{"id":1133,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1133"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:49","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:49","slug":"52-the-need-of-administrative-unity-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15\/52-the-need-of-administrative-unity-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","title":{"rendered":"-52_The Need of Administrative Unity.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"HeadingComments\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><b><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">CHAPTER <\/font><\/b><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\nXXVI<\/font><\/span><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\n<\/font><font size=\"4\"><br \/>\n<span style='font-weight:700'>The Need of<br \/>\nAdministrative Unity<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height:150%\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<span><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/font><br \/>\n<\/span><b><font size=\"3\">I<\/font><\/b><font size=\"3\">N ALMOST all current ideas of the first step towards international<br \/>\norganisation, it is taken for granted that the nations will continue to enjoy their<br \/>\nseparate existence and liberties and will only leave to international action<br \/>\nthe prevention of war, the regulation of dangerous disputes, the power of<br \/>\nsettling great international questions which they cannot settle by ordinary<br \/>\nmeans. It is impossible that the development should stop there; this first step<br \/>\nwould necessarily lead to others which could travel only in one direction.<br \/>\nWhatever authority were established, if it is to be a true authority in any<br \/>\ndegree and not a mere concert for palaver, would find itself called upon to act<br \/>\nmore frequently and to assume always increasing powers. To avoid preventible<br \/>\ndisturbance and friction, to avert hereafter the recurrence of troubles and<br \/>\ndisasters which in the beginning the first limitations of its powers had<br \/>\ndebarred the new authority from averting by a timely intervention before they<br \/>\ncame to a head, to bring about a co-ordination of activities for common ends,<br \/>\nwould be the principal motives impelling humanity to advance from a looser to a<br \/>\ncloser union, from a voluntary self-subordination in great and exceptional<br \/>\nmatters to an obligatory subordination in most matters. The desire of powerful<br \/>\nnations to use it for their own purposes, the utility for weaker nations of<br \/>\nappealing to it for the protection of their interests, the shock of actual or<br \/>\nthreatened internal disturbances and revolutions would all help to give the<br \/>\ninternational authority greater power and provide occasions for extending its<br \/>\nnormal action. Science, thought and religion, the three great forces which in<br \/>\nmodern times tend increasingly to override national distinctions and point the<br \/>\nrace towards unity of life and spirit, would become more impatient of national<br \/>\nbarriers, hostilities and divisions and lend their powerful influence to the<br \/>\nchange. The great struggle between Capital and<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-471<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Labour might become rapidly world-wide, arrive at such<br \/>\nan international organisation as would precipitate the inevitable step or even<br \/>\npresent the actual crisis which would bring about the <\/font> <span><font size=\"3\">transformation.<sup>1<\/sup> <\/font><\/span><br \/>\n<span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\"><br \/>\n<span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span><\/font><\/span><font size=\"3\">Our supposition for the moment is that a well-unified World-<br \/>\nState with the nations for its provinces would be the final out- come. At<br \/>\nfirst, taking up the regulation of international disputes and of economic<br \/>\ntreaties and relations, the international authority would start as an arbiter<br \/>\nand an occasional executive power and change by degrees into a legislative body<br \/>\nand a standing executive power. Its legislation would be absolutely necessary<br \/>\nin international matters, if fresh convulsions are to be avoided; for it is<br \/>\nidle to suppose that any international arrangement, any ordering of the world<br \/>\narrived at after the close of the great war and upheaval could be permanent and<br \/>\ndefinitive. Injustice, in- equalities, abnormalities, causes of quarrel or<br \/>\ndissatisfaction would remain in the relations of nation with nation, continent<br \/>\nwith continent which would lead to fresh hostilities and explosions. As these<br \/>\nare prevented in the nation-State by the legislative authority which constantly<br \/>\nmodifies the existing system of things in conformity with new ideas, interests,<br \/>\nforces and necessities, so it would have to be in the developing World-State.