Sri Aurobindo's corrections of statements in a proposed biography

Early Life in India and England

1872 ­ 1893

Language Learning

He may have known a smattering of Bengali till he was five years of age. Thereafter till twenty-one he spoke only English.

In my father's house only English and Hindustani were spoken. I knew no Bengali.

Quite early he was sent to St. Paul's School at Darjeeling, and then, when he showed unusual promise, to King's College, Cambridge.

. . . . . . His chosen medium of expression is English.

Another error is worth correcting. The reviewer seems to assume that Sri Aurobindo was sent straight from India to King's College, Cambridge, and that he had [to] learn English as a foreign language. This is not the fact; Sri Aurobindo in his father's house already spoke only English and Hindustani, he thought in English from his childhood and did not even know his native language, Bengali. At the age of seven he was taken to England and remained there consecutively for fourteen years, speaking English and thinking in English and no other tongue. He was educated in French and Latin and other subjects under private tuition in Manchester from seven to eleven and studied afterwards in St Paul's School London for about seven years. From there he went to King's College. He had never to study English at all as a subject; though it was not his native language, it had become by force of circumstances from the very first his natural language.  

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At Manchester

He was sensitive to beauty in man and nature. . . . He watched with pain the thousand and one instances of man's cruelty to man.

The feeling was more abhorrence than pain; from early childhood there was a strong hatred and disgust for all kinds of cruelty and oppression, but the term pain would not accurately describe the reaction.

*

There was no positive religious or spiritual element in the education received in England. The only personal contact with Christianity (that of Nonconformist England) was of a nature to repel rather than attract. The education received was mainly classical and had a purely intellectual and aesthetic influence; it did not stimulate any interest in spiritual life. My attention was not drawn to the spirituality of Europe of the Middle Ages; my knowledge of it was of a general character and I never underwent its influence.

School Studies

Between 1880 and 1884 Sri Aurobindo attended the grammar school at Manchester.

I never went to the Manchester Grammar school, never even stepped inside it. It was my two brothers who studied there. I was taught privately by the Drewetts. Mr.. Drewett who was a scholar in Latin (he had been a Senior Classic at Oxford)¹ taught me that language (but not Greek, which I began at Saint Paul's, London), and English History etc.; Mrs Drewett taught .. me French, Geography and Arithmetic. No Science; it was not in fashion at that time.

1 See Table 2, page 567. — Ed.  

*

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Aurobindo studied in the Manchester Grammar School for a period of about five years. . . . The Head Master of St. Paul's from the first entertained a very high opinion of Aurobindo's character and attainments.

[First sentence altered to:] Aurobindo studied at home, learning Latin, French and other subjects from Mr.. and Mrs Drewett. .. Sri Aurobindo never went to Manchester Grammar School, it was his two brothers who went there. He himself studied privately with Mr.. and Mrs Drewett. Mr.. Drewett was a very fine .. classical scholar and taught him Latin and grounded him so firmly that the Head Master of St. Paul's after teaching him personally the elements of Greek which he had not yet begun to learn, put him at once from the lower into the higher school. There was no admiration expressed about his character.

[Another version:] Sri Aurobindo never went to Manchester Grammar School. His two brothers studied there, but he himself was educated privately by Mr.. and Mrs Drewett. Drewett was an accomplished Latin scholar; he did not teach him Greek, but grounded him so well in Latin that the headmaster of St. Paul's school took up Aurobindo himself to ground him in Greek and then pushed him rapidly into the higher classes of the school.

*

[At St. Paul's Aurobindo made the discovery of Homer.]

The Head Master only taught him the elements of Greek grammar and then pushed him up into the Upper School.

In London

[He was sent to boarding school in London.]

