{"id":519,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=519"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","slug":"05-the-leader-of-indian-nationalism-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/26-on-himself-volume-26\/05-the-leader-of-indian-nationalism-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","title":{"rendered":"-05_The Leader of Indian Nationalism.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

III. THE LEADER OF INDIAN
\nNATIONALISM: 1906-1910<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\nA GENERAL NOTE ON
\nSRI AUROBINDO’S POLITICAL LIFE <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T<\/b>here were three sides to
\nSri Aurobindo’s political ideas and activities. First, there was the action with
\nwhich he started, a secret revolutionary propaganda and organisation of which
\nthe central object was the preparation of an armed insurrection. Secondly,
\nthere was a public propaganda intended to convert the whole nation to the ideal
\nof independence which was regarded, when he entered into politics, by the vast
\nmajority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera. It
\nwas thought that the British Empire was too powerful and India too weak,
\neffectively disarmed and impotent even to dream of the success of such an
\nendeavour. Thirdly, there was the organisation of the people to carry on a
\npublic and united opposition and undermining of the foreign rule through an
\nincreasing non-cooperation and passive resistance.<\/p>\n

At that time the military
\norganisation of the great empires and their means of military action were not so
\noverwhelming and apparently irresistible as they now are: the rifle was still
\nthe decisive weapon, air power had not yet been developed and the force of
\nartillery was not so devastating as it afterwards became. India was disarmed,
\nbut Sri Aurobindo thought that with proper organisation and help from outside
\nthis difficulty might be overcome and in so vast a country as India and with the
\nsmallness of the regular British armies, even a guerrilla warfare accompanied
\nby general resistance and revolt might be effective. There was also the
\npossibility of a general revolt in the Indian army. At the same time he had
\nstudied the temperament and characteristics of the British people and the turn
\nof their political instincts, and he believed that although they would resist
\nany attempt at self-liberation by the Indian people and would at the most only
\nconcede very slowly such reforms as would not weaken their imperial control,
\nstill they were not of the kind which would be ruthlessly adamantine to the end:
\nif they found resistance and revolt becoming general and persistent
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 21<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

they would in the end
\ntry to arrive at an accommodation to save what they could of their empire or in
\nan extremity prefer to grant independence rather than have it forcefully wrested
\nfrom their hands.<\/p>\n

In some quarters there is
\nthe idea that Sri Aurobindo’s political standpoint was entirely pacifist, that
\nhe was opposed in principle and in practice to all violence and that he
\ndenounced terrorism, insurrection, etc., as entirely forbidden by the spirit and
\nletter of the Hindu religion. It is even suggested that he was a forerunner of
\nthe gospel of Ahimsa. This is quite incorrect. Sri Aurobindo is neither an
\nimpotent moralist nor a weak pacifist.<\/p>\n

The rule of confining
\npolitical action to passive resistance was adopted as the best policy for the
\nNational Movement at that stage and not as a part of a gospel of Non-violence or
\npacific idealism. Peace is a part of the highest ideal, but it must be
\nspiritual or at the very least psychological in its basis; without a change in
\nhuman nature it cannot come with any finality. If it is attempted on any other
\nbasis (moral principle or gospel of Ahimsa or any other), it will fail and even
\nmay leave things worse than before. He is in favour of an attempt to put down
\nwar by international agreement and international force, what is now
\ncontemplated in the "New Order", if that proves possible, but that would not be
\nAhimsa, it would be a putting down of anarchic force by legal force and even
\nthen one cannot be sure that it would be permanent. Within nations this sort of
\npeace has been secured, but it does not prevent occasional civil wars and
\nrevolutions and political outbreaks and repressions, sometimes of a sanguinary
\ncharacter. The same might happen to a similar world-peace. Sri Aurobindo has
\nnever concealed his opinion that a nation is entitled to attain its freedom by
\nviolence, if it can do so or if there is no other way; whether it should do so
\nor not, depends on what is the best policy, not on ethical considerations. Sri
\nAurobindo’s position and practice in this matter was the same as Tilak’s and
\nthat of other Nationalist leaders who were by no means Pacifists or worshippers
\nof Ahimsa.<\/p>\n

For the first few years in
\nIndia, Sri Aurobindo abstained from any political activity (except the writing
\nof the articles in <\/p>\n

\nPage – 22<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

the Indu Prakash)<\/i>
\nand studied the conditions in the country so that he might be able to judge more
\nmaturely what could be done. Then he made his first move when he sent a young
\nBengali soldier of the Baroda army, Jatin Banerji, as his lieutenant to Bengal
\nwith a programme of preparation and action which he thought might occupy a
\nperiod of 30 years before fruition could become possible. As a matter of fact it
\nhas taken 50 years for the movement of liberation to arrive at fruition and the
\nbeginning of complete success. The idea was to establish secretly or, as far as
\nvisible action could be taken, under various pretexts and covers, revolutionary
\npropaganda and recruiting throughout Bengal. This was to be done among the youth
\nof the country while sympathy and support and financial and other assistance
\nwere to be obtained from the older men who had advanced views or could be won
\nover to them. Centres were to be established in every town and eventually in
\nevery village. Societies of young men were to be established with various
\nostensible objects, cultural, intellectual or moral and those already existing
\nwere to be won over for revolutionary use. Young men were to be trained in
\nactivities which might be helpful for ultimate military action, such as riding,
\nphysical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organised movement. As
\nsoon as the idea was sown it attained a rapid prosperity; already existing
\nsmall groups and associations of young men who had not yet the clear idea or any
\nsettled programme of revolution began to turn in this direction and a few who
\nhad already the revolutionary aim were contacted and soon developed activity on
\norganised lines; the few rapidly became many. Meanwhile Sri Aurobindo had met a
\nmember of the Secret Society in Western India, and taken the oath of the Society
\nand had been introduced to the Council in Bombay. His future action was not
\npursued under any directions by this Council, but he took up on his own
\nresponsibility the task of generalising support for its objects in Bengal where
\nas yet it had no membership or following. He spoke of the Society and its aim to
\nP. Mitter and other leading men of the revolutionary group in Bengal and they
\ntook the oath of the Society and agreed to carry out its objects on the lines
\nsuggested by Sri Aurobindo. The special cover used by Mitter’s group was
\nassociation for<\/p>\n

\nPage – 23<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nlathi<\/span> play which had already
\nbeen popularised to some extent by Sarala Ghosal in Bengal among the young men;
\nbut other groups used other ostensible covers. Sri Aurobindo’s attempt at a
\nclose organisation of the whole movement did not succeed, but the movement
\nitself did not suffer by that, for the general idea was taken up and activity of
\nmany separate groups led to a greater and more widespread diffusion of the
\nrevolutionary drive and its action. Afterwards there came the partition of
\nBengal and a general outburst of revolt which favoured the rise of the extremist
\nparty and the great Nationalist movement. Sri Aurobindo’s activities were then
\nturned more and more in this direction and the secret action became a secondary
\nand subordinate element. He took advantage, however, of the Swadeshi movement
\nto popularise the idea of violent revolt in the future. At Barin’s suggestion he
\nagreed to the starting of a paper, Yugantar,<\/i> which was to preach open
\nrevolt and the absolute denial of the British rule and include such items as a
\nseries of articles containing instructions for guerrilla warfare. Sri Aurobindo
\nhimself wrote some of the opening articles in the early numbers and he always
\nexercised a general control; when a member of the sub-editorial staff, Swami
\nVivekananda’s brother, presented himself on his own motion to the police in a
\nsearch as the editor of the paper and was prosecuted, the Yugantar<\/i>
\nunder Sri Aurobindo’s orders adopted the policy of refusing to defend itself in
\na British Court on the ground that it did not recognise the foreign Government
\nand this immensely increased the prestige and influence of the paper. It had as
\nits chief writers and directors three of the ablest younger writers in Bengal,
\nand it at once acquired an immense influence throughout Bengal. It may be noted
\nthat the Secret Society did not include terrorism in its programme, but this
\nelement grew up in Bengal as a result of the strong repression and the reaction
\nto it in that Province.<\/p>\n

The public activity of Sri
\nAurobindo began with the writing of the articles in the Indu Prakash.<\/i>
\nThese nine articles written at the instance of K. G. Deshpande, editor of the
\npaper and Sri Aurobindo’s Cambridge friend, under the caption ‘New Lamps for
\nOld’ vehemently denounced the then Congress policy of pray, petition and protest
\nand called for a dynamic leadership <\/p>\n

