{"id":3049,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3049"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:38","slug":"35-the-problem-of-a-federated-heterogeneous-empire-vol-25-the-human-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/25-the-human-cycle\/35-the-problem-of-a-federated-heterogeneous-empire-vol-25-the-human-cycle","title":{"rendered":"-35_The Problem of a Federated Heterogeneous Empire.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter VIII <\/font> <\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Problem of a Federated
\n\t\t\tHeterogeneous Empire <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI<\/font>F THE<\/b> building up of a composite nation in the British Isles was from the beginning a foregone conclusion, a geographical and economic necessity only prevented in its entire completion by the most violent and perverse errors
\nof statesmanship, the same cannot be said of the swifter, but still gradual and almost unconscious process by which
\nthe colonial empire of Great Britain has been evolving to a point at which it can become a real unity. It was not so
\nlong ago that the eventual separation of the colonies carrying with it the evolution of Australia and Canada at least into
\nyoung independent nations was considered the inevitable end of the colonial empire, its one logical and hardly regrettable
\nconclusion. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere were sound reasons for this mental attitude. The geographical necessity of union was entirely absent; on the contrary, distance created a positive mental separation. Each colony had
\na clear-cut separate physical body and seemed predestined, on the lines on which human evolution was then running, to become a separate nation. The economic interests of the mother country and the colonies were disparate, aloof from each other,
\noften opposite as was shown by the adoption by the latter of Protection as against the British policy of Free Trade. Their
\nsole political interest in the Empire was the safety given by the British fleet and army against foreign invasion; they did
\nnot share and took no direct interest in the government of the Empire or the shaping of its destinies. Psychologically, the sole
\ntie was a frail memory of origin and a tepid sentiment which might easily evaporate and which was combated by a definite separatist sentiment and the natural inclination of strongly
\n\t\t\tmarked human groupings to make for themselves an independent life
\n\t\t\tand racial type.  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 330<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The race origin varied, in Australia British, in South Africa predominantly Dutch, in Canada half
\nFrench, half English; but in all three countries habits of life, political tendencies, a new type of character and temperament
\nand culture, if it can be so called, were being developed which were as the poles asunder from the old British culture, temperament, habits of life and social and political tendencies. On the other hand, the mother country derived no tangible political, military or economic advantage from these offshoots, only the prestige which the possession of an empire in itself
\ncould give her. On both sides, therefore, all the circumstances pointed to an eventual peaceful separation which would leave
\nEngland only the pride of having been the mother of so many new nations. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOwing to the drawing together of the world by physical Science, the resulting tendency towards larger aggregates,
\nchanged political world conditions and the profound political, economic and social changes towards which Great Britain has
\nbeen moving, all the conditions now are altered and it is easy to see that the fusion of the colonial empire into a great federated commonwealth or something that can plausibly go by that name is practically inevitable. There are difficulties in the
\nway, \u2014 economic difficulties, to begin with; for, as we have seen, geographical separation does tend towards a divergence, often
\nan opposition of economic interests, and an imperial Zollverein, natural enough between the States of the German Empire or a
\nCentral European Confederation such as was planned by one side in the great war, would be an artificial creation as between
\nwidely separated countries and would need constant vigilance and tender handling; yet, at the same time, political unity tends
\nto demand economic union as its natural concomitant and seems to itself hardly complete without it. Political and other difficulties also there are which may yet become manifest and destroy the imperial formation if the practical process of unification is
\nrashly and unwisely handled; but none of these need be insuperable or even a real stumbling-block. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 331<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe race difficulty which
\nwas at one time serious and menacing in South Africa and is not yet eliminated, need not be more formidable than in Canada; for
\nin both countries there is the English element which, whether a majority or minority, can by friendly union or fusion attach the
