Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Political Writings and Speeches. 1890–1908

Part One. Writings and a Resolution 1890 – 1906

On the Barisal Proclamation¹

[.....] nettle firmly in the hope that prompt measures might crash if not root out the growing evil. With a Fraser and a Fuller holding the bureaucratic sceptre there could be little doubt which of the two alternatives would recommend itself to the authorities. Sir Andrew Fraser, hampered with the traditions of legality and bureaucratic formalism, has begun cautiously, thundering loudly but sparing the lightning flash. Mr. Fuller, violent, rude and truculent in character and accustomed to the autocracy of a non-regulated province, has rushed like a mad bull at the obnoxious object; his violence may or may not temporarily defeat itself by compelling the Government of India or the Secretary of State to intervene, but even should this happen it will make little difference. The policy of repression is a necessity to the Government and will only be foregone, if the national leaders on their side desist from the new Nationalism.

This being the situation, what must be the attitude of the nation in the face of this crisis in its destinies? The result of the first violent collision between the opposing armies of despotism and liberty, has not been encouraging to the lovers of freedom. No Bengali can read the account of the interview between Mr. Fuller and the Barisal leaders, without a blush of shame for himself and his nation. A headstrong and violent man, presuming insufferably on the high position to which an inscrutable Providence has suffered him to climb, summons the leaders of a spirited community, men of culture, worth and dignity, strong in the trust and support of the people, and after subjecting them to insults of an unprecedented grossness compels them at the point of the bludgeon to withdraw a public appeal which their position as leaders had made it their mere duty to publish and circulate. What ought these men to have done in reply? Surely they should have repelled the insults with a calm and simple dignity, or if that would not serve, with a self-assertion as haughty, if less violent than the self-assertion of the unmannerly official before them, and to the demand for the withdrawal of their appeal they should have returned a plain and quiet negative. And if as a result Mr. Fuller were immediately to send them to the prison, or the whipping post, or the gallows itself, what difference would that make to their duty as public men and national leaders? But the Barisal leaders instead submitted as meekly as rebuked and beaten schoolboys to a hectoring pedagogue cane in hand. The citizens of Rungpur showed at least a firmer spirit.

Nevertheless the Barisal leaders have strong excuses for their failure of nerve. Decades of selfish ease and comfort, of subservience to officialdom, of traditional meekness and docility have taken the strong fibre out of the middle-class Bengali and left him a mass of mere softness and pliability. Out of such material champions of liberty cannot be made in a single day, nor has the national movement as yet reached that stage of high pressure surcharged with electricity and fiery vitality when weaklings are turned into giants and the timid into martyrs and heroes. Confronted with the formidable and frowning aspect of Mr. Fuller, deafened with the thunders of this self-important Godling, cut off from the accustomed inspiration of cheering crowds, what wonder if the citizens of Barisal were browbeaten, [ . . . ] and cowed into submission.

Moreover, the Calcutta leaders are not without blame for their failure of courage. It should never have been left to an out of the way township like Barisal to issue the proclamations which have awaked the Fullerian thunders; that was the duty of the leaders of the nation in the metropolis. A small locality cannot be strong enough to fight the battles of the nation unaided, and if local leaders feel themselves in the critical moment, too weak and isolated to resist violent oppression, they are to be more pitied than blamed. We are suffering for our defective organisation. Had the Calcutta chiefs organized these local Committees throughout the land before the Partition became an accomplished fact, had Barisal felt that it had not only the enthusiasm but the organized strength of the nation behind it, the present situation would have soon been made impossible.

Enough of the past; let us turn to our duty in the future. The one thing that would be impossible and intolerable is any kind of submission to the Fullerian policy. Whatever form of public activity has been stopped by the threat of the Gurkha rifles, must be recontinued. If the Barisal proclamation has been withdrawn, it must be reissued and this time not by the Barisal leaders to their district but by the national leaders in Calcutta to every district, town and village whether in West, East or North Bengal and in order to constitute the Barisal committees, let Babu Surendranath Banerji go down in person aided by Mr. A. Chowdhury and Babu Bipin Chundra Pal, who, if summoned by Mr. Fuller or any Government official, shall refuse to have any dealings with them, until the former shall have publicly apologised for his disgraceful and ungentlemanly conduct and given guarantees against its recurrence. We will see whether even Mr. Fuller in his madness, will dare to touch these sacred heads guarded as they are by the love and trust of a nation of 40 millions. And if to punish this popular self-assertion, the rifles of England’s mercenaries be indeed called into play, if Indian blood be shed, with those who shed it shall rest the guilt and on those who commanded it shall fall the Divine Vengeance. It will not come to that, for Heaven has not as yet deprived the British Government so utterly of its reason as to command or the British nation as to condone such an outrage. But the possibility of it should have no terrors for men vindicating their legal rights and the small measure of freedom the laws have allowed to them. The words Bande Mataram must be written – printed, would be better,– on every door in Barisal. Public meetings must be held as before and if they are dispersed by the police, the people must assemble in every compound where there is room for even fifty people to stand and record an oath never to submit or crouch down before the oppressor.

The actions of Mr. Fuller have throughout been characterized by the most cynical violence and disregard of legality. Illegally he has terrorised the people of Barisal, illegally he has abolished the right of public meeting, illegally he has banned the singing of the national anthem and sent emissaries to erase its opening words from the doors of private houses, illegally he has forbidden organisation for a lawful object. Let the authorities remember this, that when a Government breaks the Law, by their very act the people are absolved from the obligation of obeying the Law. But let the people on their side so long as they are permitted to do so abstain from aggressive violence, let them study carefully to put their oppressors always in the wrong; but from no legitimate kind of passive resistance should they shrink. This much their Mother demands from them. For what use to cry day and night Adoration to the Mother, if we have not the courage to suffer for the Mother?

It is a sweet and noble thing to die for motherland; and if that supreme happiness be denied to us, it is no small privilege to suffer illegal violence, arbitrary imprisonment and cruel oppression for her sake.

This work was not included in SABCL, vol.1 and it was not compared with other editions.

¹ This essay was written after an incident that took place in Barisal, east Bengal, on 7 November 1905. Its first page or pages are not available.

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