\nPage – 24<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

based upon self-help and
\nfearlessness. But this outspoken and irrefutable criticism was checked by the
\naction of a Moderate leader who frightened the editor and thus prevented any
\nfull development of his ideas in the paper; he had to turn aside to generalities
\nsuch as the necessity of extending the activities of the Congress beyond the
\ncircle of the bourgeois or middle class and calling into it the masses. Finally,
\nSri Aurobindo suspended all public activity of this kind and worked only in
\nsecret till 1905, but he contacted Tilak whom he regarded as the one possible
\nleader for a revolutionary party and met him at the Ahmedabad Congress; there
\nTilak took him out of the panḍal<\/i> and talked to him for an hour in the
\ngrounds expressing his contempt for the Reformist movement and explaining his
\nown line of action in Maharashtra.<\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo included in
\nthe scope of his revolutionary work one kind of activity which afterwards became
\nan impor\u00adtant item in the public programme of the Nationalist party. He
\nencouraged the young men in the centres of work to propagate the Swadeshi idea
\nwhich at that time was only in its infancy and hardly more than a fad of the
\nfew. One of the ablest men in these revolutionary groups was a Mahratta named
\nSakharam Ganesh Deuskar who was an able writer in Bengali (his family had been
\nlong domiciled in Bengal) and who had written a popular life of Shivaji in
\nBengali in which he first brought in the name of Swaraj, afterwards adopted by
\nthe Nationalists as their word for independence, \u2014 Swaraj became one item of
\nthe fourfold Nationalist programme. He published a book entitled Desher Katha<\/i>
\ndescribing in exhaustive detail the British commercial and industrial
\nexploitation of India. This book had an immense repercussion in Bengal, captured
\nthe mind of young Bengal and assisted more than anything else in the preparation
\nof the Swadeshi movement. Sri Aurobindo himself had always considered the
\nshaking off of this economic yoke and the development of Indian trade and
\nindustry as a necessary concomitant of the revolutionary endeavour.<\/p>\n

As long as he was in the
\nBaroda Service, Sri Aurobindo could not take part publicly in politics. Apart
\nfrom that, he preferred to remain and act and even to lead from behind the <\/p>\n

\nPage – 25<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

scenes without his name
\nbeing known in public; it was the Government’s action in prosecuting him as
\neditor of the Bande Mataram<\/i> that forced him into public view. And from
\nthat time forward he became openly, what he had been for sometime already, a
\nprominent leader of the Nationalist party, its principal leader in action in
\nBengal and the organiser there of its policy and strategy. He had decided in his
\nmind the lines on which he wanted the country’s action to run: what he planned
\nwas very much the same as was developed afterwards in Ireland as the Sinn Fein
\nmovement; but Sri Aurobindo did not derive his ideas, as some have represented,
\nfrom Ireland, for the Irish movement became prominent later and he knew nothing
\nof it till after he had withdrawn to Pondicherry. There was, moreover, a capital
\ndifference between India and Ireland which made his work much more difficult;
\nfor all its past history had accustomed the Irish people to rebellion against
\nBritish rule and this history might be even described as a constant struggle for
\nindependence intermittent in its action but permanently there in principle;
\nthere was nothing of this kind in India. Sri Aurobindo had to establish and generalise the idea of independence in the mind of the Indian people and at the
\nsame time to push first a party and then the whole nation into an intense and
\norganised political activity which would lead to the accomplishment of that
\nideal. His idea was to capture the Congress and to make it an instrument for
\nrevolutionary action instead of a centre of a timid constitutional agitation
\nwhich would only talk and pass resolutions and recommendations to the foreign
\nGovernment; if the Congress could not be captured, then a central revolutionary
\nbody would have to be created which could do this work. It was to be a sort of
\nState within the State giving its directions to the people and creating
\norganised bodies and institutions which would be its means of action; there must
\nbe an increasing non-cooperation and passive resistance which would render the
\nadministration of the country by a foreign Government difficult or finally
\nimpossible, a universal unrest which would wear down repression and finally, if
\nneed be, an open revolt all over the country. This plan included a boycott of
\nBritish trade, the substitution of national schools for the Government
\ninstitutions, the creation of arbitration
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 26<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

courts to which the
\npeople could resort instead of depending on the ordinary courts of law, the
\ncreation of volunteer forces which would be the nucleus of an army of open
\nrevolt, and all other action that could make the programme complete. The part
\nSri Aurobindo took publicly in Indian politics was of brief duration, for he
\nturned aside from it in 1910 and withdrew to Pondicherry; much of his programme
\nlapsed in his absence, but enough had been done to change the whole face of
\nIndian politics and the whole spirit of the Indian people to make independence
\nits aim and non-cooperation and resistance its method, and even an imperfect
\napplication of this policy heightening into sporadic periods of revolt has been
\nsufficient to bring about the victory. The course of subsequent events followed
\nlargely the line of Sri Aurobindo’s idea. The Congress was finally captured by
\nthe Nationalist party, declared independence its aim, organised itself for
\naction, took almost the whole nation minus a majority of the Mohammedans and a
\nminority of the depressed classes into acceptance of its leadership and
\neventually formed the first national, though not as yet an independent.
\nGovernment in India and secured from Britain acceptance of independence for
\nIndia.<\/p>\n

At first Sri Aurobindo took
\npart in Congress politics only from behind the scenes, as he had not yet decided
\nto leave the Baroda Service; but he took long leave without pay in which,
\nbesides carrying on personally the secret revolutionary work, he attended the
\nBarisal Conference broken up by the police and toured East Bengal along with
\nBepin Pal and associated himself closely with the forward group in the Congress.
\nIt was during this period that he joined Bepin Pal in the editing of the
\nBande Mataram,<\/i> founded the new political party in Bengal and attended the
\nCongress session at Calcutta at which the Extremists, though still a minority,
\nsucceeded under the leadership of Tilak in imposing part of their political programme on the Congress. The founding of the Bengal
\n National College
\ngave him the opportunity he needed and enabled him to resign his position in
\nthe Baroda Service and join the College as its Principal. Subodh Mullick, one of
\nSri Aurobindo’s collaborators in his secret action and afterwards also in
\nCongress politics, in whose house he usually lived when he was in
\nCalcutta, had given a lakh of rupees <\/p>\n

\nPage – 27<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

for this foundation and had
\nstipulated that Sri Aurobindo should be given a post of professor in the College
\nwith a salary of Rs.150; so he was now free to give his whole time to the
\nservice of the country. Bepin Pal, who had been long expounding a policy of
\nself-help and non-cooperation in his weekly journal, now started a daily with
\nthe name of Bande Mataram,<\/i> but it was likely to be a brief adventure
\nsince he began with only Rs. 500 in his pocket and no firm assurance of
\nfinancial assistance in the future. He asked Sri Aurobindo to join him in this
\nventure to which a ready consent was given, for now Sri Aurobindo saw his
\nopportunity for starting the public propaganda necessary for his revolutionary
\npurpose. He called a meeting of the forward group of young men in the Congress
\nand they decided then to organise themselves openly as a new political party
\njoining hands with the corresponding group in Maharashtra
\nunder the proclaimed leadership of Tilak and to join battle with the Moderate
\nparty which was done at the Calcutta
\nsession. He also persuaded them to take up the Bande Mataram<\/i> daily as
\ntheir party organ and a Bande Mataram Company was started to finance the paper,
\nwhose direction Sri Aurobindo undertook during the absence of Bepin Pal who was
\nsent on a tour in the districts to proclaim the purpose and programme of the
\nnew party. The new party was at once successful and the Bande Mataram<\/i>
\npaper began to circulate throughout India.
\nOn its staff were not only Bepin Pal and Sri Aurobindo but some other very able
\nwriters, Shyam Sundar Chakravarty, Hemendra Prasad Ghose and Bejoy Chatterjee.
\nShyam Sundar and Bejoy were masters of the English language, each with a style
\nof his own; Shyam Sundar caught up something like Sri Aurobindo’s way of writing
\nand later on many took his articles for Sri Aurobindo’s. But after a time
\ndissensions arose between Bepin Pal on one side and the other contributors and
\nthe directors of the Company because of temperamental incompatibility and
\ndifferences of political views especially with regard to the secret
\nrevolutionary action with which others sympathised but to which Bepin Pal was
\nopposed. This ended soon in Bepin Pal’s separation from the journal. Sri
\nAurobindo would not have consented to this departure, for he regarded the
\nqualities of Pal as a great asset to the Bande Mataram,<\/i> since Pal, though <\/p>\n

\nPage – 28<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

not a man of action or
\ncapable of political leadership, was perhaps the best and most original
\npolitical thinker in the country, an excellent writer and a magnificent orator:
\nbut the separation was effected behind Sri Aurobindo’s back when he was
\nconvalescing from a dangerous attack of fever. His name was even announced
\nwithout his consent in the Bande Mataram<\/i> as editor but for one day only,
\nas he immediately put a stop to it since he was still formally in the Baroda
\nService and in no way eager to have his name brought forward in public.
\nHenceforward, however, he controlled the policy of the Bande Mataram<\/i>
\nalong with that of the party in Bengal. Bepin Pal had stated the aim of the new
\nparty as complete self-government free from British control; but this could have
\nmeant or at least included the Moderate aim of colonial self-government and
\nDadabhai Naoroji as President of the Calcutta session of the Congress had
\nactually tried to capture the name of Swaraj, the Extremists’ term for
\nindependence, for this colonial self-government. Sri Aurobindo’s first
\npre\u00adoccupation was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as
\nthe aim pf political action in India and to insist on this persistently in the
\npages of the journal; he was the first politician in India who had the courage
\nto do this in public and he was immediately successful. The party took up the
\nword Swaraj to express its own ideal of independence and it soon spread
\neverywhere; but it was taken up as the ideal of the Congress much later on at
\nthe Karachi session of that body when it had been reconstituted and renovated
\nunder Nationalist leadership. The journal declared and developed a new
\npolitical programme for the country as the programme of the Nationalist party,
\nnon-cooperation, passive resistance, Swadeshi, Boycott, national education,
\nsettlement of disputes in law by popular arbitration and other items of Sri
\nAurobindo’s plan. Sri Aurobindo published in the paper a series of articles on
\npassive resistance, another developing a political philosophy of revolution and
\nwrote many leaders aimed at destroying the shibboleths and superstitions of the
\nModerate party, such as the belief in British justice and benefits bestowed by
\nforeign government in India, faith in British law courts and in the adequacy of
\nthe education given in schools and universities in India and stressed more<\/p>\n

