{"id":1174,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:04","slug":"55-the-idea-of-a-league-of-nations-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\/55-the-idea-of-a-league-of-nations-vol-15-social-and-political-thought-volume-15","title":{"rendered":"-55_The Idea of a League of Nations.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"><b><br \/>\n\t\t<font size=\"3\">CHAPTER <\/font><\/b><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\nXXVIII<\/font><\/span><span><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\n<\/font><br \/>\n<\/span><font size=\"4\"><br \/>\n<span style='font-weight:700'>Diversity<br \/>\nin Oneness<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"HeadingComments\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"HeadingComments\" style=\"margin:0;line-height: 150%\">\n<span><font size=\"3\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/font> <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-weight:700'><font size=\"3\">I<\/font><\/span><font size=\"3\">T IS essential to keep constantly in<br \/>\nview the fundamental powers and realities of life if we are not to be betrayed<br \/>\nby the arbitrary rule of the logical reason and its attachment to the rigorous<br \/>\nand limiting idea into experiments which, however convenient in practice and<br \/>\nhowever captivating to a unitarian and symmetrical thought, may well destroy<br \/>\nthe vigour and impoverish the roots of life. For that which is perfect and<br \/>\nsatisfying to the system of the logical reason may yet ignore the truth of life<br \/>\nand the living needs of the race. Unity is an idea which is not at all<br \/>\narbitrary or unreal; for unity is the very basis of existence. The oneness that<br \/>\nis secretly at the foundation of all things, the evolving spirit in Nature is<br \/>\nmoved to realise consciously at the top; the evolution moves through diversity,<br \/>\nfrom a simple to a complex oneness. Unity the race moves towards and must one<br \/>\nday realise.<\/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\">But<br \/>\nuniformity is not the law of life. Life exists by diversity; it insists that every<br \/>\ngroup, every being shall be, even while one with all the rest in its<br \/>\nuniversality, yet by some principle or ordered detail of variation unique. The<br \/>\nover-centralisation which is the condition of a working uniformity, is not the<br \/>\nhealthy method of life. Order is indeed the law of life, but not an artificial<br \/>\nregulation. The sound order is that which comes from within, as the result of a<br \/>\nnature that has discovered itself and found its own law and the law of its<br \/>\nrelations with others. Therefore the truest order is that which is founded on<br \/>\nthe greatest possible liberty; for liberty is at once the condition of vigorous<br \/>\nvariation and the condition of self-finding. Nature secures variation by<br \/>\ndivision into groups and insists on liberty by the force of individuality in<br \/>\nthe members of the group. Therefore the unity of the human race to be entirely<br \/>\nsound and in consonance with the deepest laws of life must be founded on free<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-490<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">groupings, and the groupings again must be the natural<br \/>\nassociation of free individuals. This is an ideal which it is certainly<br \/>\nimpossible to realise under present conditions or perhaps in any near future of<br \/>\nthe human race; but it is an ideal which ought to be kept in view, for the more<br \/>\nwe can approximate to it, the more we can be sure of being on the right road.<br \/>\nThe artificiality of much in human life is the cause of its most deep-seated<br \/>\nmaladies; it is not faithful to itself or sincere with Nature and therefore it<br \/>\nstumbles and suffers.<\/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 \/>\nutility, the necessity of natural groupings may be seen if we consider the<br \/>\npurpose and functioning of one great principle of division in Nature, her<br \/>\ninsistence on diversity of language. The seeking for a common language for all<br \/>\nmankind was very strong at the close of the last and the beginning of the<br \/>\npresent century and gave rise to several experiments, none of which could get<br \/>\nto any vital permanence. Now whatever may be the need of a common medium of<br \/>\ncommunication for man- kind and however it may be served by the general use<br \/>\neither of an artificial and conventional language or of some natural tongue, as<br \/>\nLatin, and later on to a slight extent French, was for some time the common<br \/>\ncultural tongue of intercourse between the European nations or Sanskrit for the<br \/>\nIndian peoples, no unification which destroyed or overshadowed, dwarfed and<br \/>\ndiscouraged the large and free use of the varying natural languages of<br \/>\nhumanity, could fail to be detrimental to human life and progress. The legend<br \/>\nof the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the<br \/>\nrace; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be<br \/>\nminimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been<br \/>\nrather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid<br \/>\nupon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an<br \/>\nexcessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the<br \/>\nexpression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a<br \/>\nstumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the<br \/>\npast,<sup>1<\/sup> <\/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><font size=\"3\">1<br \/>\n\t\t<\/font><\/sup><span><font size=\"2\">In India the pedants enumerate I know not how many hundred<br \/>\n\t\tlanguages. This is a stupid misstatement; there are about a dozen great<br \/>\n\t\ttongues; the rest are either dialects or aboriginal survivals of tribal<br \/>\n\t\tspeech that are bound to disappear<\/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-491<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is<br \/>\nrather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped<br \/>\nto create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even<br \/>\nof an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of<br \/>\nsufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a<br \/>\nfruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a<br \/>\nparticular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed<br \/>\nfor the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the<br \/>\nhuman race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer<br \/>\nintercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each<br \/>\nother&#8217;s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to<br \/>\ndiminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not<br \/>\nbecome inoperative.<\/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\">Diversity<br \/>\nof language serves two important ends of the human spirit, a use of unification<br \/>\nand a use of variation. A language helps to bring those who speak it into a<br \/>\ncertain large unity of growing thought, formed temperament, ripening spirit. It<br \/>\nis an intellectual, aesthetic and expressive bond which tempers division where<br \/>\ndivision exists and strengthens unity where unity has been achieved. Especially<br \/>\nit gives self-consciousness to national or racial unity and creates the bond of<br \/>\na common self-expression and a common record of achievement. On the other hand,<br \/>\nit is a means of national differentiation and perhaps the most powerful of all,<br \/>\nnot a barren principle of division merely, but a fruitful and helpful<br \/>\ndifferentiation. For each language is the sign and power of the soul of the<br \/>\npeople which naturally speaks it. Each develops therefore its own peculiar<br \/>\nspirit, thought-temperament, way of dealing with life and knowledge and<br \/>\nexperience. If it receives and welcomes the thought, the life-experience, the<br \/>\nspiritual impact of other nations, still it transforms them into something new<br \/>\nof its own and by that power of transmutation it enriches the life of humanity<br \/>\nwith its fruitful borrowings and does not merely repeat what had been gained<br \/>\nelsewhere. Therefore it is of the utmost value to a nation, a human group-soul,<br \/>\nto preserve its language and<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-492<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">to make of it a strong and living cultural instrument.<br \/>\nA nation, race or people which loses its language, cannot live its whole life<br \/>\nor its real life. And this advantage to the national life is at the same time<br \/>\nan advantage to the general life of the human race.<\/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\">How much a<br \/>\ndistinct human group loses by not possessing a separate tongue of its own or by<br \/>\nexchanging its natural self- expression for an alien form of speech can be seen<br \/>\nby the examples of the British colonies, the United States of America and<br \/>\nIreland. The colonies are really separate peoples in the psychological sense,<br \/>\nalthough they are not as yet separate nations. English, for the most part or at<br \/>\nthe lowest in great part, in their origin and political and social sympathy,<br \/>\nthey are yet not replicas of England, but have already a different temperament,<br \/>\na bent of their own, a developing special character. But this new personality<br \/>\ncan only appear in the more outward and mechanical parts of their life and even<br \/>\nthere in no great, effective and fruitful fashion. The British colonies do not<br \/>\ncount in the culture of the world, because they have no native culture, because<br \/>\nby the fact of their speech they are and must be mere provinces of England.<br \/>\nWhatever peculiarities they may develop in their mental life tend to create a<br \/>\ntype of provincialism and not a central intellectual, aesthetic, spiritual life<br \/>\nof their own with its distinct importance for mankind. For the same reason the<br \/>\nwhole of America, in spite of its powerfully independent political and economic<br \/>\nbeing, has tended to be culturally a province of Europe, the south and centre<br \/>\nby their dependence on the Spanish, and the north by its dependence on the<br \/>\nEnglish language. The life of the United States alone tends and strives to become<br \/>\na great and separate cultural existence, but its success is not commensurate<br \/>\nwith its power. Culturally, it is still to a great extent a province of<br \/>\nEngland. Neither its literature, in spite of two or three great names, nor its<br \/>\nart nor its thought, nor anything else on the higher levels of the mind, has<br \/>\nbeen able to arrive at a vigorous maturity independent in its soul-type. And<br \/>\nthis because its instrument of self- expression, the language which the<br \/>\nnational mind ought to shape and be in turn shaped by it, was formed and must<br \/>\ncontinue<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-493<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">to be formed by another country with a different<br \/>\nmentality and must there find its centre and its law of development. In old<br \/>\ntimes, America would have evolved and changed the English language according to<br \/>\nits own needs until it became a new speech, as the mediaeval nations dealt with<br \/>\nLatin and arrived in this way at a characteristic instrument of<br \/>\nself-expression; but under modern conditions this is not easily possible.