Lndian Nation Builders - Forgotten Books

lndi‘

an Na tion Bu ilders

MADRAS

GANESH Co . ,PUBLISHERS

Pub lisher s’ Note

In launching the th i rd volu'ne of the Indian Nat ion

B ui lders before the public, the publ ishers desire torecord their thanks for the apprec iat ion and encouragement extended by the publ ic to former vol umes, whichhave made the presen t volume possibl e. The publ ishersdesire f urther to rei terate What they s aid in the fi rst andsecond volumes , v iz.

, that the inclus ion or excl usion o fany Indian in or from the p resent ser ies conveys nosuggestion as to h is relat ive Worth . The publ ishersdesi re further to emphasise the f act that the presentser ies forms a sort of treasury of Indian eloquence. I tis the hope and ambi tion of the publ ishers to make thattreasury as well as the projected gal lery of portrai ts

complete in future volumes .

CONTENTS

Kashinath Tr imbak Telang with a portrai tLi fe Ske tchThe Ilbert B i l lLord Ripon

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi with a portraitL i fé

‘

SketchSense of DutyRecent T r ialConfession of FaithA plea for the SoulT he Duties of B r itish C itizenship

Pundit Ajudhianath with a portraitLife SketchCong ress Reception Address

BabnAswini Kumar Dut t with a portraitLi fe SketchP res idential Add ress

S ir K. Seshadr i lyer W ith a portraitLife Sketch wi th speech beforeRepresentative Assembly

Bank im Chander‘

Chattei-J i W ith a. portraitLife SketchT he N at ional Anthem of Beng al

T heLate Nizam of Hyderabad with a por traitLife Sketch

Unrest in India.Reply to the Minto C ircular

S ir Syed Ahmed KhanW ith a portraitL ife SketchT he Sepoy M utinyHindu M ahomedan P roblemT he Bengalees

Representative Inst itut ions for Ind iaAng lo- Ind ian OffiC ials Old and New

Sir Gooroodas Banerj i W i th a portraitL ife SketchN ational Educat ion

Babn Aravinda fihosh W i th a portra itLife SketchT he Ag e of Kal idasaKa lidasa

's Seasons

T he R i g ht of Assoc iation

Dr . A. K. Coomaraswamy W ith a portra itA StudyPreface to Essays on National IdealismT he Or iental View of W omen

S lr Rab indranath Tagore W ith a portraitL ife SketchSakuntala I ts inner meaningT he Impact of Europe on India

KASH INATH TRIMBAK TELANG

A'

SKET CH OF ~H I S LIFE AN D CAREER

IFT EEN years and more have rol led by s incethe late Mr ,

K . T . T elaii g died , and i t maynot beeasy at th is distance o f t ime, to real ize w ith su fficientvividness , th e impression he made on his own generation .

Undeniably the pos it ion be occupied in h is day was

one of unsurpassed pre eminence in India. Theeducated classes l ooked up to and revered him as a

hero ; th e rulers honored and t rusted him as a safeguide and counsel lor . W hen death cut him off,

Anglo - Indians o f al l classes united w i th the peopleof the country in laying their vot ive wreaths on thegrave of one whose career had been stricken downat the heigh t of i t s promise. Many and varied werethe elements that went to make up Mr . T elang

’s

fame . He was of the race of human ity ’s in tellectualar istocrats. He had an exceptional ly clear and pers

picacious intel l igence . He had a Wi tching tongue,

and as his in tel lect was remarkable for i ts c learness,

so was h i s eloquence remarkable for i ts del ight full ucidity . A scholar deep i n the l i terature “of the

'

age

he presented the somewhat rare Spectacle of a scholar

who was also the hero of a hun dred platforms.

Among purely pol it ical leaders he was one o f the few

men of h is t ime who could l ay claim to the possess ion

of cu lture using the word in i ts best sense . The pr izeso f the l aw profession were h is, and amidst its

2 THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS

engross ing dut ies he found time to indulge h is devour inglove of books , and make substantial contr ibution toant iquar ian research . I t was his profound Sanskri t

scholarship that gai ned for him a European reputat ion .

In those fields wh ich in Ind ia have come to be cal ledsocial reform and pol i t ics he was one of - the

g reat pioneers. Greater even than what he did waswhat he was. At a t ime and in a day when theeducated classes were running mad a f-ter W estern

luxury and complexity he preserved the s impl ic ityo f h is ancestors . H is l i fe was mostly l ived on theintel lectual level . Chaste in though t , word and deed ,gentle

,sweet

,serene

,overflowing with the m i lk o f

human kindness,f ul l of an ab id ing sense of l i fe ’s deep

purpose,Mr . Telang stood forth in his day as the

exemplar of what m ight be expected from the fus ionof the best of the East wi th the beS t of the W est.He came of a fami ly of Gowd Saraswat B rahmin s

sett led in Maharashtra and was born on the 30th

day of August 1850,H is fami ly were in .afiluent

ci rcumstances , not too r ich,but ne ither in ‘ chi l l

penti ry.

’ H is parents were good - natured,amiable

,

pious, orthodox people , of the o ld type . Noth ing inM r. T elang

's later l i fe was more beauti ful than h is

d evot ion to his parents , while around him the maximLeave your father and mother and cl ing to yourwi fe was ascendent amongst the educated cl asses .

H is paternal unc le ( father’s elder brother) being

chi ld less adopted Kashinath as h is son. He was a

g rea t bel iever in disc ipl ine and took the greatest pain sover the charac ter of his adopted Son. The H indu

KASH I NATH TRIM BAK TELANG 3

home , some good people say, fai ls of i ts f unct ion as amoulder of character and the school has consequentl yto take i ts place in th is respec t. Be that as it'may

,

Mr . T elang’s home at any rate did prove a school of

character . The boy Kash inath was i n due course putto school

,and sent to a vernacular i nst itut ion at

Amarchand W adi , then presided over by one,Mahadev.

This teacher seems to have been o f except ional cal ibre,and many of h is pupi ls attained consp icuous d istinct ion in afte r - l i fe . Not improbably therefore , he toomay have lef t some mark on the character of our

hero. Under him Mr . Telang acquired a strongground ing in M arathi which stood him in good steadin later days. From th is school the boy passed onto the Elph instone H igh School at Bombay when hewas nine years of age . No schoolmaster of h is, but wasstruck with his talents

,and predicted a bright future

for the boy. Students were i n those days not numerous,

and every one received some personal atten t ion fromt he teacher . In such fact , doubtless , l ies one o f thereasons ,

'

why Engl ish educat ion i s not now the succ essi t once was . In the school Mr

,T elang had reason to

fee l gratef ul to al l h is teachers,but he was Special ly

indebted to the princ ipal , Mr. Jefferson , who had takena paternal interest in him .

After an unusual ly bright school career the boy

passed on to the Elphinstone Col lege in 1864 . Hereagain he put in a bri l l iant record . Scholarshipsmedals , prizes fell to his lot in abundance. Mr.Chatfield , one of the professors of the Col lege , was

part icu larly struck with h is abi l i ty and i t was at his

4 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

instance that Mr. Telang was subsequent ly nominated

a Fel low of the Col lege , as we shal l tel l in the sequel .

Mr . Telang took h is B .A . degree in 1867.

He was now at what is o ften cal l ed the thresholdo f l i fe . He was now at that stage wh ich is for so

many at the present t ime one o f pain fu l trial . Year

after year the outgo ing graduates are exhorted at the

un iversity convocat ion that for them true educat ionhas only begun . For most of us such an exhortation

is a counse l of perfection . Our energies are absorbedin the hard struggle for a l iving , and we have nei therthe t ime nor the incl inat ion t o bu i ld a superstructureon the foundations of univers ity trai n ing. There aresome except ional men however , and Mr . Tel ang wasone such . He fel t strongly , that for h im educat ioncould not end with the university

,and that he had

touched bare ly the fr inge of the realm of knowledgeA burn ing passion for knowledge awoke in h im .

He re - read the subjects he had studied at Col legeand began to put h is mind th rough a regular

i

course o fd isc ipl ine and sel f - cul ture . He is said to have readand reproduced such books as Plato ’s D ia logues and.

Chellingworth’

s‘H istory of the Protestants , ’ and to have

even devoted some t ime to the sol ut ion of mathematicalproblems. I n the meanwh i le he had for a few months .

acted as Sanskr i t teacher i n th e Elphinstone H igh

School . In 1867 Mr. Chatfield , his old professor, goth im appointed as Fel low of the El hinstone Col legei n W h ich Mr . Telang con tinued t ill

)

the year 1872.

This period of five years he spent most invaluablyreading every book that came to h is hands and almost

KASH INATH TRIM BAK TELANG 5

exhausti ng the Col lege l ibrary . Joh n Stuart Mil l andHerber t Spencer wer e h is favouri tes at the t ime . Hewas also an unfai l ing attendant at the meetings ofseveral debat ing . societies . These deba t ing societ ieswere in h is case the train ing- ground where he acquiredhis br i l l ian t d ialect ical sk i l l . These five years may noti naptly be descr ibed as the seed t ime of h is l i fe.During the same per iod he also contr ived to pass

some examin ations . I n 1868 he went up for the M .A .

and rendered the Gita into Engl ish verse for thatexamin at ion . Shortly after , he passed the LLB .

examinat ion and in 1872 the Advocate ’s examination ,and got h imsel f enrolled the same year.His legal career was a rap id success , many factors

contr ibut ing to i t. He was a fascinat ing Speaker,to

whom it was a rare pleasure to l isten . He was aconscient ious worker and could not rest t i l l he haddone his best in anything he had taken up . He hadalready become celebrated as a Sansk r i t scholar and hesoon made for himsel f a name as an exper t i n H induLaw . In the words of S i r Raymond W est , “ I n all

matters of H indu Law Mr. Telang was by generalacknowledgemen t fascileprm ceps o f the Bombay Bar .

”

His argumen t in M ankuvarbhai’s case (a leading case

i n H indu Law as law st udents know)was so able thatS i r Michael Westropp,

the Chief j ust ice , went intor aptures over i t and mentioned Mr . T elang

’s name to

h is f r iends as that of one who would in t ime adorn

theBench .

’ From that day forward S ir M ichael hadan eye on him

,a nd was never s low to pay h im a

- compl iment . Both on the Or iginal and Appel late


s ides Mr,Telang en joyed a l arge pract ice . The post

of Joint Judge was o ffered to h im in 1880, but hedecl ined i t

. N ine years later he was made a Judge o fthe H igh Court of Bombay , the youngest Indian to sit

on the Bench . During h is short tenure as Judge beimpressed himsel f ine ffaceably on the development, orrather the in terpretat ion of H indu Law. I t would beouts ide the scope of the present sketch to recount a l lh is services in th is direct ion wh ich may be gleanedfrom the pages o f the Law Reports . But of the general

Spir i t that an imated h im in h is construct ion of H induLaw

,we may be permit ted to quote the test imony of

two competent witnesses. Si r Raymond W est,who

was h is col league on the bench and admi red h im sos incerely

,wrote : Mr . Telang fel t very strongly that in

H indu Law , as elsewhere l i fe impl ies growth andadaptat ion . He hai led W i th warm welcome the princ iple that custom may amel iorate , as wel l as fix , eventhe H indu Law , and i t was refresh ing sometimes tohea r him arguing for modern isation , whi le on theother S ide an Engl ish advocate to whom the wholeH indu system must have seemed more or less grotesquecontended for the most r igorous construct ion of someantique rule .

" “Mr . Frazer,author o f a Literary H istory

of India , writes ; “T o a nat ive alone can be known thetrue force of the var ious Schools of H indu Law amongthe varied classes of the H indu Community

,and in how

far local C ircumstances , habits or customs have thebind ing force of law outside al l the formulated codes

,

of the B rahmin ical legislators . The Engl ish judgenatural ly accepts these B rahminical Codes as of

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writ ing i t,a dict ion , which , i t i s said ,no other Indian

of his t ime possessed . He had further acquired thesc ient i fi c and cr i t ical Sp iri t which is the ch ie f glory ofthe present - day W est , and appl ied i t to the study and

eluc idation of Indian antiqui t ies .I t was as a profound Sanskri t Scholar , Or ien tal ist ,

and Antiquar ian that his name was known outsideIndia . He had jomed the Bombay branch o f theRoyal Asiat ic Society as soon as he was out of Col lege .

To the journal o f that society as wel l as to the columnso f the Ind ian Antiquary he was a f requent and valuedcontr ibutor. W hatever the subject he was t reat ing,his readers almost invariably fel t that they were in thepresence o f a man who was actuated by no bias save

a genuine passion for truth . W e have no Space here

to advert to al l that he wrote in th is fi eld . Someadmirer may some day give h i s writ ings to the world ina col lected form. Mention must however be made of

one or two i mportant th ings, Prof . W eber of Germanyhad promulgated the fatuous theory that the Ramayan ao f Valmiki had been borrowed from Homer , on theprinciple , probably , that everyth ing good and great inIndia should be traced to somewhere outs ide . Mr.Telang took up arms against th is start l ing theory

,and

in a most able reply once and fo r ever gave i t thequietus . Prof . Max Mul ler invited h im to trans late theBhaghavad G i ta for the “Sacred Books o f the East ,"

series , which he did with h is usual abil ity . The

introduct ion to the translat ion is in a sense the mostimportan t part of the book , deal ing , as i t does , W ithsuch vexed quest ions , as , the date

'of the Gi ta , i ts

KASH INATH T R IM BAK TELANG 9

authorship and relat ion to the M ahabarata , Buddh i st ic

influence , etc. Those who are in terested in the subjec tcannot do bette r than t urn to M r. T elang

’

s l um inouspresentment .In recogn it ion of h is services to the wor ld of Sanskr i t

schol arsh ip Mr,Telang was elected President of the

B ombay B ranch of the Royal Asiat ic Society insuccess ion to S ir Raymond W est . Si r Raymond inb idding farewel l to the society over which he had soworthi ly presided paid the fol lowing eloque nt tribute

to h is successor : “I am sure he wi l l be able to domuch for the somety , and whenever he ret ires f rom the

presidency he wil l leave beh ind materia l enough tomake the society dist inguished for generations to come .

I congratu late the society most heart i ly on my beingsucceeded by Mr . Telang , and my own l ight wi l l shinedimmer by contras t with h is

,I have no

feel ing of envy howevermuch cause there may be fori t , and I feel al ready in ant icipation a glow of del ightin fee l i ng that the soc iety wi l l be so worthi ly pres idedo ver and stimulated to work by this gent leman Thecause of h istorical and an tiquar ian research i n In diai s cry ing aloud for workers . T he most v i tal o f India ’sn eeds at present is a gen uine

,unvarn ished h istory of

her past. Be fore such a h istory can be wri tten,i n fi nite

work wil l have to be done in the way of research . Theharvest is , indeed , plen ty , but the labourers are few

".

B ut al l honour to the few who have dug and delved inthe fi eld , and among such a very h igh place must be

gig iven to the subjec t of the present‘

sketch .

Nor d id M r ; Telang neglect his vernacular . ’

He was

1 0 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

passionate i n h is devot ion to the language w hich

enshrmes the outpourings of Ramdas and T ukaramand in wh ich S ivaj i th ought and fel t . H e

'

translatedinto Marath i

,Chalmers ’ Local Sel f - Government and:

Less ing ’s ‘ N athan the W ise .

’ He was study ing theMaratha chronic les W i th a view to wr i te a his tory o fthe Mahratta people

,but unfort unately he didn ’t l i ve

to rea l ise his amb i t ion . B ut the mater ials which hehad gathered were ut i l ized by the late Mr . Ranade forh is H istory of the M aharattas,

’ which again he didn ’tl ive to complete

,Had Mr . Tel ang been Spared for

some years longer, he would no doubt have done something which would have ensured h im an ab id ing nichein the l i terary temple .

W e now pass on to refer to Mr . T elang’s labours in

the educat ional , pol it ical , and somal reform spheres.

H is interest in educat ional mat ters was, to the end ofhis days, deep and ardent . He no doubt fel t

,as so

many fel t in h is day,that the problem of India was one

of throwing open the porta l s of western knowledge t oal l her people . with out stint or d i fference . He was

nominated a Fel low o f the Bombay Univers i ty at t hevery early age of 27 Four years latter

,in 188 1 , he was

elected a member of the Synd ic . He was a lso one ofthe members of the Educational Commis s ion appointedby Lord Ripon . The Govornment, i n recogn i t ion ofh is work thereon conferred on him

,the t it le of C .I .E.

H is report is descr ibed by S i r Raymond W es t as i nsome respects the most val uable of a crush ingly voluminous col lection . I n the year 1892 he was appointed

I;

V i ce- Chancellor of the Univers ity . The tm th that the»

KASHI NATH‘

TR IM BAK TELANG I I

p resen t system of educat ion in Ind ia is l i feless andsoul - ki l l ing hasr beeii learnt on ly at the present dayand at the cost o f bi tter experience ,

There can be nodoubt that i f Mr . Telang were al ive tod ay he wouldh ai l the movement for a system of N at ional Educationwith unmixed joy .

Soci al re form was much to the fore in Bombay i nthose days . . Be it said to the cred i t of Mr . Telang thathe did not lose h is head over i t . I t is true b e cast inh is lot in theory with those who styled themselves theadvan ced wing of .the Reform party . He perceived ,that th ere were abuses in H indu Soc iety as there wereabuses al l over the world . But he held that the truesp irit of removing them was not to at tack them in acaval ier , vainglor ious manner

,and shout for the

m i l lenn ium , but to work gentl y and pat iently withoutany over - eagerness for immed iate results. Mr . W acha i

descr ibes Mr . T elang ’s attitude in matters of social

reform in the fol lowing eloquen t words . TheH ima laya had to be scaled . But the way Was long,and beset with formidable , di ffi cult ies at

'

every stage .

The reformers had had necessar i l y t o look not only tothei r righ t and lef t

,but above and below, to the front

and rear . For on al l s ides there are obstacles of amost insurmountable characte r. T ime and energymay Show them by and by , to be less insurmountab lethan they seem to be. No doubt tne law - of theUn iverse is progress. But i t is a lso true that progress

is S low and by degrees — from pr ecedent to preceden t .Social progress is of t he slowest everywhere .

’

Likeevery other mode o f motion

,

‘ i t has i ts appropria te

1 2 THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS

rhythm , i ts epoch of severe restraints,fol lowed by

epochs of rebe l l ious l icenses , as h istory h as recorded.And

,si t uated as H indu Society is , with i t s deep - rooted

conservat ism of ages,its trad i t i ons and supers t i t ions ,

the progress o f soc ia l reform must be even s lower thanin other countr ies . The problem is ful l o f complex i:ti es . I t is not as i f yo u could prov ide ready panaceaswhich q uacks and empi r ic ists offer and Mr . Telang didnot belong to the order of the soci al quack

,who

recommends salves and washes w i th bl ister as remediesfor social evi ls

,hardened and encrustated by lapse of

centuries. Hence he had no sympathy W i th the socialquacks who were so eager to have certain quest ions

set tled a l l i n a trice by legis lation . I t was to h im,as I

know , a source of constant b i tterness and vexa tion ,the

vehemence wi th which the promoters o f soci al re formin i ts early stage in d ifferent parts of Ind ia

,a nd

notably in th is c i ty went on carry ing thei r crusade .

Although Mr. Telang was no bel iever i n stat e act ion i nsocia l matters , he somewhat changed h i s v iews on theoccasion of the agi t at ion concerning the Age of Consen tb i l l to wh ich he gave support . A storm raged roundh is devoted head when he had his daughter married atan ear ly age .

In the fi eld of pol i t ics , agai n ,Mr. Telang had to do

pioneer work . T he present generat ion who are heirsto the pol i t ica l labours of two generat ions may talkof pol it ics gl ibly. When Mr . Telang came out ofh is col lege the field of pol i tics outside Bengal wasalmost V irg in . I t is true that there were some dist in ~

guished workers , but there was no organized pol i t ical

KASHINATH TRIM BAK TELANG 1 3 3

l i fe worth the name . I f to - day there i s throughoutIndi ’a a living

‘pol i t ical sense, Mr. T elang’s labours h ave

contr ibuted to its evocat ion not a l i tt le . There was i nBombay a pol it i ca l body cal led the Bombay A ssociat ionof which Mr. Telang was for Somet ime the Secretary .

Subsequently the Presidency Assoc iat ion was foundedby that noble tr iumvirate , Messrs . Telang , Mehta andW acha

,The New Associat ion soon ach ieved a remark‘

able pos iti on for i tsel f . I ts representat ion carriedgreat weight wi th the author i t ies

,The Presidency

Associat ion became the centre of a pol i tical l i fe that wasat once fi rm , sel f - respecting and modera te . Si r EvelynBaring (Now Lord Cromer) i n an address del ivered i n .

Bombay sai d that he had learned to regard thepubl ic opin ion o f Bombay as exp ress i ve , perhaps

,of

the best pol itical thought i n India .

”N eedless t o say.

th is tr ibute was virtual ly one paid to the pol i t icaltact, sagaci ty , and W isdom of the dist ingu ished tr iumvirate already ment ioned

,and not least to Mr. Telang

,

Mr . T elang’s first public appearance was a t a meeting

held in 1872 in connect ion with the quest ion of Munic ipal re form . From that t ime forward there was hot asingle important pol it ica l meeting in which Mr. Telangdid not take a most prominen t part. I t was in thesemeetings that Mr. T elang

’

s surpassing gi ft of Speechwas revealed . Most memorable of his utterances washis speech on the I lbert B i l l del ivered at a great meeting in Bombay. W e cannot do better to describe h ismode of oratory than quote Mr

, W acha once again .

Descr ib ing the I lbert B i l l meet ing he says 0

“The principal Speakers at that historical meet ing


were the t hen triumvirate o f Bombay . pol it iciansMessrs. Badruddin T yab ji, . Mehta and T elang .

l Thatwas a memorable meet ing for those who attended 'it ,

and sti l l more memorable for the remarkably wel largued out and sober speeches made thereate—Speecheswhich might have been heard at a ful l dress first - c lass ,debate in the Hal l of St . Stephens . I ts infl uence wassuch that even the rabid Ang lol nd ians at the seat ofGovernmen t had to look smal l for the example thetr io set in the amen i t ies o f a rag ing publ ic controversy.

Mr . T elang’

s Speech was one sustained stream o fconsummate reason ing to del ight the hearts of a l llovers of dialect ics . It was then for the first t ime revealedwhat powers o f popular oratory Mr

,Telang possessed .

The audience then d iscovered that swee t voice , thatpursuaS ive and earnest eloquence

,and that un i form

flow of sweet reason , to which M r . Ranade has al ludedin his address . A calmer and more sol id piece offorensic ratiocinat ion in the m ids t o f the fiery wh irlwind of passion and prej ud ice rag ing outside thepres idency was never heard be fore . I t was also a fineexample of that intense sel f - restraint wh ich the seren eand far - S ighted Stat esman who is not mere ly the pol i t ieian puts upon himsel f dur ing an eventf ul crisi s . Infact , on that day Mr. Telang revealed to the world ofIndia what a man o f carefu l Speech was he . Therewas none of the legal casu istry which members of theBar attr ibuted to him in his later days and which w asal leged to be not absent in some o f h is ut terances fromthe Bench after his elevat ion there . He had none of therhetor ica l gestures of the trained orator

,and none o f


that dist inct ion . Mr. Telang was one o f the founders o fthe Indian Nat ional Congress , and though he wasunable from il lness to attend the second and thi rdsessions

,he was presen t at the fourth sess ion at

Al lahabad i n which he del ive red a r inging Speech on theexpansion of the Legislative Council s . His subsequen televation to the B ench was a bar to h i s taking

‘

any

f urther part i n publ ic l i fe , though his interest in al l :

matters pertain ing to h is country continued unabated .

In the year 1893 Mr. Telang fel l i l l , and on the 19thSeptembe r he passed away . B ut he l ives i n h iswork , in the memory o f those who knew him ,

and inthe noble example he has le ft beh ind him . Heheld h i s talents as a trust for othe rs . An orator

,

scholar , jurist , patriot , he has le ft h is mark on his age.The late Mr . G . M . T hr ipath i wrote of h im , that hismotto was that m a n had no r ights but on ly responsio

b i liti'

es,and that th i s motto fi l l ed h is l i fe with the

note of an in fi n ite sweetn ess . Y es, Mr . Telang was asweet Spirit

,a Spiri t that fel t out towards more and

more l ight. I f an epitaph be needed for h im,we can

not th ink oi one bet te r than the s imple words in WhichS ir N . G . Chandravarkar once summed up h is l i fe, .

He died learn ing.

"

THE ILBERT B ILL

(Speech delivered by K . T . Telang before a meeting held

in the Town H a ll, Bombay , to consider the I lbert Bill then

before the Vicerega l Council).Mr . Kashinath Trimbak Telang, who was rece ived

w ith l oud cheers , saidM r . Chairman and Gentlemen - The resol ut ion wh ichh as been en trusted to me runs as fo llows

That the Committee of the Bombay B ranch of theEast Indian Association be also requested to take stepst o have the memorial , with the necessary al terat ions ,forwarded to the Honourable the House of Commonsi n England.

”

In proposing th is reso lut ion , i t would be wrong ,

on more than one ground, if I were to detain youwi th any lengthy Speech of my own at th is latehour

,and especial ly a fter the able Speeches which

have been addressed to You . B ut the subject whichwe ar e met to consider to - nigh t i s one of suchgreat importance that I trust t he meet ing wil l bearme while I make a few remarks on it . I do not propose to travel over the ground occup ied so wel l by theSpeeches of Mr. Budrood in and Mr . Pherozeshah andthe Speakers who fol lowed them . Nor

,for obvious

r easons, shal l I say anything about the recen t doingso f our European fr iends in the Town Hal l of Calcutta .

These doings were of such a nature that , to borrowthe language used on a celebrated occasion by ad istinguished man , now no more

,the bes t rebuke we

2


can administer to these gen tl emen is to ref rain f romfol lowing so dangerous an example . (Cheers ) There

was, however, one point , gentlemen made , I bel ieve ,at the Calcutta Town Hal l , and certain ly made in thepubl i c press since , to which I feel bound to refer . I th as been asserted that the Bengal is entertain feel ingsof hatred and hosti l i ty to the B r i t ish nation . W e l l

,

gentlemen,having had the honour , as you are

aware,of being appoin ted to serve on the Educat ion

Commission,I had recently t o spend a few months

in Cal cutta . And during the period of my staythere I came in to close , int imate , nd

‘ f requentcontact with the leaders o f thought and the leadersin publ ic affa irs of the Bengal i nation . And ,having frequently had f rank conversat ions wi th

many of them,having thus seen them in a sort of mental

undress,so to Speak

,I venture to affi rm , and to a ffi rm

very confidently,that th is hatred and hosti l ity is a mere

figment of some alarmist brai n , and has no existencein real ity . (Loud cheers .) I th ink that , bel ieving this ,as I do bel ieve i t

,to be the truth upon the subject

,I

am bound,i f not by any other obl igation , at leas t by

grat i tude for the kindness wh ich I received f rom myBengal i brethren whi le I was among them,

to maketh is statement to correct misapprehens ion . I need not,however , dwel l any further on th is point , and therefore

I shal l turn at once to the main subject to which I wishto address mysel f . As I have said

,I do not i ntend

now to go i n to any of the posi t ive argument i n favouro f the j urisdiction B i l l , But I propose to examine themai n points made by an eminent man

,S ir Fitz - j ames

KASHINATH TR I M BAK TELANG 1 9

S tephen , i n h is letter on the subject. S ir Fi tz - JamesS tephen has held h igh office i n this country

,and now

occupies a distinguished posit ion on the Engl ish Bench .

He is not only a lawyer,but a write r on J ur isprudence

and a pol it ica l ph ilOSOpher'who has thought out the

ultimate princip les of the pol i ti ca l creed which he holds

( Hear , hear.) And , there fore, I need not say that hi sauthori ty on such a subject as ours i s very high

,and I

should be the first in ordinary circumstances to defert o i t , but in th is case I must say that i f I was an oppo

men t of the Jurisdict ion B i l l , I should be afrai d of S i rFitz - James Stephen ’s championsh ip . Many years agohe wrote a work ent i t l ed “L iberty, Equal i ty , andFraterni ty which

, I think , may , with Subs tant i alaccuracy

,be characteri sed as the gospe l o f force .

(Cheers ) In that work he set h imself i n obtrusivea ntagonism to the doctr ines of modern l ibera l ism ,

by which I do not mean what is ca l led by that name int he jargon of Engl ish party polit ics . B ut I meanl i beral ism in the broader and higher sense as sign i fying those pol it ical princip les , which , for us herein Indi a , are embodied in the great Proc lamat iono f 1858 . W ell , as he ho lds those op inions , i t i s plai nt hat even his support , i f he supported any measure-of Government which involved and of those p r i nci

ples, would be an occas ion o f embarrassment . B ut

apart from these general considerat ions, let us see

for an instant what S ir Fitz - James S tephen doessay. H is first proposi t ion , .not fi rst in order in h isletter , but fi rst in importance is t hat the pol icy ofLord Ripon ’s Government i s shi ft ing the foundations


o f B rit ish power in thi s country , or to use his

own expression , is in consisten t wi th the found~

et ions on which B r it ish power rests. Now , I denyth is ent i re ly. I s ay that the principles of LordRipon ’s administrat ion , as pointed out

'

in our memor ia l , are i n consonance with the long - establ ishedprinc iples o f t he B r i t ish Government as laid downby Parl iament and the Crown . (Loud cheers .) AndI say

,f urther , that those pr inc iples are i n accord

w i th the lesson s to be der ived from the study ofpas t h istory . I remember be ing struck many yearsago,

i n reading the h istory of the Romans under theEmpi re , with a passage in which th e author said‘

that one great lesson to be deduced from the h istoryo f Rome was that al l conquering n ations

,in order

to render thei r Government in the conquered

countries stable and permanent , must d ivest themselvesof thei r pecul iar privi leges by sharing them with theconquered peoples . Now

,gent lemen

,we al l know that

i t i s the proud and j ust boast of Engl ishmen thatthey are the Romans of the modern wor ld , an d.that the Br it ish Empire is in modern days whatthe Roman Empire was in ancient t imes . I f so

,are

we wrong , are We unreasonable i n asking that thel essons of Roman h istory , and , as Mr . Merivalepoints out , the l essons of the h istory of otheranc ient Governments also , should be adopted by our ‘

B r i t ish rulers ? (Cheers ) I t is not qui te proper and

reasonable for us to ask that the countrymen ofClarkson and W i l berforce

,o f Gladstone and j ohn

B right— ( loud cheers)— Should not only adopt those

KASHINATH TRIM BAK TELANG 21

“

lessons . but improve upon them , and rise superior

to the count rymen o f Marius and Sy l la , the T r ium- virs an d the Caesars ? I ven ture to say

,gentlemen ,

t hat i f B r i tons are now conten t to fai l to carry ou tt hose lessons

,and to fal l shor t o f the generosi ty o f

the Romans,i t wi l l be regarded as not creditable

to them by the future historian . And as a loyal subjec t

of the B r it ish Governmen t I should be Sorry for Sucha result. (Loud and prolonged cheers .) We nextcome to Si r Fi tz - James S tephen ’s second point . Hesays— Oh ! i t i s al l very wel l to ask for the abol it ionof these Speci al priv i leges to Europeans , but every

other sect ion of the In dian commun ity has i ts own

privi leges which the law recogn ises . And he givesas an instance the fact that H indoos

, M ahomedans,

&c. , have thei r own Specia l laws of inheritanceadministered to them . Now

,I venture to say tha t

no fai r comparison can be made between laws ofi nher itance and laws of criminal procedure . Theformer does not affect any one save the Specia l community to which i t is admin istered . W hat does i tmatter to John Jones whether the property o f Rama,or Ahmed, or M uncher jee goes on his death to hissons or his daughters

,h is father or mother or widow ?

But the law o f crimina l procedure , as has been alreadypointed out by other Speakers

,affect s th e other

commun it ies in a most important respect. I t is plain ,t herefore , that the two cases wh ich S i r Fitz - JamesS tephen treats as iden t ical , are real ly dist inguishableon essent ial poin ts. Besides

,i t must be remembered

t hat no other class privi leges are recogn ised in the


cr imi nal law of B r i t ish Indi a ; i t i s on ly i n thec ivi l l aw that they are so recognised. But, f urther ,

I am surprised at S ir Fitz - James S tephen not allud

ing in h is letter to one point relevant to thisbranch of the subject to which reference is made ,i n h is own volume al ready referred to . He has therepointed out that the B r i t ish Government i n India is ,i nvoluntar i ly it may be , but st i l l actual ly, i nterfer ingwith the personal l aws of nat ives

,even in matters

connected wi th their re l igious bel iefs , and is applyingas S ir Fitz - James S tephen puts it , a constant and steadypressure to adapt them to modern civi l i zat ion— so thatthe Government , as Sir Fi tz - James S tephen h imse l fputs it , is real ly head ing revolution . I f then theGovernmen t is actual ly interfering with the personal

laws of us unenl ightened and unc ivi l ized n at ives , i sthere anyth ing wrong in thei r inter fer ing with thoseof the en l igh tened B r itons

,with whose V iews and

Opin ions, feel ings and wishes they are much more

fami l iar,and in much greater sympathy Is there any

th ing unfa ir i f we ask that the same measure should b edealt out to both ? S ir Fi tz - James Stephen next refers

to the Special Tr ibunal for Europeans maintainedin Turkey and other countries. But there theEuropean is protected from foreign courts to besubjected to B r itish courts. Here he is protec ted f rom one class o f B ri t i sh courts to be sub

jected to another. The d ifference is qui te mani festbetween the two cases . Fur ther

,Sir F itz - James

Stephen says i t i s only nat ural that everyone chargedwith a criminal offence should wish to be tr ied by on e


However, on the pr inc iple of measures, not men , weshal l consider h is argument as i t deserve to be Whetheri t emanates from a ver itable Maratha or not . He saysnatives are not fi t and competen t j udges o f Europeans ,because the nat ive papers are wri t ing about the caseso f deaths of n at ives at the hands of Europeans as i fthey were al l cases of del iberate murder and the

exp lanat ion of a ruptured Spleen always untrue. Heargues that as this v iew of the nat ive papers has notbeen disavowed by educated nat ives

,i t indicates the

state of their feel ings towards Europeans , and rendersthem unfi t j udges for try ing Europeans . Now , I amnot one of those who bel ieve that th is explanat ion ofthe ruptured Spleen is always untrue . (Laughter an dapplause .) I have no doubt that in many cases i t i st rue , and that the language of many of our nat ive paperson the subjects is exaggerated and without j ust ificat ion .

B ut having admitted that,I do not admit the correct

ness of Maratha ’s argument . I wil l not , however ,analyse i t now , but put another argument on the others ide . \Ve al l know that many Europeans have Spokeno f the nat ive communi t ies in a way which means thatthey consider us al l as

,on the whole

,a people given to

perjury . This opin ion,publ icly expressed by some

members of the European commun i ty,has n ot been

disavowed by others . And,therefore

,according to

Maratha ’s ” logic, the true conclusion to be der ivedf rom this is that Europeans are not fi t j udges fornat ives . (Cheers ) This broad concl us ion fo l lowsaccording to Maratha ’s princ ip les . Certainly , in

cases Where nat ives are charged with perj ury

KASH I NATH TRIM BAK TELANG 25

E uropeans would be, on those p r incip les , unfi t j udges.

B ecause Whereas, accordin g to the presumpt ion ofEngl ish law,

the accused would have to be treated asinnocent unt i l the contrary was proved , in the mind of

” the European judge the nat ive pr isoner would be

g ui lty unt i l he proved the contrary . Mark , I don’t say

this would be a correct result. But I say i t fol lows ,i f Maratha ’s” argument is Sound , I use i t only as anarg umentum ad hO lni tlem See then th e deadlock.

You cannot have European j udges , and you cannothave nat ive judges. How then is the admin istration ofj ust ice to be secured (Laughter and cheers.) I do notthink , gentlemen , th at I ought to detain you any longer .W e have a very good case ; let us take i t before the

House of Commons I t has been taken there already,

i n f act , by the opponents of the B i l l . Let us place ourv iew before the House . (Cheers) By past experiencewe know that i n such matters we can trust to thej ustice and sense o f fai r p lay of the B r i t ish House ofCommons. (Loud cheers .) Let us l eave this matteralso to their j udgment, i n the ful l confidence that i t

‘wil l be there decided on considerations free from al l

l ocal passion and loca l prepossession . (Loud cheers).

LORD RIPON

(Speech delivered by K . T . Telang m honor of Lord Rzpon

on h is retirement f rom the Viceroya lty , at the Town H all,

Bombay .)T H E HON . JU ST ICE K. T . TELANG ,

who

was rece ived with cheers , i n second ing the re sol ut ion

(the adopt ion of an address to H . E . Lord Ripon)sa idMr

,Chairman and Gent lemen , —I have great

pleasure,indeed , in seconding the resolut ion which has

been proposed by Rao Saheb M andlik , And when Isay that I have very great p leasure in doing so I amnot merely i ndulging in the conventional cant supposedto be sui table to such occas ions

,I real ly feel i t to be

not on ly a pleasure , but also an honour, to have theOpportun ity of tak ing part i n such a proceeding as thatwe are engaged in , th is afternoon . Gentlemen , i t wasonly yesterday that I was asked by two of my fr iendswhether I real ly and ser iously in tended to jo in in th ismovement

,and why I was going to do so . I answered

,

gent lemen , that I had not only joined i n the movement , but that I had joined in i t W i th al l my hear t and'Soul

,and that my answer to the quest ion

,why I had

done so,would be given th is afternoon . Gentlemen

,

there are two tests,I think

,by which you can judge ,

Whether anyone who has been entrusted wi th thegovernment o f men has or has not acquired a t i t le tothe grat i tude of h is Subjects. We may form our j udgment e ither from the views of those over whom he has

borne sway,or from a careful analysis an

KA SH I NATH TR] M BAK TELANG 27

o f the measur es of h i s administrat ion , and after strikinga balance between thei r mer i ts and defects. Gen tle

men,I venture to say that t r ied by both tests, Lord

Ripon ’s reg i me wil l come out tr iumphant . W hether wel ook to the popular ity which h is Lordship has wonamong the people over whom he has borne sway for

the last four years,or whether we consider the various

measures of h is administrat ion,the concl us ion i s forced

upon al l unbiassed minds that Lord Ripon ’s Governmen thas been most successful . As to the firs t point

,we have

only got to consider the history of the past for tnigh t orthree weeks which h i s lordship has Spent i n the journeyf rom Simla to Calcutta and notice his populari ty

,which

remains ful l of vital ity and power in Spi te of the greatstrai n put upon it on ly a few months ago . The accountswh ich we are rece iving every day point to that wi t hconclus ive effect— an effect wh ich cannot for onemoment he impeached . Again

,gent lemen

,there have

always been amongst us men who have been brandedby our crit ics , as consti tuting what may be cal led apermanent Opposit ion to Her Majesty ’s Government i nth is country , however that Government may be at anyt ime const ituted. But strange as i t may seem, even.

t hese men have now walked over into the ranks o f theMinisterial ists , so to speak , and are joining in the chorusof prai se which is reverberating throughout the lengthand breadth o f the land . Gentlemen , that is not a sl ightsuccess for any r uler of men to have ach ieved. I t is avery great triumph for an al i en ruler . But then i t maybe sa id that popular ity is but an unsat isf actory tes t to»

apply in these cases,I agree i n that v iew to a cer taina

‘28 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

extent . But we must here remember two k inds of popul axi ty ,

wh ich have been dist inguished f rom one anothe rby that eminent judge , the late S ir John Coleridge .

There i s the popula rit y which is fo l lowed af ter,and

there is the popular i ty which fol lows the performanceOf one ’s duty— the pursu i t of an honest and S traight forward course . The populari ty which i s fol lowed aftermay no t a fford good evidence of the worth o f a man .

But, gentlemen , the populari ty of Lord Ripon is of

the latter class , and does , there fore , const i tute a fairtest of the success o f h is Lordsh ip ’s rule. (Cheers )But le t us apply the second test to wh ich I have al l udedabove . Let us examine and careful ly scan

,without any

prej udices,some o f the measures

,of Lord Ripon ’s

adm inistration,for i t is imposs ible to go through the

Whole number even o f the most prominent measureson such an occasion as the present . Taking on ly thoseconnected more or less c losely wi th fiscal admin istration

,we have gentlemen , the begin nings made of a

policy of real and powerful support to the manufact ures of the country . That i s a measure fraught withgreat possib i l i t ies. Take again the recen t resol ut ionregard ing surveys and assessments of land . Gentlemen

,after a great deal o f compla int and outcry on

that subject , we may now consider ourse lves as be in gat least Wi th in measurable distance of the t ime Whenthe ryot may be saved from one o f h is many vexat ions

- the ryot who has h itherto been the object rather Ofpassive than of moving act ive sympathy . Look againat red uction of the sal t duty— a measure most satisfactory in the in terests of the poorer classes of o ur

KASH INATH TRIM BAK TELANG 29'

populat ion . These measures show that Lord Ripon ’spol icy has been one of affording genuine sympathyand tangible help to the classes o f the populat ion whoare least able to hel p themselves , or to make the voiceof complaint heard when they are Oppressed. I t isdiamet r ical ly opposed to that pol icy of car ry ing taxat ion “ along the l ine of the least res istance,

” whichcommended i tsel f on ce to some great maste rs of Statecraf t . But, gentlemen , there is one point connected'

with Lord Ripon ’s fiscal pol icy, to which I must hererefer

,as i t is the poin t on which the strongest attack

on Lord Ripon ’s rule has been made , purely on ,

grounds of reason . I refer to the repea l , of the importduties on Manchester goods. Gentlemen , I remember , ,

when that repeal was announced , be ing told by afriend of mine that I was a l lowing myse l f to be bl indedby Engl ish party prejudices, in making no effort to ,

publ icly protes t against Lord Ripon ’s proceeding, aswe had done on the occasion of the first part ial repea lof the duties by Lord Lytton

’

s Government . I den ied

then,gentlemen

,as I deny

'now

,that there was any

party prejudice in the matter at al l . For,See how

different were the ci rcumstances i n the two cases._

'A

l i tt le considerat ion Wi l l make i t absolute ly clear thatthey di ffered en t irely f rom each other on most essent ial points . In the case o f Lord Lytton

's measure

,i t

was voluntari ly undertaken by his Lordship ’s Governmen t

,when a general e lection was impending i n

England,and at a t ime when

,in substance

,addi t ional

taxat ion had been imposed upon the people . HOW

stood the facts when Lord Ripon ’s measure was


enacted ? The repeal was en forced upon Lord Ripon ’sGovernment by the act ion of fthei r predecessors - eu

a ct ion which,i t was cynical ly confessed by those

predecessors,was in tended to enforce th is f ur ther

s tep . It was taken at a t ime when there were noimmed iate Engl ish interests to please

,and when

,so

,

far from there be ing any i ncrease o f taxat ion,there

was actual ly a remission of taxat ion in the shape of

the reduction of the sal t duty,which Lord Ripon ’s

predecessors had enhanced in some parts o f thecountry on the plea of secur ing s ymmet ry an d uniformity throughout the empire

,T herefo ~

e,waivmg a l l

other considerat ions i t seems to me capab le of con

clusive proo f that the measure sanct ioned by Lord Riponwas n ot at al l as obj ectionable as tha t which we didpubl icly p rotest against . I have thus

,gentl emen ,

referred to a few SpeC ific measures o f Lord Ripon ’srule

,but they have only been re ferred to as i l l ustrat ions .

O ther measures,i f examined

,W i l l y ield similar results.

B ut I don ’t propose to dwel l on them . I wil l rathersay a word on the genera l tone and Spir i t of l iberal ism

,

which has been a pervad ing characterist ic o f Lord

R ipon ’s rule . W hether we look at the repeal of theVernacular Press Act or the resolution for makingpubl ic the aims and scope o f Government measures

,

or the pract ice o f inv i t ing people ’s opin ions on con

templated projects,or whether we look to the great

scheme of local sel f - government,or the manner

,for

that is most important,in which the late Kr istodas

Pall— clarum ct venerable nomen— Was appointed to theSupreme Legislat ive Council

,we see clearly the l ibera l


against wh ich that eminen t person,as wel l a s some

feebler and less intel lectual Spi r i ts,are dash ing them

selves . I t i s that , however, on which , in my humblejudgment

,rests most firmly Lord Ripon ’s claim upon

our grat i tude . I t is that,there fore

,which expla ins

our present movement . I t is that wh ich affords t hebasis of my answer to the question I al luded to at theoutset o f my observat ions. I t is th at which j ustifiesthe remark that

,summing up the result of Lord Ripon ’s

rule,you may say

,again borrowing the language

of the Laureate,that he wrought h is people last ing

good.

” In the case of such a V iceroy,gentlemen

,

what we are doing this even ing is no t merely properand cal led for

,i t i s real ly inadequate . Gentlemen

,

I wi l l not detain you any longer ; I beg to secondthe motion which has been placed before you . (Loudand prolonged cheers .)

M OHAND AS KARAM CHAN D

GAND H I

THE story of the gr eat woes , our countrymen have

endured in South Africa , S ince Indian immigrat ion began, ought to be too wel l known to every sonof India to n eed recapi tulat ion . I t i s a story fu l lo f harrowing revelat ions, on the one hand , o f theheart - rending sufferings the B rit ish Indian has had toundergo

,and on the other, the depths to wh ich white

humanity can descend. I t is a story o f inhumantreatment and helpless suffering

,of racial antipathy

and commer cial jealousy , of disabi l i ties , wrongs and

humi l iat i o’

n s, of a flagrant defiance of the elemen taryl aws of c ivi l ised l i fe for which there I s hardly a paral lelin modern times . The tragedy of that story is al l butunrel ieved , unrel ieved indeed but for two things. Theone is the i ll umining presence i n i t of a personal ityl ike Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , and the other isthe daunt less stand, our countrymen , h igh and los t,H indu, M ahomedan, Christ ian and Parsee , have madefor their r ights. The atrocit ies infl icted Upon oiI r

countrymen may almost t'

empt us to think,that man

was made not in the i mage Of'

God but in that ofH is Ancient Enemy

,When however we

“

read theaccount of the Splend id sacr ifice and heroism displayed


by our countrymen in the batt le for honour and sel frespect , a sense of human nature redeemed steals overus. The history of the world , said Thomas Carly le i nmemorable Words, i s the h istory o f its great men . One

may in l ike manner say , without violence to the truth ,that the history of the vast t ransformat ions

,we have

witnessed i n South Afr ica dur ing the last th ree yearsand more in the atti tude of the Indi an Commun i ty , isthe h istory of one man

,Mr . Gandhi . For a fi fteen

years he has been the accredi ted fr ien d , ph i losopher,and guide , of the Indian Commun i ty i n South Af r ica .

He has been the moulder , director and i i sp ir ing gen iusof the Passive Res istance movemen t in the Transvaal .Under his generalsh ip the B r i t i sh Ind ian s in SouthAfr ica , from being a mass of

_di_scordant and repel l ingunits

, have\

b €enWelded into a close kni t body , pulsatingwith a sense o f common l i fe and common responsib i l i ty .

During the last ten years Mr. Gandhi ’s name has beenmuch before the publ ic . Mr. J . J . Doke , a bapt istminister o f Johannesburg

,with a generos i ty not always

characterist ic of the min isters of the Gospel , has madeh im the hero o f a biography . And certa in ly few meni n India tod ay enjoy a larger meed of the affect ionand devot ion of the ri s ing generat ion . Truly aremarkable man l A nature strung to what is finest andbest in l i fe , a lof ty ideal of duty strenuously pursued ,an ever - present and haun t ing sense of c laims larger

than those of the personal Sel f , such are some of theelements that have gone to make him

,as the fol lowing

ske tch of h is career wi l l show .

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on the 20 d

M OHANDAS KARAM CHAND GANDHI 35

of October 1869, the youngest of three ch i ldren, i n

a vaiShya f am i ly; at Porbandar, a c ity of Kath iawar inG uzerat. Mr. Gandh i ’s immediate ancestors seem tohave ‘ been qui te remar kab le . Mr. G andni

’

s ' grandfather was Dewan of the Rana of Porbandar and an

anecdote i l lustrates how fearless he was . Incurr ingthe displeasure o f the Queen who was act ing as Regen t

,

for her son , he had to flee the court o f Porbandar andtake refuge ~with the Nawab of Junagadh , who receivedh im with great kindness , B ut t here was a ri ft in thelute . The court iers remarked that the ex~prime minister

of Porbandar gave h is sal ute to the N awab with hislef t hand . B ut the i ntrep id man repl ied ,

“ In Spite Ofal l that I have su ffered I keep my r ight hand for Porbandar sti l l . ” Mr . Gandh i ’s father was no less remarkable . Succeeding h is father as Dewan of Porbandarand losmg l ike h is father the favour of the Rul ingChie f he repaired to Raj kot Where he was entertainedas Dewan . He was a severely rel igious man andcould repeat the Baghavad Gita from beg inning to end .

T he T hakore Sah ib of Rajkot p ressed h im to accept a,l arge grant of land , but he re fused, and even when theentreat ies and admonit ions of fr iends and relativesprevai led at l ast , he accepted on ly a fraction of Whatwas offered . Happen ing to hear one day the Ass is tantPol i tical Agent hold abusive language regarding the

T hakore Sah ib,he ind ignantly repudiated i t . H is

Omnipotence the Poli tical Agent, demanded ari apologywhich was refused . He thereupon ordered theoffending Dewan to be arrested and detained under a treefor some hours. The apology was eventual ly waived


and a reconci l iat ion effected . Such was the f aither .Mr. Gandhi ’s mother, however , was the most remarkable of al l . Her influence on t he character of her son

has been deep and profound . Rel igion was to her

the breath of l i fe . Long and rigorous were her fasts

many and abounding were her charit ies ; and neve r'

could she brook to see a starving soul in her neighbour

hood . In these respects she was indeed a typical H indu i

woman . Such were the parents o f whom the subj ec t

O f our present sketch was born .

Mr . Gandh i was duly put to school at Porbandar,but‘

a change occurring in it s for tunes , the Whole fami l yremoved to Rajkot . At Ra

'j kot the boy attended fi rs t a

Vernacular School , and afterwards the Kath iawar

H igh School,whence he passed the Matriculation

Examinat ion at the age o f seventeen . Mr. Gandh i wasmarried at the age o f twelve wh i le st i l l at school .An incident in h is school l i fe dese rves more than

ord inary atten t ion . Born and bred in an atmosphere

of uncompromising Vaishnava ism , he had learnedto perfect ion its r i tual and worsh ip , i f not

,also

to some extent , i ts rationale and doctr ine. Vaishna

vaism emphasises and exalts the vir tue of non - ki l l ing(Ah imsa), and Vaishnavas are str ic t veg etarian s . The

teach ing at school , however , demol ished the young

Gandhi's unlearned fai th,ant he became a scept ic.

This wreck of fai th brought one d isastrous couse

quence in i ts tra in . The young Gandhi and some schoolcompan ions of h is sincerely came to bel ieve that

vegetarian i sm was a fol ly and supersti t ion , and that ,t o be Civi l ised

,the eat ing of flesh was essen t ial . Nor

38 T HE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

was served wi th flesh Soup . He had now to make h ischoice between his th ree vows and the character of the

Engl ish gen t leman .

” He t hen and there rose up

and le ft the party much to the chagrin and ind ignat ion of the fr iend before al luded to . He thereafterbade ad ieu to al l his new - fangled ways h is feet ceasedto dance

,h i s fingers ceased to tune the viol in, and the

possib i l i t ies of the Engl ish gent leman in him werelost for ever.Al l th isiproved to be but the beginn ing of a keen

spir itual struggle which stirred h is being to i ts depthsand out of which he emerged into a t r iumphant sel fcon5ciousness . The eternal problems of ex istencefaced h im an d pressed for an answer. Fr iends werenot wanting who tr ied to persuade him tha t in Christianity he would fi nd the l ight for which he yearned .

At the same t ime he began to make a c lose study of theBaghavad G ita . Step by step

,as he went on hewas over

Whelmed w i th its transcenden t subl imity the Sp ir it o fthe Gita pierced into h is very marrow. He felth imsel f t ransported into a new world over which peaceun fathomable brooded in si lence and seren ity

,Al l h is

s earchings o f Spi ri t ceased,The l it tle bark o f h is sou l

finding i ts haven was cvermore at rest ,His l i fe in England was otherwise uneven tfu l . He

passed the London Matriculat ion Examinat ion,quali

fied h imsel f for the Bar , an d returned to Ind ia ,

News of a most heart rend ing character awa ited h isarrival at Bombay

,Unknown to h imsel f a calamity ,

which to a H indu at least is one of the great calamitiesof l i fe

,had befal len h im

,H is mother who had loved


h im as perhaps only a H indu mother cou ld ,who

had saved h im from moral ruin and who had,no doubt ,

winged ceaseless thoughts o f love and prayer for herfar away son in England , that angel o f a mother was nomore

,She had been dead sometime and t he news had

been purposely kept a secret from h im.

‘

We Shal l notat tempt to

.

describe h i s fee l ing when the news at lastwas disc losed to h im .

T he next eighteen months Mr. Gandhi Spent part lyat B ombay and part ly at Rajkot devoting h imse l f to adeeper study of law and the H indu Scriptures . Healso attached himsel f to the Bombay High Court . But

there was other work to do for h im in'

a different parto f the Wor ld

, and the fates thus fu l fi l led themselves ,

A firm at Porbandar W i th a branch at'

Pretoria had animportan t law su i t i n South Africa i n wh ich manyInd ians were concerned

,T he conduct of th is law sui t,

expected to last for over a year , bewg offered to h im,

Mr. Gandhi accepted i t and proceeded to South Afr ica}.

From the very day he set foot at Nata l he had totaste o f that cup of hum i l iat ion which has been theIndi an ’s portion al l these years . At court he was rudelyordered to remove the Barristers ’ turban he had on , andhe left the court at once burn ing wi th mort ifi cation .

Thi s experience however was soon ecl i psed by a hostof others st i l l more ignomin ious . J ourney ing to theTransvaal i n a Rai lway train the Guard unceremoni

ously ordered him to qui t the first - class compartment ,though he had paid for i t , and betake himsel f to thevan. Refusing , he was brutal ly

“dragged out withh is l uggage. And the t rain at once steamed off.


Al l th is was on Br it i sh soi l ! In the Transvaal itsel fth ings were even worse . As he was s i tt ing on the boxof a coach on the way to Pretoria , the Guard asked himto dismount because he wanted to smoke there . A

refusal brought two consecut ive b lows in qu ick succession . I n Pretoria he was once k icked off a foot - pathby a sen try . The catalogue may be stil l furtherextended

,but i t would be a wearinesss o f the flesh .

The law sui t wh ich he had been engaged to con ductwas at last over . A social gather ing was given i nh is honour on the eve o f h is departure to India . Thateven ing Mr . Gandhi chanced to see a local newspaperwh ich announced that a bil l wasabout to be introducedinto the Colonial Parl iament to disf ranchise Indians ,and that other b i l ls of a s imi l iar character were soon tofol low. Mr . Gandhi was alarmed . He real ised how

grave the situat ion was and explained to the assembledguests that i f the Indian Community i n South Afr icawas to be saved f rom utte r ext inction

,immediate and

,

resolute steps should be taken . At h is ins tance a .

message was at once sent to the Colonial Parl iamen t ;requesting delay of proceedings

,which was soon

fol lowed Up by a largely s igned peti t ion against thenew measure . But al l was of no avai l . The b i l l waspassed in due course . Now another largely S igned '

peti t ion was sent to the Colon ial Secretary in England ,and in consequence the Royal Assen t was withheld.B ut th is again was of no avail

,fo r the same goal was

reached by a new bi l l through a S l ightly di fferentroute . Now i t was, that M r . Gandhi serious ly mootedthe quest ion o f a centra l organ ization in South Africa

M OHANDAS KARAM CH AND GANDHI 4 1

to keep vigi lan t watch over the interes ts of the Indians.

But i t was represen ted to him that such an organizat ionwould ,be impossibl e un less he h imsel f consented toremain i n South Africa . The prominen t Indiansguaranteed him a practice i f he should choose to stay .

In response to their wishes Mr. Gandhi enrol ledh imsel f in the Sup reme Court of N ata l though notwithout some objec t ion on the

’

g round of his colour .W e may say that f rom th is time on Mr. Gandhi

began to see h is l i fe in i ts true perspective. He hadto choose between prospect and preferment i n India

,

and humi l iat ion and struggle in South Africa . How

much depended on his choice ! T he South African

Indian Commun ity were l ike aflock of sheep withouta Shepherda '

and he chose to be the Shepherd . South

Africa was the vineyard of the Lord in which he wascal led to dig and delve, and he chose to be the

labourer. .From the day he made the choice he hasconsecrated h imse l f to h is work as to a h igh and loftymission , with results everybody knows of.Having enrol led h imsel f as a Bar r ister o f the Supreme

Court of Natal Mr . Gandh i strenuously devoted himsel fto make his practice a success, even whi le educat ingand organ is ing the Indian Community. In 1896 hecame to India to take h is wi fe and children to SouthAfrica

,B efore he left South Africa he had wr itten

and publ ished an open letter detai l ing the wrongsand grievances o f Indians in South Africa.

News of the Splendid work wh ich he had done inSouth Africa had travel led be fore h im to India

, and

I ndians o f al l c lasses joined in according h im an

42 THE IND IAN NA T ION BU ILDERS

en thusiasti c recept ion wherever he went. In thesemeetings Mr . Gandhi had of course to make someSpeeches

, Our good fr iend , Reuter, sent high lygarbled vers ions o f his addresses to South Af rica ,

Mr. Gandhi was represented as tel l ing his Indianaud iences that Indians in South Afr ica were un iformlytreated l ike wi ld beasts . The blood of the Colonialswas up an d the feel ing aga inst M r . Gandh i reachedwh ite heat . Meet ing af ter meet ing was held in whichhe was denounced in the most scath ing terms .Meanwhile M r . Gandh i was urgently requested toreturn to Nata l without a moment ’s delay

,and he

embarked accordingly .

The steamer carrying Mr . Gandh i reached Durbanon the same day as another steamer , which had lef t

Bombay W i th 600 Ind ian passengers on board twodays after M r . Gandh i ’s departure . T he two sh ipswas immediately quarant ined inde fi n itely . Greatth ings were t ranspir ing at Durban meanwh i le

,The

Colon ials were determined not to land the Asiat ics.Gigant ic demonstrat ions were taking place , and theexpediency of sending the Ind ians back was gravelydiscussed . I t was plain that the Colonials would goany length to accompl ish the ir purpose . The moreboiste rous spirits even proposed the S inking of the ship .

W ord was sen t to Mr . Gandh i that i f he and h iscompatr iots should attempt to land they would do soat in fi nite per i l but threats were of no ava i l . On th eday on wh ich the new Indian arrivals were expectedt o land a huge concourse had assembled at the docks .

There was no end of h iss ing,shout ing , roaring and


cursing. The Attorney - General o f N atal addressed thecrowd and promised them that the matter would rece ive

t he ear ly attent ion of Parl iament , command ing themat the same time in the name of the Queen to disperse .

And the crowd d ispersed. Mr . Gandhi came ashoresome t ime a f ter the land ing of h is fel low passengers,having previously sent h is W i fe and chi ldren to thehouse of a f r iend . He was immediately recognised bysome of the stragglers who at once began to h iss andshout. A r ickshaw was engaged

,but the way was

blocked . Mr . Gandhi walked on foot W i th a Europeanfr iend and when they reached one of the streets thecrowd was so b ig that the two friends were separated .

The crowd at once began tomaul Mr . Gandhi t i l l thePol ice came and took him to the house of a f r iend .

The Pol ice Superintendent expressed h is apprehensionsthat the mob in thei r frenzy would even set fire to thehouse . Mr. “Gandhi was obl iged to dress h imsel f asa Pol ice Constable and take re fuge in the Pol iceSta tton . This ebull i t ion of abnormal feel ing subsidedaf ter some t ime an d a mom Gandhi ’sl i fe was turned .

In 0 0 war broke M embra ne-the Engl ishand the Boers in S outh Africa. Mr . Gandhi with thesagaci ty of a t rue leader at once perceived what agolden Opportunity i t was to the B r it ish Indians toV indicate thei r sel f - respect and readiness to suffe r i nthe cause of the Empi re . At his cal l hundreds of ourcountrymen in South Africa were glad to enl ist themselves as Volunteers

,but the offer was rejected wi th

scorn by the powers that be.'

The offer was renewed :


a second t ime,only to meet with a similar f ate . W hen

howeve r the B r it ish arms sustained some disasters , i twas recognised that every man avail able shou ld be putinto the field and Mr . Gandh i ’s offer on behal f of h iscompatriots in Soli th Afr ica was accepted . A thousandIndians came forward ,

and were con st i tuted i nto anAmbulan ce Corps , to ass ist i n carrying the wounded tothe hOSpi tals. O f the service that was rendered i n th isd i rec t ion , i t is not necessary to Speak as i t has beenrecogn ised even in South Africa. At another t ime theB r i t ish Indians were employed to rece ive the woundedout o f the l ine of fire and carry them to a place mo rethan twenty miles off. W hen the battle was raging,

‘Major Bapte came to Mr . Gandhi who o f course was»one of the Vol unteers , and represen ted that i f theyworked from with in the l ine of fires they Should berender ing incalculable service. At once al l the IndianVol unteers responded to the request and daunt less lyexposed themselves to shot and Shel l . Many an Indianl i fe was lost that day. Such is an unvarn ished account

of the heroic services rendered by B r i t ish Indians i nS outh Africa during the Boer War.

The war was over and the Transvaal became a par to f the Bri tish Empire . Mr. Gandh i was under theimpression that , since the wrongs of the B r it ish Indiansub jects of the Queen were one of declared causesof the war , under the new Government those wrongswould be a th ing o f the past . Under th is impressi on hereturned to India with no idea of going back , but hewas reckon ing without his host . The l i t tle finger o fthe n ew Government was th icker than the loins o f the


success . N otwithstanding, i t has grown to be a greatforce in South Africa and rendered invaluable serv icedur ing the recent struggle.In the year 1904 a virulent attack of plague broke

out among the Ind ian Communi ty in j ohannesburg .

The Municipal authori t ies were ei ther ignorant orapathetic . Mr . Gandh i , however, was

‘at once on thescene and sent word to the authori t ies that i f immediate

act ion were not taken an epidemic was in prospect.But no answer came . One day the p lague carried off

as many as twen ty - one vict ims . Mr . Gandhi wi th threeor four noble comrades at once broke open one of t heInd ian Stores which was empty

,and had the pat ients

carried there and did what he could in the matter.The next morning the Munic ipal author i t ies best irredthemselves and took the necessary action . The plaguel asted a month count ing more than a hundred Vi ct ims .W e in India may shudder to think to what an appal l i ngmagnitude the outbreak may have grown but for thehero ic endeavours of the subject of th is sketch

,and his

devoted comrades .About this time Mr. Gandhi had been reading

Ruskin ’s Unto th is Last and i ts influence sank deepinto h is mind

,He was on fire W i th the idea o f coun try

settlements championed there in . Shortly a fter theplague had subs ided he went to Natal and purchased apiece of land at Phoen i x , a place si tuated on the

h i l l S ides of a r ich grassy country.

” Houses were bu i l tand a V i l lage Sprang up on the mountain side . Theinhabi tants o f the V i l l age of whatever rank, dig , ploughand cul t ivate the adjoining land with the ir own hands.


Mr. Gandhi goes to the vi l lage whenever he i s f ree andtakes part in the work of cult ivat ion l ike anybody else .

But he has had to fulfi l this subl ime ideal ist ic impulseof his at immense pecuni ary sacr ifice

,for the scheme

has,i t seems, absolutely impoverished h im.

”

I n 1906 the Zul us broke out in rebel l ion and a.corps of twenty Indi ans with Mr. Gandhi as le aderWas formed to help to carry the wounded to thehOSpitals. The corps subsequently acted as nursesto the wounded. Surely , there is something infin itely.

elevating in the spectacle of a man of culture andposi t ion l ike our presen t hero min ister ing i n personto a wounded 'Zulu.

The bolt at last fel l f rom the bl ue,I n the year

1906 the new Governmen t of the Transvaal broughtforward a new law affecting Asiat ics , which was s i n ister

,retrograde and obnox ious in the extreme . One

morning al l the ch i ldren of Asia in the Transvaalawoke and found themselves called upon to reg is terthemselves anew by giv ing thumb impressions. Thusal l As iati cs were

,p laced on a level with convicts . The

gr imness of the S i tuat ion dawned on the mind of theIndian community in , i ts utter nakedness . Nor werethey slow to take act ion . A deputat ion under theleadersh ip of Mr . Gandh i and Mr. A li was at oncesent to England to agitate, i f poss ible agains t herRoyal Assent being given to the new legisl ation . TheRoyal Assen t was withheld in consequence t i l l a constitutional

'

Government should be instal led in theTransvaal . A committee in London wi th Lord Ampthi l lex -Governor of Madras , as chai rman

,was also


formed to keep guard over Indian interests i n South'

Africa . But al l th is was of no ava i l . A consti tut ional‘

Governmen t was soon formed in the Transvaal,the

new measure was passed in hot haste . received theRoyal Assent

,and became law.

A gaunt let was thus thrown in the face of theTransvaa l B ri t i sh Indians . T he pol icy of As iat icexcl us ion had reached its cl imax . The elemen taryr ights of human be ings had been trampled underfoot . To register or not to register was now thequestion with the Indian Communi ty . To reg isterand sel l their honor and sel f - respect for a mess

of pottage , or not to regis ter and “ take up armsagainst a sea o f t roubles ,

” was the question . Al l theseyears Mr . Gandhi had not laboured for nought . Likea true leader he appealed to the better instincts of h isfol lowers . He told them that s ubmiss ion to the new

law would be tantamount to the immolat ion of thei rsouls at the altar of thei r bodies . He told them thatregis trat ion and perd it ion were under the ci rcumstancessy nonymous and that i f they had a Spark o f sel f - respecti n them they should refuse to reg ister and face anytroubles in store for them. He preached to them thegospe l of passive resistance . The words of the l eaderawoke a responsive thr i l l in thousands of in trep idhearts. L ike one man they vowed agains t the registrat ion . Like one man they resolved to face prosecut ionand persecut ion

,dungeon and death itse l f. Like one

man they r esolved to make atonement for the heapedup hum i l iations of many years

,by a supreme and.

M OHANDAS iKARAM CHAND GAN DH I 49

t r i umphant act of sel f - vindicat ion wh ich S hould rivetthe eyes o f the whole world .

