{"id":1094,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:30","slug":"46-the-hindu-sabha-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/02-karmayogin-volume-02\/46-the-hindu-sabha-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-46_The Hindu Sabha.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nThe Hindu Sabha<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\na<\/b><\/font>n<\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/b> <\/span>INDICATION
\n<\/span><\/b>of the immense changes which are coming over our country,
\nis the sudden leaping into being of new movements and organisations which are,
\nby their very existence, evidence of revolutions in public feeling and omens of
\nthe future. The dead bones live indeed and the long sleep of the ages is
\nbroken. The Moslem League was indicative of much, the Hindu Sabha is indicative
\nof yet more. The Nationalist Party, while in entire disagreement with the
\nimmediate objects and spirit of the league, welcomed its birth as a sign of
\nrenovated political life in the Mahomedan
\ncommunity. But the Mahomedan community was
\nalways coherent, united and separately self-conscious. The strength of Islam
\nlay in its unity and cohesion, the fruit of a long discipline in equality and
\nbrotherhood, the strength of the Hindu in flexibility, progressiveness,
\nelasticity, a divination of necessary changes, broad ideas, growing
\naspirations, the fruit of a long discipline in intellectual and moral
\nsensitiveness. The Moslem League meant that the Mahomedan was awakening to the
\nneed of change, the growth of aspiration in the world around him, \u2014 not yet to
\nthe broad ideas modern life demanded. The Hindu Sabha means that the Hindu is
\nawakening to the need of unity and cohesion.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Does it mean more ? Does it
\nindicate a larger statesmanship, quicker impulse to action, a greater capacity
\nfor the unity and cohesion it seeks ? Is the Hindu Sabha a novel body, with the
\npower in it to effect a great object never before accomplished, the effective
\nunion of all shades of Hindu opinion from the lax Anglicised Agnostic, Hindu in
\nnothing but birth and blood, to the intense and narrow worshipper of the
\ninstitutes of Raghunandan ? Or is it merely
\nan ineffectual aspiration, like the old Congress, capable of creating a general
\nsympathy and oneness of aim, but not of practical purpose and effective
\norganisation ? There are only two things strong enough to unite Hinduism, a new
\nspiritual impulse based on Vedanta, the
\nessential oneness<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 259<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

of
\nman, the transience and utilitarian character of institutions, the lofty ideals
\nof brotherhood, freedom, equality, and a recognition of the great mission and
\nmighty future of the Hindu spiritual ideas and discipline and of the Indian
\nrace, \u2014 or else a political impulse strong enough to unite Hindus together for
\nthe preservation and advancement of their community. The Hindu Sabha could not have come into being but for the
\ngreat national movement which awakened the national spirit, the sense of past
\ngreatness, the divination of a mighty future, transforming the whole spirit and
\ncharacter of the educated community. But we fear that in its immediate
\ninception and work it leans for its hope of success on a lower and less
\npowerful motive \u2014 rivalry with Mahomedan
\npretensions and a desire to put the mass and force of an united Hinduism
\nagainst the intensity of a Mahomedan self-assertion supported by official
\npatronage and Anglo-Indian favour. Alarm and resentment at the pro-Mahomedan policy underlying the Reform Scheme
\nand dissatisfaction with the Bombay conventionists
\nfor their suicidal support of the Government policy entered largely into the
\nuniversal support given by Punjab Hindus to the new body and its great initial
\nsuccess. Mortification at the success of Mahomedans
\nin securing Anglo-Indian sympathy and favour and the exclusion of Hindus from
\nthose blissful privileges figured largely in the speech of Sir Pratul Chandra Chatterji
\nwho was hailed as the natural leader of Punjab Hinduism. These are not good
\nomens. It is not by rivalry for Anglo-Indian favour, it is not by quarrelling
\nfor the loaves and fishes of British administration that Hinduism can rise into
\nan united and effective force. If the Hindu Sabha takes its anchor on these
\npetty aspirations, or if it founds any part of its strength on political
\nemulation with the Mahomedans, it will be impossible for the Nationalist party
\nto join in a movement which would otherwise have their full sympathy and eager
\nsupport.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Lala Lajpat Rai
\nstruck a higher note, that of Hindu nationalism as a necessary preliminary to
\na greater Indian Nationality. We distrust this ideal. Not that we are blind to
\nfacts, \u2014 not that we do not recognise Hindu-Mahomedan rivalry as a legacy of
\nthe past enhanced and not diminished by British ascendancy, a thing that has to
\nbe faced and worked out either by mutual<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 260<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

