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Wanted, a Policy
A SILENCE
has fallen on the country since the inauguration of a new repressive policy by
the bureaucracy, a silence broken only by Cocanada riots on one side and talk of
a special Congress session on the other. Srijut Surendranath Banerji has gone to Simultala to think over the situation and other leaders are thinking over it
wherever they happen to find themselves. The only gentleman in authority who has
come forward publicly with a policy is Srijut Bhupendranath Bose and we are
grieved to find that the country has received this honourable and legislative
gentleman's proposals with the supreme contempt of neglect. It is natural that
our adversaries should exult over this silence and point to it as an evidence of
complete demoralisation, and it is natural that those of us who are not in
constant touch with the mofussil should also feel the silence burdensome and
talk of demoralisation. We do not believe that the country is demoralised. On
the contrary we believe that circumstances have taken an extremely favourable
turn. There is, to begin with, an immense revolution of opinion all over Bengal
which has brought all but the inveterate loyalists to understand the situation
and face realities. Secondly, if our information from the mofussil is correct,
the people, the rank and file, are by no means cowed down, but rather from every
part we hear news of men girding themselves for real work, now that the outer
expression of our feelings is hampered and our hopes and aspirations driven in
upon themselves. We are especially glad to find in West Bengal, so long
apathetic, new stirrings of life and resolution. Nevertheless, in a certain
small section there is undoubtedly bewilderment, hesitation and something like
panic and we would be glad to believe that these feelings are not shared by any
of our leaders or at least by those who have hitherto arrogated to themselves
leadership and the credit for all the work that has been done. One cannot help
thinking that they are, some of them, in the
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predicament
of the Homeric heroes: — "They feared to take the challenge, to refuse
it they were ashamed."
If they are not demoralised, if their hearts and hopes are as high as ever, they
should take some trouble to show it. On the other hand, if they are demoralised,
if they are suffering from sinkings and searchings of the heart, they ought to
take some trouble to hide it. The words of the Mahabharata apply with
particular force:
"Never should a prince and leader bow his haughty
head to fear,
Let his fortune be however desperate, death however near.
If his soul grow faint, let him imprison weakness in his heart,
Keep a bold and open countenance and play on a
hero's part.
If the leader fear and faint, then all behind him faint
and
fear.
So a king of men should keep a dauntless look and forehead
clear."
What the country wants is a pronouncement of policy — it need not be a
detailed or indiscreet pronouncement, but at least a lead is wanted. The
bureaucracy has altered its front and changed its plan of campaign. Will it be
enough to modify our old policy to meet a new but surely not unexpected
situation or will it be necessary for us also to change our plan of campaign?
One thing at least is certain, we in Bengal have no intention of giving up
Swaraj, no intention of giving up Swadeshi, no intention of giving up Boycott;
to this the Bhupendranaths and the others must make up their minds. If any
leader tries to lower this triple banner of the cause, he forfeits his
reputation and his position from that date. The country has no intention of
withdrawing from a single essential position that has once been occupied.
Although we can make no claims to leadership, we have, as a responsible
organ of public opinion, the duty of laying our
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views
before the people and we have not failed to do so to the best of our ability.
The policy we advocate now is the policy we have always advocated, the policy of
the organisation of Swaraj and passive resistance. To push forward Swadeshi, to
push forward National Education, to take up Arbitration in earnest and for the
effective working of this positive side to create what we have not up till now
created except in certain districts, — a compact, well-managed, earnest
organisation; on the other hand, to follow a rational, effective and steady
system of Boycott, and passively to oppose Government repression at every turn,
to disregard the Risley Circular, to disregard the bureaucratic intimidation of
the Press, to disregard or circumvent if we cannot disregard the Coercion
Ordinance, to meet with silent contempt the danger of deportation and the threat
of imprisonment; this is the policy we would favour if there are men in Bengal
bold enough and steadfast enough to carry it out. Doubtless there are other
dangers more serious than any that have yet threatened us, but if we lower the
tone of the movement on account of anticipated calamities which may never
happen, we may stand charged before posterity with the crime of sacrificing the
future to vain and timid imaginations. Here again the wisdom of Vidula has a
word in season for us: "Make not great thy foeman by thy terrors, panic
eyes behind." The bureaucracy will use every method to kill the movement,
guile as well as terrorism, they will try to bribe us with remedial measures as
well as to bludgeon us with ordinances; they will wave the sword at us whenever
we make the slightest movement and use it on occasion. Our future depends on our
surmounting both inducement and intimidation. Let us take possible dangers into
consideration, by all means, and provide against them, never run our heads
against them wantonly and without occasion; but to be turned from our path by
possible dangers is neither true manhood nor true prudence. The path to Swaraj
can never be safe. Over sharp rocks and through thick brambles lies the way to
that towering and glorious summit where dwells the Goddess of our worship, our
goddess Liberty. Shall we dare to aspire to reach her and yet hope to accomplish
that journey perilous with unhurt bodies and untorn feet? Mark the way; as you
go it is red and caked with the blood of those
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who
have climbed before us to the summit. And if that sight appals you, look up and
forget it in the glory of the face that smiles upon us from the peak.
The
Simla Government has again opened wide its mouth of thunder and another
Resolution has issued from its capacious jaws. This time, as we had expected, it
is aimed at the Press. The Resolution is full of sound and fury signifying
little. It has been decided to institute, if necessary, a campaign against the
liberty of the Press and throttle it as effectually as the Liberty of speech has
been throttled by the Coercion Ordinance. But the Simla Government seems to be
ashamed of having to do all this repressive work with its own viceregal hands
and therefore it gradually retires behind the curtain and asks the local
governments to take the stage. That is all. At the same time, the Press is a
necessity to the foreign rulers and the Platform is not; they are therefore
unwillingly, we take it, to apply the same absolute gag to the Press as they
have applied to the Platform. They are trying first the effectiveness of the
threat of prosecution. "Look, there is the policeman Andrew, (or the
policeman Denzil, as the case may be). Mind you behave yourself. He has orders
to run you in if you don't." This is a fair translation into vernacular
English of Sir Herbert Risley's latest literary effort. We hardly think it will
have much effect on the tone of the Press, unless our publicists are cursed with
a much greater timidity than we give them credit for. A crop of Press
prosecutions may therefore be confidently expected. If that is not sufficient,
other measures will be used. And when they have silenced the Press and the
Platform, Anglo-India will no doubt exult over its victory and avow wonderingly
how easy it was to quell this absurd agitation. There is not enough
statesmanship among these heaven-born rulers to perceive that they are playing
into the hands of the most revolutionary section of opinion in India. Ajit Singh
in his exile may rejoice, for his work is being done for him far more
effectually than he could have done it himself. National feeling is
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like
certain explosives which need resistance in order to be effective; unresisted
they explode harmlessly and mildly into the air, but resisted, repressed and
confined, they become devastating forces and annihilate the substance that
resists and confines them.
Bande
Mataram,
June 5, 1907
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