<br \/>\nThis legislative power as it developed, extended, regularised its actions,<br \/>\npowers and processes, would become more complex and would be bound to interfere<br \/>\nat many points and override or substitute its own for the separate national<br \/>\naction. That would imply the growth also of its executive power and the<br \/>\ndevelopment of an international executive organisation. At first it might confine<br \/>\nitself to the most important questions and affairs which obviously demanded its<br \/>\ncontrol; but it would tend increasingly to stretch its hand to all or most<br \/>\nmatters that could be viewed as having an international effect and importance.<br \/>\nBefore long it would invade and occupy. even those fields in which the nations<br \/>\nare now jealous of their own rights and power. And eventually it would permeate<br \/>\nthe whole system of the national life and subject it to inter-<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><sup><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">1<\/font><font size=\"2\"> <\/font><\/sup><span><font size=\"2\">It might seem that the general spread of<br \/>\nFascism would prevent this development by abolishing the class war, but it is<br \/>\nstill doubtful even in Fascist countries whether this abolition is not a mere<br \/>\ninterlude, a suspense and not a definitive solution<\/font><\/span><span><font size=\"2\">.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-472<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">national control in the interests of the better<br \/>\nco-ordination of the united life, culture, science, organisation, education,<br \/>\nefficiency of the human race. It would reduce the now free and separate nations<br \/>\nfirst to the position of the States of the American Union or the German Empire<br \/>\nand eventually perhaps to that of geographical provinces or departments of the<br \/>\nsingle nation of mankind.<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">The present<br \/>\nobstacle to any such extreme consummation is the still strong principle of<br \/>\nnationalism, the sense of group separateness, the instinct of collective independence,<br \/>\nits pride, its pleasure in itself, its various sources of egoistic<br \/>\nself-satisfaction, its insistence on the subordination of the human idea to the<br \/>\nnational idea. But we are supposing that the new-born idea of internationalism<br \/>\nwill grow apace, subject to itself the past idea and temper of nationalism,<br \/>\nbecome dominant and take pos- session of the human mind. As the larger<br \/>\nnation-group has subordinated to itself and tended to absorb all smaller clan,<br \/>\ntribal and regional groups, as the larger empire-group now tends to subordinate<br \/>\nan~ might, if allowed to develop, eventually absorb the smaller nation-groups,<br \/>\nwe are supposing that the complete human group of united mankind will<br \/>\nsubordinate to itself in the same way and eventually absorb all smaller groups<br \/>\nof separated humanity. It is only by a growth of the international idea, the<br \/>\nidea of a single humanity, that nationalism can disappear, if the old natural<br \/>\ndevice of an external unification by con- quest or other compulsive force<br \/>\ncontinues to be no longer possible; for the methods of war have become too<br \/>\ndisastrous and no single empire has the means and the strength to overcome,<br \/>\nwhether rapidly or in the gradual Roman way, the rest of the world.<br \/>\nUndoubtedly, nationalism is a more powerful obstacle to farther unification<br \/>\nthan was the separativeness of the old pettier and less firmly self-conscious<br \/>\ngroupings which preceded the developed nation-State. It is still the most<br \/>\npowerful sentiment in the collective human mind, still gives an indestructible<br \/>\nvitality to the nation and is apt to reappear even where it seemed to have been<br \/>\nabolished. But we cannot argue safely from the present balance of tendencies in<br \/>\nthe beginning of a great era of transitions. Already there are at work not only<br \/>\nideas but forces,<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-473<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">all the more powerful for being forces of the future<br \/>\nand not established powers of the present, which may succeed in subordinating<br \/>\nnationalism to themselves far earlier than we can at pre- sent conceive.<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">If the<br \/>\nprinciple of the World-State is carried to its logical conclusion and to its<br \/>\nextreme consequences, the result will be a process analogous, in principle,<br \/>\nwith whatever necessary differences in the manner or form or extent of<br \/>\nexecution, to that by which in the building of the nation-State the central<br \/>\ngovernment, first as a monarchy, then as a democratic assembly and executive,<br \/>\ngathered up the whole administration of the national life. There will be a<br \/>\ncentralisation of all control, military and police, administrative, judicial,<br \/>\nlegislative, economic, social and cultural in the one international authority.