\nforeign element to the Empire. Nor is there any such powerful outside attraction or clash of formed cultures or incompatible
\ntemperaments as made so difficult the real union of the Austrian Empire. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll that is needed is that England should continue to handle the problem with a right instinct and not commit anything like
\nher fatal American blunder or the mistake she committed but fortunately receded from in South Africa. She has to keep it
\nalways in mind that her possible destiny is not that of a dominant country compelling all the parts of her dominions to uniformity
\nwith her or to perpetual subordination, but that of the centre of a great confederation of States and nations coalescing by her
\nattraction into a new supra-national unity. Here the first condition is that she must scrupulously respect the free internal life
\nand will, the social, cultural, economic tendencies of the colonies while giving them an equal part with herself in the management
\nof the great common questions of the Empire. She herself can be nothing more in the future of such a new type of aggregate
\nthan a political and cultural centre, the clamp or nodus of the union. Given this orientation of the governing mind in England,
\nnothing short of some unforeseen cataclysm can prevent the formation of an empire-unit in which Home Rule with a loose
\nBritish suzerainty will be replaced by Federation with Home Rule as its basis.1<\/sup> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t1 All this, provided the Empire continues to be victorious and prosper; provided, too,
\n\t\t\tBritain’s foreign policy does not make the obligations of federated
\n\t\t\tunity too irksome to the smaller members.<\/font>  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 332<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

But the problem becomes much more difficult when the question of the other two great constituent parts of the Empire
\narises, Egypt and India, \u2014 so difficult that the first temptation of the political mind, supported by a hundred prejudices and
\nexisting interests, was naturally to leave the problem alone and create a federated colonial empire with these two great countries
\nas subject dependencies.2 It is obvious that such a solution could not last and, if obstinately persisted in, would lead to the most
\nundesirable results, if not to eventual disaster. The renascence of India is as inevitable as the rising of tomorrow’s sun, and
\nthe renascence of a great nation of three hundred millions with so peculiar a temperament, such unique traditions and ideas of
\nlife, so powerful an intelligence and so great a mass of potential energies cannot but be one of the most formidable phenomena
\nof the modern world. It is evident that the new federated empireunit cannot afford to put itself in permanent antagonism to this
\nrenascent nation of three hundred millions and that the shortsighted statesmanship of those servants of today and its interests
\nwho would stave off the inevitable issue as long as possible cannot be allowed to prevail. This has indeed been recognised
\nin principle; the difficulty will be in the handling of the problems that will arise when the practical solution of the Indian question
\ncan no longer be put off to an uncertain future. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe nature of the difficulties in the way of a practical union
\n\t\t\tbetween such different aggregates is sufficiently obvious. There is
\n\t\t\tfirst that geographical separateness which has always made India a
\n\t\t\tcountry and a people apart, even when it was unable to realise its
\n\t\t\tpolitical unity and was receiving by invasion and mutual
\n\t\t\tcommunication of cultures the full shock of the civilisations around
\n\t\t\tit. There is the mere mass of its population of three hundred
\n\t\t\tmillions whose fusion in any sort with the rest of the nations of
\n\t\t\tthe Empire would be a far other matter than the fusion of the
\n\t\t\tcomparatively insignificant populations of Australia, Canada and
\n\t\t\tSouth Africa. There is the salient line of demarcation by race,
\n\t\t\tcolour and temperament between the European and the Asiatic. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t2 The question of Egypt has already been settled since the above was written, and in a sense adverse to union. India, already even then on the road to a free status, has already
\nachieved it, although its two separating parts have figured for a time as dominions and one of them may possibly adhere for some time to that status while the other has adopted,
\nalthough an independent Republic, a new formula of adhesion to the Commonwealth.
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 333<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThere is the age-long past, the absolute divergence of origins,
\n\t\t\t\tindelible associations, inherent tendencies
\nwhich forbid any possibility of the line of demarcation being effaced or minimised by India’s acceptance of an entirely or predominantly English or European culture. All these difficulties need not necessarily mean the insolubility of the problem; on
\nthe contrary, we know that no difficulty can be presented to the human mind which the human mind, if it will, cannot solve.