\nPage – 29<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nstrongly and
\npersistently than had been done the emasculation, stagnation or slow progress,
\npoverty, economic dependence, absence of a rich industrial activity and all
\nother evil results of a foreign government; he insisted especially that even if
\nan alien rule were benevolent and beneficent, that could not be a substitute for
\na free and healthy national life. Assisted by this publicity the ideas of the
\nNationalists gained ground everywhere, especially in the Punjab
\nwhich had before been predominantly Moderate. The Bande Mataram<\/i> was
\nalmost unique in journalistic history in the influence it exercised in
\nconverting the mind of a people and preparing it for revolution. But its
\nweakness was on the financial side; for the Extremists were still a poor man’s
\nparty. So long as Sri Aurobindo was there in active control, he managed with
\ngreat difficulty to secure sufficient public support for running the paper, but
\nnot for expanding it as he wanted, and when he was arrested and held in jail for
\na year, the economic situation of the Bande Mataram<\/i> became desperate:
\nfinally, it was decided that the journal should die a glorious death rather than
\nperish by starvation and Bejoy Chatterji was commissioned to write an article
\nfor which the Government would certainly stop the publication of the paper. Sri
\nAurobindo had always taken care to give no handle in the editorial articles of
\nthe Bande Mataram<\/i> either for a prosecution for sedition or any other
\ndrastic action fatal to its existence; an editor of The Statesman<\/i>
\ncomplained that the paper reeked with sedition patently visible between every
\nline, but it was so skilfully written that no legal action could be taken. The
\nmanoeuvre succeeded and the life of the Bande Mataram<\/i> came to an end in
\nSri Aurobindo’s absence.<\/p>\n

The
\nNationalist programme could only achieve a partial beginning before it was
\ntemporarily broken by severe govern\u00adment repression. Its most important
\npractical item was Swadeshi plus Boycott; for Swadeshi much was done to make
\nthe idea general and a few beginnings were made, but the greater results showed
\nthemselves only afterwards in the course of time. Sri Aurobindo was anxious that
\nthis part of the movement should be not only propagated in idea but given a
\npractical organisation and an effective force. He wrote from Baroda asking
\nwhether it would not be possible to bring in the industrialists and manufacturers <\/span>
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage – 30<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

and gain the financial
\n\tsupport of landed magnates and create an organisation in which men of
\n\tindustrial and commercial ability and experience and not politicians alone
\n\tcould direct operations and devise means of carrying out the policy; but he
\n\twas told that it was impossible, the industrialists and the landed magnates
\n\twere too timid to join in the movement, and the big commercial men were all
\n\tinterested in the import of British goods and therefore on the side of the
\nstatus quo:<\/i> so he had to abandon
\n\this idea of the organisation of Swadeshi and Boycott. Both Tilak and Sri
\n\tAurobindo were in favour of an effective boycott of British goods \u2014 but of
\n\tBritish goods only; for there was little in the country to replace foreign
\n\tarticles: so they re\u00adcommended the substitution for the British of foreign
\n\tgoods from Germany and Austria and America so that the fullest pressure
\n\tmight be brought upon England. They wanted the Boycott to be a political
\n\tweapon and not merely an aid to Swadeshi;
\n\tthe total boycott of all foreign goods was an impracticable idea and the
\n\tvery limited application of it recommended in Congress resolutions
\n\twas too small to be politically effective. They were for national
\n\tself-sufficiency in key industries, the production of necessities and of
\n\tall manufactures of which India had the natural means, but complete
\n\tself-sufficiency or autarchy did not seem practicable or even desirable
\n\tsince a free India would need to export goods as well as supply them for
\n\tinternal consumption and for that she must import as well and maintain an
\n\tinternational exchange. But the sudden enthusiasm for the boycott of all
\n\tforeign goods was wide and sweeping and the leaders had to conform to this
\n\tpopular cry and be content with the impulse it gave to the Swadeshi idea.
\n\tNational education was another item to which Sri Aurobindo attached much
\n\timportance. He had been disgusted with the education given by the British
\n\tsystem in the schools and colleges and universities, a system of which as a
\n\tprofessor in the Baroda
\n\tCollege he had full experience. He felt that it tended to dull and
\n\timpoverish and tie up the naturally quick and brilliant and supple Indian
\n\tintelligence, to teach it bad intellectual habits and spoil by narrow
\n\tinformation and mechanical instruction its originality and productivity.
\n\tThe movement began well and many national schools <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 31<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\twere
\n\testablished in Bengal and many able men became teachers, but still the
\n\tdevelopment was insufficient and the economical position of the schools
\n\tprecarious. Sri Aurobindo had decided to take up the movement personally and
\n\tsee whether it could not be given a greater expansion and a stronger
\n\tfoundation, but his departure from Bengal cut short this plan. In the
\n\trepression and the general depression caused by it, most of the schools
\n\tfailed to survive. The idea lived on and it may be hoped that it will one
\n\tday find an adequate form and body. The idea of people’s courts was taken up
\n\tand worked in some districts, not without success, but this too perished in
\n\tthe storm. The idea of volunteer groupings had a stronger vitality; it
\n\tlived on, took shape, multiplied its formations and its workers were the
\n\tspearhead of the movement of direct action which broke out from time to
\n\ttime in the struggle for freedom. The purely political elements of the
\n\tNationalist programme and activities were those which lasted and after each
\n\twave of repression and depression renewed the thread of the life of the
\n\tmovement for liberation and kept it recognisably one throughout nearly fifty
\n\tyears of its struggle. But the greatest thing done in those years was the
\n\tcreation of a new spirit in the country. In the enthusiasm that swept
\n\tsurging everywhere with the cry of Bande Mataram ringing on all sides men
\n\tfelt it glorious to be alive and dare and act together and hope; the old
\n\tapathy and timidity was broken and a force created which nothing could
\n\tdestroy and which rose again and again in wave after wave till it carried
\n\tIndia to the beginning of a complete victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the Bande Mataram<\/i> case, Sri Aurobindo became
\n\tthe recognised leader of Nationalism in Bengal. He led the party at the
\n\tsession of the Bengal Provincial Conference at Midnapore where there was a
\n\tvehement clash between the two parties. He now for the first time became a
\n\tspeaker on the public platform, addressed large meetings at Surat and
\n\tpresided over the Nationalist conference there. He stopped at several
\n\tplaces on his way back to Calcutta and was the speaker at large meetings
\n\tcalled to hear him. He led the party again at the session of the Provincial
\n\tConference at Hooghly. There it became evident for the first time that
\n\tNationalism was gaining the ascendant, for it commanded  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 32<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\ta majority among the
\n\tdelegates and in the Subjects Committee Sri Aurobindo was able to defeat the
\n\tModerates’ resolution welcoming the Reforms and pass his own resolution
\n\tstigmatising them as utterly inadequate and unreal and rejecting them. But
\n\tthe Moderate leaders threatened to secede if this was maintained and to
\n\tavoid a scission he consented to allow the Moderate resolution to pass, but
\n\tspoke at the public session explaining his decision and asking the
\n\tNationalists to acquiesce in it in spite of their victory so as to keep some
\n\tunity in the political forces of Bengal. The Nationalist delegates, at first
\n\ttriumphant and clamorous, accepted the decision and left the hall quietly at
\n\tSri Aurobindo’s order so that they might not have to vote either for or
\n\tagainst the Moderate resolution. This caused much amazement and discomfiture
\n\tin the minds of the Moderate leaders who complained that the people had
\n\trefused to listen to their old and tried leaders and clamoured against them,
\n\tbut at the bidding of a young man new to politics they had obeyed in
\n\tdisciplined silence as if a single body.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAbout this period Sri Aurobindo had decided to take up
\n\tcharge of a Bengali daily, Nava Shakti,<\/i>
\n\tand had moved from his rented house in Scotts Lane, where he had been living
\n\twith his wife and sister, to rooms in the office of this newspaper, and
\n\tthere, before he could begin this new venture, early one morning while he
\n\twas still sleeping, the police charged up the stairs, revolver in hand, and
\n\tarrested him. He was taken to the police station and thence to Alipore Jail
\n\twhere he remained for a year during the magistrate’s investigation and the
\n\ttrial in the Sessions Court at Alipore. At first he was lodged for some time"
\n\tin a solitary cell, but afterwards transferred to a large section of the
\n\tjail where. he lived in one huge room
\n\twith the other prisoners in the case; subsequently, after the assassination
\n\tof the approver in the jail, all the prisoners were confined in contiguous
\n\tbut separate cells and met only in the court or in the daily exercise where
\n\tthey could not speak to each other. It was in the second period that Sri
\n\tAurobindo made the acquaintance of most of his fellow accused. In the jail
\n\the spent almost all his time in reading the Gita and the Upanishads and in
\n\tintensive meditation and the practice of Yoga. This he pursued even in the
\n\tsecond interval when he had <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 33<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

