The  Partition of Bengal

The year 1905 is one of the most important years in the history of the freedom movement of India. It was in that year that the British Government decided to partition Bengal. The decision to partition Bengal into two provinces shocked the whole country. It was part of their political trump card, the policy of divide and rule. As a matter of fact, from 1870 onwards, the British started inciting the Hindus and the Muslims to form their own political parties to establish their distinct religious identities. That was the beginning of the communalisation of politics. The British not only encouraged the two communities to form political parties along religious lines, they took various steps to create a situation whereby Hindus and Muslims would be forced to think that their religious identity was at peril. This effort culminated in the partition of Bengal in 1905. The Presidency of Bengal was divided into two parts apparently for administrative reasons.  It was argued that Bengal, Bihar and Orissa  which formed a single province of British India since 1765, had grown too large to handle under a single administration; but it was quite clear that the partition was made along communal lines in order to divide the communities. Even Lord Curzon on a tour of East Bengal, confessed that his “object   in partitioning was not only to relieve the Bengali administration, but to create a Mohammedan province, where Islam could be predominant and its followers in ascendancy.” It thus provided an impetus to the religious divide and one of the results was the formation of the Muslim League. The people of Bengal were indignant and outraged. For them the partition was not merely a fresh application of the British policy of divide-and-rule, but the sundering of the soul of a people. This single event brought about united opposition from all groups, political and non-political. Poet Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Gurudas Banerjee, a Judge, and the Maharajas of Mymensingh and Cossimbazar all joined in the protest. This triggered off a tremendous awakening and it manifested in a sudden outburst of the genius of the Bengali race, flowering in the field of literature and music. So great was its impact that Ramsay Macdonald exclaimed: “Bengal is creating India by song and worship, it is clothing her in queenly garments.”

Thus began the second phase of the Freedom Movement. This period covered the period between 1905 and 1915. It must be noted that the movement was not restricted to Bengal. The whole of India got involved into the cauldron; in Maharashtra, Tilak took direct part, in Punjab it was Lala Lapat Rai and in South India it was Subramaniam Bharati.  Slogans of Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, and National Education, emerged during the anti-partition campaign. Bal Gangadhar Tilak carried on a vigorous propaganda of this programme and recommended its adoption at the session of the Congress held at Calcutta in 1906. Dadabhai Naoroji and other leaders of the Liberal faction supported the proposal and it was adopted. Tilak emerged as a leader of national stature from that year.

But the most important consequence of the Partition of Bengal was the advent of Sri Aurobindo in active politics.  Sri Aurobindo was then in Baroda and he wrote about the partition: “This measure is no mere administrative proposal but a blow straight at the heart of the nation.” Then the Vice-Principal of the College in Baroda, he left his comfortable job and moved to Calcutta and joined active politics. It was then that the Bengal National College was founded and he became its first Principal. He began writing editorials for "Bandemataram", an English daily started by Bipin Chandra Pal, and by the end of the year was the paper's 'chief editor'. Sri Aurobindo stated that his first occupation "was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as the aim of political action in India and to insist on this persistently in the pages of the journal".  He was the first politician in India who had the courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful. Bandemataram soon circulated through the country and became a powerful force in moulding its political thought.

There were three sides to Sri Aurobindo's political ideas and activities.
First, there was the action with which he started, a secret revolutionary propaganda and organisation of which the central object was the preparation of an armed insurrection. Secondly, there was a public propaganda intended to convert the whole nation to the ideal of independence which was regarded by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera.
Thirdly there was the organisation of the people to carry on a public and united opposition and undermining of the foreign rule through an increasing non-cooperation and passive resistance.

We shall now take up each one of these three sides separately.

Regarding the public propaganda intended to convert the whole nation to the ideal of independence. Sri Aurobindo devised a two-pronged strategy for this purpose. The first one was to use the columns of the Bandemataram to spread the ideal of total freedom and secondly to capture the Congress Party. For this purpose Sri Aurobindo, Tilak and other leaders formed a new party called the Nationalist Congress party. 

Here is a quotation from Bipin Chandra Pal’s book: Indian Nationalism: its Personalities and Principles: “The youngest in age among those who stand in the forefront of the Nationalist propaganda in India, but in endowment, education and character, perhaps superior to them all – Aravinda seems distinctly marked out by Providence to play in the future of this movement a part not given to any of his colleagues and contemporaries…. The Nationalist School was without a daily English organ. A new paper was started. Aravinda was invited to join its staff. A joint-stock company floated to run it, and Aravinda became one of the directors. This paper Bandemataram at once secured for itself a recognized position in Indian journalism. The hand of the master was in it from the very beginning. Its bold attitude, its vigorous thinking, its clear ideas, its chaste and powerful diction, its scorching sarcasm and refined witticism were unsurpassed by any journal in the country, either Indian or Anglo-Indian. It at once raised the tone of every Bengali paper and compelled the admiration of even hostile Ango-Indian editors. Morning after morning not only Calcutta, but the educated community in every part of the country eagerly awaited its vigourous pronouncements on the stirring questions of the day…. It was a force in the country no one dared to ignore, however much they might fear or hate it, and Aravinda was the leading spirit, the central force in the new journal.”