<br \/>\nThe spirit of the centralisation will be a strong unitarian idea and the<br \/>\nprinciple of uniformity enforced for the greatest practical convenience and the<br \/>\nresult a rationalised mechanism of human life and activities throughout the<br \/>\nworld <span>&#8211;<\/span> with justice, universal<br \/>\nwell-being, economy of effort and scientific efficiency as its principal<br \/>\nobjects. Instead of the individual activities of nation-groups each working for<br \/>\nitself with the maximum of friction and waste and conflict, there will be an<br \/>\neffort at co-ordination such as we now see in a well-organised modern State, of<br \/>\nwhich the complete idea is a thorough-going State socialism, nowhere yet<br \/>\nrealised indeed, but rapidly coming into existence.<sup>1<\/sup> If we<br \/>\nglance briefly at each department of the communal activity, we shall see that<br \/>\nthis development is inevitable.<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">We have<br \/>\nseen already that all military power &#8211; and in the World-State that would mean<br \/>\nan international armed police <span>&#8211; <\/span>must<br \/>\nbe concentrated in the hands of one common authority; otherwise the State<br \/>\ncannot endure. A certain concentration of the final power of decision in<br \/>\neconomic matters would be also in time inevitable. And in the end this<br \/>\nsupremacy could not stop short of a complete control. For, the economic life of<br \/>\nthe world is becoming more and more one and indivisible; but the present<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><sup><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">1 <\/font><\/sup><font size=\"2\"><span>Since this was written, this coming into existence has become much more<br \/>\nrapid and thorough-going in three at least of the greatest nations and a more<br \/>\nhesitating and less clearly self-conscious imitation of it is in evidence in<br \/>\nsmaller countries<\/span><span>.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-474<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">state of international relations is an anomalous<br \/>\ncondition of opposite principles partly in conflict, partly accommodated to<br \/>\neach other as best they can be, <span>&#8211;<\/span><br \/>\nbut the best is bad and harmful to the common interest. On the one side, there<br \/>\nis the underlying unity which makes each nation commercially dependent on all<br \/>\nthe rest. On the other, there is the spirit of national jealousy, egoism and<br \/>\nsense of separate existence which makes each nation attempt at once to assert<br \/>\nits industrial independence and at the same time reach out for a hold of its<br \/>\noutgoing commercial activities upon foreign markets. The interaction of these<br \/>\ntwo principles is regulated at present partly by the permitted working of<br \/>\nnatural forces, partly by tacit practice and understanding, partly by systems<br \/>\nof tariff protection, bounties, State aid of one kind or another on the one<br \/>\nhand and commercial treaties and agreements on the other. Inevitably, as the<br \/>\nWorld-State grew, this would be felt to be an anomaly, a wasteful and<br \/>\nuneconomical process. An efficient international authority would be compelled<br \/>\nmore and more to intervene and modify the free arrangements of nation with<br \/>\nnation. The commercial interests of humanity at large would be given the first<br \/>\nplace; the independent proclivities and commercial ambitions or jealousies of<br \/>\nthis and that nation would be compelled to subordinate themselves to the human<br \/>\ngood. The ideal of mutual exploitation would be replaced by the ideal of a fit<br \/>\nand proper share in the united economic life of the race. Especially, as<br \/>\nsocialism advanced and began to regulate the whole economic existence of<br \/>\nseparate countries, the same principle would gain ground in the international<br \/>\nfield and in the end the World-State would be called upon to take up into its<br \/>\nhands the right ordering of the industrial production and distribution of the<br \/>\nworld. Each country might be allowed for a time to produce its own absolute<br \/>\nnecessities: but in the end it would probably be felt that this was no more<br \/>\nnecessary than for Wales or Scotland to produce all its own necessities<br \/>\nindependently of the rest of the British Isles or for one province of India to<br \/>\nbe an economic unit independent of the rest of the country; each would produce<br \/>\nand distribute only what it could to the best advantage, most naturally, most<br \/>\nefficiently and most economically, for the common need and demand of mankind in<br \/>\nwhich<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-475<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">its own would be inseparably included. It would do this<br \/>\naccording to a system settled by the common will of mankind through its State<br \/>\ngovernment and under a method made uniform in its principles, however variable<br \/>\nin local detail, so as to secure the simplest, smoothest and most rational<br \/>\nworking of a necessarily complicated machinery.