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The Elections
THE GREAT election is over, the first in England which has been fought on constitutional issues since the passing of the Reform Bill in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. The forces of reaction have put forth their utmost strength and, in the result, have only succeeded in just equalising their own numbers with those of the official Liberal party. This partial success will be more fatal to the cause of reaction than a defeat. For, in the coming Parliament, the Liberal Ministry will be dependent for their very existence on the forty Labour votes that represent the frankly socialistic element in English progressive opinion. Such a state of things has never before existed in English politics and a few years ago it would have been thought impossible. Practically, Socialist opinion will rule England so long as the Asquith Ministry lasts and, if the Socialists are wisely guided and refrain from abusing their opportunity, they will be able to take such steps in the modification of British politics as will ensure the triumph of Socialism in England at no distant date. Not only will the Government depend for its very existence on the Labour vote, but it will depend for its safety on Irish support. If, therefore, the Irish also are wisely guided and do not press the favourable situation too far, the long delayed concession of Home Rule is a certainty within the next two years. Necessarily, the success of the Irish and the Socialists can bear no fruit unless the veto of the House of Lords is annulled or a new elective Upper Chamber takes the place of the present absurd and antiquated institution. We have not therefore erred in forecasting a democratic revolution in England as the inevitable result of the action of the House of Lords in rejecting the Budget, or, as they euphemistically put it, referring it to the country. Mr. Balfour has recognised that the verdict of the United Kingdom has been given in favour of the Budget and against Tariff Reform. The real
Page-445 issue is now, what it should have been throughout, the reform, abolition or replacement of the House of Lords. When the elections were in progress, Mr. Asquith committed himself on the question of Home Rule, and, even if he wished to draw back from it, in face of his dependence on Labour and Irish votes he can no longer retreat. All that he has done is to qualify his promise of a final solution of the Irish question by stipulating that it shall contain provision for the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament as well as local autonomy of a liberal character for the Irish nation. This means not only the restriction of all Imperial questions to the province of the Parliament meeting in London, but the decision of questions between Ireland and England by the same body and possibly a power of veto in certain matters for the British Cabinet. It is impossible for an English statesman to go farther in the direction of Irish autonomy, and the Irish party will be well advised to accept even this qualified autonomy and make it an instrument for so developing the strength of the Irish nation as to make further concession in the future inevitable. The lifework of Parnell has not gone in vain; the two great questions he brought to a head by his masterly policy, the liberation of the Irish peasant from rack-renting landlords and the liberation of the Irish race from an unsympathetic domination, are both in process of solution within a quarter of a century of his untimely end. Liberty is a goddess who is exacting in her demands on her votaries, but, if they are faithful, she never disappoints them of their reward. For India, the elections are as favourable as an English election can be. We do not regard the defeat of pro-Indian Liberal candidates as a calamity. There is always a limit to the efforts of members of Parliament, however sincere, who are bound by ties of party loyalty and discipline not to embarrass their official chiefs beyond a certain point. The Labour members and the Nationalists are bound by no such scruples and both of these parties have sympathy with India. The one problem before us is how to turn that sentiment of sympathy into an effective impetus towards action; for in European politics sentiment is not a sufficiently strong motive unless it is supported by some
Page-445 practical community of interests. The Irish Parliamentary party were able to bring Home Rule into the category of realisable ideals because they made it to the interest of the British parties to get rid of the Irish difficulty; if that ideal is realised now, it will be because the interests of the English Liberals and the Irish Nationalists have become one and, therefore, they must accommodate each other. It is forces that effect great political changes, not moral sentiments or vague generosities. Even a great idea can only become operative when it is manifested as a working force with a definite aim and a distinct pressure on its environments.
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OTHER WRITINGS BY SRI AUROBINDO IN THIS ISSUE
Moondac Upanishad of the Atharvaveda I.1
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