{"id":3139,"date":"2013-07-13T01:46:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3139"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:46:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:15","slug":"10-the-problem-of-a-federated-heterogeneous-empire-vol-the-ideal-of-human-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/the-ideal-of-human-unity\/10-the-problem-of-a-federated-heterogeneous-empire-vol-the-ideal-of-human-unity","title":{"rendered":"-10_The Problem of a Federated Heterogeneous Empire.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nCHAPTER VIII<\/b> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nTHE PROBLEM OF A FEDERATED
\nHETEROGENEOUS EMPIRE<\/b><\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nI<\/font>F<\/font>
\nTHE<\/font> building up of a composite nation in the British
\nIsles was from the beginning a foregone conclusion, a geographical and economical necessity only prevented in its entire
\ncompletion by the most violent and perverse errors of statesmanship, the same cannot be said of the swifter but still gradual and
\nalmost unconscious process by which the Colonial Empire of
\nGreat Britain has been evolving to a point at which it can become
\na real unity. It was not so long ago that the eventual separation
\nof the Colonies and the evolution of Australia and Canada at
\nleast into young independent nations was considered the inevitable end of the colonial empire, its one logical and hardly
\nregrettable conclusion. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThere were sound reasons for this mental attitude. The
\ngeographical necessity of union was entirely absent; on the contrary distance created a positive mental separation. Each colony
\nhad a clear-cut separate physical body and seemed predestined
\non the lines on which human evolution was then running to become a separate nation. The economic interests of the
\nmother country and the colonies were disparate, aloof from each other,
\noften opposite as was shown by the adoption by the latter
\n<\/b>of
\n<\/b>protection as against the British policy of free-trade. Their sole
\npolitical interest in the empire was the safety given by the British fleet and army against foreign invasion; they did not share and
\ntook no direct interest in the government of the Empire or the shaping of its destinies. Psychologically, the sole tie was a frail <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-71 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nmemory of origin and a tepid sentiment which might easily
\nevaporate and which was combatted by a definite separatist sentiment and the
\nnatural inclination of strongly marked human groupings to make for themselves an
\nindependent life and racial type. The race origin varied, in Australia British, in South
\nAfrica predominantly Dutch, in Canada half French, half English; hut in all three countries habits of life, political tendencies,
\na new type of character and temperament and culture, if it can
\nbe so called, were being developed which were as the poles
\nasunder from the old British culture, temperament, habits of
\nlife and social and political tendencies. On the other hand the mother country
\nderived no tangible political, military or  economic advantage from these offshoots, only the prestige which
\nthe possession of an empire in itself could give her. On both
\nsides, therefore, all the circumstances pointed to an eventual
\npeaceful separation which would leave England only the pride
\nof having been the mother of so many new nations. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nOwing to the drawing together of the world by physical
\nScience, the resulting tendency towards larger aggregates, changed
\npolitical world-conditions and the profound political, economic
\nand social changes towards which Great Britain has been moving,
\nall the conditions now are altered and it is easy to see that the
\nfusion 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 way,\u2014economic
\ndifficulties, to begin with; for, as we have seen, geographical
\nseparation does tend towards a divergence, often an opposition
\nof economic interests and an imperial Zollverein, natural enough
\nbetween the states of the German Empire or a Central European Confederation such as was planned by one side in the great
\nwar, would be an artificial creation as between widely separated
\ncountries and would need constant vigilance and tender handling; yet, at the same time, political unity tends to demand
\neconomic union as its natural concomitant and seems to itself
\nhardly complete without it. Political and other difficulties also
\nthere are which may yet become manifest <\/b> and destroy the imperial  <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-72 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nformation if the practical process of unification is rashly
\nand unwisely handled; but none of these need be insuperable or even  a real stumbling-block. The race difficulty which was at
\none time serious and menacing in South Africa and is not yet
\neliminated, need not be more formidable than in Canada; for in
\nboth countries there is the English element, which whether
\na majority or minority, can by friendly union or fusion attach
\nthe foreign element to the Empire. Nor is there any such powerful outside attraction or clash of formed cultures or incompatible
\ntemperaments as make so difficult the real union of the Austrian
\nEmpire. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAll that is needed is that England should continue to handle the problem with a right instinct and not commit anything
