Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 5th February 1910 — No.31
Facts and Opinions
Ourselves
Every established Government is bound to eradicate a movement of this kind and it will naturally use any means it thinks effective.
We recognise this necessity, but we have no faith in the means the Government and the Anglo-Indians seem to favour.
We are dead against covering over an evil by pretentious, sounding and hollow speech and measures; we do not believe in a remedial system which suppresses symptoms and leaves the roots untouched.
All we can do is to stand aside and let the physician try his system — and this we propose to do from henceforward.
We have written this week in order to explain our action and our attitude, but we shall abstain in future from comment on current Indian politics or criticism of Government and its measures until more favourable and normal conditions return.
We only reserve to ourselves the liberty of writing once to point out the immense difference between Indian conditions in modern times and the historical precedents on which the revolutionists rely,— for which we had not sufficient space in this issue.
With this exception the rest is silence.
The Karmayogin was originally started as a weekly review intended to encourage the habit of deep and close thinking on all subjects and widen the intellectual range of the people, giving an especial importance to religion and the growth of spirituality.
The disproportionate space allowed to current politics was necessitated by the absence of any political organ devoted to that propaganda of peaceful Nationalism in which we saw the only way to healthy political development in India.
Now that that way is barred by the legislator and the Terrorist, we return to our original intention.