12 DIRECT REVOLUTIONARY ACTION : TERRORISM AND ARMED REVOLT THE choice by a subject nation of the means it will use for vindicating its liberty,' writes Sri Aurobindo, 'is best determined by the circumstances of its servitude'. One of the courses... 'open to an oppressed nation is that of armed revolt. ... This is the old time-honoured method which the oppressed or enslaved have always adopted by preference in the past and will adopt in the future if they see any chance, of success; for it is the readiest and swiftest, the most thorough in its results, and demands the least powers of endurance and suffering and the smallest and briefest sacrifices

2 THE INDIAN RENAISSANCE -MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS REFORM THE reaction to a many-sided impact is also bound to be rich and varied, particularly when the receiving civilization is one of the most ancient and profound in the history of Mankind. The British impact on India led ultimately to an amazing recovery and resurgence among the conquered. It is extremely difficult in a short span even to begin to do justice to this historical phenomenon, and this chapter is confined to outlining a few broad features to indicate the nature of die Indian revival which led to the development of modern Indian nationalism in which Sri Aurobindo was de

INTRODUCTION THIS work deals with the political thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, covering the period from 1893—when he returned to India at the age of 21 after fourteen years in England—to 1910 when he abruptly left Calcutta for Chandemagore and later proceeded to Pondicherry. It thus covers eighteen years, which include a twelve-year preparatory phase during which he lived mainly in Baroda and a brief, though meteoric, career of active politics from 1905 to 1910. The formation in 1885 of the Indian National Congress was an important landmark in the history of modern India. For several years after, its birth it was dominated by the so- called 'Moderate1 or 'Liberal' lead

THE BRITISH IMPACT IN 1498 Vasco da Gama and his tiny fleet comprising three small vessels and a hundred and sixty men landed on Indian territory and cast anchor at Calicut, thus marking the beginning of a new epoch in the long and varied history of India. At the time the event passed almost unnoticed in the country, and indeed for many decades the Europeans were no more than unusually adventurous traders. The whole glory of the Moghul Empire in India lay yet in the future, and no one then could have dreamed that Vasco da Gama's landing was the forerunner of European domination over the entire Asian continent, based firmly upon their maritime supremacy. Yet this was in fact

PART V ASSESSMENT OF SRI AUROBINDO AS A POLITICAL THINKER ASSESSMENT OF SRI AUROBINDO AS A POLITICAL THINKER HAVING surveyed the political thinking of Sri Aurobindo during the period beginning with his return from England in 1898 and ending with his departure for Chandernagore in 1910, we may now attempt a broad assessment of his contribution to modem Indian political thought This can conveniently be done under four headings:— 1. His concept of spiritual nationalism and the divinity of Motherland, which imparted an esoteric significance to the movement for India's liberation; 2. His exposition of the ideal of complet

4 RETURN TO INDIA IN 1893 THE BARODA PERIOD IN 1893, after staying abroad for over fourteen years, Sri Aurobindo returned to India and proceeded to Baroda to take up service in that State. He continued in service there for over thirteen years right up to 1907, though in the later years he often took long leaves of absence to attend to nationalistic activity. Finally the pressure of national events forced him to resign and jump into the very midst of active politics in Bengal, which was in turmoil as the result of Lord Curzon's partition of that Province in 1905. The period 1893-1905 can thus be considered a preparatory phase for Sri Aurobindo's s

7 HIS CONCEPT OF ‛NATION’ ' ALL great movements of life in India have begun with a new spiritual thought and usually a new religious activity.'¹ We have studied earlier how the renaissance in India and the gradual emergence in the nineteenth century of modem Indian nationalism were, in fact, determined largely by the religious and social reform movements resulting from the Western impact on the ancient Hindu culture of India. If Sri Aurobindo's aphorism is to be specifically applied, we might refer it to the publication in 1883 of the celebrated novel Ananda Math by the great Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. It was this book that, as Sri Aurobindo puts

BIBLIOGRAPHY A WORKS BY SRI AUROBINDO GHOSH (Unless otherwise indicated, these works have been published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashrama, Pondicherry.) 1. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1954) 2. Bankim-Tilak-Dayananda (1955) 3. 'Bhawani-Mandir     (published in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual Jayanti Number No. 15, August 15, 1956, Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, Calcutta) 4. The Brain of India (5th Edition 1955) 5. Collected Poems and Plays (2 volumes ) (1942) 6. The Doctrine of Passive Resistance (2nd Ed. 1952 ) 7. Eight Upanishadas (1953) 8. Elements of Yoga (1953) 9. Essays on the Gita (Sri Aurobindo Library, New York) (1950) 10. Evolution (5t

8 HIS CONCEPT OF ‛NATIONALISM’ INDIA was indeed the Mother, but a mother in chains, a mother enslaved and humiliated by alien aggressors, a mother oppressed and starved by her foreign rulers. What is the duty of sons who find their mother, their goddess, reduced to this pitiable plight? If we accept Sri Aurobindo's premise, there is only one answer that he could and did give: they must strive by every possible means to liberate her from her shackles. In this task there can be no compromise, there is no question of bartering or bargaining with the Mother's liberty. Full and complete emancipation can be the only demand. And in the struggle the children must be

Dr. Karan Singh MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT (RAJYA SABHA) 3, NYAYA MARG CHANAKYAPURI NEW DELHI-110 021 PREFACE Now that we have entered the long awaited 21st century a.d., we find that our nation is still beset with numerous problems, and the world at large is torn by conflicts and upheavals of various kinds. The period of Sri Aurobindo's thought covered in this book began over a century ago in 1893 when he returned as a young man of 21 after 14 years as a student in England, and goes up to 1910 when he finally withdrew from politics and went on to become a Mahayogi in Pondicherry. These years were full o