{"id":1673,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T08:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1673"},"modified":"2013-11-28T15:19:14","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T23:19:14","slug":"20-remarks-on-indian-affairs-1930-1946-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram\/20-remarks-on-indian-affairs-1930-1946-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-20_Remarks on Indian Affairs 1930 – 1946.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nRemarks on Indian Affairs <\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1930 <\/b>
\n–
\n1946 <\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Civil Disobedience Movement <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have received a letter from my father. He says he read Pandit
\nSunderlal’s speech published in a newspaper, in which he has reportedly stated that you have asked your disciples to join
\nthe Civil Disobedience Movement. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYou can write to your father that Sri Aurobindo has given no
\nsuch orders to his disciples. The statement of Sunderlal has no foundation.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 May 1930 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIndian Independence and the Muslims
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Hindu mentality in politics is such that they would a thousand times prefer British rule to any Mahomedan influence,
\neven if it be only a little. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat was never the view of the Nationalists, even those who
\nwere ardent Hindus who would prefer Moslem to British rule.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nEven if Swaraj itself were postponed for a long time, it would
\nbe less of a shock to anybody in the Ashram than if Mahomedans got a little right.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Asram is not concerned with politics; but I cannot believe without proof that this is the state of their mentality.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 November 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nDominion Status
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Mother has said that only a minor portion of the government will remain in British hands.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat seems to be a description of “Dominion Status”. In the Dominions the British Government have only a nominal power,
\nnot any real sovereignty.   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>205<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nIt is not the time to speak of these things \u2014  for we have kept politics out of our scope. What we have to do is not to trouble
\nourselves about it but to get the spiritual realisation. The rest will work itself out according to the Divine Decree.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n26 January 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIndia and the Expected World War
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf England is involved in the war, she will naturally call on India for men and money. And to obtain it, she will have to
\nhold out the bait of freedom. But India won’t commit the same foolish mistake she was led to commit during the last war.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat India? The Legislative Assembly? You think it has force enough to exact freedom as a price of some military help? Must
\nhave changed much if they can do that. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n5 October 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nProspects for India after Independence
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIn the Times<\/i>, there are some predictions by Mme Laila saying
\nthat India’s civilisation, philosophy, culture etc. will spread in the world very slowly but at last it will be recognised as the
\nbest culture. She has however also predicted that India will always remain under Britain. Perhaps it is not advisable for
\nIndia to get freedom soon, because even before getting it there is so much competition for power.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe spread of India’s spirit is obviously the essential. As for freedom it is necessary and certainly no empire is everlasting
\n\u2014  but I expect the first days of freedom will be rather trying. Perhaps a Mussolini will have to rise to get rid of the corruption
\nand mutual quarrelling and disorder. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 April 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYou know it is the confounded Raj that has fomented this
\ncommunal incident [in Bengal, as described in a newspaper<\/i> report that the correspondent summarised for Sri Aurobindo<\/i>].
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt looks as if it were going to be like that everywhere. In Europe also.
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>206<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nIn your scheme of things do you definitely see a free India? You have stated that for the spreading of spirituality in the
\nworld India must be free. I suppose you must be working for it! You are the only one who can do something really effective
\nby the use of your spiritual Force. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat is all settled. It is a question of working out only. The
\nquestion is what is India going to do with her independence? The above kind of affair? Bolshevism? Goonda-raj? Things look
\nominous. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPlease don’t go on thinking like others about what India is
\ngoing to do with her independence. Give her that first and let her decide her fate however she likes.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou are a most irrational creature. I have been trying to logicise and intellectualise you but it seems in vain. Have I not told you
\nthat the independence is all arranged for and will evolve itself all right? Then what’s the use of my bothering about that any
\nlonger? It’s what she will do with her independence that is not arranged for \u2014  and so it is that about which I have to bother.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nCan’t you say something a little more definite about independence than that it “will evolve itself”? Such a phrase can
\nstretch itself out to the end of the cosmos. When the yogi Baroda Babu was asked about this, he replied “Independence?
\nNot within 50 years!” We live in time and space and would like to hear something in terms of time.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI am not a prophet like Baroda Babu. All I can say is that the coming of independence is now sure (as anyone with any
\npolitical sense at all can see). As you do not accept my “play of forces”, I can say no more than that
\n\u2014  for that is all that can be
\nsaid by the “human time-sense”. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n20 September 1935
\n <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>207<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\nThe Communal Problem
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAs regards Bengal, things are certainly very bad; the conditions
\nof the Hindus there are terrible and they may even get worse in spite of the interim
\n\t<\/span>
\nmariage de convenance<\/span> <\/span> <\/i>
\n\tat Delhi. But we must
\nnot let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal and they are
\nnot going to be exterminated, \u2014  even Hitler with his scientific methods of massacre could not exterminate the Jews who are
\nstill showing themselves very much alive and, as for Hindu culture, it is not such a weak and fluffy thing as to be easily stamped
\nout; it has lasted through something like 5 millenniums at least and is going to carry on much longer and has accumulated quite
\nenough power to survive. What is happening did not come to me as a surprise. I foresaw it when I was in Bengal and warned
\npeople that it was probable and almost inevitable and that they should be prepared for it. At that time no one attached any
\nvalue to what I said although some afterwards remembered and admitted, when the trouble first began, that I have been right;
\nonly C. R. Das had grave apprehensions and he even told me when he came to Pondicherry that he would not like the British
\nto go out until this dangerous problem had been settled. But I have not been discouraged by what is happening, because I
\nknow and have experienced hundreds of times that beyond the blackest darkness there lies for one who is a divine instrument
\nthe light of God’s victory. I have never had a strong and persistent will for anything to happen in the world
\n\u2014  I am not speaking of
\npersonal things \u2014  which did not eventually happen even after delay, defeat or even disaster. There was a time when Hitler was
\nvictorious everywhere and it seemed certain that a black yoke of the Asura would be imposed on the whole world; but where
\nis Hitler now and where is his rule? Berlin and Nuremberg have marked the end of that dreadful chapter in human history. Other
\nblacknesses threaten to overshadow or even engulf mankind, but they too will end as that nightmare has ended. I cannot write
\nfully in this letter of all things which justify my confidence \u2014 some day perhaps I shall be able to do it.
\n\t<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n19 October 1946  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>208<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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