St. Paul's was a day school. The three brothers lived in London for some time with the mother of Mr. Drewett but she left them after a quarrel between her and Manmohan about religion. The old Mrs. Drewett was fervently Evangelical and she said she  

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would not live with an atheist as the house might fall down on her. Afterwards Benoybhusan and Aurobindo occupied a room in the South Kensington Liberal Club where Mr. J. S. Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton, for some time Lieutenant Governor of Bengal,² was the secretary and Benoy assisted him in his work. Manmohan went into lodgings. This was the time of the greatest suffering and poverty. Subsequently Aurobindo also went separately into lodgings until he took up residence at Cambridge.

*

Aurobindo now turned the full fury of his attention to classical studies . . .

Aurobindo gave his attention to the classics at Manchester and at Saint Paul's; but even at St Paul's in the last three years he simply went through his school course and spent most of his spare time in general reading, especially English poetry, literature and fiction, French literature and the history of ancient, mediaeval and modern Europe. He spent some time also over learning Italian, some German and a little Spanish. He spent much time too in writing poetry. The school studies during this period engaged very little of his time; he was already at ease in them and did not think it necessary to labour over them any longer. All the same he was able to win all the prizes in King's College in one year for Greek and Latin verse etc.

Young Aurobindo had thus achieved rare academic distinctions at a very early age. He had mastered Greek and Latin and English, and he had also acquired sufficient familiarity with continental languages like German, French and Italian. . . .

[Altered to:] He had mastered Greek and Latin, English and French, and he had also acquired some familiarity with continental languages like German and Italian.

2 See Table 2, page 567. — Ed.  

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Early Poetry

No doubt the derivative element is prominent in much of his early verse. Not only are names and lineaments and allusions foreign in their garb, but the literary echoes are many and drawn from varied sources.

Foreign to what? He knew nothing about India or her culture etc. What these poems express is the education and imaginations and ideas and feelings created by a purely European culture and surroundings — it could not be otherwise. In the same way the poems on Indian subjects and surroundings in the same book express the first reactions to India and Indian culture after the return home and a first acquaintance with these things.

*

Like Macaulay's A Jacobite's Epitaph, [Aurobindo's] Hic Jacet also achieves its severe beauty through sheer economy of words; Aurobindo's theme, the very rhythm and language of the poem, all hark back to Macaulay; . . .

If so, it must have been an unconscious influence; for after early childhood Macaulay's verse (The Lays) ceased to appeal. The "Jacobite's Epitaph" was perhaps not even read twice; it made no impression.

At Cambridge

It is said that the Provost of King's College, Mr. Austen Leigh, quickly recognized Aurobindo's unusual talent and rich integrity. [Altered to:] Aurobindo's unusual talents early attracted the admiration of Oscar Browning, then a well-known figure at Cambridge.

Austen Leigh was not the name of the Provost; his name was Prothero.³ It was not he but Oscar Browning, a scholar and

3 See Table 2, page 567. — Ed.   30

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writer of some contemporary fame, who expressed admiration for Sri Aurobindo's scholarship, — there was nothing about integrity. He expressed the opinion that his papers, for the Scholarship examination, were the best he had ever seen and quite remarkable.

*

Aurobindo now turned the full fury of his attention to classical studies and in the fullness of time, graduated from King's College in 1892, with a First Class in Classical Tripos.

Sri Aurobindo did not graduate; he took and passed the Tripos in his second year; to graduate one had to take the Tripos in the third year or else pass a second part of the Tripos in the fourth year. Sri Aurobindo was not engrossed in classical studies; he was more busy reading general literature and writing poetry. [Another version:] He did not graduate at Cambridge. He passed high in the First Part of the Tripos (first class); it is on passing this First Part that the degree of B.A. is usually given; but as he had only two years at his disposal, he had to pass it in his second year at Cambridge, and the First Part gives the degree only if it is taken in the third year. If one takes it in the second year, one has to appear for the second part of the Tripos in the fourth year to qualify for the degree. He might have got the degree if he had made an application for it, but he did not care to do so. A degree in England is valuable only if one wants to take up an academical career.

