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Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 8th, 1906 }
The Times on Congress Reforms
The pronouncement of the Times on the proposal of the Congress for a further reform and expansion of the Indian Councils is significant for the thoroughness with which the futility and impossibility of the entire Congress ideal is exposed by the writer. Mr. Gokhale took great pains last year in his address as President of the Congress to point out, in detail, how the present Council of the Indian Viceroy might be remodelled, without disturbing the present position of the Government. His idea is that the elected members of the Viceregal Council may well be increased from five to twelve, of whom two shall be elected by the Chamber of Commerce and the representative of some important industry, and ten by the different Provinces. The two representatives of commerce and industry will, Mr. Gokhale opined, be Europeans, as there shall be 10 Indian members elected to the Council, out of 25, the total strength of that body; and even if they voted together they would be in a permanent and absolute minority; and the only effect of any vote they might give against the Government would be a moral effect. This is Mr. Gokhale’s position and programme; and neither the Times nor, we are afraid, anybody else outside the ranks of those who hold that everything that is unreal and moderate is the product of sound statesmanship, clearly sees what the gain either to the people or to the Government will be from the acceptance of this wise and cautious counsel. The ten Indian members will form HM’s permanent Opposition in India: that is all; but a permanent Opposition has all the evils of irresponsible criticism without the advantages of a real Opposition which can some day hope to be the Government, and whom this possibility
Page – 137 always makes sober and responsible. “The policy proposed by the Congress,” says the Times, “is a policy for bringing the Government into disrepute without the safeguards which all popular constitutions provide; it is a policy for generating steam without the precaution of supplying safety-valves;” and the justice of this criticism cannot be honestly denied. If Mr. Gokhale’s programme does not guarantee any benefit to the Government, neither is it likely to confer any benefit on the people except, of course, on a handful of men who shall enjoy the luxury of being Hon’bles and get enlarged opportunities of recommending their friends, relatives and protégés for office under the Government. The people will take little interest in these Council-elections, because they will soon find out— as they have already done in Bengal— that the elected members cannot carry any popular measure successfully through the Council or oppose effectively even the most mischievous ones. Mr. Gokhale is not only anxious to keep the elected members perpetually in the minority, but though he wants them to be vested with the right of moving amendments on the Budget, the Viceroy must have the right of vetoing them even if they are carried. The fact is, there is absolutely no seriousness about the whole thing. It is all to be a mere child’s play. Or, Mr. Gokhale thinks, perhaps, that by gradually securing these so-called rights, he will ultimately get real constitutional rights and privileges from his British masters, but he forgets that these masters have never in the past done anything that has directly affected their interests and status as a sovereign power, nor will they do any such thing in the future, unless, of course, they are compelled to do it, by apprehensions of some great loss or danger. As for the idea that this so-called reform in the Legislative Council will, in any way, make for popular freedom by educating the people, that also is evidently without any reasonable justification for its success; for, as the Times very justly points out, Mr. Gokhale’s programme has no room for any real political education for the people. To quote it in full:— “Nor is the policy one which offers any substantial advantage to the people of India; it gives them increased opportunities
Page – 138 of criticism but no increase of responsibility; it does nothing to give the people that education in politics which is essential if . . . they are now for the first time to have some share in the management of their own affairs. By the scheme under consideration the leaders of Indian opinion would not acquire that sense of responsibility which necessarily comes to men who expect that they will shortly be in power themselves; they are to have opportunities for finding fault with the Government but they will never have to make their words good; they can with a light heart demand a reduction of taxation or denounce the Government for not putting a stop to famines, because they know that they can never themselves be called upon to prove that these reforms are practicable. It is the prospect of office which sobers and restrains a European Opposition! Is it wise to assume that Indian politicians will be moderate and without this restraint?” And the justice of this criticism who will deny? Mr. Gokhale’s programme if accepted by Government, can have only one effect on the growth of public opinion and political life in India: it will prove the utter futility of any half-measures like these to secure real and substantial rights for the people. Such an education through