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Facts and Comments Volume I – August 28,1909 – Number 10 The Cretan Difficulty
Foreign affairs are as a rule lightly and unsubstantially dealt with by Indian journals. This is partly due to want of the necessary information, partly to the parochial habit of mind encouraged by a cabined and subject national life which cannot enlarge its imagination outside the sphere of those immediate and daily events directly touching ourselves. And yet the happenings of today in Asia, Europe and Africa are of great moment to the future of India and full of encouragement and stimulus to the spirit of Nationalism. The recent events in Turkey are an instance. It is not the methods of the Young Turks which have any lesson for India. The circumstances are too dissimilar to warrant any fanciful theories of that kind. It is rather the character of the party of freedom which bears a lesson to all struggling nationalities. The dominant qualities of the democratic leaders — and these are the qualities they have imparted to the movement, — are strength, manhood, a bold heart, a clear brain, a virile efficiency. The Government they have established has been showing these qualities to the full in its treatment of the Cretan difficulty. It has shown that free Turkey, while not rashly oblivious of the circumstances created by an unfortunate past, will not tolerate any attempt to be treated as Sultan Abdul Hamid suffered himself to be treated. Sultan Abdul Hamid, afraid of his subjects, afraid of the world, afraid even of his spies and informers, followed the weak and cowardly policy of a dishonest, intriguing and evasive Machiavellianism. He conducted that policy with a certain skill and statecraft in details which eventually evoked admiration, but it could neither save Turkey from ignominy and weakness nor permanently protect a throne based upon cruelty, falsehood and despicable meanness. All that it did, for Satan must be given his due, was to stave off a final disruption of Turkey and expulsion of the Ottoman from Europe.
Page – 167 But true freedom is always conscious of strength and knows that it is better to perish than to live for a short while longer at the cost of continual insult, degradation and weakness. The first efforts of the new Government have been to save what remained of the outskirts of Turkish empire in Europe, the suzerainty in Crete, the supreme control in Macedonia. Their diplomacy has been strong, outspoken and fearless. It did not flinch nor in any way draw back a step or lower its tone until it forced Greece to a satisfactory attitude and obliged the Powers to baffle the tortuous Greek methods by lowering the Greek flag in Canea. It has quietly ignored the attempt of the Powers to interfere even by a suggestion in the direct question between itself and Greece; for we read that Turkey is not going to give any formal answer to the Powers’ Note recommending pacific counsels as that Note did not call for any reply. It has been supported by the newly liberated nation by means of a Boycott which would have alarmed into reason a stronger Government than that of Athens. And as strength, when firm and able, can never be ignored, it has secured the sympathy of the Powers in the shape of concessions which would never have been yielded to a weak or overcautious Government. Strength attracts strength; firm and clear-minded courage commands success and respect; strong and straight dealing can dispense with the methods of dissimulation and intrigue. All these are signs of character and it is only character that can give freedom and greatness to nations.
It is not to be imagined, however, that this is the closing chapter. The question between Greece and Turkey will have eventually to be fought out by the sword. It is true that the immediate question is for the moment settled and the rest in the Cretan patchwork mended. But that patchwork is not of a kind to last. The Greek Government is not likely to give up its methods in Crete, the Christian population their desire for union with Athens or the present Cretan administration their secret sympathy with and support of these aspirations. It would have been a simpler
Page – 168 matter if the population of the island had been wholly Christian, but there is a Mahomedan population also which is as eagerly attached to the Turkish connection as the others are desirous of the Greek. The ancient history of Crete supports the sentiment of Greek unity, its later history the sentiment of imperial Ottoman greatness. And apart from Crete, there are inevitable sources of quarrel in Macedonia. Some day the Powers will have to stand aside and allow these natural enemies to settle the question in the only possible way. The result of such non-intervention in an armed struggle could not be doubtful. The Mongolian is a stronger spirit than the Slav, the Mussulman a greater dynamic force than the Christian, and it is only ignorance and absolutism that has for the time depressed the Turk. The disparity between the Turk and the Greek is abysmal. The former is a soldier and statesman, the latter a merchant and intriguer. A war between two such Powers with none to intervene would speedily end with the Turk not only in occupation of Thessaly but entering Athens.