The Riding Examination

At the end of the period of probation, however, he did not appear for the departmental Riding examination and he was consequently disqualified for the Civil Service. Aurobindo was now able to turn the full fury of his attention to Classical studies.

These studies were already finished at that time.

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After a couple of years of intense study, he graduated from King's College in 1892, with a First Class in Classical Tripos.

This happened earlier, not after the Civil Service failure.

At the end of the period of probation, however, he did not choose to appear for the departmental Riding examination; a something within him had detained him in his room. . . .

[The last phrase altered to:] prevented his arriving in time.

Nothing detained him in his room. He felt no call for the I.C.S. and was seeking some way to escape from that bondage. By certain manoeuvres he managed to get himself disqualified for riding without himself rejecting the Service, which his family would not have allowed him to do.

*

[According to Aurobindo's sister Sarojini, Aurobindo was playing cards at his London residence when he was to have gone to appear for the writing examination.]

Sarojini's memory is evidently mistaken. I was wandering in the streets of London to pass away time and not playing cards. At last when I went to the grounds I was too late. I came back home and told my elder brother, Benoybhusan, that I was chucked. He with a philosophic attitude proposed playing cards and so we [sat]⁴ down playing cards. [Manmohan]⁵ came [later]⁶ and on hearing about my being chucked began to shout at our playing cards when such a calamity had befallen [us].

Political Interests and Activities

[In England at an early age, Aurobindo took a firm decision to liberate his own nation.]

Not quite that; at this age Sri Aurobindo began first to be

4 MS (dictated) set

5 MS (dictated) Manomohan

6 MS (dictated) latter  

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interested in Indian politics of which previously he knew nothing. His father began sending the newspaper The Bengalee with passages marked relating cases of maltreatment of Indians by Englishmen and he wrote in his letters denouncing the British Government in India as a heartless Government. At the age of eleven Sri Aurobindo had already received strongly the impression that a period of general upheaval and great revolutionary changes was coming in the world and he himself was destined to play a part in it. His attention was now drawn to India and this feeling was soon canalised into the idea of the liberation of his own country. But the "firm decision" took full shape only towards the end of another four years. It had already been made when he went to Cambridge and as a member and for some time secretary of the Indian Majlis at Cambridge he delivered many revolutionary speeches which, as he afterwards learnt, had their part in determining the authorities to exclude him from the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself.

*

[Aurobindo's writing a poem on Parnell shows that Parnell influenced him.]

It only shows that I took a keen interest in Parnell and nothing more.

*

While in London he used to attend the weekly meetings of the Fabian Society.

Never once!

*

[Aurobindo formed a secret society while in England.]

This is not correct. The Indian students in London did once meet to form a secret society called romantically the Lotus and Dagger in which each member vowed to work for the liberation  

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of India generally and to take some special work in furtherance of that end. Aurobindo did not form the society but he became a member along with his brothers. But the society was still-born. This happened immediately before the return to India and when he had finally left Cambridge. Indian politics at that time was timid and moderate and this was the first attempt of the kind by Indian students in England. In India itself Aurobindo's maternal grandfather Raj Narayan Bose formed once a secret society of which Tagore, then a very young man, became a member, and also set up an institution for national and revolutionary propaganda, but this finally came to nothing. Later on there was a revolutionary spirit in Maharashtra and a secret society was started in Western India with a Rajput noble as the head and this had a Council of Five in Bombay with several prominent Mahratta politicians as its members. This society was contacted and joined by Sri Aurobindo somewhere in 1902 ­ 3, sometime after he had already started secret revolutionary work in Bengal on his own account. In Bengal he found some very small secret societies recently started and acting separately without any clear direction and tried to unite them with a common programme. The union was never complete and did not last but the movement itself grew and very soon received an enormous extension and became a formidable factor in the general unrest in Bengal.

The Meeting with the Maharaja of Baroda

He obtained, with the help of James Cotton, Sir Henry's son, an introduction to H.H. the late Sayaji Rao, Gaekwar of Baroda, during his visit to England.