<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">The<br \/>\nadministration of the general order of society is a less pressing matter of<br \/>\nconcern than it was to the nation-States in their period of formation, because<br \/>\nthose were times when the element of order had almost to be created and<br \/>\nviolence, crime and revolt were both more easy and more a natural and general<br \/>\npropensity of mankind. At the present day, not only are societies tolerably<br \/>\nwell-organised in this respect and equipped with the absolutely necessary<br \/>\nagreements between country and country, but by an elaborate system of national,<br \/>\nregional and municipal governments linked up by an increasingly rapid power of<br \/>\ncommunication, the State can regulate parts of the order of life with which the<br \/>\ncruder governments of old were quite unable to deal with any full effect. In<br \/>\nthe World-State, it may thought, each country may be left to its own free<br \/>\naction in matters of its internal order, and, indeed, of all its separate<br \/>\npolitical, social and cultural life. But even here it is probable that the<br \/>\nworld-State would demand a greater centralization and uniformity than we can<br \/>\nnow easily imagine.<\/font><span><font size=\"3\">\u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">In the<br \/>\nmatter, for instance, of the continual struggle of society with the still<br \/>\nineradicable element of crime which it generates in its own bosom, the crudity<br \/>\nof the present system is sure to be recognised and a serious attempt made to<br \/>\ndeal with it in a very radical manner. The first necessity would be the close<br \/>\nobservation and supervision of the great mass of constantly re-created corrupt<br \/>\nhuman material in which the bacillus of crime finds its natural<br \/>\nbreeding-ground. This is at present done very crudely and imperfectly and, for<br \/>\nthe most part, after the event of actual crime by the separate police of each<br \/>\nnation with extradition treaties and informal mutual aid as a device against<br \/>\nevasion by place-shift. The World-State would insist on an international as<br \/>\nwell as a local supervision, not only to deal with the phenomenon of what may<br \/>\nbe called international crime and disorder<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-476<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">which is likely to increase largely under future<br \/>\nconditions, but for the more important object of the prevention of crime.<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">For the<br \/>\nsecond necessity it would feel would be the need to deal with crime at its roots<br \/>\nand in its inception. It may attempt this, first by a more enlightened method<br \/>\nof education and moral and temperamental training which would render the growth<br \/>\nof criminal propensities more difficult; secondly, by scientific or eugenic<br \/>\nmethods of observation, treatment, isolation, perhaps sterilisation of corrupt<br \/>\nhuman material; thirdly, by a humane and enlightened gaol system and<br \/>\npenological method which would have for its aim not the punishment but the<br \/>\nreform of the incipient and the formed criminal. It would insist on a certain<br \/>\nuniformity of principle so that there might not be countries that would<br \/>\npersevere in backward and old-world or inferior or erratic systems and so<br \/>\ndefeat the general object. For this end centralisation of control would be necessary<br \/>\nor at least strongly advisable. So too with the judicial method. The present<br \/>\nsystem is still considered as enlightened and civilised, and it is so<br \/>\ncomparatively with the mediaeval methods; but a time will surely come when it<br \/>\nwill be condemned as grotesque, inefficient, irrational and in many of its<br \/>\nprincipal features semi-barbaric, a half-conversion at most of the more<br \/>\nconfused and arbitrary methods of an earlier state of social thought and<br \/>\nfeeling and social life. With the development of a more rational system, the<br \/>\npreservation of the old juridical and judicial principles and methods in any<br \/>\npart of the world would be felt to be intolerable and the World-State would be<br \/>\nled to standardise the new principles and the new methods by a common<br \/>\nlegislation and probably a general centralised control.<\/font><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">In all<br \/>\nthese matters, it might be admitted, uniformity and centralisation would be<br \/>\nbeneficial and to some extent inevitable; no jealousy of national separateness<br \/>\nand independence could be allowed under such conditions to interfere with the<br \/>\ncommon good of humanity. But at least in the choice of their political system<br \/>\nand in other spheres of their social life the nations might well be left to<br \/>\nfollow their own ideals and propensities and to be healthily and naturally<br \/>\nfree. It may even be said that the nations would never tolerate any serious<br \/>\ninterference in these matters and that the attempt to use the World-State for<br \/>\nsuch a purpose<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-477<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">would be fatal to its existence. But, as a matter of<br \/>\nfact, the principle of political non-interference is likely to be much less<br \/>\nadmitted in the future than it has been in the past or is at present. Always in<br \/>\ntimes of great and passionate struggle between conflicting political ideas, <span>&#8211;<\/span> between oligarchy and democracy in<br \/>\nancient Greece, between the old regime and the ideas of the French Revolution<br \/>\nin modern Europe, &#8211; the principle of political non-interference has gone to the<br \/>\nwall. But now we see another phenomenon <span>&#8211;<\/span><br \/>\nthe opposite principle of interference slowly erecting itself into a conscious<br \/>\nrule of international life. There is more and more possible an intervention<br \/>\nlike the American interference in Cuba, not on avowed grounds of national<br \/>\ninterest, but ostensibly on behalf of liberty, constitutionalism and democracy,<br \/>\nor of an opposite social and political principle, on international grounds<br \/>\ntherefore and practically in the force of this idea that the internal<br \/>\narrangements of a country concern, under certain conditions of disorder or<br \/>\ninsufficiency, not only itself, but its neighbours and humanity at large. A<br \/>\nsimilar principle was put forward by the Allies in regard to Greece during the<br \/>\nwar. It was applied to one of the most powerful nations of the world in the<br \/>\nrefusal of the Allies to treat with Germany or, practically, to re-admit it<br \/>\ninto the comity of nations unless it set aside its existing political system<br \/>\nand principles and adopted the forms of modem democracy, dismissing all remnant<br \/>\nof absolutist rule.<sup>1<\/sup> <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/font><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><font size=\"3\">This<br \/>\nidea of the common interest of the race in the internal affairs of a nation is<br \/>\nbound to increase as the life of humanity becomes more unified. The great<br \/>\npolitical question of the future is likely to be the challenge of Socialism,<br \/>\nthe full evolution of the omnipotent State. And if Socialism triumphs in the<br \/>\nleading nations of the world, it will inevitably seek to impose its rule<br \/>\neverywhere not only by indirect pressure, but even by direct interference in<br \/>\nwhat it would consider backward countries. An international authority,<br \/>\nParliamentary or other, in which it<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<sup><font size=\"3\">1 <\/font><\/sup><span><font size=\"2\">The hardly disguised intervention of the Fascist<br \/>\nPowers in Spain to combat and beat down the democratic Government of the<br \/>\ncountry is a striking example of what is likely to increase in the future.<br \/>\nSince then there has been the interference in an opposite sense with the Franco<br \/>\nregime in the same country and the pressure put upon it, however incomplete and<br \/>\nwavering, to change its method and principle<\/font><\/span><span><font size=\"2\">.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-478<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">commanded the majority or the chief influence, would be<br \/>\ntoo ready a means to be neglected. Moreover, a World-State would probably no<br \/>\nmore find it possible to tolerate the continuance of certain nations as<br \/>\ncapitalist societies, itself being socialistic in major part, than a capitalist<br \/>\nor socialist Great Britain would tolerate a socialist or capitalist Scotland or<br \/>\nWales. On the other hand, if all nations become socialistic in form, it would<br \/>\nbe natural enough for the World-State to co-ordinate all these separate<br \/>\nsocialisms into one great system of human life. But Socialism pursued to its<br \/>\nfull development means the destruction of the distinction between political and<br \/>\nsocial activities; it means the socialisation of the common life and its<br \/>\nsubjection in all its parts to its own organised government and administration.<br \/>\nNothing small or great escapes its purview. Birth and marriage, labour and<br \/>\namusement and rest, education, culture, training of physique and character, the<br \/>\nsocialistic sense leaves nothing outside its scope and its busy intolerant<br \/>\ncontrol. Therefore, granting an international Socialism, neither the politics nor<br \/>\nthe social life of the separate peoples is likely to escape the centralised<br \/>\ncontrol of the World-State.<sup>1<\/sup> <\/font><br \/>\n<span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"3\">Such a<br \/>\nworld-system is remote indeed from our present conceptions and established<br \/>\nhabits of life, but these conceptions and habits are already subjected at their<br \/>\nroots to powerful forces of change. Uniformity is becoming more and more the<br \/>\nlaw of the world; it is becoming more and more difficult, in spite of sentiment<br \/>\nand in spite of conscious efforts of conservation and revival, for local<br \/>\nindividualities to survive. But the triumph of uniformity would naturally make<br \/>\nfor centralisation; the radical incentive to separateness would disappear. And<br \/>\ncentralisation once accomplished would in its turn make for a more complete<br \/>\nuniformity. Such decentralisation as might be indispensable in a uniform<br \/>\nhumanity would be needed for convenience of administration, not on the ground<br \/>\nof true separative variations. Once the national sentiment has gone under<br \/>\nbefore a dominant inter-<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\"><sup>1 <\/sup><\/font><span><font size=\"3\">T<\/font><font size=\"2\">his<br \/>\naspect of Socialism in action has received a striking confirmation in the trend<br \/>\nto total governmental control in Germany and Italy. The strife between national<br \/>\n(Fascist) Social- ism and pure Marxist Socialism could not have been foreseen at<br \/>\nthe time of writing; but which- ever form prevails. there is an identical<br \/>\nprinciple<\/font><\/span><span><font size=\"2\">.