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Is Mendicancy Successful?
AN apologia for the mendicant policy has recently appeared in the columns of the Bengalee. The heads of the defence practically reduce themselves to two or three arguments. 1. The policy of petitioning was recommended by Raja Rammohan Roy, has been pursued consistently since then, and has been eminently successful — at least whatever political gains have been ours in the last century, have been won by this policy. 2. Supposing this contention to be lost, there remains another. There petitioning is bad, but when the petition is backed by the will of the community, resolved to gain its object by every legitimate means, it is not mendicancy but an assertion of a natural right. 3. Even if a petitioning policy be bad in principle, politics has nothing to do with principles, but must be governed by expediency, and not only general expediency, but the expediency of particular cases. 4. Then there is the argumentum ad hominem. The Dumaists petition, the Irish petition, why should not we?
We believe this is a fair summary of our contemporary’s contentions. We are not concerned to deny the antiquity of the petitioning policy, nor its illustrious origin. Raja Rammohan Roy was a great man in the first rank of active genius and set flowing a stream of tendencies which have transformed our national life. But what was the only possible policy for him in his times and without a century of experience behind him, is neither the only policy nor the best policy for us at the present juncture. We join issue with our contemporary on his contention that whatever we have gained politically has been due to petitioning. It appears to us to show a shallow appreciation of political forces and an entire inability to understand the fundamental facts which underlie outward appearances. When the sepoys had conquered
Page-175 India for the English, choice lay before the British, either to hold the country by force and repression or to keep it as long as possible by purchasing the co-operation of a small class of the people who would be educated so entirely on Western lines as to lose their separate individuality and their sympathy with the mass of the nation. An essential part of this policy which became dominant owing to the strong personalities of Macaulay, Bentinck and others, was to yield certain minor rights to the small educated class, and concede the larger rights as slowly as possible and only in answer to growing pressure. This policy was not undertaken as the result of our petitions or our wishes, but deliberately and on strong grounds. India was a huge country with a huge people strange and unknown to their rulers. To hold it for ever was then considered by most statesmen a chimerical idea; even to govern it and keep it tranquil for a time was not feasible without the sympathy and co-operation of the people themselves. It was therefore the potential strength of the people and not the wishes of a few educated men, which was the true determining cause of the scanty political gains we so much delight in. Since then the spirit of the British people and their statesmen has entirely changed — so changed that even a Radical statesman like Mr. Morley brushes aside the expressed "will of the community" with a few abrupt and cavalier phrases. Why is this? Precisely because we have been foolish enough to follow a purely mendicant policy and to betray our own weakness. If we had not instituted the National Congress, we might have continued in the old way for some time longer, getting small and mutilated privileges whenever a strong Liberal Viceroy happened to come over. But the singularly ineffective policy and inert nature of the Congress revealed to British statesmen — or so they thought — the imbecility and impotence of our nation. A period of repression, ever increasing in its insolence and cynical contempt for our feelings, has been the result. And now that a Liberal Government of unprecedented strength comes into power, we find that the gains we can expect will be of the most unsubstantial and illusory kind and that we are not to get any guarantee against their being withdrawn by another reactionary Viceroy after a few years. It
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perfectly clear therefore that the policy of mendicancy will no longer serve.
After all, cries the Bengalee, we have only failed in the case of the
Partition. We have failed in everything of importance for these many years,
measure after measure has been driven over our prostrate heads and the
longed-for Liberal Government flouts us with a few grudging concessions in
mere symptomatic cases of oppression. The long black list of reactionary
measures remains and will remain unrepealed. We do not care to deny that in
small matters petitioning may bring us a trivial concession here or a slight
abatement of oppression there, even there we shall fail in nine cases and win in
one. But nothing important, nothing lasting, nothing affecting the vital
questions which most closely concern us, can be hoped for from mere mendicancy.
To the contention of antiquity and success, therefore, our answer is that this antique policy has not succeeded in the long run,
but utterly failed, and that the time has come for a stronger and more effective
policy to take its place. To the other contentions of the Bengalee we
shall reply in their proper order. This which is the true basis of the
petitionary philosophy has neither reason nor fact to support it. Page-177 Republic has been declared and that Babu Bepin Chandra Pal is to be its first President.
