Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 25th December 1909 — No.25
Facts and Opinions
A New Sophism
Another and very singular argument is advanced by the Bengalee which evinces a similar disregard of facts and of the real significance of facts.
It is alleged that both sides in Bengal are agreed as to the four resolutions, that the creed is part of the four resolutions, that the creed was accepted by the Nationalists at Pabna and therefore they ought not to object to sign it as a condition of entering the Congress.
In the first place, if the four resolutions are to be so binding on the Nationalists that they must be ready to sign one of them at the call of the Moderates, then they must be made equally binding on the Moderates and we call on them to sign a declaration of acceptance of the Boycott as a condition of entry into a1 United Congress.
Just as the Moderates from Bombay accepted the Boycott resolution at Calcutta in deference to the weight of public opinion, so we accepted the Colonial self-government resolution as the opinion of the majority and are no more bound to subscribe to it personally than Sir Pherozshah Mehta is bound to subscribe to the Boycott.
The four resolutions merely framed a compromise between the two political schools, not a declaration of Nationalist faith.
As for Bengal, it is well known that the whole of Bengal does not accept Colonial self-government as the ultimate goal of political aspiration.
At Pabna it was only to avoid a discussion dangerous to unity that the Nationalists contented themselves, in spite of the majority they had, with placing their dissent on record through the mouth of Sj. Manoranjan Guha.
The Bengalee cannot have forgotten that incident.
It was revived again at Hughly when the Moderates insisted on whittling down the Boycott to a mere commercial measure as a price of their adherence to the Conference and Sj. Aurobindo Ghose desired to bring forward an amendment, which he would subsequently withdraw, in order to mark that the Nationalists did not accept the resolution as the opinion of the country.
The Moderate leaders threatened to withdraw if this was done and Sj. Aurobindo Ghose was requested to confine himself to the precedent established by Sj. Manoranjan Guha at Pabna.
He then distinctly expressed his doubt whether 
this would be sufficient to make the Nationalist attitude clear to the country and the advantage taken of our complaisance by the Bengalee to misrepresent the Nationalist attitude at Pabna shows that his apprehensions were perfectly justified.
If this is the light in which the Moderates choose to put the Nationalist willingness to compromise, it may be necessary at the next Conference for our party not only to move an amendment but to put it to the vote regardless of Moderate threats of secession.