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A
Great Opportunity
THE
release of Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal will take place in a few days and the
bureaucracy is undoubtedly looking with anxiety to see what kind of reception
the people give to this great leader and propagandist after his six months’
incarceration for conscience’ sake. They will do their best to prevent by a
surreptitious release any expression of public feeling either at the jail doors
or at the station, but it does not matter whether or not we welcome him at the
precise moment and place of his release, so long as the heart of the people goes
out unmistakably in some mighty demonstration of feeling. That Srijut Bepin
Chandra Pal is one of our most powerful workers on the platform and the press,
is a fact which even his opponents have acknowledged. That his services to the
country have been of an incalculable value, few will care to gainsay. Among a
large section of his countrymen he is recognised as the prophet of a great
political creed. Whenever men of his type fall under the displeasure of the
powers that be, they return to the field of work with greater vigour and a fresh
vitality, for theirs is a mission which thrives upon oppression and gains by
exile and imprisonment. Srijut Bepin Chandra also will come out of prison like a
giant refreshed and renew his labour for his nation. But if his incarceration
had been a source of strength to himself, has it or has it not been a source of
strength to his country? This is the question which we must answer on the 9th of
March. In what terms shall we answer it? Are we to confess that the cunning
policy of mingled repression and occasional forbearance has had its effect?
There are some among us who advise caution and look with fear on such
demonstrations as likely to provoke fresh persecution, as if it were the outward
ebullitions of sentiment and not the fact of national aspiration which it is
sought to repress. Shall we by an imperfect welcome to this great tribune of the
people show that these counsels of imprudent prudence have weight with us? Shall
we not rather make the occasion one of universal
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rejoicing
all over the country so that all may feel that the pulse of the movement is not
slower, that the heart of this people beats as high as before the incarceration
of their well-loved apostle and teacher?
How then are we to welcome Bepin Chandra Pal back to the scene of his
labours? By illuminations, by processions, by rejoicing of every kind. We would
have every town and village where the nation is awake write his welcome in
letters of fire on balcony and roof of their dwellings not only in Bengal but in
Madras, in Maharashtra, in the Punjab, wherever Nationalism is alive and the
name of the Mother is honoured. We invite our countrymen all over India to
become one with Bengal in the act of a rejoicing which is not for a man but for
the cause he has served. Let us also arrange to lead him in procession from his
house after his return to a place of public meeting with such pomp and ceremony
as befits one who returns from a great victory to his native land; for the jail
is a place of exile and the prisoner released is a soldier who has waged a great
moral conflict for his country and returns triumphant carrying with him his
unblemished patriotism and the unlowered flag of his courage as the trophies of
the fight. And in the place of assembly let all parties unite to do him honour
so that the return of this Nationalist leader may be the best answer to those
who rejoice in our dissensions and seek in them the safety which they cannot
hope for from the justice of their bureaucratic rule or the righteousness of
their absolutist cause. And if in addition every considerable society of workers
and patriots expresses separately its appreciation and respect, the welcome will
be worthy of the occasion, and a great opportunity for fresh national
inspiration and the upwelling of a living enthusiasm will have been nobly
used. Whoever thinks that this is a time for nourishing old grudges or
remembering past feuds, is wanting in patriotism and insight. The hour is one of
growing national unity and there is in the heart of the people a desire to have
done with barren dispute and set themselves to the sacred work to which this
generation has been called. Whoever stops now to weigh and consider whether he
is at one with Bepin Chandra in the views of which he is the chief exponent or
can entirely appreciate the reasons of his refusal to
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give
evidence, is allowing trifles to obscure the greatness of the thing which Bepin
Chandra for the moment represents. It is not the man or the action which will be
honoured by a public demonstration. The man is nothing but the cause is
everything. The action is nothing, but the sacrament of suffering is everything.
This sacrament of suffering has been in this instance the privilege not of the
rank and file of the national army but of a great leader and captain, whose name
is honoured in every part of India. Such an occasion is one of rare occurrence,
for it is usually the private soldiers who are food for powder and the leaders
stand out of range for the better safety of the work. Yet when one is struck
down, it is a matter for national rejoicing, that so illustrious a name has been
added to the roll of those who have been chosen to give proofs of the noblest
patriotism and courage.
We therefore invite all to join in this demonstration. We do not wish
this occasion to be marred by the memories of past dissension but to be ennobled
by the growing hope of a great united movement forward in the future. In the
person of Bepin Chandra let the present impulse towards a better understanding
find a consummation which all the world cannot fail to understand. Let it be the
seal of reconciliation which began at Pabna, and the beginning of united action
for the better organisation of the work to which all Bengal without distinction
of parties is now irrevocably pledged.
The
Strike at Tuticorin
The
struggle at present in progress at Tuticorin is one of absorbing interest. This
is not the first instance in which Madras has shown how deeply it is imbued with
the spirit of a strong and enthusiastic Nationalism. But on this occasion there
is a note of firm serious strength in the attitude of the people which is proof
of a great advance on former outbreaks of Nationalist feeling. Why the
authorities should have chosen to apprehend a miniature rebellion in Tuticorin,
they themselves alone know. The people are conducting themselves with a
marvellous combination of firmness and dignity, with quiet self-control and have
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given
absolutely no hold to the excited local bureaucrats. We can only suppose that as
the self-assertion of Indian labour has evoked the enthusiastic support of the
people, so the menace to the despotic control of the labour market by British
capital has been taken by the bureaucrats as a blow aimed at British rule. The
identity of the interests of administration and exploitation of which Lord
Curzon was the prophet is, no doubt, at the root of this unseemly alliance
between the Coral Mills and the British Government. The people seem to have
found worthy leaders in Sjts. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramaniya Siva and have
so far held their own in the struggle. We await further developments with
interest and with confidence in their courage and discretion.
Bande Mataram,
March 4, 1908
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