The great struggle in the Transvaal th us commenced .

The glorious pass ive resistance movement was thus inaugurated . The l aw took i ts course, and a saturnal ia ofimprisonments ensued. The gaols became l i teral lycrammed with the Indians who suffered for consc iencesake . H igh and low, r ich and poor, wen t joy ful ly to thegaol as to the bridal . Husband was separated fromwi fe , ch i ld from paren t, and yet the fervour andpert inacity of the struggle abated not. Mr. Gandh ih imsel f _ was sentenced to two months S impleimprisonment . Dur ing the trial he t ook ful l respon s ib ili ty for the course adopted by the Indian Communityunder h is leadership and asked for the maximumpun ishmen t for himsel f . The Transvaal au thorit ieswere perturbed to see the worm turn ing

,and

naturally grew uncomfortable . General Smuts gaveh is word that i f the Ind ians registered of their

own accord the'

noxious l aw would be withdrawn .

Mr. Gandh i not to embarrass the authori t ies acceededto the course

,and to set an example, himsel f went to

the o ffice to register . The posi t ion of a leader is oftent imes irksome and dangerous, and so i t was in thisins tance. A Pathan who had joined in the passiveres istance movement imag ined that Mr. Gandh i wasplaying the coward and betraying his trust of leadersh ip . He dea l t such severe blows to Mr: Gandhi onh is way to the registration office that he at once fel ldown unconscious. His ft iends afterwards asked h imto take act ion agains t the Pathan, but he repl ied that


the Pathan had done what he considered r ight ! I tis no wonder that he said so

,for he has been deeply

i nfluenced , by the teach ing of the la te Count LeoTolstoy . To resume our story , General Smuts brokefai th , and the new law was not expunged from the

statute book . The strugg le recommenced . Againhundreds were cast into jai l , and Mr. Gandhi amongthem for a term of two months with hard l abour . We

have no Space to refer to the hardships he enduredwith h is brother sufferers in jai l ; to his many actsof sel f - denial , and to the subl ime manner in which hebore up , bel ieving, as he did , that suffering is theheaven - orda ined path to perfection .

After h is release he was appom ted to lead a deputat ion to England

,i n the year 1909. But noth ing worth

mention ing came of i t . The sequel of the story,the

deportat ions o f hundreds o f Indians , and the return ofthe deportees to the Transvaal , al l th is is wel l - known ,

The struggle is sti l l going on,and the end is not yet .

W hatever the end and whenever i t come,there is no

doubt that the Transvaa l struggle has served to reveala man of exceptional capac ity , lofty aims , andunblemished character. And that man, we need hardlysay is Mr. Gandh i . I t would not be easy to doj ust ice to a character such as h is. He is one o f thoserare men with whom the l i fe of the soul is a l iving,real ity . His princi ples are no mere cloak to be donned,and doffed at will , but are part and parcel o f hisbeing , which he never barters for any mess of pottagehowever tempting . He has of t en been known towi thdraw from a suit , i f convinced that i t was not

M OHAN DAS KARAM CHAND GANDH I 5 1

t rue . H is l i f e is a ceaseless striving to r ise onthestepping - stones of our dead selves to higherand is a un ity such as few l ives are.

W el l has i t b een‘

sa id that the future Ind ian N at ioni s be ing bui l t up in S outh Africa . By t hose who real isethe ful l purport of t h i s remark the c laim of Mr. Gandh i

to rank h igh among the great bui lders o f the I ndianN at ion wil l hardly be disputed .

*

I t is this Bu i lder o f Indian N ation on a foreign

strand that the South Af rican Government have againconsigned him to the horrors of j ai l for

'15 months .

‘

W hy ? N ot for cheat ing , or thieving or murder ingor any breach of peace— but because he would not !advise his su ffering brethren to con form to in iquitousimpositions wh ich are a d isgrace'to civ i l izat ion and to ‘

Christian i ty .

Our countrymen and countrywomen have to pay '

a £3 pol l - tax for the S in of being Indians. H indu and

M ahomedan marr iages— though between one man

and one woman to the exclusion of a l l othersare st igmat ised as no marr iages at all . Such are theinsults hur led in the f ace of Indian s— both those inSouth A fr ica and those who stay at home— by this

Boer B r i t i sh Government . I t is to be hoped thatthrough the firm representat ions of the Governmen t of

I ndia,the Imperial Governmen t wil l put a stop to these

mani festat ions o f the Boer Spir i t under the guise ofB ritish legislat ion

* T hi s sketch is based upon the book entitledM

.K . Gandhi ; an Ind ian Patr iot in S auth A frica ,

‘

b y J , J . Doke, Bapt ist M inis ter. Johannesburg .


A fter the great struggle he returned to India and

toured round the whole o f h is motherlan d to studypersonal ly the si tuation and has sett led at Ahmednagarwhere he has started an inst itut ion cal led Satyashramam .

May be l ive long to serve h is country .

GANDHI ’S SENSE OF DUTY

Mr Gandh i ’s sense o f publ ic duty i s said to be

profound : J ust before his fi rs t arrest,i n 1907, he

rece ived the news that h is youngest ch i ld was desperately i l l , and he was asked to go to Phoenix at

once i f he wished to save him . He refused,say ing

that h is greater duty lay in j ohannesburg, wherethe commun ity had need of him , and hi s ch i ld

’s l i fe

or death must be lef t i n God ’s hands . Simi larly , duringhis second imprisonment , he received telegraph ic newsof Mrs . Gandhi ’s serious i l lness

,and was urged , even

b y the visi t ing Magistrate , to pay his fine and so become

f ree to nurse her. Again he ref used , dec l in ing to bebound by private t ies , when such act ion would probablyresult in weaken ing the community of wh ich he was thestay and the inspirat ion . And al though af ter h is

release and his subsequent re- arrest , he coul d havesecured indefin ite postponement of the hearing o f his

case,so that he might nurse Mrs . Gandhi back to hea l th

afte r a serious Operat ion , as soon as he heard that theTransvaal Government were anx ious to see h im backagain in gaol , he hastened to the Transvaal from Natal ,l eaving Mrs . Gandh i , for aught he know to the contrary , .

54 THE l ND IAN NATION BUILDERS

whatever to do with the un lawful en try of a singleIndian for the purpose of res idence in the TransvaalHe might fairly claim that during h is whole career int he Transvaal he had been actuated by a des ire to ass istthe Government in preven t ing surrept it ious entry and

un lawful sett lement , but he pleaded guil ty to know inglycommitt ing an offence aga inst the Section under whichhe was charged . He was aware that h is action wasfraught

'with the greatest risks and in tense persona lsuffer ing to h i s fol lowers. He was convinced thatnothing shor t of much suffering would move theconscience of the Governor

,or of the inhab i tants of

the Union , of which , in Sp ite of th is breach of thelaws , he c laimed to be a sane and law - abiding ci t izen .

M R . GANDHI ’S CONFESSION OF FAITH

The fol lowing is an extract from a let ter recent ly

addressed by Mr . Gandh i to a fr iend i n Ind ia( 1) There is no impassable barr ier between East

and W est .

(2) There is no such th ing as W estern or Europeancivi l ization but there is a modern civ i l izat ion

,wh ich is

purely mater ial .(3) The people of Europe , before they were touched

by moder n c iv i l izat ion had much in common W i th thepeople of the East ; anyhow the people o f Ind i a y and

even to- day Europeans who are not touched by Modern

civi l i zat ion are fa r better able to mix with Indians thanthe offspr ing of that civi l i zat ion .

M OHANDAS KARAM CHAND GANDHI 5 5

(4) I t is not the B ri t ish people who are rul ing India ,but i t is modern civ i l isat ion , th rough its rai lways ,telegraph

,telephone , and almost every invent i on which

has been claimed to be a tr i umph of c ivi l ization .

(5) Bombay,Calcutta, and the other chie f cit ies o f

India are the real Plague Spots .

(6) I f B r i t ish rule was replaced to -morrow byInd ian rule based on modern methods , India would beno better

,except that she would be able then to retain

some of the money that is drained away to Englandbut then India would on ly become a second or fi ft hed it ion of Europe or America .

(7) East and W est can only and really meet whenthe W est has thrown overboard modern civi l izat ion ,

almost in its entirety . They can also seemingly meet

when East has also adopted modern civil izat ion,but

that meeting would be an armed truce,even as i t i s

between . say, Germany and Englan d , both of whichnat ions are l iving i n the Hal l of Death in order toavoid being devoured the one by the other .

(8) I t is S imply impert inence for any man or anybody of men to beg in or contemplate reform of thewhole world. To attempt to do so by means o fh igh ly artificial an d Speedy locomotion , is to attemptthe imposs ible.

(9) Increase of material comfor ts,i t may be

generally laid down,does not in any Way whatsoever

conduce to moral growth .

( 10) Medical Science is the concentrated essence of

B lack Magic. Quackery is infinitely preferable to

what passes for high medical ski l l.


( 1 1) HOSpitals are the inst ruments that the Devi lhas been us ing for h is own purpose , in order to keep

hi s hold on h is K ingdom . They perpetuate vice,m isery

,and degradation and real sl avery . I was en ti rel y

off the track when I considered that I Should receive amedical t ra in ing. I t would be S inful for me i n anyway whatsoever to take part in the abominations thatgo on in the hOSpitals. I f there were no hOSpitals fo rvenerea l d iseases; or even for consumpt ives , we should

have less consumption , and less sexual v ice amongst us.

( 12) India ’s sa lvat ion consist s i n un learn ing whatshe has learnt during the past fi fty years . T he rai lways ,te legraphs

,hOSpitalS , lawyers , doctors, and such l ike

have al l to go, and the so- cal led upper classes have tolearn to l ive consc iously and rel ig iously and del iberatel ythe simple peasan t l i fe , knowing i t to be a l i fe - g iving ,t rue happiness.

( 13) In dia should wear no machine - made clothing,

whether i t comes out of European i i i ills or Indianmil ls .

( 1 4) England can help India to do th is, and thenshe wil l have j ust ified her hold on India . There seemto be many in England tO - day who th ink li kew ise .( 15) There was true wisdom in the Sages of old

having so regulated society as to l imi t the materia lcondit ion of the people : the rude plough of perhapsfive thousand years ago i s the plough O f the husbandman to - day. There in l ies salvat ion . People l ive l ongunder such condi tions , in comparat ive peace muchgreater than EurOpe has en joyed after having taken upmodern act ivi ty , and I fee l that every en ligh tened


man, cer ta in ly every Engl ishman , may , i f he chooses ,llearn th is truth and act according to i t .

I t is the t rue Spirit o f passive res istance that has

b rought me to the above a lmost definite concl us ions .

AS a passive resi ster,I am unconcerned whether such

a gigantic , reformation , shal l I cal l i t , can be broughta bout among people who find thei r sat isfaction fromthe present mad rush

,I f I real ize the truth of i t , I

shou ld rejoice in fol lowing i t , and therefore I could notwa i t unt i l the whole body of people had commencedA l l of us who th ink l ikewise have to take t henecessary step , and the rest , i f we are in the r ight ,must fol low . The theory is there our practice wi l lhave to approach i t as much as possible . Livingin the midst of the rush , we may not be able to shakeourse lves tree from al l t aint . Every t ime I get into ar ai lway car or use a motor - bus , I know that I am doingviolence to my sense of what i s r ight . I do not fearthe l ogical resul t on that basis. The visi t ing of Englandis bad , an d any commun ication between South Africa

and India by means of ocean - grey - hounds is also badand so on . You and I can , and may outgrow thesethings i n our present bodies , but the ch ie f th ing i s toput our theory right . You wi l l be seeing there all

sorts and condit ions of men . I therefore feel thatShould no longer w i thhold from you what I cal l theprogress ive step I have taken mental ly. I f you agreeWith me

,then it wi l l be your duty to tel l the revolu

tionar ies and everybody else that the freedom theywant , or they th ink they want , is not to be obtained by‘


k il l ing people or doing violence, but by set ting themselves right , and by becoming and rema in ing trulyIndian . Then the B ri t ish rulers wi l l be servants andnot masters . They W i l l be t rustees , and n ot tyran ts ,and they wi l l l ive in perfect peace with the whole ofthe inhabitants o f India The future

,therefore

,l ies

not with the B ri tish race , but W i th the Indian s themselves , and i f they have su fficient sel f - abnegat ion andabstemiousness , they can make themselves free th isvery moment , and when we have arr ived in India atthe simpl icity wh ich i s st i l l ours largely and which wasours entirely unt i l a few years ago

,i t W i‘l st i l l be poss i

ble for the best Indians and the best Europeans t o seeone another throughout the length and breadth O f

Ind ia,and act as the leaven . W hen there was no

rapid locomotion , teachers and preachers Went onfoot , f rom the end of the country to the other , brav ing

al l dangers , not for pleasure , not for recruit ing the i rheal th

, ( though al l that fo l lowed from thei r tramps)butfor the sake O f humani ty . Then Were Benares and otherp laces of p i lgrimage holy C i t ies , whereas to - day th eyare an abom ination .

You W i l l recol lect you used to hate me for talk ing tomy ch i ldren in G uzerati. I now feel more and more

convinced that I was absol utely right in refusing to talkto them in Engl ish . Fancy a Guzerati wr i ting to an

other G uzerati i n Engl ish ! \Vhich , as you would proper

ly say , he mispronounces , and wr ites ungrammat ical ly .

I should certai nly never commit the ludicrous blundersin wr i t ing in G uzerat i that I do in wr i ting or Speakingi n Engl ish . I th in k that when I Speak i n Engl ish to'


an Indian or a foreigner I i n a measure unlearn thelan guage. I f I wan t to learn i t wel l

,and i f I wan t to

attune my ear to i t,I can only do so by talk ing to an

Eng l ishman and by l isten ing to an Englishman speaking .

M R . GANDHI ’S PLEA FOR THE SOUL

The following is an extract f rom a letter of th eLondon corresponden t Of the Am r ita Bazaa r P a tr ika ,

summarising an address del ivered by Mr. Gandh i beforethe member s of the Emerson Club and of theHampstead B ranch O f the Peace and Arb itrat ion.

Soc iety whi lst in LondonMr . Gandhi t urned to India

,and Spoke with enthusi

asm of Rama,the vict im o f the machinat ions o f a

‘

woman choos ing fourteen year s ’ exi le rather thansurrender ; other Or ientals were men tioned ,

and then,

through the D oukhabors ~of to - day , he brought thethoughts O f the aud ience to the soul res istance Of

Ind ians versus brute force in South Africa . He insistedthat i t was completely a m istake to bel ieve that Indianswere incapable of lengthened resistance for a principle ;i n the i r fear lessness of suffering they were second tonone in the world . Passive res istance had been cal leda weapon of the weak

,but Mr . Gandh i maintained

that i t requi red courage h igher than that ofa sold ier on the batt le - field , which was often theimpulse Of the moment , for pass ive resistance, was

continuous and sustained ; i t meant physical suffering.

‘60 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

Some people were i ncl ined to th ink i t too d i ffi cul t tobe carr ied out to - day, but those who held that ideawere not moved by true courage. Again referring toO r iental teach ing , Mr. Gandhi said that the teach ingof the “Lord ’s Song was f rom the beginn ing ,

thenecessity of fearlessness . He touched on the questionO f physical force whi le ins ist ing that i t was not thoughto f by Indians in the Transvaal . He does not wan t toShare in l iberty for Ind ia that i s ga ined by viol ence andbloodshed

,an d insists that no country i s so capable

as India of wie lding soul force . Mr . Gandhi d idnot approve Of the mil itan t t act ics sf the suffra

gettes for the reason that they were meeting body

force wi th body force , and not us ing the higher power

O f soul force ; V iolence begot Violence . He main ta ined,

too,that the associat ion of Bri tai n and India mus t be

a mutual benefi t i f Ind ia— eschewing violence— did notdepar t f rom her proud pos it ion of being the giver and

the teacher o f rel igion .

“ I f the world bel ieves in theex istence O f the soul ,” he said in concl usion , i t mustbe recogn ised that soul force i s bet ter than body force:i t is the sacred principle Of love which moves mountains .To us is the respons ib i l i ty o f l iv ing out th is sacred

‘

law we are not concerned with results .”

Mr . Gandh i protested against the mad rush o f tod ayand , instead of blessing the means by wh ich modernsc ience has made this mad rush possi ble , that is ,rai lways , motors , t elegraph . teleph one , and even thecoming flying mach in es

,h e dec lared that they were

diverting man's thoughts f rom the main purpose of l i febod ily comfort stood before soul growth man had no

~62 THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS

w ithstand'this latest assaul t , as i t has withstood so

many before , and be , as of old, the rel igious teacher,the Spir i tual guide

,then there would be no impassable

barr ie r between East and W est,Some circumst ances

e xist,said Mr . Gandhi , which we cannot understand ;

but the main purpose O f l i fe is to l ive r ight ly,think

r ightly,act r ightly ; but the soul must languish when

we give al l our thought to the body .

M R GANDHI ON THE DUTIES OF BRITISH

CITIZENSHIP

I consider mysel f a lover of th e Br i t ish Empire , ac it izen ( though voteless)O f the Tran svaal , prepared totake my ful l share in promot ing the general well - beingo f the count ry . And I c laim i t to be perfect l y honourable and consisten t with the above pro fess ion toadvise my countrymen not to submi t to the Asiat icAct, as being derogatory to the ir manhood and Offensive to their rel igion . And I claim

,too , that the

method of passive resistance adopted to combat themischief is the c learest and safest , because , i f the causeis not true , i t i s the resistors, and they alone whosu ffer. I am perfectly aware of the danger to goodgovernment , i n a country inhab ited by many racesunequally developed , in an hones t ci t izen advisingres istance to a law of the land. But I refuse to bel ievei n the infal l ibil ity of legislators, I do bel ieve that they


are not always guided by generous or even j ust sentimen ts in their deal ings with unrep resented classes .

I vent ure to say that , i f pass ive resistance is general lyaccepted

,i t wi l l once and for ever avoid the contingency

of a terrib le death - struggle and bloodshed in the even t

( not impossib le) of the nat ives be ing exasperated by astupid mistake of our leg islators.I t has been said that those who do not l ike the

law may leave the country,This is a l l very wel l

Spoken from a cush ioned chair,but i t i s nei ther possi

ble nor becoming for men to leave thei r homes becausethey do not subscr ibe to certain laws enacted againstthem . The in landers of the Boer regime complainedof harsh laws ; they , too , were told that i f they did notl ike them they cou ld r et ire from the country. AreIndians

,who are fight i ng for the ir sel f - respect , to s l in k

away f rom the coun try for fear of suffering imprisonmentor worse ? I f I could help it , noth ing would removeIndians from the country save brute force . I t i s no

part of a ci tizen’s duty to pay bl ind obedience to the

laws imposed on h im . And i f my countrymen bel ievein God and the ex istence of the Sou l , then , wh i le theymay admi t that their bodies be long to the state to beimprisoned and deported, thei r minds, thei r Wi l ls , andtheir souls must ever remain free l ike the bi rds o f thea ir , and are beyond the reach of the swi f test ar row .

PAND IT A J UD H IANATH

A SKET CH OF H I S LIFE AND CAREER

TANDING on this plat form and Speaking in

this city,one feels almost an overpowering

sense of despai r when one finds that the fami l iar figure

and the beloved face of Pand it Ajudhianath i s no more .

W e mourned for h im when he died , We have mournedfor him since ; and those Of us who had the pr ivi legeOf knowing him int imately , of perce iving h is k in dlyheart

,h is great energy , h is great d evot ion to the Con

g ress cause, and the sacrifices he made for that cause ,wil l mourn for him to the last.

W hen the late Mr .W . C. Bonerjee Spoke these wordsat the Eighth Nat ional Congress held at Allahabad ,he was

,we may be sure , paying no mere convent ional

tr ibute to the memory of a valued personal fr iend and

pol i t ical comrade. He was therebygiving s incere andhea r t fel t expres sion to the feel ing , then universal inIndia , that in the unt imely death of the Pandit a nat ionalcalamity had overtaken the land. D ur ing the few yearsthat the late Pandit was associated with the work of theCongress he had displayed such whole - hearted devot ion and indomitable energy th at h is . name was on

everybody ’s l i ps as that o f one of the most strenuousand outspoken apostles of the nat ional movement .


The late Pandi t was a man of exceptional and br i l l ian tparts and would in any age have writ h is name largei n the annals o f h is country . Great part s however wi thout a correspond ing hear t are bound to be barren.

B ut i n the Pand it bri l l iance of parts was ennobled andredeemed by a truly large and l iberal heart . He w as

a patr iot and phi lanthrop is t Of a rare order. Hecherished brigh t v is ions o f glory for the future of h ismotherland , and strove ceaselessly to real ise them .

W i th h im patr iot i sm was no cloak for rank sel f

advertisemen t . I t was a p i ty for Ind ia that h is careero f beneficence was cut off in i ts pr ime but the land heloved and the people he served cannot forget h im

,and

h is memo ry wi l l long remain l ively and fragran t atl east

,i n the minds of those who are acquainted with the

h istory O f the Ind ian N at ional Congress, \Ve need there

fore offer no apology for incorporat ing h im among theIndian N at ion Bui lders .Pandit Ajudhianath was born at Agra on the 8 th of

Apri l , 1840 i n a notable fami ly at Kashmiri B rahmins .H is father Pandi t Kedh irnath had dist inguished himsel f in more than one walk of l i fe . He had been forsome t ime Dewan to the N awab O f J affhar , and hada f terwards taken to t rade in which h e proved eminentl y

success ful . The father paid the keenes t at ten t ion tothe educat ion of h is son . Ajudhianath even as a boyshowed signs of rare promise . He zealously app l iedh imsel f to the study of Arabic and Pers ian , then Courtlanguages. The love Of Arabic and Persian

,thus en

k indled ripened in to a passion in a fter days , the Pand i tdevot ing al l h is spare hours to the study . During hi s


paid to her . Thoughts of coun try and motherland>occupied no mean portion of h is t ime . He took greatin terest in educat ional matters

,and yearned to extend

.

to al l h i s coun trymen the blessings of the education towh ich he h imsel f owed SO much . H is first publ ic activitywas therefore i n connect ion with the found ing o f the :V ictoria Col lege. He subsequently tr ied h is hand at

j ou rnal ism. He started an Engl ish dai ly (a dai ly , bei t noted) styled the

“ I ndian Herald in 1879,and .

though he spent over a lac o f rupees i n the undertaking Out Of his own pocket, i t even tual ly proved a .

fai lure. Not di sheartened he started another organthe “ Indian Union in the year 1890 , O f which theHonourable Pandi t Madan Mohan M alav iya (Mr . MadanMohan as he then was) was placed in charge. I t wasunder such dist inguished ausp ices that the HonorablePandi t Madan Mohan M alaviya Served h is apprent ic esh ip ia publ ic l i fe , and the worthy Pand i t st i l l cher ishes .

the memory o f hi s Old master W ith pro found reverencePandit Ajudhianath was a member O f the Senates Ofboth the Al lahabad and Calcutta Univers i t i es . The

V ice - Chancel lor Of the Al lahabad Univers i ty has paidh im the followmg glowing compl iment : “ He took a

very keen interest in educat ion , was a constan t attendan t at our meet ings , and brought to bear upon our ’

work in tel lectual powers which on ly few possess . He

was a man of whom any country and any race mightwel l be proud . H is character was of the highest

,

h is abil i ty was undoubted . and h is acquiremen ts wereof the most var ied description.

”

The Pand i t was the fi rst Indian member to s i t on the .

PANDIT A J UDH IANATH 69

L egislative Counci l of the North - west Provinces, whereh e did much use ful work. W e now come to the mostimportan t par t of h is publ ic l i fe , that , whic h has

ent i tled h im to the grateful remembrance o f h is coun“

t rymen, we al lude to his labours in connect ion wi t ht he Indian N at ional Congress. He was not one of that

smal l and br i l l iant band of patriots who ushered theNat ional Assembly i nto existence at Bombay during theclos ing week of the year 1885. His connection W ith i tb egan somewhat l ater . W e shal l however relate thestory Of the Pandit ’s convers ion to the Congress cause

in the words O f Mr,W . C

,Bonerjee.

“ I was here

(Allahabad)” he says in Apr i l 1887 and met Pand it

Aj udhianath who had not then expressed his view onew ay or the other about Congress matters. I d iscussed

t he matter with h im ,He l istened to me with his usual

c ourtesy and urbanity,an d he po inted out to me

c ertai n defects which he thought existed in our system ;and at las t af ter a sympathetic hearing of over an hour

.and a hal f,he told me he would th ink of al l I had said

t o him,and that he would consider the mat ter careful ly

and thoroughly , and then let me know his views.I never heard anyth ing from him from that t ime unt i l-Ou the eve of my departure for Madras to attend the

C ongress Of 1887,I then received a letter f rom him in

which he said I had m ade a conver t o f h im to the Con

g ress cause , that he had thoroughly made up his mindt o joi n us , that he was anx ious to go to Madras h imsel f ,5b ut that i l lness prevented him from doing so

,and he

\sent a message that i f i t pleased the Congress to holdi ts next sess ions at Al lahabad in 1888, he would do all


he could,to make the Congress a success

,And you;

know— certain ly those o f you who attended know- wh at success he d id make Of i t . Our venerable President of the Recept ion Comm i ttee O f th is Congress hadtold us O f the diffi cul ties wh ich had to be encotih

'

tered

to make that Congress a success ; and I do not bel i tt leh is serv ices or those of any other worthy Congressmanwho worked with h im at that Congress

,when I say

that i t vsas owing to Pand i tAjudhianath’

s exertions thatthat Congress was th e success i t was.

” The closmg

sentences of the foregoing quotat ion have beenincluded in i t i n ant ic ipat ion Of What i s to fol low .

The Pandit was noth ing i f not thoroughgoing.

Having once joined the Congress ranks he was soonin the very thick of the fight . Having once stepped.

into the Congress boat he w as soon at the very helm .

H is devot ion to the cause he had espoused knewno bounds From the day the Pand i t dec lared hisa l legiance to the Congress cause t i l l h i s death ,

i t knewof no m o re doughty and enthusiast ic champion . To usethe words of Mr. W . C . Bonerjee once again ,

“Pandi tAjudh ianath as you know ,

from the t ime he joined theCong ress, :worked early , worked late , worked with the

bold ,worked W ith the young

,never Spared any personal

sacr ifices , so that he might do good to h is Country and‘

to the Congress,

In order , however , to appraise the character of the

Pandit's services , the circumstances that attended thehold ing of the Al lahabad Congress O f 1888 ought to beborne in mind . W hen the Congress was fi rst organ isedthe powers that he, d idn ’t see in i t anything very objec~

PAND IT A J UDHIANATH 71

tionable, and some o f them even showed a Spir i t o fact ive sympathy . Af ter the fi rst two or three sessionswere over i t became very obnoxious i n their eyes. I nthe dovecots o f Offic ialdom there was a fluttering ofW ings. The Anglo- Ind ian porcupine fast bri stled up

,and

there was no end to the r id icule,contempt and venom

of invective that were poured upon i t . The st igma o fsed it ion was affi xed to i ts f a i r brow

,The Congress

was denounced as a nest O f misch ie f -makers andmalcontents who were aiming at the overthrowof B ritish Rule in Ind ia . The oppos it ion thusman i fes ted soon told. A few Indian nobleman who

had at fi rst joined the movement now seceded to thecamp of i ts foes . The M abomedan Community practical ly s tood aloof , and i ts leaders were act ively host i le.S i r Auckland Colvm , the L t. - Governor O f the N orthW est Provmces at that t ime made no secret of hishatred of the Congress , and he had a powerful al ly i nthat famous M ahomedan l eader , the late S ir SyedAhmed Khan . And even among the professed fr iendsO f the Congress there were many searching of Sp ir i t .I t was a situat ion to daunt the b ravest he ar t . I t was

feared on al l hands that A l lahabad would prove thegrave o f the Nat ional Movement . But there was oneman who didn ’t quai l before the storm, and that wasPandi t Ajudh ianath ,

He proved a host i n himsel f .He proved more than equal to the s i t uat ion

,he put

heart into wavering Spir i ts . He col lected men andmoney ; and much to the dismay of i ts foes the Congresswas held at Al lahabad in that yea r , and proved aglorious success . I t was an achievement of wh ich


any man might be proud , The Pandi t was the Chairman of the Recept ion Committee and del ivered theusual address of welcome . He recounted the obstacleshe had to face , vindicated the Congress , and exhortedh is compatr iots to go on in thei r noble m iss ion . TheAl lahabad Congress Of 1888 W i l l ever const i tute amemorable chapter i n the history of the Nat iona lMovement i n India , and the name Ajudhianath wi l l beemblazoned in i t . I t was wel l said at the t ime

, Nonebut the intrepid and unselfish Pandi t could have floatedthe Congress argosy over the boisterous confluence o fthe Colvin , Duffer in , and Syed Ahmed rapids at thet ime .

” The Pandi t d in ’t take to pol i t ics as to a pastimeand his enthus iasm was no mere three days affai r. A fterthe Congress was over he t oured in Northern India t o

p lead the Congress cause. His earnestness and sincer i ty were so transparent that , when Mr. A . O Humele ft for Eng land , the Pandit was by common consentel ected Joint Secretary o f the Congress in his stead . I thad been a lmost resolved to offer the honor o f the Chai rof the Seventh Congress to the Pandi t ; but i t was fel tthat Bombay and Calcutta having ti l l then suppl iedPresidents

,Madras should have a chance before the

North -W estern Provinces came in . The late Ra i

Bahadur P . An anda Charl u who presided over thatsessions al l uded to the c ircumstance in the fol lowingpassage i n his address

,The H onorabl e Pandi t

Ajudhianath i s un fortunately for both you and me not aM adrasee . W ere i t not that he generously abdicatedthe digni ty i n favour of Madras, I should gladly haveavoided the danger of accepting a si tuat ion that would

PAND IT A J UDH IANATH 73

.draw me into compari son W ith that unselfish , Wholehearted

,intrep id , and outspoken apost le of t h is great

N at ional movement .” How l i ttle d id those who cheered-these words to the echo know that the subject ofth is eulogi um was soon to depart the land Of the l iving.

On return ing home from the Nagpur Congress the.Pandit caught co ld

,and compl icat ions sett ing in he

passed away on the 1 1 th January 1892. The news of

h is death plunged the whole count ry in to gloom . I twas everywhere fel t that a gap had been caused inthe ranks of selfless public workers which might take.long to fi l l

,I t i s our duty not to let the memory of

such a man die , and coming gener at ions W i l l , i t ishoped , consecrate a n iche i n their hear ts to a kindlythought o f th is great so ldier of the Nat ional cause who

-once served it so bravely an d so fa ith ful ly,

CONGRESS RECEPTION ADDRESS

[Speech del ivered by the H on’

ble P and i t Aj udhiana th in

w elcom ing the delegates of the Four th Indian Na tional

Cong ress].GENTLEM EN ,

- On behal f of the Reception Comm ittee, I Offer you a most hearty welcome ,

I rejoice tosee so many f r iends and countrymen

,many of whom

have come long distances and at great personal inconi

venience, assembled to try and secure , by a l l loyal andc onst i tut ional means, the amel iorat ion of the pol i t icalcondition of India . (Cheers). I t i s a matter for greatr ejoicing that a l l the leaders of nat ive opin ion from all


the var ious provinces , and the representat ives of al l th edi fferent communi ties of the Empire , have assembledhere th is day to labour for that summu n bonum

,the

greatest good of the greatest number, (Cheers, ) I f

Al lahabad has not been fortunate enough to be the fi rs tto secure the patronage of th is great nat ional i nsti tution

,

i t may wel l be proud of being the first place Where i tsorgan izat ion has arr ived at a fa ir s tate O f perfect ion .

(Cheers,) But whi le our Organization has so muchimproved

,I regret to say that our arrangements for your

recep t ion have not been , by any means , as sat is fac toryas they were at e ither Calcutta or Madras. No

,nof)

B ut,gen t lemen

,in consideration Of the d i ffi cul t ies

thrown in our way by the c ivi l and m i l itary authorit ies, ,

we have some claim to your indulgence. W e were first o fal l led to be l ieve— I may say distinct ly in formed— thatwe should be permit ted to occupy the Khusro Bagh forour encampment . B ut a l itt le l ate r , to our great d isappo intment , we were told that the requ is ite permiss ioncould not be accorded cr ies of shame I

"

) and no sat isfactory reason was assigned for th is change O f f ront .In Apr i l , after much negot iation , perm iss ion was grantedto us to pi tch our camp on a large plot of waste groundly ing between the fort rai lway stat ion and the o for t

,on

payment of rent . This ren t we paid in advance , and wewere assured that there would be no further d i fficulty inthe way of our occupy ing that p iece of land . B ut, gentlemen,

in the month o f August— four months later— we

were in fo rmed that on sani tary grounds we could notbe al lowed to occupy that p l ace

,and the rent money

,

which we had pa id in advance , was returned to us


hope,remember that the task of prov id ing for the del e

gates i n Al l ahabad had not been so easy as at Madr as,where H is Excel len cy the Governor himsel f len t themtents

,assisted them in many ways

,and sympathized

'with their .work . (Cheers) But here l had to danceat tendance for an hour at least i n the Fort O f Allahabad .wait ing the pleasure Of the o fficers to gran t me anaudience— officers who not only gave us no ass istance ,but quite the contrary. (Laughter , and cr ies ofAl l th is wi l l convince you tha t we have some claim toyour indulgence .

I shal l now ask you to elect your own President .’

B ut before you proceed with h is elect ion , you mayperhaps expect me to say a few words about theopposi t ion of other kinds that we have had to encoun terYou are n ow very fami l i ar wi th the nature o f thatopposi t ion . You know the strength of that Opposit ion

and you also know that i t is fast lo sing its power forevil

,and dying out , as al l unrighteous th ings sooner o r

later die . (Chews )But I feel i t my duty to refer to i t i nconsequence of the hos ti l i ty o f S ir Auckland Colvin toour most esteemed , but much abused fr iend , Mr . Hume .

(Loud cheers ) Mr. Hume has not only now,but for

years past , been working with infini te and unse lfishzeal to promote the wel fare of India , and we may leave

i t to t ime to vindicate h is action f rom the str ictures of‘ the Lieutenant - Governor. (Cheers ) Again , I am sorryto say that that port ion o f the Anglo - Indian presswhich del ights i n r idicul ing and condemning the aspirat ions o f the n at ive commun ity le ft no stone unturnedto br ing discredit on Mr . Hume. (Cheers and cr ies of

PANDIT AJ UD HIANATH 77‘

shame.

” But we are not ch i ldren . We know the ,

game they are pl ay ing ; and we mean to st ick to Mr.Hume to the last . (Loud and P rolonged cheers.) H isadvice to us has always been loyal ty and moderat ion ,and yet he has been stigmat ized as the most sedit iousman in India. The next reason which induces me to v

refer to th is opposit ion is the Speech of Lord Dufferin ,who speaks of the sedi t ious nature of some of our writ»

ings and Speeches. Some few thought less non -official.

opponents had already , i t is t rue, adopted simi lar meansto d iscredit us

, But I am surprised , I am aston ished ,

to find any sens ible man,let a lone a gentleman occupy

ing the posi t ion o f a V iceroy , bringing a charge ofdisloyalty against us. (Cheers.) I t is impossibl e— and.

I say i t with great confidence— to find on the fac e‘

o f .

th is earth a people more l oyal than my countrymen»

(Loud cheers.) W e claim the more per fect un ion ofIndia and England , and yet we a re cal led d isloya l ! Arewe d isloyal ? (Loud cr i es of

“no

,Some people

have gone the length of talking such non sense as to say,

that we want the Russ ians to come int o the country .

(Laug hter) Now, gen tlemen , I ask you , is i t not absurdto suppose that the educated nat ives o f India

,who have

such an admirat ion for the free and represen tative inst itutions of England , could ever wish to be under Russian rule or become Russ ian serfs? (Laughter a nd cheers.)H istory we have read , Engl ish educat ion we havereceived , W i th Engl ishmen we have mixed and mixedfreely , but we are not cred ited , i t would seem,

with.

even sense enough to real ize that the Engl ish Government is far better than the Russian or than that of any.

78 T HE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS

other European Power. The exi stence of the Congress,

the very meet ings wh ich we hold annual ly,are the beS t

proofs of the excel lence of the Bri t ish Government .(Cheers.) W here W i l l you find any Government wh ichwould al low a fore ign country

,wh ich i t has pleased

Providence to place under its charge,to have the same

const i tutional freedom o f Speech as the Br iti sh Government has been pleased to grant to us (Cheers ) I wi l lonly ment ion to you one instance as a signal proof ofour royal ty . W hen a couple of years ago there wassome talk of a Russ ian invasion , not only our men,

but

mark please , also our women, expressed i n an unm istak

able manner thei r wish that the Russ ians should bekept out of the country by al l poss ible means (cheers)and were ready , in some cases , i t is said , to sacrificethose jewels, so dear to al l females , to prov ide thenecessary funds . (Loud cheers.) I f occas ion arises wewil l prove to our opponents that i t i s we who are loyaland not they ; i t i s we who wi l l support the Governmentand not they ; i t is we who wi l l be ready W i th our

purses and not they . (Cheers) We ful ly acknowledgethe inest imable bless ings confe rred upon us byGovernment ; we most grate ful ly admit the n umberlessbenefi ts der ived by Ind ia from Brit i sh rule , and al lthat we n ow say is th is, vzz .

,that there is ye t room for

improvement that Engl and can con fer st i l l further

blessmg s upon us; and that , therefo re, we may properlyapproach our Most Gracious Empress— approach hermost respect ful ly and loya l ly - with t he prayer thatshe W i l l cause al l those gracious p ledges given on herbehal f to be now more ful ly redeemed , (Cheers )England

PAND IT AJ UDH IANATH 79

has been the first to in troduce free i nst it ut ions into thisc ountry, and we ask Her M ajes ty now to extend themso far as the ci rcumstances wi l l permit

,so that to the

end o f time the Engl i sh Government may be held upto al l the c ivil ized Governments under the sun

,as the

very model of perfection . (Cheers.) That our prayerswil l be granted sooner or later I have not the sl ightestdoubt . (Loud Cheers).

Two years ago I gave the subject of the Congressmy best considerat ion , and after mature del iberat ionI arr ived at the conclusion that so far from be ingdangerous to Governmen t , i t embodies the essent ia lgerm of the permanency of the B ri t ish Government.

(Cheers,) I have s ince then , in conseq uence of S i rAuckland Colvm ’

s let ter and Lord D uffer in’s Speech ,

as a loyal subject of Her Majesty , re- considered thematter

,and bel ieve me , gentlemen , that I have been

unable to discover i n any of our speeches , publicat ions,o r proceed ings

,anyth ing Wh ich is at a l l sediti ous, or

wh ich in any way approaches to sedi t ion . You knowthe mult i farious duties of a V iceroy , and you know theheavy work o f a Lieutenant -Governo r, and I bel ievethat these exal ted o fficia l s have not had the t ime tostudy careful ly our pamphlets , but have received the i rinformation as to their genera l purport and bear ing atsecond hand

,and you know what the va lue o f that

kind of second hand in formation is, (Laug hter .) But

this being so,i t is the duty o f every loyal subject o f

the Queen to prove,by his firmness

j

in the cause , andby h is moderat i on , that the charges brought against usby our kind Opponents have no foundat ion in fact.


These cri t ic isms and th is Opposi t ion have given rise to»

c ertain misapprehension s , the most prominent amongthese being the idea that the Government means to doi nj ury to those who join the Congress . N oth ing couldbe more absurd than such a rumour

,The great

nat ion on whose possessions the sun never sets— the

most advanced o f nat ions , the first to int roduce freeinst it ut ions in to th is country

,and teach us that rulers

were created for the good of subjects, not subjects forthe pleasure of ruler— the noble nat ion that has un itedjus t ice with freedom, W i l l never al low its o fficers toresort to such unj ustifiable and unconst i tut ional measures . (Cheers.) Engl ishmen as a nat ion are not

capable O f suppress ing any loyal const itut ional orga

nization by any arb itrary or unfair means . (Cheers)Having said this much I am obl iged to say someth ingmore which is not quite so pleasant . News comes to '

us from district a fter d istr ict th at people have beentold by the ir o ffic ial super iors that they would cometo grie f i f they joined , subscr ibed to , or in any wayaided the N at ional Congress . Reports of th is naturehave reached me from Cawnpore, Etawah , Agra ,.

Al igarh,and o ther places too numerous to mention .

I have letters in my o ffice to the eff ect that in one o fthe towns in the Al igarh d istr ict people held meet ings ,and were ready not only to elect delegates but toprove unmistakably the interest they take in the Congress by putt ing their h ands deep int o thei r pockets .

(Cheers.) But down came the news “The distr icto fficer W i l l be d ispleased with you .

"

(“ Shame l") In.

G orakhpore anti - Congress meetings were held, and

PANDIT A J UD HIANATH 81

Governmen t officers took par t in them . (“Shame l

Important people forbidden to take 'part i n Congress meetings . W el l

,Sir , a grea t many rumours are

c i rculated whi ch are not true , and we wil l hope thatsome of_ these at leas t may be more or less untrue .(Laughter)

Then there is an idea that the Con gress party is

only a microscop ic minority . (Laughter .) But it

i s not only nat ives who have recei ved an Engl isheducat ion

,and even these may now be numbered

by hundreds of thousands, who take part in this movement . I see before me , even in this Congress , num

be rs of gent lemen who , t hough very h ighly educatedand cultured , have not received any so- cal led Engl isheducat ion . I have been to several places in theseprovinces in connect ion with the Congress, and where

ever I went I found great en thusiasm prevai l ingamongst al l classes of people , and what you wil l besti l l more pleased to hear is that we have receivedcontribut ions from al l classes

,even f rom those who

profess to be against the Congress, (Laug hter and

cheers.) Nay, from some of those whose names figure

h igh on the l ist of so- cal led anti - Congress Associat ion ,

(Cheers and cr ies of“Name ! name I

”

) I cannot , ofcour se

,di sclose their names, fo r they accompanied

thei r donations wi th special requests that their n ameshould never be disclosed. I have also rece ived largesubscript ions f rom native noblemen on condi tion thatthe i r names should not be d isclosed because they are

afrai d of the of ficials. (Laughter).6

82 T HE INDIAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

A quest ion was recently put i n th e House of Commons by a member , in which i t was stated that the

N at ive Princes and the M ahomedans as a body we reagainst the Congress. No

,You have here

seated on the plat form Sirdar Daya l S ingh,the premier

S ikh nobleman of the Punjab . Our i l l ustr ious f r iendthe Maharajah of Durbhanga , a B rahmin o f the B rahm ins

,th e premier nobleman of B engal

,had made

arrangements to come here to - day ; but c ircumstancesover which he had no control— a sudden attack ofi l lness— prevented him from being p resent . Here

,too

,

you have M ahomedans, noblemen of the highest b i rth ,

sc ions o f the ex - Royal houses of Delh i and Oudh ,and

others . W el l , who are the Pr inces that a re aga instus ? The Maharaj ah o f Benares , and he alon e ; andi f I understand Raj ah Sh iva Persad

,who i s attending

t h is Congress th is year and declares himsel f to be adelegate

,even the Maharajah Of Benares is no t against

the Congress , indeed approves i t , but only des ires toprotest against certain speeches and wr i t ings o f someCongressmen which he d isapproves. (Lau ghter) But

can the Maharaj ah of B enares represen t the Princesof India. or ourselves ? (Cr ies of Has b e

anyth ing in common W i th us ? No,no

,Then ,

besides the Maharajah of Benares, there a re somegentlemen who have the reputat ion of being theauthors of certa in ant i - Congress pamphlets and let ters

to the press . I have the honour o f knowing some o fthem personal ly , and ~can tel l you that , so f ar f romwrit ing those pamphlets , th ey are unable to underst and

them. (Laughter) Since this question was put in the


as I have been able to thresh out th is question,pers i s

tent efforts in the cause o f the Congress are the bestand almost the only proofs that you can now - a - daysgive of tr ue and heartfe l t loyalty to our beloved QueenEmpress. (Loud cheers.) Our strength has been tried

,

our fi rmness has been tested , and our loyalty is un

quest ionable . Then , gent lemen , what else is req ui red .

for our success ? One th ing, and one th ing only , isrequ ired . We requ ire— and I say it— to reach the ears .

and attract the eyes o f the peop le in England ; we

requi re only to create a deep interest in Indian affairsi n the House of Parl iament and in the hearts of the

B r i t ish n ation . (Cheers) I do not think th at , hereafter

,you wi l l find the benches o f the House of Com

mons quite so bare as i n t imes past they ever became .

as soon as an Indi an quest ion was brought b efore theHouse. I s incerely hOpe that the members o f the two.

Houses and the people of Great B r itai n wi l l henceforthcommence to take a more l ively interes t i n Indianaffa i rs ; and I hope most s incerely they wi l l never fora moment be m isled by the cuckoo cries of our l ocalopponents

,who,

incapable of re fut ing our arguments .

or j ust i fy ing thei r fran t ic and unconst itut ional Opposit ion . charge us , and as they wel l know , falsely. with .

di s loyal ty . (Cheers.)This is a charge that we wil l not submi t to. Let

them cal l us by any other Opprobr ious des ignat ion theyplease. and We wil l treat them with the si lent contempt .

they mer it , B ut i f t hey charge us wi th disloyalty , wefli ng back the charge in their teeth

,and say truly , that

i t i s they and not we who are the rea l traitors to the i r

PANDIT A J UDHIANATH 85

country and their Queen . (Loud cheers.) And now

gentlemen , I have already detained you too long ,(No. no), and must now ask you to proceed at once tothe election of a President .

Babu Aswinl Kumar Dutt .

BABU ASWI N I KUM AR D UTT

IN the recent h istory of ‘

Bengal , no name i s more

revered , perhaps , than that o f Babu Asw ini KumarDutt , for qu iet , unos tentat ious , pract ical , good workd one for the people through the people . Aswini

Kumar was born on the 25th o f j anuary , 1856 ,'

at

Patuakha l i , i n the Backerganj D istr ict , i n Bengal,

H i s father B abu Brojo Mohan Dutt,af ter whom the

col lege, with which Aswm i Kumar has been so c loselyconnected

,i s named ,

was a wel l ~known j udge of theSmal l Causes Court . He brought up his son onl ines at once independent and pract ical

,Asw ini

Kumar , perhaps owes even mere to hi s mother , fromWhom apparent ly he has inher i ted h is powers o fendur ance, coolness o f head in the moment o f t r ial ,tenac ity of purpose, and devotion to the cause he be l ievesto be tr ue . Young Asw ini Kumar passed h is En t ranceExamin ation i n 1 869 in the l st divis ion , and F . A . in

1872 . He graduated B .A. in 1 878,passing M .A

Examination in Engl ish in the fol lowing yea r , andB .L. in 1 880 . The unusual interval between his EA ,

and BA . has an interest ing story beh ind i t . Aswini

Kumar was only 13 when he passed his Entrance . But

the Un ivers ity rul es prescr ibed 16 as the min imum agel imit. T he figures were manipulated by some onew ithout h is knowledge . W hen Asw ini Kumar came toknow of it on ly after he has passed the R A .

Examinat ion,he made up his mind that he would take


no advantage wh ich had been secured by un fai r meansand volun tari l y des isted f rom appearing at the B .A.

Examinat ion in the regular course . The result was

that,not being a regular studen t , his name , according to

the Un iversi ty r ules of the t ime, was not put on thel is t of the Honors i n Artsmen at the M .A . This upr igh tness of conduct and r igidity for truth are thegrand key notes of h is l i fe . Agai n i t was dur ing th isinterval in 1875 that he founded the S adha ran D ha rmaS abha (now de funct) at the age of 18 at Jessore , wherehe l ived with h i s father who was a h igh - placed Government servant . At that t ime this rel igious associ at iondrew attention by i ts start l ingly novel character. AEuropean Christai n Miss ionary preached his rel igions ide by side W i th the Orthodox H indu P and it and theM abomedan Moulvi and i t was the idea of a boy of 18 .

His p redi lect ion for the School Master ’s art showedi tsel f i n t he choice he made for his profession . Hejoined in 1879, before taking h is M .A . degree the

Cha im school of Serampur,and the whole i nst itut ion

underwent a new change under h im. H is s trong

personal i ty,united with the highest moral pr inciples ,

impressed i tsel f on the whole of the student populat ionunder h is charge . And noth ing could have been moreeloquent as a test imony

,or touch ing as a sight than

the part ing farewel ls he received from h is old boys and

col leagues . But then Aswini Babu had passed the LawExaminat ion

,and got h imsel f enrol led , i n 1880

,

as a pleader at Bar i sal . The Bar at the place was

admittedly a tainted one,and the shor t t ime that he

remained attached to i t sufficed to purge i t o f the

90 THE i ND I AN N AT ION BUILDERS

the F. A . Standard in 1899 and to the B .A. and B .L . i n

1898. Mr . Aswini Kumar has Spent over Rs . onbui ld ings and equipment . The Col lege was a few yearsago made over by Aswini Kumar to a board of trusteesand a govern ing body with the D istr ict Magistrate as

i ts pres ident . The governing body is a representat iveand elect ive one and the Col lege is l iberal ly aided byGovernmen t. Aswm i Kumar had made a great e ffor tto d ispense W i th the necess i ty o f accept ing Governmentaid

,but he found i t to be an impossible task for him

under the exact ing demands of the new Un iversi tyRegulat ion s . He has however categor ical ly st ipulated .

i n the Trust Deed that the Specia l features ofthe Col lege such as the L i t tle B rot hers of thepoor should be caref ul l y main tained . T he Col lege

is conducted by a dozen graduates in Arts andLaw and i ts d iscipl inary j urisd ict ion over i ts st uden thas been one of i ts marked features . I t is as a Schoolmaster ’ that he i s best known ; and indeed h is famerests on the secure foundat ion of a teacher of youth.

Unique among educat ional institutions,the B rojo Mohanhas added to i t as an adjunct

,The Li tt le B rothers

of the poor , —the l ike of wh ich has in recent years beenstarted in Madras and Bombay— a Voluntary Assoc 1a

t ion Of Students o f the College and School Departments .

organ ised for the purpose Of help ing the needy poorand n ursing the helpless S ick . Its work has been high lySpoken of , silent and unosten tat ious though i t has been .

The Students , wrote a correspondent ove r thi rteenyear s ago,

“ fee l such a del igh t in be ing able to assuagethe suffer ings of the d ist ressed that the att i tude o f many

BABU A SW IN I KUM AR DUTT 91

O f these young men is j ust l ike that of a courageousSold ier in the face of an imminent warfare.” The

band has e l ic ited great official admiration from theh igh - placed Lieutenant -Governor to the humbleInspector of Schools. 2‘ I do not consent

,

” Wrote SirAndrew Fraser in 1904

,in any way to the perpetua

t ion of inferior institut ions. But I do not wish to

discourage, far less . to abolish an inst i tution of th isMr. G . G ooke, late Commissioner of the D acca

D iv ision , was even more emphatic i n h is admirat ion .

Babu ASW in i Kumar Dutt,

” he wrote in 1892, hasdone a grea t service to the town and d istrict by h isSpi ri ted undertak ing and al l who adm i re practicalpatr iot ism must welcome and applaud such conduct .”

He termed the success of the in st i tution as rem arka

ble and attr ibuted i t to “the publ ic Spi r it and emulat ion of such men as the patron of th is inst i tut ion .

” Heended by add ing that he would , i f occas ion Shouldrequ ire

,gladly , bear testimony O fficial ly to the great

and useful work th at he controls.” That is no merepra ise ; i t i s the express ion of s incere admirat ion of goodwork actual ly seen and fel t . I n V iew of the fact thatsuch an i nsti tution as this came into evi l odour wi th theauthor it ies i n later years , we would add here one moretest imony . And that is the Inspector ’s

,for he sees

things as an offi cial cri t ic and as a Departmental man— W i th no parti al i ty , with no pre - possess ion and W i th nointent to pal l iate . T he School is unrival led” sa i d hedel iberately

,

“in point of d isc ipl ine and effic iency. I tis an inst i tution which ought to serve as a model to all.

other Schools, Governmen t or Private .

”

“92 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

The inst i tution is unique i n another respect ; i n theprovis ion i t has made for the teach ing of moral i ty and

rel igion , with due regard to the rel ig ious suscepti

b ilities Of boys . The Students ’ Friendly Un ion,

”

star ted a long whi le ago in connect ion W i th i t,imparts

moral and rel igious t rain ing to al l boys. In th is assoc iation no dist i nct ion of race or creed is observedthe Maulvi teaches by the s ide of the Pandit

,the

resul t being the formation o f a heal thy espir zt de corps

among the boys. Mr . Mart in , the late D irector Of Publ icI nstruct ion , was much struck with the work of thisAssociat ion and has le ft o n record the h igh opin ion heformed of the efforts of Aswini Kumar in inculcat ingmoral d iscipl ine amongst the youths under h is care.

A man l ike that cannot but be looked upon by Studentsas the i r f r iend and benefactor. He has been ,

as arecent Engl i sh wr i ter put i t , the fr iend and confidantof al l c lasses and the idol o f the students . He was,besides

,the fr iend o f the local Governmen t O fficers

,and

h is co- operat ion,wi l l ingly off ered , was always much

pr ized ,I n Hon’

ble Mr. Beatson Bel l ’s name (an offic ia l

name honourably connected with Bar isal) there i s ascholarsh ip yet maintained in the inst i tut ion , There was

hardly any exaggeration when Mr . Ratcl i ffe said in theD a i ly News that upon his co- Operat ion generat ions ofGovernment O fficers have been glad to depend.

"

Mr . Dutt was fo r many years Chairman of the Barisa lMunic ipal i ty , and an influential member o f the Localand Distr ict Boards as wel l . He also served on almos tevery Committee formed under offi cial auspices . His

work in the Temperance cause hasrbeen long recognised

‘


appreciated h is work . \Ve have here only Space for

one quotation f rom S ister N ivedita ’

s wr i t i ngs aboutMr. Dutt ’s Famine Agency. Among vo luntary

organ izat ion ,” she wrote , “ unrecognised by State or

Government and tak ing place Spontaneously forrapid ity of format ion , loyalty to i ts leaders, cohesionand e fficiency , i t might wel l , I thi nk , cla im to beunprecedented in any country She cal l s the organi

zation “ the greates t th ing ever done in Bengal . ” I t

was ,” she adds , a Schoolmaster and h is students who

organized the re l ief of B ackerganj , for Aswini KumarDutt is noth ing afte r al l but the Bar isalAfte r al l

,as she truly observes , the end of al l pol i t ics

is the feeding o f the people,and the soundness

,s inceri ty

and appropriateness o f th is pol itical movement hasbeen attested to the ful l .” That is the testimony of aneye -witness , trained to observe , and incapable of evencolouring first - hand V iews . No wonder , then , that i nB ar isal Aswm i Babu is cal led the “father of the people .”

Such a man cannot but be accounted less a pol i t icianthan an educat ional or somal worker Indeed ,

'a man

bel ievmg in sol id pract ical work l ike Mr. Dutt cannotbe bel ieved to t urn an

“ agita tor .” I t is t rue that hehas been a Congressman

,and has at tended several of

the S i tt ings of the N at ional Assembly o f Ind ia . H is

i nteres t in i t has been great,but he has always feared

that i t can be more practical than i t has always showedi tsel f to be . He issued a c ircular letter to the Leadersof the Congress i n 1898 suggesting certain pract icalre forms one of which formed the subject matter of aresolut ion at the Madras Congress of that year which

BABU ASW IN I KUM AR DUTT 95

B abu Aswini Kumar had the honor of supporting .

He is a moderate in the accepted Sense of the termand no pervers ion of facts can make him any othe r .He be l ieves in the M ission of h is coun try . The

d ay is not distan t when India , under the aegis o f theBrit i sh Crown

,wi l l occupy a consp ic uous posi t ion

in the Federat ion of N at ions .” That was what hesaid in h is Speech as the Presiden t of the ReceptionC ommittee at the Bengal Provincial Conference o f 1906

,

and i t is needless to say that he has not given upthat cherished feel ing

,desp ite the arbitrary manner in

which Governmen t subsequently deal t with him . Thatis one of the inexpl icable th ings that have happenedb ut what did not the Part i t ion of Bengal produce ?Enmity between H indus and Moslems , recourse toobsolete laws

,forg ing new laws of admitted ly un

Brit ish character and the com ing into being of a systemof legal ised esp ionage that has at once been the curseof the country and the tarn ishing of the fa ir B r i tishname . I t is to th is l as t that Mr . Dutt fel l a p rey. Thestory is a long one but there is no need to go in to i t indeta i l here . The case for h im was stated wi th force

,

precision,and frankness by I l ld lcus i n a pamphlet

,

ent it led Aswim Kuma r D u tt i,and the i n terested

reader should t urn to it , i f h e cares to know firs t handhow grievousl y the Government had inj ured i tsel fby deport ing Mr . Dutt on December 13 , 1909.

Br iefly put,his object ion to the Part i t ion o f Bengal

,

his zeal for the Swadeshi Cause , his successfu laction against Mr . j ack for de faming him bydescribing a pamphlet of h is as sedit ious and inflamma


tory,and resentmen t at the discourteous treatmen t h e

received at S ir Bampfylde Fuller ’s hands— al l t hesesi l ent ly did their work . And the res t was don e bywel l

,Pol ice in formers . His very virtues now turned

against h im . H i s organis ing powers we re suspec ted asbe ing directed aga inst Government h is influence W ithB arisal boys and people was set down as be ing ut i l isedfor purposes host i l e to Governmen t ; h is Swadesh iwork was termed as h is hatred for Engl ish th ings andgoods h is School

,a place for teach ing sed i t ion an d

h is assomation wh ich had put down intemp erance andchecked l it igat ion . an i l legal comb ine deserving of'

suppress ion . I t is to be feared that there was absol utelyn o ground for drawing any of these conc l usions , Andthose who possess their facul t ies in ful l can see forthemselves from Ind icu s

‘ wr i t ings that Government

had been total ly m is led ; and that i t never saw

W i th i ts own eyes or heard wi th i ts own ears . Therulers (or their representat ives) were not in touchwith the people or the ir leaders

,and ignorance and mis

understanding p reva i led . Mr. Dutt ’s assomat ion was

suppressed , h is School brought into trouble and himsel fdeported (with a batch of e igh t others) under the

obsolete Regulat ion I II of 1 8 18 . That is the bes tcondemnat ion of Government ’s ac t— the recoursth is Regulat ion . I t has been steadfast ly bel ieved

here and in England that Gove rnment had no 0

to formulate aga inst him and that the act was a

violat ion of the righ t o f a f ree B r i t ish subject .Mr . Chirol gave out publ icly i n the col umns of thethat at least against one or two of the deportees


Tami l and the Tami l t ranslation has been prescr ibedas a text book in certain schools o f Southern India ,

He is also the compiler of two other pamphlets , oneon Prem (Love)and another on D u rghotshod T a fwa (TheReal Mean ing of Durga Worsh ip). He has , besi des ,

a good knowledge of Sanskrit and Persian l i teratures.

He had stud ied also Several Vernaculars o f India

Marath i , Panjabi , and H indi , and has a passion for

read ing the sacred books of the d i fferent sects of Indiai n the i r orig inals such as the Gncm th S haheb , the

R may r wa of Tulsidas , etc ,By nature , Mr . Dutt i s

shy and reserved ; but as one comes to know him , hewi l l find that there is no more l ovable man in al lIndia . He is now nearly 6 1 years of age, and as S ir

B ampfy lde said— that i s evident ly al l he persona llyknew of h im— he “ i s not one of those who

‘render to

their country l ip - serV ice on ly .

” Even in the evening ofh is l i fe M r . Dutt has been a strenuous worker in hisCountry ’s cause . A few years ago he founded at

Bar isal a S ociety f or the P romotion of Educa t ion and

S an i ta tion of wh ich he is the Li fe - President . Thesociety has employed agents for the propagationamong the rural populat ion of d i s trict , ideas o fsan itat ion by means o f lectures and pamphlets and thees tabl ishment of f ree p rimary Schools . Aswm i Kumarhas set apart a portion o f hi s l anded property with anincome of Rs. 300 per annum for the purposes o f thesociety wh ich has been doing excel lent work.

Mr . Dutt ’s idea , i t i s hoped , wil l be taken up by theleaders of other distr icts in Bengal who have evinced akeen i n terest i n th i s new experimen t. He has Set

BABU ASW INI K UM AR DUTT 99

rol l ing another novel idea fraught with greatpossib i l ities— sending out 7mm parties i nto the nooksand corners of the province, to give popular dramat icrepresentations deal ing w i th social evils

, One such

j atra party patronised by Babu Aswini Kumar gave aseries o f performances in Calcutta in August

, 1916 ,and

drew enormous audiences . S ir Ashutosh Mukerj i,

Mr. j ustice A . Chowdhery and many other dist in

guished cit izens of Calcutta publ ic ly expressed theirhigh appreciat ion o f t he per formances , which the ideaof B abu Aswm i Kumar materi al ised . B abu Aswini

Kumar was elected Pres ident o f the B engal ProvincialConference held at Dacca in 1913 and h is Presidenti a lAddress contai ned many highly suggestive points

,

The reader wil l observe that the ideas and Opin ionsexpressed in hi s Pres ident ial Address B abu Awin i

Kumar has consistently endeavoured to carry intopract ice

,To further adopt the Ex - Governor ’s words

,

to the cause o f education , he has “ devoted pract ica land successful e ffort

,remembering that ph i lan thropy is

shown by deeds .”

W e l ive in deeds not years in thoug hts. not breathsIn feeling s, not in figures on a d ial”

We should count time by heart —throbs. He mos t l ivesW ho thinks most

,feels noblest , acts the best .

These famous l ines of Bayley better describe h is l i fe ’swork than pages of wri t ten biography can.

THE BENGAL

PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE , DACCA— 1913

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSFel low - delegates , Lad ies and Gentlemen .

—I t would’

be imposs ible for me to express in words my feel ing ofgrat itude to you for the very great honour you havedone me by electing me to the o ffice of the Presidentof th i s representat ive assembly i n th is hi stor ic Ci tywh i ch is replete W i th i nspi ring memories of the pastand promises to rega in her forme r posit ion in the nearf uture —an office o f which , consc ious of my own

Shortcomings , I f ee l I am al together unworthy. I Seemany around me Who would real ly adorn the Chai r

,

but since your choice fell upon me,a very very humble

man who has done nothing to meri t this honour , andyour cal l came as a command

,I had no opt ion but to

obey,in Spite o f the present state of my heal th . Now

that I h ave been placed i n th is posi t ion , I crave youri ndulgence and sympathy in the d ischarge of the dut iesattached to i t

,and I am sure

,you wi l l be as generous

in giving me your help as you have been in cal l ing meto pres ide over your del iberations .At the very outset , gentlemen , i t i s my melancholy

duty to offer our homage of love,respect and admirat ion

to the sacred memory of one,whose name wil l be

handed down from generat ion to generat ion al l overIndia as that of an apostle of Love and a messenger o f

H ope to the down t rodden and despondent mi l l ions of

1 02 THE IND IAN N AT ION BUILDERS

and forbearance wh ich he and Her Excel lency LadyHard inge exhibi ted on the occas ion . May God Speedi lyrestore h im to his former heal th and strength !Lord Hardinge W i l l ever be remembered by the

hundreds o f m i l l ions of th is Country as the greatpacifier ; and , notwithstand ing his errors

,

-one of.

which,i f I may be pardoned to say so , is , perhaps ,

the transfer of the cap ital to Delh i at a fabulous cost ,— notwi thstanding such errors

,and of human be ings

who does not err —h is name w ill be cherished W ithlove and grat i tude by the numerous race of h is land .

W e regret very much that the vil l a in who perpetratedthe atrocious cr ime

,j ust re ferred to , has not yet been

found out ; and who does not feel pa in at the thoughtthat the vest iges of an arch ism have not yet be cleanswept away ? I t is rea l ly distressing that

,wh i le the

whole Country i s rejo ic ing over the reversal o f thePart i t ion o f Bengal and the many benevolen t projectslaunched for the Spread of education

,improvement of

san itat ion and other means of domestic advancement,

these misguided beings find opportunit ies to hatchtheir in fernal p lans in some gloomy recess unobservedby men put them i nto execution and go aboutundetected . They and the dacoits , who have , of l ate,grown to be such a terror to the country have beena pest which both the Government and the peop leshould do al l they can to get rid o f .

Government,I fear , have not yet been able to do as

much as i s needed i n that d irection . I t revealst he incapac i ty of the Pol ice . Most o f the dacoits are

sti l l a t large and prowl ing about for the commission of

BABU ASW INI KUM AR DUTT 103

f urther ravages . Very f ew have yet been detected . Inone case , a dacoi t was wounded by the V i l lage rs ,yet the man could not be traced. In try ing to find outanarchists and daco i ts, our pol ice offi cers have , i ncertain cases

,Succeeded in subject ing to the indignity ,

worry and harassment of a house - search q i i te a largenumber of quiet and law - ab id ing peop le and creat ingin the i r m inds anew a feel ing of intense disqu i etudeand ala rm . Fifty houses were searched . recentlyin Backergunge and most o f the searche s have furn i shedno clue . Presumably , there was no j ustifica tion forthem. These searches serve only to i rri tate people andS l acken the hold of Government on their minds .

I t is o ur earnes t p rayer to our popular Governorthat he should put a S top to such ind iscriminate housesearches and fol low the pr inc 1ple enunc iated by S i rJohn Hewet t , the late L ieutenan t - Governor of theUnited Provinces , that no house Should be searched onmere suspicion , un less there was j ustif iable g round for

such susp ic ion . I would humbly suggest that hous esearches should not be al lowed on the mere report of apol ice o fficer , that some Sen ior Deputy Mag istrate , whohas known the people o f the d istr i ct for sometimeShould be consulted as to whether there is any

j ust ifiable ground or not , and then only on his advicethe search might be undertaken.

