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The Work Before Us
THE
little that we have done is the first faint shadowing forth of our future
activities, nothing more. If we are content with what we have done, even that
little will disappear, the movement will be abortive and the country fall back
into its former condition. It is therefore necessary to give a new impetus to
the movement everywhere, and now that Srijut Bepin Chandra is out of prison, the
necessary will no doubt be done. The first work is to revive courage in the
hearts of the people. The effect of the recent repression has been not to crush
the movement, but to discourage its outward activity. This discouragement must
be removed. We cannot allow the movement to be driven inward and become an
affair of secret societies and terrorism, as it will inevitably become if the
outward expression of it is stopped. The next work is to give a stronger impetus
to the boycott, so that the little that we have gained may become the
starting-point for fresh victories; the organisation of boycott is the first
work to which we should set our hands. The third thing to be done is to spread
National Education. A serious effort must be made to take in hand the raising of
funds for this branch of national activity, so that the National Council may be
in a position both to effect the complete organisation of its scientific,
technical and other sides and to extend aid to the increasing number of schools
which are springing up all over the country. It is also necessary to bring the
existing primary schools under the Council; for this is a work of great
importance, and until it is done, the foundations of the new educational edifice
will not be secure, since it is the primary schools in which the bulk of the
people are educated. If the present institutions will not come into the new
system, the country must be covered with a network of new primary schools on
national lines, such as the one which is now being projected at Uttarpara,
— schools
giving a primary literary education along with such technical instruction as
will enable the students to earn a livelihood as small artisans. If this
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is
done, the public will flock into the national institutions and the old primary
schools will perish.
So much is necessary for the completion of the work for which we have
already laid a foundation, but the time has come when we should start actively
on fresh lines. The most important of these is arbitration, which will, if
successfully carried out, form the basis of our future self-government.
Education will give us the necessary training of mind and character for
self-government, arbitration will provide a practical field in which our
capacities can be tested. In some parts the work has already been begun and with
remarkable success, but it is necessary to lay the foundations all over Bengal.
The difficulties that lie in its way are not so insuperable as they at first
appear; if the lawyer class can be provided with a means of living by the
arbitration system, their passive opposition, which is the only real obstacle to
be dreaded, can be removed. The existing courts will provide careers for those
who wish to earn large fortunes in the legal line, but the host of small
practitioners in the mofussil are those who will be affected by the spread of
arbitration and some provision must be made in our arbitration schemes by which
their field, if restricted, may not be entirely destroyed. This subject is one
which demands detailed treatment and it will be the theme of a future article.
At present we wish only to emphasise its great importance.
When we have laid the foundations of arbitration, our work is not
finished; the positive side of it only has been done. There is another side less
palpable, but even more important, and it is the destructive or negative side,
the removal of old prepossessions, false beliefs, false ideals from the mind of
the people. So long as the least little of faith in the bureaucracy remains in
the lowest class of our population, the conditions of success are not complete.
The bureaucracy is itself doing much to destroy the ancient faith in its
philanthropy, integrity and high motive which was the source of its strength,
but this is chiefly in the educated class and the landed aristocracy, both of
which, whatever the outward professions, fear or self-interest may dictate, are
now thoroughly alienated. The only work which remains to be done so far as these
classes are concerned, is to generate faith in the
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nation, for so far as moderatism still prevails, it is
not owing to faith in the bureaucracy but to distrust in the nation. The lower
classes have still to be inoculated with the spirit of self-help, separation
from the alien and confidence in their own countrymen. To some extent the work
has been done, the seed has been sown; Swadeshi is the seedbed of this spirit of
self-reliance, this sense of separateness, and, at least among the Hindu
community, Swadeshi is deeply rooted in all classes. But this seed has yet to
fructify and spring up. The only way in which this can be done is to destroy the
barriers between the educated class and the peasantry which English education
has created, to restore the old unity of society by mutual service, by love, by
self-identification with the mass of our countrymen. The volunteer movement, now
in a rudimentary state, has to be developed and perfected so as to form the
bridge of communication between the heart of the people and the brain of the
educated community. Our propaganda among the masses must consist less in the
teaching of ideas than in teaching by acts, less in intellectual conviction than
in the appeal to the heart and to the imagination. No time should be lost in
taking this work in hand, the days are passing by with great swiftness and
bringing us nearer and nearer to the final struggle when the people and the
bureaucracy will stand face to face. On that day the masses will weigh down the
scale and decide victory or defeat.
Campbell-Bannerman
Retires
The
resignation of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman leaves things for India just where
they were, but it is of some importance for England, as it is not unlikely that
the transference of leadership to a man of Mr. Asquith's cold, hard and
unsympathatic Whiggism may lead to an early disruption of the Liberal majority.
For India, of course, that event would mean little or nothing; a Hamilton to a
Fowler and a Morley to a Brodrick succeeds, and the only difference made by the
retirement of the quondam friend, philosopher and guide of Moderatism into the
cool shades of Opposition, will be that we are now suffering from repression
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with
sympathy and will then suffer from repression without sympathy. On the whole we
prefer the latter brand; it is more genuine and invigorating.
After several gentlemen's speeches Sj. Aurobindo Ghose
rose up at last. He admitted that he had a hand in drafting the resolution but
denied the charge of inconsistency on the ground that this new movement, as it
is divinely decreed, cannot proceed on the basis of strict consistency of
individual conduct from any individual standpoint. The breaking-up of the
Congress at Surat was God's will and if it can meet again on a basis of union
that would also come from His will. If, again, all our efforts at union fail and
the New Party be compelled to face troubles and persecutions, that should also
be taken as a divinely appointed destiny. We shall not be eager for compromise
to avoid trouble and persecution as sufferings are welcome if it be God's will
that we should suffer, so that our Mother India would be saved. But, in the
meantime, we are a democratic party: at Pabna, at Dhulia and other places,
people wanted a united Congress and it is our duty to try for it if no vital
principle is sacrificed to gain that end. This was the Speaker's apology for the
attempt at union, though, as he said, his hopes were not high about the success
of the attempt. The Congress broke up not over personalities, but for certain
definite issues which were: (1) irregularities in the election of the President,
(2) the attempt from certain quarters to take advantage of the local majority to
recede from the four Calcutta resolutions, (3) the attempt to impose a creed by
the help of a local majority with a view to exclude a large and growing party.
Under the circumstances it was necessary to oppose the whole thing tooth and
nail and Mr. Tilak moved an amendment to have a Congress Continuation Committee
and there to proceed with the election of the President. The other party did not
give
·
*
A
well-attended public meeting was held on Friday, the 10th April, 1908 at the Panti's Math, Calcutta, to discuss the lines on which the Congress postponed sine
die at Surat may be revived. Dr. Sundari Mohan Das was elected to the Chair.
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him any opportunity to carry the amendment and declared
the President to be unanimously elected, though many still hold that the
election was not valid as the whole Congress could not express any opinion on
it. But how to carry out the opinion of the people? We are ready to condone this
irregularity if a united Congress is to be held on the basis of the Calcutta
resolutions. If the other party does not accept, the responsibility of
breaking-up of the Congress and having a party institution in its place will be
on their shoulders. Our position is, let us work on our different party lines
through our own institutions, but at the same time let us have the united
Congress of the whole people.
Bande Mataram,
April 10, 1908
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