\nWe will assume that in this case there will be both the will and the necessary wisdom; that British statesmanship will commit
\nno irreparable error; that from the minor errors which it cannot fail to commit in the handling of such a problem, it will retreat
\nin time, as has been its temperament and habit in the past; and that, accordingly, a little sooner or a little later some kind of
\npsychological unity may possibly be created between these two widely disparate aggregates of the human race.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe question remains under what conditions this is possible and of what nature the unity will be. It is clear that the governing
\nrace must apply with a far greater scrupulosity and firm resolution the principle it has already applied elsewhere with such
\nsuccess and the departure from which has always after a certain stage been so detrimental to its own wider interests. It must
\nallow, respect and even favour actively the free and separate evolution of India subject to the unity of the Empire. So long as
\nIndia does not entirely govern herself, her interests must take a first place in the mind of those who do govern her, and when
\nshe has self-government, it must be of a kind which will not hamper her in her care of her own interests. She must not, for
\nexample, be forced into an imperial Zollverein which under present conditions would be disastrous to her economic future
\nuntil or unless these conditions are changed by a resolute policy of stimulating and encouraging her industrial development,
\neven though that will necessarily be prejudicial to many existing commercial interests within the Empire. No effort must be made
\nto impose English culture or conditions upon her growing life or make them a
\nsine qua non <\/i>for her recognition among the free
\npeoples of the Empire and no effort of her own to defend and develop her own culture and characteristic development must
\nbe interfered with or opposed. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t Page \u2013 334<\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHer dignity, sentiments, national aspirations must be increasingly recognised in practice as well
\nas in principle. Given these conditions, the security of her political and economic interests and a care for her own untroubled
\ngrowth might keep her in the Empire and time might be given for the rest, for the more subtle and difficult part of the process
\nof unification to fulfil itself more or less rapidly. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe unity created could never take the form of an IndoBritish empire; that is a figment of the imagination, a chimera which it would never do to hunt to the detriment of the real
\npossibilities. The possibilities might be, first, a firm political unity secured by common interests; secondly, a sound commercial interchange and mutual industrial helpfulness on healthy lines; thirdly, a new cultural relation of the two most important
\nsections of humanity, Europe and Asia, in which they could exchange all that is great and valuable in either as equal members of one human household; and finally, it might be hoped, in place of the common past associations of political and economic development and military glory which have chiefly helped in building up the nation-unit, the greater glory of association
\nand close partnership in the building of a new, rich and various culture for the life of a nobler humanity. For such, surely, should
\nbe the type of the supra-national unit which is the possible next step in the progressive aggregation of humanity. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is evident that this next step would have no reason or value
\n\t\t\texcept as a stage which would make possible by practical
\n\t\t\tdemonstration and the creation of new habits of sentiment, mental
\n\t\t\tattitude and common life the unity of the whole human race in a
\n\t\t\tsingle family. The mere creation of a big empire-unit would be a
\n\t\t\tvulgar and even reactionary phenomenon if it had not this greater
\n\t\t\tissue beyond it. The mere construction of a multicoloured
\n\t\t\tIndo-British unity arrayed in armour of battle and divided by
\n\t\t\tcommercial, political and military egoism from other huge unities,
\n\t\t\tRussian, French, German, American, would be a retrogression, not an
\n\t\t\tadvance. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013335 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/font>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tIf at all, therefore, this kind of development is destined, \u2014
\n\t\t\t\tfor we have only taken the instance of the British Empire as the
\n\t\t\t\tbest example of a possible new type, \u2014 then it must be as such a
\n\t\t\t\thalf-way house and with this ideal
\nbefore us that it can be accepted by the lovers of humanity who are not bound by the limitations of the old local patriotism of
\nnation against nation. Always provided that the political and administrative means are those which are to lead us to the unity
\nof the human race, \u2014 for on that doubtful hypothesis we are at present proceeding. The probability of such an eventual development is as yet scanty, for the temper both of Muslim and Hindu India is still overwhelmingly in the direction of independence
\nand nothing has been done on the English side to build up the other possibility. But the possibility had still to be considered, as
\nit is not utterly out of question that under changed conditions there might be an acceptance of virtual independence in place
\nof a separate and isolated autonomy. If so, it would be a sign that one of Nature’s steps towards the final result was leading
\ntowards this passage. This much could be said for it that if such a combination of two so disparate peoples and cultures proved to
\nbe possible, the greater question of a world-union would begin to bear a less remote appearance.3\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t3Things have taken, as was practically inevitable all through, a different turn; but this part of the chapter has been left as it was because the consideration of this possibility
\n was necessary to the theme. The failure of that possible experiment to come anywhere
\nnear realisation is an illustration of the fact that this intermediate stage in the progress towards a total world-union presents difficulties which make it almost impossible. Its
\nplace has been taken by such agglomerations as the Commonwealth, the Soviet Union and such possibilities as the proposed United States of Europe and other continental
\ncombinations such as are coming into being as between the two Americas and may some day be possible in Asia. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013336<\/font><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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