Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Calcutta, May 16^th, 1907

Part Three. Bande Mataram under the Editorship of of Sri Aurobindo (24 October 1906 – 27 May 1907)

The Bengalee on the Risley Circular

The Bengalee yesterday made its pronouncement on the Risley Circular which closes with the following remarks. “If the Government persist in their present career of folly, one of two things must happen. Either the official university will be absolutely supplanted by a comprehensive system of national education or, if that consummation cannot be easily realised, generations of young men will turn their energies and attention to active and practical, as distinguished from academic pursuits. We are not sure that either way the country will be a loser. And we know of no third alternative. One thing that we cannot think of is meek acquiescence. The country will not submit either to this resolution or to any other like it.”

There is a certain note of weakness in the conditional way in which this is presented, which somewhat spoils the effect of the declaration. We cannot understand why we should wait to see whether the Government persist in their present career of folly. The policy of the Government in this educational matter is manifestly a deliberate policy undertaken with a definite object and there is no reason to suppose that they will not persist in it. This habit of waiting on the actions of the bureaucracy rests on a weak and mistaken principle. The victory both in war and politics rests with the side which can reply to attack by taking up the aggressive; a continual defence and waiting on the enemy’s movements is weakening and demoralising. And why should a comprehensive system of National Education and the turning of young men to active and practical pursuits be mutually exclusive? Surely, increasing attention to technical, commercial and scientific instruction is a necessary part of any sound system of National Education. It is gratifying, however, to find that there is no intention of submitting to this resolution or any other like it. The bureaucracy in their frantic attempts to crush Nationalism, are doing their best to make anything but thoroughgoing Nationalism impossible.

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