concession or by a
\nstruggle between nationalism and separatism. But we do not understand Hindu
\nnationalism as a possibility under modern conditions. Hindu nationalism had a
\nmeaning in the times of Shivaji and Ramdas, when the object of national revival was to
\noverthrow a Mahomedan domination which, once
\ntending to Indian unity and toleration, had become oppressive and disruptive.
\nIt was possible because India was then a world to itself and the existence of
\ntwo geographical units entirely Hindu, Maharashtra
\nand Rajputana, provided it with a basis. It
\nwas necessary because the misuse of their domination by the Mahomedan element
\nwas fatal to India’s future and had to be punished and corrected by the
\nresurgence and domination of the Hindu. And because it was possible and
\nnecessary, it came into being. But under modern conditions India can only exist
\nas a whole. A nation depends for its existence on geographical separateness and geographical compactness, on having
\na distinct and separate country. The existence of this geographical separateness is sure in the end to bear down all
\ndifferences of race, language, religion, history. It has done so in Great
\nBritain, in Switzerland, in Germany. It will do so in India. But geographical
\ncompactness is also necessary. In other words, the d\u00e9sa<\/i>
\nor country must be so compact that mutual communication and the organisation of
\na central government becomes easy or, at least, not prohibitively difficult.
\nThe absence of such compactness is the reason why great Empires are sure in the
\nend to fall to pieces; they cannot get the
\nsupport of that immortal and indestructible national self which can alone
\nensure permanence. This difficulty stands in the way of British Imperial
\nFederation and is so great that any temporary success of that specious
\naspiration will surely result in the speedy disruption of the Empire. In
\naddition, there must be an uniting force strong enough to take advantage of the
\ngeographical compactness and separateness, \u2014 either a wise and skilfully
\norganised government with a persistent tradition of beneficence, impartiality
\nand oneness with the nation or else a living national sense insisting on its
\nseparate inviolability and self-realisation. The secret of Roman success was in
\nthe organisation of such a government; even so, it failed, for want of geographical
\ncompactness, to create a world-wide Roman nationa-<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 261<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nlity. <\/font><\/span>
\n The failure of the British rule to root itself lies
\nin its inability to become one with the nation either by the effacement of our national individuality or by the
\nrenunciation of its own separate pride and self-interest. These things are
\ntherefore necessary to Indian nationality, geographical separateness, geographical compactness and a living national
\nspirit. The first was always ours and made India a people apart from the
\nearliest times. The second we have attained by British rule. The third has just
\nsprung into existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the country, the Swadesh, which must be the base and fundament of
\nour nationality, is India, a country where Mahomedan and Hindu live
\nintermingled and side by side. What geographical base can a Hindu nationality
\npossess ? Maharashtra and Rajasthan are no longer separate geographical
\nunits but merely provincial divisions of a single country. The very first
\nrequisite of a Hindu nationalism is wanting. The Mahomedans
\nbase their separateness and their refusal to regard themselves as Indians
\nfirst and Mahomedans afterwards on the existence of great Mahomedan nations to which they feel themselves
\nmore akin, in spite of our common birth and blood, than to us. Hindus have no
\nsuch resource. For good or evil, they are bound to the soil and to the soil
\nalone. They cannot deny their Mother, neither can they mutilate her. Our ideal
\ntherefore is an Indian Nationalism, largely Hindu in its spirit and traditions,
\nbecause the Hindu made the land and the people and persists, by the greatness
\nof his past, his civilisation and his culture and his invincible virility, in
\nholding it, but wide enough also to include the Moslem and his culture and
\ntraditions and absorb them into itself. It is possible that the Mahomedan may
\nnot recognise the inevitable future and may prefer to throw himself into the
\nopposite scale. If so, the Hindu, with what
\nlittle Mahomedan help he may get, must win Swaraj both for himself and the Mahomedan
\nin spite of that resistance. There is a sufficient force and manhood in us to do
\na greater and more difficult task than that,
\nbut we lack unity, brotherhood, intensity of single action among ourselves. It
\nis to the creation of that unity, brotherhood and intensity that the Hindu Sabha should direct its whole efforts. Otherwise we must reject it as a
\ndisruptive and not a creative agency.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 262<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n


\nHOME<\/font><\/span><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hindu Sabha   an INDICATION of the immense changes which are coming over our country, is the sudden leaping into being of new movements…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-karmayogin-volume-02","wpcat-23-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}