<sup>1<\/sup> <\/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\">Ireland had<br \/>\nits own tongue when it had its own free nationality and culture and its loss<br \/>\nwas a loss to humanity as well as to the Irish nation. For what might not this<br \/>\nCeltic race with its fine psychic turn and quick intelligence and delicate<br \/>\nimagination, which did so much in the beginning for European culture and<br \/>\nreligion, have given to the world through all these centuries under natural<br \/>\nconditions? But the forcible imposition of a foreign tongue and the turning of<br \/>\na nation into a province left Ireland for so many centuries mute and culturally<br \/>\nstagnant, a dead force in the life of Europe. Nor can we count as an adequate<br \/>\ncompensation for this loss the small indirect influence of the race upon<br \/>\nEnglish culture or the few direct contributions made by gifted Irishmen forced<br \/>\nto pour their natural genius into a foreign mould of thought. Even when Ireland<br \/>\nin her struggle for freedom was striving to recover her free soul and give it a<br \/>\nvoice, she has been hampered by having to use a tongue which does not naturally<br \/>\nexpress her spirit and peculiar bent. In time she may conquer the obstacle,<br \/>\nmake this tongue her own, force it to express her, but it will be long, if<br \/>\never, before she can do it with the same richness, force and unfettered<br \/>\nindividuality as she would have done in her Gaelic speech. That speech she has<br \/>\ntried to recover but the natural obstacles have been and are likely always to<br \/>\nbe too heavy and too strongly established for any complete success in that<br \/>\nendeavour.<\/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\">Modern<br \/>\nIndia is another striking example. Nothing has stood more in the way of the<br \/>\nrapid progress in India, nothing has more successfully prevented her<br \/>\nself-finding and development<\/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><font size=\"3\">1<br \/>\n\t\t<\/font><\/sup><span><font size=\"2\">It<br \/>\nis affirmed that now such an independent development is taking place in<br \/>\nAmerica; it has to be seen how far this becomes a truly vigorous reality: at<br \/>\npresent it has amounted only to a provincial turn, a sort of national slang or<br \/>\na racy oddity. Even in the farthest development it would only be a sort of<br \/>\ndialect, not a national language<\/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-494<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">under modern conditions than the long overshadowing of<br \/>\nthe Indian tongues as cultural instruments by the English language. It is<br \/>\nsignificant that the one subnation in India which from the first refused to<br \/>\nundergo this yoke, devoted itself to the development of its language, made that<br \/>\nfor long its principal preoccupation, gave to it its most original minds and<br \/>\nmost living energies, getting through everything else perfunctorily, neglecting<br \/>\ncommerce, doing politics as an intellectual and oratorical pastime, &#8211; that it<br \/>\nis Bengal which first recovered its soul, re-spiritualised itself, forced the<br \/>\nwhole world to hear of its great spiritual personalities, gave it the first<br \/>\nmodern Indian poet and Indian scientist of world-wide fame and achievement,<br \/>\nrestored the moribund art of India to life and power, first made her count again<br \/>\nin the culture of the world, first, as a reward in the outer life, arrived at a<br \/>\nvital political consciousness and a living political movement not imitative and<br \/>\nderivative in its spirit and its central ideal.<sup>1<\/sup> For so much does language count in the life of a nation; for<br \/>\nso much does it count to the advantage of humanity at large that its<br \/>\ngroup-souls should preserve and develop and use with a vigorous<br \/>\ngroup-individuality their natural instrument of expression.<\/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\">A common<br \/>\nlanguage makes for unity and therefore it might be said that the unity of the<br \/>\nhuman race demands unity of language; the advantages of diversity must be<br \/>\nforegone for this greater good, however serious the temporary sacrifice. But it<br \/>\nmakes for a real, fruitful, living unity, only when it is the natural<br \/>\nexpression of the race or has been made natural by a long adaptation and<br \/>\ndevelopment from within. The history of universal tongues spoken by peoples to<br \/>\nwhom they were not natural, is not encouraging. Always they have tended to<br \/>\nbecome dead tongues, sterilising so long as they kept their hold, fruitful only<br \/>\nwhen they were decomposed and broken up into new derivative languages or<br \/>\ndeparted leaving the old speech, where that still persisted, to revive with<br \/>\nthis new stamp and influence upon it. Latin, after its first century of general<br \/>\ndomination in the West, became a dead thing, impotent for creation, and<br \/>\ngenerated<\/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><font size=\"3\">1<br \/>\n\t\t<\/font><\/sup><font size=\"2\"><span>Now, of course, everything has changed and these remarks are no longer<br \/>\napplicable to the actual state of things in India<\/span><span>.