\n\tno
\n\topportunity of being alone and had to accustom himself to meditation amid
\n\tgeneral talk and laughter, the playing of games and much noise and
\n\tdisturbance; in the first and third periods he had full opportunity and used
\n\tit to the full. In the Sessions Court the accused were confined in a large
\n\tprisoner’s cage and here during the whole day he remained absorbed in his
\n\tmeditation, attending little to the trial and hardly listening to the
\n\tevidence. C. R. Das, one of his Nationalist collaborators and a famous
\n\tlawyer, had put aside his large practice and devoted himself for months to
\n\tthe defence of Sri Aurobindo, who left the case entirely to him and troubled
\n\tno more about it; for he had been assured from within and knew that he would
\n\tbe acquitted. During this period his view of life was radically changed; he
\n\thad taken up Yoga with the original idea of acquiring spiritual force and
\n\tenergy and divine guidance for his work in life. But now the inner spiritual
\n\tlife and realisation which had continually been increasing in magnitude and
\n\tuniversality and assuming a larger place took him up entirely and his work
\n\tbe\u00adcame a part and result of it and besides far exceeded the service and
\n\tliberation of the country and fixed itself in an aim, previously only
\n\tglimpsed, which was world-wide in its bearing and concerned with the whole
\n\tfuture of humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he came out from jail Sri Aurobindo found the whole
\n\tpolitical aspect of the country altered;
\n\tmost of the Nationalist leaders were in jail or in self-imposed exile and
\n\tthere was a general discouragement and depression, though the feeling in
\n\tthe country had not ceased but was only
\n\tsuppressed and was growing by its suppression. He determined to continue the
\n\tstruggle; he held weekly meetings in Calcutta, but the attendance which had
\n\tnumbered formerly thousands full of enthusiasm, was now only of hundreds and
\n\thad no longer the same force and life. He also went to places in the
\n\tdistricts to speak and at one of these delivered his speech at Uttarpara in
\n\twhich for the first time he spoke publicly of his Yoga and his spiritual
\n\texperiences. He started also two weeklies, one in English and one in
\n\tBengali, the Karmayogin<\/i> and Dharma<\/i> which had a fairly large
\n\tcirculation and were, unlike the Bande Mataram,<\/i>
\n\teasily self-supporting. He attended and spoke at the Provincial Conference
\n\tat Barisal in 1909: for <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 34<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n