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-479<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">nationalism, large questions of culture and race would<br \/>\nbe the only grounds left for the preservation of a strong, though subordinate,<br \/>\nprinciple of separation in the World-State. But difference of culture is quite<br \/>\nas much threatened today as any other more outward principle of group<br \/>\nvariation. The differences between the European nations are simply minor<br \/>\nvariations of a common occidental culture. And now that Science, that great<br \/>\npower for uniformity of thought and life and method, is becoming more and more<br \/>\nthe greater part and threatens to become the whole of culture and life, the<br \/>\nimportance of these variations is likely to decrease. The only radical<br \/>\ndifference that still exists is between the mind of the Occident and the mind<br \/>\nof the Orient. But here too Asia is undergoing the shock of Europeanism and<br \/>\nEurope is beginning to feel, however slightly, the reflux of Asiatic ism. A<br \/>\ncommon world-culture is the most probable outcome. The valid objection to<br \/>\ncentralisation will then be greatly diminished in force, if not removed<br \/>\naltogether. Race-sense is perhaps a stronger obstacle because it is more<br \/>\nirrational; but this too may be removed by the closer intellectual, cultural<br \/>\nand physical intercourse which is inevitable in the not distant future. <sup>1<\/sup><\/font><span><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<span><font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">The dream of the cosmopolitan<br \/>\nsocialist thinker may therefore be realised after all. And given the powerful<br \/>\ncontinuance of the present trend of world-forces, it is in a way inevitable.<br \/>\nEven what seems now most a chimera, a common language, may become a reality.<br \/>\nFor a State naturally tends to establish one language as the instrument of all<br \/>\nits public affairs, its thought, its literature; the rest sink into patois,<br \/>\ndialects, provincial tongues, like Welsh in Great Britain or Breton and<br \/>\nProvencal in France; exceptions like Switzerland are few, hardly more than one<br \/>\nor two in number, and are preserved only by unusually favour- able conditions.<br \/>\nIt is difficult indeed to suppose that languages with powerful literatures<br \/>\nspoken by millions of cultured men will allow themselves to be put into a quite<br \/>\nsecondary position, much less snuffed out by any old or new speech of man. But<br \/>\nit cannot be quite certainly said that scientific reason, taking possession of<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<sup><font size=\"3\">1 <\/font><\/sup><span><font size=\"2\">Fascist<br \/>\nand Nazi racialism strikes across this probability and, if it remains<br \/>\nirreductible, would make unification impossible, except by conquest or control<br \/>\nof the world by a few dominant nations. It is possible, however, that this is<br \/>\nonly a passing phase<\/font><\/span><span><font size=\"2\">.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-480<\/font><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:13.0pt'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">the mind of the race and thrusting aside separative<br \/>\nsentiment as a barbaric anachronism, may not accomplish one day even this<br \/>\npsychological miracle. In any case, variety of language need be no insuperable<br \/>\nobstacle to uniformity of culture, to uniformity of education, life and<br \/>\norganisation or to a regulating scientific machinery applied to all departments<br \/>\nof life and settled for the common good by the united will and intelligence of<br \/>\nthe human race. For that would he what a WorId-State, such as we have imagined,<br \/>\nwould stand for, its meaning, its justification, its human object. It is likely<br \/>\nindeed that this and nothing less would come in the end to be regarded as the<br \/>\nfull justification of its existence.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-481<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHAPTER XXVI The Need of Administrative Unity &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; IN ALMOST all current ideas of the first step towards international organisation, it is taken for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","wpcat-25-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133","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=1133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}