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-495<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">no new or living and evolving culture in the nations<br \/>\nthat spoke it; even so great a force as Christianity could not give it a new<br \/>\nlife. The times during which it was an instrument of European thought, were<br \/>\nprecisely those in which that thought was heaviest, most traditional and least<br \/>\nfruitful. A rapid and vigorous new life only grew up when the languages which<br \/>\nappeared out of the detritus of dying Latin or the old languages which had not<br \/>\nbeen lost took its place as the complete instruments of national culture. For<br \/>\nit is not enough that the natural language should be spoken by the people; it<br \/>\nmust be the expression of its higher life and thought. A language that survives<br \/>\nonly as a patois or a provincial tongue like Welsh after the English conquest<br \/>\nor Breton or Proven9al in France or as Czech survived once in Austria or<br \/>\nRuthenian and Lithuanian in imperial Russia, languishes, becomes sterile and<br \/>\ndoes not serve all the true purpose of survival.<\/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\">Language is<br \/>\nthe sign of the cultural life of a people, the index of its soul in thought and<br \/>\nmind that stands behind and enriches its soul iJ1 action. Therefore it is here<br \/>\nthat the phenomena and utilities of diversity may be most readily seized, more<br \/>\nthan in mere outward things; but these truths are important because they apply<br \/>\nequally to the thing which it expresses and symbolises and serves as an<br \/>\ninstrument. Diversity of language is worth keeping because diversity of<br \/>\ncultures and differentiation of soul-groups are worth keeping and because<br \/>\nwithout that diversity life cannot have full play; for in its absence there is<br \/>\na danger, almost an inevitability of decline and stagnation. The disappearance<br \/>\nof national variation into a single uniform human unity, of which the systematic<br \/>\nthinker dreams as an ideal and which we have seen to be a substantial<br \/>\npossibility and even a likelihood, if a certain tendency becomes dominant,<br \/>\nmight lead to political peace, economic well-being, perfect administration, the<br \/>\nsolution of a hundred material problems, as did on a lesser scale the Roman<br \/>\nunity in old times; but to what eventual good if it leads also to an uncreative<br \/>\nsterilisation of the mind and the stagnation of the soul of the race? In laying<br \/>\nthis stress on culture, on the things of the mind and the spirit there need be<br \/>\nno intention of undervaluing the outward<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-496<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">material side of life; it is not at all my purpose to<br \/>\nbelittle that to which Nature always attaches so insistent an importance. On<br \/>\nthe contrary, the inner and the outer depend upon each other. For we see that<br \/>\nin the life of a nation a great period of national culture and vigorous mental<br \/>\nand soul life is always part of a general stirring and movement which has its<br \/>\ncounterpart in the outward political, economic and practical life of the<br \/>\nnation. The cultural brings about or increases the material progress but also<br \/>\nit needs it that it may itself flourish with an entirely full and healthy<br \/>\nvigour. The peace, well-being and settled order of the human world is a thing<br \/>\neminently to be desired as a basis for a great world-culture in which all<br \/>\nhumanity must be united; but neither of these unities, the outward or inward,<br \/>\nought to be de- void of an element even more important than peace, order and<br \/>\nwell-being, freedom and vigour of life, which can only be assured by variation<br \/>\nand by the freedom of the group and of the individual. Not then a uniform<br \/>\nunity, not a logically simple, a scientifically rigid, a beautifully neat and<br \/>\nmechanical sameness but a living oneness full of healthy freedom and variation<br \/>\nis the ideal which we should keep in view and strive to get realised in man&#8217;s<br \/>\nfuture.