\n\tin Bengal owing to the compromise at
\n\tHooghly the two parties had not split altogether apart and both joined in
\n\tthe Conference though there could be no representative of the Nationalist
\n\tParty at the meeting of the Central Moderate Body which had taken the place
\n\tof the Congress. Surendra Nath Banerji had indeed called a private
\n\tconference attended by Sri Aurobindo and one or two other leaders of the
\n\tNationalists to discuss a project of uniting the two parties at the session
\n\tin Benares and giving a joint fight to the dominant right wing of the
\n\tModerates; for he had always dreamt of
\n\tbecoming again the leader of a united Bengal with the Extremist Party as his
\n\tstrong right arm: but that would have
\n\tnecessitated the Nationalists being appointed as delegates by the Bengal
\n\tModerates and accepting the constitution imposed at Surat. This Sri
\n\tAurobindo refused to do; he demanded a change in that constitution enabling
\n\tnewly formed associations to elect delegates so that the Nationalists might
\n\tindependently send their representatives to the All-India session and on
\n\tthis point the negotiations broke down. Sri Aurobindo began, however, to
\n\tconsider how to revive the national movement under the changed
\n\tcircumstances. He glanced at the possibility of falling back on a Home Rule
\n\tmovement which the Government could not repress, but this, which was
\n\tactually realised by Mrs. Besant later on, would have meant a postponement
\n\tand a falling back from the ideal of independence. He looked also at the
\n\tpossibility of an intense and organised passive resistance movement in the
\n\tmanner afterwards adopted by Gandhi. He
\n\tsaw, however, that he himself could not be the leader of such a movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAt no time did he consent to have anything to do with the
\n\tsham Reforms which were all the Government at that period cared to offer. He
\n\theld up always the slogan of ‘no
\n\tcompromise’ or, as he now put it in his
\n\tOpen Letter to his countrymen published in the Karmayogin,<\/i>
\n\t‘no co-operation without control’.
\n\tIt was only if real political, administrative and financial control
\n\twere given to popular ministers in an elected Assembly that he would have
\n\tanything to do with offers from the British Government. Of this he saw no
\n\tsign until the proposal of the Montagu Reforms in which first something of
\n\tthe kind seemed to appear. He foresaw that the British Government would have
\n\tto begin <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 35<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\ttrying to meet the national
\n\taspiration half-way, but he would not anticipate that moment before it
\n\tactually came. The Mon\u00adtagu Reforms came nine years after Sri Aurobindo had
\n\tretired to Pondicherry and by that time he had abandoned all outward and
\n\tpublic political activity in order to devote himself to his spiritual work,
\n\tacting only by his spiritual force on the movement in India, until his
\n\tprevision of real negotiations between the British Government and the Indian
\n\tleaders was fulfilled by the Cripps’ proposal and the events that came
\n\tafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile the Government were determined to get rid of
\n\tSri Aurobindo as the only considerable obstacle left to the success of
\n\ttheir repressive policy. As they could not send him to the Andamans they
\n\tdecided to deport him. This came to the knowledge of Sister Nivedita and
\n\tshe informed Sri Aurobindo and asked him to leave British India and work
\n\tfrom outside so that his work would not be stopped or totally interrupted.
\n\tSri Aurobindo contented himself with publishing in the Karmayogin <\/i>a
\n\tsigned article in which he spoke of the project of deportation and left the
\n\tcountry what he called his last will and testament; he felt sure that this
\n\twould kill the idea of deportation and in fact it so turned out. Deportation
\n\tleft aside, the Government could only wait for some opportunity for
\n\tprosecution for sedition and this chance came to them when Sri Aurobindo
\n\tpublished in the same paper another signed article reviewing the political
\n\tsituation. The article was sufficiently moderate in its tone and later on
\n\tthe High Court refused to regard it as seditious and acquitted the printer.
\n\tSri Aurobindo one night at the Karmayogin<\/i> office received
\n\tinformation of the Government’s intention to search the office and arrest
\n\thim. While considering what should be his
\n\tattitude, he received a sudden command from above to go to Chandernagore in
\n\tFrench India. He obeyed the command at once, for it was now his rule to move
\n\tonly as he was moved by the divine guidance and never to resist and depart
\n\tfrom it; he did not stay to consult with anyone, but in ten minutes was at
\n\tthe river ghāṭ<\/i> and in a boat plying on the Ganges;
\n\tin a few hours he was at Chandernagore where he went into secret residence.
\n\tHe sent a message to Sister Nivedita asking her to take up the editing of
\n\tthe Karmayogin<\/i> in his absence. This was the end <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 36<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\tof his active connection with his
\n\ttwo journals. At Chandernagore he plunged entirely into solitary meditation and ceased all other
\n\tactivity. Then there came to him a call to proceed to Pondi\u00adcherry. A boat
\n\tmanned by some young revolutionaries of Uttarpara took him to Calcutta;
\n\tthere he boarded the Dupleix<\/i> and reached Pondicherry on April 4,1910.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAt Pondicherry, from this time onwards Sri Aurobindo’s practice of Yoga became more and more absorbing. He dropped all
\n\tparticipation in any public political activity, refused more than one
\n\trequest to preside at sessions of the restored Indian National Congress and
\n\tmade a rule of abstention from any public utterance of any kind not
\n\tconnected with his spiritual activities or any contribution of writings or
\n\tarticles except what he wrote afterwards in the Arya.<\/i> For some years
\n\the kept up some private communication with the revolutionary forces he had
\n\tled, through one or two individuals, but this also he dropped after a time
\n\tand his abstention from any kind of participation in poli\u00adtics became
\n\tcomplete. As his vision of the future grew clearer, he saw that the eventual
\n\tindependence of India was assured by the march of forces of which he became
\n\taware, that Britain would be compelled by the pressure of Indian resistance
\n\tand by the pressure of international events to concede independence and that
\n\tshe was already moving towards that eventuality with what\u00adever opposition
\n\tand reluctance. He felt that there would be no need of armed insurrection
\n\tand that the secret preparation for it could be dropped without injury to
\n\tthe Nationalist cause, al\u00adthough the revolutionary spirit had to be
\n\tmaintained and would be maintained intact. His own personal intervention in
\n\tpolitics would therefore be no longer indispensable. Apart from all this,
\n\tthe magnitude of the spiritual work set before him became more and more
\n\tclear to him, and he saw that the concentration of all his energies on it
\n\twas necessary. Accordingly, when the Ashram came into existence, he kept it
\n\tfree from all political connections or action; even when he intervened in
\n\tpolitics twice afterwards on special occasions, this intervention was purely
\n\tpersonal and the Ashram was not concerned in it. The British Government and
\n\tnumbers of people besides could not believe that Sri Aurobindo had ceased
\n\tfrom all political action and it was supposed  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 37<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\tby them that he was secretly
\n\tparticipating in revolutionary activities and even creating a secret
\n\torganisation in the security of French India. But all this was pure
\n\timagination and rumour and there was nothing of the kind. His retirement
\n\tfrom political activity was complete, just as was his personal retirement
\n\tinto solitude in 1910.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tBut this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he
\n\thad retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further
\n\tinterest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for
\n\tthe very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and
\n\tattain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and
\n\tall world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action
\n\tand to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In his
\n\tretirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the
\n\tworld and in India and actively intervened whenever necessary, but solely
\n\twith a spiritual force and silent spiritual action; for it is part of the
\n\texperience of those who have advanced far in Yoga that besides the ordinary
\n\tforces and activities of the mind and life and body in Matter, there are
\n\tother forces and powers that can act and do act from behind and from above;
\n\tthere is also a spiritual dynamic power which can be possessed by those who
\n\tare advanced in the spiritual consciousness, though all do not care to
\n\tpossess or, possessing, to use it, and this power is greater than any other
\n\tand more effective. It was this force which, as soon as he had attained to
\n\tit, he used, at first only in a limited field of personal work, but
\n\tafterwards in a constant action upon the world forces. He had no reason to
\n\tbe dissatisfied with the results or to feel the necessity of any other kind
\n\tof action. Twice, however, he found it advisable to take in addition other
\n\taction of a public kind. The first was in relation to the Second World War.
\n\tAt the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it
\n\tappeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism
\n\tdominate the world, he began to intervene. He declared himself publicly on
\n\tthe side of the Allies, made some financial contributions in answer to the
\n\tappeal for funds and encouraged those who sought his advice to enter the
\n\tarmy or share in the war effort. Inwardly, he put his <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 38<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\tspiritual force behind the Allies
\n\tfrom the moment of Dunkirk when everybody was expecting the immediate fall
\n\tof England and the definite triumph of Hitler, and he had the satisfaction
\n\tof seeing the rush of German victory almost immediately arrested and the
\n\ttide of war begin to turn in the opposite direction. This he did, because he
\n\tsaw that behind Hitler and Nazism were dark
\n\tAsuric forces and that their success would mean the enslavement of
\n\tmankind to the tyranny of evil, and a set-back to the course of evolution
\n\tand especially to the spiritual evolution of mankind
\n\t: it would lead also to the enslavement
\n\tnot only of Europe but of Asia, and in it of India, an enslavement far more
\n\tterrible than any this country had ever endured, and the undoing of all the
\n\twork that had been done for her liberation. It was this reason also that
\n\tinduced him to support publicly the Cripps’ offer and to press the Congress
\n\tleaders to accept it. He had not, for various reasons, intervened with his
\n\tspiritual force against the Japanese aggression until it became evident that
\n\tJapan intended to attack and even invade and conquer India. He allowed
\n\tcertain letters he had written in support of the war affirming his views of
\n\tthe Asuric nature and inevitable outcome of Hitlerism to become public. He supported the Cripps’
\n\toffer because by its acceptance India and Britain could stand united against
\n\tthe Asuric forces and the solution of Cripps could be used as a step towards
\n\tindependence. When negotiations failed, Sri Aurobindo returned to his reliance on the use of spiritual force alone against
\n\tthe aggressor and had the satisfaction of seeing the tide of Japanese
\n\tvictory, which had till then swept everything before it,
\n\tchange immediately into a tide of rapid,
\n\tcrushing and finally immense and overwhelming defeat. He had also after a
\n\ttime the satisfaction of seeing his previsions about the future of India
\n\tjustify themselves so that she stands independent with whatever internal
\n\tdifficulties.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The only
\n\ttelegram to the Secretary of the Viceroy was one accompanying a donation of
\n\tRs.1000\/- to the War Fund which was meant
\n\tas a mark of Sri Aurobindo’s adhesion to
\n\tthe cause of the Allies against the Axis. There was also a letter to the<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 39<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Governor of Madras forwarding
\n\tanother contribution along with a statement of his views about the War which
\n\twas published. Besides this, other contributions were made direct to France.
\n\tLater on, letters supporting the War were made public. As for
\n\tCripps’ offer,
\n\tit was supported in a long telegram sent not to the Viceroy’s secretary but
\n\tto Cripps himself after his broadcast in which he announced the offer.1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSRI AUROBINDO’S
\n\tPOLITICAL STANDPOINT AND PACIFISM\u00b2<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThere
\n\tseems to be put forth here and in several places the idea that Sri
\n\tAurobindo’s political standpoint was entirely pacifist, that he was opposed
\n\tin principle and in practice to all violence and that he denounced
\n\tterrorism, insurrection etc. as entirely forbidden by the spirit and letter
\n\tof the Hindu religion. It is even suggested that he was a forerunner of
\n\tMahatma Gandhi and gospel of Ahimsa. This
\n\tis-quite incorrect and, if left, would give a wrong idea about Sri
\n\tAurobindo. He has given his ideas on the subject, generally, in the
\n\tEssays on the Gita,<\/i> First Series
\n\t(Chapter VI) where he supports the Gita’s idea of Dharma Yuddha and
\n\tcriticises, though not expressly, the Gandhian ideas of soul-force. If he
\n\thad held the pacifist ideal, he would never have supported the Allies (or
\n\tanybody else) in this War, still less sanctioned some of his disciples
\n\tjoining the Army as airmen, soldiers, doctors, electricians, etc. The
\n\tdeclarations and professions quoted in the book are not his, at the most
\n\tthey may have been put forward by his lawyers or written (more prudentially
\n\tthan sincerely) by colleagues in the Bande Mataram.<\/i>
\n\tThe rule of confining political action to passive resistance was adopted as
\n\tthe best policy for the National Movement at that stage and not as part of a
\n\tgospel of Non-violence or Peace. Peace is part of the highest ideal, but it
\n\tmust be spiritual or at the very least psychological in its basis;
\n\twithout a change in human nature it cannot come with any finality. If
\n\tit is attempted on any other basis (mental principle,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t  ‘
\n\tSee Section VIII for the telegrams and letters mentioned in this note.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t 2<\/sup> A portion of this note with
\n\tslight modifications has been incorporated in the preceding general note on
\n\tSri Aurobindo’s political life. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage – 40<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\nor gospel of Ahimsa or
\nany other) it will fail, and even may leave things worse than before. He is in
\nfavour of an attempt to put down war by international agreement and
\ninternational force, what is now contemplated in the "New Order", if that proves
\npossible, but that would not be Ahimsa, it would be a putting down of anarchic
\nforce by legal force, and one cannot be sure that it would be permanent. Within
\nnations this sort of peace has been secured, but it does not prevent occasional
\ncivil wars and revolutions and political outbreaks and repressions, sometimes of
\na sanguinary character. The same might happen to a similar world-peace. Sri
\nAurobindo has never concealed his opinion that a nation is entitled to attain
\nits freedom by violence, if it can do so or if there is no other way; whether it
\nshould do so or not, depends on what is the best policy, not on ethical
\nconsiderations of the Gandhian kind. Sri Aurobindo’s position and practice in
\nthis matter was the same as Tilak’s and that of other Nationalist leaders who
\nwere by no means Pacifists or worshippers of Ahimsa. Those of them who took a
\nshare in revolutionary activities, kept a veil over them for reasons which need
\nnot be discussed now. Sri Aurobindo knew of all these things and took his own
\npath, but he has always remained determined not to lift the veil till the proper
\ntime comes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt follows that the passages which convey the opposite idea
\nmust be omitted in the interests of Truth or rewritten. Nothing need be said
\nabout the side of the Nationalist activities of that time in connection with Sri
\nAurobindo.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nBHUPENDRANATH DUTT AS THE EDITOR OF YUGANTAR<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIn the
\ninterests of truth this name should be omitted. Bhupen Dutt was at the time only
\nan obscure hand in the Yugantar<\/i> office incapable of writing anything
\nimportant and an ordinary recruit in the revolutionary ranks quite incapable of
\nleading anybody, not even himself. When the police searched the office of the
\nnewspaper, he came forward and in a spirit of bravado declared himself the
\neditor, although that was quite untrue. Afterwards he wanted to defend himself,
\nbut it was decided that the<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage – 41<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n\tYugantar,<\/span><\/i>
\n\ta paper ostentatiously revolutionary advocating armed insurrection, could
\n\tnot do that and must refuse to plead in a British court. This position was
\n\tafterwards maintained throughout and greatly enhanced the prestige of the
\n\tpaper. Bhupen was sentenced, served his term and subsequently went to
\n\tAmerica. This at the time was his only title to fame. The real editors or
\n\twriters of Yugantar<\/i> (for there was no declared editor) were Barin,
\n\tUpen Banerji, (also a sub-editor of the
\n\tBande Mataram)<\/i> and Debabrata Bose who subsequently joined the
\n\tRamakrishna Mission (being acquitted in
\n\tthe Alipur case) and was prominent among the Sannyasis at Almora and was a
\n\twriter in the Mission’s journals. Upen and Debabrata were masters of
\n\tBengali prose and it was their writings and Barin’s
\n\tthat gained an unequalled popularity for the paper. These are the facts, but
\n\tit will be sufficient to omit Bhupen’s name.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tSri
\n\tAurobindo was now in Calcutta and he was in his element. He had given up his
\n\t<\/span>
\n\tBaroda<\/span>
\n\tjob, its settled salary and seductive prospects without any hesitation<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri
\n\tAurobindo was present at the Congress in 1904 and again in 1906 and took a
\n\tpart in the counsels of the Extremist Party and in the formation of its
\n\tfourfold programme \u2014 "Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education"\u2014which
\n\tthe Moderate leaders after a severe tussle behind the scenes were obliged to
\n\tincorporate in the resolutions of 1906. Bepin Pal had just started a daily
\n\tpaper Bande Mataram<\/i> with only 500 rupees in his pocket. Sri Aurobindo
\n\ttook up the joint editorship of the Journal, edited the paper during Bepin
\n\tPal’s absence and induced the Nationalist Party to take it up as their organ
\n\tand finance it. He called a meeting of the party leaders at which it was
\n\tdecided at his instance to give up the behind-the-scenes jostlings with the
\n\tModerates, and declare an open war on Moderatism and place before the
\n\tcountry what was practically a revolutionary propaganda. He gave up his
\n\tBaroda job some time after this; he had taken indefinite leave without pay;
\n\tfor this reason he did not take up officially and publicly the editorship of
\n\tthe Bande Mataram <\/i>although after Bepin Pal left that post, he was
\n\tpractically<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 42<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