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The Englishman graciously accedes to the request of a correspondent who prays this "much-esteemed journal to accommodate the following lines". There is some gems from the delicious production which the accommodating Englishman has accommodated. "We should always beg the Government and not fight it for favours." Fighting for favours is distinctly good; but there is better behind. "It is impossible for us to obtain rights and privileges by fulminating acrimonious invectives on the Government and making the Anglo-Indian rulers the butt-end of mendacious persiflage and anathema." Shade of Jabberjee! The junior members of the Bar Library will enjoy this elegant description of themselves. "For ought I know most of the educated men are opposed to the despicable spread-eagleism of a coterie of raw youths, who having adopted European costumes and rendered their upper lips destitute of "knightly growth" give themselves all the airs of a learned Theban and range themselves against the British Government." This is a sentence which we would not willingly let die and we would suggest to the raw youths with the destitute upper lips that they might sit in council and devise means to preserve a literary gem which will immortalise them no less than the brilliant author. How infinitely superior is the true Jabberjee to the mock imitation. Even the author of the letter to Mr. Morley must hide his diminished head before this outburst.
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This attitude of the Extremists merely exposes their Boeotian stupidity. Let them lay to it, that if they do not yet refrain from the obnoxious procedure, they are sure to come to grief. We will lay to it, S.M. After such a scintillation of Attic wit and rumbling of Homeric thunder, our Boeotian stupidity finds itself irremediably reduced to Laconic silence. Truly, there seems to be
Page-178 some fearful and wonderful wild fowl in the ranks of the moderationists. Bande Mataram, September 18, 1906
The leading article in last Tuesday’s Mirror, reproduced in another column, shows the peculiar frame of mind that finds safety both from bold thoughts and brave sacrifices, in its professions of friendship and loyalty to the foreigner. The Indian Mirror gives an assurance to his Anglo-Indian friends that there is no danger to the Empire from the insignificant band of "extremists" who preach the pernicious doctrines of national autonomy and popular freedom; and we hope, it will give rest and sleep to the Chowringee paper. The Mirror says: — "To say that educated India desires to be absolutely free of the British control is absolutely idiotic, and we are sure every thoughtful and cultured Indian will resent such a suggestion with the utmost indignation."
But why resent, my brother? And where is there any room for indignation here, either? It may be idiotic, we admit, for we are sure that the Indian Mirror with all its conceits would not dare to claim an absolute monopoly of this virtue for itself and those who think with it. But this indignation is difficult to understand unless the Ophelia of old has taken to play the part of Godiva with the whole lot of British friends as his spouse, in his old age. Go on, thou brave queen, ride in all thy nudeness through the country, and we shall close our doors, put down our blinds, and desert every thoroughfare until thou comest to thy journey’s end.
There is, however, one sentence in this lengthy leader of the Mirror which is, after all, very reassuring even to the extremists.
Page-179 Our amiable contemporary unconsciously admits that absolute autonomy is not an absolutely sinful ideal even for the people of this country, who are head over ears burdened with a debt immense of endless gratitude to their British rulers; — only, we must first of all be fit for it. "We have not as yet gone through our preliminary training and such a thing as absolute autonomy would just now be an evil rather than a blessing to us." So says the Mirror, and it shows us how slowness of thought and understanding may exist in some minds, with a lightning-swiftness of fearful imagination. Take heart, dear friend, we do not propose to procure a decree nisi now and at once, and set you free immediately. What we say is that for this preliminary training, which even you would not object to, a clear perception of the end is necessary, in both trainer and trained; the one needs it for right guidance, and the other for diligent pursuit of the goal. Fear not, soft soul, we are not so heartless as to disturb your sweet slumber so soon!
By The Way
The Statesman and the Indian Mirror appear to have entered into a Holy Alliance for the suppression of the extremists. The basis of this great political combination seems to be mutual admiration of the most effusive and affectionate kind. Mirror assures Statesman that he is a noble Anglo-Indian and a true and tried Friend of India; Statesman quotes Mirror‘s solemn lucubrations by the yard. It only needs the Hindu Patriot to join the league and complete the Triple Alliance. An Anglo-Indian paper, a Government journal masking under the disguise of an Indian daily, and the exponent of the most pale and watery school of "patriotism", would make a beautiful symphony in whites and greys. Such an alliance is most desirable: it would be a thing of artistic beauty and a joy forever — and it would not hurt the new party.
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Page-180
We were a little surprised to find the Bengalee lending itself to the campaign. It chooses to insinuate that while the methods of the old party are extremely proper, sober and legal, those of the new party are outside the bounds of the law. In what respect, pray? We advocate boycott and picketing, but that is a gospel of which Babu Surendranath Banerji has constituted himself in the past the chief Panda. We advocate abstention from Legislative Councils and other Government bodies, but so do the old leaders strongly recommend it — to East Bengal. We advocate the assertion by the people of their right to carry on the agitation in every lawful way — but so did the old leaders at Barisal. We advocate abstention from all association with the Government, but such abstention has not yet been forbidden by law. We advocate the substitution of Indian agency and Indian energy in every department of life for our old state of dependence on foreign agency and energy. We advocate an organised system of self-development guided by a Council with regard to Bengal and an open democratic constitution for the Congress instead of the secret unconstitutional manipulations of a few leaders. We advocate finally, autonomy as the ideal and goal of our endeavours. Where is the illegality, if you please?