James Cotton was Sir Henry's brother not his son.

Sir Henry Cotton was much connected with Maharshi Raj Narayan Bose — Aurobindo's maternal grandfather. His son James Cotton was at this time in London. As a result of these favourable circumstances a meeting came about with the Gaekwar of Baroda.   34

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Cotton was my father's friend — they had made arrangements for my posting in Bengal; but he had nothing to do with my meeting with the Gaekwar. James Cotton was well acquainted with my eldest brother, because C was secretary of the South Kensington Liberal Club where we were living and my brother was his assistant. He took great interest in us. It was he who arranged the meeting.

*

Sri Aurobindo was first introduced to H.H. Sri Sayajirao, the great, Maharaja of Baroda by Mr. Khaserao Jadhav in England.

Not true. Sri Aurobindo became acquainted with Khaserao two or three years after his arrival in Baroda, through Khaserao's brother, Lieutenant Madhavrao Jadhav. [It was]⁷ James Cotton, brother of Sir Henry (who was a friend of Dr K.D. Ghose) . who introduced Sri Aurobindo to the Gaekwar. Cotton became secretary of the South Kensington Liberal Club where two of the brothers were living; Benoybhusan was doing some clerical work for the Club for 5 shillings a week and Cotton took him as his assistant; he took a strong interest in all the three brothers and when Sri Aurobindo failed in the riding test, he tried to get another chance for him (much against the will of Sri Aurobindo who was greatly relieved and overjoyed by his release from the I.C.S) and, when that did not succeed, introduced him to the Gaekwar so that he might get an appointment in Baroda. Cotton afterwards came on a visit to Baroda and saw Sri Aurobindo in the College.

Departure from England

For fourteen years he had lived in England, divorced from the culture of his forefathers; he had developed foreign tastes and tendencies and he had been de-nationalised like his own country itself and Aurobindo was not happy with himself.

7 Sri Aurobindo cancelled "It was" during revision but left "who" uncancelled. — Ed.  

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He should begin all again from the beginning and try to re-nationalise himself; . . .

There was no unhappiness for that reason, nor at that time any deliberate will for renationalisation — which came, after reaching India, by natural attraction to Indian culture and ways of life and a temperamental feeling and preference for all that was Indian.

*

He was leaving, he wished to leave, and yet there was a touch of regret as well at the thought of leaving England. . . . He felt the flutter of unutterable misgivings and regrets; he achieved escape from them by having recourse to poetic expression.

There was no such regret in leaving England, no attachment to the past or misgivings for the future. Few friendships were made in England and none very intimate; the mental atmosphere was not found congenial. There was therefore no need for any such escape.

*

Aurobindo was going back to India to serve under the Gaekwar of Baroda; he cast one last look at his all but adopted country and thus uttered his "Envoi".

No, the statement was of a transition from one culture to another. There was an attachment to English and European thought and literature, but not to England as a country; he had no ties there and did not make England his adopted country, as Manmohan did for a time. If there was attachment to a European land as a second country, it was intellectually and emotionally to one not seen or lived in in this life, not England, but France.

*

The steamer by which Aurobindo was to have left England was wrecked near Lisbon. The news came to Dr. Krishnadhan [Ghose] as a stunning blow. He concluded that all his three sons were lost to him for ever.  

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There was no question of the two other brothers starting. It was only Aurobindo's death that was [reported]⁸ and it was while uttering his name in lamentation that the father died.

*

After his father's demise the responsibility of supporting the family devolved on him and he had to take up some appointment soon.

There was no question of supporting the family at that time. That happened some time after going to India.

*

[The name "Aurobindo Acroyd Ghose"]

Sri Aurobindo dropped the "[Acroyd]"⁹ from his name before he left England and never used it again.

8 MS reposed

9 MS (dictated) Ackroyd   Life in Baroda, 1893 ­ 1906 Service in Baroda State

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