in full
\n\tcontrol of the policy of the paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Bengal
\n\tNational College was founded and Sri Aurobindo became its Principal. But
\n\towing to differen\u00adces with the College
\n\tauthorities he resigned his position.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tAt an
\n\tearly period he left the organisation of the College to the educationist
\n\tSatish Mukherji and plunged fully into politics. When the Bande Mataram<\/i>
\n\tcase was brought against him he resigned his post in order not to embarrass
\n\tthe College authorities but resumed it again on his acquittal. During the Alipore case he resigned finally at the request of the College authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThere was
\n\tno difference of opinion [with the College authorities]
\n\t; the resignation was because of the
\n\tBande Mataram<\/i> case, so as not to embarrass the authorities. After the
\n\tacquittal, the College recalled him to his post. The final resignation was
\n\tgiven from the Alipur jail.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tSATISH MUKHERJI<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tI knew
\n\tSatish Mukherji when he was organising the Bengal National College
\n\t(1905-07), but afterwards I had no contact with him any longer. Even at that
\n\ttime we were not intimate and I knew nothing about his spiritual life or
\n\tattainments \u2014 except that he was a disciple of Bejoy Goswami \u2014 as were also
\n\tother political co-workers and leaders, like Bepin Pal and Manoranjan Guha. I knew Satish Mukherji only as a very able and active organiser in
\n\tthe field of education \u2014 a mission prophetically assigned to him, I was
\n\ttold, by his Guru, \u2014 nothing more.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter resigning
\n\tfrom the Bengal National College Sri Aurobindo was free to associate himself
\n\tactively with the Nationalist Party and its organ the
\n\t"Bande Mataram’".<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was done long before that as the above account will
\n\tshow.<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 43<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\n\tSRI AUROBINDO’S POLITICAL POLICY IN <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n\tTHE "BANDE MATARAM" ARTICLES<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tAs <\/b>a politician
\n\tit was part of Sri Aurobindo’s principles never to appeal to the British
\n\tpeople; that he would have considered as part of the mendicant policy. These
\n\tarticles and other items (satiric verse, parodies, etc.) in the Bande
\n\tMataram<\/i> referred to in these pages (not of course Vidula<\/i> and
\n\tPerseus)<\/i> were the work of Shyam Sundar Chakravarti, not of Sri
\n\tAurobindo. Shyam Sundar was a witty parodist and could write with much
\n\thumour as also with a telling rhetoric; he had caught up some imitation of
\n\tSri Aurobindo’s style and many could not distinguish between their writings.
\n\tIn Sri Aurobindo’s absence from Calcutta it was Shyam Sundar who wrote most
\n\tof the Bande Mataram<\/i> editorials, those excepted which were sent by
\n\tSri Aurobindo from Deoghar.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSri Aurobindo
\n\tnever brought any rancour into his politics. He never had any hatred for
\n\tEngland or the English people; he based his claim for freedom for India on
\n\tthe inherent right to freedom, not on any charge of misgovernment or
\n\toppression; if he attacked persons even violently, it was for their views or
\n\tpolitical action, not from any other motive.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\tEarlier in
\n\tthe year 1907 he had been prosecuted in connection with his editorship of
\n\tthe ””Bande Mataram"
\n\tand the series of articles he wrote in it under the heading,
\n\t"The New Path".<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tNo \u2014 the prosecution was for a
\n\tletter written by somebody to the Editor and for the publication of articles
\n\tincluded in the Yugantar<\/i> case but not actually used by the
\n\tprosecution. The Bande Mataram<\/i> was never prosecuted for its editorial
\n\tarticles. The editor of The Statesman<\/i> complained that they were too
\n\tdiabolically clever, crammed full of sedition between the lines, but legally
\n\tunattackable because of the skill of the language. The Government must have
\n\tshared this view, for they never ventured <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 44<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\tto attack the paper for its editorial or other articles,
\n\twhether Sri Aurobindo’s or from the pen of his three editorial colleagues.
\n\tThere is also the fact that Sri Aurobindo never based his case for freedom
\n\ton racial hatred or charges of tyranny or misgovernment, but always on the inalienable right of the nation to
\n\tindependence. His stand was that even good government could not take the
\n\tplace of national government \u2014 independence.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\tThe
\n\tprosecution had failed and he was acquitted, but it had succeeded, if
\n\tanything, only in putting him to the forefront and making the Indian
\n\tintelligentsia only more than ever eager to read the "Bande Mataram\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSri Aurobindo had confined himself
\n\tto writing and leadership behind the scenes, not caring to advertise himself
\n\tor put forward his personality, but the imprisonment and exile of other
\n\tleaders and the publicity given to his name by the case compelled him to
\n\tcome forward and take the lead on the public platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

From 1904 an
\n\textremist section had been formed in the Congress and its members were
\n\twaiting for the Congress to meet at Bombay to make themselves felt.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is not clear to what this refers.
\n\tIn 1904 the Extremist Party had not been publicly formed, although there was
\n\tan advanced section in the Congress, strong in Maharashtra but still small
\n\tand weak elsewhere and composed mostly of young men; there were sometimes
\n\tdisputes behind the scenes, but nothing came out in public. These men of
\n\textremer views were not even an organised group; it was Sri Aurobindo who in
\n\t1906 persuaded this group in Bengal to take public position as a party,
\n\tproclaim Tilak as their leader and enter into a contest with the Moderate
\n\tleaders for the control of the Congress and of public opinion and action in
\n\tthe country. The first great public clash between the two parties took place
\n\tin the sessions of the Congress at Calcutta where Sri Aurobindo was present
\n\tbut still working behind the scenes, the second at the Bengal Provincial
\n\tConference at Midnapore where he for the first time acted publicly as the
\n\tleader of the<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 45<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Bengal Nationalists, and the final
\n\tbreak took place at Surat in 1907<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


\n\tMuslims, the descendants of foreigners, favoured the partition of Bengal.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThis would seem to indicate that all
\n\tthe Mohammedans in India are descendants of foreigners, but the idea of two
\n\tnationa\u00adlities in India is only a new-fangled notion invented by Jinnah for
\n\this purposes and contrary to the facts. More than 90% of the Indian
\n\tMussalmans are descendants of converted Hindus and belong as much to the
\n\tIndian nation as the Hindus them\u00adselves. This process of conversion has
\n\tcontinued all along; Jinnah is himself a descendant of a Hindu, converted in
\n\tfairly recent times, named Jinahbhai and many of the most famous Mohammedan
\n\tleaders have a similar origin.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tAssam had a majority of Muslims.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe majority in Assam is made up of the Hindus and tribal
\n\tpeople; in Assam proper the Mussalmans are only 20 % of the population. The
\n\tbalance has been altered by the inclusion of Sylhet, a Bengali district in
\n\tAssam, but even so the non-Mussalmans predominate. At present a Congress
\n\tGovernment is in power in Assam elected by a large majority and Assam is
\n\tvehemently refusing to be grouped with Mussalman Bengal in the new
\n\tconstitution <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tSRI AUROBINDO’S
\n\tPART IN THE BARISAL<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\tCONFERENCE IN 1906<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\tSri Aurobindo took part in the
\n\tBarisal Conference and was in the front row of three persons in the
\n\tprocession which was dispersed by the police charge. After the breaking up
\n\tof the Conference he accompanied Bepin Pal in a tour of East Bengal where
\n\tenormous meetings were held, \u2014 in one district in spite of the prohibition
\n\tof the District Magistrate. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 46<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n