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To listen to these excited people one would imagine we were calling on the teeming millions of India to rise in their wrath, fall upon the noble Anglo-Indian friends of the Mirror and with teeth, nails and claws, drive them pell-mell into the Indian Ocean. All these imputations have, of course, a definite object and the excitement is a calculated passion. On one side to discredit the party with the timid and cautious, on the other to draw the attention of the bureaucracy and secure for us free lodgings from a paternal Government, seems to be the objective. Of neither contingency are we afraid; the new policy is not for those who tremble or who prefer their own safety and ease to the service of their country, and the fear of the Government we renounced long ago and have forgotten what it means. It is no use trying to awaken that dead feeling in our nature: We shall go
Page-181 on our way steadily and persistently, careless of defeat or victory, indifferent to attack or suffering, until we have built up such a nucleus of force and courage in India as will compel both moderate and official to yield to the demands of the people. But always within the bounds of the law, if you please, our friend of Colootola. We are a law-abiding people, even when we are extremists.
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We have been severely attacked more than once for splitting up the country into factions and thus marring the majestic unity of the national movement. We have already given our answer to that charge. Already before the Swadeshi movement the divergence of ideals had begun to declare itself and in several parts of India strong sections had grown up who were already dissatisfied with mendicancy and with the haphazard formation and methods of the Congress. Until recently the only course which seemed left to men of this persuasion was to hold entirely aloof from the Congress or else to attend it without taking any prominent part in its deliberations. But at the present time the aspect of things has greatly changed. The party predominates in the Deccan, is extremely strong in the Punjab and a force to be reckoned with in Bengal. It numbers among its leaders and adherents many men of ability, energy and culture some of whom have done good service in the past and others are obviously among the chief workers of the future. They have a definite ideal which is not the ideal of the older leaders and definite methods by which they hope to arrive at their ideal. It is idle to expect that a party so constituted will any longer consent to be excluded from political life or from the deliberations of the Congress through which it may exercise a general influence over the country. The old party is anxious that we should take up the position of an insignificant "extremist" party, tolerated perhaps and sometimes made use of to frighten the Government into concessions, but not recognised. "Exist, if you please, but do not interfere with or oppose us," is their cry, "and do not try to assert yourselves in the Congress." Such a demand is ridiculous in the extreme. When there is a definite difference as to ideals and methods, it is
Page-182 too much to expect of any growing party that it shall not use every means to educate the people to their views and organise such opinion as has declared itself on their side. Nor is it reasonable to demand a considerable part of the educated community to banish itself from Congress or only attend as a mute and inert element. If the Congress is really a national body, it must admit all opinions and give them free facility for expressing their views and urging their measures. If, on the other hand, it is merely a gathering of moderates, it has no right to pose as a national body. The argument usually urged that the Congress has been built up by a certain class of people and with certain ideas and that therefore it should remain in the same hands and under the domination of the same ideas, is one which has no value whatever, unless we are to accept the Congress merely as a society for the cultivation of good relations with the Government. If it is a national assembly, it must answer to changes of national feeling and progress with the progress of the nation. We shall therefore persist in disseminating our ideas with the utmost energy of which we are capable and in organising the opinion of the country wherever we have turned it in the desired direction, for action and for the prevalence of our ideals. The only question that remains, is the question of united action. It is certainly desirable, if it can be brought about, that the action of the whole country in certain important matters should be united. But the very first condition of such unity is that all important sections of opinion should have the chance of expressing its views and championing its own proposals, before the united action to be taken is decided by a majority. It is for this reason that we demand an elective constitution and a Council honestly representing all sections, so that real unity may be possible and not the false unity which is all the old party clamours for. Their plan for united action is simply to boycott the new party and impose silence on it under penalty of "suppression". So long as they persist in that spirit, united action will remain impossible.
Bande Mataram, September 20, 1906
Page-183 By The Way
To the onlooker the duel between the Statesman and the Englishman is extremely amusing. The interests of Anglo-India are safe in the hands of both; only they differ as to the extent to which the alien yoke should be made light. The Englishman advocates an open and straightforward course — to make the Indians feel that they are a conquered people — as helpless in the hands of the conquerors as was the dwarf of the story in the iron grip of the giant. The Statesman, on the other hand, wants to cover the heels of British boots with soft velvet. We for ourselves prefer an open course to a crooked policy.