<\/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\">But how is<br \/>\nthis difficult end to be secured? For if an excessive uniformity and<br \/>\ncentralisation tends to the disappearance of necessary variations and indispensable<br \/>\nliberties, a vigorous diversity and strong group-individualism may lead to an<br \/>\nincurable persistence or constant return of the old separatism which will<br \/>\nprevent human unity from reaching completeness or even will not allow it to<br \/>\ntake firm root. For it will not be enough for the constituent groups or<br \/>\ndivisions to have a certain formal administrative and legislative separateness<br \/>\nlike the States of the American union if, as there, there is liberty only in<br \/>\nmechanical variations and all vivid departures from the general norm proceeding<br \/>\nfrom a profounder inner variation are discouraged or forbidden. Nor will it be<br \/>\nsufficient to found a unity plus local independence of the German type; for<br \/>\nthere the real overriding force was a unifying and disciplined Prussianism and<br \/>\nindependence survived only in form. Nor will even the English colonial system<br \/>\ngive us any useful suggestion; for there is there local independence and a<br \/>\nsepa-<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" style=\"margin:0;text-align: center;line-height:150%\">\n<font size=\"3\">Page-497<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">rate vigour of life, but the brain, heart and central<br \/>\nspirit are in the metropolitan country and the rest are at the best only<br \/>\noutlying posts of the Anglo-Saxon idea<sup>1<\/sup> <\/font><br \/>\n<span><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><font size=\"3\">The Swiss cantonal life offers no fruitful similitude; for, apart from<br \/>\nthe exiguity of its proportions and frame, there is the phenomenon of a single<br \/>\nSwiss life and practical spirit with a mental dependence on three foreign<br \/>\ncultures sharply dividing the race; a common Swiss culture does not exist. The<br \/>\nproblem is rather, on a larger and more difficult scale and with greater<br \/>\ncomplexities, that which offered itself for a moment to the British Empire, how<br \/>\nif it is at all possible to unite Great Britain, Ireland, the Colonies, Egypt,<br \/>\nIndia in a real oneness, throw their gains into a common stock, use their<br \/>\nenergies for a common end, help them to find the ac- count of their national<br \/>\nindividuality in a supranational life, yet preserve that individuality, <span>&#8211;<\/span> Ireland keeping the Irish soul and<br \/>\nlife and cultural principle, India the Indian soul and life and cultural<br \/>\nprinciple, the other units, developing theirs, not united by a common<br \/>\nAnglicisation, which was the past empire-building ideal, but held together by a<br \/>\ngreater as yet unrealised principle of free union. Nothing was suggested at any<br \/>\ntime in the way of a solution except some sort of bunch or rather bouquet<br \/>\nsystem, unifying its clusters not by the living stalk of a common origin or<br \/>\nunited past, for that does not exist, but by an artificial thread of<br \/>\nadministrative unity which might at any moment be snapped irretrievably by<br \/>\ncentrifugal forces.<\/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\">But after<br \/>\nall, it may be said, unity is the first need and should be achieved at any<br \/>\ncost, just as national unity was achieved by crushing out the separate<br \/>\nexistence of the local units; afterwards a new principle of group-variation may<br \/>\nbe found other than the nation-unit. But the parallel here becomes illusory,<br \/>\nbecause an important factor is lacking. For the history of the birth of the<br \/>\nnation is a coalescence of small groups into a larger unit among many similar<br \/>\nlarge units. The old richness of small units which gave such splendid cultural,<br \/>\nbut such unsatisfactory political results in Greece, Italy and India was lost,<br \/>\nbut the principle of life made vivid by variative diversity was preserved with<br \/>\nnations for the diverse units and the cultural life of a continent for the<\/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><font size=\"3\">1<br \/>\n\t\t<\/font><\/sup><span><br \/>\n\t\t<font size=\"2\">This may be less so than<br \/>\nbefore, but the improvement does not go very far<\/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-498<\/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%\"><font size=\"3\">common background. Here nothing of the kind is<br \/>\npossible. There will be a sole unity, the world-nation, all outer source of<br \/>\ndiversity will disappear. Therefore the inner source has to be modified indeed,<br \/>\nsubordinated in some way, but preserved and encouraged to survive. It may be<br \/>\nthat this will not happen, the unitarian idea may forcefully prevail and turn<br \/>\nthe existing nations into mere geographical provinces or administrative departments<br \/>\nof a single well-mechanised State. But in that case the outraged need of life<br \/>\nwill have its revenge, either by a stagnation, a collapse and a detrition<br \/>\nfruitful of new separations or by some principle of revolt from within. A<br \/>\ngospel of Anarchism might enforce itself, for example, and break down the<br \/>\nworld-order for a new creation. The question is whether there is not somewhere<br \/>\na principle of unity in diversity by which this method of action and reaction,<br \/>\ncreation and destruction, realisation and relapse cannot be, if not altogether<br \/>\navoided, yet mitigated in its action and led to a more serene and harmonious<br \/>\nworking.<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"ChapterHeading\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<font size=\"3\">Page-499<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHAPTER XXVIII Diversity in Oneness &nbsp; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 IT IS essential to keep constantly in view the fundamental powers and realities of life if we are&#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-1174","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\/1174","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=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}