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The Struggle in Madras
THE
new spirit of spiritual and political regeneration which is today becoming the
passion of the country, has arrived at a crisis of its destinies. All movements
are exposed to persecution, because the powers that be are afraid of the
consequences which may result from their sudden success and cannot shake off the
delusion that they have the strength to suppress them. When Kamsa heard that
Krishna was to be born to slay him, he tried to prevent the fulfilment of God's
will by killing His instrument, as if the power which warned him of approaching
doom had not the strength to enforce the doom. So too, when the vague
prophecies of a Messiah reached the ears of Herod and he heard that Christ was
born in Bethlehem, the fear of his earthly dominion passing into the hands of
another drove him to massacre all the children of the Jews in order to avoid his
fancied doom. These examples are a parable of the eternal blindness of men when
face to face with movements divinely inspired which threaten or seem to threaten
their temporal dominion. The bureaucracy are here to be replaced when their work
is over, and if they had been able to put aside their selfish interests, and
were really capable of governing India and India's interests as they have so
long professed, they would have recognised in the upheaval of 1905 the signal of
their approaching dismissal from their task, and made the way smooth for a
peaceful transference of power to the people, thus securing a glorious
euthanasia which would have been remembered in history as a unique example of
self-denial and far-seeing statesmanship. But human nature is too feeble to
arise to such heights of wisdom and. self-abnegation, except in those rare
instances when the divine breath enters into a nation and lifts it to a pitch of
enthusiasm which
ordinary
human weakness cannot support.
The persecution of Swadeshism which is now
reaching the most shameless lengths in Madras, is a sure sign that God has
withdrawn Himself from the British bureaucracy and intends
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their
rapid fall. Injustice is an invitation to death and prepares His advent. The
moment the desire to do Justice disappears from a ruling class, the moment it
ceases even to respect the show of justice, from that moment its days are
numbered. The cynical disregard of all decorum with which the shows of law are
being used to crush the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in Tuticorin will
exasperate the whole of the mercantile community in the country. It will
convince those who still dream that industrial development is possible without
political power, of their mistake. The Marwaris are already alienated, the whole
Jain community seething with an indignation too deep-rooted for words. The
Tuticorin reign of terror directed against the one Swadeshi enterprise which can
prevent all the rest from being rendered futile by the refusal of British Steam
services to help the carriage of Swadeshi goods has begun to shake the
complaisant acquiescence of the commercial classes in bureaucratic absolutism.
The collapse of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company will mean that from Cape
Comorin to Budaricashram the cry will go forth of "Swadeshi in Danger"
with the result that the whole nation will awaken to the necessity of uniting in
one desperate struggle to force the bureaucracy to surrender its monopoly of
power. Swadeshi is now the dream and hope of all India. Loyalist, Moderate,
Nationalist, all are at one on this point, all are agreed, that without Swadeshi
there is no hope for the people of India. When it becomes evident that the
bureaucracy is bent on destroying the only means by which Swadeshi can be secure
of its existence, the greatest supporter of the present Government will feel
that his choice lies between loyalty to his country and the hope of her
resurgence on the one hand and loyalty to the bureaucracy and the destruction of
his people and his motherland on the other.
When Srijut Chidambaram Pillai set himself to the task of establishing a
Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company between Tuticorin and Colombo, he was taking a
step which meant the beginning of the end for the British commercial monopoly in
India. There are three departments of Swadeshi which have to be developed in
order to make India commercially independent, first, the creation of
manufactures, secondly, the retail supply,
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thirdly,
the security of carriage from the place of manufacture to the place of supply.
Of all these the third is the most essential, because the others are bound to
lead a precarious existence if all the means of carriage are in the hands of the
enemies of Swadeshi. The difficulties experienced in East Bengal by those who
tried to import Swadeshi goods from Calcutta in the face of the control of the
railway and the steam services by hostile interests, are only a slight foretaste
of the paralysing obstacles which will be thrown in our way the moment it is
seen that Swadeshi has got the upper hand. The only remedy for this state of
things is for the people of the country to organise steamer services both by sea
and by river, so that all carriage by water at least may be in their hands. The
carriage by land cannot come into our hands without a political revolution, but
if we hold the waterways, we shall not only hold an important part of the system
of communications but be able to use our possession of it as a weapon against
British trade if the railway is utilised against us. The instinct of the country
had seized on this truth and the organisation of Swadeshi steam services has
been one of the first and most successful outcome of the new movement. The
Chittagong Company and Tuticorin Company have both been a phenomenal success
and, owing to the spirit of self-sacrificing patriotism which has awakened in
the hearts of the people, they have been able to beat their British rivals
without entering into a war of rates, for the British steamers charging
extravagantly low rates have been unable to command as much custom as the
dearer Swadeshi services. A network of Companies holding the water carriage from
Rangoon to Karachi and the Persian Gulf would soon have come into existence and
the waterways of East Bengal would have been covered with boats plying from town
to town in the ownership of Swadeshi concerns. If the Swadeshi Steam Navigation
Company is crushed, this fair prospect will be ruined and all hope of commercial
independence disappear for ever. The bureaucracy well know the tremendous
importance of the issue at stake and have sacrificed everything, honour,
justice, decency, to the one all-important chance of success. We also must
awaken to the necessity of saving Swadeshi in this hour of danger. The time is a
critical one and it is as if Providence had determined to
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test
the spirit of the people and see whether it was strong enough to deserve
assistance. The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was on the point of crushing
its British rival, if the bureaucracy had not interfered; it is now on the point
of being crushed itself unless the people interfere. The people have the power
to save it by blotting out its rival. If the merchants refuse in a body to ship
by the alien service, if the people refuse to tread its decks, no amount of
bureaucratic help, no amount of magisterial injustice and police tyranny can
save it from the doom it deserves. We look to the Nationalists of Madras to see
that this is done. The British jails are not large enough to hold the whole
population of Tinnevelly district; let every man follow the noble example of
Chidambaram Pillai and, for the rest, let God decide.
We
have noticed a paragraph in the last issue of Basumati which may lead to
some misunderstanding in the public mind and needs therefore to be corrected.
The Basumati practically charges the National Council with disregarding
the claims of Srijut Aurobindo Ghose to reoccupy the post of Principal and
Srijut Satish Chandra Mukherji who has done so much to organise the College,
with clinging to the post to the exclusion of his colleague. We are able to
state the real facts. Srijut Aurobindo Ghose left the College when he was
implicated in the Bande Mataram sedition trial and a conviction seemed,
from the temper of the authorities, to be a foregone conclusion. He expressed in
his letter of resignation a readiness to rejoin his duties at some future date
if the Council thought his services required. After his acquittal the Executive
Committee at an early date passed a resolution appointing Srijut Aurobindo Ghose
a Professor of History and Political Science in the College, but as the result
of a special request from Srijut Aurobindo himself to the Secretary to excuse
him from the onerous duties of a Principal which he had neither the time nor, as
he himself thought, the necessary capacity to discharge, the post of Principal
was not included in the reappointment. Srijut Satish Chandra Mukherji had no
hand
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or
voice in the matter; he had taken the post of Principal with reluctance and
holds it now as a duty until it pleases the Executive Committee to relieve him.
Many groundless rumours have been afloat from time to time about the National
College, and it is a pity that they should be printed without previous
verification. Srijut Aurobindo Ghose sent in his resignation spontaneously, and
would certainly not have returned if, as it was at one time persistently
rumoured, he had been compelled to retire; and his return as Professor and not
as Principal was also due to his own unwillingness to accept the latter charge.
Neither the National Council nor any one else can be held responsible in either
case.
Bande Mataram,
March 30, 1908
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