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Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Direct Revolutionary Action.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/The Indian Renaissance.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Introduction.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/The British Impact.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/_Sri Aurobindo as a Political Thinker.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Return to India in 1893.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/His Concept of Nation.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Bibliography.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/His Concept of Nationalism.htm
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
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Preface.htm
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