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ONE
Introduction
IN A series of articles, published in this
paper soon after the Calcutta session of the Congress, we sought to indicate our
view both of the ideal which the Congress had adopted, the ideal of Swaraj or
Self-Government as it exists in the United Kingdom or the Colonies, and of the
possible lines of policy by which that ideal might be attained. There are, we
pointed out, only three possible policies: petitioning, an unprecedented way of
attempting a nation's liberty, which cannot possibly succeed except under
conditions which have not yet existed among human beings; self-development and
self-help; and the old orthodox historical method of organised resistance to the
existing form of Government. We acknowledge that the policy of self-development
which the New Party had forced to the front, was itself a novel departure under
the circumstances of modern India. Self-development of an independent nation is
one thing; self-development from a state of servitude under an alien and
despotic rule without the forcible or peaceful removal of that rule as an
indispensable preliminary, is quite another. No national self-development is
possible without the support of rājaśakti, organised political strength,
commanding, and whenever necessary compelling general allegiance and obedience.
A caste may develop, a particular community may develop, by its own efforts
supported by a strong social organisation; a nation cannot. Industrially,
socially, educationally, there can be no genuine progress carrying the whole
nation forward, unless there is a central force representing either the best
thought and energy of the country or else the majority of its citizens and able
to enforce the views and decisions of the nation on all its constituent members.
Because Japan had such a central authority, she was able in thirty years to face
Europe as an equal; because we in India neither had such an authority nor tried
to develop it, but
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supported
each tottering step by clinging to the step-motherly apron-strings of a foreign
Government, our record of more than seventy years has not been equal to one year
of Japan. We have fumbled through the nineteenth century, prattling of
enlightenment and national regeneration; and the result has been not national
progress, but national confusion and weakness. Individuals here and there might
emancipate themselves and come to greatness; particular communities might show a
partial and one-sided development, for a time only; but the nation instead of
progressing, sank into a very slough of weakness, helplessness and despondency.
Political freedom is the life-breath of a nation; to attempt social reform,
educational reform, industrial expansion, the moral improvement of the race
without aiming first and foremost at political freedom, is the very height of
ignorance and futility. Such attempts are foredoomed to disappointment and
failure; yet when the disappointment and failure come, we choose to attribute
them to some radical defect in the national character; as if the nation were at
fault and not its wise men who would not or could not understand the first
elementary conditions of success. The primary requisite for national progress,
national reform, is the free habit of free and healthy national thought and
action which is impossible in a state of servitude. The second is the
organisation of the national will in a strong central authority.
How impossible it is to carry out efficiently any large national
object
in the absence of this authority was shown by the fate of
the Boycott in Bengal. It is idle to
disguise from ourselves that the Boycott is not as yet effective except
spasmodically and in patches. Yet to carry through the Boycott was a solemn
national decision which has not been reversed but rather repeatedly confirmed.
Never indeed has the national will been so generally and unmistakably declared;
but for the want of a central authority to work for the necessary conditions, to
support by its ubiquitous presence the weak and irresolute and to coerce the
refractory, it has not been properly carried out. For the same reason national
education languishes. For the same reason every attempt at large national action
has failed. It is idle to talk of self-development unless we first evolve a
suitable central authority or Government
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which
all will or must accept. The Japanese perceived this at a very early stage and
leaving aside all other matters, devoted their first energies to the creation of
such an authority in the person of the Mikado and his Government, holding it
cheaply purchased even at the price of temporary internal discord and civil
slaughter. We also must develop a central authority, which shall be a popular
Government in fact though not in name. But Japan was independent; we have to
establish a popular authority which will exist side by side and in rivalry with
a despotic foreign bureaucracy — no ordinary rough-riding despotism, but
quiet, pervasive and subtle — one that has fastened its grip on every detail
of our national life and will not easily be persuaded to let go, even in the
least degree, its octopus-like hold. This popular authority will have to dispute
every part of our national life and activity, one by one, step by step, with the
intruding force to the extreme point of entire emancipation from alien control.