The fun of the thing is that from consideration of methods they have descended to personalities. The Englishman credits the Statesman with the instinct to follow Mr. Surendranath Banerji with doglike fidelity. To this the Statesman replies — "Strange as it may appear to the Englishman, we are in the habit of forming our own opinions and of expressing them without any extraneous assistance — even from the Bar Library, or elsewhere. Mr. Banerji has certainly not done us the honour of tendering his help, nor have we found it necessary to invite it." We take our contemporary at his word. But we may be permitted to ask our contemporary if the paragraph about the New India to which we referred the other day was not written under some extraneous inspiration, — white or brown? Next, our Chowringhee contemporary boasts of his independent policy and fearless proclamation of it. "In order," says our contemporary, "to attain a wide circulation and a position of influence, it is not enough to follow the example which this journal set a quarter of a century ago by reducing its price to an anna. If the Englishman is ever again to become a force in journalism, it must copy the Statesman in matters of greater importance than the mere cost of its daily issue. It must learn to have an honest and independent policy and to proclaim it fearlessly." And our contemporary seems to think that man’s lapses like their civil claims are barred
Page-184 by limitation, or he has a very conveniently short memory, or how could he otherwise so soon forget the dangerous position he was placed in at the time of the Rent Bill controversy and the way out he found by removing Mr. Riach, the responsible editor?
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After all we do not despair. There is yet some hope left for our contemporary, for he can still understand that — "it is possible for a newspaper, as for an individual, to err at times and honestly to advocate views which may be mistaken."
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The Indian Mirror, has, after all, found one good point in the armour of the "extremists"; they will not stand any humbug, says our ancient contemporary, and no one will dare question the truth of his opinion, for he speaks clearly from personal experience.
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Babu Surendranath Banerji is reported to have advised the youthful students of Bally — "to keep themselves within the limits of law and never, in their excitement, run into excesses but always to serve their motherland with unflinching devotion, through good report and evil", and the old leader is right, because the latest experience shows that Indian publicists and patriots have good reason to stand in fear of reports.
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The Indian Mirror is surprised that we are resting on our oars when the Congress-bark should be fast sailing. The light that the Mirror is reflecting is both dim and antiquated in these days of radium and X-rays. Our information is that the "recognised" leaders are making arrangements for the Congress though even the Mirror has not been taken into their confidence. *
Page-185 The old saw was that a mountain in labour produced a mouse. But the modern saw is that the Indian politicians in labour produce speeches and interviews. Somehow the information has leaked out that the Hon’ble Mr. Gokhale’s recent visit to England has not been much of a success. Now Sir William Wedderburn comes to the rescue of the Bombay patriot and says that the Hon’ble gentleman had a series of interviews with eminent British politicians from the Prime Minister down to 150 pro-Indian M.P’s. Achievement indeed!
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“Star to star vibrates light" — is there also a similar responsiveness between mind and matter, or else why should there be so fearful a tremor in mother earth, keeping time, as it were, to the nervous tremours of the bold British and the timid Indian heart, at the present unrest in Bengal caused by Sonar Bangla and the Shanti-Sechan? Bande Mataram, October 1, 1906 By The Way
Mr. Gopal Krishna Gokhale is a mathematician and these mathematicians are a wonderful people. They can prove anything they please. If Mr. Gokhale’s political opponents are numerous, he applies the qualitative test, and shakes his head — "no good"; if they are not many, he applies the quantitative test and turns his nose up at — "too poor!" Anyhow, what was required to be demonstrated has been demonstrated, Q.E.D.
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Is Narendranath Sen among the boycotters? — enquires the Englishman, else how has he put his name on the Rakhi-Circular, which asks people to renew their boycott vow on the Rakhi-Day? Will Babu Narendranath send a copy of his Subliminal Consciousness (sic) to his Hare Street brother to illu-
Page-186 mine the situation? That, or the Isis Unveiled, will explain all.
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The Bengalee is in mortal agony because of the prolonged "tension between the rulers and the ruled". Love’s quarrels never last long, we know. But how to make these up? The traditional Dooti must be called in, and Morley and Minto must play Brinda and get about a re-union between the forlorn Bengalee and their discarded Lords. "Call them back, for old love’s sake, or we cannot live — outside the Council Chambers," — cries the widowed Bengalee. The Rakhi-Day is coming, and love-bands will be distributed to all the world, except only to him whose association makes the world sweet! Oh the bitterness of it!
