Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 27th November 1909 —No.21
Facts and Opinions
The Nadiya President's Speech
We congratulate Mr. Aswini Banerji on the able and vigorous speech delivered by him as the President of the Nadiya Conference.
He took up an attitude which was at once manly and free from excess or violence.
For ourselves the first point we turned to was the pronouncement on the Reforms.
We do not think the judgment of the country on this ill-conceived measure could have been put with greater truth and force than in the periods of good-humoured contempt and irony, scathing yet in perfectly 
good taste, in which Mr. Banerji disposed of the claims of the Reform Scheme to be a measure of popular self-government.
If all public men take the same attitude, the day of a true measure of popular control will be much nearer than if we affect a qualified satisfaction with this political bauble.
As Mr. Banerji forcibly pointed out, it does not provide for a popular electorate, it does not admit of the election of popular leaders, it does not create a non-Government majority, or, as we would add, even the reasonable possibility of a strong opposition on essential points.
What has the country to do with a reformed Council stripped of these essentials?
The jo-hookums, the self-seekers, the nonentities who wish to take advantage of the exclusion of distinguished and leading names in order to enjoy, at the expense of the country's interests, the kudos and substantial advantages of a seat on the Councils will scramble for the newly-created heaven; that is the kind of co-operation which the Government will get from the non-Musulman1 part of the nation under this scheme.
The country remains sullen and dissatisfied.