The next point is the question of mature deliberation.
The
Bengalee
here tries to avoid confession of its error by altering the meaning of language.
The mature deliberation of which it spoke applies only to particular acts and,
even then, it was not one man or a dozen but the whole self-conscious part of
the country which took part in these mature deliberations.
The facts do not
square with this modified assertion.
The majority even of the particular steps
taken in pursuance of the ideas which swept over the country were not taken in
pursuance of mature deliberation but were the result in some men of a faith
which defied deliberation and in others of a yielding to the necessity of the
movement.
The National Council of Education came into existence because Sj.
Subodh Chandra Mallik planked down a lakh of rupees and was followed by the
zamindar of Gauripur, an act of faith, because the Rangpur schoolboys and their
guardians refused to go back on their action in leaving the Government
school and established a school of their own, also an act of faith, and because
some leading men of the country recognised that something must be done on the
spot to prevent the honour of the nation being tarnished by abandonment of this
heroic forlorn hope while others thought it a good opportunity to materialise
their educational crotchets.
Was this mature deliberation or a compound of
faith, idealism and risky experiment?
The Boycott came into existence because of
the wrath of the people against the Partition and the vehement advocacy of a
Calcutta paper which, supported by this general wrath, bore down the hesitations
of the thinkers, the politicians and the economists.
Almost every step towards
Swadeshi, every National school established was an act of faith in the
permanence of the movement, a faith not justified by previous experience.
These
were acts of boldness, often of rashness, not of mature deliberation.
Mature
deliberation implies that having consulted the lessons of past experience and
weighed the probabilities of the future and the possibilities of the present, we
take the step which seems most prudent and likely to bring about sure results.
The Bombay mill-owners deliberated maturely when they said, “This movement born
of a moment's indignation will pass like the rest; go to, let us raise our
prices and make hay while the sun shines.”
The leaders deliberated maturely when
they said, “The rush towards National Education will not last and if encouraged
it will mean the destruction of private institutions and the payment of a double
tax for education.”
So they stopped the students' strike, withheld their moral
support and by this mature deliberation put, like the Bombay mill-owners, almost
insuperable obstacles in the way of the movement.
It was the unconsciously
prepared forces in the country that made their way in spite of and not because
of the mature deliberation.
It was a minority convinced of the principles of
self-help and passive resistance, full of faith, careless of obstacles,
believing in the force of ideas, and not the whole self-conscious portion of the
country, which mainly contributed, by its eloquence, logic, consistency,
self-sacrifice and the impact of its energy on the maturely-deliberating
majority, to the permanence of the movement.
These are the facts.
As for the conclusion from them we never made the absurd statement evolved out
of the Bengalee's imagination that God is everywhere except in the
conscious and deliberate activities of men.
What we say and hold to is that the
Divine force manifests itself specially when it effects mighty and irresistible
movements which even the ignorance and egoism of man is obliged to recognise as
exceeding and baffling his limited wisdom and his limited strength.
school and established a school of their own, also an act of faith, and because
some leading men of the country recognised that something must be done on the
spot to prevent the honour of the nation being tarnished by abandonment of this
heroic forlorn hope while others thought it a good opportunity to materialise
their educational crotchets.
Was this mature deliberation or a compound of
faith, idealism and risky experiment?
The Boycott came into existence because of
the wrath of the people against the Partition and the vehement advocacy of a
Calcutta paper which, supported by this general wrath, bore down the hesitations
of the thinkers, the politicians and the economists.
Almost every step towards
Swadeshi, every National school established was an act of faith in the
permanence of the movement, a faith not justified by previous experience.
These
were acts of boldness, often of rashness, not of mature deliberation.
Mature
deliberation implies that having consulted the lessons of past experience and
weighed the probabilities of the future and the possibilities of the present, we
take the step which seems most prudent and likely to bring about sure results.
The Bombay mill-owners deliberated maturely when they said, “This movement born
of a moment's indignation will pass like the rest; go to, let us raise our
prices and make hay while the sun shines.”
The leaders deliberated maturely when
they said, “The rush towards National Education will not last and if encouraged
it will mean the destruction of private institutions and the payment of a double
tax for education.”
So they stopped the students' strike, withheld their moral
support and by this mature deliberation put, like the Bombay mill-owners, almost
insuperable obstacles in the way of the movement.
It was the unconsciously
prepared forces in the country that made their way in spite of and not because
of the mature deliberation.
It was a minority convinced of the principles of
self-help and passive resistance, full of faith, careless of obstacles,
believing in the force of ideas, and not the whole self-conscious portion of the
country, which mainly contributed, by its eloquence, logic, consistency,
self-sacrifice and the impact of its energy on the maturely-deliberating
majority, to the permanence of the movement.
These are the facts.