I t is absolutely necessary that the cadre of the

pol ice depar tment should have more capable men thani t can, at present , boast o f . H igher salaries andbetter prospects would attract better men . There is af eel ing based on good grounds in favour of the


i n troduct ion of a Compet it ive Examinat ion for theselect ion of these o fficers . The system of nominat ionis a lways apt to degenerate i n to nepot ism . Men who

have passed the competi t ive test , i f they are properlyt rained for some time

,would surely improve the

persona l of the Pol ice service .Every Indian who has the Wel fare o f h is country at

heart should do h is level hest ~to bring these offendersto just ice. Publ ic opin ion should be educated

,i t

should be driven home i nto the minds of our country

men what B i shma sai d t o Y u dh i shth i ra“ Vi r tue h it by the arrow of V ice comes t o somety

for redress . I f society withholds i ts as sistance , hal fthe vice attaches to i ts leader , one - fourth goes to thosethat do not decry i t and a fourth only st icks to theS i nner. Not t i l l the sinner is pun ished does the s indescend from the Shoulders of the communi ty to those

of the sinnerT here are two things

,I am af raid , which impede the

hearty co- operat ion o f ou r V i l lagers . The fi rst i s , thatthey have very l i tt le confidence in the Pol ice o ffi cersand are af raid lest they

,i n giv ing any in format ion , be

themselves entangled ; and the second is , that they arei n mortal dread o f those malefactors

,lest they wreack

the ir vengeance on them , while they have no means todefend themselves . I t is , by all means , advisable that ,under proper sa feguard , these vi l lagers shou ld be givenfire- arms and tra ined to use them for defence . I ti s heart - rend ing to think that i n this poor coun try

,the

few,who have inher i ted or saved out of their own

earn ings a l itt le, should see themselves molested and


almost unbroken monopoly of European O ffi cers ih '

many departments O f the Publ ic Services to providesubsi sten ce to the ch i ldren o f the sodIn this connect ion , I must deplore the decadence o f

the Swadeshi Spir i t which provided food fo r so manythousands of our countrymen and sustained the

patr iotic zeal of hundreds of thousands . W hat is i tthat has overtaken us ? Impor ts o f fore ign wares

,

notably cotton goods, have i ncreased cons iderab ly , and'many, even of our educated men , have taken to themwithout any compunction

,Everybody knows tha t the

boycott o f fore ign goods tha t was dec lared was on ly atemporary m easure to draw the attention of the B r it i shpubl ic to our g r ievances caused by the Part i t ion of

Bengal . The Parti t ion i s gone and the boycot t is gone'too

,but S wadesh i is not gone . We must look to the

economic cond i t ion o f our country,we must see hOW ‘

She has been reduced to the verge of ru in,how she has

come to such strai t s that wh i l e the in come o f anEngl ishman is more than Rs . 600 a year

,that o f an«

I nd ian is accord ing to the most l iberal calculat ion,not

more than Rs. 27 ; and is only about Rs. 2 a month,

su ffic ien t to provide a man W i th food,c lothes and the ’

other necessaries of l i fe ? Shal l we stand by unmoved ;

and suffer our own brothers and sisters to d ie l i ke fl iesfor want of food

,to succumb to the scourge of Malari a

and other diseases because they have not su ffi cien tnourishment to withstand their attack? I f we are men

,

we Shal l not allow it . Alas ! in exul tat ion over thewi thdrawal o f the Part it ion Of Bengal we have '

forgotten Bengal herse l f . That she is suffe r ing from'


sheer exhaust ion and is dy ing o f inan i t ion,we have

clean forgot ten i t . I f we have any soul le f t to uswe must t ry to revive her. W e must cal l back theSwadeshi Spir i t , - i t s enthusiasm and vigour . W e mustpromote Swadesh i industries and purchase Swadehsi

art icles even i f the prices be f a r higher ; wemust do th is for your own protection

,for our own safety

,

else we are lost and there is no hOpe for us . There areSome tra i tors among ourselves who g iv e us foreign

goods and palm them Off as Swadesh i W e must haveno deal ings W i th them , noth in g shou ld be down whichmigh t encourag e them in these fraudulent practices .Many o f the j oin t - Stock Compan ies we started arepin ing away because of the want of business capacityin most o f our men and of honesty in some and thepressure of unequal competi tion with foreigners .

Unti l we make ourselves al ive to our own interests andduties involved therein

,unti l we take steps to see that

the educat ion of our young men tend to make thembusiness - l i ke

,there is hardly any prospect of improve

men t . And is i t too m uch to hope that GovernmentShou ld

,as suggested by Lord M into and S ir Edward

Baker , take measures to protect our infant industries 2'

In order that we m ay rise economical ly , social ly , andmoral ly

,i t i s imperat ive that our Government and we

should work shoulder to shoulder , in love andconfidence .

In this connect ion , I cannot help express ing mywarm appreci at ion of the good an d usefu l work thatour Government has inaugur ated for amel iorat ing thecondit ion o f the poor people of th is country , who are

1 08 THE INDIAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

h ead and ears in debt , by establ ish ing co- operat ivecredi t societ ies in al l parts of In dia . I have been

reading the reports o f some Of these societ ies kindlysen t to me by the i r i n defatigable Regis t rar , Mr. j . M .

Mitra , to whom we are so much indebted for h i sl abours . I h ave been very forcibly struck with themanne r i n wh ich some societ ies o f M idnapur havebegun thei r work . These societ ies have been rel ievingthe poor by loans at a small interest , looking a fter themanner in which they spend the money len t them

,

deciding petty disputes by arbi t rat ion , and ,out o f

thei r profi ts,maintaining elementary schools

,construct

ing means of communicat ion i n vi l lages, excavatingtanks

,giving medical rel ief to those who are in need of

i t and,above al l

,fostering a corporate l i fe by bringing

the vi l lagers together , making them resolved to be frugal

and pruden t and hel pf ul for the good of the whole

vi l lage community . A very good beginn ing has

been made and I would recommend the establ ishmentof such societ ies al l over the Presidency . I hOpe youwi l l agree with me in thinking that such socie t ies

would quicken our vi l lagers in to act io n and improvethei r condi tion and tend to revive the Spir it o f thevi l lage communities of o ld

,Now , havi ng taken a

cursory glance of what is uppermost i n our minds,at

present, l et us formulate a plan o f work for ourselvesand Of what we expect the Government to do

,for the

growth and advancemen t o f our Coun try,

And in thi s work H indus,Mussulmans and Chr ist ians

shoul d al l take part as we are al l of the same race .M ussu lmans who have been l iving here for cen turies

THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

Of the other to al l domest ic ceremon ies , even rel igiousfest ivals . I am sorry to have to say that there has

been same estrangemen t now . I hope my Mussulmanbrothers W i l l pardon me i f I say

,tha t some of them

led away by the favourite wi fe theory,have thought

i t fi t to mark out separate l ines for themselves apartfrom the H indus. I am glad that there are far - see ingmen among them who know very wel l that th is t heory

cannot l ast long ; and when our brothers wi l l haveadvanced as far as the H indus have

,the i l lus ion w ill

di sappear . Every Indian Governmen t is bound to saywith S ir j ohn M eston : D isuni on and frict ion wi l lon ly mean weakness to both parties and so long aspubl ic quest ions a re decided on rac ia l grounds ratherthan on thei r men ts , the progress of Indi a wi l l behampered

,

”HOW much I adm ire the statemen t made

by my f r iend the H on’ble Mr . Hezal Haque before the

Publ ic Serv ice Comm iss ion , that he con s idered “ i trepugnant to the ir sen se of sel f - respect that the fo l lowerof Mahomed should consent to remain for all t ime , adead weight on other advancing commun it ies constantlyhamper ing them in the ir progress . ”

W e are veri ly l inked together ; and together we r ise ,together we fa l l . I t is because of the affect ion andregard that have grown between Ind ian H indus andMussulmans for such a long time

,that the H indus have

sympath i sed so feel ingly with the sufferers in Turkeyan d have wished the vic tory of the Turks in the war .

Fel low - delegates, we have met here to d iscussmeasures an d devise and adopt means by wh ich wecou ld remove the evi ls that e xist in our soc iety and

BABU ASW IN I KUM AR DUTT I l l.

.promote our wel l - being ; and i s i t not our ambi t ionthat We should be recogn ised as a uni t among thenat ional it i es O f th e world ? W el l , Gentlemen , i n order

to be so recognised i t is necessary that we should shake

off our d iffidence an d dependance on others , gird upour loins and put for th the energies we have , to

c onsol idate ourselves into a nat ion . More than aquarter Of a century ago , came to our ears the trumpet

ca l l o f that noble soul at whose beck the whole o fIndia hurr ied to form the Indian Nat ional Congress

,

whose departure f rom th i s earth we mourned justnow

Sons of Ind ,why sit ye id l e ,

W a it y e for some Deva ’s a idBuckle to b e up and doing ,

N at ions by themselves are made .

Have we responded to it l ike men ? No, I mustconfess

,we have not . Twenty - eight long years have

ro l led away , yet we are no t very far f rom where wewere at the t ime. The sky is sti l l overcast

,but

Gentlemen,have we not marked a si lver l in ing to the

clouds The upheaval of the last few years , th e rest lessag itat ion against the Parti t ion Of B engal and thet remendous force of the Swadesh i movemen t— havethey not proved that we st i l l have that left i n us whichWould stand us in good stead i f we wanted to occupy a

place in the scale of nations ? D id not the l i fe,

the vigour , the power that was in them lead evend istan t nat ions to change the Opinion that they h ithertoentertained about the Bengal i race ? Yes , Ladies and

G entlemen,we have found out the St rength that i s


i n us. W e now know th at we can,i f we wi l l

,shape

our dest iny, We have not to wait for some Deva ’s

a id . \Ve have got to take our destiny in the hol low o four hands and shape i t as we wil l . We have toawaken the d ivini ty that is in us and i t wi l l be as wewan t it to be. I t i s our w il l that wi l l bend al l theforces at work according as we wan t them to , Thepride of i n tel lect i s ours , that the race of Sri Chai tanya ,o f Rama Prasad , of V idyasagar i s a n emotional racenobody can doubt ,— sometimes our em i tions in excess .

mark our f a i l ings and i t cannot be ga insai d that anascent love for the M otherland is V h lb le i n the sphereof our emot ion but the wil l is torp id

,dormant . W e

have to rouse the W i l l by al l means , the fire thatblazed in the hearts o f our ancestors o f old . I t issmoulder ing in us , we blew i t into a flame

,ashes again

are col lecting over i t, we have to blow on i t again,

k indle i t and keep i t up , so that i ts warmth may reachthe farthest corners of the land

,We must see i t

consume al l the ev i ls that have accumulated here forages . No " nopbssumns

,no

,Let us brace ourselves “

up for another con tinuous round o f wor k . There ares ome who say that publ ic Spir i t is on the wane and wehave been t ired of the activi ty we exhibited recently .

I do not bel ieve i t . There is a Spel l o f apparenti naction because we have not embarked on a systemat icplan of work

,Let that be defined and taken up , and

you W i l l see how satifac tor ily i t w i l l Speed onO ur work is two fold ( 1) i n reference to Government

(2) i n reference to the people .

In reference to Government our duty is ( i) to

1 14 THE INDIAN NATION BUILDERS

G overnmen t may clear ly see that the c ry comes no tonl y from the c lasses but also from the masses ; and ( i i)we have to raise our people to such a standard

,

social ly and moral ly that our Government may have

no Opt ion but to gran t them the reforms demanded andthe whole world may proclaim them r ich ly w orthy of

them. These two sub - divis ions of work would,as a

matter o f course,advance by intera ct ion .

T O educate publ i c Opinion on a part icula r quest ion

or some particular questions is the eas ier of t he two,

but even that also has been whol ly neglected by usexcept on the Part i t ion of Bengal . Again and again,

resolut ions have been moved and passed for carryingthe questions discussed by the congress and by thisconference from door to door and leaving the mainbody .Of the people wi th their i deas ; but nothingworth any prominent ment ion has yet been done

,I t is

not that we cannot do i t , i t is not very d i ffi cul t to sendround agents under proper guidance for this Sort ofwork

,but t he motor force has been wanting . We are

profoundly grateful to our leaders for what has beenachieved and we have to remember that Rome wa s notbu i lt in a day , but, we must con fess that there hasbeen no agitation among us except the one j ust referredto

,which can properly be cal led an agitat ion

,none

worth naming besides the ag itat ions in Eng land .

There are some who say that the masses would nevercare to understand these th ings and have not thecapac ity to do sO . Gentlemen , the manner in which

the masses responded to the cal l fo r agi tat ion againstthe Part it ion clear ly shows that they are not as obtuse

BABU ASW I N I KUM AR D UTT 1 1 5

and ind i fferent as some of us would assume them to be .

I do s incerely th ink that as to the capacity ofcomprehens ion Of subjects that interes t them

,our

masses do not y ield the palm to the masses o f anycountry in the world . I t is .well- known

,that many

a . B akergunge or M y rnensingh ryot exhib itsa str i kingcleverness . in conducting .even intr icate . law- sui ts.W hat is needed is to inform our people with i deas onsubjects that ought to interest them“ [ have O f tenaddressed them on important subjects and have foundthem intel l igent enough to grasp my though ts. I wi l ltel l you of one instance . It was about the end of 1885or the beg inning o f 1886, I was explain ing to them ,

i nsome meetings, the necess i ty o f praying to Governmentfor the i ntroduct ion of the elective principle into theconsti tut ion of the leg islat ive counci l s . Some of youmay remember that a l itt le over a year after that ,

a quarter of a century ago , a pet it ion embodying thatprayer signed by for ty - thousand l i terate men of mydistrict was submitted to the Honourable the House ofCommons . I had the pleasure of exh ibit ing thatpeti tion at the Madras Congress

,o f 1887. W el l ,

Gent lemen , one day some peasants came and asked

me about,the movement , they wanted me to

explain what i t was I was about. Be fore I couldanswer ,a thorough ly i l l i terate man stepped forward andpromptly said I W i l l explain i t. Just as

_we

appoint arbi trators according to our choice .and abideby thei r dec isions , the B abu wants that we should askS ircar to give us the power of choosing our own

Law - makers and abiding by the laws passed in

1 1 6 THE IND IAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

consultat ion with them . Such persons wh ich l i sten t oour suggest ions more readi ly and look after our in teres tmore keenly than those who do not depend for the i rappointments upon our Wil l . ” I was charmed with themanner in wh ich the subject was made clear to hi sfel lows . I am not prepared , gen tlemen , t o a llow any

remark to go without contradict ion wh ich says that ourmasseS

'

have not the power of comprehending andappreciat ing our work . I t is imperative that theyshould joi n our ranks i f we want to impress Govern

men t W ith the urgency of our claims . Th ink of the

prodig ious e fforts that are needed even in England to

bring about necessary reforms where both the rulersan d the ruled belong to the same nat ion

,Imagine

then the difficulty of our situat ion— what we haveto do for the purpose o f impressing what we wan tUpon the minds of our rulers who are fore ign to us byhal f a world ’s distance , foreign to our languages

,

habi ts,customs . ways of l i fe and the very modes of

think ing.

The second sub - divis ion of our duties in referenceto the people

,—tli at o f r a ising thei r social and moral '

standard wil l be,probably , more diff i cul t , but n one

the less att ract ive . I wi l l , i n a few m inutes,present

to you a l ist o f some of these duties. In thei rper formance

,the zest and exci tement o f an ag itat i on

wi l l surely be wanting but the ach ievements of steadyso l id

,genu ine work and the re f reshing consc iousness

of doing One ’s duty W i l l g ive tone to our nationaf“

Character, be a resist less incentive to more strenuous

work and Spel l Progress . In such work a l though thé

1 18 THE INDIAN NAT ION ‘

BUILDERS

San itat ion , D rai iiage and 'W ater - supply and ReligiousMin istrat ion in j ai ls .B ef ore - I speak on these subjects I must say I am

deeply pained and I am sure you al l are , at the rejectionOf the p eti t ions of the res ident s o f Sylhet , Goalpra ,

Manbhum,a part of S ingbhum and of Purnea , seek ing

re- un ion W ith Bengal . 'They are our kith and kin , have

general ly the same habi ts and customs as we have andspeak the same language as we . They were encouragedto submit them by certa in wbrds in the memorableD espatch of the 25th August

,but thei r hopes have

been blasted . They should try again and we shouldal l j o in with them to br ing about the des i red end .

I n tak ing up the subject of Educat ion the 'noble

words o f H is Grac ious Majesty,the King - Emperor

, .

wh ich have been m ade the exord ium of the recentReso lut ion of the Government of India on

' thei rEducat ional Policy , aga in and ag ain , come to my mind

an d fi l l i t with hOpe. In fact,that royal heart

pulsat ing V\ i th deep love for Ind ia preluded those wordsby s ay ing express ly Tod ay in Ind ia I give to Indiathe watc liword of hope . Since the utterance ofthese words the heart of al l India has been swel l ingw ith hope and now has come the declaratipn of h i saugust represen t at ive in India

'

and h is counci l lors. I t

is inst inct wi th a sincere desi re to elevate the hundreds

of m i l l ions of th is country from the humblest to theh ighest , for which we are a l l exceedingly grate ful .The dec larat ion says In the forefront o f their

pol icy the Government o f India desire to' place the:

format ion of the character o f the scholars and the

BABU i ASW I N I KUM AR DUTT . 1 1 9

under - graduates under tui tion ,” and i n making ' thi s

an nouncement Government have emphasised the value

Of re ligious and moral tra in ing in Schools and Col leges.

We hai l this pronouncement w ith'delight. There is

no subject of more V i tal importance to my 'count rytha'n this and I agree wi th those who “ l ament thetendency i

‘of the ' ex isting systems of education - to

develop the intel lectua l at the expense of the mora land religous facul t ies .

”'I do not see why Government

should sti l l hesitate to in troduce a system of rel igiousi n struct ion . The principle of neutral i ty would , i nmy humble Op in ion

, be no bar' to i ts introduct ion

,i f

,

according to the suggest ion of Dr . Martin , the lateD irector of Publ ic Instruction,

. Bengal, ( l) Societ iesbe formed for i relig ious i nstruct ion “ on the l ine of .

un iversal truths with the cardina l idea Of a SupremeBeing control l ing and regulat ing our act ions ,” anddiscourses on the i lives of saints ' of . al l countr i eswithout any dist inction of colour or creed ; and (2)different Association s of studen ts of di fferen t sects bestarted under the presidency Of teachers Of difierent

persuasions for the purpose of train ing them accordingto the i r respective Scr iptures, tradit ions and modes o fthought, barr ing what would be Offensive to othersects.T he residential system has my hearty approval but I

respectful ly demur when Governmen t say : Alreadyin some fi rst - cl ass inst itut ions in the coun try admirablear rangemen ts have been made on European

,

l ines to secure the ful l benefi ts of the res iden ;tia l system.

” I am afra id,

arrangements on


European l ines might tend to denational ize our youth .

W i t h al l the advantages that have accrued to us f romW estern cul ture , and they have been many

,I am not

prepared to allow the youth of my country to forsakethe simple habits of our fore fathers

,I do not sure ly

advocate squal id and in san itary l iving but the complexmachinery o f W estern l i fe is i ntroduced

,the better fo r

Our wel fare . The very cl imatic con dit ions O f thi scountry are against the adoption of European habitsand ways o f l i fe . There i s some t ruth in

East is East,

W est i s W est ,And the twain shal l nevermeet .

An Al l -W ise Providence has brought them togetherthat they may meet in the Essent ials , not in theExternals . European teachers com ing in contact withIndi an pupi l s should always keep this i n View .

N oth ing cou ld be more welcome to us than theprospect of the spread of Elementary Educat ion buti f the average cost of maintenance of a pr imary schoolbe What Governmen t have estimated i t to be —Rs. 375

per annum i t W i l l take an unconsc ionably leng periodto ach ieve even so much as has been sketched outat present

,Speaking of Bengal , I bel ieve , Rs . 250

would do for a smal l p rimary school . Although thesa l aries o f the teachers may be smal l , they have arecogn ized pos i t i on in the vi l lage

,are general ly

provided wi th food by the V i l lage people and g ivenperquisi tes on many occasi ons. For the purpose of

raismg the standard of schools we hear that nearly 700schools were abol ished in Eastern Bengal i n 1909- 10.

1 22 THE IN D IAN 'NAT ION BUILDERS

i n struct ion . We =m ay add to i t Agricul tural Educa’

t ion .

I do not th ink we can support the idea of convert ing “

i n to a Universi ty with power to confer degrees , everyCol lege which has Shewn the capaci ty of att ract ing ‘

students f rom a d istance and have attained a certa instandard of efli ciency ,

Think'oi our Old tols, how they

lost thei r dign ity by the improper use of such powers .Prej udices and prepossess ions do not occupy a veryinsign ificant place in human mind . B es ides , theselocal Un iversi t ies W i l l be dependen t upon the Opinionsof local OHICIalS and influenced by them .

The proposal for the foundati on O f one inst i tut ionfor “ scholars working in d i fferent branches o f the

k indred subjects which compr ise Or iental ia ”isadm i rable

,

” I f Pund its and M ouIV is would work sideby S ide , exchange between them the thoughts of theanc ient Masters and d iscuss their adapt ab i l i ty tomodern ci rcumstances , i t would go a great way to

p romote love and good -wil l between H indus andM ahomedans.

Gentlemen , I wil l now run through the DaccaUniversi ty Scheme and here , with your perm ission ,I W i l l quote , Where necessary from what I had occas ionto say lately on the subject . Our acknowledgmentsare due to Government for the earnestness with whichthey have taken up the idea of founding a teach ingand resident ial Un ivers i ty in th is c i t y , and also to themembers O f t he Un ivers i ty Committee who havethought and worked so hard to elaborate the scheme .

I would by al l means have an Ag r icultural College

a BABU ASW IN I K UM AR DUTT

i n such a fert i l e tract o f the country, where the ;peOpleare mainly agr icul tura l .

I would nothave a Separate depar tment of I slamic :

Studies. I ful ly recognise the value of such studies .There

‘should be arrangements for Sanskr i t ic Studiesalso , and I would put both the courses among theopt ion al subject in the Arts Course— Forming isolatedclasses i n separate departments

,the studen ts of such

Studies would not have the same general culture su i tedto the t imes as other graduates and

,would f urther be

deprived of the benefi ts of the corporate,l i fe of the

whole Un iversi ty . The status proposed for B . I . andM

,I . degrees would create general d issat isfact ion and ,

discontent ; These degrees would never i n publ ic est imat ion carry the same we ight as B .A .

'

and M .A .

My Opin ion is as strong against the foundat ionof aseparate Muhammadan Col lege . Such separation,

would go against the un ificat ion Of ideals , promot ionof healthy intercourse and general improvement Of thetwo la rgest sect ions O f our Society and create a

cleavage pernic ious al ike to the t rue interests of therulers and the ruled .

- . I rejoice over the very strong and influent ial protestthat has been made by Dr . Rash Behari Ghosh , and

such em inent associat ion s o f Zemindars as the B ri ti shIndian Association ’ and ‘ the Bengal Land - holders"

A ssociation , agains t the establ ishmen t of a Col lege forthe wel l - to - do Cla sses. T he Country i s already too

much caste - r idden . N oth ing should be done whichwould strengthen the barriers between class and class

'


which have contributed so much to the downfal l bf

India . I t the Pr ince of W ales does not feel i tderogatory to prosecute his studies in the MagdaleneCol lege

, Ox ford , I cannot imagine why the son s of

wel l - to - do classes should hesitate to j oin our Co l leges.

No premium should be given to van ity , of al l , inEducational insti tutions .

I pray that no steps be taken to mar the d ign ity ofmy mother - t ongue . I qu ite approve of the idea of

adding to the s tock of Bengal i L i terature from Pers ianor Arabic sources , but nothing should be introducedwh ich would col l ide with the genius o f that l anguageWhich i s essent ial ly Sanskr i t ic

As to the staff, the Spiri t o f racia l dist inction wouldbe a great damper to the men of what is cal led the

Provinc ial Sc iec and a stumbl ing - block to the

success of the Un iversity.

On the question of residence and discipl ine , I fear,arrangements are proposed for too r igid control andtoo close superv is ion . Locks and bars are foreign ‘

to our Country . In ancient t imes,the youth of Ind ia

resided W i th their teachers, they l ived in hostels wh ichwere true to the real mean ing o f the word— they hadnoth ing to pay . No locks and bars were used .

D isc ip l i ne W i th locks and bars,comes very near to

prison d isc ipl ine and too much restraint and patr iar- l

cha l k indness are apt to work the other way. Loveand aff ect ion with a due al lowance for freedom W i l lach ieve the end aimed at and not fear and repression .

T headv ice given'by that em inent Pro fess or o f America


had more than a fai n t recogn i t ion. There is not amajori ty of elected members in these Bo ards. Out of

500 members, only 210 are elected . Governmen t havebeen sat isfied wi th the administrat ion o f most of ourMunic ipal it i es and have been decorating some of theirCha irmen and V ice - Chai rmen . Is i t not t ime that theD i str ict Boards should now be given a fa i r chanceto show i f with elected Cha i rmen they can also acquitthemselves as creditably as the mun icipal i t i es ? I t isnot t ime that the major i ty should be formed by electedmembers as was suggested by the Decentral izationCommiss ion ? As at present const i tuted

,they are

want ing in l i fe and vigour , W hat tb tt sai nted soul,

the Marquis of R ipon , said , more than thirty years ago,holds good even to - day in reference to these bodies.He said So long as the Chief Execut ive offi cersare

,as a matter of course , Chairmen of the

Municipal i ties and D is tr ict Committees,there is l i ttle

chance of these Comm it tees afford ing any effec t ivetra in ing to their member s in the management o f locala ffai rs or of the non - official members taking any reali nterest i n the local business .

”And he added the

n on - official members must be made to fee l that rea lpower is placed in thei r hands ." Even after such alapse of t ime , the non - o fficial members do not fee l thatreal power is in their hands. I s i t not t ime that stepsshould be taken to free them from the tutelage ofthe Col lector ? But there i s the object ion of theDecen t ralizat ion Comm iss ion which does not approveof the removal of the Collec tor from theChairmansh ipof the D istrict Board as that would dissoc iate him


fr om the general interests of the dis tr ict . Let himhave the same control as he has on the municipal i t ies.T hat would surely put h im in touch with them and thenominated members would also be a connect ing l inkbetween .him an d theBoard .

Boards should also be made comparativelyThey are now altogether under theD istr ict Boards . T heir budgets and even

the proceed ing of al l the i r meet ing have to be sub .

mitred to the’

D istr ict Boards for sanction . Evidently ther ecommendat ions of the Decentral izat ion Commiss ionon the ir behal f have not yet been adopted . I t isbecause they are no bodies that electors do not feeinter est in exercising their right of elect ion .

I am of Opinion that the vi l lage organi zat ions should.also be placed on an autonomous basis. I know that'the wishes of the people are consul ted by officials informing punchayets but that ' is not suffi cien t. Thoseappointed do not fee l that they owe thei r pos i t ion tothe suffrage of the people and the vi l lagers do not feelth at they have the rights of electors and the claims

.

ofconsti tuents on thei r representatives. It is u rged bysome , that the pr inciple of election is an exot ic andis against our grain and i t would take a long t ime

'

before i t could be assimi l ated . B ut the h istory of thev i l lage communit ies c learly shows that the underlyingprinciple was at wo rk from time immemoria l . We

also in our boyhood used to the elect ion o f the

pr inci pa l men of the vi l lage to decide disputes,i to

superin tend local works and to admin ister the aff airo f the vi l lage generally, although the elec tion took


place bytac it cons'ent without the intervent ion of any

“

official .

I t seems the system of vot ing was not al togetherunknown to the people of our

'country . I find a clear -5

cut defin ite system of vot ing by ballot enjoined by the

gr'eat Buddha about two thousand and five hundred

years ago .Adressing the Bhikkhu s he says

I d i rect'

you , O Bhikkhus, to dec ide such cases by

yebhuyasika— the vote of the maj or ity . You w in:

appomt as thed istr ibutor of sa laka ( a sl ip of wood

used as a voting t icket) a Bh ikkhu who possesses these

five qual it ies ( 1) that he is not capric ious ; (2) t hat he

i s n ot led astray by i l l - feel ing ; ( 3) or by affect ion ;

(4)or fear and (5) isd iscr im inat ing about votes p roperly .

given and not given .

”

The salakagahapakcz was the t icket - issuer and the

Bhikkhus voted by sa laka,a sort of bal lot .

I do not pretend to say that such a system was

popular,

but is not unl i kely that the Buddh ist K ings .

adopted i t in certain departments of thei r admin istrat ion .

I must say that the D istr ict Boards have sufferedmuch from inadequacy o f funds in d ischarging their

legi timate duties . I t is cheer ing to observe that the'

Finance Member has been pleased to propose an

assignmen t of 25 l akhs to the Local Government'

s

that they may forego the amounts , which , atappropr iated for Provincial use f rom the Publ ic W orks

( uI take th is opportun i ty of stat ing that S i r Guy ,

Faeetwood W i lson , Whose term of office is about tcfi

end ,

has been tried and found to be a sincere fr ien d of


the r ural areas and on the excel lent suggest ion “thatthe resources of the D istrict Boards

,might be more

use full y appl ied in improving the ex isti ng sourceso f water - supply than in the construct ion of a few

scat tered wel ls and tan ks,

” and I hope I may bepermitted to submit that improvement in the economiccondi tion of the people is even more importan t i n

fight ing wi th malarial fever and other d iseases to wh ichthey fal l vict ims so eas i ly . I would invi te Hi sExcellency ’s attention and yours to the foll owi ngOp in ion o f such an authoritat ive body as the I ta l ianMalar ia Commission . I am quot ing i t f rom the Am r ita

B azar P a tr zka to which we are very s incere ly thankfu lfor al l that i t has been doing in the cause of sani tat ion .

The Commission say S ide by s ide with the

hygeinic treatment of the soi l and of the human be ing ,

measures must be taken to ; increase the resistance ofthe healthy organ ism to the d isease

,Economic mise ry

and physical wretchedness which is i ts chi ld,Open the

way to in fection In general , good feeding,a

heal thy dwel l ing,sufii C ient sl eep

,phys ical wel l - be ing

,

are the most favourable condit ions for the preservat ion

of man from malaria as wel l as other d iseases. ”

I n ow come to a subject on which I have been feel ingvery strongly for some years— t he necessi ty of rel igious

ministrat ion to conv icts. As far as I know,there are

such arrangements in almost al l countries of the world .

There can be no doubt that,general ly , pun ishments

are mean t as a deterren t as wel l as a means fo rreformat ion . The promiscuous assoc i ation of al l sorts

of criminals without a single word about God and the

BABU ASW INI KUM AR DUTT

b l essings of a good l i fe i n this world and the nextuttered to them can surely never improve thei r character.The old hardened criminals very often make use oftheir opportuni t ies to boast of , what they think , their

own marvel lous feats of evi l - doing and teach theyounger offenders the art o f emulat ing them . I heartily

appreciate the appointment of a committee for thecon siderat ion of measures for the protection o f juven i leoffenders . I hope alo ng with the establ ishment ofindustr i al schools and other measures provision wouldbe made for religious and moral trai ning also . But i tis not only j uveni le pr isoners

,also other pr isoners claim

the attent ion of Government for insti tut ing meanswhich would help them to amend their character. I twi l l not to do say that most of them are beyondreclamation . On my suggest ion

,one of our most

popular magistrat es requested a noted preacher of Is l amto del iver a relig ious address to the Mussulman convictsof a certain j ai l . The e ffect was wonderfu l . Even themos t confirmed and inveterate criminals

,who seemed

imperv ious to any good ins truct ion,were moved to

tears. B ut the magist rate was taken to task for suchan ind iscreet act not provided for i n the Jai lCode . Government make arrangements for rel igiousmin istration to European Christ ian convic ts . I do notunderstand why i t should not be done for other convictsas wel l . I t migh t be urged that the differences of sectsare an insuperable bar , but they could be addressed onthe l ine of universal truths

,or min isters of diff erent

persuasions might be employed for men of theirrespective creeds. D iscourses on the l ives of saints of

1 32 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILD ERS

all creeds,espec ia l ly of those who had lapses i n the

beginn ing o f their careers but ended l ike angels wou ldbe immensely beneficial .

Ladies and Gentlemen,now

,le t us th in k of our own

reSponS ib ilities and duties . Here are our brothersand sisters— who are sometimes cal led the submerged

or the depressed classes— names that a re ne ithercreditable to them nor to us— nevertheless

,our brothers

an d sisters— steeped in ignorance and superst it ion,

selfish narrowness and dense bigotry— mot a s i ngle ray

to i l lumine their souls,bl ind al ike to the glor ies of the

earth and the blessings o f Heaven,and here are others

who have a smattering o f knowledge,but no sense

o f sel f - respect , not ashamed to resort to q uest ionablepractices for sel f and always grumbl ing and d i scontentedwith themselves ; here are men thousands and thousands

who have not wherewith to procure two meals a day, ,

yet are besotted with drink,or stupefied wi th op ium or

crazed with the fumes of ganj a ,chandu and cha rus or

best ial i sed by al l these taken together ; and many,many immersed in impuri ty

,wal lowing in fi l th with

none to rescue them from the grip o f sensual ity hereare men and women who succumb to Cholera

,Small

pox and other diseases wi th no doctor to treat them,no

benevo lent neighbour to cheer them ; here are againhundreds of thousands of sal low shrivel led figuress tr icken wi th Malar ia

,dy ing by inches

,W i th no power

of res istance in the ir bod ies,who are denied even the

luxury of drink ing pure water and to whom deathby cholera would be a r el ief ; here a re others

,

thousands of what you cal l the bhadra log class sinking

1 34 T HE INDIAN NAT ION BUILD ERS

which are pecul iar to different commun it ies,to di fferen t

sect ions o f our society . W hen I th ink of thenumerous evi ls that are sucking the very hearts ’ bloodo f my own motherland

,and of the poverty of teeming

mi l l ions i n th is land o f plen ty,I hang my head i n

shame and feel in my hearts of hearts that I have l ived

my l i fe in vai nNow, Ladies and Gentlemen , wil l you not open your

purse - str ings,devote your energies

,consecrate your

very l ives to amel iorate these ev ils— to rescue our ownbrothers and S isters from the depths o f povertyand ignorance and the c lutches of vice and fol ly I fyou wi l l

,there are hundreds to fol low you. W e are

not lost beyond hope of recovery as some would haveus to th ink

,

I h ave al ready said that li fe i s not ext inct . TheSpark i s sti l l there . W e have not al together forgottento be great and good . In l iterary and scient ificfields

,on the cr icket and the foot - bal l ground

,at the

Bar,on the Bench

,i n pract ical work of administrat ion

—have we not men who have acquitted themse lveswith credi t to themselves and the race theybelong to ? Although Messrs . Macpherson 81 Co . are

crying themselves hoarse over our lack o f energy andorganising capabil i t ies and guid ing power

,have we not

seen Bengalees at the helm of first- class N at ive Statessteer ing the sh ip of the State gloriously ? Have theynot when Opportun it ies were given them proved to beexcel lent Distr ict OfficerS ? During t imes o f s t ress andstrain

,the manner i n which recent ly thousands of our

young men organised themselves in to bands for quiet,

BABU ASW I N I KUM AR DUTT 1 35

good work which took the fancy of even ouradversar ies— is not that someth ing on which we maycongratulate ourse lves ? The manne r in which our

young men off ered help to hundreds o f thousands ofp i lgr ims during the Ardhodaya Yoga, the ChuramoniYoga

,and dur ing B rahmaputra S nan ,

which ex tor tedthe unst inted pra ise even from those Anglo - Indianpapers who are very chary in offering us our due

,gave

unmistakable proofs o f thei r energy and organis ingcapaci ty. The hear t was there and the powers wer ethere . There are st i l l or gan isat ions of young men whotake upon themselves to make t ime to t e nd the s ick tohouse the houseless and to do the last ceremonyto the friendless dead. One cannot but admire thebrio

,the cheerfulness and the steadiness W i th wh ich

these young Samar i tans do thei r noble work . I shal lnever forget how magnificent ly my fr iends of about

two hundred societ ies in my district discharged theirdut ies dur ing the dis tress of 1906 and dur ing the veryact ive days of our Swadesh i work . They worked as

smooth ly as a machine and I might almost say thatthere was not a screw loose anywhere . Many of themexcavated tanks W i th their own hands for collecting

money to rel ieve th e poor , many of them volunteeredthemselves to serve as Chowk i da rs and kept up shoutingat n igh t to scare away th ieves and budm ashes who

mul t ip ly dur ing seasons of s uch scarc i ty . Some ofthem real ly caught some th ieves and han ded them overto the pol ice

,I sha l l never forget how some o f them

out of regard for the tender suscept ib i l i t ies of respectable fami l ies who were feel ing the pinch dreadful ly

1 36 THE 1ND IAN NAT ION B UILDERS

and yet would not , for their l ives, div ulge i t to the i rneighbours— I shal l never forget how my f r iendsar ranged to sl ip un to them thei r doles i n the deadof the n igh t . I know of two vi l lages

,where the

res idents,most o f them B rahmins

,fl ung to t he winds

thei r false sense of d ign ity and came down to constructroads with thei r own hands— one about a mile lon gand the other abou t a mi le and a hal f . I shal l neverforget how the el ix i r of a new l i fe percolated tothe lowest strata of our soc iety— how both H indus andMussulmans of even the humblest cu l t ivat ing classwere inspi red to compose in thei r own d ialect songs onthe awakening , which they went abou t singing fromvi l lage to vi l lage mov ing the hearts of even the mos tapathet ic to feel and worsh ip our common Mother , howthe boatmen caught the {Spiri t and l ust i ly sang thosesongs to refresh themselves after the toi l o f the daySuch singing - part ies i f properly gu ided would

,I

bel ieve, be prod igiously e ffect ive i n helping on ourwork of re form . I could ci te a thousand and oneinstance to show the intel l igence and capac ity o f ourpeople for organ ised actionI have heard W i th very great del ight that there was

s im i lar work done in th is d istr ict and some otherd istr icts also.

Ver i ly , l i fe is not ext inct . The Ind ian heart,H indu

as Wel l as M ussulman,has always throbbed quick

in the name of Rel ig ion . Think of the numerouslavish endowmen ts fo r the erect ion of temples andmosques , feed ing the shadus and fakirs, creation ofSeats of ancient learn ing

,construct ion of D ha rmasa las

1 38 THE IND IAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

Ind ia Society— and those of the Ram krishna Missionthroughout Ind ia— what do t hese show ? The Spir i t o fsacr ifice and devot ion has not left the land , i t isadopting itsel f to our presen t - day requ iremen ts

,and

the power o f working out your beneficent plans iswi th us . Now

,Gentlemen , i t is for you, as leaders o f

the people,to come forward and help us . You have to

provide food for those who cannot work , to g ive work

to those who can,to open out vocat ions to those

who do not know what to do with themselves, to helpon agricultu ral and indigenous industr ial enterpr ise, tout i l ise the resources of the country

,to promote

the Swadesh i spir it,to dev ise means for good

water - supply and dra inage,to g ive medical re l ief

to the S ick,to Spread ideas of san itation al l round ,

to establ ish schools of d i fferent grades for generaleducat ion of our men and women and for agricul tural and industrial educat ion , to give our

youth phys ical,moral and rel ig ious tra in ing

,to work .

i n the cause of temperance,to make arrangemen ts for

arb i tration i n a lmost every vi l lage,i f poss ible , to

improve the morals o f our society , to raise in thesocial scale those who have been so long neglected , and .

to check effect ively the growing tendency to be irreli»

g ious and unscrupulous. The l ist is no t complete,yet

we have no reason to despair. Evi ls are c losely strungtogether and when one i s shoved others are very oftenshoved along wi th i t. I f we wil l on ly best ir ourselves ,we shal l be surprised to see what we can ach ieve.Money is needed

,but we should have enough of i t

i f we could but adopt our t ime - honoured principle of

BABU ASW I N I KUM AR DUTT 1 39 ‘

Plain Living and High Thinking. B r ing to your m indthe s impl ic i ty of hab its o f I ndian s o f olden t imes andthe lof t iness of the i r thoughts . I am af raid

,we are

fast dri f t ing in to H igh Livmg and Plain Thin k ingand forgetting the sage say ing

M an wants but l itt le here below,

Nor wants tha t l i ttle long .

”

Even our students , I i am sorry to say,are be ing

affected by morbid not ions roused by the glamour o f

wealth and fashion . I t i s the duty of our teachers todr ive these ou t and put

,i nst ead , sane and healthy ideas

into thei r heads. T he m ater ial ist ic tendency must bechecked with a h igh b and . I t is so insid iouS into working .

You W i l l yoursel f be suprised at the wants you havecreated in seeking what you cal l your comfort . I haveheard of a gent leman who l ives on only about a hundredrupees a month and Spends the rest of h is monthlyincome— si x or seven hundred rupees

,on doing good .

to others. W hat a noble example to usThere i s also in us a craze of being extravagant in

S radhas and other ceremonies whether it is for show orconformance to old customs i t Should

,by al l means

,be

deprecated . W e have to adapt ourselves to alteredcircumstances . All honour to the gentleman

,who had

est imated the cost of t he S radh of his broth er ’s wi fefor RS . 160, performed the ceremony with 60— and sentme the hundred for feedin g starvm g people in hername with prayers for her wel l - being in the otherWorld . W ould that such examples shou ld multip ly .

I f in per forming S raddhs the cost of the ceremony itsel fwere minim ised and permanent funds

,however smal l , .

1 40 T HE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

created for publ ic good and perpetuat ion of the namesof the parents, what a vast amount of good could bedone to the Country ! I f other occasions also were

seized for the creat ion of such funds,our C ountry

would be overspread with a net - work of benevolentorgan izat ions . I would not care at al l for the amountgiven by a part icular individual . A rupee a year to begiven away for some beneficent purpose in the name ofthe father or the m other

,would be exceedingly wel

come. Let the mult imi l l ionaire create h is fund W i thh is mil l ions and let the poor man ’s mite go to createh is. Many a l i tt le makes a mickle

,The Paisa Fund

of the Maharashtra has worked wondei s. The glassworks of Talegaon have been started and main tainedby this fund and the now defunct N at ional Col lege o fthat place also came out o f i t . W herever you go inthe part of the Deccan

,you wi l l find a Smal l box

presen ted to you into wh ich you are req uested to throwanything you l ike

,even only a pice , i f you please . I

do not see why Bengal should not have her Pa isa Fundtoo .

In order that such f unds may be cre ated and p roperlymanaged

,I would establ ish a S OC lety i n each district ,

have i t registered according to law , so that peoplemight have no hes i tat ion in making the Govern ingbod ies o f such societ ies trustees of their funds . Thesesoc iet ies m ight gradual ly take up al l the sorts of workI have re ferred to in the firs t instance deal ing onlyW i th several ; there might be two or three societ ieswhich would d ivide many of the dut ies between them ;

or a central society may be establ ished with branches

1 42 T HE IND IAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

B ut there is something more than money that isneeded— the heart for such work. I have al ready saidthat we have our youngmen who have the heart fori t and that there are such has been proved to the h i l t .Only they need gu idance and trai ning and you have togive them work .

There is n o doubt that poverty and familyreSponsib i lities stand in the way many

,but you

could , I am con fident , find a large number,a very

large n umber , who would work for bare subsistenceal lowance and rough i t out for the sake of the country .

There i s a feel ing growing every day aga inst d i lettantepatr iot ism and i f we wi l l only set about i n earnest

,

hands W i l l not be want ing to carry out our schemes ofsel f - rel i ant act iv ity for the amel iorat ion of thecondit ion we are in and i f , al l at once , we shal lnot have competent men for al l the purposes chalkedou t before us, they wi l l be coming in a shor t time.

Education , san i tat ion , medical re l ief,arb itration ,

temperance,improvement of agricul ture

,swadeshi

enterprise— every depar tment wil l have i ts men wil l ingand painstak ing .

Let us then,Fel low - delegates

,Lad ies and Gent lemen ,

set the bal l rol l ing— even to - day— a glorious and anauspic ious day . But yesterday was ce lebrated thesanct ified memory of a death which exh ibi ted to theworld the strength and the power that is i n Lovewhich embraces al l mankind and presses to i ts bosomeven pii blicans and sinners ; and to day is sacred i nthe name o f Sree - Kr ishna

,the Expounder of the

Bhag avatg ita which places be fore you the subl imest

BABU ASW I N I K UM AR DUTT 1 43

ideal of loving work for al l created beings ; and i t i s a..day particularly hal lowed in the annals of B engal ,a day that flung wide open the flood - gates of l oveand Faith and Hope , a red - letter day in the h istory ofthe world . the birthday and Shr i Cha i tanya who isacknowledged to be an incarnat ion o f Love

,who knew

no d i fference between H indus and M ahomedans,

between B rahmans and Chandalas, who rose above al lsects and creeds , whose love l ike the rays of thesun

,shone al ike on pr .nces

’ palaces and poor men ’s

cottages . I n the name of j esus Chr ist, of S r i Kri shna,of Sri Cha itanya , wi th the halos o f their brows

i l l umin ing the very depths of our souls and dispel l ingal l the gloom and darkness o f narrowness a nd sel fishness thathave accumulated therein,let us begin our workof l igh t and love even to - day and Heaven

’s

,light be our

guide .

May the bless i ng of the ancien t Rishi i n the last Rik

of the Rigveda be with you

May your purposes be one,May your hearts be one,May your minds be one ,

So that you may be agreeably associated With each

other ( i n your Sacred miss ion).

S ir K. Seshadr i M yer .

'

SESHAD RI IY ER. meant b lA SKET CH

INDIA has i n recen t times produced a bri l l iant galaxyof distinguished stat esmen and administrators who

do not “suffer by comparison with these . of anyother country. The present - day educated Ind ian just lypoints wi th pride, to men l ike S ir T. M adhawa Rao,

'S ir

Salar J ung , Sir D inkar Rao , S i r A . Seshiah Sastri, S ir

K. Seshadri . Iyer and others , in‘

answer to those whoare i n the habi t of saying that there is in Ind ia no fundof admin istrative capaci ty such aS 'would enable hér tostand upon her own legs . These men have proved thatthe capaci ty to rule need not be the monopoly of anyparticular people. T hey have not merely d istinguishedthemselves as excel lent administrators , they have evenScaled the heights of statesmanship . tAIld ia'the mindof al l di spassionate cri t ics they have warranted theinference

,that

,given the oppor tunity ,

. they would havebeen equal to any task and responsibi l i ty . And ( amongthem al l

,none towers h igher than S ir K . Seshadr i

‘

Iyei'

Who,for nearly. twenty years as D ewan d i rected the

destinies'of t he Mysore S tate with memor’

ab le’ success.Some idea of h is d imensions as the statesman maybe gathered from the fact that even Lord Curzon

'

who

gave the impress ion o f being such a superior person ,and who openly preached the Heaven - ordained r ight

1 0


and mission of the Anglo - Saxon race to rule ; even hefel t h imsel f compel led to render a tr ibute of admir at ionto h is marvel lous geni us . ” Yes these were the verywords of Lord Curzon , marvel lous genius W as

Lord Curzon given to marvell ing at any person but

h imsel f we may ask in amazemen t ! D id i t occur toLord Curzon , we may wonder , that th is marvel lousgeni us would not have been unequal to the augustoffi ce which he h imsel f then occup ied 7 Be i t as i t may ,here is a H indu

,the desp ised seion of a subject race

,

Whose abi l i t i es extorted this panegyr ic from th i sprophet and apostle o f wh ite super ior i ty . During theyears he was at the helm of affa irs i n M ) sore , the Wholeprov ince fel t the grip of a master - mind . The cond i t iono f Mysore when he was summoned to the onerous o ffi ceof Dewan , and i ts condition when he laid down thereins of admin istrati on , were poles asunder. Surely ,none has i n recent t imes done so much for the advancement o f M ysore

’

s five mi l l ions as S ir Seshadr i . Hisname wil l go down t o poster ity as one of the mosti l l ust r ious Indian S tatesman of modern t imes IVe

propose to g ive here a shor t account o f h is career andachievements . Let our readers j udge for themse lves .Born in the year 1845 i n a Brahmin fam i ly of Malabar,

he had a d istinguished School and Col lege C areer,s tand ing fi rst i n the B .A. Degree Examinat ion in 1866 .

Immediately after taking h i s B .A. Degree he en teredGovernment service and held var ious minor appointments , t i l l the year 1868 , when he was cal led awayby the late Ranga Charlu

,to undertake the dut ies of

j udic ial Secretary in the o ffice o f . the Superintenden t


away when h is pl an s and schemes h ad been but barelymapped out . S ir Seshadri Iyer (Mr. Sashadr i Iyer, as

he then was) was'

chosen successor. Hewas barel y38

'years of age , and people were not wan t ing who

expressed grave misgivings as to the success o f theappointment . Such misgivings were qui te natu ral atthe t ime, but events proved the wisdom of the choice .

Though Ranga Charlu was a .statesman o f the firstmagn i tude, he was snatched away before h isschemes could reach frui t i on . I t was reserved for SirSashadri Iyer to fol low in h is wake

,and accompl ish

all that he had i ntended to do , and a great d eal more.

B efore however we can appraise this work,i t is

necessary to take bird ’s eye - view of the posi tion andci rcumstances of M ysore , at the t ime when he was

summoned to the august o ffice of Dewan .

After the f al l of T ippu i n 1799, the Bri tish res toredthe ancient H indu Dynasty to the throne , and adm inis

tered the province during the minor i ty of the H induPrince. W hen the Prince came

'

of age the p rovincewas restored to h im , but shortly after, for reasons o f

m is- government and misrule ( i t seems that the misgovernment and misrule were due to circumstancesover wh ich the Prince had no control) he was deposedin 1882 and the Br i t ish took up the di rect administrat iono f Mysore . The deposed Prince i n the - meanwhilele ft no stone unturned to get back the province . Therewere people —an d not a few Anglo - Indians among

them— who protested that the Hindu d id not know the

element ary pri nciples of Governmen t and tha t the

restorat ion o f Mysore would be synonymous wi th

SIR SESHADR I IYER,oK

handing the province over to the forces of rmis-

governé

ment and barbar ism. At las t after much controversy,heart - burn ing and waste of words , the cause of j usticetri umphed

,and the righ t o f the deposed Pr ince to

,

adopt a son who should succeed to the throne was

recognised by the B r i tish Government ._The adopted

son was no less a person than the late Maharaj a ChamaRa jendra Udayar B ahadur , the noble father , of thepresent Maharajah . What a model and beneficent rulethe Late Maharajah was is a matter of h istory , and whenhe passed away in the year 1894, there was sorrowthroughout India . Dur ing the mi nori ty of the lateMaharajah the B ri t ish con ti nued to |

,administer the

province, and i t was in March 1881 , that the late

Maharajah was instal led on the g adifi. The restorat ionof the State was looked upon by most people as anexperiment i n native rule

,whose f ai lure was a :foregone

concl usion . I t was eager ly anticipated that the

bankruptcy of nat ive'

rule would 'soon be tr i umphant lydemonstrated . Under such ci rcumstances even minorpeccad i l loes on the part o f , the new Government werel iable to be' exaggerated into grave derel ict ions.

Errors and mistakes which . would pass unnot icedin a Vicer

’

oy of India or a Lieutenant - Governor werel iab le ; to provoke ext raord inary and

.u'nfavourable

attention . . T o aggravate matters the finances and irrternal ’COl tiOnS of the country were far j fro

'

m

satis factory at - the time of the Renditipn,W e shal l

descr ibe the then condit ion of Mysore in SirSeshadr i

Iyer ’s own wordsOn t he 25th March , 1881 , His Highness {was


invested with the admin istrat ion of the State and heen tered upon the dut ies of that exa l ted posit ion underspec ially onerous condi t i ons . Dur ing the long per iodof 50 years the State had been adm inistered by theB ri t ish Government ; but un fortunately i t had toencoun ter dur ing the c losing years of that administrationthe most d isastrous fam ine o f wh ich we have any record.

A fi fth'of i ts populati on was swept away ; the accumu

lated surpl us o f near ly a c rore o f rupees had disappeared, and in i ts place there had come in to ex istence adebt of 80 lakhs to the B r i t ish Government ; the cashbalance had become reduced to a figure insufficien t for

the ordinary requirements of the admin istrat ion ; everysource of revenue was at i ts lowest ; and the severeretrenchments wh ich fol lowed had lef t every depart

ment of the State in an enfeebled con d it ion .

And further I t ( the late Maharajah ’s reign)began wi th l iabi l i t ies excluding the assets by 302 lakhsand with an annual income less than the annualexpenditure by 1 1 lakhs .

Such,indeed , was the d iscouraging state o f affai rs .

I t was the great good fortune of Mysore that i t possessedat such a j uncture a rule r o f the type of the lateM aharajah , and two statesmen of the towering statureo f Ranga Char l u and S ir Seshadr i Iyer. I t would bebut the barest j usti ce to say that , great though RangaC harlu undoubtedly was, the l ion

’s share o f the credi tof having improved and bettered Mysore belongs toS i r - Seshadri Iyer.S ir Seshadri Iye r entered upon his duties as Dewan

w i th a solemn and Oppress ive sense of responsibi l i ty .


the occup ied area f rom 6,154t square mi les, orby 60 per cent . The Excise Revenue quite quadrupledi tsel f during the 14 years owing to th e el imin at ion ofmiddlemen , to a system of cheaper manufac ture and

h igher ~ duti es , to the more vigorous suppress ion ori l l ici t manufact ure , and to the increased consumptionaccompanying the growth of industries

,the expansion

of Publ ic W orks and Ra i lways , and the grea t r ise inwages . The Revenue from Forests m ore than doubledi tsel f , whi le under Stamps and Reg istra t ion the increasewas 65 and 124 per cent . respect ively .

F5 Gold M ini ng — T he important industry of Gold Miningtook fi rm root in the S tate dur ing 1 11 5 Highness ’s

ru l e . In 1886 a profess iona l exam i n at ion of theaur i fe rous tracts in Mysore was made , and the resu ltsduly publ ished . For the fi rst t ime

,in 1886 - 87, Royalty

on gold formed an item of our State revenue , and i treached the substant ial figure of Rs . last yearon a product ion o f gold valued a t AGeolog ical survey for the complete exam inat ion andrecord of the mineral resources of the country was

establ ished in 1894 and is now in fu l l working .

La nd T enu re and Ag r i cu ltu re— The Revenue Survey

and Se tt lement made sat isfactory progress dur ing H isH ighness ’s reign and 3 Taluks alone out of 66 nowremain to be sett led .

I n 188 1 - 82 H is H ighness abol ished the H a la t oncoffee o f 4 annas per maund and estab l i shed a new

coffee tenu re comb ining the advan tages o f a pe rmanen t set tl ement with low rates o f assessment . The

coffee area increased by 28 square mi les . European

S IR SESHADRI IYER, 1 53

P lante rs own acres and Nat ive Plantersacres . 1

.The Kh istband i— or instalments for ) payment o fReven ue —was postponed by twomonths so as to enablethe Raiyat to dispose of his produce . on advantageous

.T he Revenue Laws were codified ,vexat ions restr ic

t ions on the enjoymen t and transfer o f land wereswept away

,

-and the freer rel inquishmen t of'

unprofiti

able smal l parcels of land was al lowed . As a meansof remedying agricul t ural indebtedness

,a scheme

of Agricultural B anks on str ic tly co- operative principleswas int roduced last year .Forests.

— The area of Reserved Forests increasedfrom 643 to square mi les , and 35 Square miles ofnew pl antat ions were formed .

‘

Educa tzon.—The number o f Governmen t and aided

school s - rose from 866 to and the expenditure onthem from Rs . to Rs . The increasein the number

,oi boy s was f rom to an d

;

i n that of gir ls from to Eigh t hundredPrimary Vernacular Schools , fi fty Engl ish MiddleSchools, five Industrial Schools; two Normal School s ,th irty Sanskrit Schools

,one first Grade Engl ish College

and t hree Oriental Col leges were' newly establ ished

during H is H ighness ’s reign .

. i I r riga tion.—7

- One hundred l akhs were spen t,ou

or igina l i rrigat ion works during H is H ighness’s reign ,

mak ing an addi t ion of 355 Square m i les t o the areaunder wet cultivat ion , and bringing . an . additi onal

Revenue ~of 814 lakhs. .

W i th th is addition the area


protected by irr igat ion at the c lose of 1894 - 95 was

Square mi les. The expenditure on irr igation i n1880- 8 1 was Rs. i n the first 4 years of H is

H ighness ’s re ign i t averaged 41 lakhs in the next 4years 8; lakhs ; and in the l ast 6 years 13 }L lakhs .Special encouragement was afforded to the construc

t ion of a l arge n umber of new irrigat ion wel ls,ind iv i

dual ly smal l , but in the aggregate a most importan twork of Famine protect ion , Rs . were sanctioned as loans for these wel l s

,of which had

been completed , benefitting acres of land . No

addit ional tax is lev ied on the dry land conver ted in togarden and wet by the aid of these wel ls .Communica tions — In addition to the expenditure f rom

Local Funds 67 ; lakhs f rom the State Revenue weredevoted during His H ighness ’s re ign to new roads andto the maintenance and spec ial improvemen t of ex istingones . The mileage of roads rose from toThe M alnad roads received part icular attent ion , andthe Special expenditure upon them was Rs. inthe coffee tracts and Rs. i n the remain in gM alnad .

Ra i lways.—~At the Rendit ion the length of the State

‘Rai lways open to tra ffic was 58 mi les . The addit ionm ade to i t dur ing H is H ighness ’s reign was 3 15 miles

at a cost of 164 } lakhs .M un ic ipa l and Loca l Funds — The number of M uniC i

palities rose from 83 to 107, annual M unicipal recei pts

f rom Rs . to Rs . and the annual ex

penditure on con servancy and Publ ic W orks from 2}1:1k to RS . The Local Funds Revenue like


of Special D ispensaries for women and ch i ldren . Al lbut 3 Taluks out o f 66 have been provided .with midwives

,and 5 D iSpensar ies for women and ch i ldren have

been opened in D istr ict Head - quarter towns.

P opu la tion.—In the ten years f rom 188 1 to

‘1891 the

.populat ion increased by per cent. a h igher ratiothan in the surround ing Provinces

,and there is reason

to bel ieve that dur ing the l ast four years the ratio o fincrease was even higher. D ur ing H IS

.

H ighness ’s reignthe rate o f mortal i ty is est imated to have decl ined 6 7per mile and the average duration of l i fe to have risenfrom 24 93 to 25 -30 .

M arve l lous success, surely ! Al l th is was ach ieveddur ing a Space o f l i ttle more than ten years 1 In theabove statement we des ire to emphas ise to point thatal l the improvement was not due to new taxat ion in

any form or Shape , but to a normal development andexpansion of the resources of the State

,i ni t iated and

insp ired by the Splend id genius of thei'new Dewan .

In estimat ing the above statement regard must f urtherbe had to the fact that Mysore had also during theseyears to pay the annual subsidy of 25

v lakhs to t heB rit ish Government besides providing the aggregateamount of 180 l akhs out of the current revenues forthe Maharajah ’s C iv i l l ist.

Such phenomenal'

success cannot be achievedwithout far - reach i ng reform in the constitution

'

of the

admin istrative machinery. And it is i n terest ing to notethat S ir Seshadri Iyer appointed

'separate heads for

the principal departments o f Serv ice— which were pre

" S IR SESHADRI IYER , K -C LE. 1 57"

viously under the direct cont rol o f the'D eWan— and

organised some new departments also.

Nor did the Dewan hesitate to t ake legislative 'act ionin social matters . He passed a regulat i on proh ibi t ingmarriage be low and above certain age l imi ts, though hehad to encounter bi tte r Opposit ion i n certain quarters .The outstanding feature o f S i r Seshadr i I yer

’s ad

ministrat ion was his development of public works and v

the tapping of i rr igat ional resources to the ir utmostextent . Though the Dewan brought to bear upon everydepartment o f the State a knowledge and resourc efulness which astounded the expert , i t was part icular lyso in the department o f Engineering. M any schemespronounced impracticable by committees o f expertswere Shown to be feasible by the Dewan . On many anoccasion he set 'aside the opi n ion of such special istsmuch to thei r chagrin and loss o f sel f - importance

,but

riiuch to the good of the State . A certa in EuropeanEngineer , a m ighty expert , is said to have excla imedonce , part ly in just and partly in seriousness

,th at

M ysore Fhad no need of a Chief‘ g ineer so long asS ir Seshadri Iyer was Dewan .

But undoubtedly the ach ievement wh ich has immor talized Sir Seshadri I yer

’s name is th e Cauvery.P roject .

The Cauvery fal ls at S ivasamudram have for centu r iesbeen aff ording del ight to the Spe ctator and love ofnature , No one had dreamt that the fal l could beharnessed to the car of material advancement . Ruskinm ight be i nd ignant at the lovel iest scenes of naturebeing desecrated bv the unholy

'

i nt rusion of modernmach inery . B ut the modern world is not to any

15 8 THE IND IAN NAT ION "

BUILDERS

considerable extent governed by considerat ions ofsent iment . In western countries water - fal l s have beenut i l ized to generate electr ic power and to

'

bring goldi nto the pockets o f cap ital ist . B ut the CauveryProject of S ir Seshadr i Iy er was the first of i ts ki nd

,

we bel ieve,i n the East . The idea orig inated with a

European,but i t was scouted by influent ial people as

utopian . Not so, S ir Seshadri Iyer , He was drunkwith the idea , and - thought th at noth ing could be morepractical . But at fi rst he was unable to have h is way.

Al l sorts o f Spokes were put in the Wheel . The costo f theischeme was so large , and i ts success so problem atical. But the Dewan would not y ield . He carr iedthe matter to the Government of India

,and final ly

procured the necessary sanc tion . W hat a magnificentsuccess the project has proved needs no say ing. Thenet revenue der ived by the S tate f rom this source wasmore than I 7 }2 lakhs of rupees i n the year 1906 - 1907.

Year af ter year fresh instal l at ions are being made,and the y ield ought to go on increasing annual l y

,

The death o f the late Maharaj ah in [894 prej udicial lyaffec ted Si r Seshadr i I yer

’

s career . S ir W i l l iam;Lee W arner, author o f the C i t izen of Ind ia , was theResident , and natural ly be had long ch afed und er themasterful Spir it o f S ir Seshadr i Iyer who was a . l iv ing

“

re futation of the pet theories and cherished p re-i‘

j ud ices of Anglo - Indians . He wan ted to cripple the

Dewan ’s influence , and proposed that daring the

minor ity o f the hein apparent, the Dewan should not

be al lowed to have sole and und ivided author i ty. T he

suggest ion was accepted , and a counc i l o f four mem.

060 THE IND IAN NA T ION BU ILDERS'

on‘ an extensive p i lgr image to various holy places i n

S outh India . B ut .he was not destined to enjoy hisw el l - earned rest . He passed away in October 190 1 .Sir Seshadr i Iyer was a type o f the effi cient states~

man . An int imate and unr ival led knowledge of everydepartment of the administrat ion , an untir ing act ivity ,a colossal resourcefulness , a master fulness that awedand subdued a pass ionate desire to r ise to the h ighestof wh ich he was capable— these were the secrets of h issuccess. He may have had h is faul ts. His intimateknowledge o f every departmen t , and untir ing activ it ymay have led to occasiona l meddlesomeness . Hismasterfulness (which enabled h im to give lessons to .

the Residents)may have sometimes degenerated into anautocrat ic , im per ious temper disposed to g ive noquarte r to lesser men . B ut his achievements are writlarge in the annals of Mysore . We need not doubtthat he would have been unequal to more exal teds ituat ion cal l ing for breadth of mind and largenessof out look . He was a man of whom the educatedclasses should be proud . Afte r honest ly contemplatingh is career

,who wil l dare to say that there i s in India

any dearth of indigenous administrat ive and statesmanl ike capacity .

Banktm Chand r a Chatter jee.


the world of imagination and ideal before i t is born i n t othe worl d of fact . A race of singers , poets , artists ,dreamers must precede the advent o f a nation . T he

whole country must be flooded with the music of such

Spir its , i n order that the many may catch the glow of

their i nspirat ion . Then only wil l the people at largebe strong to hOpe, strong to sacri fice and strong to

ach ieve.

O f such a type of N at ion - Bui l der we have had

un fort unately too few examples in modern Indi a. But

there was one at least to whom the descrip t ion would

appl y wi th great justfication. W e re fer to Bankim

Chandra Chatterjea of Bengal— not that he sang directl yo f nat ional i sm but that he has been a great nationa l is ingforce

,

He was as we al l know , the author of that simple

cry, which seems to have impressed the imaginat ion ofthe rulers even more than that o f the ruled , BandeMataram .

” The energy of the opposit ion mani festedin Bengal against the parti t ion came as a revel at ion notmerely to the Government , but even to the country

i tsel f. W hat was the secret o f the strength ? \Vherel ie the Springs o f the un ique l i fe which B engal hasundoubtedly shown ? To an extraordinary degree , thesecret

,the l i fe lay in the vernacul ar l i terature o f Bengal .

Bengalee l i terature has, i n modern t imes grown anddeveloped in a manner o f wh ich those , who have notcome under its infl uence , can have no adequate concept ion . And unless the rest of I ndia fol low in the wakeo f Bengal and develop the ver naculars , the hope o f anew l i fe for India is doomed to fai l u re . Many ofthe vernaculars have al ready a magnificen t c lassical

BANKIM CHAN DRA CHATTERJ EA 1 63

l iterature,W hat is now needed

,is, th at they should

now be made to sound the note of a new l i fe . of the.

glad t idings o f the future to be . W hat is needed isth at

'

we should feel them as our very own , as our'

God - given instrument o f expression , as the languagebeloved of our progen i tors for countless generat ions

'

as the language in which our dear chi ldren l i sp.To the Bengalee belongs , in modern t imes the creditof th is real isat ion . But a heroic Sp iri t was needed to

real isation and propel the national mindew pathway. That Spiri t was B ankim. To himthe unique glory of being the maker of a l i tera

e. It is a wel l - known fact that the fi rst effects o fgl ish Educat ion in Bengal , even more than i n othero f India , were violent l y denational is ing. T he first

generat ion of Engl ish educated Bengalees were more .

Engl ish in manners, t houghts , habits o f l i fe , ideals, thanEng l ishmen themselves. I t was thei r highest ambi tionto approx imate to western c ivi l isat ion in al l departments of l i fe. Even the finest spir its succumbed tothi s vicious tendency o f the t imes . One of the mostfatal mani fes tations of th is Spir i t was the contemptand disdain wi th which the Bangalee l anguage wasregarded. To talk Engl ish , to write Eng l ish ,

to thinkin Engl ish came to be regarded as genteel

,and .the

people ’s own language was looked upon as vulgar.M ichael Madhu Sudan Dutt himsel f

,perhaps the

greatest of modern Bengalee poets, exclaimed t hat i twas his supreme ambit ion in l i fe to be abl e “ to dreamin Engl ish .

” He afterwards found out h is mistake,

and returned to h is own vernacular as the natural and


d ivinely - appointed instrument of Sel f - express ion . Now

B ankim was by no means a stranger to this Spir it . Hetoo tr ied to create i n Engl ish h is fi rst l i terary effortswere in the Engl ish language . B ut he found

'

hisgen ius shackled in that medium . He found out that i fhe was to ach ieve the best of which he was capable, heshould turn h is at tent ion to the desp ised vernacular . I trequi red rare courage to revol t against th e reign ingfashion and Set new example . B ut Bankim did more .