\nlike her fatal American blunder or the mistake she committed
\nbut fortunately receded from in South Africa. She has to keep
\nit always in mind that her possible destiny is not that of a dominant country compelling all the parts of her dominions to uniformity with her or to perpetual subordination, but that of the
\ncentre of a great confederation of States and nations coalescing
\nby her attraction into a new supra-national unity. Here the first
\ncondition is that she must scrupulously respect the free internal
\nlife and will, the social, cultural, economic tendencies of the
\ncolonies while giving them an equal part with herself in the
\nmanagement of the great common questions of the empire. She
\nherself can be nothing more in the future of such a new type of
\naggregate than a political and cultural centre, the clamp or
\nnodus of the union. Given this orientation of the governing mind
\nin England nothing short of some unforeseen cataclysm can prevent the formation of an empire-unity in which Home Rule
\nwith a loose British suzerainty will be replaced by Federation with Home Rule as its basis.* <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut the problem becomes much more difficult when the
\nquestion of the other two great constituent parts of the Empire <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n*All this provided the empire continues to be victorious and prosper; provided,
\ntoo, Britain’s  foreign policy does not make the obligations of federated
\nunity too irksome to the smaller members. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-73 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\narises, Egypt and India,\u2014so difficult that the first temptation of
\nthe political mind, supported by a hundred prejudices and existing interests, was naturally to leave the problem alone and
\ncreate a federated colonial empire with these two great countries as subject dependencies.* It is obvious that such a solution
\ncould not last and, it obstinately persisted in, would lead to the
\nmost undesirable results, if not to eventual disaster. The renascence of India is as inevitable as the rising of tomorrow’s sun
\nand the renascence of a great nation of three hundred millions
\nwith so peculiar a temperament, such unique traditions and
\nideas of life, so powerful an intelligence and so great a mass of
\npotential energies cannot but be one of the most formidable
\nphenomena of the modern world. It is evident that the new
\nfederated empire unit cannot afford to put itself in permanent
\nantagonism to this renascent nation of three hundred millions
\nand that the short-sighted statesmanship of those servants of today
\nand its interest who would stave off the inevitable issue as long
\nas possible cannot be allowed to prevail. This has indeed been
\nrecognised in principle; the difficulty will be in the handling of
\nthe problems that will arise when the practical solution of the
\nIndian question can no longer be put off to an uncertain future. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe nature of the difficulties in the way of a
\npractical union between such different aggregates is sufficiently obvious. There
\nis first that geographical separateness which has always made India a country
\nand a people apart, even when it was unable to realise its political unity and
\nwas receiving by invasion and mutual communication of cultures the full shock of
\nthe civilisations around it. There is the mere mass of its population of three
\nhundred millions whose fusion in any sort with the rest of the nations of the
\nEmpire would be a far other matter than the fusion of the comparatively
\ninsignificant populations of Australia, <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nPage-74 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nCanada, and South Africa. There is the salient line of demarcation by race, colour and temperament between the European and
\nthe Asiatic. There is the age-long past, the absolute divergence
\nof origins, indelible associations, inherent tendencies which forbid any possibility of the line of demarcation being effaced or
\nminimised by India’s acceptance of an entirely or predominantly
\nEnglish or European culture. All these difficulties need not necessarily mean the insolubility of the problem; on the contrary
\nwe know that no difficulty can be presented to the human mind,
\nwhich the human mind, if it will, cannot solve. We will assume
\nthat in this case there will be both the will and the necessary
\nwisdom; that British statesmanship will commit no irreparable
\nerror, that from the minor errors which it cannot fail to commit
\nin the handling of such a problem, it will retreat in time as has
\nbeen its temperament and habit in the past, and that, accordingly
\na little sooner or a little later some kind of psychological unity
\nmay possibly be created between these two widely disparate
\naggregates of the human race. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe question remains under what conditions this is
\npossible 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
\nprinciple it has already applied elsewhere with such success and the departure
\nfrom which has always after a certain stage been so detrimental to its own wider
\ninterests. It must allow, respect and even favour actively the free and separate
\nevolution of India subject to the unity of the Empire. So long as India does not
\nentirely govern herself, her interests must take a first place in the mind of
\nthose who do govern her, and when she has self-government, it must be of a kind
