Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram
Early Political Writings. 1890 — May 1908
Bande Mataram. April 1, 1908
The Milk of Putana
A spirit of conciliation is evident in some of the recent acts of the bureaucracy, such as the separation of Judicial and Executive of which Sir Harvey Adamson has given the details in his speech in Council.
The policy of Sir Sydenham Clarke in Bombay is of the same type, and from the Mofussil we hear of politician Magistrates who are busy re-establishing the use of foreign articles by skilful exhibitions of sympathy attended with intimidating of Swadeshists carried out through the instrumentality of Indian subordinates on whom the whole blame is thrown.
This is the milk of Putana by which Kamsa1 hoped to poison the infant Krishna.
The modern Kamsa2 comes of a shopkeeping breed and is careful only to let the infant have as much of the milk and no more as will do his business for him.
The separation of Judicial and Executive functions, the pet scheme of the old mendicancy, will be carried out only in a district or two of Eastern Bengal as an experiment.
The policy of Sir Sydenham Clarke has confined itself to sweet words and abstention from repression, and the milk of Mr. Morley's sympathy is limited to so much as can be bottled for use in a Council of Notables.
So too the politician Magistrates take care to do nothing except occasionally rescind oppressive orders which they have already issued in the names of their Indian subordinates.
Their policy is to throttle Swadeshi with one hand while stroking the District paternally on the head with the other.
What shall we do with this milk of Putana?
Sri Krishna drained the breasts of Putana and killed her, and if the bureaucracy begins giving real concessions, that will be its fate.
But this watered milk of Morleyan sympathy is a different matter.
To drink it is to weaken ourselves and help the adversary.