He further revolted against the tendency that haddominated the Bengalee classical masters , which madethe Bengalee l iterature the cherished possession of thel earned few, and not the heritage of the mil l ion . He

represented in Bengal the Sp ir i t o f what i s known as theRomant ic Movement i n Engl ish Literature

,that move

men t wh ich dethroned the standards of Pope , and gave

to the Eng liish people thei r greatest modern poetS .T here

is something undoubtedly heroic i n doing pioneer work ,and the p ioneers in every field have not seldom inh istory been rewarded with an admirat ion out o f al lproport ion to their intrin sic worth . B ut B ankim was

more than a mere p ioneer. He was a creat ive geniusof the fi rst magnitude

,and h is creat ions , are dest ined

to l ive as long as the Bengalee language is al ive. Thus

Bankim created modern Bengalee,made i t the people's

l anguage , and bequeathed priceless product ions to

posterity . Bankim is to day the idol of the Bengalee,and not without reason . For i f to day the Bengalee isproud of h i s country

,p roud of h is languag e and l ite

rature,i f the cry of Bande Mataram” st i rs in h im a

response wh ich the rest of India cannot comprehend .

.1 66 THE IND IAN NATION BUILD ERS

The atmosphere of Government Service in India is

not 'particu larly .conduc ive to the growth of gen i us .

But B ankim, the giant that he was, escaped its freezinginfluences . D reams of l iterary ventures an d tr iumphsmust have been constant ly float ing before h is mind ’s

eye, even in the midst of his labor ious offi cial activ it ies.

Like so many of h is contemporaries he had the ambit ion

of becoming a great wr i ter i n Engl ish . There was i nan Engl ish magazine cal led the Indian

F ield,conducted by a Bengalee gentleman , and it was

i n i ts pages th at Bankim made his l i terary debu t.

H e began a nove l ent i tled Rajmohan's W i fe

,

” when

he was Sub - D iv isional Officer at Khulna . And nowcame the turning - point in h is career . Perhaps he didnot find the amount o f appreciation he expected.

Perhaps h is soaring wings were heavi ly weighed down

by the foreign medium . Anyhow b e made the discoverythat in attempting to write in Engl ish he was simplyplough ing the sands, and that he must return to hi s

mother - tongue,though it had at that t ime lost caste.”

He once and for ever t urned h is back on b is - former

ambit ions, and set h imsel f wi th al l the ser iousness of

sel f - dedicat ion to improve and perfect h is mothertongue .

H is fi rst Bengalee novel publ ished i n 1864,D urge

shenand im'

, came upon the publ ic l ike the dawning( of a new sun i n the skies .” A ser ies of novelsfol lowed , an d for a quarter of a cen tury the BengaleeSpeaking people were feasted and fed with the

creat ions of his pen .

‘D u rgeshenandin i was a h istor ical novel after the manner of S ir Wal ter Scott, and

BANKIM CHANDRA CHATTERJ EA 1 67

was noticed in h igh terms of p raise by Professor Gowelin M acM illan

’

s M agazme in 1872. Kapalakunda la ,”

and M r ina lim‘

appeared subsequent ly. In 1872

B ank im started the Bengalee magazine Banga

D arsan.

” I t was to i ts pages that his best novels werecontributed . Here i s a l ist o f h is novels besides thosealready mentioned : B ishabr iksha , Kr ishna Kanta

’

s

W i ll, Raj am'

, Chandrasheker , Raj asinha , D ebi Chow

dhu rcm i , Ananda M a th, S itaram .

B esides h is novels Bankim also wrote two rel igiousworks. D harmatattwa and “Kr ishna Charitra.

”

The former is an exposit ion of H induism as the authorconceived i t. The latter is a presen tat ion of the l i fe ofSr i Krishna

,as i deal man

,purged of the many doubt

ful accret ions that have gathered round i t . The lastwork

,he was engaged in , was an edition of the

Bhagavad G ita with text, t rans lat ion , and the author’s

own 'notes,but he did not l ive to complete i t

,He

passed away on the 8th Apr il , 1894.

Mr,Frazer gives the fol lowing accoun t of Bankim

in h is Li tera ry H istory of India“Nowhere better than in t he novels o f Bankim

Chandra Chatterjea can the ful l force of , the str i febetween the old and new be traced. The novels themselves owe their form to western influences , but thesubject - matter and Spir it are essential ly native . B ankimChandra Chatterjea himsel f was the firs t B .A . of theCalcutta Un ivers i ty . Born in 1838 his earl iest n ovel ,“ D u rgeshenand in i appeared in 1864 professedlyinspired as a historical novel , under the influence o fthe works of S ir W alter Scott . T his work was fol lowed

1 68 THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILD ERS

by “Kapctlakunda la a tale of l i fe i n Bengal some

two hundred and fi f ty years ago , and was succeededby the M r ina lini . I n 1872 the novel is t commencedi n his newly - started magazine , the Banga Darsan themonth ly publ icat ion of h is novel of social l i fe , the

B isha B r ikha ,” t ranslated into Engl ish as the Poison

Tree " in 1884. The “D ebi Chadhum ni ,“Amanda

M a th,

” “Kr ishna Kanta's W i ll ” fol lowed

,the l ast

being transl ated in to Engl ish,

in 1895. The “K r i shna

Cha r itra” publ i shed in 1886 i s

,however

,the work

th rough which the name of Bankim Chandra Chatterjea

wi l l p robably remain famed in the memory of h i s owncount ry - people .

I t is the crowning work of al l h is labours . I t ih

culcates, with al l the puri ty of style of which thenovel ist was so per fec t a master

,a pure and devout

revival of H induism founded on monotheist ic pr inciples.The object was to Show that the characte r o f K r ishnawas i n the ancien t wri t in gs an ideal per fect man

,and

that the commonly - rece ived legends of h is immoral ityand amours were the accret ions of late and moredepraved times . Bankim Chandra Chatterjea was thefi rst great c reat ive gen ius modern Ind ia has produced.

For the western reader h is novel s are a revelat ion ofthe inward spi r i t o f In dian l i fe and thought .As a creat ive artist he soars to heights unattained by

Tulsi Das,the fi rst true dramat ic gen ius India saw. To

claim h im solely as a product o f western influencewould be to neglec t t he her i tage he held ready to hishan d f rom the poetry o f h is own country .

'

He isnevertheless , t he firs t c lear type o f what a fusion


The sandy waste is the abode of an asceti cworsh ipper o f Ka l i , who is wai ted on by the heroinet‘Kapa lakunda la

” intended as a sacrifice to the fiercegoddess . The ascet ic sage is clothed in t iger - skins ;he is seated on a corpse and wears a neck lace o f rudraseeds and human bones , his hair i s matted and un

shorn . The wi ld scene is dep icted W i th al l the dreamy,

poet ic repose wh ich saturates the whole l i fe o f theEast . The ocean is Spread in f ront ; across i t Speedsan English trading sh ip with i ts sai l Spread out l ike thewings of some large bird ; the bl ue waters gleam l ike

gold beneath the sett ing sun ; fo r out i n the endlessexpanse the waves break in foam ; a l ing the sands

there runs a white st reak of surf l ike to a garland ofwh ite flowers . The two scenes— one the lonelyp i lgrim and the near seated , h ideous, human sacr i fic

i ng ascet ic,the other o f the vastness and the

st i l lness of the sea— seem to p icture forth the

empt iness o f man ’s imaginings and efforts amidthe impassive immensi ty of the universe . Over al l ,the murmur ing rol l o f the ocean , echoed as i t is i nthe poets ’ words

,seems as though i t bore to the

senses the wai l ing moan of a soul lost in t ime andSpace . In the midst o f the myst ic scene a woman

,the

heroine , appears . She is a maiden , wi th hai r as blackas jet trai l ing to her ankles i n snake - l i ke cur ls. Herface , enci rcled by her black hai r, sh ines l ike the raysof the moon th rough the r iven clouds . As Nobo

Kumar gazes on her form,she tel ls h im to fly from the

ascet ic yogi,Who has al ready prepared the sacr ificial

fire and awaits a human vict im. Spell bound,Nobo

BANK IM CHANDRA CHATTERJ EA 1 71

Kumar has no power to fly from the devotee to Kal ihe fol lows to the place of sacri fice

,and is there bound.

Kapa la Kundala , in the absence of the priest , appears,severs the bonds, and releases Nobo Kumar . T he

priest returns , seeks the sacrificial sword , then n oteshow his victim has been released. In his rage herushes to and fro along th e sandy dunes

,from the

summi t o f one of wh ich he stumbles i n the darknessf al ls , l ike a buffalo, hurled from some Mountain - peakand breaks h is arms. The hero and heroine

,before

they fly from the waste of sands,are marr ied. Kapala

Kundal a , however , longs to know the wi l l o f the Goddess . A leaf p laced at the foot of the dread dei ty fal lsto the gr ound , a fata l omen that the goddess isdisp leased .

So the fate of man is , for the poet ’s purpose , asuncer tai n as the face of a trembl ing rain - drop on alotus le af . The new -made wife departs weeping fromthe shrine . The novel is t has now to fol low her dest inyto its relent less course. The shadow of her future soonthrows i ts dark gloom across the soul of Kapala Kundala .

Amidst the intrigues of the Mughal Court of the t imeof Jehangi r the course is prepared for the tragedy toclose round Kapala Kundala , whose husband grows todoubt her love, and t hen to witness what has beencunningly 'devised to seem her fai th lessness. Theascetic sage

,with b roken arms , now appears before

Nobo Kumar and declares that the angered goddessst i l l cl aims a sacr i fice . In hi s rage,Nobo Kumar , offersto sacrifice his wi fe

,and so at once to appease Kal i and

his own bl ind jealousy . Kapala Kundala has h erself


'reso lved to fulfi l he r fate . The relent less decrees , that

hold the dest iny of man at their beck and nod , havenow almost worked out thei r purposes . The voice o f

thepriest wails wi th p ity as he cal l s On the victim , herhusband seizes the sword

,but h is pass i on bursts for th

in moaning cries to h is bel oved to assure h im,at the

l ast momen t , that she has not been f aithless. Hehears the truth that a l l his suspicions were roused bycunning design . Fate , typified by the wil l o f thegoddess , must be worked out. Nobo Kumar extendsh is arms to clasp h is love , but Kapala Kundala S tepsback

,and the waters of the Ganges rise to sweep her

away i n i ts si n - destroying flood , where Nobo Kumar

also finds h is death .

The novel throughout moves steadi ly to i ts purpose .

There i s no over - elaborat ion no undue working after

effect , everywhere there are signs o f the work of an

a rt ist whose hand fal ters not as he ch isel s ou t h is l i nesw ith class ic grace . The force that moves the wholewith emot ion and g ives to i t i ts sub t le Spel l , is themyst ic form of eastern thought that clear ly shows thenew forms that l ie ready for i nsp i r ing a new school offict ion with fresh l i fe . Outs ide the “M ar iage de Loti”

there is noth ing comparable to the Kapala Kundal ai n the h isto ry of \Vestern fict ion

,although the novel ist

and h imsel f and many of h is nat ive admirers,See

grounds for comparing the works of Bank im Babu wi ththose of S i r W al ter Scott

,probably because they are

outwardly histor ica l .A novel far surpass ing Kapa lakim da la i n real istic

i nterest i n the same novel is t’s Poison Tree .

" This


calm dignity and graceful gent leness, an ideal p ictureof a faithf ul H indu Spouse and wel l - educated , sensiblewoman . Nagendra

,during a journey to Calcutta ,

befr iends an orphan girl , Kunda , aged but th irt een— an

age described as th at i n which all the charm of simpl i

c i ty is combined with radiance of the moonbeamsand scen t of sweet flowers. Nagendra br ings the girlto h is married s ister at Calcutta, but , as he seems in nohurry to depart

,h is wi fe wr ites play ful ly Upbraiding

h im,and suggest ing in jest that he should bring his

new - found treasure home and marry her himsel f org ive her to the V i l l age School Maste r , who has notyet found a wil l ing bride . The chil d is accord inglybrough t to the vi l lage and marr ied to the SchoolMaster. This School Master , snub - nosed

,concei ted

,

and copper - coloured, i s represented as an up- t o - date

product of an undigested surfe i t o f Western emancipat ion .

He has received an Engl ish educat ion at a freeM ission School , and planted h imsel f amid the vil lagecommun i ty as a very mine of learned love ; i t waswh ispered abroad that he had read the Ci t izen of the

W orld ” and passed in three books Eucl id .

” Heextracted essays against idolatry, agains t the seclusionof women and ch i ld - marr iage f rom the T attvabodhini,and publ ished them under his own name . Hejoined the local B rahma Samaj , establ i shed by thespendthr i f t of the neighbourhood

,who had imbibed

al l the W estern vices and abandoned al l the nat ivev irtues

,who drank W ine f rom decanter s wi th cut- glass

stoppers , carr ied a handy flask , and ate roast mutton


and cutlets, and who, when not drunk occup ied hist ime i n encouraging the marr iage of low- caste widows

,

So that he might pose as a local reformer , The sat ireis per fect, the characters sat i r i sed true to l i fe . The newproduct o fWestern influences encouraged the in fatuate dschoolmaster to read papers and del iver eloquentaddresses on the subjec t of the emanicipation ofwomen , and the moral is ing influence of br ingingwomen , ou t into publ ic l i fe , but finds that a lthough theschoolmaster can be jeered into al lowing him to visi tKunda, the outraged pride of the t imid beauty burstsforth in a flood of indignant tears .Lucki ly for Kunda, the schoolmaster d ies . The

widow returns to the home of her former p rotector,the al l - loving N agendra . The gentle beau ty of Kundasinks deep into the hear t of N agendra whose want ofsel f - control sows the seeds of the poison tree , whosebaneful fruit must be eaten . Nagendra

’s wife looks on in

Sorrow unti l her h usband , unabl e to st ifle h is thoughtsor hear her silen t reproaches

,seeks to drown

‘

hi sfeelings in drink. At length he can bear the restraintno longer” Iswara Chandra V idyasagar has proved ,from the ancient law books, that widow- marr iage isal lowable

,al though no H indu custom. H is wi fe h i des

her wounded feel ings, wondering i f Iswara ChandraVidyasagar be a pandit , who then is wantin g in

Wisdom ? She sacrifices al l her feel ing to her greatlove for her husband and prepares the marriageceremon ies, but once the marriage takes p lace

,she

steals away f rom the happy home where she was

mce sole mistress. She had made her resolve to


wander as a mendicant from place to place , unable toremain at home and bear the pain of seeking Kundaclaim her husband .

The suffer ing o f Suroj Mukhi , the despai r of

N agendra when he finds h is once loved wi fe has lef t,

and that , as a consequence h is overwhelming passionfor Kunda has turned so indiff eren t

,almo st to

loath ing,are set forth with a fulness o f sympathy and

emot ional feel ing which a native can so deeply fee l andexpress. To its b itterest depths the novel i s t tracesthe Stern course o f the unre lent ing desti ny whichdecrees th at the seeds o f sin once sown must grow ,

andthe fru i t be reaped .

A welcome rel ie f comes when the story breaks i n tosomewhat laboured honour. The eager servants of

N agendra go for th with coaches and planquins i nsearch of the ir mistress , whose f ace they have neve r

seen . Every good - looking and h igh caste womanalong the road , by the bathing tanks , or r iver - s ide

,is

forcibly seized and brought,with cr ies of joy

,to the

unfortunate husband,to see i f he can recogn ise among

them his lost wi fe , so that , final ly , no woman dareventure from home for fear o f being brought to

N agendra . Suraj Mukh i returns not . Her husband

leaves h is new wi fe, Kunda , to mourn alone over her

dest iny in the now deserted home,once so f ul l of joy

and happiness.N agendra returns af ter weary wander ings to end his

l i fe in pious deeds and holy l iving . Kunda he is

resolved never more to speak to nor to see,For her ,

therefore , there is only death the poisoned f ru i t must


indeed and worthy of al l h is deep feel ing as an art ist,i t

must be the condit ion of a vast mul t itude of sufferingwomen in the East, who have been nurtured to See

thei r l i fe b lasted by a r ival love placed by their side torejoice the ir lord ’s heart

,or that a son may be born to

save thei r husband ’s soul . W e are , however, lef t indoubt as to whether Nagendra s inned in having asecond wi fe— he defends polygamy in the courseof the story— or whether h is fault lay in marry inga widow against social custom

,The motive of f atal i ty

of act should have been as c lear and,unmistakab le as

i t was in the Mud Cort ,” where the jealousies of the

two r ival wives who became reconc i led do not i nfluencethe action .

The same idea is further worked out i n “ Krishna

Kanta’s W i l l .” Here the true workings of the novel

ist ’s mind are apparent ; a deeper view is touched.

The love of the err ing husband for h is wi fe , and ther ival love by which he is in fatuated typ ifies a strugglebetween a D iv ine love and the ever - recurring phantasmal at tract ion o f the soul to the objects of Sense,f rom which freedom can only be reached by centeringthe mind on ideal perfect ions

,

The praise o f Kr ishna,as a perfected man

,is sung

by the poet in h is greatest work , the Kri shnaChar itra, publ ished in 1862, a s a contribution to aH indu revival in the ancient nat ional rel igion

,wh ich

Komesh Chandra Dutt describes as the nourish ing andl i fe giving fai th o f the Upanishads,

’ and the ‘Vedantha

and the ‘Bagavat G ita ,’ which has been

,and ever wi l l

be,the true faith o f the H indus. "


Another cri t ic gives the fol lowing comparat ive esti

mate oi B ankim as an artist and novel ist. i

Bankim ,

” says the eminent cr it ic , “ i s the creator ofa l i terature.” Or rather, i s the h igh pries t of thatsp lendid shr ine of which Iswar Chandra Vidyasagarwas the glorious founder . Bankim ’

s school sounds as adel iberate departure from the o lder schools o f VidYasagar. B ut the feature is l imited only to the surface . I t'

d oes not reach the cent ral l ife. The on ly differencewh ich the later school mai ntains to the last is an air ofunquest ionable freedom f rom the devital izing trammelsof the mortma in tradi t ions of the old Sanskri t l iterature.This has largely been ga ined through a wider acquain tance W ith W estern ideals and a slow and - steady percolat ion of W estern thoughts. There stil l remains :however , that predominance of the Sanskri t el ement.There is the same decided predominance ; and i f we:find anywhere some insignificant departures they areto be explained in the l ight of adaptat ions and not

But the permanency of the school of Iswaris i n a large measure due to this very adapta .

t ion and the unquestionable genius of the . man :whoeffected i t . This singular honour has fal len to the lotof few . No Scott nor George El l iot could claim i t andeven in the case o f Goethe h imsel f this was but partial lytrue. Again , where is there i n Scott that sweet psycho .

logy of B ankim ? Every page of Bankim ’

s~Works

gli tters wi th truths , splend id and fascinat ing. I t is h ispower of expressing the highest truths in h is own

quiet , hearthside way which has added immensely to thewealth and fascinationp

f the l i terature of our country.


S cott has never approached the deep soul study ofB ank im , I find a para l lel on ly in a Romola of GeorgeEl iot . And George El iot alone had a v ision of thatstern , inexorable Dei ty, N emes is , which can at al l becompared to the De i ty of Bankim. But the heart ofthe l atter i s bui lt more of the stuff of fra i l humanity

,

yieids more of the milk o f human k indness than that ofGeorge Eliot . George El iot ’s consc ience is l ike theinexorable finger o f N emes is hersel f : it Spares noneno weakness intervenes. I t weighs out the dues of men.with i ron scr ut iny. B ank im

’s is no m i lder De i ty . I t

dea ls out justice as stem and mascul ine . B ut i t makesconcessions i t y ie lds to the tears of the gu i l ty. Them i l k of human k indness often softens i t .But in Bankim too as in Goethe an d George El iot we

have gl impses of that fa int, distant glow which l ightsup the dark mysteries of ex istence . Sco tt gives usnoth ing but the sur face - l i fe of h is h ighland compeerdressed in the antic garb of an anc ient heraldry .

He is at the threshold of h istory . He knows not the

myster ies of the l i fe at i ts centre . Those mysteries

B an kim penetrates with a seer ’s eye . The inspi rationof a Goethe and a George El iot is the inspiration of

Bankim too .

W e can broadly d ivide h is works in to domestic andhistoric - domes t ic . H is B ishbr iksha ,

’ K rrstnakanta's

W i l l ,’ ‘Raj an i

,

’ are some of those that are purely domes~

t ic . H is ‘D urgeshnandini,’ Debi C howdhurani , ’ Chari

dreshekhar," Ra jshinha,

’ are some of those that fallunder the latter l lS lon B ishbr iksha perhaps

'

the

best of al l h is works is the eternal seed - plot of lofty

1 82 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILD ERS

twi ligh t sadness , pines and droops in i ts own lonebeauty .

Bankim’

s i s a heaven - gi f ted gen ius. I n h is ownfield , he has. no equal even in Engl ish literaturer

save that gi fted woman , George El iot . But George El iot

has not that charm of sty le , that fasc inat ion of the penthat our own Bankim has. She has, in f act , no sty le o fher own. She i s no master of l i terary fin ish . To Bank im»

be longs the un ique honour of being the founder of ahigh style and the high - priest of a l i terature . Scottstands far below . He is r icher than Bankim in thatwonderful col lection of antic heraldry . But i n inter

preting the language of the hear t , i i reveal ing themyster ies of dark etern i ty

, Bankim stands supremelyh igh. There is not i n h im

,however

,the volcanic

i nspirat ion o f Victor - Hugo,the f renzied eye of that

insp ired seer. There is not i n h im the quiet , farreach ing survey of Goethe

,the prophet ic poi nt ing to the

sore Spots of human ity. Let us take h im for what he

real ly is. His was a gen i us of stupendous orbit.

belonged to the race of those . radiant serahs whoto reveal to us v is ions o f etern al splendour.W e do not propose to quote other appreciations .

those who do not know B engalee, Bankim wi l l remainbut a sounding name

,But i t may not be extr avagant

to hope tha t some at least of the readers of thi s sketch

.wil l be tempted to cult ivat e that l anguage , and makethe acquaintance of the great creat ive gen ius of modem

India.

THE NATIONAL ANTHEMI

My mother land, I sin g ,Her Splendid st reams

, her glorious trees ,The zephyr from the far - off Vindyan heights ,Her fields of waving corn ,The rapturous radiance of her moonl it night

,

The trees in flower that flame afar ,The smi l ing days that sweetly vocal are

,

The happy , blessed Motherland .

He wil l by seven ty mil l ion throats extol led,

Her power twice seventy mi l l ion arms uphold ;Her strength let no man scorn .

Thou art my head , thou ar t my heart,

My li fe and Soul art thou,

My song , my worship , and my art ,Be fore thy feet I bow,

As Durga , Scourge o f al l the foes ,As Lakshmi , bowered in the flower ,That in the water grows ,As Ban i , wisdom, powerThe source o f al l our might ,Our every temple doth thy form un foldUnequal led , tender , happy , pure,O f Splendid streams , of glorious treeS ,My Motherland I sing

,

The stainless charm that shal l endure;And vedant banks and wholesome breeze ,That with her praises r ing.

”

T ranslation by W . H . Lee,

Late of the Indian C ivi l Service.


I IMother , I bow to theeRich with thy hurrying streams

,

B r ight with thy orchard gleams ,Cool with thy winds of del ight

,

Dark fields waving , M other o f might,Mother free .

Glory of moonl igh t dreams,

Over thy beaches and lordly s treamsClad in thy blossoming trees ,Mother , giver o f ease,Laughing low and sweetM other , I kiss thy fee t ,Speaker sweet and low !M other, to thee I bow.

W ho hath said thou art weak in thy lands ,W hen the swords flash out i n seventy mil l ion handsAnd seven ty mi l l ion voices roarThy dreadful name from shore to shore

W i th many strengths who art mighty and stored,

To thee I can , Mother and Lord 1Thou who savest , ari se and save ]To her I cry who ever her foemen d raveB ack from plain and seaAnd shook hersel f free.Thou art wisdom

,thou art law,

Thou ou r hear t,our soul , our breath ,

Thou the love divine,the awe

In our hearts that conquers death .

Thine the strength that nerves the arm ,

Thine the beauty, thine.the charm.


and the sh arpness of swords raised i n twice seventymil l ion hands,

W ho sayeth to thee , Mother , tha t thou art weak ?Holder of mul t i tudinous strength

,

I bow to her who saves,

to her who dr ives f rom her the armies of herfoemen , the M other.

Thou art knowledge, thou art conduct ,thou our heart

,thou our soul

,

for thou art the l i fe in our body.

In the arm thou art might 0 Mother,i n the heart

, 0 Mother thou art love and fai th .

I t i s thy image we raise i n every temple .

For thou art D urga holding her ten weapons o f warKamala at play in the lotuses ,and speech

,the goddess

,giver o f al l love

,

To thee I bOW lI bow to thee

,goddess of wealth

,pure an d

peerless .Rich ly - watered

,and r ichlyo fruited the mother'

I bow to thee Mother dark - hued , cand id ,sweetly smi l ing

,jewel led and adorned

,

the holder of weal th,the l ady of plenty ,

the M otherT ransla tion by Babu Aurobzndo Ghose.

(T ranslator's Note— I t is d iff i cu lt to translate the

Nationa l Anthem of Beng a l i nto verse in another language

owing to its unique unio n of sweetness,simple d i rectness

and h igh poet ic f orce. A ll a ttempts in th is d i rection have

been fa i lures. In order , therefore. to br ing the reader

unacqua inted with Benga lee nea rer to the exact force oforig ina l. I g ive the transla tion i n prose line by line.)

(Reproduced f rom the Ka rma Y og in.)

B. H. The La te l am of Hyder abad.

'


(N aldrug)and the Raichur Doab yielding a revenue of21 lakhs , were restored , and a debt of 50 l akhs was cance l led , whi le cer tain tracts on the lef t bank of the

Godaver i were c'

e'

ded and the Assigned D istr icts ofBerar, y ielding a revenue of 32 lakhs , wer e taken i n trust

by the B r i t ish for the purposes Specified in the treaty of1853 . Presents to the value o f were bestowedupon H is H ighness , whi le h is minister and othia

'

r noblemen were also wel l rewarded

,His son , His late H ighness

Mir Mahbub Al i had inherited to no smal l extent , hisqual it ies o f head and heart . Being on ly three yearsold atthe t ime o f h is death

,a Regency was created with

“

S irSalar Jang as Regent and N awab Sha .ns - ul-Umara as

co- Regent,the Resident being consulted on al l importan tmatters concern ing the wel fare of the State. On thedeath of the co- Regent in 1877, his hal f - brother N awabV ikar - ul- Umara was appointed co- Admini strator ; but healso d ied i n 1881 S i r Salar j ang remain ing so leAdmin istrator and Regen t t i l l h i s death in 1883 . Of the

work of S ir Salar j ang , th is is not the place to dil ateUpon . But i t may be observed that he modern ised theadmin istration

,tak ing a per sona l interest in i ts every

day Work,He control led the most important State

Depar tments , carried out a Revenue Survey and Set tlemen t , establ ished Civi l and Cr iminal Cour ts , placedthe Postal Department on a sound bas i s

,and improved

the finances of the State,which had been greatly

involved for some years past,Both h is work and the

spi r i t underlyi ng i t , not only enhanced his personalreputat ion as

'

a statesman,but added to the great name

of the State i tsel f. And when he died , loudly lamented

H I S HIGHNESS THE LATE N IZAM OF HYDERABAD 1 89‘

both i n Engla nd and India , he left no greater her i tagethan his work for, and in the St ate. H is H ighness ’seducation had been so carefully watched by him , thathe knew H is H ighness would wield the power towhich he was hei r , wisely and wel l .His H ighness attained his major i ty in 1884, and was

instal led by Lord Ripon , then V i ceroy and GovernorGeneral of India on February 5 , 1884. Sir Salar JangII , son of S ir Salar Jang I , was appointed Prime minister.He was proud , domineer ing and tact less and soon

.

lost the confidence o f his master . He was fol lowedin 1888 by S i r Asman J ab ,

who the previousyear had represented H is H ighness at Her lateMajesty ’s Jub i lee in London , and had been made

He was doubt less an effi cient admin i strator ;but t r ied to regain “ the real i t ies o f power which h is .

predecessor had lost . In 1892,a Code known Kanun

cha - z- M aba rik (the Ausp icious Code)was i ssued for hisguidance

,and this was fo l lowed by the establ ishment

of a counci l composed of al l the M inist ers o f the State .In 1893 ,Sir V ikar - ul- Umara became Min ister and severalchanges were in troduced by H is H ighness in the var iousdepartment of the S tate . He was, in 1901 , fol lowed i nthe exalted office , by Maharajah K i shen PrasadB ahadur

,a descendant of the wel l - known Raja Chandu

Lal who was M in ister to H is H ighnesses g randfather

Naz ir - ul -Daula,i n 190 1 , s ince when the administrat ion

of the State has run on smooth l i nes , and has been moreand more modernised . Perhaps the greates t event i nthe recent history of the State , and His H ighness

’s reignhappened in N ovember 1902, when the Assigned

‘

1 90 THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS‘D istr icts of Berar were leased in perpetuity to the

B r i t ish Governmen t at an annual renta l of 25 lakhs.

V iews diametr ical ly oppos i te to each other have beenheld on this pract ica l cess ion of the Berars. Theofficial v iew has been p ropounded by more than oneauthori ty

,

“ I t had gradual ly become apparent,"

writes one o f these, si nce 1860 that the maintenanceof the Hyderabad Contingent on i ts old foot ing as aseparate force was inexpedien t and unnecessary , andalso that the admin istrat ion of so smal l a i province as

Berar as a separate un it was very cost ly . I n 1902,

therefore,a fresh agreement was entered into with the

N izam. This agreement re- affirmed His H ighness ’srights over Berar which instead of be ing indefinitelyassigned to the Government o f India , was leased inperpetui ty at an annual renta l o f 25 lakhs ; and autho

rized the Government of India to administer theprov ince in such manner as i t might deem des i rable aswel l as to red istr ibute

,reduce , re- organ ize and control

the Hyderabad Cont ingent , due provis ion being made ,as sti pulated in the t reaty of 1853 , for the p rotection of :

H is H ighness ’s dominion . I n pursuance of th is agreement the Cont ingen t ceased i n March 1903 , to be aseparate un i t and was re- organised and t e - distributed asan integral par t of the Indian Army . Another offici al

author i ty writes to the same effect . “Th is agreement,

”

he says, wh ich put an end to a long and at one t imeembittered cont roversy

,was equal ly benefic ia l to both

parties , for i t prov ided an assured instead of a precar ious source of revenue to the N izam,

wh i le i tenabled the Government o f India to carry out a number


are peasants pain ful ly str iving to squeeze a subsistenceout o f a hard and un fruit ful soi l . ”

During the past ten years, or rough ly since the yearthat Colonel (now S ir Dav id) B arr became Residentat h is Court

,His Highness stamped h is personal i ty

on the administ rat ion of the State . To the p icturesque vagar ies ,

” as the Engl ish cr it ic already quotedf rom puts i t , of Sel f - seeking and u nscrupulous scr ibes

have succeeded measures o f p r osaic ut i l i ty . Thefinances of the S tate flour ish , famine has grown rarer ,communicat ion has been faci l i tated , j ust ice has ceasedto be a figureof speech or a source of bakshish ,

the po l iceprotects at last to some exten t the people whom it

once only fleeced , and whi le I pen these l ines myears r ing with the roar o f an Industr i a l Exhibi t ion .

His Majesty the King Emperor vis i ted the State, asPrince of W ales in 1906

,and desp i te the death of his

favouri te daughter,whi ch had occurred only a few

days pr ior t o the arr ival , His l ate H ighness accordedhim a tru ly roya l welcome , and assu red h im tha t h isvis i t was “one more l ink

,and a very strong l ink in the

long chain of most cord ial associat ions which binds meand my house to the B r it ish Empire .

” His Highnessas a ruler was a personal ity outside h is State.

H is H ighness material ly helped the Government ofInd ia in the organizat ion , on i ts present bas is of theImperial Serv ices Corps. He also co- operated with i t in

the suppress ion of anarchica l cr ime , and the let ter he

wrote i n connect ion W ith i t W i l l long be remembered inthis country .

“I f your Excel lency wi l l al low me tor

H I S HIGHNESS THE LATE N IZAM OF HYDERABAD 1 93

Speak,” he sai d at the Minto banquet , from my eXperi

ence of 23 years as Ruler o f the State , I would say thatthe form of any Government is far less important thanthe Spir i t in which the Governmen t is admin istered.

The essential th ing is sympathy,on which His Royal

H ighness,The Prince of W ales with the truly Royal

instinct of h is race la id so much stress . It is notsufficien t mere ly that the Ruler should be actuated bysympathy for the subjects but i t i s also necessary thatthe peop le should feel convinced of

'the sympathy of

their Rulers .

” These words marked him out as a states "

man of the fi rst order , and the deep impression that theyprod uced at the t ime on Europeans and Indians al ikeshowed that they recogn ised that in H is High ness theypossessed one of the shrewdest rulers in India.

His H ighness died in August 191 1 , and in h im Indialost one of her best Rulers . His personal qual i t iesendeared him to h is subjects whose sorrow at his sadand sudden demise l i teral ly knew no bounds . His hos

pitality , h i s love of horses and dogs , his dign ity , hisforbearance , generos ity and considerat ion for hissubjects were widely known in India . He was h ighlylearned in Pers ian and Urdu , i n both of wh ich he haslef t verses o f no mean mer i t . He was r ich in goodworks and feared not to say or do that wh ich he wasconvinced was just and meet . B ut

H is heart was one of those which most enamour us,W ax to receive, and m arb le to retain .

India is truly much the poorer by the death of one sogreat and good as H is Highness the late N izam ofHyderabad .

1 3

PRESENT UNREST IN INDIA “

Throughout my dominions you W i l l not find as ingle man among my subjects whose disposi t i ontowards the B r i t ish Government i s otherwis e thansat isfactory ; nor is there , I venture to bel ieve

,

any sane man i n Ind ia who i s at heart disaffectedtowards H is Most Grac ious Majesty or his Governmentas such . Every Indian endowed W i th the least senseknows thoroughly wel l that the peace and prosperi tywhich his country has enjoyed under the ben ign protect ion of H is Majesty and Hi s august ancestors

,of whom

none was more sol ic i tous o f the wel fare of her Indianpeople than her late Majesty Queen V ictor ia , woulddisappear the moment that protect ion were withdrawnor weakened .

I am , there fore , of the same Opin ion as Your Excellency

’s i l lustr ious predecessor , that the so- cal led unrest

i n certai n parts of Ind ia is but skin deep,and that such

unrest as does exist had been brought into be ingmain ly by publ ic and acrimon ious d iscuss ions as to theform of Governmen t best sui ted to the requ irements ofmodern India . I f Your Excel lency W i l l al low me toSpeak from my exper ience of 23 years as ruler o f thisState

,I would say that the form of any Government is

far less important than the Spiri t in wh ich thatGovernment is administered . The essential th ing is the

‘ Speech del ivered a t the S tate B anquet held in the

famous Chow M ahalla Palace in the C ity on the 9th

November, by H ,H . the late N izam.

196 THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS J

but given the t ime and Opportun ity there ex ists thedanger o f th i s Smal l minori ty Spreading its tent aclesal l over the country , and i nocul ating with i ts poisoiiousdoctr ines the classes and the masses hi therto untouche dby th is sed it ious movement .3. I thank Your Excel lency for te l l ing me tha t in

my domin ions there is no ser ious cause for anx iety atpresent

,and that the resul t is ma inly due to my act ion

in deal ing wi th sed i t ious man i festat ions . - I trust I maynot be considered an Op t imist in indulg ing in the hopethat , under God

’s b lessmg ,there W i l l p robably be no

cause for anxiety in the future also . M y people as aru le . are contented

,peacef ul and la\ abiding, and I

can say , with pardonable pr ide , that they are bto me by t ies of affect ion and loyal ty . And asExcel lency has been pleased to address me byi nheri ted t i t le as the old and valued ally of theGovernment , my people

’s loyalty to me meansto the B ri t ish Government also . I need hardly saythat i t has always been my endeavour to Upheld

an d mainta in the trad it ions of my house. From thevery outset , my policy has been to tr ust my people andto show them that I trus t them . I have absta inedf rom causing them alarm by issu ing man i festoes warning them aga inst sedi t ion . B ut at the same time I

have not been unmindful of the ex ist ing danger ; anda Very st r ict watch has been kept over local officials

,

more especia l ly over those who are c lose to , and might

be in sympathy W ith , the ne ighbour ing sed it ious placesi n B r it ish Ind ia . Orders have been issued to the Pol iceand D istr ict Mag i st rates not to al low any meetings to

H I S HIGHNESS THE LATE N IZAM OF HY DERABAD 1 97

be held in which there was any l ikel ihood of inflammat ory . speeches being made . Petty officials and otherper sons having a tendency to sympathise wi th the

movement have f rom time to t ime been warned , andsome of the former have been transferred , i n order tobreak up any attempt to form a cl ique or combinat ionfor undesirable purposes . The head of the Educat ional

Depar tment has been Special ly directed to exercisestr ict supervi sion over teachers and students and toprevent thei r part ic ipation in any pol i t ical demonstra;t ion whatever .4 . So far, any d isafl

'

ected people com ing from outsidehave not been able to gain a foot ing in my dominions .Judicious but summary act ion is taken under my order?in al l such cases . Instances have occurred of disaffec tedind iV Iduals from B rit ish India arriving here , but mypol ice have ever kept a careful watch on them and theyhave been promptly but quiet ly sen t away f rom myterr i tory. In matte rs o f thi s kind , ,

so far as my own

domin ions are concerned , I impl icit ly be l ieve in work.

ing qu iet ly but wi th promptitude and firmness. Believ

ing as I do,in a pol icy of deportation of undesi rable

individuals from my dominions I need hardly say thatI am in ful l sympathy wi th the Regulation of 18 18which I consider most efficacious i n dealing with per sonsknown to be given to sedi t ion .

5,I am at one with Your Excel lency in believing that

no general rule or genera l course of act ion could be la iddown as regards the Nat ive States of .India. T he

circumstances of d ifferent States are so diversified thatone general pol icy for them all would not cer tainly be

“THE

’

IND IAN NA T ION 'BUILDERS

des i rable. I am also in thorough agreemen t with yourviews that each State should work out i ts own pol icyw ith reference to local conditions . But i t i s necessa ry

that there shou ld be per fect co - Operat ion in such

matters as ci rculat ing in formation and survei l lance o findividuals suspected of propagat ing sedit ion . For th is

purpose I would ask Your Excel lency to al low yourCriminal Investigat ion Department to corresponddirectly and freely on al l such subjects wi th my InSpec

tor -Genera l Of the D i strict Pol ice whomay be trusted toexerc ise d iscretion and judgment in such matters.I t is Obvious that unless this procedure is adopted

,

delays are l ikely to occur . in obtain ing in formation as

regards the arrival or departure of suspected ind ivi

duals . In the same manner I wi l l i ssue Orders to myPol ice to correspond f ree ly in such matiers withthe Pol ice in B r i t ish India.

6. Your Excellency has been so kind as to ask myadvice in regard to measures wh ich may prove effec

tual in keeping out Of Nat ive States the in sidious ev i l

of sedit ion , and the manner i n wh ich Your Excel lency

should assist towards th is end . My knowledge of thecondit ions Obta in ing in d ifferen t Nat ive States i n Indiais very l imited , but i f I may venture to express anopin ion i t would be that Your Excel lency should as of tenas poss ible wri te to some princ ipal Rul ing Pr inces

and consul t wi th them as regards a l l important matterstouch ing the Wel fare of not on ly the Nat ive States buta lso the Indian Empire as a whole . I look upon the

Nat ive States in India as the p il lars‘of the Empire, and

-I fee l sure that the Rul ing Princes wi l l prove worthy of


sedit ion,an d officials s ubscrib ing to or taking in such

l iterature should be told that they would be looked uponwith dis favour . I have mysel f taken the in i t i at ive inthis matter and have issued orders to that effect .

(3) I am also incl ined to thin k that it inerantagitators (often disguised as Sanyasis) are not watchedas thorough ly as they Should be

,Such persons should

be fol lowed from provin ce t o provm ce and regular lyhanded over for survei l lance .

8 . The exper ience that I have acquired W ith in thel as t 25 years in rul ing my State , encourages me toventure upon a few Observat ions which I trust W i l l beaccepted in the Sp iri t i n wh ich they . are Offered

,I

have already sa i d that my subjects are as a ruleconten ted

,peaceful and l aw - abiding . For this blessing l

have to thank my ancestors. T hey were singular ly

free from al l rel ig ious and rac ial prejud ices . Theirwisdom and foresigh t induced them to employ H indusand Muhammadan s , Europeans and Pars is a l ike i ncarry ing on the administration , and they reposedentire confidence in the ir officers , whatever rel igion ,race , sect or

,cree

'

d they belonged to . Hence i tfol lowed that i n the early part of the last cen tury RajaChundoo Lal was Min ister of Hyderabad . for over aq uarter o f a century . The two D aftardars (Recordkeepers o f the State)Were H indus whose descendantss ti l l enjoy the jag ire , Off ices and honours con ferred bymy predecessors. Inherit ing as I d id t he pol icy of my

forefathers, endeavoured to fol low i n thei r foot steps .My present Minister

,the highest Official in the Sta te ,

i s,as Your Excel lency is aware , a H indu. One of my

H I S HIGHNESS THELATEN IZAM OF HYDERABAD 201

four Moin - uLM ahams. is Mr. Casson W alker Whoseserv ices h ave been len t to me by the Government OfIndia. T he Secretary to my Governmen t in the

Revenue Department is Mr,Dunlop who has ret ired

f rom the B ri t ish serv ice, and Mr . Hankin , who is aGovernment. Of In dia O ffi cial

,i s the Inspector - General

of my D istr ict Pol ice . Although I am a str ict Sunn imysel f

,some o f my Muhammadan noblemen and

high'

officers of the State are Shias , Arabs and otherMuhammadan races number among my States Offi cia l s,Hindus o f al l sects , creeds , and denominat ions

serve in my State and many hold h igh pos it ions.

’Q

The

Revenue administrat ion o f one hal f of my State is atpresent entrusted to two Parsis who are Subadars (Commissioners of D ivisions). I t i s in a great measure toth is pol icy that I at tribute the contentment and wel lbe ing of my domin ions . Your Excel lency W i l l , therefore , qui te understand hOW grat ified I was to learn o fthe Wise , generous and l iberal pol icy pursued byY our Excellency and the Secretary of State for Indiai n giving effect to the principles, announced in theQueen ’

s Proclamation of 1858 and sol emnly reaffirmedin the K ing Emperor ’s gracious message to th e Princesa nd Peoples of India in 1908, by appointing an Indianas a member o f your Executive Counci l and twoI ndians as members of the Counci l o f the Secretary ofS tate. The l iberal pol icy as also the en largemen t o fthe Legislat ive Counci ls wi l l , I earnestly trust , Serve toallay the present unrest and to remove altogether thesedi t ious movemen t which is happi ly confined to avery smal l minori ty .


I am a g rea t be l iever in conci l i at ion and repress iongoing hand in hand to cope with the prese nt condit i onof India which is but transi tory . W hi le Sedit ionshould be local i sed and rooted out stern ly and even

merc i lessl y deep sympathy and unreserved rel ianceshou ld man i fest themselves in al l deal ings with loyalsubjects W i thout dist inction of creed , caste or colour.I am exceedingly glad that th is view has commendeditse l f to your Excel lency an d I feel sure that theI ndian Empi re has now entered on a new and brightere ra o f peace and prosperi ty under the ben ign reign ofH is Majesty the K ing Empero r .

SIR SY ED AHM ED KHAN

RHAPS there is n o greater Moslem name known

to modern India than that of S ir Syed AhmedKhan , rel igion ist , reformer and rebui lder of I slamin India . Syed Ahmed was born on Apri l 17, 1817;at Delhi ,

’

during the decadent days of Moghul rule.

He c laimed direc t descen t from the Prophet Muhammadand h is grandfather , Syed Hadi , was a noble atthe Cour t of Alamgir II . His father , Mir Taqui isbel ieved to have refused the post of M inister toAkbar II. but he d i ed Whilehis son was yet young.

Ahmed, therefore, owed al l that was best i n h im to hismother

,an uncommon , talented lady. Under her

carefu l t rain ing , he became proficient i n Arab ic andPersian and the marked first hand knowledge

,he

,i n

later times,Showed in h is con troversial wr i t ings

,with

M ul lahs and professed Oriental ists, may be traced tothe ground ing

‘

he obtained at . his period of his l i fe .In 1839 when he was about 22, he j oined as

'N aib

Munsh i to Sir Robert N . C . Hami l ton , then Commissioner of Agra, and afterwards wel l - known as Residen tat Indore

,and by h i s Serv ices during the Mut iny.

Two'

years’

l ater in 1841,he was appoin ted Muns iff

of ~M ainpur i, in the present Un ited Provinces, f romWhere he was t ransferred to Delh i (then not‘ yettransferred to Punjab) i n 1846 as Sadr Amin .

’ Duringthe nine years he stayed here, he patien t ly studied the


h istorical remains Of the great Imperi al C ity and Wrotea descript ive account of i t. I t was translated intoEngl ish in part by Mr . Roberts , then Col lec tor of

Delh i,and into Fren ch by M . G arcinde Tassy , the

wel l ~known Or ienta l ist i n 186 1 , and has largely beendrawn upon by Subsequent writers on the archaeologyo f the great Empire C ity. The Royal As iat ic Societyrecognised i ts worth and con ferred on its au thor i ts

Membersh ip in 1864 . He was in 1855 , transferred toB ijnour , where during .the Mutiny year

,he Saved

many Engl ish l ives . W hat he had seen and what hehad heard during that calamitous per iod enabled h imin 18 58 to wri te an Urdu pamphlet on the Causes of theInd ian Revolt, subsequent ly translated by S ir AucklandColvin and Lieutenan t - Colonel Graham

,the latter of

Whom subsequently became his biographer . Thisbooklet is a man ly protest against the misch ievousatt acks that were level led agai ns t I ndian character by

,

persons who l i t t le understood What the Mutiny of1858 meant . Syed Ahmed essayed , success ful ly weth ink

,to prove that i t was the resul t of ignorance on

the par t of the Government of the discontents of thepeople and soldiery , and o f the people of the in tentionsand acts of the Government. His analysis was pierc ing ,his lang uage tel l ing and his reasoning convi ncing . But

i t i s d i ffi cu l t to say how far i t influenced publ ic Op inion .

I t was fi rst publ ished in 1863 . when the principal evi li t compla ined of— non - admiss ion of an Ind ian intothe Legislat ive Counci ls of I ndia— had been rectifiedby the Act o f 1863 . However

,the pamph let i s

,not

wi thout i ts own interest. I t shows the fi rs t yearnings

206 THE INDIAN N AT ION BUILDERS'Engl ish works were translated into Urdu . In 1869, heaccompanied h is son to England , and whi le there firstconceived the idea of establ ishing an insti tut ion “afterthe Oxford and Cambridge Univers i ty Col leges. On

h is return to India in he bega n the . Socia l

Reformer , i n . which he advocated the rel ig ious andsocial re formation o f h is community. He hi t hard atman y Old and cherished insti tut ions , and the Opposit ionoffered may better be imagined than descr ibedThe Mul lahs combined against him and tr eated himas a heret ic ; and indeed , they even went so far ( i t issaid)as to declare that h is assassin at ion would be a

praiseworthy act,They passed the ed ict of ex - com-

t

municat ion against h im,— that last refuge o f defeated

orthodoxy— and even sen t special men to secureauthent icated f a twahs of Kufor ( infidel i ty)again st him .

I t is not known how far thi s at t itude of orthodoxywas due to his soc ia l v iews but the fol lowing maybe t aken as represent ing intel l igent MuhammadanOpinion on the sub ject . Change of customs

,

” saidMr . Yusuf A l i , I .C .S . at a London meeting

,

“ was acontr ibutory cause of the bitterness wi th which SirSyed Ahmed was assai led

,but the ma in reason was

on account of h is theological views . I t was becauseS i r Syed adopted opin ions wh ich were i n the eyes O fmany Muhammadans abso lutely her itical, i f not ant iMosl em , that their great hat red of h im arose. W hen hewas last in Lucknow , he sa id to a M oulvie connectedwith the most pronounced an ti - Al igarh o rganisation

,

why i s i t you and your party so strongly object toEngl ish educat ion or to educat ion He repli ed

,we

S I R SYED AHM ED KHAN . 207

don ’t object to Engl ish educat ion or to your wearingEuropean clothes ; what we do object to is that youlearn natural theology ; that you try to interpret theKoran in a way that we cannot fol low ; that you th rowaside the authori ty o f the commentators , and take yourstand upon the text as interpreted b y your own intelligence .

’ That expression explained the l ine o f cleavagebetween the Al igarh School and the Old School.”

Though he preached what has been quai ntly termedBroad Church Muhammadanism

,

” he was by nomeans a revolutionary in Soc ial or rel igious mattersHe was

,in some respects, even a rigid conservat ive. He

was against educat ing M uhammadan girls in publ icschools he was against change of dress and demeanouramongst Muhammadan women ; and he was , as may beinferred after that

,against in termarr iages between

M uhammadans and Europeans . H is rel igious V iewsappear to have given even more Offence to his orthodoxco- re l ig ionists than his social habits of keeping an Opentable and d ining wi th European gent lemen . His“M uhammadan commentary on the B ible,

”in part icular,

was singled out by some o f them for V i tuperat iveabuse . I t i s posS lb le h is rat ional ism gave them offencefor one d iscourse at least ( the seventh)has been considered worth wh i le repri n t ing by the S . P. C . K . for itsown purposes . Syed Ahmed , on the other hand

,ha d

to contend agains t Chri st ian prejudices and m isunderstanding of t he rel igion he so dearly loved . His Essayson the Life of M ahomed ,

based on original researchconducted in the arch ives of the B r i t ish Museum, and

p ub lished in 1870, is a c losely reasoned answer to S i :

208 THE INDIAN 'NAT ION'

BUILDERS

W i l l i am Muir ’s 'wel l - known l i fe o f the p rophet ofArabia . He also wrote a Spir ited reply to S ir W uW .

Hunter ’s not less known work , the I nd ian Mussulmans

are they bound in conscience to rebel aga inst the Queen P

In 1876, he ret i red from Government serv ice, as Subordinate j udge. He now centered al l h is though ts onthe estab l ishment of a Central Muhammadan Inst itution

at Aligarh , which he chose for its l ocat ion . Al igarh isn ow known ch iefly through i t and i t owes i ts orig in

,de

ve10 pment , and unique character to the in sp ir ing gen ius

o f one man— Syed Ahmed Khan . The origin of theInst itut ion i s to be sought in h is desi re to ren der {i th is co- rel igionists for taking th ei r p lace in the Indianpol it ical sphere . The admiss ions of Indians

,

” hesa id in one of h is disco urses

,

“ to the Supreme Legislat ive Counc i l is a beginn ing o f the advancement o fIndia . You remember m y premon i t ion that the day isnot far off when I trust that the Counc i l wi l l be composed of representat ives from every D ivision or D istr ictand that the laws wi l l be en acted by you and abided byyou also . So ponder wel l how necessary i t is for thepeople to advance in educat ion and experienceThe object (of th is discourse) is to inculcate on yourminds the great fact that Her Majesty wishes al l her

subjects to be t reated al ike i rrespect ive o f the i r rel ig ion ,race , or colour and . has opened the doors for al l ; theonly way to avai l ourselves of the great opportun i ty isto advance ourse lves i n arts and sc iences . Mark thel as t sen tence ; that is the keyston e of the educat ionalarch of Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur Indeed , th is


grandiose to desc r i be the Al igarh Inst itute, ‘f yet ,

accord ing to him, i t emphasises the r ight point . I tsreal meri t i s that of a residential school ; but as heobserves

,

“the endowment is smal l,the Moslem

community i s poor,Aligarh sadly wanting in the

Opulen t appointmen ts of Eaton .

” S ince th i s Opin ionwas

,

expressed by h im,there has been set on foot a

movement to convert the Col lege into a Univers i ty .

H is H ighness the Aga Khan expressed‘the M oslem

w i sh when he declared at Delhi i n 1903 these words :

We want Al igarh to be such a homeof learn ing as tocommand the same respect as schools at B er l in or

Ox ford,Leipsic or Par is. Above al l

,we want to create

for . our people an intellectual and mora l papital, a Ci tywhich shal l be the home of educated ideas and pureideals , and which shal l hold up to the world a noblestandard of the j ust ice and V irtue and pur i ty of ourbeloved fa i th. No greater memor ial than that

.could

be raised to the gen ius that or iginal ly conceived theworth of such an Insti t ut ion .

. A man l ike that could not but favourably impressGovernment . W hile in England , he had been presentedto Her Majesty the late Queen , and had been invested

wi th the C .S .I,by the Duke of A rg ylle and chosen an

Hononary Member of the London Athenaeum. He waS *

nominated a member o f the N .W .P. (now U. ; P.)Legis lat ive Counci l about the t ime he founded thecol lege , and in 1878 , he was made , by Lord Lytton ,a member of the Imper ial Legislat ive Counci l

,In

188 1 , Lord Ripon re- nominated him , and he' took'

opportuni ty to get the Vaccinat ion and the Kaz i .Acts

312 THE INDIAN NAT ION BU ILD ERS

t our for col lect ing funds for the A ligarh College .

His replies are'worth read ing'even at th i s moment fo r

the statesmanl ike spir i t they breathe. We (Hindus

and Moslems)should try to become one in heart and soul

and act in un ison i f un ited we can support each other .

I f not, the effect of one against the other would tend to

the destruct ion and down fall of both . In o ld h istor icalbooks and tradi tions you wi l l have read and heard ,

and we see i t even now ,that a l l the people i nhabi t ing

one country are designated by the term nat ion.

”

T he different tr ibes of Afghanistan are termed one

nat ion , and so are the miscel laneous,

hordes peop lingI ran H indus and Muhammadans, br ethren , do you

people any other count ry than Hindustan ? Do younot inhabi t the same land Are you not burned and

bur ied on the same soil ? Do you tread the same groundand live upon the same so i l ? Remember that the wordsH indu and M abomedan are only meant for rel ig ious

d ist inct ion—otherwise al l persons , whether H indu or

M abomedan, even the Chris t ians who res ide in th iscountry are al l i n th is particular respec t belong inone and the same nation . Then al l these di fferent

can o n ly be described as one nat ion ; t hey mustand al l un i te for the good o f the country wh

common to al l .” That is an opin ion that appears

and again i n h is Speeches . B ut he gave a rude set backto i t when he opposed the Indian Nat ional Congressi n 1887, Which has since i ts birth , now near ly th irtyyears ago , pleaded for and in the interests of a commonInd ian Nat ional i ty . W hen the dis i l l us ionment came

,its

workwas complete . I t shook H indu fai th to the core in

2M THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

the Anglo- Ind ian Spir i t i n pol it ics , and as an Engl ishWr iter has cand idly put i t

,

“ th i s att i tude of Opposit ionto the H indu recommended h im al l the more to AngloIridian sympath ies .” O f course, Syed Ahmed was hardlyconscious of the change that had come over h im, but hewas none the less strong i n h is conv ict ion when hedeclared h imsel f against the Congress. “ We have here

the key to the idol ising of SyedAhmed by Angla dians.

Government gazetted h im in 1889. He r ich lydeserved the honour , despi te his Opposi t ion to theCongress . Personal ly he was a man .oi extreme

courtesy combined with d igni ty o f bearin g. He spokewel l

,wrote vigorously , argued closely ,and worked with

heart and soul for the work he loved . Some of his

phrases wi l l l ive long in the vocabulary o f“ the Nation”

he loved so wel l and spoke so sens ible about:He was a man,

take him for all in all,I shal l not look upon his l ike again.

Extracts from the speeches and writings of thelate S ir Syed Ahmed Khan

I

T HE SEPOY MUTINY

As regards the rebel l ion of.

1857 , the fact is , thatfor a long per iod, many grievances had been rankling inthe hearts of the people . In course o f time a vast storeof explosive mater ial had been col lected . I t wantedbut the appl ication of a match to l ight i t , and thatmatch was appl ied by the Mut inous Army .

The original cause of the outbreak was the n on - admission of a nat ive as a member into theLeg islative Council .

“

I bel ieve that th is Rebel l ion owes i ts origin to onegreat cause to which al l others are but secondary branches so to speak of the parent stem. I do not found mybel ief on any Speculat ive grounds or any favouritetheory of my own . For centuries many able andthoughtfu l men have concurred in the V iews I am aboutto express .

M ost'

men, I bel ieve , agree i n th inking that i t ishigh ly conducive to the welfare and prosperi ty o fGovernment ; indeed it is essentia l to i ts stabi li ty thatthe people should have a voice i n i ts Counci ls. I t isfrom the voice of the people only that Governmen t canlearn whether i ts projects are l ikely to be wel l received .

The. voice o f the people can alone check errors in thebud, and warn us of the dangers before they

,

burstiipon,

and destroy us .


To form a Parl iament from the nat ives o f India isof course out of the quest ion . I t is not only impossiblebut useless . There i s no reason however why the

nat ives Of the country Should be excl uded from theLegisl at ive Councils , and here i t is that you come uponthe one great roo t O f al l th is ev i l . Here is the origin ofall th e t roubles that have be fal len Hindustan .

The evi ls which resul ted to Ind ia from the nonadmission of nat ives i n to the Legis l ative Counci l o f Indiawere various . Governmen t could never know the in

advisabi l i ty o f the laws and regulat ions wh ich i t passed.

I t could never he ar as i t ought t o have heard the Vo iceof the people on s uch a subject . The people had nomeans of protesting agains t what they might fee l to bea fool ish measure or o f giv ing publ ic expression to thei rown wishes . B ut the greatest m isch ief l ay in th is thatthe people misunderstood the V iews and intent ions ofGovernment . T hey misapprehended every act andwhatever law was passed was misconstrued by men whohad no share in the f ram ing of i t

,and hence no means

of j udging of i ts Sp i r it . At length the H industanees fe l li nto the habi t of th i nking that al l thel aws were passedwith a verw to degrade and ruin them

,and to depr ive

them and .their fel lows of thei r re l igion

I do not wish to enter here into the q uest ion as to howthe ignorant and uneducated nat ives of H industancould be al lowed to share in the del iberations of theLeg islative Councrl : or as to how they should beselected to fo rm an assembly l ike the Engl ish Parl iament . They are knotty points. All I wish to provehere is that such a step is not on ly advisable , but

218 THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERSi

I I

H INDU - M AHCM ED AN PROBLEM

W e, Hindus and M ahomedans, S hould try tobecome one heart and soul and ac t in unison, i f uni ted ,we can support each other . I f n ot

,the eff ect of one

against the other would tend to the destruct ion and

downfal l of both . (Cheers ) I n old histor ical books an d‘

t radit ions you W i l l have read and heard, and we see i teven now

,that al l the

'

people i nhabi t ing one countryare des ignated by the term one na t i on. The di ffe ren ttr ibes of Afghanistan are termed one nation and so arethe miscel laneous hordes peopl ing Iran , disti ngu ished‘

by the term Europeans , though , abounding i n varietyof thoughts and rel igions

,are st i l l known as members

of one nat ion , though people of other coun tries also docome and set tled with them

,but be ing mixed tegether

they are cal led members of one an d the same nat ion .

So that from the oldest t imes the word nat ion is appl ied

to the inhabitants o f one country , though they differ i nsome pecul iari t ies wh ich are characte r ist ic of their

own . H indu and M ahomedan brethren , do you peopleany country other than H indus tan ? Do you not inhabitthe same land ? Are you not burned and buried on the

same soi l ? Do you not t read the same ground andl ive Upon the same soi l ? Remember that the words

Hindu and M ahomedan are only meant for rel igiousd istinc t ion— o therw ise al l persons

,whether Hindu or

M ahomedan, even the Christ ians who res ide in t h iscountry , al l in th is part icular respect belong ing to

one and the same nation . (Cheers ) Then al l these

SIR SYED AHM ED KHAN 219 .

differentSects can only be descr ibed as one nation ;they must each and al l uni te for the good of the

country wh ich is common to al l .

I I I

THE BENGALEES

Even grant ing that thelmajor i ty of those composing

this Associ at ion are H indus,st i l l I say that th is l ight

has been diff used by the same whom I cal l by theepithet o f Bengalees. I assure you that Bengalees arethe on ly peop le in our country whomwe can prop er lybe proud of

,and it is on ly due to them that knowledge ,

li berty and patr iot ism have progressed in our country .

I can t ruly lay that real ly they are the head and crownof al l the

'

different commun i ties of H industan .

I m yself was ful ly cogn izant of al l those difficult ieswhich obstructed my way , but notwithstanding these

I heart i ly wi shed to serve my country and my nationfai th ful ly. In the word Nation I include both Hindusand M ahomedans because that is the only meaningwhich I can at tach to it .W i th me i t is not so much worth considering . what

i s their rel igious faith,because we do not see anything

of W hat we do see is that we inh abit the sameland , are subject to the rule of the same Governors , thefounta ins of benefi ts for al l are the same

,and the

pangs of famine also we suffer equal ly . These are the '

different grounds upon wh ich,I cal l both those races

which inhabi t India by one word, Lee H indu ,m eaning

'


t o say that they are the inhabitants o f H industan.

W hi le in the Legislative Counci l I was always anx iousfor the p rosperi ty of th is nat ion .

IV

REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS FOR

INDIA

The system of representati on by elect ions means therepresentations o f the V iews and interests of the majori tyo f the popul at ion, and , i n countries where the pOpulat i on is composed of one race and one creed i t is nodoubt the best system that can be adopted . But

,my

Lord , in a country l ike India , where caste dist inct ionsst i l l flourish

,where there is no fus ion of

'

the variousraces , where rel igious dist incti ons are st il l . violent ,where educat ion in i ts modern sense has not made anequal or proportionate progress among al l the sect ions

of the populat ion , I am convi nced that the introduction

o f the princ iple o f elect ion,pure and simple , for repreJ

sentation o f various i n terests on the Local Boards andD istr ict Counc i ls

,would be at tended with ev ils o f

greater signi ficance than purely economic considerat ions. So long as differences of race and creed

,and

the d istinct ions of caste form an importan t el ement inthe socio pol i t ical l i fe of India

,and influence her

i nhab itants in mat ters connected with the administrao

t ion and wel fare of the country at large,the system of

elec tion,pure and S imple

,cannot be safely adopted .

The large r community would total ly override the


Oflicials towards n atives i s not nearly so favourable aswas formely the case. In olden days n at ives weretreated with honour and i n affriendly manner by these

Ofi’

icials, and consequently to use a nat ive expression ,They carried the i r (nat ives

’

) hearts in thei r hands.”


even ing . Lord Curzon with his usual eloquencedwel t on the blessings of B r i t i sh rule i n India and‘

Spoke as i f amongst other th ings England had savedIndia f rom savagery in the medical art

,The remarks of

Lord Curzon so grated Upon the ears of Sir Gooroodas

that he emphat ic al ly repud iated them when the t imecame for him to Speak and assured his aud ience thatmedical science had been developed to a very h ighdegree in Ancien t Ind ia. Again , S ir Gooroodas notfinding himsel f in agreement with h is col leagues on theUn iversit ies Commission appoin ted by Lord Curzon

,

did not take th ings “ l y ing down but wrote an

emphat ic m inute of dissent . W e have mentioned thestwo instances to show that the inoffe. isiveness of S i r

Gooroodas is not by any means weakness . W hat is .

perhaps even more remarkable in h im than al l th is i sthat he has not discarded the habi ts and customs ofhis community . He has the reputat ion O f be ing them ost o rthodox educated H indu in B engal . B ut there :need be no fear that h is orthodoxy is react ionary lor in any wise Opposed to the forces of progress .He thus expressed himsel f at a recent meet ing i n

Calcutta

Thus,though H induism has certa in eternal and

unchang ing features,there is no fear of i ts being

Opposed to progress,W hat then are these permanen t ?

features and unchanging ideal s of H indu life andthought ? T hey are

'not mere matters o f r i tual and

dogma,importan t as these may be for discip l in ary

,

p urposes ,but they r ise above ri tual and dogma

,and

concern the Spir i t i n man . They are on the theoret ical>

S IR GOOROOD AS BANERJEE . 225

side,a fi rm l iving fa i th that l i fe i s no t 3 a scramble

for the transi tory good th ings of the earth but is as truggle for the atta i nment Of Sp ir i tual good, and on thepract ical S ide

,the leading of a l i fe of cheerful sel f

abnegat ion and devot ion to the performance of dutyregardless of reward for the service of human ity . Thesebe ing the ideals which a Hindu universi ty W i l l inculcate

,there need be no apprehension i n the m ind of

even the most rad ical reformer that such a un iversi tyWi l l be antagon ist ic to progress . W hi le aiding Spir itua l advancement a H indu university wi l l g ive al l dueatten tion to techn ical and industrial educat ion f orserving human i ty in

'

attaining mater ial progress . For

no one feel s more keenly than the H indu that exclus ive devot ion o f attent ion to th ings Spir i tual to theutter neglect of the physical s ide of creation has broughtabout the lamentably backward mater ial condit ion inwh ich we are .

”

He thus bel ieves that Indi a has i n the past purs uedSp ir i tual interests to the serious detr iment of materia l ,and that the balance between the two ought to bemuch more harmonious than i t has h i therto been .

Towards the real isat ion of such a f uture fo r In dia S i rGooroodas l abours to the best of h is l ights. 'The l i feof such a man , learned , s imple, pious, God - fearing

,

unselfish , ought to be a lesson and a reminder , an

example and an insp irat ion to Indian youth .

He was born On the 26th January 1844, at Na r ikeldanga i n the suburbs of Calcutta , i n a B rahmanfami ly of no great wor ld ly means. H is father was as

poor as he was pious and learned in Sanskr i t. Indeed1 5


both h is parents were great in the true weal th of theB rahman , piety and pur i ty . I t is said that the father

used to take the ch i ld on his lap and reci te verses fromthe G ita . But the fa ther did not l ive to see h is son ’scareer of dist inct ion . He died when h is son was st i l la ch i ld

,leaving h is family i n very strai tened Circum

stances i ndeed. But the mother on whom the task ofbr inging up the chi ld now devolved was a woman o fgreat sweetness and force o f character, and the gent lebut firm touch of her hand has been in no mean degree

responsible for the character ‘

of her dist ingu ished son .

