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KARMAYOGIN A WEEKLY REVIEW of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c.,
Facts and Opinions
Be the fault whose you will, ours or the Government’s, the existence of an organised party of armed Revolution in Indian politics is now a recognised factor of the situation. The enormous strides with which events have advanced and a sky full of trouble but also of hope been overcast and grown full of gloom and menace, can be measured by the rapidity with which this party has developed. It is only five years since the national movement sprang into being. The cry was then for self-help and passive resistance. Boycott, Swadeshi, Arbitration, National Education, were the hope of the future, the means of self-regeneration. In five years everything has been struck to the earth. Boycott has almost disappeared, Swadeshi languishes under sentence of arrest, Arbitration died still-born, National Education is committing suicide. A tremendous disintegration has taken place and we look amazed on the ruins of the work our labour and our sacrifice erected. It is a huge defeat, an astonishing catastrophe. And on those ruins grim, wild-eyed, pitiless to itself and to others, mocking at death and defeat with its raucous and careless laughter Revolution rises repeating the language of the old-world insurgents, cherishing a desperate hope which modern conditions deny, grasping at the weapons
Page-434 which the Slav and the Celt have brought into political warfare. The seeds which the Yugantar sowed in its brief, violent and meteoric career have borne fruit in unexpected quarters and new-born journals repeat in foreign lands and in the English tongue the incitations to revolt and slaughter which have been put down in India by the strong hand of the law. Money is forthcoming to support a journalism which must obviously be all cost and no profit, young men exile themselves from their native land by openly joining the party of violence and in India itself repeated blows have been struck paralysing the hope and the effort to revive the activity of that broader and calmer Nationalism which, recognising modern conditions, still commands the allegiance of the bulk of the nation.
What is the precise nature, propaganda and strength of this party, which by so small an expenditure of energy has produced such surprising results? When the Yugantar, abandoning its habit of philosophic Revolutionism, first began to enter the field of practical politics, to sneer at passive resistance and gird at its chief exponents, no one thought that its change of attitude portended anything serious. Men read the paper for the amazing brilliance, grace and sustained force of its style, a new thing in Bengali journalism, and from the natural attraction men feel for strong writing and bold thought even when they do not agree with it. Afterwards the reckless fight of the Yugantar for existence attracted a more dangerous admiration and from that time the journal changed from a thing of literary interest into a political force. Even then it was taken as a practical guide only among a section of young men small in numbers and without means or influence. But things have changed since then. A void has been created by the conviction, deportation, self-imposed exile or silence of the great Nationalist speakers, writers, organisers, and the dangerous opinions and activities then created have rushed in to occupy the vacuum. The Nationalism we advocate is a thing difficult to grasp and follow, needing continual intellectual
Page-435 exposition to keep its hold on the mind, continual inspiration and encouragement to combat the impatience natural to humanity; its methods are comparatively new in politics and can only justify themselves to human conservatism by distinguished and sustained success. The preaching of the new revolutionary party is familiar to human imagination, supported by the records of some of the most inspiring episodes in history, in consonance with the impatience, violence and passion for concrete results which revolutionary epochs generate. The growing strength of this party is not difficult to explain; it is extremely difficult to combat.
This party has two sides, the propaganda carried on in foreign countries, and the Terrorist activity always recrudescent in our midst. The latter is the most formidable in the present, the former the most dangerous in the future. The foreign propaganda was first located in London and confined to the single paper, the Indian Sociologist, first an organ of Shyamji Krishnavarma’s Home Rule Society and opposed to all methods of violence. The conversion of Krishnavarma to the Terrorism he once fiercely condemned, has been a very important factor in the growth of the new party. The propaganda has been driven from London only to spring at once into a ubiquitous activity abroad. From Paris Krishnavarma publishes the Indian Sociologist; from Berlin a new organ, significantly self-styled the Talwar, issues; in Geneva a paper naming itself the Bande Mataram busies itself with decrying the policy of the defunct Bande Mataram and denouncing its originator and former Editor; a paper called the Free Hindustan maintains itself in America. Wealthy men and women stand behind these organs, the Kathiawar Krishnavarma, the Parsi lady Mrs. Kama and possibly others who do not advertise their names. Young men of all nationalities in India seem to have joined these organisations and occasional pamphlets find their way into India in spite of the vigilance of the Post Office by means familiar to European revolutionism.
Page-436 In India any violent propaganda is impossible; violent action takes its place and the swift succession of attempted or successful outrages in Gujerat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bengal shows that if the movement is not organised, as in these foreign countries, it is equally widespread. The very existence of such a conspiracy must paralyse all other forms and methods of national aspiration by driving the Government and the Anglo-Indian community into the suppression of everything that goes beyond contented acceptance of that which exists. The revolutionists know this well and they have played their game with great skill and success.
Every established Government is bound to eradicate a movement of this kind and it will naturally use any means it thinks effective. We recognise this necessity, but we have no faith in the means the Government and the Anglo-Indians seem to favour. We are dead against covering over an evil by pretentious, sounding and hollow speech and measures; we do not believe in a remedial system which suppresses symptoms and leaves the roots untouched. All we can do is to stand aside and let the physician try his system –and this we propose to do from henceforward. We have written this week in order to explain our action and our attitude, but we shall abstain in future from comment on current Indian politics or criticism of Government and its measures until more favourable and normal conditions return. We only reserve to ourselves the liberty of writing once to point out the immense difference between Indian conditions in modern times and the historical precedents on which the revolutionists rely, –for which we had not sufficient space in this issue. With this exception the rest is silence. The Karmayogin was originally started as a weekly review intended to encourage the habit of deep and close thinking on all subjects and widen the intellectual range of the people, giving an especial importance to religion and the growth of spirituality. The disproportionate space allowed to current politics was necessitated by the absence of any political
Page-437 organ devoted to that propaganda of peaceful Nationalism in which we saw the only way to healthy political development in India. Now that that way is barred by the legislator and the Terrorist, we return to our original intention.
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