This and no less than this is the task before us. A Moderate critic characterised it at the time as an unheroic programme; but to us it seems so
heroic that we frankly acknowledge its novelty and audacity and the uncertainty
of success. For success depends on the presence of several very rare conditions.
It demands in the first place a country for its field of action in which the
people are more powerfully swayed by the fear of social excommunication and the
general censure of their fellows than by the written law. It demands a country
where the capacity for extreme self-denial is part of the national character or
for centuries has taken a prominent place in the national discipline. These
conditions exist in India. But it requires also an iron endurance, tenacity,
doggedness, far above anything that is needed for the more usual military revolt
or sanguinary revolution. These qualities we have not as yet developed at least
in Bengal; but they are easily generated by suffering and necessity and hardened
into permanence by a prolonged struggle with superior power. There is nothing
like a strong pressure from above to harden
and concentrate what lies below
—
always provided that the superior pressure
is not such as to crush the substance on which it is acting. The last requisite
therefore for the success of the policy of self-development against the pressure
of foreign
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rule
is that the bureaucracy will so far respect its former traditions and
professions as not to interfere finally with any course of action of the popular
authority which does not itself try violently to subvert the connection of the
British Empire with India. It is extremely doubtful whether this last condition
will be satisfied. It is easy to see how the bureaucracy might put a summary end
to National Education or an effective check on industrial expansion or do away
arbitrarily with popular Arbitration Courts. It is easy to see how the
temptation to resort to Russian methods on a much larger and effective scale
than that of mere Fullerism might prove too strong for a privileged class which
felt power slipping from its hold. We therefore said in our previous articles
that we must carry on the attempt at self-development as long as we were
permitted. What would be our next resource if it were no longer permitted, it is
too early to discuss.
The attempt at self-development by self-help is absolutely necessary for
our national salvation, whether we can carry it peacefully to the end or not. In
no other way can we get rid of the fatal dependence, passivity and helplessness
in which a century of all-pervasive British control has confirmed us. To recover
the habit of independent motion and independent action is the first necessity.
It was for this reason that after extreme provocation and full conviction of the
hopelessness otherwise of inducing any change of policy in the older
politicians, the leaders of the New School decided to form an independent party
and place their views as an independent programme before the country. Their
action, though much blamed at the time, has been thoroughly justified by
results. The National Congress has not indeed broken with the old petitioning
traditions, but it has admitted the new policy as an essential part of the
national programme. Swadeshi and National Education have been recognised, and,
in all probability, Arbitration will be given its proper prominence at the next
session; Boycott has been admitted as permissible in principle to all parts of
India though the recommendation to extend it in practice as an integral part of
the national policy was not pressed. It only remained to develop the central
authority which will execute the national policy and evolve with time into a
popular Government. It was for this object that the
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New Party determined not to be satisfied with any further evasion of the
constitution question, though they did not press for the adoption of their own
particular scheme. It is for this object that a Central National Committee has
been formed; that Conferences are being held in various districts and
sub-divisions and Committees created; that the Provincial Conferences are
expected to appoint a Provincial Committee for all Bengal. The mere creation of
these Committees will not provide us with our central authority, nor will they
be really effective for the purpose until the new spirit and the new views are
paramount in the whole country. But it is the first step which costs and the
first step has been taken.
So far, well; but the opposition of the bureaucracy to the national
self-development must be taken into account. Opposition, not necessarily final
and violent, will undoubtedly be offered; and we have not as yet considered the
organisation of any means by which it can be effectually met. Obviously, we
shall have to fall back on the third policy of organised resistance, and have
only to decide what form the resistance should take, passive or active,
defensive or aggressive. It is well known that the New Party long ago formulated
and all Bengal has in theory accepted, the doctrine of passive, or, as it might
be more comprehensively termed, defensive resistance. We have therefore not only
to organise a central authority, not only to take up all branches of our
national life into our hands, but, in order to meet bureaucratic opposition and
to compel the alien control to remove its hold on us, if not at once, then
tentacle by tentacle, we must organise defensive resistance.
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