W ej have the son’s tes timony itsel f to the care wi th

which s he ;brought éhim up . Speaking at a - recen tmeet ing at a Calcutta, S ir Gooroodas said W hatboy is

‘there who takes to his books W i thout compuls ion

I mysel f requi red al l a mother ’s anx iousc ompulsion and rebuke to take to my lesson s .” Howmany o f us can guess what a pass ion of tender fee l ingtowards hi s mother Speaks in these S imple wo rds i I thas been wel l remarked that the love o f the ir mothershas 'been a passion W ith the great men of Ind ia.as . much as §W I th humble fo lk. And Sir Gooroodascherishes his mother ’s memory with pass ionate devot ion . She l ived to see her son a j udge of the CalcuttaH igh Court , and when she died in 1889, so severe wasthe shock to our hero that for some time he was

actual ly prostrated i

EThe boy was sen t for h i s fi rs t school ing to a Pathasala

O f the old type . Very recently Si r Gooroodas had

occasion to indulge in some interesting remin iscencesof h is Pathasala dayS. In answer to some amiable cri t ics

228 THE IND IAN NAT ION'

BUILDERS

in Law . In the year followmg he Obtained the

degree of Doctor o f Laws . Being appointed Tagore

Law Lecturer in 1878 he took for h i s subjectthe “ Hindu Law of Marriage and S r idhan,

” andh is lectures thereon st i l l f orm a standard work.

Equipped wi th such legal l earning , he soon made hismark at the Bar . But be i t sa id to h is credi t thathe never bowed the knee to B a r but st iidiously preserved ah i ncorrupt ib le standard of professional honour

and i n tegr ity . He never forgot that there were h igherth ings than money . He at any rate convincmg lydemonstrated that puri ty and the legal profession need

not be mutua l ly incompat ible . Such a man was

bound to W in widespread recogn it ion,and i t was no

wonder tha t when j ust ice Cunningham ret ired f romthe B ench of the Calcutta H igh Court , S ir Gooroodas

(Mr . Gooroodas as he then was) was appomted to thevacancy.

O f h is career on the bench i t need onl y be said that

i t was marked by that pass ion for just ice and truthwhich forms the key - note of h is character . T he jun iormembers of the Bar found an idea l j udge in one whowas ever so inoffensive . W hen duty required i t

,

‘hewas not S low to d i ffer f rom his col leagues and wri tedissentient judgments. On his r et i rement he was,

knigh ted .

Si r Gooroodas has al l h is l i fe taken a deep in terestin educat ion al matters . In fact he has made the sub

ject O f educat i on h is Specia l study , and his reputat ionas an educat ionist is tod ay second to none in India .

He has publ ished a book ent it led Thoughts on Eduéaa

SI R GOOROOD AS BANERJEE 229l

tipn. He was appointed a Fel low Of the Cal cutt aUniversity in 1879, and has been twice V ice ChahOellon o

The Calcutta University has owed many a reforrri to"h is init iat ive and persistence ,

W hen Lord C'u rzOn

appointed the Un ivers it ies Commiss ion the presence ofS ir Gooroodas on i t was one of its redeeming features.

But what“can one man do against so many ? W hat

one man could do he d id,he wrote an em

phat ic l\dir

i

iil

teI

of D issent .r s

But i t is i n connection with the cause Of'National

Education that S ir G OOroodas has dOne the best par t'

of his l i fe ’s work . He has been the l i fe and SOuI of theN at ional Counci l O f Educat ion organ ised and const ituted at Calcutta in 1906. He it was who deliveredthe inaugural speech of the N at ional Counci l at a grea tmeet ing held in the

:Town Hal l of Calcutta . I n it he

j ustified the necessi ty Of the new educat ional movementand outl ined the l ines

.along which i t would be

conducted . He poin ted out that foreign cul ture wasimperatively necessary. to India , but that its place shouldnot be at the begin n ing but at the end of the educationalcareer. T he cri t ics of the National Educat ion MovementW il l do wel l to peruse i t . l

A word as to the V iews that S ir G ooroodas holds in;

poli t ical and soc ial mat ters. iI n his younger days beforehe had been trammel led by o ffi ce , S ir Gooroodas was a !str iking figure . on the .Co

'

ngress palt for rn. He . is i noésham and we may take it that his hear t is with theN ational Movement , however abhoa

'ren

‘

t to his tender ina ture s ame of i ts aberrations , may be. In matterssoc ial S ir Gooroodas is a : He

,

does not,

230 THE IND IAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

seem to bel ieve in interdining , razing o f cast , and all

the res t of the panaceas , and yet h is heart is tender as

a flower .

S ir G ooroodas was for somet ime a member o f theBengal Legislat ive Counc i l . Since the death of BankimChander Chatter jee he has been the presiden t o f theLiterary -Sect ion of the Calcutta Un iversity Inst i tute .

He is st i l l i n the best O f heal th and takesa good longwalk every day . The icy hand Of old age has not laidi ts touch on his phys ical or menta l powers. He is aforce making for righteousness and puri ty o f l i fe .M ay he l ive long !

NATIONAL EDUCATION

ST AT EM ENT OF OBJ ECT S

T he objects of the Bengal Nat iona l Counc i l o fEducat ion , as stated in i ts M emorandum of Association ,are

,amongst other th ings

,

( 1 ) To impar t Educat ion,Literary and Scient ific as

wel l as Techn ica l and Professmnal, on national l ines andexcluswelyaunder nat ional control , not in oppos i tion to, ibut standing apart from

,the exist ing system of Primary ,

Secondary and Col legiate Educat ion attach ing Special.importance to a know ledge o f the country ,its l i terat ure,hi story and ph i losophy

, and designed to incorporatdwith the best orien tal ideals Of l i fe and thought thebeat ass im i lable ideals o f W est ,


may be true to a certain extent , and so far as i t i s true ,the N ational Counci l accepts it by expressly provid ingfor the i ncorporat ion o f the best assim i l able ideals of\Vestern l i fe and thought with our own . But thoughthe assimi lation of fore ign ideals is desi rable in thel ater stages O f mental growth in the ear l ier stages , suchassimi lation is not poss ible,

and any attempt to force i ton , wi l l retard instead of accele rat ing the heal thydevelopment of the mind . Every student , when oommencing h is school educat ion

,brings with h im in addi tion to

hi s outfi t o f l anguage the importance of which should beseparately considered

,his stock o f thoughts and

sentiments,the g i f t o f h i s nat ion

,which tHe teacher ,

instead o f ignoring and hast i ly d lSPIaC lh g , should t ryto ut i l ize and gradual ly improve . W ant of due regardfor h is elementa ry

'

principle i s , I th ink , one of themai n reasons why the exist ing system o f Engl isheducation in th is coun try has fa i led to produce sat isq

factory resul ts . Profi t ing by past experience,and

proceed ing on a { mom grounds , the N ation al Counci lhas accord ingly deemed i t not onl y des i rable butnecessary to resolve upon impart ing educ ation onnational l i nes , and attach ing spec ia l importance to a i

knowledge of the country,i ts l i terature

,i ts h istory

,

and i ts ph i losophy . B ut wh ile feel ing convinced thatthe re are defects i n the ex ist ing system of educat ion

and seeking to m od them , we do not ignore the benefitsr ece ived from it ; and the educat ion to be imparted bythe Nat ional Counc i l O f educat ion is intended to standapart f rom but not in opposi t ion to the existing system.

'

“De fect ive as that system may be , i t has hel ped the

'

.

S IR :GOOROODAS BANERJEE

Spread O f educat ion , and it is because i t has been t r iedthat we are placed in a posi t ion to find Ont i ts defectsand devise means of reform . The time ipr change ,

of‘

methods has certai n ly arr ived .

‘One par ty th inks that

by rais i ng the S tandar d o f educat ion and increas ing thesever i ty of examinat ion tests so as more largel y andmore effect ively to excl ude the less fi t f rom the

Of work , and by mak ing the control l ing body less inenced by the popular element wh ich is supposed to beaverse to the en forcement of any str ingent measures :al l that i s n eedful W i l l be secured . There i s anotherparty including many

,i f not all

,o f the members of the

N at ional Counc i l o f Eduzation,who bel ieve that tne

defects in the exist ing sys tem of educat ion , l ie deeperand require more radical but less Str i ii gent measureso f re form

,and who wh il e equally anx ious to raise the

he ight O f our educational fabr ic , are for broaden ing i tsbase at the same t ime', SO that those seeking educat ion ,

may have what they are fi t ted for,and none but

'

theab solutely unfi t may be exc luded f rom the benefi ts ofeducat ion .

l 'l

I view the matter i n i tspu rely educat iona l aspect,andI deem i t undesirab le as i t is unnecessary to discuss ‘

the questi on of Government pol icy,or to dwel l upon

the causes that have led to the establ ishment.

oi theNational Counci l of Educat ion . I would only remarkthat none need be under any apprehension that theN at iona l Counci l c f Educat ion i s an tagonist ic to anyone or

,opposed to the i nterests of otheq ,educational

institutions, Wei Shall

,

certainly . teach our,p upi ls to

clove their country and their nation , but Weshall neer

I


tolerate in them, much l ess , teach them ,want of love:

for others ; for we devoutly bel ieve i n the pr inciple,

often lost s ight of ‘by many i n the elat ion of prosper ityor

.

under the ea peration of adversity , that t rue se l fr

love i s incompat ible with want of love for any fel lowman,

and that true sel f - interest can never be secured byinjury to the leg i t imate interests of others .

There is ample field for educat ional work , and ampleScope for tr ia l o f new systems . Only a very smallsection o f the population of the country is rece ivingeducat ion now

,and that educat ion is given under one

un i form system al l t h roughout. An educational institut ion proceed ing on new l ines may at least cla im a fair

t r ia l . Moreover unhealthy competit ion must be mostun l ikely in th is case. Our col lege and School have therare good fortune of being supported by endo ents

,

and they wil l not have to depend upon fees from'

students;

W h i le thus disavowing al l intent ion of antagon ism.

and r iv alry , we confident ly hope that th i s inst i tut ionwi l l prove a rival of other educat ional inst itut ions inth is sense that i ts in tr ins ic mer its may

, Heaven wil l ing ,enable i t to Show sat is factory results But then whereis the harm ? We claim no monopoly of methods

.I f

our methods are found e fficacious,they may be adopted.

by others and then al l r ivalry wi l l disappear .

The quest ion might be incidental ly asked why, if

'

there i s n o rivalry,the Counc i l does not ut i l ise any

of the existi ng col leg es and Sch ools by granting them '

pecun iary aid . T he answer i s s imple . They al l fol low


l iv ing and thus to i n tensi ty the struggle for ex istence .The an imal necessi t ies of l i fe render a certain amountof: struggle almost inevitable. But the object of trueprogress is to minimise

,not to increase . i t . The more

our energies are absorbed by i t the less room there i sfor their employment in .the higher struggle of the soulfor the attai nment of a better condi t ion .

” And theseare the words

,not of a visionary or enthus iast , but of

a,sound pract ical man of sc ience .

I n regard to techn ical educat ion the Counci l does notentertain any ambi t ious p roject . I t does not proposeany comprehensive scheme for the sake of log ical com

pleteness. I t W i l l be content to promote the study ofsuch branches o f the arts and sciences as are best calcul ated to develop the material resources O f the countryand to sati s fy i ts p ressing wants . I t s resources areextremely smal l compared with the requirements of anyscheme of techn ical educat ion however incomplete ; andthe Counci l appea ls to the publ ic for funds , and hopethat th rough the exert ions of certai n gent lemenwho areleading members o f both the insti tut ions some sat isfactory scheme Of co - operat ion with the Bengal Techn icalIns t i tute may be dev ised .

3 . Relig iousEduca tion

About the th i rd object O f the Counci l namely, re l igiouseducat ion , there has been some difference of opin ionBeing deeply convinced Of the necess i ty of rel igiouseducation ,

the Counc i l have resolved upon provid ihg fordenominat ional rel ig iouseducation subject to certain

cond i t ions,which I need not here cOnsider i n detai l

.

SIR GOOROODAS BANERJEE 237

‘

Afi hour wi l l be set apart for re l igious instruct ionWhenS tudents profess ing differen t creeds W i l l go to the i rrespect ive teachers for instruct ion , which wi l l no ti ncl ude any r itual Observances. One chi ef purpose

of such instruct ion is , i f I may be permitted to add , toevoke and foster the rel igious sent imen t and to makeour young men real ize the presence of God and thenearness of a f uture state

,so that they may go right

amidst al l th e d i fficul t ies of l i fe,under the enOourag ing

assurance that there is a beneficent almighty Poweralways watch ing over them , and the land of promisewhere the wrongs Of th is world wil l be Set r ight is notfar off .

4 . P rof ic iency and D iscipline

The object of the Counci l next Specified above,i s to

exact a h igh standard of proficiency and to enforcestrict d isc ipl ine. The publ ic in general and the studentcommuni ty in part icular Should take note of th is expressannouncement of the Counc i l , and remember that i t wi l lnever tolerate any low standard

,of proficiency or laxity

of disc ipl ine. Of the two main objects o f educat ion

namely , the stor ing of the mind wi th knowledge, andthe train ing of i t s facul t ies , intel lectual and moral , weconsider the latter to be of much greater importaii ce .

And the Counci l wi l l always take Special care to makeits methods of teaching help ful towards the develop

”ment of the powers of inte l l igent Observat ion , independent th inking , and sel f rel iant exertion , and the format ion o f habits of reveren ce for superiors

, Obedience toauthority, and readiness to respond to the cal l of duty ,

'

238 THE IND IAN NATION BUILDERS

rather than to the mechan ical acquisi t ion of knowledgea nd the memor ising of moral maxims.

5 . Vernaculars to be the med ium of Instruotion

Another express object o f the Counc i l is to imparteducat ion ordinari ly th rough the medium of t hevernaculars

,Engl ish being studied as a second language

and to prepare,and encourage the preparat ion o f text

b ook i n the vernaculars in arts and sc ience ; and it thisobject is attained ,it wil l h ave far - reach ing consequences .Except i n the lowest forms

,the di fferent subjects o f

s tudy have at present , al l to be learnt i n our schools andcol leges i n Engl ish , and th is throws no s mall burden onour students . Engl ish is a very di fficul t language for aforeigner, especial ly a Bengal i to learn because Engl ishand Bengal i d i ffer so widely

,not only in thei r

vocabul aries but also in their grammatical structures

and idioms . And thi s d i fficul ty , is real ly so great thati t not only overtaxes the energy of our studen ts

,but

also cramps the ir thought . Our scheme of impartingknowledge so far as pract icable through the medium o fthe vernaculars wi l l l ighten the labour of the studentand make the acquisit ion of knowledge more speedyand more direc t . There is no doubt a practical di fficul tyari sing from there being so many d ifierent vernacularsW e shal l have to select not more than two ; and I thinkthey should be Bengal i and Urdu.

The impetus which our scheme wi l l give to thepreparat ion of text books in the d iffereii t subjects in'Bengal i and Urdu wi l l enrich those l anguages and

240 THE I NDIAN NA T ION BUILDERS '

make 'or the occasional good luck of lesser intel lects to

hi t upon . And no genius can be cal led into ex istenceby the offer of fel lowsh ips

,nor can a l ucky chancehe

created by effort. But leaving great d iscoveries apar t ,there is much useful or igina l research which br igh ti ntel l igence properly trained and equipped W i th necessary appl iances can accompl ish

,and thereby add

to our stock of knowledge or means of phys ical comfort ; and the Counc i l so far as f unds permit W i l lencourage workers in th is direct i on .

One great drawback i n the progress of educat ion i sthe want of competent trained teachers . I t is not everyone who knows a subject that can teach it properly.

Knowledge of the subject to be taught is no doubt a

necessary qual ificat ion in a teacher , but i t is not asu fficien t qual ification . A teacher must possess manyother qual ifizations of a h igh order , intel lectual as wel las moral . And the train ing o f a body of competentteachers must be a necessary pre l im in ary to the workof educat ion . Teach ing is an art and a di fficul t artan d the art is based upon recond i te pr inciples of thesc ience o f mind . Every teacher must learn h i s

'

art aridknow at least as much o f menta l sc ience as concerns hisar t. And i f the tra ined School - master i s abroad theSpeard of educat ion W i l l rece ive a powerful impetus.

7 . Organisa tion of Educa ti ona l meetm g s

T he,last of the obj ects of the Counci l to which I .

wanted to cal l your at tent ion , is the organisation i iof

meet ings and conferences for advancing the cause of

S IR GOOROODAS BANERJEE' 241

ed ucat ion . Besides occas iona l meet ings and con fersuces , i t i s proposed to have regu lar meetings at wh ichpersons interested in educat ion may meet and interchange their views on var ious subjects and educ ate

,

each other, youth profitting by the experience of ag eand age being rej uvenated in knowledge by contactw i th youth.

ll . Plan of Work

The above are some of the many excel len t objectswhich the Nat ional Counci l of Education has in Viewand the next quest ion is how does the Counc i l propose

to attai n them.

S chemeof S tud ies and Examinations

The counci l has prescri bed course of st udy underthree heads

,namely ,( 1)Pr imaryj ncluding a three year s

’

course to be commenced by a boy in h is 6th year,

(2)Secondary , i ncluding a seven years’ course to be com

menced by a boy in his 9th year and fin ished when his

age is 15 years , the courses for the 5 th year and the

7th year being respect ively near ly equivalen t to thepr esent Matriculat ion Course, and the cour se for theIntermediate or F . A . Examinat ion o f the CalcuttaUniversity and (3)Col leg iate, i ncluding a four years

’

course i n a single subject , l i terary or sc ien t ific wi th oneal l ied subsidiary subject . e

quivalent to the B .A . Honour

Course of the Un iversity .

The scheme of Technical Educat ion has not yet16


been completed. I t wi l l be settled after consultationwith experts.There wi l l be three Publ ic Examinations , one at the

end of each . course and for some years there wi l l beanother examinat ion

'

at the end o f the 5 th year o f the

Secon dary course .

I w i l l not take you through the details“ of thesecourses but merely point out to you some o f the,

5pec ial

features o f the scheme of educat ion adopted by the

Counci l .

1 . The scheme attaches j ust importance to theawakenzng o f the powers o f observa tion and thought bymeans of Obj ect Le ssons .

2 . I t seeks to make educat ion pe asant to thelearner by prescr ibing lessons so as to alternately

satisfy and st imulate natural cur ios ity .

3 . I t seeks to make educat ion easy by impart ing i tthrough the medium of the learner

’s vernacular .

4 . I t seeks to make educat ion real by ins ist ing onthe learner ’s acquiring a knowledge of th ings andthoughts and not merely of words and sentences whichare only the i r verbal express ion .

5 . I t seeks to save the learner ’s time by arrangingthe course of study so as to enable h im to master in 5years, after finish ing h is Pr im ary Educat ion

,wha t

he now takes 7 years to learn , the s tandard forthe 5 th year bei ng equal to the p resent Entrancestandard of the Calcutta Un ivers i ty whi le that for the

6 th and 7th years i s equal to the standard for itsIntermediate Examination in Arts, attainable under theexist ing system only after 9 years ’ study.

244 THE IN DIAN NAT ION BUILDERS

educat ion and rel igious educat ion subject to certain

conditions.10. The scheme as a whole seeks , on its l ibe ral

side, to t rain students intel lectual ly and moral ly So as

to mould thei r character according tothehighest nationalideals ; and on its technical side , to trai n them so as toqual i fy them for developing the natural resources of thecountry and i ncreasing its material weal th .

A M odel College and S chool

The Counci l has establ ished a model col lege and a

model school for impart ing in st ruct ion in the courses

prescribed , and appointed professors and teachers in

the subjects l ikely to be taken up by students. Regarding )

the efficiency of the teach ing staff I sha l l on ly say this

for the presen t , that the gen t lemen appointed are either

experienced teachers or dist inguished graduates o f

Indian or European Universi t ies . I W i l l not say morebut leave their efficiency to be proved by their work .

There is however one mer i t i n our staff which i s ent it ledto immediate recogn i t ion . I t is the Spi r it of se l f - sacr ifice .

which almost every member of the staff has shown .

Every one o f them has made some personal sacr ificein joining our inst itution , and is actuated by a rea ldesire to serve his count ry. The best thanks

'

of theCounc i l are due to them ,

Our S tudents and their F utu re Ca reer

Two impo rtant quest ions her e ar ise,— first

,what

classes of students are l ikely to jo in our school s and :

S IR GOOROOD AS BANERJEE

c ol lege — and second , what future career s wi l l theirtr a ining under us qual i fy them forThese are quest ions which demand carefu l cons ider a

t ion . They have occupied the attent ion of severalmembers of the CounC i l, and I shal l br iefly indicate to

you the answers that have occur red to us.W e do not know what value W i l l be attached by the

Un ivers i ties or by the Government and other employers

of ski l l ed labour , to the train ing we give and the tests

We have prescribed ; and we should therefore proceedupon the assumption that they wi l l receive no recogni

t ion,except from Zemindars and private associat ions

that may view th is national movement wi th spec ia lf avour . Studen ts an d the ir guardians must thereforeclear ly understand that those who joi n our school orcol lege do so for the intrinsic benefi ts derivable fromour train ing and not for any extrinsic advantagesa ccruing out of i t . Those who seek government scholarsh ips , University degrees oi Government serv ice wi l lnot have much inducement to join our insti t ution . But

they who seek knowledge and cul ture for their aownsake , and they who seek to ear n their l iving otherwi sethan by Government service or the pract ice of the legal

profession, may not f eel the same hes i tat ion in takingadmiss ion i nto our col lege or school . We shal l give

our studen ts every fac i l i ty for gain ing sound and usefulknowledge

,for cul t ivat ing the ir mental powers , and for

forming good habit s . There wil l also be a few scholarships and fe l lowships avai lable for deserving students.And these are al l the advantages we can offer. In thi sstate of th ings, we do not expect any g reat rush Of


students at least for the presen t . Nor need we fee lregret i f this i s the case. For i f the number ofour students is smal l

,we shal l be better ab le to look

after them than i f thei r number was large. There isone other class o f students who W i l l come to us, andthey are those. whom the Universi ty rejec ts or does notsui t. They are an important class for whose educat ionthe Nat ional Counc ll ough t to provide. They may notbe very br i l l iant students

,but they are not al l neces

sar i ly of i n fer ior inte l l igence . The Calcutta Univers ity

by insist ing on proficiency in a mult ipl ic i ty of subjectsnot un frequently rejects candidates

,who i n their

f avourite subjects are fi tted to do sol id work and earnd istinct ion . These student s W i l l natural ly seek admis'

s ion here and i f properly directed,they may do work

which W i l l reflect credi t on them and thei r teachers.Moreover

,our Pr imary

,Secondary and High Pro

heiency courses are so adjusted that no class of studentswhatever their aims and asp irat ions may he,

need be

excl uded from them . In our scheme,a student would

ord inari ly finish h is Secondary course by the t ime hecompletes h is 15th year

,that is

,one year be fore he is

elig ible for the Matriculat ion Examination of the Universi ty , and that Exam i nat ion wi l l be no difficu lt matterfo r him . So, that aspirants for Univers i ty degrees mayalways avai l themselves o f the advantages of our systemof educat ion in the Secondary stage.Then again , univers ity graduates may join our

institution for h igher st udy and research work or for

r ece iving tra in ing as teachers . But i t should be understood that the Counci l does not intend to admit students


I have n ow given you a rough out l in e o f the aims

and plan of work of the Nat ional Counc ilot Educat ion .

I t remains for me to offer hea rtfel t thanks to BabuB rajandra K ishore Roy Choudhuri, Babu S ubodh Chandra Mal l ick and Maharaja Surya Kanta Acharya whosemunificent endowments have en abled the BengalN at iona l Counci l o f Educat ion to commence i ts work.

They have earned the last ing grat itude of the countryand we hope thei r bright example w i l l be fol lowed bymany . Nor must I omit to acknowledge our obl igat ion sto Babu Satis Chandra Mukerjee who has consecratedhis l i fe to the wor k o f Education .

Though We have been proceeding wi th the utmostecon omy and have been fortunate in secur ing theservice of a competent teaching staff on very smal lremunerat ion

,we st i l l wan t funds , and large funds , to

en ab le us to give e ffect to our scheme . W e must appea lto our countrymen for Support and I hope we shal l not

appeal i n vain .

Adv ice to S tudents

Be fore I conclude I may be permitted to address afew words to our teachers and students. To theformer I have very l i t t le to say . They have by accepting office under the Counci l a t considerable s acrifice of

personal interest , shown such genuine devotion to the

Cause o f national educat ion , that no words of exhortat ionare necessary f rom me. I wi l l only remind them thatour work wil l be keen ly watched and severe ly scrut i

nised,and that we should always be prepare d t o be

j udged by the resul ts o f our labour .

SIR GOOROODAS BANERJ EE 249

Turning now to my young friends , the students, Iwould ask them to remember two th ings

,first, that they

are Indian students,an d next

,that they are studen ts of

inst itut ions under the contro l of the i r N at ional Council.

As Ind ian students they Should be true to the beStt radit ions of student l i fe in India which in the good o lddayswas a l i fe of Brahmacharya . T he irs Should be al i fe of ascet ic s impl ic ity , Spot less pur i ty , and rigiddiscipl ine and they should cult ivate hab it s of reverencefor super iors obedience to author i ty

,and readiness to

respond to the cal l of duty . In the ir youth ful ardourthey are ful l of enthusiastic love for thei r coun try .

They cannot Show that love better than by conduct ingthemselves so as to make the work of their N at ional“Counci l o f Education a complete success.They should not al low the distressing phantom of

an impending examinat ion to haunt them in thei r hoursof study ; but they should read wi th the pleasingassurance that they are gaining knowledge ; and theyshould remember that student l i fe is a period of

p reparat ion , not merely for the temporary trial in the

examinat ion ball, but also for the cont inued tr ial int he world outside.

ARAVIND A GHOSH

A STUDY

Long after this controversy is hushed to silence, longafter this turmoi l , this ag itat ion w il l have ceased, long afterhe is dead and gone , be Wi l l be looked upon as the poet ofpatriotism , as the prophet of national ism and as the lover ofhumanity . His words W i l l be echoed and re- echoed not onlyin India , but over distant seas and d istant lands.

"

UCH were the eloquent words wi th which Mr . C .R.

Das brought to a close h is magnificent orat ionin defence O f Babu Aravinda Ghosh at the Statet r ial which dragged its weary length f rom Novemberto March in the cour t o f Mr . Beachcroft, the Session sJudge Of Al i pore .

‘Poet of pa tr iotism ,

’ ‘

prophet Of'

natiM a lism .

’ "lover of humani ty

—What a r ing o fpass ionate emphasis there is in the words 1 and howfervent ly have they been re echoed in the hearts o fmyriad: of men and women

,al l over the country i And

yet the man who call ed forth th i s remarkable eulogyin h is favour , whose release has been hai led withquiet happiness even by those who are i n no sense h isfol lowers in pol i t ics whose every word i s hung uponwith fond and reveren t en thusiasm by r

'

r'

iultitudes ofadmiring fell ow - countrymen , who has inspi red withwholesome terror , a bureaucracy , vigorous

'

,tr iumphant ,

almost omni potent,a man moreover agains t whom

the pol ice and the executive directed thei r wholeart i l lery an d whom yet they failed to crush - three short

252 THE INDIAN NATION BUILDERS

years ago,what was he ? An obscure school master i n

far - off province of India— one who had apparentlyfai led i n l i fe and had ret ired into obl iv ion—a manunknown

,unheard - of , an al together negl igible f actor

in the st irring and slow - heaving pol it ical atmosphere of'the t ime. Even in 1905, when the clouds of com ingunrest were gathering upon the pol i t ical hor izon o fB engal, when the coun try was passmg through theb ir th - pangs of that N at ional Movement which has sincehad such remarkable developments

,who knew,

who

could even dream tha t Aravinda Ghosh wou ld comeUp f rom h is work in the far W estern corner of India

and would ride the whir lwi nd and d irect the storm ’?

Had we not leaders of our own - men of tr iedv i r tue and proved abi l i ty

,- men of note , experience

and tradit i on—veteran helmsmen who had weatheredmany of storm and grown grey in the service o f thecountry W ould we not ab ide by the ir counsel , takeour watchwords from the ir l ips, and fol low in the irfoots teps wheresoever they might lead ? How wasa young ret icent s tranger f rom distant Baroda to rep l acethese giants of old ? How was he to grasp in h is youngand unproven hands

,the rei ns wh ich were sl ipp ing

from the toughe r stronger hands of others P And yet“these th ings have come to pass. The quiet and graveyoung man,

f resh from long years at Cambridge (as

M r. Nevinson described him with a sl ight pardonablein accuracy), with h is many si lences and h is few golden

utterances , has establ ished h imsel f firmly i n the hea rtsand minds o f h is countrymen ; and tod ay the magic of

h is name has Spread its Spel l over the whole broad


I I . BEFORE SW ADESHI ‘

(a) B irth parentage education

Babu Aravinda Ghose was born at Calcutta on the15th of August , 1872. H is parentage and ancestrydeserve some note . His mother was the eldest daug hter ofBabu Raj NarayanBose, a man of the most str i k ing andremarkable personal i ty , and one who real i sed in his lifethe national isti c aspi rat ions of our country long beforethey found any definite or articu late express ions amongany considerable body of men . He was cal led in his t ime

-

‘the grandfather of Indian Nat ional ism,

’ and r ight wel ldid he deserve that name .He lived at a t ime when W estern influences and

W estern cul ture were first mak ing h ead - way in thecountry , when their glamour and fasc inat ion had laidunder i ts Spel l al l young

,ardent

,and generous minds ,

an d when the best Sp i r its of the land were eager tomould thei r n at ional l i fe after the models o f theW est . But Raj Narayan B ose , though he wash imsel f steeped in the cul ture and educat ion o f Europe

,

though his soul burned with a generous enthusiasm toreform the soc ia l abuses of h is country , yet never los tthe balance and san i ty o f h is mind nor Shut his eyes tothe super ior Spir i tual ity of H indu civi l izat ion . Hewrote and Spoke most forc ibly on The Superiority o fH indu ism and on the sad contrast between the Past

and Present,

’ establ ished societ ies for the conse rvat ionof the nat ional principl e , and inst ituted measures forimproving the phys ique of the Bengal is . In al l he saidand did

,there was that passionate at tachment to his

’

ARAVIN D A GHOSH 255

c ountry and h is race , that strong r esentment of . the

Spur ious aff ec ta tion of super iori ty on the par t of an

al ien people , which form a por tion of that r ich her i tageof inte l lectual capaci ty , moral integri ty , and Spir itualfervour which has come down to Aravinda Ghosh from

that most remarkable and or iginal old man who was hisgrandfather .But Raj N arayan B ose was someth ing more than th e

pass ionate and impulsive love r of h is country ; andcer ta in ly he was no man to cl ing bl indly to the old ,worn - out rags of the past. H is was a most complex

and composi te personal i ty ; and to gather with h is

intense l ove for India and Indian things,there was in h i s

character a bett ed of al l sham and untruth , of whatever

migh t hinder the f ree development o f a vir i le manhoodin the coun try . Thus there was real ized in his characterthat rare and curious combination— the ardent , almos tmil i tant defender o f h is country and the insti tut ionsthereof dwel l ing side by side with the aggressive soc ialreformer who Shocked the effete orthodoxy of h is timeby the plainness of h is Speech and the directness of hisaction .

There was, however , l i tt le i n common betweenthis force f ul and dominant o ld man and Aravinda

’

s

father, Babu Krishnadhan Ghosh . Sweetness, ten

derness gen ial i ty , and a perpetual sunshine in theheart which warmed and comforted whoever mightcome in contact with them— These were the commoncharacteri sti cs of . both ; but beyond th is thei r pathwidely diverged . Mr. K . D

,Ghosh was a docto r in

mtablished pract ice when he married the mother of

256 THE INDIAN NATION B UILDERS

Aravinda; but af terwards he went to England to qual i f yfor enter ing the Indian Medical Service . W hi le he wasst i l l in that country , his aff ectionate father - in- law wrote

often to h im , fondly expressing the hOpe that he migh tnever lose the d ist inctive features o f h is nat ional i ty iathe midst of the coarse and more effect ive c ivi lizat ionof Europe. But these hopes , as the old man recordswith sad sel f - restraint i n his autob iography

,were des

t ined not to be fulfi l led . Mr. K . D. Ghosh came back

to Indi a more angli cised th an Ang lci- Indians themselves ; but the veneer o f Engl ish c ivi l ization neve rcompletely over - lai d the real gold of the heart wi th in .

H e was the same sunny , gen ial , sweet and tender

souled creature as be fore ; and wherever he went in

his profess ional capac i ty , the poor had reason to l i ft .

Up their hands and bless h im who was thei r fri end .

He wanted to give his boys a thorough Engli sh.trai ning ; and with that view sen t young Aravinda , first

to St . Paul's School , Darjeel ing , and af terwards to

England,when the lad was barely seven years old.

I t may be a matter o f surpr ise to many , but i t i snevertheless the l i tera l fact, that Aravinda never knewany Bengal i , t i l l he was 18 or 19 years of age. Andthen he p icked up a l it t le smattering of hi s vern acularfor pass ing the Civi l Serv ice Examinat ion , just as

many an Engl ish student p ick up a l ittle Sanskri t orH industani for ' the same purpose . But whateverthat may be

,i n England , young Aravinda was first

educated privately at Manchester and then sen t toS t . Paul ’s School , London . One l i ttle fac t must

be sl ight ly touched on here . Aravinda’s father had

258 THE INDIAN NAT ION 'BUI LDERS

One curious fact has to be noticed in connect ion

with th is same Civi l Service Examinat ion . A young

Engl ishman , Beachcroft by name,competed for

i t in the same year with Arav inda, and in the

examination for Greek Beachcrozgt stood second, wh i le

Aravinda stood fi rs t. Eigh teen years afterwards,the

Engl ishman , then Sessions Judge o f Al ipore , was in theseats o f j ust ice , whi le before h im in the pr isoner ’s dock ,

chained and hand - cuffed , was Aravinda Ghosh await ingh is t r ial on a charge of treason and conspiracy . A curioustr ick of fate—was i t notSoon af ter h is fai lure at the C ivi l Service Examinationhe entered K ing ’s Col lege , Cambridge

, as ascholarship - holder . H is . father had died in the mean .

t ime,and he had to depend i for his expenses en t irely

upon the col lege - stipend . From King ’s Col lege , hegraduated in 1892, get ting a first - class i n the c lassical

t ripos .

Aravinda’

s educat ional career was now over : and hehad to set about in r ight earnest for the adoption of acareer in the world . Fortunately for him he hadnot to wai t long. The young and en l ightenedMaharaj ah of Baroda had recently come to England

for a vis i t . Aravinda happened to get acquain tedwi th h im in 1892, and next year took service under h im

as confident ial personal ass istant .

(0) At Baroda

W e may say that a new chapter opened in Arav inda’s

l i fe with h is arr ival at Baroda . He was now 21 years

old ; but the larger portion of this t ime he had passed

ARAVI NDA Gnos'

n"

255l

i n England. In Speech , dress , manners in al l theexternal and outer '

aspe'

cts of h is l i fe , hewas nothing:short of an Engl ishman . But i n Spite ‘ o f al l th is he;was an Indian

'

at heart . Nay , hi s l ong, close and

i n t imate fami l iar i ty with European ‘ l i fe and habits haddone an invaluable service to him : W estern c ivi l i:zation had lost its glossand glamour for him. He hadpenetrated behind its gl i ttering outer shel l of paintedbril l iance and had sounded to the depth al l i ts baldness;coarseness , barrenness and

'the ba rbari sm of i ts inner

significance. The soul less Splendour of the materialcivil izat ion of Europe , i ts inadequate solut ion of thepressing problems o f l i fe and society

,i ts fai l ure to

reconci le the reSpective claims of the t ‘individual’

andthe community— al l th is had been forcing itse l f uponthe attent ion of our quiet and heedful student of menand affai rs, and h is heart had long been wistful lyyearning for that deep peace and harmony

,that l arge

synthes is of confl ict ing claims and j arring susceptibilii

t ies which! is of the essence of the ancien t c ivi l izat ionof the Fast . And now, at last, the time had comewhen he could steep h imsel f in thecul t ure and civi lization of the land of his fathers

,when he could

reconstruct that l i n k with his country and his racewhich had been snapped by h is too ear ly transferenceto England and when he could readjust bi t by hit h isrelat ion s W ith that complex social structure

,through

which,and through which alone individual li fe can

reach its highest mani festat ion in India. Indeed the

12 years of h is res idence at Baroda form a veryimportant port ion in the l i fe of AravindaGhOSh. They


were the seed t ime of h is soul in the str ict l i teral senseof the word ; and , more than that , they were absol utely

necessary in order that he m ight identi fy h imself withthe l i fe

,thought and cul ture of contemporary India .

At Baroda, Aravinda Babu worked successively in

var ious capac it ies. Engaged in confidentia l work first,

he was attached to the Dewan i offi ce afterwards, and

from there was transferred to the State Col lege wherehe cont in ued to act as p rofessor for sometime. Then

he acted fo r a short wh ile as Private Secretary

to the Gaekwar and ult imately became the V icePr incipal o f the Col lege on a salary of Rs . 750

per month . As we have h inted before there i s l i tt lewh ich cal ls for not ice in the outer l i fe o f AravindaBabu at B aroda. The years he Spent there wereyears of growth -and si lent evolution ; o f study and

heedful observation . This .much however can besa id with certainty

,

that so far as worldly affairs were

concerned he was extremely wel l - placed and com for

t able there. He was popular among the students andwel l thought of by the publ ic and held in h igh estimat ion by the Gaekwar , Stil l i n the pr ime V igour of hisl i fe, he might have ascended i f he had so l iked, step bystep

,to the h ighest posit ion of trust and d ig n i ty i n the

pr ince ly State of B aroda . B ut th is l i fe o f rest and ease

‘

was not for h im . T he 'G od of Ind ia had other andnobler work to do for her - chosen son than to rust 'indisuse in the Cloistered seclusion of Baroda .

‘


country had closed var ious avenues o f use fu l employmen t to the

.

ch i ldren of the soi l,by the issue of secret

c irculars had sought to explain away the,Queen’

s

Proclamat ionas a dip lomat ic pronouncement not worththe paper i t was writ ten upon ; and, worst o f all , had

insul ted the manhood of the nat ion by accusing the

people o f a habi tual proneness to untruth and f al sehood .

The.cup o f b itterness and humil iat ion wh ich a subject

peop le have ever to dr ink at the proud hands of theirconquerors had 'thus become brimful dur ing the

viceroyalty p f Lord Curzon . I t coverflowed when thePar t i t ion of Bengal— ameasure of wanton outrage upon

popular feelings and sent iments— was carried intoeffec t in the teeth.of the fierce , determined an d unan imous opposit ion o f the whole Bengalee Speaking communi ty. Ostensibly dictated by reasons of admin istrat iveefficiency , th i s measure was t oo obwously prompted by adesi re to cripp le the growing sol idar ity of the Bengalees,and b) an elaborate Show of patronage towards theMahommedans, to set class against class and creedagainst creed an d thus to reaWaken the smoulder ingflames of abit ter racial and sectar ian controversy. TheV iceroy undertook a peripatet ic tour through EastBengal to reconci le the people to the proposgd chang e”1 by an avalanche of mellifluous oratory . One ‘enormous ’

te he certain lyW

ga inedW

over— but the rest of theople remained sul len and obdurate and only redoubledth vig our thei r passionate protes t against the pol icy

of the Governmen t. But their opposi t ion”ava ilednothing .

T he measure became law i n due course of rtime and

. then the long restrained pass ion of the people, baffled

‘

ARAV IN DA GHOSH l 263

outraged and mort ified so often , broke forth in ‘a floodof volcan ic impat ience and rage ; they resolved to,

ob»serve the day of part i t ion as a day of penance, fast ingand sorrow, and in the

‘

meantime to enforce ia‘

ir ig id

boycott’ of Br i t ish goods. And thus the New Movemen t

in one of i ts most prominent and ‘

aggressive aspecttswas

fa irly launbhed at l ast .But to take the N ew Movement as synonymous .with

Swadeshi an d Boycot t or ; to explain. it as originat ing

in a series of unpopular Governmen t measures will ibeto put an altogether narrow

,strai t ened and l imited

interpretat ion upon it . T he New Movement is some

th ing wider than Swadesh i and Boycott,n ay ,

-it i s widerthan Pol i tics itsel f . I t embraces the whole l if e andactivity of a people. I t is , i f we may so take it, -anecessary phase i n the evolut ion of al l States andN at ional i t ies . Such a New'M ovement came to Indiain

‘

the t ime of S ankaracharyya“ when the eflete

mummeries and 'j uggler ies into whiQtBuddh ism bad

'regenerated were swept away tow replaced by themanly and rat ional ph i losophy ‘ of the Vedanta. Sucha New Movement came to Europe in the 16th Century

.when the cobwebs of bigotry and Superst it ion wh ich- the Roman Church had ‘

spun during long years of easeand indolence were brushed r away before the vi r i l ity

. and vigour of the Protestant ism of Luther. i - I t came to~Eur0 pe again i n: the latter par t of the 18th Centurywhen the last vest iges of mediaeval feudal ism gaveway with a mighty crash before the onflowing i t ide of

Liber ia,

'

Egalite and F ratem ité. Forty yea rs a go, itcame to j apan

'and rai sed a'barbarousa nd primi tive


peOple‘to the topmost heights o f power , glory, and

prosper ity , and with in the last decade or so i t hascome to China and India— twin homes as they are ofthe oldest : i f not also mighti es t c ivi l izat ions o f theworld. In fact, such a movement— cal l i t Renaiscence,New B i r th , new movemen t

,whatever you like— i s

bound always , to come , whenever a people becomesconsc ious o f i ts corporate ex istence as a nation (oreven the possibi l i ty of such existence as a nat ion),whenever i t becomes consc ious that in the economy ofthe world , i t also has a mission which i t must , real ise

or el se stand gui lty at the bar of the un iverse,when

ever i t feels an impulse to gather in i ts powers,to put

forth i ts activit ies,and to give art icu late e xpression to

i ts aims,yearn ings

,aspi rat ions and hopes. AS we said

before , th i s New Movement has been coming to Indiawi th in the last decade or so . I t owes i ts or igin partlyto that Engl ish educat ion and that con tact with theal ien civi l ization of the W est , which , whatever we maysay to i ts d isparagemen t , has no doubt sti rred us upfrom that apathy, . indif

’ference and lethargy into wh ich

we had sunk . In a, larger measure still it owes i tsorig in to a better , closer , more int imate understandingof our past— i ts ph i losophy , i ts poetry , i ts theology ,a bove al l that marvel lous social - pol i ty of ancien t Indiawith i ts grand principle o f synthesis and ass imi lation ,the ful l significance o f which we have not yet adequate

ly real ised. And last ly,we must ment ion that we owe

someth ing to j apan , to the victory and world - pos ition

she has achieved , and something also to that wide

wave o f,en l igh tenment which seems to be pass ing over


and began t o shoot and Sprout and mig rgeon withwondrous v igour an d rapidi ty .

IV. ARAVIND A AN D T HE NEW MOVEM ENT

But where was Aravinda now ? To himalSo i n h is

lonel iness,

'

h is‘seclusion,h is aloofness , the cal l had

come— the ca l l to go forth and toi l in the vineyard ofthe Lord. Arav inda has always regarded the NewM ovemen t as a Special dispensat ion of God ; and suchit seemed to h im in those early days of its in cept ion andfirs t execut ion . Al ready he had begun to take some

,

though but an in considerable par t in the pol i t ics of thecountry . So far back as 1894, he had contr ibutedart icles to the Indu P rakash cr i ticis ing

'

the methodsand pol icy o f the Indian Nat ional Congress ; and in thelat ter part of the year 1905 , he came to B enga l partlywith a view to see an d study th ings for h imsel f .To understand the pol i t ical s i tuat ion of the t ime

,we

may as wel l br iefl y recap itu l ate some of the eventsWh ich had already taken place. The resolut ion toenforce a boycott of B r it ish goods had been adoptedby the Bengalees on the 7th of August 1905. Themeasure for the part i t ion of Bengal had been passedi n to law on the 16th October of the same year . I n theinterval , var ious c irculars had been issued prohibi t ingthe shout o f B ande - Mataram and forbiddingstudent to take part i n polit ical agitat ion . Besides

many publ ic meet ings i n the new province had beenbroken up by the pol ice under orders f rom the Exe

opt ive Government. These repressive measures werestrongly condemned by the Congress wh ich assembled

ARAVIND A GHOSH . 267

at Benares in December , 1905, and at the same Congres s , a resol ution was adopted dec lar ing that theboycott movement in i t iated i n B engal was j us t ifiedunder the Spec ial circumstances of the sunderedprovince . This we may notice

,was the fi rs t notable

victory achieved by the Reform par ty in the COngress. In the meantime

,the Government wentmerr i l y

on with its task of repress ion . The boycott h ad beenmost thoroughly enforced in the d istr ict of Backergungein East Bengal ; and so this di str ict came in for thespec ial attent ion of the Governmen t . Gurkha so ld ier swere quartered as .a punitive measure upon the smal l

tOW n of Bar isa l ; and these soldiers indulged almos tunchecked in a long cour se of l icense , i n t imidat ion and

petty p il lage . T o crown all,the Bengal Provinc ial

Con ference , ,which met at B ar isa l i n March , 1906,

.was di spersed by the orders of the D is tr ict M ag istrater

the delegates and vol unteers were indiscriminate lyassaulted by the pb lice, with lath i

‘

es and batons,an dBabu Surendra Nath Bannerjee was insulted .by

M r Magistrate Emerson , prosecuted for contempt

of cour t and fined Rs . 200 .

Aravinda Babu was present at thebreak up of theBar isal Conference , and we find that on his,return toB aroda , he gave a desc ri pt ion of that scene at a publ icmeeting beld

'

at that place. But this time his stay at

Baroda was of very shor t duration._In July , 1906 , he

came back to Calcutta and definitely took up h is abodethere.t I t was indeed high t im e that Aravinda Bab u shouldreturn to Bengal ; for her e in the land of his birth work.

‘


was wait ing for h im to do which none but he couldadequately perform. And so We find that immediatelyon his return to th is prov ince , he became prominent lyassoc iated with two of the most notable inst i tutionsw hich the New Movement had cal led into exis tence .

’

O i these one was

The Na tiona l Council of Educa tion

'We have said al ready that in the latter part of 1905,v arious circulars had been issued , forbidding studentsto join in process ions or other pol i t ical demonstratio nsof that nature. For disobedience of these c i rculars - 1

a disobedience in which they were f ul ly backed by themoral sense of the country at large— many students

were expel led from Governmen t h igh schools andother inst itut ions affi l i ated to the Calcutta Univers ity .

Thus the educat ional career o f these boys an d theirp rospec ts o f f uture advancemen t seemed to be marredfor ever . At th is cr is is

,the leaders of the country

fe l t i t to be thei r imperat ive duty to provide somemeans for the further education of these young men.

Generous donors were not wan ting who offeredl arge sums of money to ass ist any scheme which mightbe formulated for th is purpose ; a nd a ided by the irmunificent endeavours

,the N at iona l Counci l of

Educat ion was launched in to being on 17th of Novem

ber. Such was the immediate occasi on wh ich led to theinauguration of a national system of education

'

in ourcountry . But the need for i t was more f undamental1and far - reach ing than to provide a mer e rest - house tothwe students who had been expel led

‘f rom the offic ial


C ol lege did not offer adequate Scope for the exerci se"

of the vigorous patr iotic act ivit ies o f Babu Aravinda

Gliosh . The new Counci l of Education

,though

'

owing

i ts genesis to the endeavour o f the nat ional party in

pdlitics,passed almos t immediately under the control

of a timid and react ionary body. Forgetfu l of the‘

f act that the movement was,by its nature , a sort

'

oi'

counterblast to the efforts o f the Government , these

gentlemen betrayed f rom the first a nervous fear of

offending the suscept ib i l i ti es of the Government . Even

in thei r prospect us they were care ful to add : that

their object was not to suppl ant but the'

supplement

exist ing systems of educat ion . Th is,though avery

smal l matter in itself,was a suffic ien t ind icat ion of how

th ings were dri ft ing. In short , as has been wel l observed

by the wr i ter in the Swaraj , the author it ies of the

N ational College had a real dread o f the bureaiI cracyand no real confidence in their people.” Thus

‘

the

posi t ion of Aravinda i n the new inst i tution was sl ightly

anomalous ; and he was hampered in the carrying out

of his cherished educat ional ideal— not so,much by

any measure of actual Opposi tion as by .the ch i l l and

ungenial atmosphere o f the place . This‘

was a matter

of singular mis fortune , not S imply for the i n fant institut ion of Calcutta

,but for the progressive advancement

of the country at l arge For the educat ional ideal

which Arav inda had set before himsel f was a'

l o fty and

comprehens ive one— i ts aim being nothing less than

to actual ise the deepest God - consciousness of humad

l i fe i n the outer l i fe and appointments o f man .

Bu though thwarted in one o f h is endeavours

ARAVI NDA GHOSH 271

At aviada was not disheartened ; and a wi der field ofac t ivity soon presented i tsel f before h im. The

Bande- M a taram'newspaper

had been started some l i ttle time be fore by Babu BepinChandra Pal W ith material assistance from the lateBrahmabandhab Upadhyaya— than whom a more str i king and force ful personal ity was never brought to theforce even by the New Movement, r ich as i t has been iiithe discovery of latent talen ts and hidden forces ofcharacter Immed iately on h is arr iv al at Calcutta ,Aravinda was invi ted to contr ibute to . i ts columns ; andsoon practical ly the sole editor ial charge of the paperpassed into h is hands. A jom t- stock company was

floated to conduct the new da i ly paper and Aravindabecame a direc tor of the company and the lead ing'

Sp irit thereof . The B ande- M a taram leaped in to popularfavour almost in a day ; and soon ach ieved for i tse l fa remarkable posi tion in the field of Ind ian journal ism.

The V igour and energy of i ts sty le , the trenchan t d irect-rness of i ts tone the fear less independence of i ts atti tude,the high and insp ir ing ideal wh ich i t held up beforethe people , i ts passionate f a i th in the gen ius of thecountry— al l combined to root the new paper i n thehearts and aff ections of i ts ever - W idening circle ofreaders . Moreover , the people knew that ‘BandeMataram was their very own— no organ of any cl iqueset or fact ion , but W ide as Indian nat ional i ty i tse l f . Nonewspaper that we know of has ever evoked suchpassionate personal enthusiasm as the ‘Bande - Mataram’

d id dur ing its short ten ure of l i fe.


From the very fi rst ,‘the hand Of the maste r was

vi s i ble i n the wr it ings of the Bande -Mataram,

’ and thatmaster the world tac it ly agreed t o accept as AravindaGhosh . And yet i t wil l be a mistake to suppose thatAravinda did al l or even much of the wri t ing for thenew paper. He was assisted in th is undertaking by a

fine ba nd Of cO - adjutors, ch ief among whom must be

mentioned Babu Shyam Sundar Chakravart i,since

deported to Burma— a man Of i nfini te sweetness andtenderness . Of nature and one

,moreover

,whose sel f

effacement in the cause of the country was completeand absolute

,In one respect , however, the j udgment

of the publ ic was sure and unerr ing . W hoever theactual con tr ibutor t o the ‘

B ande - Ma taram ’ might

be— the soul , the gen ius o f the pape r was Aravinda.

The pen might be that Of Shyam Sunder or who notthe world did n ot care about i t ; b ut the voice

‘ was the

voice Of Arav inda Ghosh ; hi s the clear clarion notes

cal l ing men to heroic and stren uous sel f - sacr ifice ; hisunswerving

,un falter ing faith i n the h igh dest in ies

of h is race ; h is passionate resolve to devote l i fe , fame,fortune

,a l l to the serv ice Of the Mother.

I t was the Bande - Mataram which first brough t

Aravmda into wide and int imate connect ion with thelarger majori ty O f our people .

“ H i therto he had been afleet ing and wondering voice

,

‘a mere name and ashadow —but now he had become a defini te

’

ent i ty,a

recogn ised leader o f the New Movemen t. And this

posi t ion was further confirmed by his'tr ial i n the Po l ice

Court on a cha'rge o f sed i t ion . T hetrial ended i n hi s

acqui t tal and i ts on ly palpable effec t -waS' to increase

274 T HE INDIAN N AT ION BUILDERS

Speaking at al l important places on N at i onal i sm ini ts mani fold aspects. From th is tour he returned toCalcutta i n the l at ter par t o f Jan uary 1908. And al i tt le more than two months af ter , he was arrested anddragged to gaol on a charge of t reason and conspiracy

Before , however, I come to deal wi th that , i t wil l beconvenient to indicate what p recisely was the natureof the service wh ich Aravinda rendered to the cause

of N at ional ism. W hat was the character Of his teach

ing which distinguished A rav inda Ghosh in such aremarkable degree from the other exponen ts of N ation

alism ? What was the qual i ty and value of h iscontr ibut ion to the devel opment o f the pr inciple Of

swadeshism ?

(a) LOFT INESS OF H I S IDEALI n the first pl ace

,note the lof t i ness Of the ideal wh ich

Aravinda has so cons istently and courageously held upbe fore h is countrymen . This ideal is nei ther ‘ loyal

co- Operat ion with the Government ,’ nor Obtain ing fo r

the people a l arge share i n the administrat ion of thecountry

,

’ nor even the attai nment of Colonial Sel fGovernment ; i t i s noth ing more or less than theful fi lment Of our l i fe as a nat ion . N ote by the waythat th is ideal is not only broader and lof t ier thanthe other so- cal led ideals which have been dangledbefore us t ime and again ; i t is the only adequatesat is fact ion Of our legit imate aspirat ions , the onlyl ogical ideal wh ich seems to be worth str ivmg af te r .Alone among his compeers Aravinda Ghosh hasboldly declared that i t is as a nation that we c laim

ARAVIND A GHOSH 275

" to l ive and to perish . But Aravinda has not beensat isfied with merely stating the demand ; he has placed

‘ i t on a rat ional and ph ilosophica l basi s . Intensely- spiri tual by nature

,he holds that man ’s mission in the

world,the task wh ich he has been set to accompl ish , is

‘ t o real ise God,to fulfi l H im in our outer appoin tments.

This real isation can be e ffected on ly by fulfi l l ingourse lves— in our individual l i fe , in the family , i n the

community ,inthe nat ion, and lastly i n humani ty at large.B ut how is th is fulfi lment Of our l i fe in the nat ion

to be e ffected ? Obviously i t can never be done so longas al l nat ional l i fe remains crushed and smothered by

. the perpetual dom ination o f a vir i l e al ien c ivi l izat ion ,nor can i t be done by quiet ly merging our ident i ty inthe i dent i ty o f an al ien race and al ien people. Toquote the words O f Aravinda h imsel f : W e seek th isful fi lmen t by rea lising our separa teness and push ingforward our individual sel f - real izat ion .

” And the

readies t and most effect ive way in which this can be( done is by Swadesh ism Swadesh i i n commerce and

manufacture , i n pol i t ics, i n education,i n l aw and

administration,i n short, i n every branch Of hur

'nan

act ivi ty.

” This then is the creed Of Aravinda Ghosh ;and Observe how closely i t hangs together - to real ise

“(God is the mission O f man ; we can real ise him only byf ul fi l l ing ourselves in our i ndividual and nat ional l i fe;in order to fulfi l our national l i fe

,we must real i se

our separateness as a people and we can best realiseour separatenes s by being Swadesh i i n al l depar tmentsOf human activ ity. Observe also that this creed of

Aravinda is not merely pol it ical,beh ind i t there i s a


comprehensive world - phi losophy , a ph i losophy which

leads‘ us back to the dimmest days on Indian antiqu ity

,

to the time Of the Upani shads .

(5) ‘CLAIM OF FREEDOM ’

But i t may be asked— the f ulfi lment of ind ividual

and nat ional l i fe , does i t not presuppose freedom ? No

doubt i t does ; and th i s we take to be the special

mer i t of Aravinda that alone among Indi an pol i t i

ei aus, he has displayed no nervous hes itation to claima freedom

’ i n the widest sense Of the word , as the

g oa l O f al l true national progress. T O quote his l anguage

again .

T here are some who fear to use the word “freedom 1

but I have always used the word because i t has been themantra Of m y l ife to aspire towards the freedom Of my‘

nation . And through the m outh of my counsel , I usedthese words pers istently if to aSpire to independence is acr ime. you may cast m e to g aol , and b ind me Wi th chains .If to preach freedom is a cr ime , I am a criminal and let

m e be punished. But freedom does not mean the use of‘

v iolence, i t means only the fulfi lment O f our separatenational ex istence .

"

(c) FAITH i N H I S COUN T RY

I t may be asked— how is i t that th is man haspreached what no man has dared to say before h im ?

How is i t that he h as dared to cla im freedom for h is

country and people ? The secret O f Aravinda’s bold ‘

ness l ies in one thing and one thing only~ it is his

ferven t and pass ionate fai th in h is country. Love of

country ’- how common the words are ! how oft band ied


courage , manhood . The great words Of the Upanishadshave ever been toning in the ears Of Aravinda Ghoshw

the Sel f i s n ot to be real ised by the weak .

” Hold

fast to your fai th ,” he says , and act upon your convic

t ions ; and i f in so acting you are met wi th repress ion ,

suffer i t wi th resolute patience . But whether act ingor suffering , always be strong .

” T O quote aga in thenoble words of h is j halakat i Speech

,Feel your

strength , tra in your strength in the struggle with

v iolence, and by that Strength , hold down the roo f o f

the temple .

V. T H E BOM B CASE AN D AFT ER

In the foregoing pages,we have tri ed to give an

ind icat ion Of Aravinda’s Special contr ibut ion to the

development of the pri nciple o f n ational ism . B ut thepath o f the re former

, Of the man of ideas , is never‘

smooth in th is world ; and Aravinda has not beenwithout h is fai r share Of the tr ials and tribulat ions ofli fe. Of his prosecution on a charge O f sed it ion

,we

have a lready made sl igh t ment ion and i t only remains

t o give an account O f h is more memorable tr ial on acharge Of treason and consp iracy . On the 3oth Of

Apri l 1908, there was a bomb explosion at M ozzaffer

pore result ing in the death Of two European ladies .

On the znd Of May whi le Aravinda Babu was stil l inbed , h is house was raided by a posse O f constablesb eaded by S updt. Creagan and Inspec tor Benode

Beha ri Gupta . They poin ted— the cowards l— a re

volver at the breast Of Miss S aroj ini Ghosh , the sister

ARAVINDA GHOSH

of Aravinda ; placed i rons on hands,put a rope

round his waist,and then haled h im to the Cent ral

Pol ice Office of Calcutta . I t may be ment ioned here

that f rom sometime before Aravinda had ‘ receivedmysterious hin ts concerning a calam ity wh ich was

impending ove r his head but with the confidenceborn of innocence he had disregarded them al l . Be

that as i t may,on Monday, he was presen ted before

Mr . T hornhili , the Police Magistrate of Calcutta , andafterwards before Mr. B ir ley , the j oint - Magistrate ofAl ipore.

The prel iminary trial before Mr. B i rley commencedon the 18th of May . By that t ime the l ist of the accused

had swel led to 39— many of them being youngsters andmere sl ips of boys, with noth ing very revolut ion aryabout them , at least in their looks . There were some

interesting features about the tr ial . For one th ing someof the usual l aw officers of the Crown appeared onbehal f o f the prosecut ion ; and the case was en trustedto Mr . Eardley Norton— that D emosthenes from thebenighted province

,

” as a Bengal i barrister descr ibedhim with i rreverent w it. Again

,unusual precaut ions

,

were taken for guarding the prisoners as wel l aS the

precincts of the Court - house but these precaut ions, as

we Shall presently see, did not prove to be of muchavai l . The course of the tr ia l was marked by manyd ramatic and tragic incidents . In the first place

,one o f

the accused turned approver and , i n h is confession , be

incriminated al l sort s and condit ions of men . ;:The approver. —Narendra Nath Gossain,— was murrfiii red bytwo of h is fel low - accused ,Kan§ i Lal Dut t and Satyendra


N ath Bose . Both of them were s ubsequen tly hanged,though at di fferent dates— Satyendra having appealedagain s t h is sentence. The dead body of Kani Lal wasa l lowed to be cremated outside the ga0 1 compound an dthe process ion that fo l lowed the body was probablycomposed of a larger number o f persons than anyfuneral procession that Calcutta had ever seen

,

I n the meantime , the prel iminary trial before theMagist rate came to an end . O f the or iginal accused»one had been murdered

,two had been hanged

,and one

was discharged. The rest were al l committed for t r ialat the sess ions.The trial in the sessions court commenced on the 23rd

of October . One interest ing feature of the proceedings,namely , the previous accidental relat ion between judgeand accused , we have already touched on before. But

this t r ia l too was not wi thout a tragedy of i ts own. BabuAsutosb B iswas

,who was assi s t ing Mr . Norton i n the

conduct o f the prosecut ion,was shot dead on the

loth February , 1909. The trial came to an end afterMr. Norton had Spoken for 16

,and M r . C . R. Das,

counsel for Aravinda , for 8 days. Perhaps th is is not

the place to make any commen ts on the Speeches ofthe counsel but th is we may say without fear of contrad iction that the address o f Mr. C . R. D as was a

masterly Specimen o f forensic eloquence— nervous ,compact , close ly argued and with touch o f genuinepass ion which i s the essent ial characterist ic of greatoratory .

T he Assessors del ivered thei r Opinion on t he 13 th ofApr i l . They unan imously decl ared Aravinda Babu not

282 THE INDIAN NAT ION BU ILD ERS

of glory and tr iumph,yet vis ions - as they ’

are,not untouched by a gleam of f ar - off prophecy.

*

Thus he has sown the seed of poli tic al s ide of anat ional movement to grow and f ruct i fy . Now he is atPondicherry leading the l ife of a Y oga, under whoseeditorship a month ly magazine , ARYA of pure

phi losophy is being conducted to en l ighten the down»

t rodden masses under western civi l isa tion .

‘Thxs sketch or i g ina lly appea red m the MODERN

REVIEW , November 1909 . Owing to the a uthor‘

s {News

i t has not had the benef i t of h is revisio n.

THE AGE OF KALIDASA *

Valmekie, Vyasa and Kal idasa are the h istory o fancient India , i t s sole and sufficient h istory . They'

ar e types and exponents of three per iods in thedevelopment of the human soul , types and exponentsalso of the three great powers which dispute and clashin the imper fect and hal f - formed temperament andharmonise in the formed and per fect . For , thei r worksare pictur es at ones minute and grandiose of the threeages of our Aryan c ivi l isat ion of which the first waspredominat i ngly moral , the second predommating lyintel lect ual , the th ird predominat ingly mater ial . The

fourth power of the soul Spir i tua l , which can alonegovern and harmonise the others by fus ion with themhad not

,though i t pervaded and powerf ul ly influenced

'

each successive development , any separate age of

predominance , did not l ike others possess thewho le race as with an obsession . I t is because , con

jo ining in themselves the highest and most var iedpoet i ca l gif ts they at the same t ime represent andm irror their age and humani ty by their interpret at ive

\largeness and power that our three chief poets hol dtheir supreme p lace and bear compar ison with thegreatest wor ld - names

,wi th Homer , Shakespeare and

Dante .

I t has beensaid , truly , that the Ramayan represent san i dea l society and assumed , i l logical ly , that i t must

Reprint from T he Ind ian Review. 1902.

'


t herefore represent an imaginary one . The argumen tignores the al te rnat ive of a real Socie ty ideal ised. No

poe t could evolve out of h is own imaginat ion a p ictureat once so colossal , so minute and so cons is tent in everydet a i l . No number of poets could do i t wi thout stumb ling into fat al incompat ib i l i t ies ei ther of fact or of View ,

such as we find defacing the Mahabharata . This is notthe p l ace to discuss the quest ion of Valmekie’

s age andauthorsh ip . This much

,however , may be sa id that

af te r exclud ing the Uttarakanda ,which is l ater work ,

and some amount of in terpolat ion,for the most par t

easy enough to de tect , and reforming the text wh ich isnot unfrequent ly in a stat e of t rul y shocking confus ion ,the Ramayan remains on the f ace of i t the work of a

s ingle mighty and embracing mind . According to t hebalance of p robab i l ity the writer preceded even theoriginal draft of Vyasa

’

s ep ic and l ived be fore theage of Kr ishna and the men of the Mahabharata . Thenature of the poem and much of i t s subjec t matterj ust ify , farther , the conclusion that Valmek ie wrote ina pol i t ica l and socia l atmosphere much resembl ing thatwhich surrounded Vyasa. He l ived

,tha t 15 to say

,in

an age of approach ing is no t p resen t d isorde r and

t urmo i l , of great revolut ions and unbridled ar istocrat icv io lence , when the govern ing ch ival ry , the Kshat r iyacas te , in i t s pr ide o f st rength was assert ing its own codeof morals as the one rule of conduct . ~We may note thep la in asser t ion o f th is s tand - point by j arasundha in theMahabharat a and Valmek ie’

s emphat ic and repeated

p rotes t agains t i t th rough the mouth of Rama . This

e th ica l code was l ike a l l ar is tocrat i c codes of conduct

'


evolut ions of thei r pecul iar character - types, Ramaand ~Ravana and so created the Kamayan , the g randestand most paradox i ca l poem in the wor ld

,which

becomes unmat chably subl ime by disdain ing a l l consist ent pursu it of sub l im ity , supremely ar t is t i c by putt ingas ide al l the convent iona l l imitat ions of art

,magnificent

ly dramat ic by disregarding al l dramat i c i l lus ion , anduniquely ep i c by handl ing the leas t as wel l as themost ep ic mater ia l . Not al l perhaps can enter at onceinto the spir i t of t h is masterp iece but those who haveonce done so

,wi l l never admit any poem in the world

as i t s super ior .My poin t here , however is that i t gives us the p ic

ture of an ent i re ly mora l ised c ivi l isat ion ; contain ingindeed vas t material development and immense intellectua l power but both moral ised , subordinated to theneeds of puri ty of temperament and de l icate ideal ity ofact ion . Valmekie

’

s mind seems nowhere to befami l iar ised wit h the stern in te l le ctual gospel of M ark

kdma dha'ma,that moral i ty of d is interested pass ion less

act iv ity , promulgated by Kr ishna of D waraca and formulated by Kr ishna of the Is land , which is one greatkeynote of the Mahabharata . Had he known i t

,I

doubt whether the strong leaven of sent imental ism andfeminity in h is nature would not have rejectedi t such temperaments when they admire st rength

,

admire i t mani fested and force ful rather than Se l fcon ta ined. Valmekie

’

s characte rs act from emotionalo r imaginat ive enthusiasm

,not f rom intel lectual con

v ict ion an enthusiasm of moral ity actuat es Rama,an en thus iasm of immoral ity tyrann ises over Ravana.

