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Extremism in the "Bengalee"
THE Bengalee,
excited by the news of a second outrage on the Hindu religion at Ambariya in
Mymensingh, came out yesterday with a frankly extremist issue. We only wish
that we could look on this as anything more than a fit of passing excitement;
but the Bengalee is hot today and cold tomorrow. Nevertheless, what it
says is true, and it is well and pointedly expressed: -
"Fifty years ago, such a revolting outrage, committed upon the religious
susceptibilities of Hindus, would have resulted in grave complications and
Government would have left no stone unturned to propitiate the Hindu Chiefs and
the Hindu population, and last, though not the least, the Hindu section of the
Native Army. Today Government officials openly side, presumably with the
approval of the head of the Provincial Administration, with those who break
Hindu images, desecrate Hindu temples, plunder the houses and shops of Hindus
and ravish Hindu women.
"Is this the sum total of our progress after a century and a half of
British rule? Have we, Bengali Hindus, become so craven- hearted, so utterly
incapable of self-defence, that the Government no longer thinks it necessary to
avoid wounding our tenderest feelings or even to keep up appearances? Verily, a
nation gets precisely the kind of treatment it deserves; and it appears
that in the opinion of Mr. Hare — so far tacitly endorsed by Lord Minto — a
nation of weeping and shrieking women as the Bengalis are regarded by their
rulers, deserves only to be trampled underfoot. And recent happenings in the
district of Mymensingh
show that the
Government has taken an exact measure of the Hindus of Bengal. For are they not
the embodiment of patience and — propriety? They are too highly educated and
reflective, you know, to do anything rashly and the native hue of their resolution is most reasonably and naturally and speedily sicklied o’er with the pale
cast of thought. They may be quite right from their
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personal standpoint; but national heroes are not usually made of such stuff nor
are national interests promoted by the wearers of soft raiment. The worship of
Motherland is the sole privilege of those choice spirits who have the heart to
incur sacrifice, the hand to execute the mandate of conscience, and the
recklessness to hang propriety and prudence."
And the Bengalee complains that we do not even lift our little finger to
protect our temples, our holy images and even our women from defilement and
dishonour. All this is surprising enough in a Moderate organ; if set before
anyone without any clue as to its source, it might all be taken as a verbatim
extract from the editorial columns of the Bande Mataram.
"Is this the sum total of our progress after a century
and a half of
British rule?" — asks the Bengalee. This precisely and nothing else
than this is the one inevitable result of British rule. Has it taken our
contemporary so long to discover that foreign rule, and especially such a rule
as that of the British bureaucracy which demands entire subordination and
dependence in the subject people, can have no other effect than to emasculate
and degrade? Loyalists may enumerate a hundred blessings of British rule
–
though, when closely
looked at, they turn out to be apples of the Dead Sea which turn to dust and
cinders when tasted, — none of them can compensate for the one radical and
indispensable loss which accompanies them, the loss of our manhood, of our
courage, of our self-respect and habit of initiative. When these are gone,
merely the shadow of a man is left; and neither the veneer of Western culture,
nor enlightenment, nor position, nor British peace, nor railways, nor telegraphs
nor anything else that God can give or man bestow can compensate for the loss of
the very basis of individual and national strength and character. Social reform?
What reform can there be of a society of lay figures who pretend to be men?
Industrial progress? What will be the use of riches which may be taken from us
at any time by the strong hand? Moral and religious improvement? What truth or
value have these phrases to men who see their religion outraged before their
eyes and whose wives are never safe from dishonour? Get strength first, get
independence and all these things will be added unto you. But persist in your
foolish mode-
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ration, your
unseasonable and unreasonable prudence; and another fifty years will find you
more degraded than ever, a nation of Greeks with polished intellects and debased
souls, body and soul
helplessly at the mercy of alien masters.
The Bengalee
in these fiery paragraphs denounces for the moment prudence and moderation
as mere weakness and cowardice. It recommends recklessness and asks us to lift
our hands in defence of our temples, our holy images and the honour of our
women. This is probably no more than a rhetorical outburst to relieve
overcharged feelings. But if there is any seriousness at all in our
contemporary’s wrath, let him seriously consider what his appeal means. We are
to rush to the defence of our temples, our holy images, the honour of our women.
But who are "we"? Not surely the people of Eastern Bengal and Northern
Bengal who, outnumbered, overwhelmed, are struggling against overwhelming odds
and, in spite of weak points like Jamalpur, are not acquitting themselves ill.
In West Bengal the Hindus are in overwhelming majority; in West Bengal there is
a sturdy Hindu lower class; there are thousands of students who throng to
Swadeshi meetings and parade at Swadeshi Jatras and festivals. But West Bengal
is under the spell of Babu Surendranath and his Moderate colleagues. Will Babu
Surendranath give the word? Is he prepared to speed the fiery cross? Shall West
Bengal pour into the East and North to help our kinsmen, to protect "our
temples, our holy images and our women from defilement and dishonour"? If
not, this momentary boldness and manliness is no more than a fire of straw which
had better not have been kindled. To quote our contemporary, — "The worship
of Motherland is the sole privilege of those choice spirits who have the heart
to incur sacrifice, the hand to execute the mandate of conscience and the
recklessness to hang propriety and prudence."
Hare or
Another
Our Moderate
contemporaries seem unable to understand that the misgovernment in Eastern
Bengal is a natural result of British policy, or rather of the peculiar position
of the bureaucracy in
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India. That
position can only be maintained either by hypnotising the people or
terrorising them. The new spirit is unsealing the eyes of the people and
breaking the hypnotic spell of the last century; especially in East Bengal the
process of disillusionment has been fairly thorough. The bureaucracy is
therefore compelled to fall back on the only other alternative, terrorism. But
our Moderate friends will persist in believing that the policy in East Bengal is
only the policy of individuals. They are therefore "demanding" the
recall of Mr. Hare. "He has eclipsed," says the
Bengalee, "the
record of Aurangzeb as a persecutor of Hindus, without Aurangzeb’s excuse of
religious zeal… He has made every Hindu hate British rule in the privacy of
his heart." But will the recall of Mr. Hare be of any more effect than the
recall of Bampfylde Fuller? For our part we had never any illusions on the
point. We knew that what Sir Bampfylde began in his fury and heat of rage, Mr.
Hare would pursue in cold blood and with silent calculation. Supposing the wish
of the Bengalee‘s heart gratified and Mr. Hare sent home to the enjoyment
of his well-earned pension, what then? A third man will come who will carry out
the same policy in a different way. It is not Hare or Fuller who determines the
policy of the Shillong Government, but the inexorable necessity of the
bureaucratic position which drives them into a line of action insane but
inevitable. They must either crush the Swadeshi movement or give up their powers
wholly or in part to the people; and to the latter course they cannot be
persuaded by any means which we have yet employed.
Bande Mataram, May 3, 1907
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