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"The demonstrations of last year passed off without any excesses of any kind and without any breaches of the law. The same temper animates us now. The triumphs of constitutionalism are writ large on the pages of the year’s history." Thus perorates the Bengalee in its appeal for the coming Rakhi-celebrations. "The triumphs of constitutionalism!" but of whose constitution: of the Bengalee or of the British?
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Empire Portents - Following the portentous tremors of mother earth came, says the Empire, the capture of "a huge Boal fish at the Haldi river. It measured six feet and was unusually swollen." What was swollen, the editor does not say — the feet, the tail, or the fish itself? When cut open, however, a dead jackal was found inside! When doors are "crossed", and trees are marked, and jackals are found inside greedy Boal fish, and there is the murderous cry of Bande Mataram all over the land, judgment cannot, surely, be far away.
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Page-187 Many things, the world knows, have saving power, but that a striking metaphor could save a Conference was not known to us before. But this seems actually to have happened recently at Umballa. When the Legislative Council Resolution came up for discussion, there suddenly developed a rift in the lute. Everybody agreed to the view that "the Punjab Council as at present constituted serves no useful purpose". The New Party, with their acknowledged partiality for inconvenient logic, wanted to add, "and it may as well be abolished". The logic of it was dreadfully strong, and the amendment was pressed on the Conference and debated upon. But the situation was saved by a "statesmanly metaphor" from Lala Murlidhar, the well-known poet-politician of Umballa. "Do men cut down a tree because its fruit is unripe or happens to be bitter or worm-eaten? Do men raze to the ground a house that leaks?" After this, the amendment was bound to be negatived and the Resolution carried. Lala Murlidhar has discovered the art evidently of making sunshine out of cucumber, and pressing sweet honey out of bitter almond!
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An additional proof of the tremendous work the "Moderates" have been doing in the country was found by the last Provincial Conference at Umballa. It passed a number of Resolutions asking the Government to do this and undo that thing; but when it was proposed that a Committee or Association should be started "to establish and help District Associations," the Conference left it, we are told, "untouched".
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Mr. Gokhale resolves the complexities of the present problem in Bengal into "private quarrels and personal jealousies" — Burke was right when he said that he had known great statesmen with the intellect of pedlars; yet Burke did not know us of modern India.
Page-188 Is Mr. Gokhale also among the extremists? He advises the Bengalis to agitate "in statesmanlike and reasonable manner" and explaining these terms, says— The Boers have got self-government by fighting manfully. The Irish will get self-government within a year or so. We must keep their examples before our eyes. And everything will be easy, he adds, if we imitate their ways — and perhaps finish with an object — but our policy interdicts all personalities.
Bande Mataram, October 10, 1906
Emerson and original sin have never as yet gone together. But Principal Herambachandra Moitra has achieved the impossible. Lecturing to a Bombay congregation on a Wednesday he solemnly declared that "even children themselves are not free from sin," and on the following Sunday discoursed on "Emerson". Poor sage of Concord!
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Calcutta is going to have a Tower of Silence — for the Parsis. The Patrika would, however, seem to hold that it is more needed by our own patriots. They evidently permit writing in that dreadful place.
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A "veteran" laments the decay of manners among the people of this country, in the hospitable columns of the Pioneer. There was a time, only forty years ago, when on the approach of a European, Indian lads would cry — "Gora ata Gora ata" — and skid. When the same class of lads now "pass a European with a cigarette between their lips and stare him calmly in the face," and a "large number of natives salaam with their left hands" — the world or the British Empire, which means the same thing, must be nearing its end.
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Page-189 Bengal politicians seem determined to maintain the ancient reputation of the nation for its logical acumen and subtlety. The Barisal Conference resolved not to send any prayer or petition to Government; when the Conference was forcibly dispersed, the leaders sent a wire to the Viceroy on the ground that a telegram was surely not a petition. They have resolved not to approach the Lieutenant-Governor of the partitioned Province with any prayer or address, but may still draw their Honours’ "serious attention" to various matters, public and personal, including the gift of a Deputy Magistracy to their sons. Surely a cosy place in the Executive Service is not a membership of the Legislative Council.
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There is considerable indignation among the true "Friends of India", both in England and in this country, at the "political oration" delivered by Mr. Manmatha Chandra Mullik at the recent Tyabji memorial meeting in London. After this we shall be told that it would be sinful to discourse on religion at a commemoration service in honour of Lord Bishop of Canterbury, or to speak on science at a memorial meeting of a President of the British Association. We think at the recent Tyabji Bose meeting in London, Babu Romesh Chandra Dutta must have discoursed, therefore, on the greatness of Islam, and Sir Henry Cotton on the saving grace of Brahmo-Theology. We anxiously await full reports of their speeches. Bande Mataram, October 11, 1906
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