Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram
Calcutta, May 1st, 1907
Part Three. Bande Mataram under the Editorship
of of Sri Aurobindo (24 October 1906 – 27 May 1907)
The Reformer on Moderation
The Indian Social Reformer has discovered that the Moderate programme needs revision.
Moderation is defined by this authority as a desire to preserve the British Raj until social reform has 
accomplished itself, for the reason that an indigenous Government is not likely to favour social reform so much as the present rulers do.
The Reformer would therefore like the Moderate programme to be modified in order to tally with its own definition of moderation.
We presume that, in its view, the Congress instead of demanding Legislative Councils should ask for the forcible marriage of Hindu widows; instead of the separation of the judicial and executive, the separation of reformed wives from unreformed husbands or vice versa; instead of the repeal of the Arms Act, the abolition of the Hindu religion.
This introduction of social details into a political programme is a fad of a few enthusiasts and is contrary to all reason.
The alteration of the social system to suit present needs is a matter for the general sense of the community and the efforts of individuals.
To mix it up with politics in which men of all religious views and various social opinions can join is to confuse issues hopelessly.
It is not true that by removing the defects of our social structure we shall automatically become a nation and fit for freedom.
If it were so, Burma would be a free nation at present.
Nor can we believe that the present system is favourable to social reconstruction or that self-government would be fatal to it.
The reverse is the case.
Of course, if social reform means the destruction of everything old or Hindu because it is old or Hindu, the continuance of the present political and mental dependence on England and English ideals is much to be desired by the social reformers; for it is gradually destroying all that was good as well as much that was defective in the old society.
With this1 programme of becoming a nation by denationalisation we have no sympathy.
But if a healthy social development be aimed at, it is more likely to occur in a free India when the national needs will bring about a natural evolution.
Society is not an artificial manufacture to be moulded and remodelled at will, but a growth.
If it is to be healthy and strong it must have healthy surroundings and a free atmosphere.