\n\tTHE SURAT CONGRESS OF DECEMBER 1907<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n\t <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

This version does not represent
\n\tactually the facts as Sri Aurobindo remembers them. So far as he knows there
\n\twas no attempt at fire. The session of the Congress had first been arranged
\n\tat Nagpur, but Nagpur was predominantly a Mahratta city and violently
\n\textremist. Gujerat was at that time predominantly Moderate, there were very
\n\tfew Nationalists and Surat was a stronghold of Moderatism though afterwards
\n\tGujerat became, especially after Gandhi took the lead, one of the most
\n\trevolutionary of the provinces. So the Moderate leaders decided to hold the
\n\tCongress at Surat. The Nationalists however came there in strength from all
\n\tparts, they held a public conference with Sri Aurobindo as President and for
\n\tsome time it was doubtful which side would have the majority, but finally in
\n\tthis Moderate city that party was able to bring in a crowd of so-called
\n\tdelegates up to the number of 1300 while the Nationalists were able by the
\n\tsame method to muster something over 1100. It was known that the Moderate
\n\tleaders had prepared a new constitution for the Congress which would make it
\n\tpractically impossible for the extreme party to command a majority at any
\n\tannual session for many years to come. The younger Nationalists, especially
\n\tthose from Maharashtra, were determined to prevent this by any means and it
\n\twas decided by them to break the Congress if they could not swamp it; this
\n\tdecision was unknown to Tilak and the older leaders. But it was known to Sri
\n\tAurobindo. At the sessions Tilak went on to the platform to propose a
\n\tresolution regarding the presidentship of the Congress; the President
\n\tappointed by the Moderates refused to him the permission to speak, but Tilak
\n\tinsisted on his right and began to read his resolution and speak. There was
\n\ta tremendous uproar, the young Gujerati volunteers lifted up chairs over the
\n\thead of Tilak to beat him. At that the Mahrattas became furious, a Mahratta
\n\tshoe came hurtling across the pavilion aimed at the President, Dr. Rash
\n\tBehari Ghosh, and hit Surendra Nath Banerji on the shoulder. The young
\n\tMahrattas in a body charged up to the platform, the Moderate leaders fled;
\n\tafter a short fight on the platform with chairs, the session broke up not to
\n\tbe resumed.<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 47<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\tThe Moderate leaders decided to
\n\tsuspend the Congress and replace it by a national conference with a
\n\tconstitution and arrangement which would make it safe for their party.
\n\tMeanwhile, Lajpatrai came to Tilak and informed him that the Government had
\n\tdecided, if the Congress split, to crush the Extremists by the most ruthless
\n\trepression. Tilak thought, and the events proved that he was right, that the
\n\tcountry was not yet ready to face successfully such a repression and he
\n\tproposed to circumvent both the Moderate plan and the Government plan by the
\n\tNationalists joining the Conference and signing the statement of adhesion
\n\tto the new constitution demanded by the Moderates. Sri Aurobindo and some
\n\tother leaders were opposed to this submission; they did not believe that the
\n\tModerates would admit any Nationalists to their conference (and this proved
\n\tto be the case) and they wanted the country to be asked to face the
\n\trepression. Thus the Congress ceased for a time to exist; but the Moderate
\n\tConference was not a success and was attended only by small and always
\n\tdwindling numbers. Sri Aurobindo had hoped that the country would be strong
\n\tenough to face the repression, at least in Bengal and Maharashtra,
\n\twhere the enthusiasm had become intense and almost universal; but he
\n\tthought also that even if there was a temporary collapse the repression
\n\twould create a deep change in the hearts and minds of the people and the
\n\twhole nation would swing over to Nationalism and the ideal of independence.
\n\tThis actually happened and when Tilak returned from jail in Burma after six
\n\tyears, he was able in conjunction with Mrs. Besant not only to revive the
\n\tCongress but to make it representative of a nation pledged to the
\n\tNationalist cause. The Moderate Party shrank into a small body of liberals
\n\tand even these finally subscribed to the ideal of complete independence.<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Nationalists wanted to propose Lajpatrai as
\n\tPresident, not Tilak.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tNo Nationalist leader was seated on the dais. <\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 48<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n

\n\tHistory very seldom records the
\n\tthings that were decisive but took place behind the veil; it records the
\n\tshow in front of the curtain. Very few people know that it was I (without
\n\tconsulting Tilak) who gave the order that led to the breaking of the
\n\tCongress and was responsible for the refusal to join the new\u00adfangled
\n\tModerate Convention which were the two decisive happenings at Surat. Even my
\n\taction in giving the movement in Bengal its militant turn or founding the
\n\trevolutionary movement is very little known.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tSRI AUROBINDO’S IMPRESSION OF GOKHALE<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter an
\n\thour’s conversation with Gokhale in the train between Ahmedabad and Baroda
\n\tit was impossible for Sri Aurobindo to retain any great respect for Gokhale
\n\tas a politician, whatever his merits as a man.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tThe "political tour" on his way to Calcutta after the
\n\tSurat Congress.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThere was
\n\tno tour. Sri Aurobindo went to Poona with Lele and after his return to
\n\tBombay went to Calcutta. All the speeches he made were at this time (except
\n\tthose at Bombay and at Baroda) at places on his way wherever he stopped for
\n\ta day or two.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSri Aurobindo’s "mood of inexplicable serenity" before
\n\this speech at <\/i><\/span>Bombay on 19.1.1908.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tNot
\n\tinexplicable certainly; it was the condition of silence of the mind to which
\n\the had come by his meditation for 3 days with Lele n Baroda and which he
\n\tkept for many months and indeed always thereafter, all activity proceeding
\n\ton the surface; but at that time there was no activity on the surface. Lele
\n\ttold him to make namaskāra<\/i> to the audience and wait and speech would
\n\tcome to him from some other source than the mind. So, in fact, the speech
\n\tcame, and ever since all speech, writing, thought and outward <\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 49<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n

\n\tactivity have so come to him from the same source
\n\tabove the brain-mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe
\n\tpassage bracketed should be omitted. It tends to give an incorrect
\n\timpression about the nature of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and of what was
\n\thappening in him at the time. The Yoga was going on in him all the time,
\n\teven during all his outward action but he was not withdrawn into himself or
\n\t"dazed" as some of his friends thought. If he did not reply to questions or
\n\tsugges\u00adtions it was because he did not wish to and took refuge in silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEARLY SPIRITUAL
\n\tEXPERIENCES BEFORE <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\tMEETING LELE IN
\n\t1908<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat Lele
\n\tasked him was whether he could surrender himself entirely to the Inner Guide
\n\twithin him and move as it moved him; if so he
\n\tneeded no instructions from Lele or anybody else. This Sri Aurobindo
\n\taccepted and made that his rule of Sadhana and of life. Before he met Lele,
\n\tSri Aurobindo had some spiritual experiences, but that was before he knew
\n\tanything about Yoga or even what Yoga was, \u2014 e.g., a vast calm which
\n\tdescended upon him at the moment when he stepped first on Indian soil after
\n\this long absence, in fact with his first step on the Apollo Bunder in
\n\tBombay: (this calm surrounded him and remained for long months afterwards);
\n\tthe realisation of the vacant Infinite while walking on the ridge of the Takhti-Suleman in Kashmir; the living presence of Kali in a shrine on the
\n\tbanks of the Narmada; the vision of the Godhead surging up from within when
\n\tin danger of a carriage accident in Baroda in the first year of his stay,
\n\tetc. But these were inner experiences coming of themselves and with a
\n\tsudden unexpectedness, not part of a Sadhana. He started Yoga by himself
\n\twithout a Guru, getting the rule from a friend, a disciple of Brahmananda of
\n\tGanga Math; it was confined at first to assiduous practice of prāṇāyāma<\/i>
\n\t(at one time for 6 hours or more a day) There was no conflict or wavering
\n\tbetween Yoga and politics; when he started Yoga, he carried on <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 50<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

