Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram
Calcutta, August 10th, 1907
Part Four. Bande Mataram under the Editorship of of Sri Aurobindo (28 May – 22 December 1907)
Statutory Distinction
Mr. Morley is opposed to ensuring by a statute the presence of at least two Indians on the India Council. The very idea that there should be any “statutory distinction” between class and class is repulsive to his fine sense of political equality. Of course, it is only Statutory distinctions that he objects to: to real and practical distinctions there is no objection whatever. Mr. Morley is a philosopher, and so long as there is no philosophical and theoretic distinction, it does not matter a bit if there is no practical equality: for principles are universal, but their application is to be confined to Europe. Such is Morleyesque liberalism, that queer combination of autocracy, selfishness, repression and “sympathy”. Mr. Morley also negatived the proposal to limit the number of retired civilians on the India Council; for, he said, that would defeat the very object of the Council. Of course, for the whole object of the Council is to prime the Secretary of State with the narrow and reactionary views of hide-bound officialism, and to have other elements largely represented would defeat that object. Right, very Liberal Mr. Morley!
This work was not included in SABCL, vol.1 and it was not compared with other editions.