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The Awakening of Gujerat
WHEN
the word of the Eternal has gone abroad, when the spirit moves over the waters
and the waters stir and life begins to form, then it is a law that all energies
are forced to direct themselves, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or
against their will, to the one supreme work of the time, the formation of the
new manifest and organised life which is in process of creation. So now when the
waters of a people's life are stirred and the formation of a great organic
Indian state and nation has begun, the same law holds. All that the adversaries
of the movement have done whether they have tried to repress or tried to
conciliate, has helped what they sought to destroy and swelled the volume and
strength or purified as by fire the forces of Nationalism. So also the efforts
of those among our-selves who are afraid of the new movement or distrustful of
it to check the pace and bring back the nation's energies into the old grooves,
have only helped to increase the vehemence of the National desire to move
forward. When Sir Pherozshah Mehta juggled the Congress into Surat, he thought
he was preparing a death-blow for Nationalism: he was only preparing the way for
a Nationalist awakening in Gujerat. Nationalism depends for its success on the
awakening and organising of the whole strength of the nation; it is therefore
vitally important for Nationalism that the politically backward classes should
be awakened and brought into the current of political life; the great mass of
orthodox Hinduism which was hardly even touched by the old Congress movement,
the great slumbering mass of Islam which has remained politically inert
throughout the last century, the shopkeepers, the artisan class, the immense
body of illiterate and ignorant peasantry, the submerged classes, even the wild
tribes and races still outside the pale of Hindu civilisation, Nationalism can
afford to neglect and omit none. It rejoices to see any sign of
life
where there was no life before, even if the first manifestations should
seem to be ill-regulated or misguided. It is not afraid of
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Pan-Islamism
or any signs of the growth of a separate Mahomedan self-consciousness but rather
welcomes them. It is not startled by the spectacle of a submerged class like the
Namasudras demanding things which are, under existing circumstances,
impracticable from Hindu society. When a community sues for separate rights from
the bureaucracy, that is a sign not of life but of stagnant dependence which is
death, but when it seeks a larger place in the national existence and it tries
to feel its own existence and its own strength, it is a true sign of life, and
what Nationalism asks is for life first and above all things; life, and still
more life, is its cry. Let us by every means get rid of the pall of death which
stifled us, let us dispel first the passivity, quiescence, the unspeakable
oppression of inertia which has so long been our curse; that is the first and
imperative need. As with backward communities, so with backward provinces. It is
vitally important to Nationalism that these should awake. Behar, Orissa, the
Central Provinces, Gujerat, Sindh must take their place in the advancing surge
of Indian political life, must prepare themselves for a high rank in the future
federated strength of India. We welcome any signs that the awakening has begun.
It is for instance a cause of gratification that Orissa is beginning to feel its
separate consciousness, and to attempt to grow into an organised life under a
capable and high-spirited leader, although we consider his political attitude
mistaken and believe that he is laying up for himself bitter disappointment and
disillusionment in the future. But when the inevitable disappointment and
disillusionment come, then will the new political consciousness, the new
organised life of Orissa become an immense addition of strength to the forces of
Nationalism. Yet it remains true that the only way these provinces can make up
for lost time and bring themselves up swiftly to the level of the more
advanced races, is by throwing themselves whole-heartedly into the full tide of
Nationalism, and we do not know that we ought not to thank Sir Pherozshah for
giving us a unique chance to light the fire in Gujerat.
The Gujeratis have only recently been touched by the tide of political
life. Largely split up into Native States, large and small, and only partially
under the direct rule of the bureaucracy,
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immersed
in commerce and fairly prosperous until the last great famine swept over the
once smiling and fertile province destroying life, human and animal, by the
million they had slumbered politically while the rest of India was accustoming
itself to some kind of political activity. It was at the Ahmedabad Congress that
Gujerat was for the first time moved to a political enthusiasm, an awakening
perhaps helped on by the association of a thoroughly Swadeshi Exhibition with
the session of the Congress and the inclusion, however timid and half-hearted,
of industrial revival in our political programme. Then came the outburst of the
Swadeshi by which Gujerat, unlike some of the other politically backward
provinces, was profoundly affected. The ground has been prepared and Nationalist
sentiment has already spread among the educated Gujeratis. The Surat Congress
provides an opportunity to give a fresh and victorious impulse which will make
Gujerat Nationalism a powerful working and organised force. The importance of
winning Gujerat to the Nationalist cause is great. The Gujeratis labour as the
Bengalis did, until the present awakening, under a reproach of timidity and
excessive love of peace and safety. The truth probably is that so far as the
reproach has any foundation either in Bengal or Gujerat the defect was due not
so much to any constitutional cowardice as to indolence born of climate and a
too fertile soil and to the prevalence of the peaceful and emotional religion of
Chaitanya and Vallabhacharya. Be that as it may, Bengal under the awakening
touch of Nationalism has wiped out that reproach for ever and there is no reason
why Gujerat, stirred by the same influences, awakened to the same energy, should
not emulate her example and take like her a foremost place in the battle of
Swaraj. We must not forget that she also has great traditions of old, traditions
of learning, traditions of religion, traditions of
courage
and heroism. Gujerat was once part of the Rajput circle
and her princes fought on equal terms with Mahmud of Ghazni. Her people form
valuable and indispensable material for the building of the Indian nation. The
savoir-faire,
the keen-witted ability and political instinct of her Brahmins, the thrift
and industry of her merchants, the robust vigour and common sense of her
Patidars, the physique and soldierly qualities of her
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Kathis and Rajputs, the strong raw human material of her
northern and southern hills, are so many elements of strength which Nationalism
must seize and weld into a great national force. Even if Sir Pherozshah Mehta
overwhelms us with numbers at Surat, even if we cannot carry a single
proposition in the Congress Pandal, yet if we can give this great impulse to
Gujerat and organise our scattered forces for a great march forward, all the
energy, all the expenditure we can devote to this session at Surat will be amply
rewarded. It is not merely or chiefly by victories in the Congress but by
victories in the country that we must record the progress of Nationalism.
Bande
Mataram, December 17, 1907
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