both without any idea of opposition
\n\tbetween them. He wanted however to find a Guru. He met a Naga Sannyasi in
\n\tthe course of this search, but did not accept him as Guru, though he was
\n\tconfirmed by him in a belief in Yoga-power when he saw him cure Barin in
\n\talmost a moment of a violent and clinging hill-fever by merely cutting
\n\tthrough a glassful of water crosswise with a knife while he repeated a
\n\tsilent Mantra. Barin drank and was cured. He also met Brahmananda and was
\n\tgreatly impressed by him; but he had no helper or Guru in Yoga till he met
\n\tLele and that was only for a short time. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tBhavani Mandir \u2014 in those revolutionary days…<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\tBhavani
\n\tMandir<\/span><\/i> was written by Sri Aurobindo but it was
\n\tmore Barin’s idea than his. It was not meant to train people for
\n\tassassination but for revolutionary preparation of the country. The idea
\n\twas soon dropped as far as Sri Aurobindo was concerned, but something of the
\n\tkind was attempted by Barin in the Manicktala Garden and it is to this
\n\tevidently that Hemchandra refers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tSri Aurobindo does not remember anything of this kind nor
\n\tof any formal decision to abandon the Bhavani Mandir idea. This selection of
\n\ta site and a head of the monastery must have been simply an idea of Barin.
\n\tHe had travelled among the hills trying to find a suitable place but caught
\n\thill-fever and had to abandon his search and return to Baroda. Subsequently
\n\the went back to Bengal, but Sri Aurobindo did not hear of any discovery of a
\n\tsuitable place. Sakaria Swami was Barin’s Guru: he had been a fighter in the
\n\tMutiny on the rebel side and he showed at the breaking of the Surat Congress
\n\ta vehement patriotic excitement which caused his death because it awoke the
\n\tpoison of the bite of a mad dog which he had reduced to inactivity by a
\n\tprocess of his Yogic will; but Sri Aurobindo would not have chosen him for
\n\tany control of the political side of such an institution. The idea of
\n\tBhavani Mandir simply lapsed of itself. Sri Aurobindo thought no more about
\n\tit, but Barin who clung to the idea tried to establish something like it on
\n\ta small scale in the Manicktala Garden. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 51<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n

\n\tSri
\n\tAurobindo was " handcuffed”1<\/sup> after arrest by the police on
\n\t5.5.1908.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t"Handcuffed"\u2014 No, tied with a rope; this was taken off on
\n\tthe protest of Bhupen Bose, the Congress Moderate leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe hands
\n\twere not tied, the cord was put round his waist, but before leaving the
\n\thouse it was removed on the remonstrance of Bhupendra Nath Bose, the
\n\tModerate leader, who on hearing of the arrest had come to question the
\n\tpolice about its motive.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Alipore
\n\tjail Sri Aurobindo started reading the Gita and learning to live its
\n\tSadhana; he fully appre\u00adhended the true inwardness and glory of "Sanātana
\n\tDharma".<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tIt should
\n\trather be said that he had long tried to apprehend the true inwardness and
\n\tglory of the Indian religious and spiritual tradition, Sanātana Dharma,<\/i>
\n\tand to accept it in its entirety.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\tThe case
\n\tcommenced in the Alipore Magistrate’s
\n\tCourt on May 19, 1908 and continued intermittently for a whole year. Mr.
\n\tBeachcroft, the magistrate, had been with
\n\tSri Aurobindo in Cambridge….
\n\tThe case in due course went up to the Sessions Court and the trial
\n\tcommenced there in October 1908.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe last sentence: "The case…in
\n\tOctober 1908" should come after "year" at the end of the first sentence. The
\n\tpreliminary trial (a very long one) took place before Birley, a young man
\n\tunknown to Sri Aurobindo. Beachcroft was not ‘magistrate’
\n\tbut judge in the Sessions Court.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


\n\tTHE STATEMENT IN THE
\n\tALIPORE COURT<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSri Aurobindo never made a public statement in the <\/b>
\n\tCourt.<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tPage – 52<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

When asked by the Court, he said he
\n\twould leave the case to his lawyers, they would speak for him; he himself
\n\tdid not wish to make any statement or answer the Court’s questions. If any
\n\tsuch statement as the one spoken of was made, it must have been drawn up by
\n\tthe lawyers on his behalf, not made by himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\tWhile in the Alipore jail Sri Aurobindo became ill.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSri
\n\tAurobindo did not fall ill while in prison; he was in normal health except
\n\tfor a superficial ailment for some time which was of no consequence.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\tA year’s
\n\tseclusion and meditation in the Alipore jail worked a great transformation
\n\tin Sri Aurobindo…. Once again \u2014 now as ever \u2014 "service" was his urge to
\n\taction.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe idea was "work" for the country, for the world,
\n\tfinally for the Divine, niṣkāma karma,<\/i> rather than an ideal of
\n\tservice.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSri
\n\tAurobindo’s
\n\t"An Open Letter to My Countrymen" dated July 1909 and the second letter
\n\tdated December 1909.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThere is
\n\tsome confusion here and generally with regard to the two letters. Sri
\n\tAurobindo was not relying upon any change in Government policy for the
\n\teffect of the first letter. He writes clearly that the proposed reforms were
\n\tfalse and unreal and not acceptable. All he says is that if real reforms
\n\tgiving real power or control were offered, even if they gave only partial
\n\tand not complete self-government then the Nationalist Party might accept
\n\tthem as the means towards complete self-government. Till then the
\n\tNationalists would maintain the struggle and their policy of non-cooperation
\n\tand passive resistance. He relied not upon this but upon an intuitive
\n\tperception that the Government would not think it politic or useful to
\n\tdeport him if he left a programme which others could carry out in his
\n\tabsence. Also the <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 53<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\n\tconsiderations about Home Rule and
\n\tcomplete passive resistance had no connection with the first letter,
\n\tbecause they did not occur to Sri Aurobindo at that time. It was afterwards
\n\tabout the period of the second signed letter that he weighed the
\n\tcircumstances and the situation in the country and considered whether it
\n\twould not be necessary for a time to draw back a little in order to make a
\n\tcontinued political action possible, reculer pour mieux sauter,<\/i> as
\n\tthe national movement seemed otherwise threatened with a complete pause. A
\n\tHome Rule movement or a movement of the South African type suggested
\n\tthemselves to him and he foresaw that they might be resorted to in the near
\n\tfuture; but he decided that such movements were not for him to lead and that
\n\the must go on with the movement for independence as it was. In the second
\n\tletter also he rejects the reforms as inadequate and advocates a continuance
\n\tand reorganisation of the Nationalist movement.1<\/sup> This was on
\n\tDecember 25th., five months after the first letter. Sri Aurobindo does not
\n\tunderstand the reference to the coup de force<\/i> and the stratagem: if
\n\tby the coup de force <\/i>is meant the proposed search and arrest, that
\n\twas undertaken in connection with and as a result of the second letter which
\n\twas to be made the subject of a prosecution. As Sri Aurobindo went to
\n\tChandernagore and disappeared from view the search was not made and the
\n\twarrant was held back and the prosecution postponed till he should again
\n\treappear. This happened in February, a month or more after the appearance of
\n\tthe second letter. Sri Aurobindo wanted the police to disclose their hand
\n\tand act, and the stratagem he wrote about was an answer to a letter
\n\tforwarded to him at Chandernagore which he knew to be from a police spy
\n\tasking him to reappear and face his trial. He replied that he had no reason
\n\tto do so as there was no public warrant against him and no prosecution had
\n\tbeen announced; he thought this would have the effect of the police coming
\n\tout into the open with a warrant and prosecution and in fact it had this
\n\teffect.<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t
\n\t\u00b9<\/font>Sri Aurobindo
\n\twould have accepted Diarchy as a step if it had given genuine control. It
\n\twas not till Provincial autonomy was conceded that he felt a real change in
\n\tthe British attitude had begun; the Cripps offer he accepted as a further
\n\tprogress in that change and the final culmination in the Labour Government’s
\n\tnew policy as its consummation.<\/span> \n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPage – 54<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n


\nREASON FOR LEAVING
\nPOLITICS<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I may also say
\nthat I did not leave politics because I felt I could do nothing more there; such
\nan idea was very far from me. I came away because I did not want anything to
\ninterfere with my Yoga and because I got a very distinct ādeśa<\/i> in the
\nmatter. I have cut connection entirely with politics, but before I did so I knew
\nfrom within that the work I had begun there was destined to be carried forward,
\non lines I had foreseen, by others, and that the ultimate triumph of the
\nmovement I had initiated was sure without my personal action or presence. There
\nwas not the least motive of despair or sense of futility behind my withdrawal.
\nFor the rest, I have never known any will of mine for any major event in the
\nconduct of the world-affairs to fail in the end, although it may take a long
\ntime for the world-forces to fulfil it. As for the possibility of failure in my
\nspiritual work, I shall deal with that another time. Difficulties there are, but
\nI see no cause for pessimism or for the certification of failure.<\/span>October,
\n1932<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 55<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

III. THE LEADER OF INDIAN NATIONALISM: 1906-1910 A GENERAL NOTE ON SRI AUROBINDO’S POLITICAL LIFE    There were three sides to Sri Aurobindo’s political ideas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26-on-himself-volume-26","wpcat-11-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","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=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}