Another corner of the Asiatic world — for Northern Africa is thoroughly Asianised if not Asiatic, — is convulsed with struggles which may well precede another resurgence. There was a time when the Moor held Spain and gave civilisation to semi-barbarous Europe. The revolution of the wheel has now gone to its utmost length and finds the Spaniard invading Morocco. But this invasion does not seem to promise any Spanish expansion in Africa. With infinite difficulty and at the cost of a bloody émeute in Spain, King Alfonso’s Government have landed a considerable army in Morocco and yet with all that force can only just protect their communications and stand facing the formidable country where the stubborn Kabyle tribesmen await the invader. There the army is hung up for the present, unwilling to retreat and afraid to advance, and the Spanish General has again sent to Spain for reinforcements, a feat of military strategy at which he seems to be exceptionally skilful. If the men of the mountains are fortunate enough to have a leader with a head on
Page – 169 his shoulders, the circumstances augur a reverse for Spain as decisive and perhaps more sanguinary than the Italian overthrow in Abyssinia. Meanwhile King Alfonso has sacrificed all his youthful popularity by this ill-omened war and the bloody severity which has temporarily saved his throne. And with the popularity of the young King has gone the friendship of the Spanish nation for England, for the Spaniards accuse that friendship of the origination of these troubles and the British Government as the selfish instigators of the intervention in Morocco.
Since we made our remarks on the proposal of a Congress session in London, we have seen two reasons urged for this reactionary step. It is necessary, it seems, to prevent judgment going against us in England by default and also to win the sympathy of the civilised world. The former argument we have already answered in our last issue. Neither the speeches of a famous orator nor the conjoint speeches of many less famous will win for us the support of the British people for claims which go directly against their interests. Only a prolonged and steady campaign in England all the year round for several years can make any impression of a real and lasting kind and even that impression cannot in the nature of things be sufficient for the purpose. Those who are on the side of Indian interests must always be in the minority and will always be denounced by the majority as allies of the enemies of English interests. Even now that is increasingly the attitude of the public towards Mr. Mackarness and his supporters and we do not think Sj. Surendranath’s eloquence has changed matters. Already the most prominent critics of Lord Morley and his policy of repression have received intimation from their constituents of their serious displeasure and are in danger of losing their seats at the next election. This is in itself a sufficient refutation of the fable that speeches and Congresses in England can change an ignorant British public into informed and enthusiastic supporters of Indian self-government. It is only political necessity and the practical recognition that change is
Page – 170 inevitable which can convert the statesmen of England. As for the opinion of the civilised world, we do not despise it as a moral force. But its practical effect is so little as to be almost nil. In a constitutional question between the present Government in India and the people we do not see what can be the place or mode of operation of the world’s opinion or sympathy. An academical approval of our aims can be of no help to us. Nor is the sympathy of the world likely to be excited beyond such academical approval unless the Government faithfully imitates the Russian precedent in dealing with popular aspirations. Even then it is not likely to tell on the action of the Government concerned which will certainly resent foreign interference in its dealings with its own subjects. The impotence of the civilised world was strikingly shown in the crisis of Russian despotism and at the time of the Boer War. Even were it otherwise, a London session of the Congress would only awaken a passing interest. In that respect the visit of Swami Vivekananda to America and the subsequent work of those who followed him did more for India than a hundred London Congresses could effect. That is the true way of awaking sympathy, — by showing ourselves to the nations as a people with a great past and ancient civilisation who still possess something of the genius and character of our forefathers, have still something to give the world and therefore deserve freedom, — by proof of our manliness and fitness, not by mendicancy.