ARAVINDA GHOSH

Like al l main ly moral temperaments, he instinc

tively insi sted on one old estab l ished code of moralsbe ing universa l ly observed as the only basis of

ethica l st abi l i ty,avoided casuist i c deve lopments and

d istas ted innovators in metaphys ica l though t as bythei r pers isten t and searching quest ions dangerous to

the establ ished bases Of moral ity , especia l ly to its

wholesome ordinar iness and everydayness . Valmekie,

therefore,the father o f our secular poet ry , st ands for

that ear ly and finely moral civi l isat ion wh ich was thetrue heroic age of the H indu Spir it .Vyasa, fol lowingValmekie, stood st i l l farther on into

the era Of ar is tocrat i c turbul ence and disorder . I f t hereis any kerne l .Of t ruth in the legends about h im , he musth ave contr ibuted powerful ly to the estab l ishment Of

those imper ia l forms of government and society whichValmekie had ideal ised . I t is certain that he celeb rate d and approved the pol i cy of a great ar istocrat i cstatesman who aimed at the subject ion Of h is order totherule Of a cent ra l imperial power which Should typifyi ts best t endencies and cont rol Or expel i ts worst . Butwhile Valmek ie was a soul out Of harmony wit h itssurroundings and looking back to an idea l past

,Vyasa

was a man of his t ime , profoundly in sympathy with itful l of i ts tendencies , hopeful o f i ts resul ts and lookingforward to an idea l future . The one was a conservat iveimperia l is t advocat ing return to a be t ter but dead modelthe o ther a l iberal imper ia l is t looking forward to abet ter but unborn model . Vyase accordingly does notr evol t f rom the ar istocrat i c code of moral i ty ; i t barmon ises with his Own proud and st rong spir i t and he

'


accepts i t as a basis for conduct , but pur ified and

transfigured by the i l luminat ing idea Of the m’

shkama

dharma .

But above al l in te l lectual ly is h is grand note . He isprofoundly in terested in ideas

,in metaphys ics , in'

eth ical p rob lem s he subjects moral i ty to casuist i ctests f rom which the more de l icat e moral tone Of

Valmekie’

s sp ir i t sh rank he boldly erect s aboveOrd inary eth i cs a h igher princip le o f conduct havingi t s spr ings in intel lect and st rong character he treatsgovernment and society f rom the standpoint of a praet ical and discern ing statesman l ike mind

,ideal is ing

so lely for the sake of a st andard. He touches in fac ta l l subjects , and,whatever he touches , helmakes f ruit fuland in te rest ing by original i ty

,penetrat ion and a sane

and bold vis ion . In al l th is he is the son of civi l isat ion he has mirrored to us

,a C ivi l isat ion in which

b oth mora l ity and mater ial deve lopment are power fu l lyinte l lectual ised . Nothing is more remakab le in al l thecharact ers Of the Mahabharata than this puisan t in te l

lectual ism every act ion Of the irs seems to be impel ledby an immense dr iv ing force Of mind so l id i fy ing incharacter and therefore conceived and out l ined as in

s tone. Th is org iast i c force Of the in te l lect is at leastas not i ceab le as the impulse of mora l or immoral enthusiasm behind each great act ion of the Kamayan.

'Throughout the poem the victor ious and man i foldm en ta l act ivi ty of the age is p rominent and gives itscharacter to i ts ciV i lisat ion.T here is f ar mom of thoughtin act ion than in the Ramayan, for less o f thought in

r epose : the one p ictures a t ime of gigan t ic ferment and


by any clear d ivis ion : such a partit ion would be contrary to the law of human development. Almost al l theconcrete features of the age may be foun d as separatef act s in ancient Ind ia : codes existed

‘

from o ld t ime ; ar tand drama were O f f air ly ancient or ig in

,to whatever

date we may ass ign their deve lopment ; physica l yogaprocesses existed almost f rom the firs t , and the materia l development portrayed i n the Ramayana and Mahabharata is hardly less Splendid than that of wh ich theRaghuvamsa is so bri l l iant a pictur e. But whereasbe fore

,these were subordinated to more lof ty ideals

,

now they prevai led and became sup reme,occupying .

the best energies Of the race and stamping themselves;

on i ts l i fe and con sc iousness. In Obed ience to th isimpulse the cen turies between the r ise o f B uddhism andthe advent of Sankaracharya became , though notagnostic and sceptica l , for they rejec ted violently notdoctr i nes o f Charvak , yet pro foundly sc ient ific andmaterial ist ic even in the i r Sp ir itual ism. I t was therefore the great age of formal ised mataphysics, science ,l aw , ar t and the sensuous luxury which accompaniesart .

Nearer the beg inning than the end O f t h is per iodwhen Ind ia was systemati s ing her philosoph ies and

,

developing her arts and sc iences, turn ing from Upani

shad to Purana,f rom the high rarefied peaks of Vedanta

and Sankhya with'thei r inspi ring subl imities and

bracing keenness to the phys ical methods of Yoga andthe dry intel lectual ism O f th e Nyaya or else to the warmsensuous humanism O f emotional rel ig ion , be fore its full

tendencies had asserted themselves , i n some Spheres

ARAV I NDA GHOSH 291

before i t had taken the steps i ts att itude portended,Kal idasa arose in Ujjayini and gathered up in h imsel fi ts present tendencies whi le he portended many o f itsf uture developments. He himsel f seems to have been

a man gi fted with all the learn ing of h is age, rich,ar istocrati c , moving whol ly in h igh society, f amil iarwith and fond O f l i fe in the most luxurious metropol isof h is t ime

,passionately attachedjto the arts,acquainted

with the -sciences , deep in law and learn ing,versed in

the formal ised phi losophies,He has some notable

resemblances to Shakespeare ; among others his busi

ness was,l i ke Shakespeare ’s , to sum up the immed iate

past in the terms of the present at the same time heoccasional ly in formed the present wi th hints O f thefuture. Like Shakespeare also he seems not to havecared deeply for rel ig ion. In creed he was a Vedan t is tand i n ceremony a S ivai te

,but he seems rather to have

accepted these as the or thodox forms o f h is t ime andcountry , recommended to him by h is i n tel lectualpreference and aesthetic a ffini t ies , than to have sat isfiedwith th em any iprofound rel ig ious wan t. In morals alsohe accepted and glorified the set 'and scient ifical lyelaborate eth ics Of the codes but seems himse l f to havebeen dest itute Of the finer elements o f moral i ty . We

need not accept any of the r ibald and witty legendswith which the H indu decadence surrounded his namebut no unbiassed student o f Kalidasa’

s poetry can claimfor h im ei ther moral fervour or moral str ictness. Hiswr itings Show indeed a keen appreciat ion of highi deal and lofty thought, but the apprec iat ion is

aesthetic in i ts nature : he elaborates 'and seeks to

£92 THE INDIAN NAT ION BU ILDERS

bring out theeffectiveness of these on t he imagi

nat ive sense O i the noble and grandiose , applyingto the th in gs o f the mind and soul the same sensuousstandard as to the th ings o f sense themselves . He hasalso the natural h igh ar istocratic feel ing fo r al l that isproud and great and vigorous , and so far as he has i t ,he has exultat ion and subl imi ty ; but aesthet ic grace

and beauty and symmetry sphere i n the subl ime and

prevent i t from standing out with the bareness an d.

boldness which is the subl ime’s natural presentat ion .

His poet ry has, therefore , never been , l ike the poetry ofValm ikie and Vyasa, agreat dyn amic force for mouldingheroic character or noble or profound temparament. I n

all th is he represented the highly mater i al Civi l isationto wh ich he belonged .

Yet some dynamic force a poet must have,some

general h uman inspiration Of which he is the supremeexponen t ; or else he can not rank with the highest .

Kal idasa i s the great, the supreme poe t o f the senses ,of aesthet ic beauty , of sensuous emot ion . His mai n.

ach ievement is t o have taken every poet ic element,

al l great poet ical forms, and subdued them to a.

harmony o f art ist ic per fect ion set in the key of sensuousbeauty. In continuous gi f t Of seizing an Object a ndcreating i t to the eye he has no r ival in l i tera ture . Astrong visual is ing faculty such as the greatest poetshave i n their most inspi red descrip tive moments , waswith Kal idasa an ab iding an d un fa il ing power

, and

the concrete presentation which this definiteness Of

v i s ion demanded , suffused with an in timate and sovranfeel ing for al l sensuous beauty of colour and form,


l uxury,i ts wsthetic tastes , i ts pol ite culture , its keen

worldly wisdom and i ts excessive apprec iat ion of wit

and learn ing. Religious and eth ica l thought andsent imen t were cu lt ivated such as in France under

Iiouis XIV . more in piety and profess ion than asswaying the conduct ; they pleased the intel lect or el setouched the sent iment but d id not govern the soul . I twas bad taste to be irrel ig ious , but i t was not bad tasteto be sensua l or even in some respects immoral. TheSplendid and luxur ious courts of this per iod supportedthe orthodox rel igion an d morals out o f convention

,

conservat ism,the feel ing for establ ished order and the

inher ited tastes and prej udices of centur ies,not because

they fostered any deep rel igious or eth ical sent iment .Yet they applauded h igh moral ideas i f presented to

them i n cultured an d sensuous poetry'

much in the sameSp ir i t that they applauded Voluptuous descr ipt ions imi larly presen ted . The ideals o f moral i ty were muchlower than of old ; drinking was Open ly recognised an dindulged in by both sexes ; pur ity of l i fe was less val uedth an in any other period of our c iv i l isat ion . Yet theunconquerable monogamous inst in ct of the h igh - classH indu woman seems to have preven ted promiscuousv ice and the d isorgan isat ion of the home which was'

the resul t of a s im i lar state o f society in ancient Rome,

in Italy of the Renaiscence, in France under the Bourbons and in England under the later Stuarts . The oldSp ir itual tendenc ies were also rather latent than dead ,the mighty prist ine ideals st i l l ex isted in theory theyare out l ined With extraordinary grandeur by Kal idasa

- nor had they yet been'weakened and d isheroized . I t

ARAVI NDA GHOSH 295

was as has been said of the cen tury o f Louis'

X IV . an

age of g rea t sins and g reat repentances ; for the inherent Spiri tual ity of the H indu nature final ly revolted

against that Splendid and unsatisfying l i fe of the senses .B ut of thi s later phase Bhartr ihar i and not Kal idasa i st he poet. The earl ier writer seems to have l ivedin the ful l heyday of the mater ial age before thesetting in of the sickness and dissat isfaction anddisi l lusionment which invariably follow a long outburstof materi al ism.

The flourish ing of the plastic arts had preparedsurroundings of great exte rnal beauty fo r Kalidasa’

s

poet ic work to move i n . The appreciation of beautyi n nature , of the grandeur of mountain and forest, thelovel in ess of lakes and rivers

,the charm of b i rd and

beast l i fe had become a part of contemporary cul ture.These and the sensit ive appreciation of trees and plan ts

and bi l ls as l iv ing th ings, the sent imental feel ing ofbrotherhood wi th an imal s which had influenced andbeen encouraged by Buddhism, the romantic mytholo

g icai world sti l l farther romanticised by Kalidasa’s

warm humanism and fine poetic sensibi l i ty , gave himexquisi te 'grace and grandeur of background and scen icvariety . The del ight of the eye, the del ight of the ear ,smel l

,palate

,touch

,the sat is f action of the imagination

and taste are the texture of h is poet ical creat ion , andinto th is he has worked the mos t beauti fu l flowers ofemotion and sensuous ideal i ty. The scenery of his

work is a universal paradise of beaut i ful th ings . All

therein obeys one law of ear thly grace ; moral ity i saes theticised

,intel lect su ffused and governed with 'the


sen se of beauty . And yet this poetry does not swim inlanguor, does not d issolve i tsel f in sensuous weakness ;i t is not heavy with its own dissoluteness, heavy of cur land heavy of eyel i d , cloyed by i ts own sweets , as thepoetry of the senses usual ly is : Kal idasa is saved fromth is by the chast ity of h is sty le , his aim a t burdenedprec is ion and energy of phrase , his unsleeping art ist icv ig i lance.As in the Ramayana and Mahabharata we have an

absorbing intel lect impulse or a dynamic force of mora lor immoral exci tement dr iving the ch aracters

,so we

have in Kal idasa an orgiastic sense impulse thr i l l ingthrough Speech and informing act ion . An imaginat ivepleasure in al l shades of thought and of sen t iment , a r ichd el ight in thei r own emot ions

,a luxuriousness of ecstacy

and gr ief , an entire abandonment to amorous impulseand rapture , a continual joy o f l i fe and seeking o fbeauty mark the period when India having fo r the t imeexhausted the possib i l i ties of soul - exper ience attainable th rough the Sp ir i t and the imaginat ive reason ,

was

now attempting to find out the utmost each sensecould fee l

,probing and sounding the souLpossib ili ties

in matter and seeking God through the senses. Theemot ional re lig ion o f the Va ishnava Puran as whichtakes, as i ts type of the relat ion between the humansou l and the Supreme

,th e passion o f a woman for her

lover , was,already developing. The corresponding

development of S ivaism may not yet have establ isheditse l f but on a higher ph i losoph ical p lane the same idea

works i tse l f i nto Kalidasa’s poetry . The birth of the

War -God is at once the Paradise Lost and the D e


search and t ravai l by commencing a fourth and per fectage i n which moral , i ntel lectual and mater ial deve lopment should be al l equal ly perfected and al l Spir itual isedthe inrush o f barbari ans broke in on h er endless

,

sol itary agony of effort and beat her nat ional l i f e in tofragments . We see the first preparatory and in i t ialstriving towards such an

'

age i n the renovati ng worko f Shankaracharya , res tor ing intel lect and Sp i r i tual i tyto the i r pinnacle high above the emotions

,prov ing

matter out of ex istence ; in the dramas of Bhavabhut iin which the emot ions 'themse lves were purified andexalted f rom the service o f sense to the service of thesoul

,and even Sensuousness was forced to Share in the

general exal tat ion and obey the summons of purity ;and i n the re- assert ion in social l i fe o f sobrietyand purity as ideal s imperatively demanded by thenat ional consc ience. But the work was in terruptedbe fore i t had wel l begun ; and Indi a was lef t wi th onlythe dregs o f the material age to p iece out her existence .

Yet even the l i t t l e that was done,proved to be much ;

for i t saved her from gradual ly pertifying and peri sh .

ing as almos t al l the old c ivil isat ions of Assyria , Egypt ,Greece

,Rome

, pertified , and per ished , as the materia lcivi l isat ion of Europe

,unless Spir i tual ised , must be fore

long petri fy and perish . That there is sti l l a vital i ty ,that our country yet nourishes the seeds of re - birth andrenewal

,we owe to Shankaracharya and the men who

prepared the way for h im . W i l l she yet arise , nowcomb ine her past and cont inue the great dream whereshe left i t off

,shaking off on the one hand the soils and

fil th that have grown on her i n her period of down fall

ARAVI NDA GHOSH 299

and fut i le struggle, and re- assert ing on the other her

pecul iar individual i ty and nat ional type against thecal low c ivi l isation of the W est wi th i ts dogmatic an dintolerant knowledge, i ts st i l l more dogmatic and intolerant ignorance , i ts deification of selfishness

,and

'

force, its v iolence and i ts ungoverned Titan ism. In.

doing so l ies her one chance of salvat ion .

KALID ASA’

S SEASONS

I

IT S AUTHEN T ICITY

T he Seasons of Kal idasa i s one of those early Works ofa great poet which are even more in terest ing to a studento f his evolution than his later masterpieces . W e seeh is characterist ic gi f t even in the immature workmanship and uncertain touch and can dist inguish the persistent personal ity in Spi te of the defect ive sel f - expres

sion . W here external record is scanty, th is inte rest i sof ten disturbed by the question of authent icity , andwhere there is any excuse for the doubt

,i t has firs t to

be removed . The impulse which leads us to denyauthent ic i ty to early and immature work , i s natural andalmost inevitab le. W hen we turn from the greatharmonies and victorious imaginat ions of the master tothe raw and perhaps fal tering workmanshi p of theseuncertain beginnings, we are irresistably impel led tocry out, “This is not by the same hand.

”-

But the

impulse,however natural , i s not always reasonable.

T he maxim‘

that a poet is born and not made i s only

- 300 THE IND IAN N AT ION BUILDERS

true in the sense that great poet ical powers are

there in the mind of the ch ild,and in th is sen se the

same remark might be appl ied wi th no less tr uth toevery Spec ies o f human gen ius phi losophers

,sculptors ,

'painte rs,cr i tics

,orators, statesmen al l are born and not

made . But because poet ical genius is rarer or at any rate‘Wider and more lasting in i ts appeal than any other , the.popular mind wi th i ts ready g i f t for seiz ing one aspectof t ruth out o f many and crystal l iz ing error in to theform o f a proverb , has exal ted the poe t into a Splendidf reak of Nature exempt from the general law . A manwithout the inborn oratorical fire may be trained intoa good Speaker

,another without the master ’s inspirat ion

o f form and colour works out for h imse l f a blamelesstechn ique , but so many a meagre talent become by di l igeuce a mach ine for producing correct verse . Poet icalgen ius needs exper ience and sel f d isc ipl ine as much asany other and by i ts very complexity more than most .This is eminent ly true o f great poets W i th a var iedgi ft . A narrow though a high genius works bes t on a

s ingle l in e and may show perfection at an ear ly stagebut powerful and complex minds l ike Shakespeare orKal idasa seldom find themselves be fore a moreadvanced per iod. Their previous work i s certa in to'

be ful l o f power, promise and gen ius , but i t wi l l also beflawed , unequal and often imitat ive . This imperfectionariSes natural ly from the greater d iffi cul ty in imposingthe law of harmony o f their var ious gi f ts on the bodi lycase which is the instrument of the Spir i t ’s sel f - express ion .

To ar r ive at th i s harmony requires t ime and effort .


personal i ty i s d i s t i nc tly perceived as wel l as h is maincharacteris t ics , h is force of v is ion , h is a rchi tecture of

style,his pervading sensuousness , the pec ul iar tem - i

perament of h is simi les , his characterist ic strokes o fthought and imaginat ion , his in d ividual and in im itablecast o f description . Much o f . i t is as yet i n a hal fdeveloped state

,crude consistence not yet fash ioned

wi th the masterly touch he soon man ifes ted , but

Kal idasa is there quite as evidently as Shakespeare inh is ear l ier work , the Venus and Adonis or Lucrece .

Defects wh ich the r iper Kal idasa avoids,are not

uncommon i n th is poem ,—repet it ion o f ideas

,use o f

more words than are absolutely required,haphazard

recurrence of words and phrases not to p roducea designed effec t but from carelessness

,haste or

an insufficient vocabulary ; there is moreover aconstant sense o f uncer tai nty in the touch and a

frequent l ack o f fin ished design . The poet has beeni n too much haste to vent h is Sense o f poet icalpower and not suffi c ient ly careful that the expressionShould be the best he could compass . And yet immature

,greatly i nfer ior i n chasti ty and e legance to his

beS t work , marred by ser ious faults o f conception,

bear ing evidence o f hurry and s lovenl iness i n theexecut ion , the Seasons i s for al l th is not only su ff usedby a high though unchastened beauty

,but marked with

many o f the most individual and essential features o f.Kalidasa

’s strong and exuberant genius. The defec ts

are those natural to the early work of a rich sensuoustemperament eagerly conscious o f poet ical power butnot yet inst ructed and chastened .

ARAVI ND A GHOSH

II

T HE SUBSTANCE OF T HE POEM

Kalidasa’s Seasons is the fi rs t poem in any l i terat ure

wri tten with the express object of describing N ature“I t i s precise ly sim iiar i n i ts aim to a wel l knowneighteenth century fai lure i n the same direction

,

Thomson’s S easons. The names tal ly, the forms

correspond,both poems adopt ing the plan of devoting

a canto to each season , and the method so far agreesthat the poets have attempted to depict each season in

its principal pecul iari t ies , scenes and characterist icinciden ts . But here al l paral lel ends. W i de as the

gul f between the gen ius o f one o f the greatest worldpoets and the talen t of the eighteen th - century versifier

is the d iff erence between the gathered strength andcompact fo rce , the masterly harmonies and the l ivingtruth of . the ancient Indian poem and the diffusear tficial ity and rhetor ic of the modern counterpar t .And the diff erence of Spi r i t is not l ess . The poet of a.prosaic and art ificial age when the Anglo - Saxon emergedi n England and got h imsel f Gal l ic ised , Thomsonwas unable to g rasp the first psychological l aws of suchdescriptive poetry . He fixed his eye on the object buthe could only see the outs ide of i t . Instead of creat i nghe tr ied to photograph . And he did not rememberor did not know that N ature i s nothin g to poetryexcept i n so far as i t is ei ther a frame , setti ng or ornament to li fe or else a l iving presence to the Sp ir i t.N ature interpreted by W ordsworth as a part of his'

own and the universal consc iousness,by Shakespeare


as an accompan iment or . note in the orchestralm usic o f l i fe

,by more modern poets as an element

of decorat ion i n the l iv ing world - pic ture is possiblein poetry ; as an independen t but dead existence i thas no place e i ther in the world i tsel f or in the poet ’s .

creat ion . I n h is re lat ions to the external,l i fe and

mind are the man,the man senses being only instru ~

ments , and what he seeks outside h imsel f is a respouse i n kind to h is own deeper real i ty . W hat theeye gathers is only important i n so far as i t isrelated to this real man or helps th is expectat ion tosat is fy itsel f . Kal idasa W i th h is fine art istic feel ing ,his vi tal ity and warm humanism and his p rofoundsense of what true poetry mu st he, appear s to haved ivined from the beginn ing the true place of Nature inthe poet ’s outlook. He is always more emotionaland intel lectual than Spir itual , l ike Shakespeare towhom he has so many str ik ing resemblances . We

must no t expect from him the magical i ns ight of

Valmikie, sti l l less Sp ir i tual d iscernment ofWordswor th .

He looks inside but not too far inside . But he real isesalways the supreme importance of l i fe as the on lyabid ing foundat ion of a poem ’s immortal i ty .

The first canto is surcharged W i th the l i fe of men and

an imals and the l i fe o f trees and plants in summer .

I t sets ringing a note of royal power and passion and

prom ises a poem of unexampled vigour and in terest .But to ring var iat ions on th is note through si x cantosseems to have been beyond the young poet ’s as yetl imited experience and narrow imaginat ive mastery .

He fel l backon the l i fe o f sensuous passion with images


error has nevertheless had disastrous efi'

ect on the

substance of i this p‘oem.

”I t is written in six cantos i answering to t he { SIX

Indian'seasons ; Summer, Rain , Autumn , W inter, Dew ,

and Spring. Nothing can exceed the splendour andpower of the open ing. We see the poe t revel l i ng inthe yet v i rg in boldness, newness and strengt h o f h is

geni us and confident ~of winning the kingdom of poe tryby viol ence . For a t ime the bri l l iance of h is workseems to justi fy h is ardour. 'In the poem on Summerwe are

,at once seized hy ' the marvel lous force of

imaginat ion , by the unsurpassed closeness and clearstrenuousness of his gaze on the object ; in the express ion there is a g rand and concentrated precis ion wh ichis our firSt example of the great Kalidasian manner,an d an imper ia l power , s tatel iness and brevi ty Of

Speech which is our first i nstance of the h igh classica ld i ct ion . But thiS °

canto s tands on a h igher level thanthe r est of the poem . I t i s as i f the poet had Spent thebest part oi h is f orce i n h is first enthus iasm and keptback an insufficien t reserve for the Sustai ned powerprope r to a long poem.

’ The decl ine in energy does notdisappoin t at first. T he poem on Rain gives o f anumber of fine p icture with a less vigorous touch but amore dignified restraintand a graver and noble r harmonyand even in the Autumn , where the fa l l ing off of V igourbecomes very noticeable, there is compensat ion in amore harmon ious finish of sfyle, managemen t andimagery . W e are led to bel ieve that the poet is findinghimsel f and Wi l l r i se

'

tO‘

a finale of flawless beauty.

Then comes .In :the next two cantos

ARAV INDA GHOSH 307

Kal idasa seems to lose hold of the subjec t ; thetouchesof natural descri pt ion cease or are , with a few excep

tions, per functory and even convent ional , and the full ,fo rce of h is gen ius is thrown into ‘ a series of , extra

ordinary pictures , as v ivid as i f actual ly executed in l ineand colour , o f femin ine beauty and sensuous passion.

T he two elements , never properly fused, cease even tostand s ide by side . For al l descript ion of the winterwe have a few stanzas descr ib ing the cold andthe appearance of fields , plants , waters in the wintrydays

,by no means devoid of beauty but want ing

in vigour , closeness of vision and eagerness. In'the

poem on Dew - t ide the -original purpose is even, fainter. ,

Perhap s the quietness o f these seasons, the absence inthem of the most bri l l iant pictor ial effects and grandest .dist inct ive features

, made tbem a subject un insp i r ing tothe

’

unripeness and love of violence natural to a richly”endowed temperament in i ts unschooled youth. But

the Spring is the royal season o f the Indian year andshould have l ent i tsel f pecul iar l y to Kalidasa’

s inborn

pass ion for colour,sweetness and harmony. T he

closing can to should have been the crown of the poem";

But the poets sin pursues h im and though,we see

a dist inct effort to recover the old pure fervour,i t is an

efl'ort that fai ls to sustain itsel f . There is no fal l ing off ,

in harmonious Splendours of sound‘

and language, .butthe sou l o f inspired poet ic observat ion ceases to in form

this beauti ful mould and the close fai ls and languishes. ‘

I t is not iceable that there i s a.double

.close to ‘zthe

Spring,’the two versions having been left

, after i the .

manner -oi the7old edit ions,side by side. Kalidasa’

s

308 THE INDIAN ‘

NAT ION BUILDERS

strong art ist ic percept ion must have sufl'ered acute ly

from the sense of fai l ure in inSpiration’

and be basaccordi ngly attempted to replace the weak close by animproved and ful ler cadence . W ha t is We may

presume, the rejected version,is undoubtedly the

weaker of the two but neither of them sat isfies. The

poem on Spring wh ich should have been the fi nest , isthe most d isappointing in the whole series.

I II

I T S POET IC VALUE

N evertheless the Season s is not only an in terest ingdocument in the ' evolut ion of a poetic

'genius of

the fi rst rank, but in i tsel f a work of extrao rdinary

force and immense promise. Many of the mostcharacterist ic Kalidasian gi fts and tendenc ies are

'

here,some of them in crude and unformed vigour but'

character is tic and unmistakable , g iving the po ema str iking resemblance o f Spir it and to some extento f form to the House of Raghu wi th a far - off pro

phecy of the mature manner of Kal idasa in the four ’

great masterpieces . There i s his power of fe l ic itousand vivid simi le

,there is the ind ividual turn of h is

conceits and the si ngle minded force with which hedr ives them‘ home

,there is h is mastering accuracy :

and l i fe - l ikeness in desc r iption consp icuous especial ly inthe choice and bui lding of the circumstant ial epithets.

That characteristic of the poet , not the most funda

menta l and importan t , which most st ruck the anc ient

cl i t ics , “pani asu Ka lida sa , Kal idasa for s imi les , i8 4

aviaryWhere presen t even in such'early and immature \


fulfil its purpose . T he seasons l ive beforelour eyes as

we read. Summer i s here'with its swelter ing heat s,

the Sunbeams burni ng l ike fires of sacrifice and theear th swept 'w i th

’

whir l ing gyres of dust dr iven by intolerable gusts. Yonder l ies the l ion forgetting his impulse

and his m ighty leap ; h is tongue 10 115 and wear i ly f romtime ! to t ime he shakes h ismane the snake with lowered

head pant ing and dragging h is cmls labours over th e

b lazing dust of the road ; the wi ld boars are digging in

the dried mud with thei r long snouts as i f they woul d

burrow their way i nto the cool earth ; the bisons wandereverywhere dumbly desi r ing water . T he'forests are gr imand parched

,brown and sere ; and before long they.

are i n the clutch of fire.

'

B ut the rai ns come, and Whatmay be yonder writh ing l ine we see on the s lopes ? I tis t he young water o f the rai ns, a new- born r ivulet ,

g rey and ful l of in sects and dust and weeds , co i l ingl ike a sn ake down the h i l ls ide . We watch the beautyof the'moun ta ins streaked everywhere with waterfal ls

,

their high rocks kissed by the stooping clouds andthei r 'S ides a gorgeous chaos of peacocks on thehorison the great c louds blue as lotus - petals c l imbhugely into the sky and

‘

move across i t i n S low procession before a sluggish breeze . Or look at yonderoovidara tree

,i ts branches troubled softly with wind ,

swarming with honey - drunken bees .and its leavestender with l i t t le opening buds. The moon at n ight

g azes down at us l i ke an'unveiled f ace i n the skies,the racing stream dashes i ts r ipples in the wild duck ’s

f ace, the wind comes trembl ing through : the burdened

rice - sta lks,dancing with the a crowd ing courboucs,

ARAVINDA GHOSH 3151

making one flowery r ipple 'of the lotus- wooded flake.

Here there can be no longer any'

hesitat ihn. .T hese

descr ipt ions which I remain perpetually ewith the eye ,vis ible and concrete as an actua l pain t ing , belong , inin

the force IW i th wh ich they are visual ised and the magnificent arch itect ure

“

, of phrase wi th which ’they are

presented , to Kal idasa , alone among Sanskri t poets.

O ther poets , hi s successors or imi tators,such as Banaor even

'

Bhavabhuti , - over load thei r descriptionfwith

words and detai ls ; they have of ten lavish colouring butnever an . equal power'of form ; thei r figures do notappear to*stand out of the ca‘nvas and l ive

.

Ar‘

i

'

d’

rthough we do not find here qii ite the marvel lousharmonies of verse and diction we find in* the Raghu ,yet we do come acrossplenty of preparat ion for them.

Here for instance is a verse whose rapid ity and l ightnessr estrained by a certain hal f h idden gravi ty is d istinctlyKal idasa ’s .

f

'i “'

Sei zing the woodland edges the forest fi re increaseswith the wind and burns“in theglens of the mounta ins;i t crackles wi th shri l l Shouting in the b amboo reachesi t Spreads wide in the grasses gathering hugeness in

‘

a

moment and harasses the beaSts of the wi lderness.

And again for honeyed sweetness and buoyancyWhat can be more Kalidasian than th is

j J

The male .cuckoo , drunken wit h the wine of them ango

,j uice kisses h is beloved , glad

’

of , , the sweet

at traction , and yonder bee in the lotus -b lossom murmur.ing bums flattery -

’

s sweetness to h is sweet.”

’

There are other stanzas which vanticipate something


of the'r ripest Kalidasian movements by thei r gravity,

suavity and streng th .

Sett ing the flowering branches o f the mango tree

quivering, Spread ing abroad the cry of the cuckoo to thenegions the wind fares forth l ike a lover ,

ravi sh ing thehearts of morta ls, by the passing of the dewfa lls

g rac ious in the Springtide."

I f we take Kal idasa anywhere in his l ighter metreswe shall at once perceive their essentia l kin sh ip wi ththe verse of the Seasons .I t is the same suave and ski l l ful managemen t

,the

same exquis ite and unobtrus ive weaving -

oi labial,dental and l iquid assonance with a recurr ing S ib i lan tnote , the same soft and perfect footing of the syl la~

b l es . On ly the language i s r icher and more developed.

We do not find th is pecul iar k ind o f perfection inany othe r master o f c lassica l verse

,

Bhavabhuti'sm anner is bold , st renuous , ex ternal ; J ayadeva

’s music

i s based palpably upon assonance and al l i te rat ion whichhe uses wi th extraordinary

,b ri l l iance an d bui lds into

the most enchan ting melod ies,but without delicacy,

restrain t or d isguise . I f there were any real cause fordoubt o f th e a uthorship

,th is verse would c lear ly

vind icate the Seasons for Kal idasa.Such is th is remarkable poem which some , l ed away

by i ts undoubted Splendours,have put in the firs t rank

o f.

Kalidasa’s work . I ts art ist i c de fects and its

comparat ive crudity forbid us to fol low them. I t i suncertai n in p lan , i l l - fused, sometimes raw in its

imagery,unequa l in its execut ion . But for a l l that

it must have come upon its contemporar ies l ike the

T HE RIGHT'

OF ASSOCIATION

Speech del ivered at Howrah in the year 1909.

(Annual meeting of the Howrah P eople’sAssociation.)

My friend, Pandi t Gispati Kavyatirtha has somewti at

shirked to- day his duty as i t was set down fo r h im inthe programme and lef t i t to me. I hOpe you wil l notmind i f I depart

'

a l i t t le f rOm . the suggestion he has

made to me . I would l ik e , instead of assum ing therole of a preacher and tel l ing you

,your d ut i es which

you know .well enough yourse lves, to take, i f you . wi l la l low me

,a somewhat wider subject

,not unconnected

wi th i t but o f a wider range .

'In addressing you tod ay

I wish to say a few words about the genera l right

as ass 3ciation especial ly as we have 'prac t ised and aret ry ing to pract ise i t in Ind ia ‘

toiday . I choose th issubject for two reasons , fi rst , because i t is germane tot he nature of the meet i ng we are hold ing , an dsecondly

,because we have seen arbit r ary hands lai d

upon that r ight Of associat ion wh ich is everywherecher ished as a S ign and safeguard of l iberty and means

of development o f a common l i fe .There are three r ights which are part icular ly che rishedby f ree nat ions. In a nat ion the sovere ign powers ofGovernment may be enjoyed by the few or the many, butthere are three th ings to which the people i n European

countr ies c l i ng,which they pers istently claim and af ter

which , i f they have them not,they always aspi re.

ARAVIND A GHOSH 315

These are, fir st ; the r ight of a f ree Press, secondly, ther ight of f ree public

'meeting , and', th irdly, t he r igh t o f

associat ion . There i is a part i cular reason why theyc ling to these three as inheren t r ights which they cl aimas sacr ed and with which author i ty has no 'right tp

inte rfere. f The right of f ree speech ensures to the

peop le thepower which is the greates t means for selfdevelopment

,and that is the power of Spreading the

idea . According to our phi losophy it is t he idea whichis bui lding .up the I t is t he idea which ex

presses it sel f in matter and t akes to i t se l f bodies. Thisis true al so in the l ife of human ity ; it is true in pol i t i csin t he progress and l i fe of a nat ion“ - I t is the ideawhich shapes materia l inst i tut ions. I t . is the idea whichbui lds up and dest roys administ rat ions and Governments . Therefore the idea is a migh ty force, evenwhen i t has no -physi ca l power behind it

,even when

it is not equipped with means , even when i t has no t

org ani sed i tse l f in institut ions and associ at ions. Event hen the idea moves freely abroad through the mindsof thousands of men and becomes mighty force . I t isa power which by the very fact of be ing impalpableassumes all t he greater potency and p roduces al l themore stupendous results. Therefore the r ight Of f reeSpeech is cher ished because i t gives the idea freemovement

,gives the nat ion that power which ensures

i t s future deve lopment , which ensur es success in any

st ruggle for national l i fe,however st r ipped it may be of

means and instruments. I t IS enough that the idea is

t here and that the idea l ives and cir culates . Then theideam ater ia l izes it se l f , finds means and instruments ,


conquers a ll obst ac les and goes on deve loping unt ilit i s expressed and estab lished in

'permanent and victor i

ous forms .This r ight of f ree Speech takes the form first of a

f ree Press. h is the Press wh ich on its paper wingscarr ies the’ idea abroad from city t o city , f rom p rovinceto province unt i l a whole continen t i s bound together

"

by t he l inks Of one common asp i rat ion .

” T he r ight of

publ i c mee t ing br ings men toge ther. That is anothe rforce .

'They meet together on 'a common ground ,

moved by a common impulse , and as they s tand or S itt ogether in their thousands , t he for ce of the idea wit hinmoves them by the magnet ism of

'

crowds . I t movesf rom one to another t i l l the hidden shakti

, the m ightyforce wi th in , st i rred by the words t hrown out from the.p la t form t rave ls f rom heart to hear t , and masses of menare not only moved by a common fee l ing and common

a spi rat ion,but by the force of that magnetism prepared

to act and fulfi l the idea . Then comes ther ight ofassociat ion , the t hird of these popular r ights . Given

. the common asp irat ion , common idea , common enthusi

asm and common wish to act , i t gives the inst rumen twhich b inds men to st r ive t owards t he common Objectby common and associated act ions : the bonds of

brotherhood grow,energy in creases

,the idea begins

to material ize i tse l f to work in p ract i ca l affairs and thatwh ich was yesterday merely an idea

,mere ly a word

t hr own out by the e loquence Of the orator , be comes aquest ion of p ract i ca l pol it ics . I t becomes work for itb egins to work and fulfi l i t se l f. Therefore the peop le

pr ize these r ights, consider t hem a valuable asset,


found out the way to external f reedom.

’

We havefound out the way to interna l freedom .

.

We meet and

g ive to each other what we have ga ined . ..W e havelearned from them to asp i re af te r external as theywi l l learn f rom us to aspire af ter in te rnal f reedom s

Equa l i t y is the se cond term in the tr ip le gospel . I t isa thing whichmankind has never accompl ished . Frominequa l ity and through inequa l i ty we move , but i t is toequa l i ty . Our re l igion , our philosphy se ts equa li ty for

ward as the essent ia l condit ion Oi emancipat ion . Al lrel ig ions send us th is message in a differen t form but i t

is one message. Chris t ian ity says we are a l l brothers,

chi ldren of one God. M ahomedanism says we are the

subjects and servan ts Of one Al l ah , we are a l l equa l inthe S ight of God . Hinduism says there is one withouta second. In the high and the . low,

in the B rahminand the Sudra , in t he saint and the s inner , there is oneN arayana , one God and He is t he soul of a l l men . Not

unt i l you have rea l ised H im , known Narayana , in al l ,and the B rahmin and the Sudra, the high and the low ,

the sain t and the S inner are equal in your eyes , thenand not unt i l then you have knowledge , you ..havef reedom

,unt i l then you are bound and ignoran t . The

equa l i ty wh ich Europe has got is exte rnal pol it i calequal i ty . She is now trying to ach ieve soc ia l equal ity .

Now - a - days t hei r hard - earned pol it ica l , l iberty isbeginn ing to fa l l a l i t t le upon the peop le of Europe;be cause they have found i t does not give perfect wel lbeing or happ iness and i t is barren

'

of t he sweetnessof brotherhood. There is no f rate rn i ty in th is l ibe rty,'I t is merely a po l i t i ca l l ibe rty . li .T hey have not e i t her

{a n ARAVI ND A‘

. GHOSH .3 u 319

the l iberty w i th in or the ful l equal ity or the fra te rni ty.

So they are turn ing a l i tt le from what they have andt hey Say increasingly , “Let us have equal i ty, l et ushavethe ‘ second»term of the gospe l towards which we

st r ive.” Theref ore socia l ism is growing in'

EurOpe.

Europe is now f try ing to ach ieve ext e rnal equal ity asthe second term of the gospe l of mankind, the universa l idea l . LI have said ‘that ' equal ity is an i deal evenwi th us

’

hut we have not ! tr ied to achieve it without .

St i l l we have - l ea rned“from them to strive after

pol iti cal equal ity and in return for what th'ey have

»

g iven us we shal l lead them to the secret of the equa l ity,

wi t hin .

Again there is f ratern ity. I t is the l as t term of thegospel . . I t is the most diffi cul t to achieve , stil l i t is athing towards whi ch al l rel igions 'cal l and humanaspirat ions r ise: '

fl‘

here is discord in l i f e, but mankindyea rns for peace and love . This is the reason whythe gospels wh ich preach brotherhood Spread quick lyand 'e xcite pass ionate att achment . This was the

reason of the rapid spread of Christ ianity. Thi swas t he reason of Buddhism ’s rap id spread in thiscount ry : and throughout Asia. This is the

,essenoe

of. humanitarianism bt he modern gospel of .love for

mank ind. N one of us have achieved our ideal s, buthuman societ y has always attempted an imperfect andl imited fulfilment of i t . I t is the nature

,the dharma

of humanity that it should be unwi l l ing to stand alone.Everyman seeks the brotherhood.ot ,his fe l l ow and wecan only. l ive by fraterni ty with othe rs. Through all


its differences and discords hlImanity is rstrivingtty

become one .

’I h India 1n thenancient t imes‘we had many k inds?

of associa t ion; fo r our'

l ife was much more comp lex anddeve loped than .it became af terwards. W e had ourpol it ical assoc iat ions . We had our commercia lassociat ions ,

'

our educat ional , our re l igious associat ions.

As in Europe , so i n Ind ia men un i ted' together formany interests and worked in associat ion for commoni deals . But by the in roads of a aSlOIl l and calami tyour l ife became broken and disin tegrated . Sti l l , t hough

we los t much , we had our cha racte r isti c forms in .

which we strove to ach ieve t ha t idea l of associat ion and‘

un i ty. In our society we had organ ised a commonvi l lage l i f e.

'

I t was a one and smg le vi l lage l i fe inwhich every man fe l t h imse l f

'

to be someth ing , a par to f a s ingle organism . We had the join t family bywhich we t ried to es tab l ish the pr int iple of associat ion

in our fami ly l i fe . We have not inour soc ia l deve lopments fo l lowed the pat h whi ch Europe has fo l lowed

W e have never tended to break into scattered un its.The pr inc ip le of associat ion , the at tempt to organ ize .

brotherhood was dominant in our l i f e. We had

the organ isat ion of caste of whi ch now - a - days we hea r

such bit ter co .mplaints I t had no doubt many and

poss ibly inherent defects , but 1t wasan at tempt ,howeverimpe rfect , t o base society upon the princip l e of assoc ia .

t iOn, the pr incip le of c losely organ is ing a common l ifefounded on common ideas

,common fee l ings , common.

t endenc ies , a common mora l d iscip l ine and sense ofcorporate honour. Then we had an inst itution which


impulses beh in d to dr ive or upl i ft i t . I t was bem lderedand broken by the forces that came upon it i t d id notknow how to move and in what direct ion to move. I t

tr ied to take whatever i t could from the l i f e o f the

rulers . It strove to take thei r pol it ical assoc iations and

develop that principle o f association. B ut ourpol it ica l associat ions had a feeble l i fe bound togetheron ly by a few common interests which by ineffect ive means they tr ied to establ i sh or protect

.

Pol it ica l associat ion among us led to very l i t t leact ion , fo r i t was an assoc iation wh ich looked mainly toothe rs for hel p and d id not look to the sources ofstrength with in . These and other kinds o f associat ionswhich we then tr ied to form tended ma in ly in oned i rect ion . They were inst1tut ions for the exchange o fthough t

,associat ions for the spread of knowledge , by

which we inst inct ively but imperfect ly tr ied to en

courage and express the growing idea that was with inus. This was the one real value of most o f our pol i t icalassociat ions. Then there came the flood of n ational

l i fe , the mighty awaken ing which appeared fi rs t i n

Bengal . The pr inc iple o f assoc iat ion began to take a

new form,i t began to assume a new l i fe . I t no longer

remained a feeble instrument for the expression of the

g rowing idea within us , i t began to become an instru

ment i ndeed . I t began to become a power. How didth is

'

new kind o f associat ion grow and to wha t objects

did i t address i tse l f P The movement was not p lannedby any human bra in , i t was not foreseen by any humanforesight . I t came of i tse l f, i t came as a flood comes ,as a storm comes . There had been slow preparations

ARAVI ND A GHOSH 323

Which we did not inst i tute or understand. These

preparations were main ly among the young men, theris ing generation, the hope of India. T her e the

Spir i t firs t awoke . At first i t was not what we wouldc al l an associat ion : i t was onl y a temporary union of

young men for a temporary cause. They called themselves by a name which has since become terrible to

m any of our fr iends o f the Anglo - Indian Press. Theyc al led themselves volunteers . For What did theyvol unteer ? They vol unteered for ser vice to therepresentat ives o f the nation who came together tod el iberate for the good of the people. T his is how it

first came, as an idea of service, the idea of service tot hose who worked for the motherland. Out of tiles

grew the idea of servi ce to the Mother. That was thefirst stage and the root f rom which it grew into our

po li t ica l l i fe. Then there was another st ream Whichrose elsewhere and joined the first. Our Anglo - Indianb rothers to whom we owe so much and in so manyways

,did us th i s service also that they always scoffed

at us as weakl i ngs , men who were doomed to perpetualslavery and had always been a race o f s laves , becausethe people of Bengal had no martial gi ft becausethey are not physical ly s trong , becaus e whoeverchooses to strike them can str ike and expect no blow

in return . Therefore they were unfi t for selb governqment

,therefore they must remain sl aves for ever.

Our Anglo- Indi an f r iends do not proclaim that theorynow. They have changed their tone. For the Spiritofthe nat ion could bear the perpetual reproach no longer,the awakening Brahman within our young men could

3 24 THE INDIAN NAT ION B UILDERS

bear i t no longer . Associat ion grew up for p hysical?ex erci se an d the art of sel f - defence grew into thoseSam itieSLWh ich you have seen flour ishing and recent ly

suppressed . We were determined to wash the blemish

away . I f th is was the blemish , to be weak,i f th i s

was the source o f our degradation we were determined

to remove i t . We said , In sp ite of our physical weako

ness'

we have a strength with in us which wi l l removeour defec ts . We wi l l be a race of brave and strongmen. And that we may be so we wi l l est abl ish everywhere these associations for physical exerc ise .

” That , .

one wou ld think , was an innocent object and hadnoth ing in it which anyone could look Upon withsusp icion . In fact we never thought that we shouldbe looked upon with suspic ion . I t is the Europeanswho have trumpeted physical cul ture as a most valuable nat ional asset, the th ing in wh ich the Engl ishSpeaking nations have pre - eminently excel l ed and'

which was the cause of their success and energy.

That was the second seed o f associat ion .

There was a third seed and i t was the thing forwhich our hearts yearned

,the impulse towards brother

hood. A new kind of assoc iat ion came into being ;

T hat was the assoc iation which stood by l abour and‘

serv ice and se l f - sacri fice , whose object'

of existencewas to help the poor and nurse the sick . That was

flower ing out o f the H indu rel igion . That waswhat Swami V ivekananda preached . That was what

Aswini Kumar Dutt strove to br ing i nto organ isedt

existence.- That was what the Ramakr ishna Mission,


men of the Bar isa l Brajamohan Col lege wen t out his

hands. They nursed the sick , th ey took charge ofthose who had been abandoned, they took up in their

arms those whom they found lying on the roadside .

T hey were not deter red in those moments by the

prejudice of caste or by the difference of creed . Theorthodox Brahmin took up in his .bosom and n ursedthe M ahomedan and the Namasudra. They d id notmind the epidemic or fear to catch the contagi on . Theytook up and nursed them as brother nurses brother

,

and thus they rescued many from the grasp of death.

Aswini Kumar Dutt is in ex i le,How did he establ ish

that influence , which caused him to be'

though tdangerous? By philanthropy ,by service . W h i leordin arycol leges Under the control of the Government were meresoullessfzmach ines where they cram

'

a few packets ofuseless knowledge into the brain of the s tudent , Aswini

Kumar b reathed his own lofty and noble soul into theB rajamohan Col lege and made i t an engine indeed outo f which men Were turned , in wh ich hearts and soulswere formed. He breathed his noble qua l it i es i nto they0ung men who grew Up i n the cherish ing warmth andsunl ight o f his influence . He made h is col lege an

inst itut ion wh ich in the essent ials of educat ion was amodel for any educationa l inst i t ut ion in the Wor ld .

Th is i s how he bui l t up his influence among theeducated class

,Tbav fol lowed h im because he had

shaped thei r soul s between his hands. I t is thereforethat th ey loved him ,

i t i s theref ore that they Saw no

faul t i n him . H is influence among the common people

was bui l t up by love , serv ice and philanthropy. I t was

ABAVINDA GHOSH 327

out o f the seed he planted that t he Swadesh Bandhab

S amit i grew .

What was the work of thi s Sami ti, the ex istence o fwhich could no longer be tolerated in the interests of

the peace and sa fety of the Empire. First of al l itconti nued with that blessed work wh ich the Li ttleBrothers o f the Poor had begun , nursing, serving,saving the poor , the s ick and the suflering . They madei t their i deal to see t hat there was no sick man or sickwoman of however low a class or depressed a caste , ofwhom it could be sai d that they went unhelped inthei r sickness i n the B ackergunge district. That wasthe fi rst cr ime the associat ion committed.

The second c rime was th is. T hese young men wentfrom house to house se eking out the suffer ing and thehungry when famine broke out i n the count ry . To those'

who were patient ly famish ing gthey brought succour ,but they did more. There were many people who belonged to the respectable classes on whom the hand offamine was laid . They would not go for help to therel ie f works ; they would not complain and show thei rmiser y to the world . The young men of B arisa l soughtout t hese cases and secretly , without inj uring thefee l ings of the suffering , they gave help and saved menand women from starvat ion . This was the second cr imeof the Swadesh Bandhab Sami ti .Then there was another. The soc ial l i fe of Bengal

is ful l o f d iscord and quarrel s. B rother quarrel s withbrother and quar rel s wi th bi tter hatred .. They carrytheir feud to the l awcour ts ; they si n ag ainst the Motherin themselves and in others ; they sow the seed of f


last ing enmi ty and hatred be tween their fami l ies . Andbeyond this there is the ru in , t he impoverishment ofpers i stent l i t iga t ion . The young men of the SwadeshBandbeh Samit i said , This should not be to lerated

any more . W e wi l l sett le their di fferences , we wil lmake peace between brother an d brother. W e wil l '

say to our pe ople , I f there is any dispute let us try toset tle i t fi rst . I f you are dissat isfied with our decis ionyou can a lways go to the lawcourts ; but le t us t ryfi rst .” They tried , and hundreds of cases were settledout of court and hundreds o f these seeds o f enmity

and hatred were destroyed . Peace and love andbrotherhood began to increase in the land . This wasthei r thi rd crime.Their fourth offence is a great cr ime now - a - days.

These young men had the hardihood to organise and

help the progress of Swadeshi in the land . There wasno violence . By love , by persuasion , by moral pressure ,by appeals to the Samaj and the interests of the country ,they did this work . They helped the growth o f our

i ndustries ; t hey helped it by organ ising the condi tionfor thei r growth , the only cond it ion in which theseinfants, these feeble and languishing indust ri es can grow,

the general determinat ion to take our own goods and

not the goods of others , to give preference to ourMother and not t o any stranger

,I n no other distric t

o f Bengal , in no other part of I ndia was Swadesh i sowel l organ ised , so per fect ly organ ised , so peace ful ly andqu iet ly organ ised as in Barisal . That was the last andworst crime they committed . For these c r imes they have

been proclaimed , they h ave been forbidden to exist .


lath i f athered the bomb and the bomb fathers the

daco it ies. Who have lathis ? T he samities. Ther efore

it is proved. T he Sam ities are the dacoi ts .” Our effi

c ien t pol ice have a lways shown a wonder ful abi l i tyGeneral ly when a dacoi ty i s committed , the pol ice ar enowhere near. They have not al tered thatthe golden rule sti l l obtains . They are notto be found when the dacoity takes p lace. They onlycome up when the dacoi ty is long over and say W el l ,th is i s the work of the Nat ional volun teer s

,

” Theylook round to see w hat i s the nearest Sami ti and , i fthey find any which has been especial ly active inf urther ing Swadesh i , they say , Here is the Samiti."

And i f there is anyone who was somewhat active inconnect ion with the work of the Samit i , they say atonce Wel l , here is the man . And i f he is a boy ofany age from twelve upwards

,so much the better.

The man or boy is instan tly arrested and put i nto hajat.After rott ing there some days or weeks

,t he pol ice can

get no evidence and the man has to be released . Thatdoes not frighten the courageous pol ice ; th ey im

mediately arrest the nex t l i ke ly person belonging to

the Samit i . So they go on perseveri ng unt i l they loseal l hope of fi nding or creat ing ev idence . Somet imesthey pers ist , and members of the Sam itieS , somet imesmere boys , have to rot in hajat , unti l the .case goes up

to a court of j us t ice and the j udge looks at the case

and after he has patien tly heard i t ou t,has to ask ,

W ell , but where is the evidenceFormer ly

,you may remember those of you who have

l ived in the villag es, that wherever there was any

ARAV IN DA GHOSH

man iii a vil lage who was physical ly strong the

police wrote down his name in the black book of hudmashes. He was at once put down as an undesirable.That was the th eory , that a man who is physical lystrong must be a hool igan . Physical deve lopment wast hus s tamped out of our v i l lages and the physique of

our vi l lagers beg an to deter iorate until this movemento f akharas and Samities came into existence to rescuethe nat ion from absolute physic al deter iorat ion and

decay. But th is was an immor tal idea in the mind ofour pol ice and i t successful ly effected tran smigration .

I t took this form ,that th is Sami ties encourage physical

education,they encourage lath i - play , therefore they

mus t be the nurser ies o f vi olence and dacoi ty andfactories of bombs. Our rulers seems to have ao

cepted th is idea of the po l ice . So perhaps this is thecrime these Samities have comm i tted . Noth ing has been

proved of all this easy theoriz ing. I t is yet to beknown when and where the bomb has been associated with the work of the Samities i n Eastern'Beng al . Ther e was i ndeed a great dacoi ty in

Eastern Bengal and th e theory was st ar ted that i twas done by one of the Semitics, but even our able

detective pol ice wer e unable to prove any associat ionin that case. They did catch hold of som e young men.

apparent ly on principle. There is a confident ia l r ule ,it i s confident ia l but the publ ic have come to know of

'

it ,— that somebody must be pun ished for the day ’s

work. ” That was the c ircular of a Lieutenant -Governorof th is province and the pol ice no doubt though t i tought to be observed faith fully. So they caught holdl

'


of some likely men and the people so charged wereabout to be pun ished for the d ay ’s work but fortunately for them a j udge sat upon the H igh .CourtBench who remembered that there was such a th ing asl aw and anothe r th ing cal led evidence

,th ings whose

existence was i n danger of being forgotten in th iscountry. He appl ied the law, he ins i sted on havingthe evidence, and you al l know the resul t .These assoc iat ions, then , which were the express ion ofour growing nat ional l i fe and the growing feel ing of

’brotherhood among us,d id suchwork as I have descr ibed ,

and these were the ways,gui l tless of any offence i n th e

eyes of the law,i n which they did thei r work. Sti l l they

have been suppressed not because they were criminal,

but because their ex istence was i nconven ient. I t hasalways been the case that when establ ished insti tutionsof governmen t were unwil l ing to move with the t imes,they have looked with susp icion upon the r ight o fassociat ion and the right of free speech , they have dis

couraged the right o f a free p ress and the righ t o f p ublicmeet ing. By destroy ing these i nstruments they havethought to arrest the p rogress which they did not'love. This pol icy has never permanentl y succeeded ,yet i t is fa ithful ly repeated with that s ingular stupiditywhich seems natural to the human race . The swordof Damocles hangs over our press . I t is nominallyfree

,but we never know when even that s imulacrum

of f ree dom may not be taken f rom i t. There is a lawof Sedi tion so beauti ful ly vague and comprehensivethat no one knows when he is commi tt ing sed it ion andwhen he is not . There is a law ag ainst the preach


lower and lower over our heads,Still we cannot stop

in our work. T he force wi th in us cannot be baulked,the cal l cannot be den ied . Whatev er penal ty be

infl icted on us for the crime of patr iot ism ,whatever

peri l we may have to f ace in the fulfilment of our dutyto our n at ion , we must go on , we must car ry on the

c ountry ’s work .

After al l what is an association An assoc iation isnota th ing which cannot exist un less we have a Chairmanand a V ice - Chai rman and a Secretary . An assoc iat ionisnot a th ing which cannot meet unless i t has i ts fixedmeet ing place . Assoc iat ion is a th ing which depends

Upon the feel ing and the force within us. Associat ionmeans uni ty , assoc iat ion means brother - hood , assoc iat ion mean s b inding together i n one common work.Where

t here is l i fe , where there is sel f - sacr ifice, where there i sdisinterested and unselfish toi l , where there are theseth ings wi th in us, the work cannot stop . It cannot stopeven i f there be one man who is at al l r isks p repared to

carry i t on . I t is only after al l the quest ion of working .i t is not a quest ion of the means for work . I t is s implya quest ion of working toget her in common in one wayor in another. I t is a matter of asking each other f rom

t ime to t ime what work there is to be per formed to

day and what is the best way of performing i t ,what are the best means of helping ou r count rymen ,what work we shal l have to do to -morrow or the dayafter and having sett led that to do i t at th e appointed

t ime and i n the appoi nted way . T hat is what I mean

when I say that i t is a quest ion of working and not ofmeans . I t is not that these th ings cannet be done

ARAV IND A GHOSH

e xcept by the f orms Which our European education

has taught us to val ue . W hatever may b e the

d ifficul t ies we can go on w ith the work. The associa

t ion th at we sha l l have will be the associat ion of

brothers who are un ited heart to heart , lof fellow

workers j oined hand - ih - hand in a common la'bour ,nthe

assoc iat ion of those Who have a common mother land .

I t i s the associat ion o f the whole country, to whichevery son of Indi a and every son of B engal ought bythe duty of h is birth to belong , an association which noforce can break up

,the assoc iat ion of a un ity wh ich

g rows c loser day by day , of an impulse that comesf rom on high and has drawn us together in order thatwe might real ise brotherhood , in order that the Indian

'

nation may be un i ted and united not merely in the

E uropean way , not merely by the common sel f - interest.but united by love for the common country , uni ted bythe ideal of brotherhood , united

'

by the fee l ing that weare al l sons o f one common Mother who is a lso theman if estat ion of God in an uni ted humani ty. That isthe a ssociat ion wh ich has been coming into being ,and has not been destroyed , s ince the movement camein to ex istence. This is the mighty associat ion , whichuni tes the people of W est Bengal with the people of

East and North Bengal and defies partit ion . because itembraces every son o f the land

,—bha i bha i ek tha in, or

brother and brother massed i nseparably together. Thisis the ideal that is abroad and is wak ing more and moreconsciously wi th in us. I t is not merely a common se l finterest. I t awakens God with in us and says

,you are

a ll one , you are al l brothers . There i s one place i n which

336 THE IND IAN NATION BUILDERS

you a l l meet and that is your common Mother . That isnot merely the soi l. That is not merely a division of landbut it is a l iving thing. I t is the Mother in whom youmove and have your being , Real ise God in the nation

,

real ise God in your brother , real ise God i n a widehuman assoc iat ion

,

” Th is is the i deal by whichhumani ty is moved al l over the world, the ideal whichis the dha rma of the Kal iyuga , and i t is the ideal ofl ove and service which is the young men of Bengalso thorough ly real ised, love and serv ice to yourbrothers , love and serv ice to your Mother and th isi s the associat ion we are forming, the great assoc iat ion o f the people o f B engal and of the whole peopleof Ind ia. I t increases and wil l grow for ever i n

Spite of al l the obstacles t hat r ise i n i ts way . W henthe Sp ir i t of Aswini Kumar Dutt comes into every

leader of the people and the nation becomes one greatSwadesh Bandhab Samit i

,then i t wi l l be accompl ished .

This is for ever our nat ional ideal and in i tss tr ength our nation W i l l r ise whatever law they makeour nation wi l l r ise and l ive by the force of the lawof i ts own being

,For the flat of God has gone out

to the Indian nat ion , “ Un ite , be free , be one, be

great .”

"1d r) A ST UDY 1 . L t l i .

r '4' in s“! rv v'"r r ~

E writings:of D r . At’

K. Coomarasayvmy act asa

tonic on one ’s .mind i n these days of i a nascentnat ional ism in India. I They are 1 charged

'j ust;

Thei r refrain . is India ! .Indi a ! What i s , In dian

nat iona l ism af ter al l but the consc iousness to her son sat a place found for Ind ia in the world .

i That India'

i s

Iiéti

l

a mere geograph ical expression but a l iv ing'

organism ,that Ind ia ’s past has not been m va in ; that

Indian l i fe must continue to flow along the channels

cut t hrough ages , even whi le.

reinforced by the wealth

of waters poured in by tributary streams in i ts onwardm arch ; that India stands to- day

at the threshold of a’

future before whose br ightness her past wi l l growdim ; that her name is st i l l potent to feed in the heartsof her ch i ldren fires of end less sacrifice

,that there is

no joy more al lur ing to her sons and daughters , no

priv i legemore priceless,than the vow of , service~t0

her, are not these th ings the inspira tion of Indian

nat ional ism ? And these are the things of which D r .Coomarasawmy

’s writings are an expressionin language

of striking beauty.

D r. Coomarasawmy i s a master of Engl ishand as purely l iterary productionsalone his wri t ings

22


have a h igh value. None who has not read them can

real ise their throbbing beauty of language. A ch isel leds impl ic i ty , a l impid puri t y , a d irectness and poin tednesso f phrase— qual it ies l ikethese

'

lend to h is style a forceal l their own . But perhaps i t is vigour o f thought

more even than charm of style that is the secret of

h is power. T he reader“wi l l have occasion to j ii dgefor h imsel f f ro'n . the e xtracts given in the course of

the sketch , but we shal l here q uote one or twopassages . The Doctor is descr ib ing an Ind ian musica lpartyPerhaps you are in the

’

South . You have gone 'to amusical party . a wedd ing at the house of a fr iend, you are

seated with many others on the cotton carpet , and beforeyou is a band of drummers, obois ts and players of the v ina

and tambur i . A B rahman drums on an earthen pc t . Aslender. g irl of fifteen years S i ts demurely on the floor,dressed in silk brocade and golden cha ins. her feet and

a rms bare, and flowers in her hai r. Her m other is seatednear , back against the wall she i t is that tra ined the g irl ,and now she watches her proudly . T he only sounds arethose of the four string s of the ivory inla id ra mbu r i and tnetapping of the drum . A s you are wait ing for the music tobeg in a man W i th untidy hair and a saff ron robe com es in.

and your host g ives him eager welcome. lay ing a whi tecloth on a stool for h im to S i t upon. A ll know h im wel l— he is a sanyasi who wanders from temple to tem ple, ,preaching l ittle, not perform ing many ceremonies, but singing tev am ms and the hymns of M anikka Vachag ar. As he

s its s i lent , a ll eyes are turned towards h im and con versat iond rops to a whisper . P resently he S ing s some hymn ofpassiona te adorat ion of S iva . H is m ice i s thin but veryswee t , melt ing the heart ; h is g entle strong personali tyholds every l is tener spel l - bound , not l east the l i ttle dancerto whom the words and mu5 ic are so fam i l iar ; be is thedancer's and the drumm er's friend and hero as much as

34oi THE IN D IAN NATION .

‘

BUILDERS

love of .Radha'

; in the absolutesoul in her to the D ivine in Krishna is summed upall love ,In this consecration of humanity there is no place for thed istinction— always foreig n to Indian thought —of sacredand profane Bu t when in love the fin ite is brought intothe presence of the infinite, when the consc iousness of innerand outer ls destroyed in the. ecstasy of un ion wi th one

beloved , themoment of real isation is expressed in Ind ianpoetry , under the symbol of the speech of Radha , the leaderof the Gopis , W i th Kr ishna , the Div ine Cowherd And

Kr ishna is the Lord , Radha, the soul that s tr ives insel f- surrender, for inseparable oneness, And so both havetold of the Lord ,

—the ascet ic,for whom a ll earthly beauty

is a vain th ing , and the dancing g irl, who is mistress ofevery art that charm s the senses.

T he m lJ S lC is to last al l n ight ; but you have to be homeere dawn, and as you pass along the road in the br ig htm oonl ight , you see that l ife, and the

,renunciation of ( life,

lead both to the s ame goa l a t last. Both ascetic and

music ian shall be one B rahman W ith himself ; i t is only a .

question of time more or l ess , and t ime, as every . one

knows. is unreal .Oh Lord , look not upon m y eVl l qual it ies lT hy nam e , 0 Lord , is samevsig htednes s,

M ake us both one B rahman .

ThisH indu song of Sudras is said to have been sung by adanc ing g irl at a Raiput court, And there comes to youstoo the thought, tha t “W ho so seeth all beings in T hat One, .

and T hat in all, henceforth shall doubt no more .

A ll th is is passmg away ; when it is gone , men W i ll lookback on it W ith hung ry eyes , as some have looked upon thel i fe even of M ed iaaval Europe , or of Greece. Whencivil iza t ion has made of l ife a busmess, i t W i l l beremembered that life was once an art when culture is thepr iv ilege of bookworm s. i t W il l be remembered that it was .

once a can of l ife itsel f; not something achieved in stolenmoments of rel ief from the ser ious business of being an

eng ine - driver, a clerk,or 3 Governor.

6 ” Inn.Us . K . ooorraaasawmvi

‘

Let those who are stil l part: of such a li fe take note of itt hat “they may tell their ch ildren of it when it I 'is nothingbut a

'memory. A' practical’

and‘ respectable 3 world

has no plaCe for the dreamer and the dancer they belongto the old Hindu towns where the big temples and the

chatm ms tel l of the faith and munificence s and

merchant princes . In Madras , there is the band,or the music'hal l company on tour,— what

‘does ’it want

wi th ascetics or W i th dancing g irl s i n: ff

I n , the fol lowing passage he describes the presentcondit ion of India ( the Doctor would of course admitthat there is some hope in the new nationa l i sm).

T hink of our duty from another point of view ; is not theancient virtue of hospi tality b inding on us Y et now theshame of hospitality refused i s odrs ; how many have cometo India. reverencing . her past ready to learn of her sti l l ,and have been sent empty away ! the student of SocialEconom y finds a h ig hly org anisedsociety in the process ofd isinteg rat iOp W i thout any of the series and constructiveeffort required for i ts re org anisation under changedcond itions , the student architecture finds a traditionl iving still— but scorned by a people devoted to the im i tationof their rulers, building s, copies of Eng lish palaces and

F rench vi llas in the very presence of men who st il l knowhow to build, and under the shadow of buildings as nobleas any that the world has seen . T he student of F ine Artis shown inferior imitations of the l atest European “sty l es,

’

where he should find some new and l iving revelation ; thedecorative artist sees the trad i tional craftsmen of

.Indiathrown out of employmen t by the mechanical vulgarities ofB irm ingham

'and Manchester

,without the least e ffort m ade

to preserve for future g enera tions the accumulated skilland cunning of centuries of the manufacture

“

of materialsand wares whi ch have commanded the admi ration of theworld. T he musician of other lands hears l i ttle but theg ramophone or the harmonium in Ind ia ; the man of

rel igion finds the crudest materialisrn'replacing a reasoned

metaphysic ; the lover of freedom beholds a people who

W Ten , IND IAN N AT ION BU ILDERS

can be imprisoned or deported for indefinite 3 Peri0d3“

rW ithout tr ial, .and too d ivided among st them selves to offerfidequa te resistance to this lawlessness ; in a word , everyman seeking to W iden h is own outlook , sees bu t his own.face d is torted in an Indian mirror . t

r

.

