Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 24th July 1909 — No.5
Facts and Opinions
The Demand for Co-operation
The second crying indiscretion in Sir Edward's speech is the extraordinary demand for co-operation which he makes upon the people of this country.
It is natural that a Government should desire co-operation on the part of the people and under normal circumstances it is not necessary to ask for it; it is spontaneously given.
The circumstances in India are not normal.
When a Government expects co-operation, it is because it either represents the nation or is in the habit of consulting its wishes.
The Government in India does not represent the nation, and in Bengal at least it has distinctly set itself against its wishes.
It has driven the Partition through against the most passionate and universal agitation the country has ever witnessed.
It has set itself to baffle the Swadeshi-Boycott agitation.
It has adopted against that movement all but the ultimate measures of repression.
Nine deportations including in their scope several of the most respected and blameless leaders of the people stand to their debit account unredressed.
Even in giving the new reforms, inconclusive and in some of their circumstances detrimental to 
the best interests of the country, it has been anxious to let it be known that it is not yielding to the wishes of the people but acting on its own autocratic motion.
Against such a system and principle of administration the people of this country have no remedy except the refusal of co-operation and even that has been done only within the smallest limits possible.
Under such circumstances it is indeed a grotesque attitude for the ruler of Bengal to get up from his seat in the Council and not only request co-operation but demand it on pain of indiscriminate penalties such as only an autocratic government can inflict on the people under its control, and this with the full understanding that none of the grievances of the people are to be redressed.
The meaning of co-operation is not passive obedience, it implies that the Government shall rule according to the wishes of the people and the people work in unison with the Government for the maintenance of their common interests.
By advancing the demand in the way he has advanced it, Sir Edward Baker has made the position of his Government worse and not better.