The
Fund for Sj. Pal
THE
question of a fund for Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal was raised at first in a private
way and without
the idea
of a public appeal, but as soon as it was suggested to the leaders of the
Nationalist Party, they rejected the idea of any action which would seem like an
appeal to the private charity of the friends, admirers and sympathisers of
Srijut Bepin Chandra. They resolved to ask the public for funds to present to
Srijut Pal as a recognition of his services to the country well knowing that he
would insist on the money being utilised for further service to his country
instead of for his own personal benefit. Nevertheless certain friends and
fellow-workers are under the impression that the purse will be a personal gift
to the Nationalist leader to be used for his personal benefit, and they have
questioned the suitability of the form which the appreciation of his services
has taken. Among others Sj. Rabindranath Tagore while associating himself with
the appeal wrote to us suggesting that the question of the advisability of
introducing this European form of material recognition into the more spiritual
atmosphere of India might be publicly discussed in our columns. The question is
an important one and since it is likely to recur as our political life develops,
it is as well to clear the air from the beginning.
The principle of rewarding distinguished public services by material
forms of recognition as well as by honours and titles is common to East and
West, not only so but rank and title were usually associated with the gift of an
estate or Jagir to support the expenditure suitable to the rank and the dignity
of the title. Sometimes gifts of land were given by the State without any fresh
rank or title either as a reward or as a security for future service. In modern
times the State has no land to give and the only material appreciation it can
show of great merit or distinguished services is either a pension or annuity
for the former or a vote of money for the latter. An annuity serves the purpose
of securing a man of ability against want and enabling him to devote himself
Page-770
entirely
to the work which has procured him the recognition and therefore serves the
purpose of securing the future services to the community once guaranteed by the
State gift of land. The vote of money on the other hand is usually given to a
distinguished man who is above want and is a substitute for the Jagir of feudal
times. No European soldier or statesman, however great his position, his rank or
his wealth, would consider it a degradation to accept such a gift from the
nation.
In India the State is not the people, and the servants of the people are
likely to fall under the displeasure of the State to be persecuted and even
ruined by official wrath rather than to enjoy honours, dignities and rewards at
its hands. It is therefore the duty of the people to show its own appreciation
of their services, not because they demand such recognition, but as a duty to
itself and an assertion of its own dignity and claims. Many of those who suffer
for its sake are ruined by the persecution of the bureaucrats and leave their
families to want or even to destitution, and in such cases the people are bound
to come to their assistance. Such funds as the Basanta Bhattacharya Fund belong
to this category, and there can be no question about their fitness, nor can any
blot come to the honour of the recipient by his acceptance. But public vote of
money to a leader falls under a different head and introduces new questions of
propriety. There can be no question either of the right of the public to offer
such a substantial mark of recognition or of this right under certain
circumstances becoming a duty; and until the new movement there would have been
no question of the propriety of a public leader accepting such a gift; for in
those days the standard was a Western standard and whatever was held right and
honourable by the Western standard, was necessarily right and honourable in
Indian politics. But the new movement has abolished the Western standard and
returns to national ideals and principles. The first question is whether the
public ought to be allowed to give a purse, the second whether the leader should
accept it. To the first question the answer is that the purse takes the place of
the feudal Jagir which either secures the services of ability by placing it
above want or is meant as a substantial recognition of past services. The public
is entitled to adopt this form because there
Page-771
is
no other, except such titles and honours as have been given by common consent to
men like Raja Subodh Chandra Mallik or the brilliant but passing honour of a
public reception. But this right is limited by the obligation not to demoralise
the people's servants, not to stain the purity of their motives or lower the
high ideal of self-sacrifice and self-effacement which is growing up in our
midst. The new servant of the people is a different type from the old political
leader. He is as often as not a man who is poor, without resources, pursued by
difficulties in his private life, yet is debarred from devoting himself to
earning his private bread except by such occupations as are themselves an act of
service to the people. This poverty, this indigence is the glory of the man and
his great honour. Such an ideal, like that of the Brahmin, is a possession of
great price which should not be lightly thrown away. If the presentation of a
purse destroys it, then this form of recognition should be eschewed. But how
then is the public to mark its sense of appreciation, to put something in the
balance against the material injuries which the bureaucracy have it in their
power to inflict just as they are able to outweigh the moral stigma of the jail
or legal condemnation by marks of their love and admiration? The solution lies
in such rare instances
as that of Sj.
Bepin Chandra in the public exercising its right and leaving
it to the representative of the New Spirit to deal with their gift in the new
spirit. We expect the people of India to
show
by the substantial nature of the purse their high appreciation
of the services of the great Nationalist leader, of his noble self-immolation
and of the oppressive nature of the monstrous sentence which was inflicted upon
him. They may safely leave it to Sj. Bepin Chandra to make such a disposition of
their gift as will effect the purpose for which it was given and yet preserve
the ideal purity of the standards which he himself has done so much to bring
into public favour and acceptance.
Bande Mataram,
March 21, 1908
Page-772
Home
|