The editor of the Statesman complained that the Bandemataram “reeked with sedition patently visible between every line, but it was so skillfully written that no legal action could be taken.” And yet years later Mr Ratcliffe, editor of the Statesman wrote: "It was in 1906 shortly after Curzon's retirement, that Sri Aurobindo and his friends started Bande Mataram.  It had a full-sized sheet, was clearly printed on green paper, and was full of leading and special articles written in English with a brilliance and pungency not hitherto attained in the Indian press. It was the most effective voice of what we then called Nationalist Extremism.

Here is an illustration from the writings of Sri Aurobindo:

"Lala Lajpat Rai has been deported out of British India. The fact is its own comment. The telegram goes on to say that indignations meetings have been forbidden for four days. Indignation meetings? The hour of speeches and fine writings is past. The bureaucracy has thrown down the gauntlet. We take it up. Men of the Punjab! Race of the Lion! Show these men who would stamp you into the dust that for one Lajpat they have taken away, a hundred Lajpats will arise in his place. Let them hear a hundred times louder your war-cry: 'Jai Hindustan'!"

At the same time, Sri Aurobindo built up a comprehensive scheme of political action know as Passive Resistance or Boycott, the most potent and fruitful contribution to the whole of India in the beginning of the twentieth century. This is what he wrote: “The first principle of passive resistance, which the new school have placed in the forefront of their programme, is to make administration under present conditions impossible by an organized refusal to do anything which shall help either British commerce in the exploitation of the country or British officialdom in the administration of it – unless and until the conditions are changed in the manner and to the extent demanded by the people. This attitude is summed up in one word boycott.” It was originally devised as an economic weapon to hit the British rulers at their most vital point; but Sri Aurobindo endowed it with far reaching possibilities. It soon expressed itself in the four-fold Non-cooperation – economic boycott, educational boycott, judicial boycott and the boycott of the executive administration. And this boycott was to be kept judiciously within the bounds of law.

He wrote a series of brilliant articles in the Bandemataram entitled “The Doctrine of Passive Resistance”; in these articles, he expounded a detailed programme of non-cooperation. In these articles, we find an incisive analysis of its importance and   also valuable hints regarding its technique. While advocating non-cooperation, Sri Aurobindo was careful to define its limits. Here is a quotation from Sri Aurobindo: “There is a limit however to passive resistance. So long as the action of the executive is peaceful and within rules of the fight, the passive resister scrupulously maintains his attitude of passivity, but he is not bound to do so a moment beyond. To submit to illegal or violent methods of coercion, to accept outrage and hooliganism as part of the legal procedure of the country, is to be guilty of cowardice, and, by dwarfing national manhood, to sin against the divinity within ourselves and the divinity in our motherland… Passive resistance cannot build up a strong and great nation unless it is masculine, bold and ardent in its spirit and ready at any moment and at the slightest notice to supplement itself with active resistance. We do not want to develop a nation of women who know only how to suffer and not how to strike.”

We thus see that the non-violent non-cooperation movement of Gandhi was found to be anticipated substantively by the movement of Passive Resistance in the early part of the century and that its foundations were firmly laid at least a decade before he came on the Indian political scene. It should be clear from the above quotation that with Sri Aurobindo Passive Resistance was only a tool and not a creed to be followed in all situations and circumstances.

Regarding the plan for armed revolution, one of the ideas of Sri Aurobindo was to establish secretly, under various pretexts and covers, revolutionary propaganda and recruiting throughout Bengal. This was to be done among the youth of the country while sympathy and support and financial and other assistance were to be obtained from the older men who had advanced views or could be won over to them. Centres were to be established in every town and eventually in every village. Societies of young men were to be established with various ostensible objects, cultural, intellectual or moral and those already existing were to be won over for revolutionary use. Young men were to be trained in activities which might be helpful for ultimate military action, such as riding, physical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organised movement. It was in 1901 that Sri Aurobindo made his first move by sending Jatin Banerjee as his lieutenant to Bengal with a programme of preparation and action, which he thought might occupy a period of 30 years before fruition, could become possible. Jatin was also charged with setting up centres in every town and eventually in every village. As soon as the idea was sown, it attained rapid prosperity. It must be noted that there were many other secret societies in Bengal already flourishing. Rajnarain Bose had already formed one in which the Tagore brothers were members and Sarala Ghosal founded several clubs where not only boys but girls too were taught to wield lathi and sword. Sarala Ghosal was indeed the foremost organiser of physical education in Bengal.

It will be of some interest to note that Sri Aurobindo first met Tilak in 1901 at Baroda. Later in 1902 at the Allahabad Congress, the two met again. Tilak took him out of the pandal and talked to him for an hour in the grounds expressing his contempt of action of the Reformist movement and explaining his own line of action in Maharashtra. The Congress was held under the chairmanship of Surendranath Banerjee, who declared: “We plead the permanence of British rule in India.” From this time onwards, Sri Aurobindo and Tilak were in close contact.

Sri Aurobindo and Tilak however soon realized that an armed revolt at that stage of India’s history was not feasible, and though he continued to support and guide the underground terrorist movement in the hope that it would demoralize the British, he had no illusions as to the possibility of mere terrorism securing the country’s freedom.

The Nationalist Congress party was formed and it was decided that they should capture the Congress Party, which was then led by the Moderates. This will form the subject of the next chapter dealing with the Surat Congress.

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