The Constitution of the Congress

                  CONSIDERABLE misconception seems still to exist in many quarters regarding the character of the constitution that is being demanded for the Congress by those who hold that a reform of the methods and ideals of that great national movement has become absolutely imperative owing to the altered conditions of public life in the country. A constitution for the Congress has been wanted for some time past; but the main idea of those who had hitherto been crying for it was clearly to secure a due recognition of the views and opinions of the general body of Congressmen in the country in the management of its affairs, and to ensure regularity and continuity of its work between one session and another. All that they wanted was to formulate the different authorities and organisations that would be responsible for the different branches of the work of the Congress. It was with this view that a standing committee was appointed at the Lahore Session of the Congress, and directed to meet at least twice during the succeeding year, to discuss important matters affecting the movement; and the failure of that scheme, to whatever cause or causes it might be due, has lent considerable support to the view propounded by more than one Congress leader, that to formulate any hard and fast constitution for the Congress would be bound to burden it with an unworkable machinery, such as would be sure to hinder instead of to help its work. And it will have to be admitted that there is considerable force in this objection. To try to give any rigid constitution to the Congress, and encumber it with a number of more or less complicated organs would surely weaken instead of strengthening the movement, - as long as its central idea and ideals have not been reconsidered and readjusted to suit the altered circumstances of the country.

             The new demand for a constitution of the Congress is, however, dictated by the very need of such a reconsideration of its ideals and methods. Those who have recently put forward this

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demand, want at the same time also a reconsideration of the whole programme of the Congress. Their main idea is that the Congress should give up more or less completely its old mendicant methods and apply itself to the organisation of the forces and resources of the nation. And a constitution is wanted, first and foremost of all, for this very work itself.

             The constitution that is wanted now for the Congress will, therefore, have to build itself up from the lowest units of our national life. In some places these units will be, perhaps, the villages; in others, where education is less advanced, they will be only the subdivisional towns; and in others the districts will have to be taken as the unit of our organisation. These village organisations will combine and form district organisations composed of their own representatives and these district organisations will combine into one large and comprehensive provincial organisation; and it is on these provincial organisations that the final Congress organisation will have to be built up, on some care- fully considered lines of federal union and government. This is the sort of constitution that is now demanded for the Congress. It is no mere organisation of general and executive committees of the Congress that will adequately meet this demand. The very methods of the election of the delegates will have to be changed; and regular constituencies, with a register of qualified voters, will have to be organised for the due exercise of the Congress-practice; and the whole organisation will have to be worked up on a scheme of self-taxation; for self-taxation is the very soul of that practical self-government which it ought now to be the one central aim of the Indian National Congress to set up in the country. This is the real meaning of the new demand for a constitution for the Congress, and the objections urged against the old cry cannot, therefore, be urged against it; though to meet this demand, the whole plan and programme of that great national movement will have to be reconsidered and recast. 

Bande Mataram,August20,1906

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