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Reconstitution of the Congress
THE new demand for a constitution for the Indian National Congress is, – as we pointed out yesterday, - only a necessary corollary to that other and more radical demand for a thorough reconsideration and reconstruction of the entire plan and programme of that great national movement which has, since some time past, been so persistently urged upon the attention of the leaders by a large and increasing body of Congress- men almost in every part of the country. The Congress originally came into being with the express object of helping the Government by furnishing it with an unauthorised, but therefore none the less useful, instrument for ascertaining the trend and strength of educated public opinion in the country. This was the view evidently which Lord Dufferin took of it. This was the logic also of the attitudes and ideals of almost every Congress leader in the early years of the life of this institution from Hume downwards, as it is clearly that of most, if not of all of our Anglo-Indian friends at Palace Chambers. To urge the will of the people, or more correctly speaking the will of their educated leaders, upon the governors of the country, and thus to make the administration more popular than what it was and could otherwise ever expect to be, this was clearly the object of even the most radical Congressmen in the country twenty years ago. All the reforms that the Congress urged upon the attention of the Government were directed towards this end. The reform and expansion of the Legislative Councils along popular lines by the introduction of some measure of election in their constitution; the reform of the Indian Civil Service with a view to make room for a larger number of Indians in it; the reconstitution of the public services with the same purpose; the development of local self-government through existing Local and District Boards; - all these were urged upon the tacit acceptance of the absolute sovereignty of the British people in India as both desirable and unalterable. The Congress wanted to make England’s yoke in India easy, and its Page-3 burden light, but not to remove that yoke altogether. Indian politicians then, played really the part of British statesmen, working together, in the Congress, to secure the permanence of the present subjection, by placing England’s rule in India "broad- based upon the wishes of the people". The idea that India shall always occupy a subordinate and dependent position in world- politics, and play, even in her most advanced stage, only second fiddle to her British masters, was not repellent to the patriots of the Indian National Congress in those days, as it is not repel- lent to some of the Congress leaders even now. But the attitude of the country has undergone a more or less radical change in course of these twenty years. A new patriotism, more sensitive than the patriotism of the old days, has commenced to grow in the country. The conflict of colour has become keener between the people and the Government than what it was before; and the conviction has taken a deep root in many minds, even in the ranks of old Congressmen, that British Liberalism will never be strong or sincere enough to accept India as a co-sharer in the great British Empire, standing on terms of perfect equality with its other parts; but that so long as this British connection lasts, India must hold a subordinate and more or less dependent position in the federation of that Empire. The representatives of Government have themselves become more outspoken in these matters than they were before, and not only did Lord Curzon put a new interpretation on the Queen’s proclamation, and openly declare that so long as the Government in India continued to be British, the, highest and most responsible positions in the State must be the absolute monopoly of the Britisher, but even a Liberal statesman like Lord Reay, – who had hitherto been regarded as almost friendly to India- and as sympathetic towards the political aspirations of her people as Lord Ripon, – repeated the same sentiments only the other day at the meeting of the East India Association when Mr. Gokhale read his paper there on self-government in India. Radicals and Conservatives are thus alike anxious to perpetuate the present despotism in this country. Indian reformers can expect absolutely no help from either party in their struggles for political freedom. This conviction is fast growing among our people, and it has, naturally, commenced to Page-4 turn our eyes away not only from the Government of India, but also simultaneously from the British nation across the seas. If India ever attains political freedom it will be by her own unaided effort, - this is the new idea in the country. And the history of the last twelve months, the sudden awakening of the nation that is being witnessed on all sides, the sudden and miraculous union between the masses and the classes in the pursuit of common patriotic end, such as has been seen in the present Boycott Movement, all these have evolved a new faith out of this new idea, - a new faith in the capacity of the people to work out their own destiny, – and have opened up immense possibilities before this ancient and suffering nation. The demand for a reconsideration of the plan and programme of the Congress has been prompted by this new faith, and a constitution for the Congress wanted to organise these new ideas in the country, and furnish adequate organs and instruments for the application of the combined activities of the people to the work of nation-building that lies before us just now. Bande Mataram, August 21/22, 1906 Page-5 |