political
\nadversaries.<\/p>\n

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

 
\n <\/font>
\n<\/span>Bande
\nMataram, <\/span><\/i>May
\n13, 1907
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-52
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Government by Panic                             ONE does not know precisely how to take the extraordinary accounts of the charges against Lala Lajpatrai and the panic…<\/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-816","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\/816","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=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}