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Work and Ideal
WE
are being advised by many nowadays
not to quarrel over ideals but to attend to the work lying nearest to our hands.
We must not talk of faith and hope, or revel in Utopian visions but run to the
nearest scene of work, be one of the drudging millions, try to improve their lot
and set ourselves to the task of mitigating human sufferings. The old villages
are so many pictures of desolation and distress, they are the hot-beds of
malaria, the sepulchres of our greatness; so go to them and try to reinstate our
tutelary angel in his ancient seat. Or we must erect mills, start small
industries, educate the masses, do philanthropic work and not talk of free or
united India until this is done. When the spade work has not yet begun, why talk
of a fine superstructure and create difficulties in the way of solid and
substantial work? You have not yet put the plough to your land, why quarrel over
the prospective produce and sow seeds of dissension amongst yourselves before
you have sown the seed that is to yield any good to the country? The buoyant
Nationalism of the day is sought to be repressed by such timid truisms and
guarded amenities with which our advisers justify their placid course of life.
They want us to take note of our limitations, environment and not to tempt the
country to the skies with wings so heavily weighed down. Common sense, it is
said, should be our guide and not imagination.
All this is well, and we would
be the last to deny the necessity of the work so much insisted upon. But the
work is nothing without the ideal, and will be fruitless if divorced from its
inspiring force. Which is common sense? To tread the right path or to avoid it
because it promises to be thorny? Which is common sense? To mislead ourselves or
to speak the truth and do the right? The uplifting of a nation cannot be
accomplished by a few diplomatic politicians. The spirit to serve, the spirit to
work, the spirit to suffer must be roused. Men in their ordinary utilitarian
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course of life do not feel called upon to
serve anyone except themselves.
The daily duties are
engrossing enough for the average man. His own individual prospects in life
generally become his sole concern. He is propelled by the inertia of his own
individual needs, and if any other sort of work is expected of him a different
and more intense force must be continuously applied to him to produce the
necessary energy. Or, in other words, we must continuously appeal to his better
nature, we must evoke the spiritual in him, we must call forth his moral
enthusiasm.
These may not be human
nature's daily food, they may not be necessary for our daily life, they may not
have their use in the ordinary selfish pursuits, but they are essential for
working a change in our social or political life. Buddha only preached and lived
a holy life, Christ only preached and lived a holy life, Sankar only preached
and lived a holy life, and they have each worked a mighty revolution in the
history of the world. Inspiration is real work. Let the truly inspiring word be
uttered and it will breathe life into dry bones. Let the inspiring life be lived
and it will produce workers by thousands. England draws her inspiration from the
names of Shakespeare and Milton, Mill and Bacon, Nelson and Wellington. They did
not visit the sickroom, they did not do philanthropic work in the parishes, they
did not work spinning jennies in Manchester, they did not produce cutlery in
Sheffield, but theirs are the names which have made nationhood possible in
England, which have supplied work and enterprise with its motive and sustaining
force. England is commercially great because Adam Smith gave her the secret of
free-trade. England is politically great because her national ideals have been
bold and high, not because of her parish work and municipalities. He was no fool
or Utopian who wished to be the maker of songs for his country rather than its
law giver. Wolfe had Gray's elegy recited to him on his death-bed, and said he
would rather be the author of these lines than the captor of Quebec. These are
the utterances of great workers and heroes, they have given the greatest credit
to the givers of ideas and ideals, because they have felt in their own life
where the inspiration for work comes from. Work without ideals is a false
gospel.
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Notables
When
we wrote of the days of ancient greatness, we did not think that we were about
to witness the singular spectacle of a Hindu society professing to restore the
purity of the old religion bowing down at the throne of Minto, who could
recognise in the Lords of today the Rajas and Maharajas of modern India, the
sons of the great Kshatriya blood? Minto and Morley are the representatives of
Yavana and Saka of old. Did the princes of ancient India go out of their way to
kneel before their throne? Was that the glory of Hinduism? Or are we witnessing
a revival of the days when Asoka ruled over the Asiatic peoples? The Bharat
Dharma Mahamandal aim at the revival of Hinduism but they are working for its
final extinction.
Minto Worship
When
we speak of the Notables bowing at the feet of Minto, we are aware that we shall
lay ourselves open to the charge of disloyalty. Well, that is a charge we have
never been anxious to avoid. When sedition is found in all we write then it is
no advantage picking and choosing our expressions. But we have one thing to say.
Who made Lord Minto ruler of India? Not the hand of any earthly power. But the
decree of God, and if the Hindu people bow down before Minto, it is only as the
Viceroy of God. Is that the logic of the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal? If so, it is
a logic based on outward facts, not on the inner truths. God is today
manifesting himself again, but where? Not in the glory of England
— which is on the wane, but in the
resurgence of Asia.
Minto-Morley
Minto is an archangel of peace, says
Romesh Chandra Dutt;
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Morley an archangel of benevolence. With
so many archangels to look after us, we are unfortunate indeed if we cannot be
happy. Poor India!
Within and Without
Romesh Chandra Dutt is a statesman
according to his own idea of himself and statesmen are always looking out for
their fellows. Romesh Chandra with his large-hearted appreciation of the ruling
qualities of the British race, Surendranath with his unswerving loyalty,
Narendranath with his gratitude are, one would imagine, so many pillars of
British rule. What about Romesh Chandra's letters to Lord Curzon, Surendranath's
boycott or Narendranath's secret hopes of Theosophical rule of Mahatmas? Whoever
says one thing with his lips and another in his heart, can never hope to help
his country.
Truth and Falsehood
When we are on the subject, let us be
frank. Truth is the rock on which the world is built. Satyena tisthate jagat.
Falsehood can never be the true source of strength. When falsehood is at the
root of a movement, that movement is doomed to failure. Diplomacy can only help
a movement if the movement proceeds upon truth. To make diplomacy the
root-principle is to contravene the laws of existence.
Bande Mataram,
February 20, 1908
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