Book Title: Karmayogi
Author(s): 
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

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Page 318
________________ 2 ante representation, not because we are opposed to a large Mahomedan influence in popular assetbles when they come but, because we will be no party to a distinction which recognizes Hindu and Mahomedan as permanently separate political units and thus precludes the growth of a single and indivisible Indian nation. We oppose any such division whether it attempt at comes from an embarrassed Govern ment seeking for political support or from anembittered Hindu community llowing the passions of the moment to obscure their vision of the future. The Growth of Turkey. The article on young Turkey and its military strength, extracted in our columns this week from the Indian Baily News, is one of great interest. Behind the deprecation of Turkish Chauvinism and Militarisin we hear the first note of European alarm at the rise of a second Asiatic Power able to strike as well as tordefend its honour and integrity against European aggres sion. The fact that it is the army in Turkey which stands for free institutions, is the greatest guarantee that could be given of the permanence of the new Turkey, for it assures a time of internal quiet while the country goes through the delicate and dangerous process of readjusting its whole machinery and ways of public thought and action from the habits of an irresponsible autocratic alministration to those which suit free institutions and democratic dens. No doubt, the support of the army veils a Dictatorship. But that is an inevitable stage in a great and sudden transition of this kind, and suits Asiatic countues, however perilous it may have been in other times to European count when men could not be trusted not to misuse power for their own purposes to the detriment of their country. In Europe the present high standard of public spuit, duty, and honour was the slow creation of free institutions. KARMAYOGIN. and land no the individual to a community and the scrupulous adhesion to principle at the cost of personal predilection and happiness. As in Turkey now, so in Japan, it was a few strong men who, winning control of the country by the strength of great ideas backed by the sword, right supported by might, held the Land safe and quiet while they revolutionised the ideas and institutions of the whole nation, forged a strength by sea enemy could despise and secured from the gratitude of their race for their wisdom, selflessness and high. nobility of purpose that implicit following which at first they compelled by force. The complaint that the young Turks ignore the necessity of civil reorganisation, commerce and education is a complaint without wisdom, if not without knowledge. The circumstances. of Turkey demand that the first attention of her statesmen should be given to military and naval efficiency. The Revolution plucked her from the verge of an abyss of disintegration. The desperate diplomacy and cunning of Sultan Abdul Hamid had stayed her long on that verge, but she was beginning to slip slowly over when the stronger hand of Mahind Sheyket Pasha seized her and drew her back. Even so, the deposition of the cunning and skilful diplomatist of Yildiz Palace might have been the signal for a general spolation of Turkey. Austria began a rush for the Bulkans,Greeco tried to hurry a crisis in Crete. The shaking of the Turkish sword in the face of the Greek and the rapid and efficient reorganisation of army and navy against Europe were both vitally necessary to the safety of the Empire. They were the calculated steps not of Chauvinisin but of a defensive statesmanship. China Entors. To Aviaties, not yet corrupted, as many of us in India have been, by the worse part of European individualisin and an unnatural education divorced from morality and patriotista, a high standard of public spirit, duty and honour comos with the first awakenings of a freer life; for the Asiatic discipline has always been largely one of selfeffacement, the subordination of in The circle of constitutionally governed Asiatic countries. creases. To Turkey, Persia and Japan, China is added. Towards the close of the ton years set apart in the Chinese programme for the preparation of self-government, the Chinese Government has kept its promise to grant a constitution. Provincial Assemblies have been established, are working and have shown their reality and independence by opposing Government demands. The electoral basis of au Imperial Assembly has been providel, There cannot be the slightest doubt that the steady, rosolute, methodical Chinese, with their unrivalled genine for organisation, will make a success of the constitutional experiment. In all Asia now, with the exception of Siam and Afghanistan, the only countries which are denied a constitutional Government are those which have not vindicated their national freedom. Even in Afghanistan the first ineffective stirrings of life have been seen and will grow to something formidable before many years are over. We wonder whether Lord Morley and his advisers really believe that when they are surrounded by a free and democratic Asia, the great Indian race can be kept in a stato of tutelage and smail-paced advancement, much less put off to a future age in the dim mists of a millennial futurity to which the penetrating vision of the noble and Radical Lord cannot pierce? The worst opponents Indian freedom know well what this Asintic constitutionalism means, and therefore the Englishman struggles,in the face of continual disappointment. to foresce the speedy collapse of Nationalism and Parliamentary Government Persia, Turkey and even Japan as the inevitable fate of an institution foreign to the Asiatic genius, which is popularly supposed to recoil from freedom and hug most lovingly the heaviest chains. The Patiala Arrests. in For some time past the Native states of Rajputana and Punjab have been vying with each other in promulgations and legislations of a drastic character against sodition and conspiracy. The object of these odicts seems to be to stifle all agitation or semblance of any politi cal thought and activity that may be directed against the existing state of things not in the States themselves but in British India. Otherwise,it is impossible to account for the Draconion severity of the language and substance of these ukases or the foolish thoroughness of some of the measures adopted, such as the prohibition of entry even to colourless papers like the Bengalee. The exponents of Anglo Indian opinion point triumphantly to these measures both ns a proof of aristocratic loyalty British officialdom and as an ex of tho .

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