We extract elsewhere some very telling criticisms from the pen of the well-known positivist Mr. Frederic Harrison on the treatment of political prisoners. This is a subject on which a Nationalist writer is naturally somewhat shy of dilating, as any stress on the brutality and callousness of the treatment to which not only convicted but undertrial prisoners of gentle birth and breeding are sometimes subjected in Indian jails, might be misinterpreted by our opponents as an unwillingness to face the penalties which repressive legislation inflicts on those who cherish great aspira-
Page – 171 tions for their race and country. But two instances have occurred recently which compel attention. One is the death of the convicted prisoner Ashok Nandi of consumption brought on by exposure and neglect during fever in the undertrial period of the Alipur Case. We exonerate from blame the jail authorities who were exceptionally humane men and would have been glad to deal humanely with the prisoners. But their blamelessness only brings out the barbarity of a system which allows of the confinement of a delicate ailing lad in a punishment cell exposed night after night to the dews and cold of an unhealthy season, and that without his having committed any fault or shown anything but the mildest and most docile of characters. The other case is that of Mr.Achyutrao Kohalatkar of Nagpur, editor of the Deshsevak, a gentleman of distinguished education, ability and character, who was convicted for the publication in his paper of the reports of Sj. Aurobindo Ghose’s speeches delivered at a time when Mr. Kohalatkar was absent from Nagpur. The Sessions Judge of Alipur declared on the police reports of these speeches that so far from being seditious or violent they told in favour of the speaker and not against him. We find it difficult to believe that the newspaper report of speeches from which the police could extract nothing that was not in the speaker’s favour, could be at all seditious. Be that as it may, Mr. Kohalatkar was convicted and perhaps, according to the "strong man" code of ethics, forefeited claim to generous treatment by his refusal to apologise. We have heard rumours of treatment being meted out to him which can only be described as studied brutality and the evidence of eye-witnesses who have seen the condition to which he was reduced, do not encourage us to reject these reports as fabrications. Finally, the refusal of the Central Provinces Government to face independent medical inspection and so dispose of the serious allegations publicly preferred put a very ugly aspect on this case. If the allegations are proved, they amount to a treatment which would evoke the loudest indignation and reprobation in England if applied under the same circumstances in another country. But we cherish little hope of redress. The prison system of the European nations is only a refined and systematised savagery perpetuating the methods of ancient and mediaeval
Page – 172 barbarity in forms that do not at once shock the eye. Besides, the account of the recent starvation strike of the Suffragettes has shown what callous and brutal treatment can be inflicted by English officials in England itself even on women, and women of education, good birth, position and culture, guilty only of political obstruction and disorderliness. Yet this is the civilisation for which we are asked to sacrifice the inheritance of our forefathers !
We suppose in a bureaucracy it is inevitable that officials should be masters and be able to inflict inconvenience and loss on the citizen without any means of redress. Last Monday the publication of a new weekly named Dharma, edited by Aurobindo Ghose, was due and had been widely announced. The issue was ready and the printer duly attended the Police Court to declare his responsibility for printing and publishing the periodical. Except under very unusual circumstances this is a mere formality and one would have thought no difficulty could intervene, but nothing could persuade the Court Official to refrain from delaying the acceptance till the next day. It was pointed out that this would entail unnecessary inconvenience and perhaps considerable financial loss, but that naturally did not concern him as he was the master of the public and not their servant. The next day a variation of the same vexatious procedure was repeated. It was whispered, we do not know with what truth, that the first delay was for the Criminal Investigation Department to have time to find out whether the printer had been convicted in any sedition case. If so it was a futile delay. There is no concealment of the responsibility with regard to this paper. The name of the editor and proprietor was openly given and the printer was there to accept his responsibility. This does not look like intended sedition. If there were any doubt, the required information could easily have been gained from the Manager of the paper who was present and would no doubt have been glad to save delay and loss by stating the printer’s antecedents. It was not likely that
Page – 173 he would conceal a conviction as that would be a thing impossible to suppress. But then, if officialdom were to acquire a common sense, the laws of Nature would be sadly contravened and it is better to inflict loss on individuals than to upset a law of Nature.
Every Bengalee is familiar with the name of Shyamakanta Banerji the famous athlete and tiger-tamer but it may not be known to all that after leaving the worldly life and turning to the life of the ascetic, this pioneer of the cult of physical strength and courage in Bengal has taken the name of Soham Swami and is dwelling in a hermitage in the Himalayas at Nainital. The Swami has now published a philosophical poem in his mother-tongue called the Soham Gita. The deep truths of the Vedanta viewed from the standpoint of the Adwaitavadin and the spiritual experiences of the Jnani who has had realisation of dhyāna and samādhi are here developed in simple verse and language. We shall deal with the work in a more detailed review in a later issue.
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