1 11 another passage he deals with‘

the educat ion of

Indian women and poin ts out the danger . of Ch rist ian

M iss ionary effort s in t hat direction

Alas for wasted opportu'nity ! To share ih

'the true

educat ion of the Ind ian woman'

were indeed a privi lege .

B ehind her are the trad it ions of the g rea t women of Ind ianhistory and m yth , women strong in love and warfsalnthood .

in subm ission and in learning . She is st il l a guarded flam e,this daughter of a hundred earls. She has not to strugg lefor a livmg in a compet itive soc iety , but is free to he

her self. Upon her m ight be lav ished the resources of

all cu lture , tomake yet more perfect that w hich is alreadym ost exquisuely so.

You that have entered on the task soconfident ly, W i th the ul ter ior mot ive of conversion, have

proved yourselves unfit . Lay no blame on Ind ia for her

slowness to accept the educat ion you have offered to her

women ; praise her rather for the W ise inst inc t that leadsher to m istrust you . When you lea rn that none can trulyeducate those against whose ideals they are bl ind lyprejud iced ; when you realise that you can but offer

‘

new

m odes of expression to facul t ies already ee C Ised in otherways when you come with reverence , as wel l to lea

rnas to teach when you establish schools W i thin the

'Ind ianSoc lal i deal , and not antagonist ic to i t— then , perhaps we

may ask you to help us bui ld upon that g reat foundat ion.Not I trust , before ; lest there should b e too much for thedaug hters of our daughters to unlearn.

But the writ ings o f the Doctor have , as we bey e

al ready sa id,a Specia l s ign ificance for the present

generat ion in India

,because they mir ror Ind ia to her

se l f . At the present day every think ingman in Indi a

,

344 THE IND IAN NAT ION.

nurppnas

owner but the folk of the f the future, “ which, isever becom ing the present they be g lad or sorryi f uni formity has replaced I but one type ofvegetation is to be

‘ found wi garden, flourishingperhaps in one part, but sickly in another ; what of the

flowers that mig h t have flour ished in that other part hadthey not been swept awaySimi lar ly to us the Doctor ’s counselwouldbe: “Shake

off t he hypnot ic spe l l t hat the W est has cast over you .

Be tr ue ch ildren o f India . Forswear im i tation . Fleef rom paras it ism an d

‘denat ional isat ion as . f rom theplague. - By , angl ic is ing yourse lves you are robb ingyourse lves o f the p rivi lege of serving humani ty andenr iching the sum of human cul ture. 'You have a grea tdea l to give to the wor ld , and you need not a lways

fawn upon the foreigner for leaves and crumbs from his

tab le. By al l means learn f rom the foreigner , butlea rn h is bes t. But you cannot learn , nei ther ass imi latewhat you learn

,un less , you are t rue Indians and your

hea rt is given firs t and f oremost to your own Mother .Sel f - in teg ri ty , Sel f - real isation for evermore l" o f thepar t that India has to p lay i n the future evolut ion o fhuman ity

,the Doctor wri tes

Let us not forget that in setting this ideal of Natioiialismbefore us , we

'

are not merely striving for a rig ht but

accepting a duty that'is b inding on us, that of sel f realisa

t ion to the utmost for the sake of others. Ind ia's ancientcontr ibut ion to the civi lisation of the world does not andneVer can justi fy her chi ldren in bel ieving that her workis done . T here is work ye t for her to do. Which. if not

done by her, will remain for ever undone . W e may notsh irk our part in the re organisation of l ife ,

which is neededto make life tolerable under changed conditions . I t is forus to show that industria l product ion can be organised on

saiDR ; m K . )00 0 M ARASAWM Y C \345

socialist ic llinemwithout converting u th'

e Whole iworld.r intt)g roups iof state- owned fac tories. I t is for us tos how thatg reat and ’lovely cities can-be bui lt again, and : things " of

beauty made lin them , without the pollution of»the a ir fhysmoke or/the paisoning of the river by chemicals, for ius to

Show that man‘

. can be t he master; not the s hame of themechanism he himself has createda i oi i

'

d 1 .2)i"

It i s for us to proclaim that"

wi sdom'is g reater

“ thanknowledge ; for us to make clear anew that ar t is something m ore than manua l dexterity , or the mere im i ta tionof natural fgr rns. It is for us to investigate the physicaland supersensua l f acul ties anew in the light of the d is

covaries of Physical Sc ience and to show that Science andFaith m ay be reconciled on a h ig her planethan any reached as yet. It i s for us to intellectual ise and spiritual ise therelig ious conceptions of the W est , and to show that i thetrue meaning of rel ig ious. tolerance is not the refra iningfrom persecution but the real belief that d iff erent rel ig ionsneed not be mutually exclusive the conv iction that theyare all good roads , suited to the vary ing capac ities of thoset hat tread them, and leading to one end .

P

T his and much more is our allotted task O ther peoples‘have found other work to do. some of which we may wellshare, and some leave to those sti ll best fitted to 'performi t

,but let us not turn from our own task to attem pt the

seem ing ly more bri l l iant or more useful work of others.Better is one’

s own duty thoug h insig nificant, than eventhe well executed duty of another." Let us not be temptedb y all the k ingdoms of the earth ; g ranted there is much

tha t we have not which others have and which we mayacquire from them ; what is the price to be What shal li t profit a man if he gain the whole wor ld and lose his ownsou l ?

"'i x

Of the act ion and in teract ion of East and W es t theD oc tor writes r .w i

In the relations between India a nd Eng land since thebeg inning of the nineteenth c entury , two

'

d ifi'erer

'

i t and

346 THE IND IAN tNAT lON BUILDERS

com plementa ry tendencies have -been at work the relativesignificance of which is sometimes overlooked , These arethe respective influences exerted by the culture and

civi lisation of each country upon the other. It is true thatthe Ang l ic isation of the East has been sufficient ly obvious:the correspond ing Indianisation of the W est is often overlook ed . For the first process man i fests upon the surface ofthing s, the other in morehidden ways.

In the realm of the‘prac tical , empirical'

andmaterial li fe ,

India has been roused to a real isat ion of the fact tha t . inher devotion to the highest things. she has carried too farher d ifference to the'concrete.

°

Stung by'a sense of her

own impotence, she seeks to day to hold her own inefli C iency and in m anufacture against the nat ions of the

W est . T he impulse towards th is mastery of the concrete ;the cri tical and histor ical sens e ,

and abovr al l. the re

statement of her own intuitions in the more exact terms ofmodern sc ience. are the things which India Wi ll owe to theW est.

T he complementary lesson is the Messag e of theEast .’

T he W estern nat ions, after a per iod of unparalleledsuccess in the invest igation of the concrete wor ld , the‘conquest of nature,’ and the adaptation of mechanicalcontr ivances to the m aterial ends of l ife, are approching

in every department a certa in cr itical period . The farreaching developm en ts of comm ercial ism are underm iningtheir own stabi l ity. One tenth of the B ritish popula tiond ies in the g aol the workhouse or the lunatic asy lum . T he

inc reasm g contrast between extremes of wealth andpover ty ,

the unemployed and many other urg ent problemspom t the sam e mora l . Extreme developments of vulgar ityand selfishness imply the necessary react i on . In smence,the l im i t of Posslble invest igat ion by phys ical means is ineight . T he m a in body of SC ient ific men cannot muCh

long er avoid the necessity for the invest ig at ion of superphy s ical phenomena by new methods . T he problems of

the new psycholog y have made an absolute science of theOld . In i a ll the arts, the extreme development of the.

348 THE'

IN D IAN N AT ION BU ILDERS

much that for tw‘

d'or three'm illenniums hasbeen part'andparce l of the fundamentally democrat ic stmcture of Ind ianso'ciety . Exhibitions of Indian ar t are org anised in Bondonfor the education i fof thepeople. »T he profound influenc e

’which Indian philosophy is destined to exert on W esternthought and l i fe is already evident , Ind ian science had afar- reaching elfect on the development of certain aspectsof m athematics earlier in the XIXth century. and is now

exerting its influence in other ways. M uch of the modernt heory of -W estern science goes to confirm and ju st i fy theintuitions of the old Indian rel ig ious -soi entific wr i ters . andthey in their turn are proving sug g estive to the modernworker And fina lly. sm

’al l g rgmps of artists and musicians- those part icular ly whose minds are most attuned totheg reat ar t of M ed imval Europe— are turning their eyestowards the East for some renewed messag e :

The Doctor stands before us as a great apostle o fIndian cul ture i n al l i ts aspects . I n rel igion

,ph i lo

sophy , art, educat ion , indust ry; h is powerful voice cal lson us to dr ink at our own wells and to return to ourown i dea ls. I n rel igion and philosophy , India hasstood unmoved by i ts contact with the W est . Thereis something pecul iarly original and fasc in at ing , in theway in which the Doctor places be fore us even theideals of H indu rel igion and phi losophy. In thefollowing passage he stri kes the keynote of Ihd ian (orH indu) cul ture

W hat after all is the secret of Indian g reatness Not adogma or a bobk ; but the g reat open secret tha t allk nowledg e and a ll truth are absolute and infinite, waitingnot to be created . but to be found; the secret of the infin i tesuperior ity of intui tion. the method of d irect perception overthe intel lect reg arded as a mere org an of d iscr im inat ion.

There i s about us a storehouse of the As Y et Unknowninfini te and exhaustible ; but to this wisdom the way of t

, m : A .-K , oooiraaxsawmg

access is not through mtellecmal acti vity. {The intui tion ithat r eaches to 'it, we cal l Imag ination and <Ge ins: It came ito S ir Issac Newton when he saw the apple

'

fa Li

ahd there'

flashed across his'b'rain the '

Law of G ra‘

wty .

’ I t'

came'tb

’ f

the Buddha as he sat throug h the S i lentn ight in med i tation;and hour by, hour a ll things became , apparent to him heJknewthe exact circumstances of all being s that haye everbeen in'‘the gndless and infinite‘worlds at‘ the twent ieth"hour hereceived the di v ine'infinite sakva laS ia

'

s

'

clearty as“

i f they were close at hand ; then came'

sti llf‘

deeper ins ig ht”and be perceived the cause of sorrow and the path ofkfiowledg e.

'H e reached at last'

the’

e

'

xh'austless source of

truth.

’

T he same,is true '

cl a ll"‘revelati on Veda

the eternal Logos,‘breathed forth by B ralinia ,

’in

'

whom'

it survives the destruction,and creation of t he'

Universe, is‘seen,

’ or ‘heard .’

not made, ,by its human

authors T he'reality of such perception is witnessedby every m an

,w 1thin himself upon rare occasions an

’

d 'on ’

an infinitely smaller scale ;’

I t is the inspirat ion of the ‘

poet: ‘It is at once the Vision of the art is t. and the

imagination of the natural ph i losopher .It is in the l ight of the canon formu lated in the

Opening sentences of the i foregoing quotat ion thatIndian cul ture must be judged. There is no use in‘

look ing for someth ing i n a work which i t is not the.

aim of t he workman to give. In j udg ing of . Indian

cul tur e we should therefore ask ourse lves i f i t has.

successful ly expressed i ts own idea ls . UnfortunatelyIndi an cul tur e has been in modern t imes j udged byGreek canons and natura l ly found wan t ing. In a rt i thas been assumed that though India may be great inarchi tecture, her pain t in g and sculp ture are naught.Educate d India blown about with every w ind , of

European opinion has fai thful ly said ditto. I t was leftfor ; D r. Coomaraswamy , M r . Have l l , and the late Sis ter

‘

350 'THE IND IAN‘f‘

NA’

T IoN BUILDERS

N vedita to resusc itate Indian art i n‘oul‘ est imation.

Inone sense : Dr . Codinarasawmy’5 l i fecri

t

bed as one dic ta ted to the regenerat ionTo h im the pa int ing and sculpture of India are at a

"

l east of as great value as those of Greece i f We hear in‘

mind that the ideals of the two are fundamental lyd i fferen t . .W hat then are the a ims and methods of

I ndian art The Doctor says?

It cannot be too clearly understood that the mererepresentation of nature is never the a im of Ind ian art.Probably no truly Ind ian scu lptu re has been wroughtd irect from a living model , or any relig ious pa intingcopied f rom the l ife. POSS lb ly no H indu a r tis t o f the old

5 0 11 0 0 13.

ever drew from nature at a ll. His store ofmemory pictures. his power of Vi sual isation and ..h is

imag inat ion were fOf b lS Purpose finer means; fo r he desiredto sug gest the idea behind sensuous a ppearance, ,not to

g ive the detai l of the seem ing real i ty , that was in tru thbut m aya i llusion For in spi te of the pantheisticaccomodat ion of infini te truth to the capacity of fini tem inds

,whereby God is conceived as enter ing into a ll

thing s . N a ture rema ins to the Hindu a.

vei l . nor arevelation : and a r t is to b e som ething m ore than a mereim itat ion of this m ayor , i t is to mani fest w hat l ies beh ind .

T o m istake the mayo for real i ty were errors indeed“M en of no understand ing think of‘Me, the unm ani fest

as havmg mani festation. knowmg not M y hig her being t0 ibe changeless , supreme

“Vei led b y the Mag ic of M y Rule ( Y oga Maya). I amnot revealed to a ll the world ; this world is bewi lderedand pe rce ives M e not as birth less and unchang ing “

(Bhagavad G ita VI I

O f course. an exception’

to these princ iples in Ind ian artmay be pointed to in the M ug hal and Rajput schools of

portra it m in iature; and this work does show that i t iwaslno

3m: THE i I ND IAN NAT ION . .BUILD’

ERS

been“ lived —as'in Eg ypt,

’

Indiar'P ersia J or M ed iaevai

EurOpe— in . the -

r'

eal' tih timacy i of nature i

'

herself . ‘T he iim itation of nature ,‘ indeed , has been seen’

hy'ali’ true

art ists .. and . philosophers to be both impossible and :

unnecessary» ‘l‘For as D eussen says should the«

art ist wi sh . to'im itate laboriously and inadequa tely what lnature offers everywhere in unatta inable profusionW0 412 “ ind iv idual ,'and inl i so far, limited . .manifestations i of ?

Ideas ? i

Ih'

the realm of naturewesee thethodsand fold repeated.

reflect ions of Ideas in these ind ividual manifestations . Itis for the artist by y

'oga , that is by self- indent ificationwith

the soul of such reflect iOns, ful ly to understand them and

expla in their inner sig nificance . Guided by an insightinto the nature of thing s which fathoms deeper than allabstract knowledg e; he is able to understaad the ‘ halfuttered words of nature ,

’ to infer from wha t she'

forms tha twhich she intends to form , to ant iC ipate from the d irect ionshe takes the end she is u iiable to reach . But i t is furtherposs ible , by im ag ination ,

the first and essential qual ity of

g en ius . to apprehend Ideas wh ich, though subsist ing in the :

cosm ic consciousness, have not yet assumed , and m ay neverassume, a phys ically visible form . Such are the forms of;

gods or nature spirits, and‘

flowers or animals or scenesin other world s’ personificat ions of abstract qua l it ies andnatural forces , and by no means least, the imag ined form sof leg endary heroes, in which the race - idea finds its mostcomplete expression . T he race expressmn is most perfec t .

when , as is so often the case, hero and god are one.I t is for the art ist to portary the idea l world -of true

real ity , the world of imag ina t ion , and not the phenomenalwor ld perc ived by the senses .The Doctor again and again ins ists that a l l great ar t

has been at once rel igious and popular. Great art speaksto the many and not to a se lect few and in a languageunderstood of the many. Great art , again , springs f rom .

the common l ife , and where that i s weak or i nsincere ,,

DR . A . K . COOM ARASAWM Y 353

art also wi l l be moan. As great ar t Speaks to . thecommon people , the importance of convention andtradit ion is easy to see. Here are the D octor

’

s'views

on the point

Convention’

m ay be defined as the manner- riot art isticpresentation , wh i le trad i t ion stands for a histor ic cont inuityin the use of such conventiona l method s of expression ,

Many have thought that convention and trad ition are thefoes of art, and deem the epithets"

‘convei

'i tiona l and

trad it ional ’

to be in 'themselves of the nature

of destruct ive criticism .

'Convention,

is conceivedof solely as l im i tat ions, not as‘a languag e and a means of

expressmn. B ut to one realising what tradi tion real ly'

means,a quite contrary View presen ts i tself ; that of the

terr ible and almost hopeless d isadvantag e from which artsuffers when each art ist and each cra

'ftsman

,or at the best,

each l i ttle g roup and school,has first to create a

lang uag e , before ideas can 'be expressed in i t . Fortrad ition is a wonderful

,expr essive l anguag e,

that enables the artist working through i t to speakd irectly to the heart without the necessity 'forexplana tion, I t is a mother tongue, every phrase of itr ich W ith count less shades of meaning read into i t by thesimple and the g reat that have made and used it in thepast.

I t is usual nowoa days to demand what is calledorig inality in works of art , to ask tha t they shall bear not

only the artist’s name, but the impress of his ind ividua lity,he is expected to be him sel f,

’ break away from trad ition'and the l ike . Only Wi th such work, do m en now associa te,that em ot ional intensity that men less feverishly seek ingfor some new thing , associated of old Wi th

‘

the retelling ofa twice - told tale .

For these nameless artists,the one g reat thing was not '

so much to express them selves in the ir work, but to te llthe g rea t thing itse lf tha t m eant so much to them andwhich it was theirs to re- express. Not by their names do

23


we remember them. The irs is an immortali ty moreperfect. because more impersonal. Ar t that is altogetherorig inal can never be truly g reat. How could one man’slabour rival the results of centuries of race - imag ining ?The true material of art must ever be that which has

al ready commanded the hearts of men rather than anyfancy of the passing hour.

Such, then, have been the aims and methods of IndianArt in the past. T wo tendencies are mani fested in theIndian Art of to day , the one inspired by the techn icalachievement of the modern W est , the other by the spiritualideal ism of the East. T he former has swept away boththe beauty and the limitation of the old tradition. The

l atter has but newly found expressmn yet if the g reatestart is always both Nat ional and Rel ig ious (and how

empty any other art must be). i t is there alone that we see

the beg innings of a new and g reater art t hat shall fulfi land not destroy the past . W hen a livmg Indian culturearises out of the wreck of the past and the strugg le of thepresent , a new tradition will be born, and new V is ion find

expression in the languag e of form and colour no less thanin that of words than rhythm . T he people to whom the g reatconceptions came are still the Ind ian people, and . whenli fe is strong in them again, strong also W i ll be the ir art.

It may well be that the fruit of a deeper nat ional l i fe, awider culture , and a profounder love, W ill be an artgreater than any of the past. But this can only be throughg rowth and development, not by a sudden reject ionof the past. A particular convention is the character ist icexpression of a per iod, the product of particular cond itions ;i t resumes the historic evolut ion of the nat ional culture.

The convention of the future must be sim i larly relatedto the national l ife. W e stand in relation both to past andfuture ; in the past we made futurewe are mould ing now, and our dut is thatwe should enr ich. not destroy , the t is notInd ia's alone

,but the inheri tance of

The subject o f Indian arts is so important and we


in a sense inevitable may be g ranted, and it may also bethat at least the outl ines of it must be imposed upon thedevelopment of the social organism in the East as wel l asin the West : and indeed, not only in Japan, but al soin India , we see the process already at work . But i ti s probably possible for Eastern nations to run throughsome of it s stag es quickly, and

'with the exper ience of

other nations as their 'guide to avoid some of the worst

evi l s“ T he i Japanese, who are sometimes as much in

advance of Europe. as ,

‘

lnd ia is behind i t , have shown , inspite of the g reat d isorg anization and vulgarisat ion oftheir nat ional li fe that has taken place already, somesigns of this pre- vision.

‘

The industr ia l system o f the future should be based'

on a true econom ic sc ience see ing the'

end of l i fe i n

men,not in thing s. The Doc tor says

Humanity is not in want of manufactures .

Already, al l over the world , man is labouring beyondal l reason, and producing beyond all .Longer,harder toil for the producer, frenz ied, crim inal extravag ance in the consumer , these are the d irec t results of thedevelopment of manufacturing industries , which tendsconstantly towards increased product ion and lower

prices."

- (M ax M ordeu).

T his is not C iv i lisat ion ; thi s is not the art of living '

C iv il isation consists , not in m ul t iplying our desires andthe means of g rat ify ing them but in the refinement ofthei r quali ty . Industry per se is no advantage. T he

true end of material civi l isat ion. i s not production . but

use ; not labour. but leisure ; not to destroy , but tomake possible, spir itual culture. A nat ion which seesits goal rather in the product ion of thing s than in the:l itres of men m ust in the end deserved ly perish.

Therefore i t is that the Swadesh i movement , 3 synthesis ofeffort for the reg eneration of India . should be guided bythat true political economy that seeks to make men Wise

DR .

'

A . K . 0 0 OM ARAS’

AWM Y 357

and happy , rather than merely to multiply thei r goodsatthe cost of physical and spir itual degradation.

. .W hat is then our duty The answer is to'

be foundin the fol lowing passage

Not infrequently the Swadesh i cry is an exhortat ion toself sacrifice . It seems to m e that this is an entirely falseposition . It is never worth while in the long run puttingup with second best. Swadeshi for the very poor may meana real sacr ifice of money . B ut how far this is really thecase is very doubtful . If one should regard a standard of

simple l iving , cond itioned by qual ity rather than quantityof wants , where durabi li ty of materials was preferred tocheapness alone, i t is fairly certain that even the peasantwould be better advised to use (real) Swadeshi thanforeign goods . And for those better off , for those who

have adopted pseudo -European , fashions and manners to.

talk of Swadeshi as i a sacrifice is cant of the worst descr iption. It implies ent ire ignorance of Ind ia’s ach ievementin the industria l arts , and an utter lack of faith in Ind ia.

T he blindest prejudice in favour of al l things Indian wasper ferab le to such condescension as that of one who casts}aside the husks and trapping s of modern luxury , to acceptthe mother

's exqu isite g i fts as a ‘ sacrifice .

’

Not t i ll the Ind ian people patron ize Indian arts andIndustries from a real appreciation of them , and becausethey recog nize them not merely as cheaper, but as bet terthan the foreign, wil l the Swadeshi movement becomecomplete and comprehensive I f a time should ever 0 0 :he— and at present it seem s far ofif—when Ind ians recognize‘

that for the beautifi cation of an Indian house or the'

furniture of an Indian home , there is no need to rush toEuropean shops in Calcutta or B ombay .

’ there may be arealisation of Swadesh i . B ut so l ong as they prefer tofill their palaces with flam ing B russels carpets; T ottenhamcourt - road furn iture, cheap Italian“ mosaics, ,

French i

oleog raphs , Austr ian lustres , German t issues and cheapbrocades, there is not much hope.

”

Whenwi ll Indians


make it impossible for any enemy to throw in their teeth3 reproach so true as thisEven more important. then, than the establishment of

new Industries on Indian soil , are the patronage andreV ival of those on the verg e of extinction , the purificationof those which survive in deg raded forms, and the avoidanceof useless luxuries , whether made in Ind ia or not. Swadeshimust be inspired by a broad and many~s ided enational

sentiment , and must have definitely constructive aimswhere such a sentim ent exists, Industr ial Swadesh i will beits inevitable outcom e without eff ort and without failure .

The -Doctor is a passionate lover o f Indian music.

Accord ing to h im the western system has developedharmony , and the Indian melody . India cannot a ffordto neglect her mus ic without irreparable l oss to th enat ional l i fe . The Doctor bemoans the vulgari ty o ftaste that takes pleasure in the harmon ium and

‘

the

gramaphone which latter i nstrument he descr ibes asthe refinement of torture considered with referenceto m usical purposes .The most imperative need of India at presen t is

according to the Doctor a true system of nat ionaleducation . He .has no words strong enough to character ise the product of present - day Engl ish educat ion .

I t may almost be sa id that the educated Ind ian is h ispet abomi nat ion . He regards Engl ish educat ion notas a blessing but as the very reverse. He writes :One of the most remarkable features of B ri tish rule in

Ind ia has been the fact that the g reatest injur ies doneto the people of Ind ia have taken the outward form ofb lessmg s. O f

'

th is . Education is a strik ing example ; for nomore crush ing blows have eVer been struck a t the roots ofInd ian

,Nat iona l evolution than those which have been

struck . often W ith other. and the best intentions , in the


for you are sti ll h idebound in that impervious sk in of sel f.satisfact ion

'

that enabled your most pompous and selLim

portant philistine, Lord Macaulay , to bel ieve that a sing leshelf of a good European library was worth al l the literature of Ind ia, Arabia , and Persia . B eware lest in a hundredy ears the judgment be reversed , in the sense that Orientalculture W i ll occupy a place even in European est im at ion ,r ank ing at least equa lly with C lassic . M eanwhile you havedone wel l nigh a ll that could be done to erad icate i t in theland of

.i ts birth.

N at iona l Educat ion shou ld prese rve what the Doctorfe l i ci tously descr ibes as the “ Indian point of view ,

”

whose essent ia ls are set forth in the fol lowing quot a

Fi rstly ,the almost universal ph i l osoph ic al att itude .

const rast ing strong ly with that of the ordinary Eng l ishmanwho hates ph i losophy . For every sc ience school in Ind iato- day , let us see to i t that there are ten to -morrow. B ut

there are wrong as well as r ight ways of teaching science.A superst it ion of facts taught in the name of sc iencewere a poor exchang e for a nietaphyS ic. for a convict ion ofthe subjectivity of all phenomena. In I Dd l l , even the peasantW i l l g rant you that All th is is maya he m ay not understand the full S ign ificance of what he says ; but cons ider thedeepen ing of European culture needed before the peasantthere could say ,

however bl ind ly . that “T he world is butappearance, and by no means T hing - in- Itse l f."

S econd ly , the sacredness of al l thing s — the ant ithesisof the European d iv ision of l i fe into sacred and profane .T he tendency in European re lig ious development ha s beento exclude from the doma in of rel ig ion every aspect ofword ly act iv ity . Sc ience , art, sex. ag r iculture, commerceare regarded in the W est as secular aspects of l i fe ,quite apart from rel ig ion. It is not surprising that undersuch cond itions , those concerned W ith l ife in its real i ty,have com e tu feel the so- called rel ig ion that ignoresthe act iv it ies of l i fe

,as a th ing apart. and of l ittle interest

DR .

'A . K . COOM ARASAWM Y 361

o r worth.In India , th is was never

'

so ; relig ion idea lisesand spiri tualizes l ife itsel f. rather than excludes i t . Thisintimate entwining of the transcendental and material . thisannihi lation of the possib i l ity of profanity or vulg ar i ty ofthoug ht, explains the streng th and permanence of Ind ianfa ith , and demonstrates not merely the stupid ity, butthe wrongness of at tem pting to replace a rel ig ious cultureby one ent i rely material .Th irdly ,

the true Spirit of relig ious toleration illustratedcont inual ly in Ind ian h istory and based upon a consciousness of the fact that all relig ious dogm as are formulasimposed upon the infinite by the l imitat ions of the fin ite'hum an intellect.F ourth ly , etiquette— C ivil isation conceived of as the

product of civil m en,T here is a S inhalese proverb tha t

runs. T ake the ploughman from the plough and wash offhis d irt , and he is fit to rule a kingdom . T his wasspoken, says Knox. of the people of Cande Uda

( the h ig hlands of Cey lon) because of the civility , understand ing , and g rav i ty of the purest men among them.

T heir ord inary P loughmen and Husbandmen do speakel eg antly , and are full of compl iment . And there is nod ifference between the abil i ty of speech of a Country man

and a Courtier .

"

T here could be said of few people anyg reater thing s than these ,

but they cannot b e sa id of thosewho have passed through the ‘ instruction mach ines ’

of

tod ay ; they belong to a society where l i fe itself broughtc ulture . not books alone ,

s th ly , spec ial ideas in relation to education, such as

,the relation between teacher and pupil , implied in the

words of g um and chela (master and d isciple); m emor iz

ing g reat litera ture, the epics as embody ing ideals ofcharacter learning a pr i vileg e dem and ing qual ifica tions,not to be forced on the unwi l l ing or used as a mere road tom aterial prosper i ty ; extreme importance of the teacher

'spersonal ity

“ As the‘ man who d ig s with a 'spade obtains water ,

even so an obedien t (pupi l)obtains the knowledg e which


l ies in his teacher, (M ann II . This view is anti theticto the modern practice of making every thing easy for thepupi l .

S ixthly . the basis of ethics are not any commandments”but the principle of al truism,

founded on the philosophicaltruth T hy neig hbour is thyself . Recognition of theun ity of al l l ife.

Seventhly . control , not merely of actionnbut of thoughtsconcentrat ion , one- pointedness. capacity for st i l lness .

These are some of the points of view which arein trinsic in Ind ian culture, and must be recognized in anysound educational ideal for India ; but are in the pr esentsystem ignored or Opposed. T he aim should be todevelop the peopl e

's intel l ig ence throug h the medium ofthe ir own nat ional culture. For the nat ional Culture isthe only Aussichtspi mkt from which , in relation to a widerlandscape, a man can r ig htly sick am D enken or ientiren,

To thi s cul ture has to b e added, for those brought intocontact with the modern idea , some part of that widersynthesis that should enab le such an one to understandwhat may be the nature of the prospect seen from som eother of the g reat headlands, the other nat iona l cultures.wherefrom human ity has gazed into the dim sea ofthe infin i te Unknown. T o etf ec t this W ider Synthes is , areneeded s ignal s and interpretat ions , rather than thatlabor ious backward march through the empt iness of aspir itua l deser t where one m ay per ish by the way.or i f notso, then w eary and footsore arr ive at l ast upon one of

those other head lands, only to learn. i t may be , that thereis tl

o be found a less ex tensive prospect and a more barrensoi

Foreign cul ture is necessary to India but i t mus tform a post graduate course .

The nationa l movement in India affords , accord ingto the Doctor , some hOpe f or the future , but i t is asyet hardly se l f - conscmus. The essent ia ls for the b ir th

if THE INDIAN NAT ION BUILDERS

( asa . Are not these expressive of love for and‘be of the Motherland P T he holy l and of theI not a far - off Palest ine but the Ind ian land i tself.

ibole of Indian culture is so pervaded w ith thisiodia as THE LAND . that it has never been necessarytupon it overmuch, for no one could have supposedi lise .

ie Doctor ’s th inking India is actual ly a unityVi the fact i s consciously real ised or not by'

Lthemselves.. He says

often rem inded of the Cai rene g irl’s lute, in the

taM irium and Ali N ur - al-D in . It was kept in asatin bag with slings of gold She took the

band Opening i t . shook it,w hereupon

‘ there fellth two and - thirty pieces of wood , which she fittedonother . male into female and female into male , t il lth ame a pol ished lute of Indian workmanship. T henslr overed her wrists and lay ing the lute in her lap,be er it with the bend ing oi mother over babe, and

svcthe string s with her finger tips ; whereupon itm land resounded and after its olden home yearned ; andi t mbered the waters that g ave it drink and the earthwl i t sprang and wherein i t g rew and i t mindedthpenters who cut it and the pol ishers who pol ished i tan: merchants who made i t their merchand i se and theshihat sh ipped i t ; and i t cr ied and called aloud and

md and g roaned ; and it was as i f she asked i t of al lthtthing s and it answered her W ith the tong ue of theCa' Just such an instrument is Ind ia , com posed of

th e parts seeming ly irreconc i lable , but in real ity eachOnunning ly designed towards a common end ; so tooW h these parts are set together and attuned , Wi l l Indiatell the earth from which she sprang . the waters thatg amer drink , and the Shapers that have shaped her

bei; nor Wi l l she be then the idle singer of an emptydayI u t the g iver of hope to all. when hope will mostavaai id most be needed .

D E. A . K . COOM ARASAWM YT'.

The nat ional movement must be based on a yearn inglove of India

,but i t i s doubtfu l i f such is the case at

present . The Doctor writes 3'

You see, this loss of beauty in our lives is a proof that wedo not love India for India, ab ove a ll nations , was

beautiful not long ag o. I t is the weakness of our nationalmovement that we do not love Ind ia we love suburbanEng land, we love the comfortab le bourg eois prosper itythat is to be some day es tab lished vhen we have learnedenough science and forg otten enough ar t to succes ful lycompete wi th Europe in a comm ercial war conducted onits presen t lines. I t is not thus nations are made.

W e have heard much recent ly o f . the impatientidealis t . According to the Doc tor t he impatient ideaal ist is the man most in dispensable to

,the bui lding - up

of a nat ion. He writes

T ry to be l ieve in the reg eneration of India throug h art, ,and nor by politics and econom ics alone . A purelymaterial ideal wi l l never g ive to us the lacking streng th tobuild up a g reat enduring nation .

‘ For tha t we needidea ls and dreams, imposa ble and vis ionary , the food ofmartyrs and of artists.

Let every true Indian take note of th e warningcontained in the fol lowing words

T he highest ideal s of national ity i s that of service;India , by the scorn which she has cast upon her own arts,by the deg radation of S tandard in her own cultu re, here .

sufficiently evidenced b y the possib i l ity of find ing pleasurein a g ramophone or a harmonium ,

is casting aS ide thi shighest pr ivileg e Of service . N at ions are judg ed not bywhat they asS im ilate, but by what they contr ibute to

human culture. Ind ia , by her bl indness to the beau ty tha tti l l Yesterday was everywhere in and around her in artand music, is forfeiting this privilege of service. For no

man of another nation will come to learn of Ind ia, it her


teachers be g ramophonesand harmoniums and imitators ofEuropean realistic art.

Let eve ry true son of India l ikewise consecrete

himse l f to the v is ion of India not l ess,but more

-

st rong and more beaut i fu l than ever be fore , and the

g rac ious giver of beauty to a l l the nat ions of the earth.

"

PREFACE T O ESSAYS NATIONALIDEALISM .

These Essays represen t an endeavour towards anexp lanat ion of t he t rue significance o f the nationalmovement in India. This movemen t can only beright ly unde rs tood, and has ul t imate importanceon ly

,as an ideal ist ic movement . 'I ts outward

manifestat ions have attracted abundant not i ce ; the

deeper mean ing of t he struggle“i s sometimes forgotten

al ike in England an d in I ndia . Were th is mean ingunderstood , I bel ieve that not on ly the world at large ,but a large part even o f the Engl ish people , wouldextend to India a true symp athy i n her l i fe - and - deathstruggle with foreign bureaucracy and their paras it icdependents. For this struggle is much more than apol i ti ca l confl ic t. I t is a struggle for Spir i tual andmental f reedom , f rom the dom inat ion o f , an

“a l ien idea l .I n such a confl ict

,pol i ti cal and econom ic v ictory are

bu t hal f the bat t le ; for an India , “ free i n name,but

subdued by Europe in her inmos t soul,

” would ill

jus t i fy the pr ice o f freedom . I t is not much thematerial , as the moral and Spir i tual , subj ect ion o f


expression in a nat iona l ism which wil l 'be essential l yre l igious in i ts sanct ion . Thus , once more by theinsp irat ion of a rul ing pass ion— the re l igious and

nat ional idea l in one— the Art o f Li fe w il l be real isedagain ; on ly by thus becoming ar t is ts and poets can

we again underst and our own ar t and poe try , andt hereby at t a in the highest idea l of . nat iona lity , the

wil l and the power to give .

Something of this k ind is the burden of my Essays,

— that we should endeavour more to be great than toposses s grea t th ings . Al l honour to those who havespen t their l ives in the po l i t ic al st ruggle yet I be l ievethat i t is not through pol it i cs that revolut ions

.

are made ,and that Nat iona l Unity needs a deeper founda t ion.

than the percept ion of pol it ical wrongs . The t rueN at ional ist is an Idea l is t and for him that deepercause of the Unres t is t he longing for Sel f - real isat ion .

He realises that N at ional ism is a duty even more thana r igh t ; and t hat the duty of upho lding the nat ionalDharma is i ncompat ib le with i ntel lect ua l s lavery

, and

therefore he seeks to f ree himse l f,and through others

l ike h imse l f,his country.

It is possib le to find in t rue ar t not me re ly the spir itua l , but, or rather there fore , t he mater ia l regenerat ionof India .

’

The educated Indian of to - day , says on lytoo truly a sympathet ic wr i ter

,is beh ind the res t of the

wor ld in ar t is t i c understanding . Few have real ised inhow far the inefficiency and poverty of modern Ind iais t he direct resul t o f th is . Contrast Japan .

j apan is to a large degree l iving upon the strength

DR: A . K .

“COOM ARASAW M Y

‘369

of'her past . T hat

fstrength l i es f ar

‘

n‘iore

'

than wesuspect , in her art :“To many persons i t may appear incredib le the

consis tence of Japan ’3 statesmanshi

f ar rea ch of her mi l i tary p lans , the splendid qual i t iesof her so ldiers and sai lors

,the steadiness of nerve , the

h’ccuracy of aim ,the coolness of advance , the deadli

ness of attack , the sel f immblation oi'

regiments at1 ’

the

word of command, are not un connected w i th the f actthat she a lone among l iving nat i‘dns has a t ruly nationalart ; that her senses are refined and her tas tefast idious

,that her poor love beauty and seek the ir

p leasure amongst flowers. T his is a hard say ing , but

the t ruth is even so .

The causes which have led to the degenerat ion ofIndian ar t

,

'and prevent its revwal, are iden t ical wi th

these thatprevent the recovery of her po l i t i c a l effi ciency.

I do not bel ieve in ‘ any regenerat ion of t he Indian

peop le . which cannot find express ion in ar t anyreavVakening worth the name must

'so express itsel f .

T he re can be no true real isat ion of pol it ica l unity unt ilIndian l ife is again insp ired by the uni ty of the nat ionalcul ture. Morenecessary , t herefore , t han al l t he laboursof po l i t ic ians

,is Nat ional Educat ion. W e should not

res t sat isfied un t i l the ent i re control of Ind ian educat ion is in Indian hands . I t is a matter in which noEuropean should have a voi ce , save by the expressinvitat ion of Indians . For t hose on ly can educate whosympathise . Every Governmentand schoo l must be replaced by

3 70 THE IND IAN NAT ION , BUILDERS

o f our own, ,where young men and women are taught

to betrue ind ians. So long as Indians are prepared t oaccep t an education , the aim of which is tomake themEngl ish in al l but co lour— and at presen t t hey do inthe ma in accep t such educat ion— they cannot ach ievea nat iona l un ity.

An India , un itedby even one generat ion of Nat iona lEducat ion , woul dnot need to ask or fight for f reedom.

I t would be hers in f act,for none could res ist that

un ited a loofnessof spi r itwhich wouldmake t he mentalatmosphere of India unbreat hable by any but f r iends.T he V i ta l f orces assoc iated with the nat iona l movementin I ndia are not merely po l i tica l , but mora l” l i teraryand art is t ic ,

and thei r sign ificance l ies 1:i. the fact tha tInd ia hencefor t h wi l l , in the main , judge a l l t h ings byher own standards and from her own po in t of view,But t he two s ides of t he nat ional movement , the mater ia land the sp i r i tua l

,are inseparable and must attain

success or f ai l together. Pol it ica l f reedom and ful lr espons ib i l i ty are essent ia l to se l f - respect and ”se lfdevelopment . Be l ieving this, i t wi l l be understoodhow'impossib le i t is t hat any supposed or rea l advantages resul t ing f rom

,the B r it ish domin ion in Ind ia

could ever lead us to accept the indefin ite cont inuanceof that dom inion as part of our idea l . g rant ing thereal ity of some of t hese advantages— and no one would

pre tend that the Gove rnment of Ind ia by Eng land hasbeen an absolutely unmixed eV i l— the fact remainsthat we in Ind ia ho ld thezprice of any such advantagesto be too high . In the words of Thoreau , the cost of( I t

a th ing is the whole amount of what may be ca l led

372 THE INDIAN NA T ION BUILDERS

None canbe tru ly qual ified to educate or govern;Who cannot , in the WiOI ds of t he g reat i Sinha lesechron ic le, make themse lves one w ith the re l ig ion andthe peop le .

’ W hen ,” says Confuc ious, the pr in ce

loves what the peop le love and hates wha t the peop le

.hate , t hen is he what is cal led the father of the

These idea ls are abso lutely unattainable byM en in India. However conscient ious a c iv i l

se rvan t or a governor may be , h is heart is far away in

England , and he counts the days t i l l he returns. He

is, at bes t , the consment ious bai l iff of an absenteelandlord ; a person profoundly

ignoran t of the natureo f the Soi l t hat he att empts to cu l t iva teI t is not out of t he hatred for England t hat India

demands her f reedom ,i t is par t ly for England ’s sake.

The ownership of Ind ia is a chain abou t England ’s

neck —l

- a we ight not less hurt fu l , because scarce ly fe ltas such .

“W hen we learn to S ing the B r i tons never

wi l l be mas ters we Shal l make an end of slavery ,

”are

t rue Words spoken by a we l l - known Engl ish wr ite r .

No nat ion can serve fai t hfu l ly two ideals wi thout

hypocr isy . I n I ta ly,in j apan , in Pers ia

,in Turkey ,

England ’s sympathies have been or st i l l are , wi th thegreat idea l is t movements on ly in Egypt an d Ind ia

,

where these movements c lash W i th her materia linteres ts , her att i tude is d ifferent ! The exerc ise ofdespot ic power in Ind ia provides for England a la rgeand powerfu l react ionary e lemen t in her own

g overnance . Those who on the p lea of necessity reso rti n Ind ia to pun ish men without tr ial , or the suppress ionof f ree Speech , W i l l be ready on the same p lea to fa l l

DR. A. x . coonARASA’

WMY ~ l 375

back upon the same resources : in the ’government ofI re land or the suppress ion of the '

tinerhployed

or of women , i n England. England may losesomething of he r own l ibert ies

,- through the den ial

of l ibe rty too others . Harmfu l , too , to England is'

t hat change that comes over near ly a l l Eng lish'

ni en'

(of course , W ith noble except ions), in the courseof weeks or months after they f eet foo t in Ind iaas rule rs ; the att i tude of patronage and contempt}the conce it and a loofness of the Anglo - Indiando not drop l ike a mant le f rom his Shoulder when hereti res to England to spend the rest of h is days in the

enjoymen t of an Ind ian pens ion, ahd qua l it ies ‘

thIB

fostered s carce ly tend to the p rogress of - England

towards an ideal l ife . More obviously and direct lyin jur ious to England ’s mora l fib r'e are the’ part ia l

j eSt ice she administers , and her rel iance—eu unavoidi

able re l iance i t may be for one in her posit IOn— upon

informer s; underpaid pol ice and Sp ies. As she sows;she must also reap and i t cannot be that 1 she shoul descape the reaction upon hersel f of stooping t o suchmeans . For England ’s t ruest interes ts i t were far bestt hat she should be f ree of such a burd en .

" The l ife ofEuropean nat ions is as yet so l i t t l e ordered , so chaoticand unorganised that i t were we l l fo r each of‘thernhad

t hey .more t ime to se t in order thei r‘

own house'; b ut

Imper ial ism and soc ial reform are in compatib le:

We do not s tand alone in the awakening of

national genius ; the phenomenon is wor l d- wide , and

m ay be stud ied in lands so far apart as Irel and and

} apan . The movement is a protest of the humanspirit

THE[ IND IAN NAT ION BUILD ERS

ag ainst a . premature and ar t ific ial cosmopo l i tan ism

wh ich wou ld destroy in nations , as modern educat iondest roys in ind ividual s

,the specia l gen ius of each. I t

would take . too , long to correlate all the phases . ofnat ionali sm in East andW est ; but to i l lustrate i ts uni tyof purpose ; and the character of ideal ism ,

I make twoquotat ions f rom

'

‘i ts current l i terature elsewhere .

,T he first is a passage f rom a pamph let issued by the

Gae l i c League,rep lacmg on ly the word t I r ishmen,

’ bythe ,word ‘Ind ians. ’

Indians we .a l l are, and therefore our on ly poss ibleperf ect ion consists in the deve lopment ,

of t he Indi an

natu re we have inher i ted from our forefathers. Cen~

tun es of rea l deve lopmen t , of c iv i l isa t ion,of nob le

fide l ity to all the h ighest idea ls men can worship havefixed for , ever the nat iona l character of Ind ia ; and if

we be not true tq ,that character , i f we benot genuineInd ians , we can never be perfect men

, fu l l and r strong

men,ab le to do a t rue man ’s par t o f

,God and mother

l and. Our for ef athers are our best models and pat

terns ; they.alone can show us what common Ind ian

nature can and ought to be . We mus t copy their

g reatness'and the i r goodness t ru ly worth are they o f

affectionate tand'reverent im ita t ion , for were they notmenof renown r in thei r day , men of highest sa in t l iness

of Ind ian gen ius and learn ing and love of learn ing , of

m ight and valou r or the ,dread

,fie ld of batt le— sain ts,

scholars. heroes Look to your forefathe rs , read ofthem , Speak of them not

,in unworthy mendi cant

eloq uence , nor yet in vulgar boas ting aboutent an c ientg lor ies whi le we squa t down in d i sgraceful content:

3 76 THE i i ii N NAT ION BUILDERS

lies or truth ? Upon that answer depends our,f uture

as a nat ion.

.The inspirat ion of our Nat iona l ism must be not hatredor se l f - seeking ; but Love , firs t of India , and secondlyof England and of t he W or ld . The highes t idea l o fnat ional ity is service ; and i t is because th is serv ice isimposs ible f or us so long as we are pol i t ica l ly andsp ir i tual ly dom inated by any W estern C ivi l isat ion

,that

we are bound to ach ieve our f reedom . I t 1 5 in th isSpir it that we must say to Engl ishmen

,t hat we W i l l

a ch ieve this f reedom , i f they wi l l,W ith the i r 0 0 nsent

and W i t h the ir help ; but i f they wil l not , then W ithoutt hei r consen t and in Sp it e of their res istance.

THE ORIENTAL VIEW OF WOMEN

I t has been o f ten assumed,by speakers and wr i ters

on the present and past pos i t ion of women in the '

W est that the Or ien ta l V iew of woman is lower t hanthe Western ; and statements involvmg this assumpt ion

are of ten made , as i f the assumpt ion were an adm i t tedf act . I t must in the fi rs t p lace be obse rved that thereis no “ abso lute W estern” and no absol ute Eas tern ’

pomt of view . I t is a m is take to assum e t hat “Eastis Eas t and W est is W es t , and neve r the twa in sha l l

meet at t i tudes of reverence,comradeship or con ‘

tempt towards women find express ion a t var ious t imesi n the h is tory of C iv i l isat ion a l ike in the W est and in

the Eas t. I t is sometimes suggested that ,Chr istiani ty,,an O r ienta l re l ig ion

,has imposed upon European

women a pos i t ion of'in fer ior i ty . Bu t i t was certa in l y

D R. A . K . COOM ARASAWM Y 377

(not Chr is t , who was an O riental , who t reated women ~

as inferior be ings. I t . was Paul , a Greek , who {waspr imari ly responsible foi' . the low spiri tual status ofwoman in the Christian Church . From this posi t ion

she only temporari ly emerged in that O riental periodc European culture when t he Churchmarriage as a sacrament

,and men

'

_wor

shi pped God in the form o f woman— as they st i l l do inthe East. iI t is noteworthy that we find i n the wr it ings of some .

of those Orienta l ph i losophers . whose work had so-m uch influence in Europe at pronouncements in favour of the soc ia l emancipat ion of Womanwhich are almost verbally i ndentical with those ofmodern Suff ragists . Our social . condi tion , wroteI bn does not permi t women to unfold al l the i

r esources that are in them ; i t seems as - i f they ! were

on ly meant to bear. ch ildren and to suckle them . And

it is th is state o f servi tude that has destroyed in them {

the c apaci ty for great things. .That is the reason whywe se ldom find among us Women endoiW ed .with anygreat moral qual i t ies

,the ir l ives 'pass away l ike those

of . p lants,and they are a bur den to ,their . husbands.

From this cause arises the misery'that -

.devours r our i

cities . since there are tw ice as many women as men ,and they are unab le t o p rocure the ir means of livel ihood by thei r own industry.

”I t s true that the ear ly

Germans honoured wom en ; but .the lat ter Germans

thOught'

th'at they knew better . I t was the essent ia l ly

Western materia l ism of Luther . that ut the ma i n

share i n the degradat ion of woman accompanying the

378 ; THE IND IAN NAT ION BUILDERS

Reformat ion“ “ I f a woman€.becomes weary and at

l ast , dead from bearing,” says Luther

,t hat mat te rs .

not . Let her only die from bearirig‘

; she i s the re to '

do i t . ” And, aga in , she must neither begin nor com

plete anything with the man where he is, there

must she be , and bend before him as before her master ,whom she shall fear

,and to whomshe shal l be subject

and obed ient.” It t I

I t is not,indeed

,by contras t ing the re l igious stand~«

pomts of the East and'the W es t t hat the supposed

infer ior pos i t ion of woman in the East can be demons

trated. . At the present day there are mi l l ions ofO r i entals who worship the'D iVine l i fe in the image of '

a -woman. W oman is honoured in re l igi ous l i teratureand Mahadev , address ing Uma , in the Maha

bharata s'a'

y s ; Thou, 0 Lady, knowes t bo th the Se l f

and the Not - Sel f . Thou art sk i l led in eve ry '

work. Thou art en dued with se l f- rest rain t and withpe r fect same - sightness in respect of every crea ture .

Thy energy an d power are equal to M y own,

and Thou hast not shrunkfrom the mos t severe auster it ies . Aga in

,i n the Ramayan a , when Ratna leaves

his k ingdom to l ive as a herm i t in the fores t , VaS ishtha,plead ing that S ita should not

,fo l low him , suggests that

she should re ign in his stead: S i ta W i l l occupy Rama ’ssea t. Of a ll these t hat marry , the wi fe is t he sou l .S i ta W i l l gove rn the ear th

,as she is'Rama ’

s se lf ." Si ta , ,h owever ; chooses to fo l low Rama .

I n the great law book of Manu we find W here

‘See the Chapters on Luther in Karl PearSou's

‘E thica’

of Freethoug ht.’

r

380 THE IND IAN NAT ION ,BUILDERS

hold and inher i t property in their , own names it The'O rien ta l wonian has also more real power i of

'

cont rol

in her own.home than most Western women ; her worl dis law even to her grown- up sons . I t is very - wel lknown that in Burma women are more i ndepende ntand more happy than.ia perhaps any other countryi n the

,world ; and , indeed , one has only to return toLondon from any Or iental coun t ry and contrast the

fac ial expression o f most women there with the facialexpresswn of most womm in the Eas t to real ise thatthe latter are the happ ier .Both i n the East and in the West t he soc ia l posi t ion

of woman needs r e format ion. of a drast ic charac ter .

W hen one reflec ts,however

,upon the opposi t ion to

woman ’s advance characterist ic of W estern un ivers it ies ,legal and med ical associat ions

,and of Parl iament and

st i l l more the manner than the fact o f i t,i t i s d i fficu l t

to feel that the W este rn woman i s so much to be env ied.

’

It is surely a tragedy that of a l l the woman in

England between the ages o f fi f teen and fi fty scarcelymore than hal f are marr ied . In al l th at th is impl iesl ies the comparat ive W ickedness o f modern Wes terni ndust r ial c iv i l isation

,which se ts a perm ium of V ice by

say ing , Seek indulgence,but beware o f Ch i ldren .

"

N e ither th is,nor sweated labour, nor i ts resul t—street

sol ic i tat ion - are of the East.I would admit women to absolute equal i ty of oppor

tunity with men in al l respects . But I think that Statemost fortunate wherein mos t women between the ages

of twenty and forty are primar i ly concerned W ith the

D IR. A . K . COOM ARASAWM Y‘

381

making of ch ildren, beauti ful in every Sense. th isend women m ust obtain economi c secur i ty, e ithe

'

fl’

from

indivi duals or f rom the State. There c an be'

no freedom for women which does n ot include the freedom to

have,as well as not to have chi ldren . I t is ul t imate ly

I conceive— ai least , I hOpe— for the r ight to be themselves

,rather than for the right to become more l ike

men . that Suffragettes are, however unconsciously , fighting

,There can be no freedom for women ti l l good

motherhood is regarded as an intr insic glory .

The East has always recogn ised the fundamentald ifference in the psycho logy of men and women . I

do not think that any attempt to min imise or to ignorethese d iffer ences can be successful . I t is because menand women are differen t that they need each other .

W hat is needed at present is that women should beal lowed to d iscover for themse lves what is thei r ‘

Sphere , rather than that they should cont inue tooccupy per force the Sphere which men (rightly orwrongly)have at various t imes al lowed to them in thepatr iarchal ages. This necess i ty is as much a necesityfor the W est as for the East .Social status , as I have sa id , needs re format ion both

in the East and in the West . B ut the W est far morethan the East need s a change of heart. The W estern

v iew of sex is degraded and mater ial ly contras ted W i ththe Eastern . W omen are not l ight ly Spoken of , orwr i tten of

,i n the East as they are so often in the W est. .

Sex for the Or iental is a sacrament . For the European .

i t is a pleasure .

W ith the consc iousness of th is, and much more that

382 THE IND IAN N‘

AT ION BUILDERS

migh t be added to it, Iefeel tha t the West has at 'leastas much to learn from the East of reverence to womenas the East has to learn from the W est. And it is

b et ter for re formers, whether or W est, t otogether for a

'

common end than to pr ide themselves

npon. their own supposedly superior ac hievemen t.

S i r Rab ind ranath Tagor e.

S IR RABlND RANATH'Tam as

“

lu_

i NT Ronucr 1 0 N .

in ; r U’'l l

[N the l i terary firmament of India

,no star,, sh ines

wi th g reater_ i . Splendour. to day t han S ir

Rab indr anath T agore,:thc greatest l iving poet ofBengal.One of the ,

most str iking 'figures in the literary .revival

inB enga l , he , has , ,been Zone; of'

the i i ch ief formativeinfiuen

'ces of the inew era on which Bengal has in recent

t imes entered . His work 'is inothing i f not a passionate

expreSS ICIn of love for the motherl and. He is indeed one(Bf - the greatest singer s of nat ionalism. His songs havenerved a nat io n ’s hear t and fi l led i t with anew li fe . The"

i nfluence of the poets is,afte r a l l

,the deepest and most

abiding , an d if the dreams of the new'

na t ionalism inI ndia are to be accompl ished , a m bola h ost of singerslike Rab ind ranath

\wil l have to p repare the way forsuch achievement ? Our gdebt to Rab indranathand hisl i ke can be repaid on ly in love and service to the landW t h he loves SO WQH. i i f l r 1 f l _, 1b

Rab indranath loves Ind ia , not 1Jvith the love of ;a

b l ind g lorifier of the past , but of one who’

is awake toal l thestir and the movement of the age and is i l l uminedwith the l ight of modernc ulture“ T he Indi an sp i r i t andthe In dianpoint of View are t raceab le in his wr i t ingsl ike a pervasive presence ,

H is,message r

l

elinks,us to

India in al l essentials “evenwhi le vo icing the need of anew adjustment . i


The work of Rabindranath has other than patr ioticaspects. AS pure litera tu re alone i t has surpassworth . H is wri t ings wi l l not be merely the glory o f thehour but wi l l co’nt inue to cheer and elevate generat ionsyet to come. H is writ ings are above al l the outpouringof a soul wh ich ceaselessly feels out towards God

,

They are full of the Vaishnava Spir i t which ideal ises andSpir i tua l ises every relat ion of l i fe . His hymns breathe

a profoundly meditative Spir i t. His songs open to us

the roadways of beauty and 'blessedness i n l i fe. H is

short stories charm the reader , whi le an u ndercurrentof deep purpose runs through them. His musica l p iecesare ful l on an enchant ing .melody . H is essays are theoutcome o f a search ing reflect ion . Ever

J'thing that he

has written'g lovvs with the l ight of h is r ich gen ius and r

that Spi r i tua l fervour which is the heri tage of the

H indu .

Rab indranath’s character is even greater than hisl

writ ings . In Ind ia , perhaps in India a lone , the sa in t has ibeen '

at the same t ime ph i losopher and poet. Rab indra

nath is poe t and'

sain t in one, and therefore doub ly

great . The joy of commun ion with God is his . - Poe t ,dramat ist

,nove l is t , musician , patr iot , med itat ive sage.

S i r Rab indranath Tagore 18 at presen t one of thegreatassets of Ind ia.

l

INDIA : PAST AND PRESENT

In this brief sketch wh ich aim of t urn ing the gazeof the reader towards this shin in g l ight in the l i tera ryfi rmamen t of In dia and at kindl ing in the heart o f everyson and daug ther of India a deep and 'passionate


and then only can we real ise the t ruth of the abovestatement as to the lo f t ies t ideals of the Indian mind.

India wai ts in eager ant ic ipation for the coming of thegreat h istorian dowered in a supreme measure with

t rue historical imagin at ion and vision and consciencewho wil l recreate Indi a ’s past by the magic wand of

h is learn ing and show India to hersel f in al l her peerless beauty in the magic mirror of h is marvel lous mind .

Though h is great work which is of such supremen ational importance has not yet been done , yet , i f welet our minds range over the ages and try to understand

the d irect ion of the forward flow of Indi a ’s nationall i fe through recorded time , we can see abundantly andwel l that India has been loyal to the l ight vouchsafedunto her a nd has always sought to real ise her vis ionand her ideal i n individual and national l i fe. The consol idat ion o f the ancient H indu emp ires had thei ri nspirat ion an d gu ide in the immemorial Indian idealsun i ty and harmony . The Buddhis tic age which beganwith an era o f revolt agai nst H indu ideas o f l i fe andGod ended i n a reaffi rmat ion o f those ideas in a moredynamic and powerfu l form . The M ahomedan per iodshows how the ebbing away of the great Ind ian ideasas to i ndividual and national l i fe was fol lowed by thedecay of the racial powers o f se l f - protection and how

eventual ly the rev ital isation of those i deas by the

Bhakth i movement was fol lowed by a new sel f - con

sc iousness and a new vigour o f social and rac ial l i f eThe struggl i ng elements of growt h and consol idat ionneeded an era of act ive and strenuous peace and the

help o f a foster ing hand to emerge into ful l and

SIR RAB I NDRANATH TAGORE 387

v igorous l i fe . In the wisdom of Provi dence Englandhas come into our beloved land to per fect such ele i

ments o f growth and consol idat ion. Englans he

champion of growing national i ti es everywhere,the

lover o f freedom, the emancipato r of slaves— has come

into our land bringing with her the heal thy atmosphereof a h igher c ivic and national l i fe , and hence the elements of uni ty and progress and consol idation in our

land wi l l very soon at tain ful l f ruit ion .

D IFFEREN T IA OF IND IAN LITERAT URE AND ART

I f such have been the i deal s i n indiv idual,some]

,

and nat ional l i fe in India we can wel l expect them tobe given immortal and perfect expression i n Ind ia ’sl iterature and art , because l iterature and art are the record oi the intenser and happier momen ts and moodsof the inner l i fe o f a people

,and are not a mere orna

ment of l i fe but are a revelat ion of l i fe. Art is one of

the natural forms assumed by joy , and the h igher l i fe

is a l i fe of increasing and .glad real isation of the joy .

elements in God ’s universe , The human soul r ises forl aw into l ight and from light into love

,and in the

course of th is fl ight into higher and higher regions ofthe inner heaven the mind becomes fi l led with beautif ul images and ideas , the eyes acquire a new clarity andpower of vis ion , and the utterance becomes musicaland harmonious. Hence it i s that “art ideal ises thereal an d reports the ultimate ,

”and ; that the h ighest art

is in perfect touch with l i fe and at the same t ime i sperfectly creative. Thus al l t rue and great art must bej oyf ul

,creative , rhythmical , and harmon ious and


poetry as the greatest of al l the a r ts and as deal ing

with language which i s the most subtle and Spir i tualof all media of sel f - expression must have these charac

.

ter istics in a predominan t measure. At the same timeevery great race has got itsovi n ideals

,i ts own dreams

,

i ts own aspirat ions ; and its art , which is the exp res~sion o f i ts higher l i fe , must hence be thoroughlynat ional . A great nat iona l ar t can come into existenceonly i f certain pre - requisites ex ist . These are a passionate nat ional Spir i t , an in ten se fai th in the grea tfuture o f the coun try based on an intense pr ide in the

g reat past of the l and , a capaci ty for measureless sel f

sacrifice, a r ich and glorious past l i terary and artist ictradit ion

,soc ia l sympathy and uni ty , and suitable

ass imi lat ion (as opposed to imi tat ion) o f element s o fthe universa l beauty from other great l i terat ures o f theworld. Apply ing these tests , we real ise what a greatand wonder ful nati on al l i terat ure and art the Ind ian

geni us has developed for the greater happiness of manand the greater glory of God . The passionate worsh ipo f l i terature and art i n our land is brough t home toour m inds by the beaut i fu l stanza .

{reassess ama lgam I

[The poison - tree of phenomenal l i fe bears two

ambroisal fru its , v i z .

,the enjoyment o f the nectar of

poesy and the enjoymen t of the society of pure and

godly natures]. Ind ian l i terature is remarkable for its

seren i ty and its san i ty and its vivid real isation of the

sweetness of poet ic emot ion (“I and afi ). Rosa and

t am’

are beaut i ful Sanskri t words the full meaning


ar t has made a conscious and success ful attempt in ourland to real ise the uni ty of things and has been in gladand holy al l iance v ith rel ig ion . I t has also tr icd to be

popular and to appea l to the un iversal elements ofthought and emot ion . The temples which were thecentres of the higher l i fe o f the per ple were tr ade thet rue homes o f artist ic beauty

,and i n the presence of

God the worker, the th inker

,the dreamer, and the

devotee met and fraternised as happy ch i l dren of God.

REVELAT ION OF RACE- CON S CIOUSNESS I N T AGORE.

Tagore,being a great and represen tat ive poet an d

summ ing up in himsel f a great era, can be wel l expect

ed to be an embodiment o f our great rac ia l ideas as

described above and i f we study the insp ire d pages o fT agore

’

s Works,our expectat ions are abundan t ly ful

fil led and rea l ised . First and foremost should be men

tioned T agore’

s Sacramenta l concept ion of l i fe . God isthe sustainer and upholder of l i fe

,and by ceaseless

d iscip l in e and inner upl i f t He raises us to the heavenof H is love . The very first poem in the Gitanj alz saysin famous words :

Thou hast made me endless , such is thy pleasure.Th is frai l vesse l thou empt iest again and again,and fi l lest i t ever wi th fresh l i fe .

Th i s l i tt l e flute of a reed thou hast car ried overh i l ls and daleS , and hast brea thed through i tmelod ies eternal ly new.

At the immortal touch of thy hands my l i ttle heart

loses i ts l imits in joy and gives b irth to utteranceineffable .

SIR RAB I NDR A NA TH TAGORE 391

Thy infin ite gi fts come to me only o n these verysmal l hands of mine. Ages pass

,and sti l l thou

pourest, and st i l l there is room to fi l l .”

T agore’s works Show not only th i s In dian conception

of the sacramental character of l i fe but also theIndian concept ion of the sacramental character of love.Tagore says in his art ic le on Ka lidasa the M ora list

The love that is sel f - control led and fr iendly to generalSociety , which does not ignore any one , great or smal l ,kindred or stranger

,around i tsel f— the love which ,

whi l e placing the loved one in i ts centre,diffuses its

sweet graciousness within the c ircle of the ent i re

un iverse,has a iperm anence unassai lable by God or

love occupies i ts proper place insubordinat ion to vi r t ue

,i t con t r ibutes its special

element towards perfect ion,i t does not destroy

symmetry ; because vir tue is noth ing but harmony— it:preserves beauty

,i t prese rves goodness , and by wedd ing

the two together i t gives a del icious completeness toboth .

”T agore

’s conception of the soul and function of

art a lso shows how he is i n harmony wi th the greattrad i t ions of our race in the realms of l i terature and art .

Accord ing to him art is the opener o f the gate of beautythrough which we can pass to reach the very Throne ofGrace. Two beauti f ul passages i n the G itanj a lz bringout th i s idea very we ll .

My song has put ofl'

her adornments ; she has nopride of dress or decorat ion. Ornaments Wouldmar our union ; they would come between theeand me, their j ingl ing would drown

,

thy whispers.

”

(Gitanj ali , page


I t ouch by the edge of the far - Spreading wing ofmy song thy feet wh ich I could never aSpire to

reach .

”

(Gitanj a li , pageIn short , T agore

’s great contr ibut ions in the realm of

cr eat ive cri t ic ism show that he has vividly real ised andaccepted the canons of Indian art as described i n thepreceding pages . He says : “ Inasmuch as art rest rainsreal i ty

,

’ i t lets i n truth , which is greater than real i ty .

’

The profess ional art i s t is a mere witness to real i ty,

’

whi le the real art ist i s a witness t o truth . W e see theproduct ions of the one Wi th our corporeal eyes , and ofthe other with the deeper eyes of contemplat ion . And

to see anyth ing in complet ion requires , first and foremost , that the obsess ion of the senses be curbed stronglyand th is declarat ion be made to al l outward formsthat they are never ul t imate or final , never an end but

always means to an end .

” To sum up his views as tothe fundamental concept ions o f the Indian mind as tothe meaning and purpose o f l i fe , I may wel l quote herethe fol lowi ng pas sage from his M ission of India wherehe says We see that throughout the ages Ind ia ’son ly endeavour has been to estab l ish harmony amids td i fferences

,to incl ine various roads to the same goal , to

make us real ise the one in the mids t of the many withan undoubting inner conviction ; not to do away with

‘

outer d ifferences and yet to a ttai n to the deeper oneness that underl ies al l such differences . ”

T AGORE’S DEBT T O THE PAST

I t is a del ightfu l and upl i ft ing task to trace the sou rces

o f T agore’smenta l and ar tist ic endowment , the tr ibuta ry


Ahz'

msa . of S anthi , of the Spir i tual kinship of al l o f thesovereign ty of love, and of the love of God being thecrown ing glory and rapture o f human l i fe find againand again beauti ful and immortal express ion in T agore

’s

great poem s and songs .

