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Bureaucracy
at Jamalpur
THE
most recent accounts of the Jamalpur outrage emphasise the sinister nature of
the occurrence and the defects in our own organisation which we must labour to
remove. The most disgraceful feature of the riots has been the conduct of the
British local official who seems to have deceived and betrayed the Hindus into
the hands of the. Mahomedan Goondas. The nature of the attack, its suddenness
and completeness, show beyond doubt that it had been carefully planned
beforehand and was no casual outbreak either of fanaticism or rowdyism. It is
impossible to believe that the Joint Magistrate, responsible for the peace of
the country, was totally uninformed of the .likelihood of an organised attack
which was generally apprehended by the Hindus. Yet it is reported that the local
official induced the Hindus to be present at the Mela by a distinct pledge that
they had nothing to fear from the Mahomedans, and then, in violation of his
pledge, left them utterly unprotected for brutality and sacrilege to work their
will upon them. If he had any inkling of the outbreak which was then in
preparation, his action amounted to cynical treachery. Even if he was so
imbecile as to be unaware of what was going on in his own jurisdiction, his
failure to provide against the possibility of his pledge coming to nothing lays
him open to the worst constructions. At the very least he showed a light-hearted
disregard for his official obligations and his personal honour. His subsequent
action was equally extraordinary. All the accounts agree in saying that the
police were quite inactive until the anti-Swadeshists had their fill of plunder
and violence and were making for the station. Even then, they confined
themselves to depriving them of their lathis, -- the mischief being done and further violence superfluous,
--
and with a
paternal indulgence dismissed them to their homes unarrested. The only people
arrested were a few of the Hindus who, if they were guilty of anything, can have
only been guilty
Page-285
of
self-defence. The accounts on which we base these comments are unanimous and have not up to
the present moment met with any denial. We can only conclude therefore that, as
at Comilla, the local officials looked with sympathy on the rioters as allies
in the repression of Swadeshism, and acted accordingly. To stand by while the Mahomedans carry out that violent repression of Swadeshism which the sham
Liberalism of the present Government policy forbids them to undertake
themselves; to clinch this illegal repression by legal repression in the form of
prosecution of respectable Hindus for the crime of self-defence; to strain
every nerve to prevent outside help coming to the distressed and maltreated
Swadeshists, and finally to save appearances by sending a few of the Mahomedan
rioters to prison --
a punishment
which has no terrors for them, since they are all hooligans and some of them old
jail birds: -- such has been the consistent attitude of the local officials. The
only new circumstance in the Jamalpur incident has been the assurance given by
the local official which amounted to a promise of protection, and which alone made the outrage
possible. For the last century the British have been
dinning into our ears the legend of British justice, British honour, British
truth. The belief in the justice of the British nation or of British
Magistrates is dead. Generated by liberal professions it has been killed by
reactionary practice. The belief in the personal honour and truth of individual
Englishmen has somehow managed to survive; but it will not stand such shocks as
the East Bengal bureaucrats have managed to administer to it. We would earnestly
press upon the people of East Bengal the unwisdom of trusting to official
promises or to anything but their own combination, organisation and the strong
arm for their protection. We have already pointed out more than once what the
Comilla officials took some pains to point out to those who applied to them for
protection, that it is folly to raise the cry of Swadeshi and Swaraj and yet to
expect protection from the bureaucrats whose monopoly of power the movement
threatens.
Page-286
Is This Your
Lion of Bengal?
It is painful to see how utterly helpless and at sea the "recognised
leaders" of Bengal are showing themselves in face of the growing acuteness
of the crisis in East Bengal. The Bengalee's comments on the Jamalpur
outrage are, we are compelled to say, a .model of cold timidity and heartless
over-caution. The Bengalee declares that the whole Hindu community in
Calcutta is intensely excited over the outrage done to their community in
Jamalpur. It hints and insinuates that the connivance of the British officials
is mainly responsible for these outrages; but even these vague insinuations it
defends with a triple line of "ifs". It threatens dim and
terrible consequences if the Government do not take proper measures. But in
the meantime what does our contemporary, voicing as it does the mind of the most
famous politician in Bengal, propose in order to meet the emergency? It
proposes to hold a mass meeting in order to devise steps to minimise the evils
of the situation, and, having held a meeting, it proposes to wait and do
nothing. Or at least, if anything is to be done, it is merely to boast of our
superiority to "lowly passions" and to wait patiently to see what the
Government might do! These superior and enlightened journals cannot be
expected to yield to such "lowly passions" as indignation against
oppression, active sympathy with our outraged fellow-countrymen, and the desire
to avenge their wrongs. We are sick to death of this false mealy-mouthed
affectation of moral blamelessness which is merely an excuse for
pusillanimity. Nero fiddled and Rome burned. Jamalpur is in a state of siege,
the town held by Goorkhas, succour from outside excluded; one man lies dead and
others wounded, some, it is said, fatally; the broken image of Durga, the
outraged sanctity of religion, the blood of our kindred, the offended honour of
our cause and country, -- all cry out for succour and vindication. Yet the Bengalee finds time to fiddle about its
superiority to "lowly passions". Such is the leading Bengal finds in
the crisis of her destinies. Oh, the pity of it!
Page-287
Anglo-Indian
Blunderers
The Englishman
has its own standing suggestion for the treatment of incidents like the
Jamalpur disturbance. The theory is, the riots are the result of Mahomedan
indignation at the Swadeshi Boycott; therefore, Swadeshi is the cause of the
whole trouble; therefore, put down Swadeshi with the strong hand. No one knows
better than the Englishman that the disturbances have been caused by the
sinister alliance of Anglo-India with the Nawab of Dacca and his following
contracted to put down Swadeshi by fair means or foul. For our part we should
welcome open oppression by the bureaucracy; it would be more honourable at least
than local connivance at violence and brutal lawlessness, and it would be a
pleasure to meet an open and straightforward opponent. But open or secret,
direct or indirect, no measures whatsoever will succeed in crushing the
insurgent national spirit. We wonder whether these complacent bureaucrats and
exploiters have any idea of the growing mass of silent exasperation to which
the present policy is rapidly giving shape and substance. Possibly, the idea
is to force the exasperation to a head and crush it when it breaks into overt
action, the old policy of the English in Ireland. But we would remind these
blundering Anglo-Saxon Machiavellis that India is not Ireland; it is easier to
unchain the tempest than to decree to it what course it shall take and what it
shall spare or what destroy.
Bande
Mataram, April 25, 1907
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