failure, was needed twenty-five years ago, when people still had faith in British shibboleths or had confidence in British character and British policy; it is absolutely needless and involves sheer waste of time and energy that have much greater calls on them for more substantial and urgent work now,— today when the people have already commenced to realise that their future must be shaped by themselves, without any help from their British masters, and indeed in spite of the most violent opposition that will, naturally, be offered by them. Mr. Gokhale’s creed and his policy are anachronisms in the India of 1906; the one stands absolutely discredited with the people, the other is declared unwise and impracticable by the Government. The Congress must give these up, or continue as an effete anachronism in the country, or possibly turn by the logic of this creed and this policy, into a loyalist opposition to all true and forceful popular movement and propaganda
Page – 139 in India. Can we afford to allow an institution that we have all served so faithfully all these years, and that may at once become an organised institution of popular deliberation and effective public life, to grow effete and useless? Much less can we afford to place it in the hands of the enemies of popular freedom. That is the question before the country now. The coming Congress in Calcutta will perhaps decide this question. Friends of popular freedom should understand this and gather their forces accordingly for saving the Congress from both these calamities. ___________
By the Way
The Mirror complains piteously that the country is in the hands of extremists on one side and ultra-moderates on the other, while the voices of sitters on the fence like the Indian Mirror go totally unheard. It is hard on our contemporary. But he should realise that a time has come in the history of the nation when men must take one side or the other, if they wish to count for anything in the making of the future. To preside at a boycott meeting and disparage the boycott, is a course which the politician concerned may reconcile with his own conscience, but it is not likely to increase the weight of his influence with his countrymen.
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We are surprised to see the Pioneer join in the extraordinary can-can which the Englishman has been performing ever since the Fuller dismissal. We were accustomed to regard the Pioneer as a sober and well-conducted journal, though its political views are no less pernicious than the Englishman‘s; but it is surpassing Hare Street itself in journalistic high-kicks. “Beware, beware, Bengalis,” it shouts, “if you rebel, we will exterminate you with fire and sword, we will outdo the atrocities we committed during the Mutiny; we are tigers, we are tigers! look at our claws.” All this is very bloody indeed and paints the Pioneer red. But it does seem as if Anglo-India had gone clean mad. Such a pitiful
Page – 140 exhibition will not increase the respect of the subject race for its rulers.
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The Indian Mirror comes out with an article on the selfishness of Indian patriots. According to this self-satisfied critic Mr. T. Palit and the Indian Mirror are the only unselfish men in Bengal. Rajas Subodh Mallik and Brajendra Kishore of Gauripur are notoriety-hunters who have chosen to pay heavily in cash and land for the titles of Raja and Maharaja. Babu Shishir Kumar Ghose is a humbug who poses as an Avatar; Babu Surendranath Banerji is a humbug who poses as a Martyr; there is a third patriotic humbug somewhere who poses as a Hero,— we cannot fix this gentleman at present. The country does not want these gentlemen at all; it wants people who can dare and die for their country. Whether this dying is to come about by fire and sword, and the claws of the British tiger, as the Pioneer threatens, or by influenza, cholera or fright, is not clear. We gather, however, that Mr. Palit and Babu Narendranath Sen have entered into a league to dare and die for their country, and we rejoice to hear it. While waiting for this glorious consummation, we would suggest to the latter that he might expect his martyrdom with more meekness, and, secondly, that if he has to attack people, he might just as well cross his t’s and dot his i’s instead of employing the method of half-veiled allusions. It is a method which some people might call cowardly.
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The Englishman still pegs away at his portentous discovery of a secret society with the romantic name Sonar Bangla. His knowledge about it increases every day. It is not a Chinsurah society, it appears, but a Calcutta affair which is especially active in Mymensingh. This ubiquitous monster seems to be under the direction of Tibetans; probably the Tashi Lama formed it when he came to Calcutta. For it appears that the word “Golden” is a piece of Oriental symbolism and is employed by the Tibetans to signify men who are sworn to die for this or that purpose.
Page – 141 As a matter of fact, the word sonar is an ordinary Bengali term of pride and affection, no more mystic or symbolic than Shakespeare’s “golden lads and girls”. The Englishman seems determined to supply the absence of a good comic paper in Calcutta. Apparently its descent to anna-price has not increased its circulation.
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