\nwhich 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
\nwould be disastrous to her economic future until or unless these conditions are changed by a resolute policy
\nof stimulating and encouraging her industrial development, even
\nthough that will necessarily be prejudicial to many existing commercial interests within the Empire. No effort must be made to <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-75<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nimpose English culture or conditions upon her growing life or
\nmake them a sine qua non<\/i> for her recognition among the free
\npeoples of the Empire and no effort of her own to defend and
\ndevelop her own culture and characteristic development must
\nbe interfered with or opposed. Her dignity, sentiments, national
\naspirations must be increasingly recognised in practice as well as
\nin principle. Given these conditions, the security of her political
\nand economic interests and a care for her own untroubled growth
\nmight keep her in the Empire and time might be given for the
\nrest, for the more subtle and difficult part of the process of unification to fulfil itself more or less rapidly. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe unity created could never take the form of an Indo-British Empire; that is a figment of the imagination, a chimera
\nwhich it would never do to hunt to the detriment of the real
\npossibilities. The possibilities might be first, a firm political unity
\nsecured 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 sections of humanity, Europe and Asia, in which they could exchange all that is great and valuable in either as equal members
\nof one human household; and finally, it might be hoped, in
\nplace of the common past associations of political and economical development and military glory which have chiefly helped
\nin building up the nation-unit, the greater glory of association
\nand close partnership in the building of a new, rich and various
\nculture for the life of a nobler humanity. For such, surely,
\nshould be the type of the supra-national unit which is the possible next step in the progressive aggregation of humanity. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nIt is evident that this next step would have no reason or
\nvalue except as a stage which would make possible by practical
\ndemonstration and the creation of new habits of sentiment, mental attitude and common life the unity of the whole human race
\nin a single family. The mere creation of a big empire-unit would
\nbe a vulgar and even reactionary phenomenon it had not this
\ngreater issue beyond it. The mere construction of a multi-coloured Indo-British unity arrayed in armour of battle and divided <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-76 <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nby commercial, political and military egoism from other huge
\nunities, Russian, French, German, American, would be a retrogression, not an advance. If at all, therefore, this kind of development is destined\u2014for we have only taken the instance of the
\nBritish Empire as the best example of a possible new type,\u2014then
\nit must be as such a half-way house and with this ideal before
\nus that it can be accepted by the lovers of humanity who are
\nnot bound by the limitations of the old local patriotism of nation
\nagainst nation. Always provided that the political and administrative means are those which are to lead us to the unity of the
\nhuman race,\u2014for on that doubtful hypothesis we are at present
\nproceeding. The probability of such an eventual development is
\nas yet scanty, for the temper both of Muslim and Hindu India is
\nstill overwhelmingly in the direction of independence and nothing has been done on the English side to build up the other
\npossibility. But the possibility had still to be considered, as it is
\nnot utterly out of question that under changed conditions there
\nmight be an acceptance of virtual independence in place of a
\nseparate and isolated autonomy. If so, it would be a sign that one
\nof Nature’s steps towards the final result was leading towards
\nthis passage. This much could be said for it that if such a combination of two so disparate peoples and cultures proved to be
\npossible, the greater question of a world union would begin to
\nbear a less remote appearance.* <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n* Things have taken, as was practically inevitable all through, a different
\nturn; but this part of the chapter has been left as it was because the consideration of this possibility was necessary to the theme. The failure of that possible
\nexperiment to come anywhere near realisation is an illustration of the fact that
\nthis intermediate stage in the progress towards a total world union presents
\ndifficulties which make it almost impossible. Its place has been taken by such
\nagglomerations as the Commonwealth, the Soviet Union and such possibilities
\nas the proposed United States of Europe and other continental combinations such as are coming into being as between the two Americas and may some
\nday be possible in Asia. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-77 <\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER VIII   THE PROBLEM OF A FEDERATED HETEROGENEOUS EMPIRE   IF THE building up of a composite nation in the British Isles was from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-ideal-of-human-unity","wpcat-63-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139","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=3139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}