T H E INDIAN RENAISSAN CE AN D T AGORE’S

PLACE I N I T

Such has been the great past of India in l i fe and '

art and such i s T agore’S re lat ion to that great and

glorious past . But i t is in re lat ion to India ’s present and

her glorious future th at we see his gen ius in al l its ful

ness of Splendou r. India i s now on the threshold of anew era ; and a wise an d firm hold on her great ida wise responsiveness to the cal l of the age , a w iseevol ution of her nat ional l i fe

,a h igher development of

her l i terature and art,and a glad sel f - dedicat ion of the

‘

]l ives of al l Indians in their count ry ’s cause are requi red lto make this e ra f ru it ful and to bring into existence the

greater and happier India o f the future. Even the mos t Icareless or ind ifferent or prejud iced observer of theIndian people to - day can see even on a superficia lexamination that a new Sp iri t has been born in IndiaA new se l f - respect and se l f - consciousn ess , a pass ionateconcept ion of our holy motherland as the sovereign ofour hearts

,a keen and overmastering desire to serve

that fin ds a holy rapture in finding Opportunities'

for

service and an intense and poignant agony at beingdenied such Opportunit ies— t hese are to be found inevery Indian o f to day . be be young or old , whatever beh is cas te or creed. Unity of p lace, uni ty of manners .

SIR RABIND RANATH TAGORE 395 .

and tradit ions and cul ture , uni ty o f re l igion , ethica l ;un i ty , uni ty of history , the un iversa l reverence for thedivine Sansk ri t tongue , and uni ty of l aws and ofGovernm ent have under t he impact of the grea tW estern c iv i l isa t ion brought about a rea l nat iona l se l fconsciousness, though Ind ia is cont inental in size and \

contains many languages and castes . This sacramentalconcept ion of the mother land and of the Indianpeop le has natura l ly found its perfect and pass ionateexpress ion in the l i terature and ar t of the t ime

,

because the soul of the ar t i st and the poet is l ikethe Aeo l ian harp f rom wh ich God ’s breezes evokepassionate melodies. Th is is the t rue inwardness ofwhat has been cal led t he Ind ian Renaissance . TheRenaissance in Europe owed its insp i rat ion and power '

to a departed civ i l isat ion and a dead l i terature. W e

are fort unate in the circumstance that our Ind ianRena i ssance owes its power and inspirat ion to a livmgc ivi l isat ion and a V i ta l l i terature . The great dreams ofthe past

,the great stor ies of record ing the doings and

the thoughts of the he roes and heromes of our land , .

and the holy books br inging to us t he message of God ’s .

love and the achievements of God ’s Incarnat io ns in thedi rect ion of uphold ing Dharma and upl if t ing the lover sof God in to the parad ise of H is Love are be ing relatedanew to l ife in modern t imes. In this impact of thethought of past t imes upon the l i fe of the p resent isborn the V ivify ing and beautifu l flame o f new and _

glorious thoughts and words and deeds , the warmth ofwhich keeps our na t iona l l i fe f rom decay and the l igh tof which shows us our way through the utter darkness .


of t he d istan t future . T agore’

s gen ius can be unders tood by us proper ly when we seek to re late i t toIndia ’s st renuous present and glor ious future . He isthe greatest poet and prophet of Indian Renaissance .

A ll his works are e ither a passionate . render ing of theinfini te moods of the new - born sp ir i t of patr iot ism andadorat ion of our mother land or a new and v ital in ter

pretation o f India’s great dreams and deeds in the past.

I Shal l deal with h is works in deta i l l ate r on . But I }S hal l quote here a few of f ins gre i t patr iot ic songswhi ch are among h is greatest g if ts to the nat ion .

To thee,my Motherland , I ded icate my body , fo r

thee I consecrate my l ife for thee my eyes wil lweep ;

‘

jand in thy pra ise my muse wi l l sing.

Though my arms are he lp less and power less ;jstillt hey W i l l do the deeds that can only serve thy

V’

cause ; and though my sword is rusty withd isgrace

,st i l l- it shal l sever t hy chains of bondage

sweet mot her mine .

B lessed is my b irth , because I was {born in th is

7 count ry , b lessed is my l ife , mother, because Ihave loved thee .

I do not know i f thou hast weal th and r iches l ike a

7.Queen . I know th is -much that my l imbs are

cooled as soon as I s tand in thy Shade.I know not what grove b lossoms flowers

’

lthat

madden the soul w ith such scents—I'know not

the sky where the moon r ises with such sweet

smi les .

fl y eyes were first opened i n thy l ight and ttheywi l l be closed

,final ly

,upon that very l i ght.


a ceaseless stream . Indeed h is versatil i ty i s wonderf ul .He married in h is twenty - th i rd year. The Maharsh i thenasked h im to go down and manage the S hilaida estate .

Though Tagore did not at fi rs t l i ke this en forcedseclusion

,h is a rt became broader and deeper by reason

of his sel f - communion and meditat ion and by his

direc t observat ion o f peasant l i fe in Bengal . Theretoo he wrote some o f h is pl ays , especial l y Ch i tvarg adaVisayan and Raj a o Rani . lr iii his th i r ty - fifth year hewrote th e most exquisi te love - poetry in the Bengal il angua This Shilaida per iod lasted about seventeenyears . en he lost h is wi fe, his daughter , and hisyounge on . But these bereavements d id not sour h isnature but broadened h is sympathies and introduceda higher and more Sp i r itual note in to his wri t ings .I t was during th is period that the G i tanj a li was wri t ten .

He then went to England both for the sake of h isheal th and to be with his son during h is Un iversitycareer . After goi ng to England he translated some ofh i s poems in the books so wel l known to allz—G i tanj a li ,The Ga rdener and The Crescent M oon.HisEngl ish lecturesdel ivered i n America and i n Englan d have been col lected unde r the name S adhana . In 1913 he was awardedthe Nobel Pr ize. He devoted the ent ire prize amount

of 5 to his school at Bol pur,I n December 1913

theECalcutta Un iversity con ferred on h im the degree ofDoctor o f Literature. He was subsequently knighted.)He has now gone on an extended tour in Japan and

Amer ica and proposes to devote to h is school thesums rece ived by him f or h is lectures . He has started

an Art House,

" which is a school for teach ing arts

SIR RAB INDRANATH TAGORE 399

and industr ies . His Bolpur school is one o f the mostadmirable educat ional inst i tut ions in our land. Amongh is works now avai lable i n Engl ish are G itanj a li , The

Gardener . The Crescent M oon, The King of the D a rk Cham

ber , The Post Off ice. Ch i tra , S adhana ,T ransla tion of One

H undred P oems of Kab ir , Glimpses of Benga l Life, F ru it

Gather ing , Hung ry S tones and other ston es, etc. Manypoems and essays and stories by him have been t ranslated in the M odern Rev iew S ince 1910 and his Rem i .niscences have been translated in that valuable mon t hlys i nce January 19 16

,His L etter s are going

( to be published in the M odern Rev iew f rom January 1917 .

T AGORE’S PERSONALITY

Tagore is a man of str iking appearance. M r

B asanta Kumar Roy says : “ The H indu poet ’s flowi ng hai r

,h is broad , unfurrowed forehead , his bright ,

b lack , magnetic eyes, chisel led nose, firm but gentlechin

,del icate sens itive han ds , his sweet vorce, pleasant

smile,keen sense of humour , and his in nate refinemen t

make h im a man o f rare and charming personal i ty . Tolook at him is to notice the true embod iment O f the

artist .” He is a man Of sweet and unselfish nature andkindles love and affect ion i n every one who has the

g ood fortune to meet him. He is fond of swimmi ngand rowing but h is chief joy and recreat ion are ins ing ing . I t i s said : “ O f ten he has been heard singing from early morning t i l l late at n ight

,with only a

break Of an hour or so for noon - day meal .” H is loveof nature is the master pass ion of his l i f e . I t is th ist rai t and h is deeply rel ig ious Spir i t that keep up the


sweetness of h is nature and the rad iance of h is vis ion.

amidst the hurry and bustle and worldl iness O f modernl i fe. He is an ideal l andlord and his pract ical andboundless love for them is one of the most fasc inat ingt ra its o f his l i fe. He gives remissions of rent when.

i nabi l i ty to pay rent i s shown . There are several primary schools

,one secondary Engl ish school and char i

table dispensary in the estate . There is also an agr icultural bank there . I n h is Bolpur school he movesf reely with h is boys and is beloved by them . He has .

also taken par t in the publ ic l i fe o f the country thoughh is ch ief activi t ies l ie elsewhere. He pres ided over theProvinc ial Conference at Pabna in 1908. His recen t andfamous refusa l to lecture in Canada because o f Canada ’

s

unsympathetic and unfraternal conduct towards Indiashows the strength and energy of h is patr iot ic emotion.Every thought , word , and deed of h is are inspi red by hissupreme love for Ind ia an d des ire to serve India. I t

has been very wel l said o f h im : Here is a sain t who.

is n ot af raid to be a saint, who dares to mingle with thecommonest th ings Of the world

,and a poet the very

c loseness o f whose contact with earth l i f ts h im evernearer to heaven .

SHANT I N IKET AN

T agore’

s famous schoo l at Bolpur deserves a Spec ial;men tion . The modern schoo ls in Indi a are ins t i t ut ionswhich the India of the f uture cannot and wi l l not to le~

rate. I t is a heal thy sign of the vi tal i ty and sel f protect ive power of the Indian gen ius that schools Of the

stamp Of T agore’s school are Spr ing ing i nto existence


rouse the sleepers up into the beauty and calm of theear ly dawn .

" The boys clean their own rooms . Theythen go th rough physical exerc ises in the open air

,bathe

and meditate for a quarter o f an hour. Tagore haswr itten in a lette r to Mr . Rose : “To give Spiri tua lcul ture to our boys was my principa l object instart ing my school in Bolpur. Fortunate ly

,in India

,

we have the model before us i n the tradit ion Of our

anc ien t forest schools. Having th is idealof a school i n my mind which shou ld b e a home and atemple in one , where teaching should be a part of aworshipful l i fe , I selected this spot away from a l l d istractions of town , hal lowed with the memory of a p iousl i fe whose days were passed here in communion withGod.

” After medi tat ion , the gong sounds and the boysgo reverent ly in procession into the school temple .

”

The boys have classes between 7 A .M . to 10 A .M . i n themorning and 2 R M . to 5 PM . in the af ternoon

.Al l

classes are held under the shade O f t rees when theweather is fine . In the even ing the Older boys go tothe neighbour i n g vi l lages to teach the vi llage l ads . Theboys are trained i n act ing and m us ic and have thei rart ist ic nature properly nurtured . There is no corporalpun ishment . I t is a republ ic of the boys and the disc ipline of the school is i n thei r hands .

'The teachersl ive with them and are quite happy. Dur ing hol idaysthe teachers and the boys go on excursions to var iousp laces . The boys ret ire to bed at hal f - past n ine and achoir of boys again go round the school s inging even .

ing songs. Thus they begin thei r days with songs and

close them with songs . Such is th is wonderful school

. S IR RABI NDRANATH TAGORE

and such are i ts id eals and achievements. As , M r.

Ramsay M acD onald says : The Shantiniketan is nomere seminary for the educat ion of boys. I t is a l ivewith the l ife o f India. I t is aware of what is going

'

ou

outside. I t shares in t he larger Indian l i fe.”

T AGORE’S M IND AN D ART

I t wi l l be} imposs ib le to reveal with any degree of

f ulness in this br ief sketch the heavenly . ibeauty of

T agore’s mind and ar t. I shal l

,however, point ou t a

few aspects Of his genius so that t he affluence of . hismental endowment may be real ised in some measure.His B engal i s ty le is “ f ul l Of subt lety Of rhythm, of

unt ransl atab le del icacies Of co lour, Of metr i ca l invent ion .

” He has revea led to t he wor ld t he wonderf ulp otent ial it ies and powers o f the Indian l anguages andhas won

, for h is mother - tongue in ternat ional recognit ion and hom i ge. HLS Engl ish p rose sty le

‘

has‘

b een

wel l ca l led as th is flower Of Engl ish p rose” by Engl ishcr it ics and has d is covered even t o t he Engl ish geniusnew

h poSS ib ilities i n t he Engl ish language. .

H is s ty lehas Spontaneity , f reshness , S imp l ic ity, Sp iri tual sug ges

t iveness, gol den fe l ic i t ies o f phrase, and a pervas ivemelody. I n regard to h is m ind and ar t we mus t re

member the h igh and up l i f t ing note Of ideal ism andmyst ic ism in h isworks. M yst icrsm i s an inner f acul tyand endowment by which we rea l ise the sp ir i tua l kinsh ip of th ings and t he d .wine elements radiat ing l ightand love and joy everywhere. T agore

’

s works are fullo f this wonderful myst ical note and reveal his rarepower of real is ing and express ing t he spir ituali signifi

sauce and purpose and appeal of, common i things.


Another fact : to be remem bered in regard to his ar t ishis lyr ica l supremacy) The lyr i c mood consists

'in a

rapturous fl igh t in to the realm Of melodious though t

fo l lowed by a quick descen t . Though ly r i c poetry isi n tense ly

'

s'

ubject ive , i t con tains un ive rsa l e lementsbecause the greatest lyr i c poets i n seeking and attain ingper fect se l f - expression become also the interp reters andrevea le rs Of the un iversa l human heart. T agore

’s great

lyr ic poet ry is many - S ided in its appea l and'mul tiform

in i t s lovel iness . Tagore is a t rue embodiment Of theHindu gen ius which regards poetry and song not as

mere o rnaments Of l i fe but as the hand- maids of God

leading our souls t o H is lotus feet . His lyr ic love,hal f

angel and hal f bi rd” soars in thesunsh ine o f t he summer

Skies of the sou l and sees the beauty of what is here and.beyond , Nature and God, ear th and heaven . As Mr .

B asanta Kumar Roy , wel l says : Love flows f rom his.

hear t,mind , and sou l in a continuous s tream,

assumingal l different forms in i ts w indings from the gross to thesp i r itua l

,f rom the known to the unknown , f rom the

fin ite to the infin ite . He in terprets love in al l i t s mul t ifo rm express ions—the low of mother

,of son , husband,

wife,l over, beloved, patr iot , of the D ionysian , nature

drunk,and of the God - frenzied .

” His nature - lyr i cs~

m ingle in a beauti fu l way the beauty of natu re in i tse l fand i ts sp ir itual and emot iona l appeal to the soul o fman .

’ H is patr iot ic lyr ics sweep us Off our feet andl i f t us into a plabe of pass ionate and powerfu l emot ion

and br ing new energ ies of service in to the hear t whi leb r inging grac ious tears to the eyes and bl issfu l thri l ls- to the frame. H is devot iona l lyr ics bear our sou ls away


w ith iheaven by its influence. T agore’s Gardener dea l s

wi th other aSpec ls. of love and contains exqu isite lovepoet ry , beaut i f ul nature - lyr ics

,and lofty devot ional

poems. The love poetry i n thi s volume of poemsis asmany - sided as i t is beaut i fu l and pure . It is g ivSn anexquis it e sett ing amid the most att ractive and picturesque natura l scenes . The del icacy of touch and thekeenness of i ntui tive vision evidenced in the devot iona l

poems in the volume are equal ly wonder ful . Thei nnum erab le miscellaneous poems of T agore

's as yet

untranslated reveal the same rare gi fts. T he manymiscel laneous poems translated but uncol lected in bookform and scattered over the pages of the M odern

Rev iew a re equal ly beauti ful . I t was the sim i lar i ty ofmen ta l endowment between Tagore and Kabir that led

Tagore to'

translate and publ ish‘

One H undred Poems ofKabir with the col laborat ion of Evelyn Underhi l l . I

come final ly to the G i tanj azi, though this was the fi rsto f T agore

’s works to be t ranslated into Engl ish and

turned the gaze o f the whole wor ld to the greatness o fh i s gen i us . In it we see the most per fect blossoming ofall h is varied and remarkable powers . I t is a verymin e of perfect gems of devotional poetry. I t containsT agore ’s translat ion of his own poems and shows what

’

new cadences and harmonies of feel ing and phrase can

be evolved by the master o f one language from anothertongue . T he pecul iar glory of Gitanj a li i s the manner inwh ich i t re latesto human l i fe to the D ivine t i l l i t is transfigured i n the l igh t of God . The whole world is fel t byus as be ing immeasurably near to us in Spiri t , and 0 01

”

heart s become ful l o f a new pass ion of love and peace .

SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE 407

as we go t hrough the fascinat ing poems. Mr. Yeats ,says in his intrOduct :on to the G itanj a li Mr . Tagorel i ke the Indian c ivi l isation i tsel f , has been content todi scover the soul and surrender h imsel f t o its

spontaneity . And innocence , a Simpl ic ity that onedoes not find elsewhere i n l i terature makes the birds

and the leaves seem as near to h im as‘ they are nea r to

ch i ldren , and the change O f the seasons great eventsas before our thoughts had arisen between them andus . T agore

’s F ru i t Ga ther ing i s a sequel to G i tanj a li

and conta ins devotional poems of perfect lovel iness . I tconta ins the un ique feature of reveal ing new elemen tsof beauty and Sp ir itual emotion i n the great inc identsi n the l ives o f the heroes and heroines and sa ints o fIndia . In fact al l T ag

‘

ore’s poems

,and especially G i tan .

‘

j a lz, are ful l of true beauty and hol iness and l i f t us toa higher pl ane of thought and emotion and bring to us.

A toneOf some world far from oursW here muS ic and moonl ig ht and feel ing are one.”

T AGORE’S DRAM AS

I have already shown how T agore’

s lyr ical geniushas given h is dramas a pecul iar lyric appeal .

’ His

plays are not those of the ordinary Western type in

which the‘ s tory is evolved by the cl ash of lcfiaracters

and is ful l of complexity and var iety ."The blessednessof the un iversal joys and duties of l i fe and the spi ri tualsignificance of th ings are the i nspi r ing ideas Of this

pl ays and the Story of the play'is only a means and net

an end. Valmiki P ra tiva i s h is '

earl iest play'and


descr ibes the episode of Valmik i ’s discovery of rhythmicand poet ic express ion consequen t on th e reformationand Spir i tual is ing of his l i fe. In P rakr iti P ra tzsodha

Tagore shows the supremacy O f love over know ledge .

I n Acha laya tan we have a prose problem— play describi ng how a monastery degenerates by sh utt ing outheal thy contact wi th the world and is reformed an dpur ified by heal thy outS ide influences. O the r plays byh im are M a lini , Chztva rgada , Visayan. In Ch i tra Wehave the M ahabaratha story about Ch itr a and Arj unal i f ted in to a high plane of art . I t descr i bes the lovethat though rooted in phy s ical attraction blossoms intothe marriage of minds and attains the golden frti itageOf union of souls. I n the P ost Off ice the problems ofl i f e and death and Of the Spir itual l i fe a re t reated witha wonderful l ightness o f touch . In the K i ng of the D ark

Cham ber we see the successfu l search of God by thehuman soul . In the P ha lg uni t he gracious doctr ine o fthe immorta l ity of the soul is proved to us by the

mag ic vo ice of poet ry .

T AGO RE’

S S TORIESIndia has been the great s tory- tel ler Of the world and

Indian stor ies have been b lown al l Over the world bythe ai r currents of c ivi l isat ion and the seeds havefruct ified everywhere . In India i tsel f t he great storyte l l ing tradit ion has been prese rved and perfe cted , andtheKathakas and ba l lad - s inge rs are even to - day the rea lcustodians o f popular cu l tu re and reveals o f God ’smessage to men, even though modern habits Of t houghthave been undermin ing the fa ith of the peop le and has

4 10 THE IND IAN NAT ION B UILDERS

t hese wordS : Man ’s abid ing happmess is not in .

g ett ing any thm g but i n g iving himsel f up to what isgreate r than h imsel f

,to ideas which are larger than his

ind 1v idual l i fe , the idea o f h is country , humamty , ofGod .

”

M ISCELLANEOUS W RIT ING S

These are i nnumerable and inval uable and deserve aful l and reverent study. T agore

’s 1nnumerable ar t icles

on h 1stor ica1, soc 1al, l i terary , and other subjec ts and ll lSgreat addresses on publ ic occas ions and sermons atS hantiniketan cannot be referred to here b ut should becarefu l ly stud ied. His letters are ful l o f feel ing andwisdom and reveal his sweet and holy persti nality . Theyare being col lected and wi l l prove a prec ious humandocument . I shal l re fer here to one let ter by him to ourgreat patr iot Mr . Gandhi when he refers to the struggle

in South Afr ica as t he steep ascent of manhood , notthrough the bloody path of violence but that o f d ign ifiedpat ience and heroic sel f - renunciat ion .

TAGORE'S APPEAL T O YOUNG IN D IA

Such has been the l i fe , personal i ty , and gen iusof this

g reat poet - saint. His appeal to young India i s of un ique

value and power and may be summed up thus . Be

proud to be yourse l f and glory and rej oice in yourcountry ’s memorable past. Ass imi la te the best elementsof modern W estern c iv 1lisat 1on i n the realms of sciencecommerce, and admin istrat ion W ithout surrendering.

your personal i ty and becoming subdued in your soulBe loyal to your wonderful ar t and rel igion and car ry '

SIR RAB IN D RANA TH TAGORE 4 1 1 ;

them to higher stages of se l f - express ion and sel f - real isat ion . Love your divine Sanskr i t and beaut iful .vernaculars with passionate devot ion and make yourl i terature a dai ly l ight in the hear ts of your brethren .

Let India he the Goddess of your sou ls and gladly layat her lotus feet the fe1res t flowers o f good thoughts ,words , and deeds . Be nationa l in your habi t s and dressand deportment , in your speech and wr it ings , in yourthought and em ot ion . Relate l i fe t o love and joy and

’

l ive in se rvice of man and love of God. Let yourmotto be : Se l f - cont ro l in regard to yoursel f

,sel f - respect

in regard to al l others,se l f - sacr 1fice in regard to your

mother land , and se lf - surrender to God

CONCLUSION

T agore l the Ganga of thy verse and proseComes from H IS lotus feet to dower w ith g raceT heworld in these most restless joy less days ,

A sweeter rapture in our bosom g lowsAnd in our eag er hands a new streng th g rowsTo sing br ight Ind ia in a thousand laysAnd serve her g ladly in a thousand ways

And turn to rad iant raptures all her woes.Accept the homage of our head and heartAnd lov eward , joyward , Godward lead us onFrom sloth and stri fe through paths of work and peace

God g rant we bear in life a manly partRejoicing in the sh1ning inner dawnRevealing joys of God~love

’

s mysteries.

SAKUNTALA : ITS INNER MEAN ING

(T ransla ted f rom the Benga li of Rabindra Na th Tagore)

W ouldst thou the young years blossomsand the fruits of its decl ine.

And all by which the soul is charmed,unraptured , feasted , fed,

W ouldst thou the earth and heaven its elfin one sole name combine

I name thee. O Sakunta la land al l at once is said . Goethe.

Goethe,the master - poet of Europe

,has summed

up his cr it i cism of Saktm ta la in a single quatr ian ; hehas not taken the poem to p ieces . This quatrain seemsto be a smal l t hing l ike the .flame of a candle , but i tl ights up t he whole drama in an instant and revea ls it sinner nature. In Goethe ’s words

, Sakuntala blendstogether t he young years

’ blossoms and the f ruit of itsmatur i ty i t combines heaven and ear th in one .

W e are ap t to pass over this eu logy l ight ly as a merepoet ica l outburst . W e are apt to consider that i t on lymeans in

‘

effect that Goethe regarded S akunta la as fine

poetry. But i t is not {rea l ly 50 . His stanza breat hesnot the exaggerat ion of rapture , but the del iberatejudgment of a t rue cr i t ic . There is oa .special poin t inhis words. Goethe says expressly that Sakuntala conta ins the h istory of a d evelop .nent,

- the developmen t- of flower in to f ruit , of ear th in to heaven , of mat te r intosp ir it.


natural ly drawn . W ith equal ease has the poet shown ,

the deeper puri ty of her fal l , - her unimpaired - i nmatechast ity. This is another proof of her s impl ici ty.

The flower of the forest needs no servan t to brushthe dust off her petals . She stands bare ; dus t se tt leson her ; but in spite of i t she eas i ly retains her ownbeaut i ful c leanl iness . D i r t d id sett le on Sakun tal a

, but

she was ,not even consc ious o f i t . Like the S imple

o

wild deer,l i ke the mountain spr ing , she stood forth

pure i n Spite o f mud .

Kal idas has let h is herm i tage bred youth ful heroinefol low the unsuspect ing path of N ature ; nowhere hehas restra ined her. And yet he has developed her i ntothe model of a devoted wi fe

,W ith her reserve

,endur

ance of sorrow,and l i fe of r igid Spi r i tual d iscipl ine.

At the begin n ing we see her sel f - forget ful and obed ient '

of N atu re ’s impulses l ike the plants and flowers ; at

the end we see her deeper femin ine soul , —sober ,patient under i l l

,intent on austerit ies , strictly regulated

by the sacred laws of p iety . W ith match less art Kal idashas placed h is heroine on the meet ing - point o f act i onand calmness , of N ature and Law, o f rive r and ocean ,as i t were . Her father was a hermit , but her motherwas a nymph . Her birth was the outcome of interm pted auster i t ies , but her nat ure was in a hermitage,which is just the Spot where Nature and austeri t ies

,

beauty and restrai nt are harmonised . There is noneo f the conven t ional bonds o f society there , and yet wehave the harder regulat ions o f rel igion . Her gandhar vamarriage , too , was of the same type i t had the wi ld

ness of Nature joined to the soc ial t ie o f wedlock

S IR RAB INDRANATH TAGORE 415

T he drama S akunta la stands a lone and unr ival led in al l»‘

l i terature , be cause i t depicts how Res traint can . be;

harmon ised with Freedom. Al l i ts joys and sorrows; i

unions and part ings proceed f rom the confl ict of thesetwo forces .Sakuntal a ’s s imp l ici ty is natural , that of M iranda is

unnatural . The differen t c ircumstances under whichthe

'

two were brought up , account for this d ifferen ce . rSakuntala ’s s imp l ic ity was not gir t round by ignorance .

as was the case with M iranda . We see i n the F i rstAct that Sakuntala ’s two compan ions did not lether remain unaware of the fact that she was inthe first b loom of youth . She had learnt to be .

b ash ful . But all these things are.

externa l . Hersimpli ci ty, on the other hand , is more de ep ly seatedand so a lso is her pur i ty. To the very end the -

~poet '

shows that she had no experience of the outs ide wor ld.

Her simpl icity is innate. True, she knew something'of

t he wor ld,becau se the hermitage did not stand

al together outside society the rules of home l i fe wereobserved here too . She was inexperienced though notignorant o f t he outs ide world but t rust fulness wasfi rmly enthr oned in her hear t. The simpl ic i ty whichspr ings f rom such trust fu lness had for a moment causedher fail, but i t also redeemed her for ever. Thistrust ful ness kep t her constan t to pat ience ; forgivenessand loving k indness, in spi te of the cruel lest b reach of t

her confidence. Miranda ’s s imp l i c i ty was never subjected to such a fiery ordea l i t never'clashed with,knowledge of the worl d.

i

'Our rebel l ious passions raise storms. In th is drama

4 1 6 THE INDI AN NAT ION BUILDERS

Ka l idas has extinguishedthe vo lcan ic fi re o f tumul tuouspass ion by means of the fears of t he pen itent heart .

But he has not dwel t too long on the d isease , —he ha sjus t given us a gl impse of i t and then dropped the vei l .The desert ion of Sakuntala by the polygamousD ushyanta, which in real l i fe would

- have happened asthe natu ra l consequence

'oih is charac ter , is here

'

broughtabout by

'the curse o f D urbasa . O therwise

, the

deser t ion would have been so extreme ly crue l and'

pathet i c as to destroy t he peace and harmony of thewho le p lay. But the poet has lef t asmal l ren t in theve i l th rough which we can get an idea of the roya l sin .

‘

I t i s in the Fi f t h Act . j ust ibefore Sakunta l a arr ives atcourt and is repudiated by her husband , the poetmomentar i ly draws as ide the curtain f rom the K ing ’

s

love affai rs . Queen Hansapadika is s inging to herse l f

in her mus ic roomO honey - bee ! hav ing sucked the m ango blossoms in

your search f or new honey . you have clean forgotten your

recent lov ing welcome by the lotus ]

This tear— stained song of a str iken hear t in'

theroya l harem gives us a rude shock , especia l ly as ourhear t was h itherto fil led with D ushyanta

’

s love passagesw ith Sakun tala . On ly in the preced ing Act we saw

Sakun tal a se tt ing out for her husband ’s home in a veryholy

,swee t

,and tender mood , carrying wi th herse l f the'

b lessings of the hoary sage Keny a and the good wisheso f the whole forest wor ld . And now a stain fall s on the'

p icture we had so hopeful ly formed of the home oflove to wh ich she was go ing .

‘

W hen the j es ter asked , W hat means th issong ? "


her ! She whose tender heart had made the wholeworld at the hermitage her own folk

,to - day stands abso

lutely a lone. She fi l ls th is vas t vacuity with her mightysorrow. W i th rare poet ic insight Kal idasa has decl inedto restore Sakuntala to Kauva ’s hermitage . A fter

the renunciat ion by D ushyanta it was imposs ible for herto l ive in harmony with that hermitage in the way shehad done was no longer her former se l fher relat ion with the universe had changed

.Had she

been placed agai n amidst her old surroundings, it would

on ly have cruel ly exh ibi ted the utter inconsi stency ofthe whole s i tuation . A mighty si lence was now neededworthy of the mighty grie f of the mourr er . But the

poet has not shown us the p icture o f Sakun tala in thenew hermitage,— parted from the fr iends o f her girlhood,and n urs ing the gr ie f of separat ion from her lover. Thesilence of the poet on ly deepens our sense of the si lence

and vacancy which here reigned round Sakuntala . Hadthe repudiated wi fe been taken back to Kauva ’s homethat hermitage would have Spoken . To our imagin at ion i ts trees and creepers would have wept , the twogi r l friends would have mourned for Sakunta la

,even if

t he poet had not said a word about i t . B ut in theunfami l iar hermitage of Mar ich , al l is st i l l and si lent tous ; only we have before our mind ’s eye a p ictureo f the world - abandoned Sakuntal a ’s infin ite sorrow,

d isc ipl ined by penance , sedate an d resigned , - seatedl ike a rec luse rapt in med i tat ion .

D ushyanta is now consumed by remorse. Th isremorse is tapasya . So long as Sakuntala was not wonby means of th is repentance , there was no glory in

S I R RAB I NDRANAT I—I TAGORE 419

winn ing sudden gust o f youth ful impulse hadin a moment given her up to D ushyanta, but that M S ,

not the true, the ful l winn ing of her. The best meansof winn ing is by devotion , by tapasya . W hat is eas i lygained is as eas i ly lost .Therefore , the poet hasmade the two lovers undergo a long and austere tapasyathat they may gain each other truly eternal ly. I f

D ushyanta had accepted Sakuntala when she was fi rstb rough t to h is court

,she would have only added to the

number o f H unsapadikas, occupied a corner o f theroyal harem, and passed the rest of her l i fe i n neglectgloom and uselessnessI t was a bless ing in disguise for Sakuntal a that

D ushyanta abjured her with cruel sternness . Whenaf terwar ds this cruel ty reacted on h imsel f , i t prevented

h im from remaining indi fferent to Sakuntala. H is

unceas ing and i n tense gr ief fused his heart and weldedSakuntala with i t. N ever before had the king met wi thsuch an exper ience . Never before had he had

'the

occasion and means of loving t ruly. K ings are un luckyi n th is respect ; their desires are so easi ly sat isfiedthat they never get what i f to be gained by devot ionalone . Fate now plunged D ushyanta i nto deep gr ie fand thus made h im worthy of true love , - made himrenounce the role of a rake .Thus has Kal idasa burnt away vice i n the internal fire

of the s inner ’s heart ; he has not tr ied to conceal i t fromthe outside . W hen the curtai n drops on the las t Actwe fee l that all the evi l has been destroyed as on afuneral pyre, and the peace born of a perfect and sat isfactory f ruit ion reigns in our . hearts. Kal idasa has


internal ly , deeply cut away the roots of the poison t ree,

wh ich a sudden force f rom the outs ide had planted»

H e has made the physical union of D ushyanta andSakuntal a tread the path o f sorrow

,and thereby

chastened and subl imated i t in to a moral un ion . Hencedid Goethe rightly say that S akunta la combines the:

b lossoms of Spring with the frui ts of Autumn, it

combines Heaven and Earth . Truly in S akuntala thereis one Paradise lost and another Paradise rega ined

.

The poet has shown how the un ion of D ushyanta and‘

Sakuntala in the First Act as mere lovers i s fut i le,whi le

their un ion i n the last Act as the parents o f Bharat is a

true union . The Fi rst Act is fu l l of b ri l l iancy and :

movement . W e therehave a hermit ’s daughter in theexuberance of youth , her two compan ions runn ing overw ith play fulness

,the newly flowering fores t creepe r

,

the bee intoxicated W i th perf ume, the fasc ina ted kingpeering from behind the t rees . From th is Eden of

b l iss Sakuntala , the mere sweetheart o f D ushyanta , is

ex i led i n dn race. But far different was the aspect o fthe other hermitage where Sakuntala , —the mother o f

Bharat and the incarnat ion o f goodness,— took refuge .

There no herm i t gi r ls water the t rees,nor bedow the

creepers W i th their loving sister - l ike looks , nor feed theyoung fawn with handfuls of paddy. There a s ingleboy fi l ls the loving bosom of the ent i re forest world heabsorbs a l l the l ivel iness of the trees

,creep ers

,flowers

and fol iage . The matrons of the hermitage , i n thei rloving anxiety , are fu l ly taken up wi th the unruly boy ,

W hen Sakuntala appears, we see her clad in a dustyrobe

,face pale with the penance of


has§built the home of the householder . He has rescuedthe re lat ion of the sexes f rom the sway o f lust andenthroned i t on the holy and pure sea t of ascet ic ism .

In the sacred books of the H ind us the ordered~relat ionof t he sexes has been defined by str i ct injunct ions andLaws. Ka l idas has demonstrated that re lat ion by

means of the elements of Beauty . The B eauty that headores iselit up y grace , modesty and goodness ; in it s

intens ity i t i s true to one for ever in its range i tembraces the whole universe. I t i s fu lfi l led by re

gratified by sorrow ,and rendered eterna l

by‘

relig ion.° In the m idst of th i s Beauty , the 1mpetuous

un ruly lovezof~rrian,and vuoman has restrained i tse l f and

attainedu ito a [profound peace , l ike a W i l d torren t

merged . in the ocean of Goodness . There fore i s suchLove higher and more wonder fu l than W l ld and unrest rained Pass ion The M odern Rev iew.

J AD UNATH SARKAR .

THE IMPACT OF EUROPE ON IND IA

(FROM T HE BENGALI or RAB IN D RA NATH TAGORE.)

We Indians are an old peop le— very ancien t andvery much worm out. I o f ten fee l in myse l f t heimmense an t iqu ity of our race. Whenever I look care

fully within,I find there on ly pensiven ess , repose , and

wor l d-wear iness ,— as if there were a long ho l idayWithin me and without ,— as i f we had fi n ished our

SIR RAB I NDRANATH TAGORE 423

office- work,in the morning of the wor ld ’s history

,so

that now in this hot noon when al l other nat ions arebusy at thei r tasks, we are res t ing peaceful ly within

c losed doors . We have earned our wages t o the ful l,

retired f rom act ive l i fe, and are now l iving on pension .

W hat ‘a tranqui l l i fe is ours

But now al l of a sudden we find our c ircumstanceschanged. The rent - f ree land we have got long longago has been escheated to the State under the newregime

,as we have fa i led to show'a val id t it le - deed.

W e have sudden ly turned poor ! We too mus t now

toi l and pay ren t l ike the peasants of the world. This

ancient race has been sudden ly ca lled upon to put fort h

new efforts .Therefore

, we must quit medi tat ion , qu i t repose ,qui t the cosy nook of the home. I t wi l l no longer dof or us to rema in absorbed in Sanskri t Grammar andLogic

,Hindu Theo logy and Law

,or dai ly r ites and

domest i c duties . W e must break c lods of ear thfer t i l ise the so i l , and pay the due revenue to the k ing ofModern Humani ty —we must study in co l leges

,d ine

at hote ls,and work in offices .

Alas who has demo l ished the city wal l of India anddragged us out in to th is vast and unshel tered fie l d of

work W e had thrown up in tel lectual embankmentsround our se lves , dammed up the st ream of Time, andwere reposing quiet ly with al l thines arranged to ourliking . Rest less Change roared incessant ly outs ideIndia l ike the encirc l ing sea , but we sat rooted amidstunshaken tranqui l l i ty and forgot the existence of

the moving changing universe o'utside. j ust then


through some loophole the ever - res t less human streampoured in to our count ry and tore Up our socia lorder , i t mingled the new with our old

,doubt with

our be l ief , discontent with our prevai l ing content , andt hereby threw a l l in to confusion .

I f the mountain and sea barr iers round us had beenm ore thorough ly impassable , a race of men could havefound the means of a t tain ing to a con tracted deve lop

m en t in peacefu l st i l lness am idst their obscure andiso lat ing barr ier wal ls. They woul d have learnt l i t t leo f what was happen ing in the wor ld, their knowledgeof geography would have been very imperfect . On lythei r poet ry

,thei r soc ia l system , their theology, thei r

phi losophy would have gained matchless beauty, charm,

and matur ity . They would have seemed to be l iving insome smal ler orb outs ide our earth thei r h istory, arts ,science

,wealth and happiness would have been confined

to themselves - “ even as in t ime layers of earth cutoff a par t of the sea , and turn i t into a lonely , peacefu land lovely lake which flushes with the var ied colours

of the dawn and the sunse t w i thout even be ing t hrowninto a ripple , and in the darkness of the n ight , underthew inkless stars broods in mot ion less , abst ract ion overthe eternal mystery.

T rue , we can learn a very st rong lesson and w in ahardy c iv i l isat ion , by being tossed about in the Sw i f tcurren t of T ime , at the cen tre of tumul tuous Change,in the batt lefield of N at ure ’s coun t less Forces . But

can we say that no gem is to be acquired by div ingwi th in so l i tude , si lence and profoundnessNo other race in this raging ocean of a world got the

426 THE INDI AN NAT ION BUILDERS

raiment , without ornament , ignorant of the world's

h istory— who tried to Spe a k of a subject wh ich evennow l acks an adequately express ive language

,ocula r

proof , and tangible resul t .

Therefore, r ise thou, pensive unworldly old man !Get up

,and engage in pol i t ica l agit at i on

,or l i e i n the

bed of slothfulness , proclaim the valour of your longpas t youth , brandi sh your skeleton frame, and see i fth is conduct can h ide your shame .

But such a course repels me . I cannot venture to

steer into th is vast worl d ocean with only a sai l o fnewspaper sheets. W hen the wind is gentl e andfavourable , the sai l wi l l swel l with pride but sudden lya tempest may blow from the sea and tear i nto sh redsour helpless pr ide .

I f i t had been so ordained that there was a sa feharbour named Progress somewhere hard by , and we

had only to reach i t anyhow in order to have al l cakesand no work

,then n o doubt I might have tried to

cleverly cross to i t af ter careful ly watching the sky foran eaSy voyage. But I know that there i s no terminus i nthe road o f progress

,there is no harbour where we can

anchor our boat and en joy a sleep ,— ever the unsettingPole star overhead and the shoreless sea in f ront ,— thewind most often adverse

,and the sea a lway s rough .

W ho i n such a case would wish to spend h is t imemerely in making toy - boats of foolscap paperYet I long to launch a boat of my own, when I see

the stream of human i ty moving on,al l around me the

m ingled din of many sounds , impetuous forces, swi f tadvance , ceaseless labour —then my heart too is roused ,


I too wish to cut off my old t ies with home and set outin the wide world . But ah ! the next moment I look.

at my empty hands , an d ask mysel f , where have I thefare for the voyage ? W here have I the boundless

hOpe of heart, the t ireless'

strength of vital i ty,the‘

unconquerable vigour of confidence of Europe ? Then

it is better for me to l ive thus in obscurity in a cornerof the world , i t i s enough i f I can have th is low con

ten t and l ifeless repose.

Then in i dle quiet I console mysel f by arguing .

“W e cannot manufacture machines , we cannot unrave lthe secrets of the universe, but we can love

,we can

forg ive, we can let live. W hat ’s the good of roving restlessly in pursuit of ambi tion ? W hat ’s the harm i f weremain in an obscure corner

,what ’s the harm if our

nam es do not figure in the world ’s herald,The T imes

newspaperBut there is among us sor row ,

there i s poverty, Oppression by the strong , insu lt of the helpless - how wouldyou remedy these by ret i r in g to obscur ity and practis»

ing the domestic vi rtues and chari ty to others ?Ah , that is the bitter TRAGEDY OF INDIA Against

what shal l we fight ? Against the eternal crue l ty of theuntamed human nature — against that stone whosester i l e hardness has not yet been sof tened by the pureb lood of Christ ! How shal l we overcome the primi tivean imal inst inct which makes Strength ever cruel to

W eakness ? By holding meetings ? By submit t ing pet it ions ? Receiv mg in reply a boo

n to day and a reprimand to- morrow ? No, never.I f not, we are to match the strong in streng th , are


we ? That is possible no doubt. But when I reflecthow very strong Europe is and in how many ways

,

when I fu l ly real ise with in and without th is impet uousstrength of Europe

,what hope o f success is le f t in me .

Then my heart S inks and I feel d isposed to cry out,

“Come, brothers , le t us p ract ise pat ience , l et us loveand do good on ly . Let our l it t le work in the world begenuine work and not sham. I t is the chief danger o fIncapac ity that as i t fa i ls to ach ieve great works , i tprefers great make - beliefs

,I t knows not that in

attain ing to human i ty a smal l truth i s more valuable»than a b ig unreal ity.

B ut I have not come here to read a lec t ure to you .

I have been only try ing to examine for mysel f our realcondi t ion . For th is purpose we should nei ther dep ic tan imag inary age by quot ing favourable t exts from ourancien t Vedas , Puranas and Samh itas

,nor should we

erect a huge fort of amb i t ion on the slender bas i s of ournew modern education

,by merging ourselves fanci f ul ly

in the character and h istory o f another race we mustsee Where we rea lly stand now. From our present

.pos it ion we behold the mirages of the Past coming fromthe Eas t and of the Future from th e W est. W i thoutlooking upon either o f these two as rel iable truths, letus examine the so l id ea rth on which we stand.

We l ive i n a decayed old town ,— a town so old thati ts h istory is wel l - n igh lost its monuments carved by thehuman hand are bur ied under moss . Hence we are aptto m istake this ci ty fo r a th ing outside human h istory,as an ancient cap ital o f eterna l N ature. Nature has

e ffaced the marks of human history from Ind ia and


l ies where it h as fa l len down , and in our indolent p ietywe have not tr ied to remove the thousand ceremonieswh ich have covered our scrip ture as with an anth i l l .

W e venerate equal ly as our sacred lore t he let ters of

the book and the holes , made by the book - worms in

i ts pages ! In our ru ined temples,sp l it by the roots of

the Banyan t ree,gods and gobl ins have taken she l ter

together .Europe is such a country a suitab le p lace for

pi t ching your cantonmen ts for the Armageddon 1’ Are

our ruined foundat ions suitable fo r erect ing your factories

,and the workshops of your fire- spi t t ing thousand

armed iron demons 7 The force of your rest less energycan raze t o the ground our o ld br ick heaps but wherethen wi l l thi s very ancien t bed r idden race of men findshel ter P I f you destroy th is motionless dense andvast forests of a C i ty

,its pres id ing old D ryad wi l l be

turned homeless after losing her i ntensely secludedabode of a thousand dead yearsOur subt lest thinkers declare i t our greates t glory

that for long ages we have not bui l t any house wi thour own hands , we have not pract ised tha t ar t I Thisboast o f the irs is very t rue

,true beyond the poss ibi l i ty

of con tr adict ion . W e had indeed never had occasionto qui t the ancest ral home of the very ancient pr imevalman . W e have never

,when troubled by any incon

venience, presumed to bui ld a new house or repai rour old one with our own hands ! No, not even ourenemies can accuse us of having di sp layed such activityor care for the material worl d !In th is dense forest deserted by its wood - goddess , in


t his dilap idated city lef t lonely of its tutelary deity, wec lothe ourselves in loose thin robes

,step about languidly

take a nap af ter our midday meal , play at cards orchess in the shade , very readily bel ieve whatever isimpossible and outside the range of the pract ica l world,and can never fu l ly conquer our scept icism about everyth ing that is prac t i ca l or vis ib le ! And i f any youngman among us disp lays a feather - weight of unrestagainst this socia l order , we al l gravely shake our headsand cry out together ,

“Th is is running to an extreme !”

So l ived we, when Europe sudden ly arr ived ,'

we

know not whence,vigorously nudged our worn r ibs

once or twice and shouted, Get up We want to set

up an Office in this your bedroom . Don ’t imagine thatthe wor ld was s leeping because you were s leeping.

T he world has great ly changed in the meant ime;There goes the bel l ; i t is the world ’s noonday

,i t is .

work t ime .

At this,some of us have started up and are fussing

about the corners o f the room in search of the work ofthemselves . But the f at and puffed Up among us onlyturn in thei r beds and reply , Hul lo I who ta lks ofwork Do you mean to say that we are not men ofact ion W hat a sad delusion India has been the on efield of act ion in the world ’s h istory —I f you wi l lnot bel ieve us , dig up with your antiquar ian Spade the

layers of obl iv ion accumulated by ages ove r Ind ia andyou wi l l see the marks of our hands on the foundationof human Civi l isat ion . In the meant ime

,we shal l take

anotherBut those of us who dream day - drieams, who waver


between though t and act ion,who real ise the rot t enness

the o ld order and yet fee l the imperfect ions of the

new,—they repeatedly shake their heads and address

Europe thus ;

0 New Men of the W'

est,the new work you have

begun has not ye t reached complet ion,the t ruth or

f a ls i ty of the whole of i t has not been yet ascer tain ed,

you have not yet solved of the eternal prob lems ofhuman dest iny .

You have known much , you have acquired much ,but have you gained happiness 7 We s it down iner t lyr eg arding the mater ia l un iverse as a mere i l lusion

s

wh i le you ho ld to i t as an eternal veri ty and toi l andmoi l

'

fo r i t but are you therefore happ ier than .

we You are dai ly d iscovering new wan ts,which

deepen the poverty o f the poor you are dragging yourpopulation away from the heal thy refuge of the home'to the whirl of incessan t work you have crowned toi l

as the supreme lord o f l i fe , and seated In toxication inthe chair o f Repose . But can you clear ly foresee whereyour vaunted Progress i s leading you ?W e know f ul l wel l where we have arr ived. We

l ive at home , feel ing few wants and deep affection ,.

be ing mutual ly l inked together , and perf orming oursmal l da i ly social duties . W hat l i t t le of happ iness andweal th we ga ined

,we have d is tr ibuted among our r ich

and poor , stranger and k insmen , guests , servants andbeggars . Our whole society is pass ing its days in as .

much happiness as is possible under the circum

stances ; none wishes to exclude others, and none is.

43 4 THE IND IAN N AT ION BUILDERS

you a lone shal l be at a s tay , while the rest of the wor ldwi l l be moving on . I f you cannot keep pace W itht he stream of the wor ld ’s advance

,the fu l l onse t of

thecurren t wi l l dash against you , e i ther overwhe lmingyou and at once or s lowly sapp ing your foundat ionst i l l at lastz

‘you topple down and are swal lowed up bythe stream of Time . Advance ceaseless ly an d l ive

,or

t ake res t and pe rish : such is the l aw of Nature .

In s ighing over our lot , we proceed on the bel ie f thatwe had cont r ived to be an excep t ion to the abovegeneral law for a long t ime,—even as our yog i s hadd is covered the secret o f l iv ing for ages in a death - l iketrance by suspending t hei r own animat io'i and thereby escap ing the un iversa l l aw of decay and dea th .

“

In that t rance th ei r growth was arres ted, no doubt , butso al so was the ir decay . In general to arres t '

the

movement o f l i f e br ings on~ death , but in thei r case

such a de l iberate retardat ion made them deathless .The ana logy appl ies to our race. W hat k i l l s off

other races served as a secre t for pro longing the l ife ofour race . O ther races decl ine and per ish when their .

ambit ion loses its ardour, when the i r energy t ires ands l ackens . But we had taken in finite pains to curb ourambit ions and para lyse our energy , in Order to pro long '

our l i fe in the same peace fu l even cou rse . . And i tseems

rto me that we had gained some success in th is

di rection .

They say t ha t some years back a very o ld yogi absorbed in t rance was d is covered in a ne ighbour ing forestnad brought to Ca l cut ta . Here by a l l sor ts o f vio len t

m eans he was brought back to consciousness,— and

SI R RAB INDRANATH TAGORE 435

immedi ately afterwards gave up the ghost. So, our

national trance , too, has been bro ken by the violent

innpac t of men from outside. We no longer di ffer f romother nations except in this that .having been for agesi ndi fferent to external thing stiwe are .quite unaccustomedto the strugg le for ex is tence. From a world o f

rel ig i ous trance we have been al l o f a sudden trans:

ported to a world of hustle and hubbub .

'W hat then should we do ? Let us for the presen t

fol low the natu ral laws and prevai l ing practices inorder to preserve ourselves. Let us cut off ouri

'long

matted l ocks and overgrown finger - nai l s,take ‘ t he

normal bath and d inner , d ress i like the modem s,

and begi n to exercise our [sti ffened] l imbs a l it t le.Our presen t cond it ion is this zi we

'

have no doubtcl ipped our long hai r and nails , we have entered the

modern world and begun to m ix with J human society,

but ou r idea s a re unchanged. We s it on our door steps,cast idle ind i ff erent looks at the busy world, and Sp endou r days i n merely “ taki ng the ai r.” We forget thatconduct which was admirable in a yog i

'

seated , in -a

t rance , is a pi ece o f h ideous barbarism in a membero f society . A body without l i fe is a th ing defiled'; so

. is ceremon ial ism without,the prope r Sp i ri t. Our society

a ffords many examples: of the latter i n this tranS rtionperiod [We are t he dress and lang uage of the r ish is

of o ld, whi le l iving in - the modernWorld , and observeanc ient forms with which our ent i re l i fe is at var iance ]Take the B rahmans , . as an example. I n p r imeval

soc iety i they'forme

'

d a . .special c lass, with a Spec ialtask . In order to qual i fy themselves for that task

,


they drew around ‘ themse lves a boundary l ine ofcertain ceremonies and insti tut ions and very need fuIlykept thei r hear ts from straying beyond. Every f unct ionhas i ts due boundaries , which in the case o f a l l otherf unctions become more h indrances. You cannot setup an at torney ’s o ffice in a bakery

,nor t ranspor t a

bakery,to an attorney ’s chambers

,withou t caus ing

confusion , fr ict ion and waste ,

In the present age the B rahmans have no longer'

thatspecia l funct ion . They are no longer engaged sole lyin st udy , teach ing , and rel ig ious cu lture ,

Most o f themare profess ion al men of the world , not one is an ascetic.They no longer d iffer f unctiona lly f rom th 3 non - B rahmancastes

,and in such an a l tered state of th ings there is nei

ther gain nor pr opr iety in keep ing them confined withinthe str ict l imits of the ancien t B rahm an mode of l ife .

W e ought to real ise c lear ly that , in the modernsociety to which we have been suddenly removed , i twi l l not do for us to st ickle about minute ceremon iesand purifications, to draw up the hem Of our dressscrupulous ly from the ground

,s n i ff the air in scorn

,and

walk through the world W i th extreme caut ion , - if we

at al l w ish to save our l i fe and honour . I f we wish toma in tain ourse lves in th is age

,we mus t have b road

l ibera l ity of the hear t,a we l l - balan ced and so un d

heal thy cond i t ion,strength of m ind and l imb , w i de

range of knowledge,and sleep less readiness .

I call i t spi r i tua l foppi'

shness to sc rupulously avo idcontact with the common world and to keep our over

ween ing se lves washed and brushed clean and coveredwith a l id

,whi le despising the rest o f mankind as

438 THE INDIAN NA T ION BUILDERS

li feless thing has no need o f health you can safely keepi t covered up to avoid dust . But i f our soul be l ivingand not dead

,we must bring it out int o the common

world to let i t ga in strength and health,in scorn of the

r isk o f i ts be in g soi led a l i tt leW i th us . H indus , . re l ig ion exerc ises its sway over

food and drink , sleep an d repose,movemen t and

recreation. W e boast of i t"

that i n no other countrydoes religion regulate every ‘act ion of man ’s l i fe andevery rank of human somety . But I regard th is fact a

s

our misfortune,because i t can have only two possible

consequences ; we e ither p lace i mmutable Rel igionupon abasis o f rest less change

,or we m i ke changeable

Socie ty l i fe less by confid ing it w i th in the unchangin grul es of Religion . Hence

,e ither Rel igion is constan t ly

tossed about , or Society loses the power of growth and,decay and stays in a cond it ion of story motionli ssness.

We al low no liberty to the human reason in decidinghbw we

'

should eat and sleep,whom we should touch

and Whomlshun . W e employ all our in te l lec t to i n ter

pret the Verses of our'

scriptures W ith minute l i teralness .W e deem it n eedless to seek out the laws of God ’s grea twork , N ature , and to regu late our l ives accord ing tothem . And the resul t is that our Society has become al if eless c lock work , inlwhich the Shastras wind the keyand human automata 'move about wi th the utmost

pr eci s ion i

W e Patist brii h g our whole human ity i nto connect ionwith mank ind . 7W e cannot l as t much longer on ear t hi f We confine our human l nature with in l i feless r igidBrahmanism Whiéh '

oii ly pampers our ignorance and

SI R RAB I ND RANATH TAGORE 439

bl ind concei t,r and makes our human ity bloated and

useless l ike the fat an d,lazy . Spoi led ch i ldren of

a ristocratic famil ies.But i t cannot be denied that narrownessand langour

are to a great extent causes of sa fety. A somety in

wh ich there is ful l development of the human natureand the free curren t of fl i fe, has no doubt to pass through.

much t rouble . W here there is exuberance of . l ife , theremust be much freedom and . much diversi ty. T heirgood and evi l are a l ike V igorous . The old nurses -oi'

our Soc iety think gthat i f they al low the ir charges togrow up in ful l health

,then these heal thy ch i ldren

W i l l at t imes cry,at t imes race through the house , at

tim es tr) to break out of doors, and thus g ive themin fini te worry . So these nurses wish to stupefy ‘

theirbab ies wi th opium p i l ls imorder ,

to g eth time tohdo their

h ousehold work in peace ! “d,

[Take a fami l iar case . I f a daughter is al lowed to

grow Up to youth without being married , the father'

runs some r isks. I f the minds of Women are expandedby means of educat ion , i t wil l p rod uce some incidentalanx iet ies .

’

conversatives argue), i t .is1better to give away

'li ttlé girls in mar r iage,and k eep our

wom en i n ignorance, in order to; escape much V igilance,sel f - cont rol , and

"worny [ori i the part of the parents ]

T hey further iargue that ther e is no need for . ed ucat ingwomen , as theyhad hi thert o done, their domestic dutiesvery. wel l, Wi thout a ny “educat ion“whatever. Theirfuhctions are ’to

'

act as our ‘cooks; and mothers ,

and ferthese the afull i fdevelopment of Lthe' m ind i is , quite


But i t is not enough i f our works are done somehowor other . Man must do the wor ld ’s work and besometh in g besides. N ay , more, the higher our facul t iesare developed beyond the b are requ isi t e for ourworldly work , the ful ler is our hum anity. A cult ivatorwho knows on ly how to cul ti vat e

,i s (desp ised as a rus

tic and never treated as a man f u l ly our equa l , inSpiteof the benefi t h e does to society by h is art .S imilarly, i t i s not enough fo r women to be able to

render certain Speci a l tasks to m an. They . are notm erely housewives and mothers , they are HUMANBEINGS , and knowl edge is as necessary for the i rimprovements (as for the progres s o f ma les). Nay morei f a park has been thrown open to the .publ ic,promenading there wi l l certa in ly improve the i r heal th ,cheer fulness

,and charm.

" There is n o reason Why i tshould be necessary to exclude them from al l thebeauty , heal th , arts and sciences o f th is world , simplybecause they are to be our wives andThose menwho,

wi thout haV ing ever known educatedwomen

,f anc i fu l ly ascr ibe to them heart lessness and

other eq ual ly base less defects,

- t hereby on ly showthe i r ignorance and inherent barbarism . Those menwho have the least exper ience of educated ladies haveon ly verified the se l f - ev iden t truth that wom en are by

nature women , and tha t educat ion cannot magica llyt ransform t hem i n to men . These men have seen howeducated ladies nurse 'their dear ones in i l lness with a llthe i r hear ts’ devot ion

,pour the hea l ing ba lm of conso la

t ion in to g r ief - str icken souls with a l l the ir naturalfemin ine sagacity , and shower thei r innat e compassion


auster it ies and in lonely ret i rement Spent their daysonly in refining the soul , regardless of the mater ialworl d. Our anc ient c ivi l isat ion was real ly complete inal l i ts parts , and not a Spir i tual shade devoid of a

mater ial body.

W hy , the'M aha bham t

,to take on ly one instance

,

shdw f

z

'how strong was the st ream of l i fe in the C ivi l isa

tion of that'age,

'We see in that epic many changes ,man y soc 1al revolutions

,many confl icts o f opposing

forces. The soc iety of that age was no t a'del icate ,

neat and wel l - proportioned mach ine constru cted by aVery cunning art ist a' I n that Society the human characterwas constant ly agi tated and kept awak e by the playof greed , jealousy , fear , hate and unbr id led pr ide on

’

the one hand,and of meekness

,- heroism

,sel f - abnega

t ion , broad - m inded nob i l i ty,and matchless saintl i ness

on the other.

I t is not tr ue tha t in that‘soc iety every man was aSain t , every woman a chaste person , and every Br ahman

a herm it . In that society B ishwam i tra ranked as a

KShatr iya , D rona , Kripa and Parashuram as B rahmans ,Kunt i ~ as a

'

chaste woman, the ever - forgiving Y udhish'

th i ra as a Kshatriy'

a man and the blood - thirs ty fieryD raupadi as a woman ! The soc iety of that ag e hadgood elements and evi l

,l ight and darkness

,- al l the

character istics of life, a human soc iety was not l ike 'a.clear ly out l ined , chequered ,

regulated and symmetricalp iece of mosa ic. Our ancient c iv i l isat ion towered erecti n its robust man ly bulk amidst th is soc ie ty whose fortiesWere ever kept awake by the confl i ct of the variousstrum - tossed h uman pass ions .

S IR RABlNDRAN ATH TAGORE 443

To- day we fondly p icture that ancien t civi l isat ion asa very tame harmless unchanging peacefu l and l i felessth ing. And we brag that we are of that c iv i l isedrace, we are those Sp i r i tual A ryans , and t herefore— we must perform rel ig ious aus ter i t ies and engage infact ious squabb les we must condemn sea - voyage , cal lall other races untouchable, sneer at Mr . A , O . Hume as

a M lechha , and boycot t the Ind i an Nat ional Congress

[asun- H indu], and thereby act in a manner worthy of

the great Hindus of o ld l

B ut'

suppose that we value T RUTH more [than suchH indui sm] ; suppose that we act up to our honest con - i

victions suppose that we teach truth to our boys andthus he lp them . to s tand erect W i th S impl ic ityst rength and gri t of character

,—instead of l ett ing

them grow into fat foo ls amidst a heap of l ies ; suppose

thatwe cult ivate a recept ive l iberal i ty or spi r i t for welcoming joyfu l ly and humbly knowledge and greatness

f rom al l quarters, suppose that we Open out and

develop ourselves on al l S ides by cu lt ivat ing music,ar t

,

l i terature , history , science and var ious other aecom

plishments, by trave l l ing in f ore ign parts,minutely

observing the wor ld ’s conten ts, and meditat i ng deep lyand impart ia l ly. In that casewe may impa i r that weare p leased to ca l l [modern] H in duism,

but we Shal lcer tain ly be l inked again Wi th the l iving act ive andvigorous H indu civi l isat ion of yore.To us in I ndia tod ay our ancient c ivi l isat ion is l ike

coal in a mine. I t was once a vast l iving forest, subjectt o growth and decay , to giving and taking. I t then

flushed into new l i fe at the coming of spr ingtide and


th e rains ; it had flowers and f ruits which had thei rnatura l b lossoming; forth . ;Now i t has no g rowth , no

mot ion . But i t is none the less necessary the heat andl igh t o f many ages l ie latent . in -it. us put themto presen t use ]I f we have l iving human ity with in us

,then on ly can

,

we put to our,use ancien t and modern humanity

,

Eastern andJ ;Western -humanity.

A dead man belong s on ly to t he p lace where he l ies.A l iv ing mangstands at the focus o f the world ; he canfrom . a connec t ing l in k between contraries

,establ ish

harmony among confl i ct ing,elements

,and thus lay

cl aim to a l l truths as h is own. Not t o stoop to one

S ide on ly , but to expand f reely al l around in h is ideaof t rue progress— M odem Review .

JAD UNATH SARKAR .

S ir Rab indranath Tag ore"

H is Li te,Personal i ty and Gen ius, by K. S . Ramaswami

Sastri, W i th a Fordward by Mr. I . C ,

Rol lo Price Rs. 3 . Concess ion rate to r

students.Rs.

7 - 8 . 540 pages ,C loth bound .

M r. Ramaswam i Sastri , has g iven vital help towardsthe understand ing of Rab indranath and h is rel ig ious.lyrical and dramatic conceptions and also a comprehensive study tha t is invaluab le. T he author does forT agore what S tOpford B rooke has done for T ennysonand B rowning— to supply a popular exposit ion, cri t icaland exhaust ive of the Poet ’s work , which Will compela study of the works themselves on the part of thoseunacquainted W i th the poet and will interpret theirown thoughts and emot ions to those who have comeunder the mag ic spell of the Prophet - Poet

’s g’

en ius .

An exce llent portrait of Dr . T agore fornis the frontis .piece .

Selec t Essay s of S ister Nivedita

This is a comprehensive col lec tion of the select essavsof the late Sister N ived i ta , who was deVO i ing her l ifeto the cause of Ind ia . T he publishers hope that aperusal of the book wil l amply repay the reader s. T he

book opens with an introduction by M r. A . I . F.

B lair. Ed itor. “Empi re"

, C a lcutta . and is il lustratedW i th four halftone pictures . T here is an appendix tothe book containing some tr ibutes paid to the memoryof the late S ister by well - known personag es such asM rs. J . C . Bose. F. J . A lexander . S, K . Ratcl iff e,‘ A J .

F . B lair and others. zud Ed ition . P r ice ‘

RS .‘1 - 8 .

Ar t and Swadesh i

B Y D R. A . K . COOM ARASWAM Y. D .

Contains Essay on Ind ian A rt andfusely illuslra ted with eighteen raretures and handsomely bound . Pr ice

GANESH CO P ubl ishers. M adras

P ic tures of Indian Life

B y BABU SHI SH lR KUM AR GHOSE with a Forewordby Dr . S I R RASH BEHARY GHOSE. T his is a collec .

t ion of the Li fe and W ri t ing s of B abu Shishir KumarG hose l the founder of the Amr ita B aza r P a tr ika . T heb iog raphy of Sh ishir Kumar should i tself prove am ine of Ind ian pol i tical informat ion and contains afull account of the Ind ian Adm inistration showingclearlv how this g reat man was able to influence hig ho fficial

's such as Lords Northbrook ,

Ly tton, Ripon.D ufi

’er in and others thereby contributing his share to

t he bu ild ing of the Ind ian N a t ion. T he essays andanecdotes included in this volume are wr i tten on everyconceivable Subject and his pol itical wri t ing s are soexhaust iVe and of such perenn ial interest tha t they arealways a source of inspirat ion and gu idance. A

pecul iar vein of humour and org inality runs throughhis writings and combined With freshness and V igourthey are of enduring value. M r. W . S . Caine, that g reatfriend of Ind ia. says I hearti ly commend to everycultured and earnest Indian to every ChristianM issionary and also to every European who cares tolook beneath the surface of Ind ian Life and thoughtthe articles from the pen of Shi s hir Kumar Ghosewh ich wi ll be rendered doubly interesting by the

careful perusal . Pr ice Re. 1 - 8 .

I ndia for Indians

T h is is a collection of the speeches del ivered byMr. C . R . D as on Home Rule for Ind ia wherein hehas also tell ing ly exposed the fallacy of Ang lo - IndianAg i ta t ion aga inst Ind ian aspirations. T he book openswi th an lD t I

’

OdUCt IL by B abu M otila l Ghose. Ed itor .Am ri la Bazar P a trzka . Price As. 12.

The Sou l of India

A Vision of the past and future,by Mrs. SAROJ I NI

NAI DU P rice As. 4 .

GANESH CO ., P ubhshers. M adras

India ’s Claim for HomeRule.

i

Netu Ind ia wr ites z—T he g rowth of pol iticatiliterature in Ind ia is, i n recent t imes

, becom ing veryrapid and remarkab le, andfiwi i h the g reat Nationalawakening in th is land also has ar isen a keen andfervent desire to Spread it by m eans of cheap anduseful books. M essrs. Ganesh Co the enterpri singpubl ishers of M adras , st imula ted by this desi re, havebroug ht out many popular books on Ind ian problemsand their recent venture is I nd ia

’

s C la im f or HomeRu le. T his book conta ins a comprehenswe coll ec t ionof Speeches and writing s of eminent Ind ians andveteran Eng l ish pui C i sts.W ith an attrac t ive append ixand an exhaust ive index . P rice Rs.

Sw am i Ram -T ir tha

H is Life and Teachings. S ixth Edition Iv r ised and

Enlarged .

The Advoca te of India wr i tes — All those who areinterested in the thoughts of the East should buy . begor borrow this book and study i t .T he H i ndustan Rev iew wr ites —The present ed ition .wh ich has been care ful ly rev ised and considerablyenlarg ed , collects for the first t ime some of theSwam i ’s most characteris tic wr iting s which enhancesthe value of an already excellent book . T he g et - up

does cred it to the resources of the publ ishing fi rm ofM essrs. Ganesh Co. , Madras. Over 800 Pages

D . C . 16mo. C loth Bound . Pr ice Rs. 2 - 8.

Babu Su rendr ana th Baner jee in}T his is an exhaust ive col lec t ion of all the speeches of

Babu Surendranath Banerjee del ivered inEng landdur ing h.s Visi t to attend . the Imperial PressConference . T he book also conta ins the notableSpeeches ofLord M orley on Literature and

IJ ou rna li sm

and the attack of Lord Cromer on the Ind ian PressW i th the portra i ts of Lord Morley and Mr. B anerjee.

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