Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Split of Congress-moderates and Extremists

The wavering policy of the Benaras Congress of 1905 in lending full-throated support to " boycott" and the mendicancy of the Moderates mirrored in their appeasement of Mr. Morley, the Liberal Secretary of State for India, in early 1906, increasingly hardened Extremism in Bengal. So long, Surendranath banerjee was the accredited leader of the movement, but from now on Bipin pal came to the fore-front.He found his close associate in Aurobindo Ghose whose whole-hearted plunge into Bengal politics from mid-1906 invigorated the movement to a considerable extent. The bureaucratic highhandedness to the Barisal conference (April 1906) as revealed in its prohibition of shouts of Bandemataram and manhandling of the leaders and delegates including Surendranath  Banerjee convinced the extremists of the need for a more vigorous policy vis-a-vis the Government. So they reorganised themselves into the New  Party or Nationalist Party as distinct from the Moderates.
The split took place chiefly on the political level. The demand of the Moderates was "graduated colonial self-Government' and that of the Extremists were Purna Swaraj or unqualified National Independence.The former wanted to advocated for their demand " boycott orpassive resistance" where as the extremists wanted to take "violent means to attain Complete Independence". There was a third trend introduced by Dr. Sumit Sarkar's viz., Rabindranath's constructive idea of Swadeshi.
Bipin Pal published in his own initiative and with a sum of about Rs. 500/- the English daily Bandemataram  and had set out extensive tour of Eastern bengal and Assam.This daily paper turned into a limited concern with the major financial assistance of Subodh Chandra Basu Mallick.under the able editorship of Aurobindo Ghose (1906-1908) as the greatest propaganda machinaryof the ideas of the movement.   
Under the able leadership of Pal-Ghose the Nationalist Party caused terror in the minds of the bureaucracy.