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Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/The Crisis of 1905.htm
5
CRISIS OF 1905, AND THE RISE
OF RADICALISM
IN the previous chapter we reviewed Sri Aurobindo's
political ideas while in Baroda. It is clear that he was looking and waiting for
the best opportunity to serve the cause of his country's freedom. Before 1905,
however, the time for his active participation in politics was not ripe. As one
of his biographers puts it, 'Meanwhile the "mendicant" policy of the "moderates"
continued as the official policy of the Indian National Congress; the political
pulse of the nation was below par; his own province of Bengal—anything but
intrepid at the time—was in no mood to be persuaded by Sri Aurobindo and his
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Index.htm
INDEX
A Nation in the Making, 117
A Survey of Indian History. 5. 6
Abdul Rasul, 123
Advaita Vedanta, 150
Ahimsa, 108
Alexander Cunningham, 12
Alipore Conspiracy Case, 74, 112, 131, 153, 154
Alipore jail, 85, 165
America, 27, 180
Amherst, Lord, 18, 126, 127
Amraoti, 149
Ananda Math, 73, 75, 161, 170
Anglicists, 19, 126 ''.
Anglo-Indians, 56. 138, 163
Annie Besant, 22, 31
Arya, 104
Arya Samaj, 21, 22, 31
Aryan influx, 15
Asia, 179
Ashokan inscriptions, 12
Ashramvas, 158
Atmacharit, 47
Aurangzeb, 3
Aurobindo, Sri
born in Calcutta on August 15, 1872, 35; as a child
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Kulapati^s Preface.htm
-01_Kulapati^s Preface.htm
Cover Page
Let noble thoughts come to us from every side.
Rigveda 1-89-i
KULAPATI'S PREFACE
THE BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN-that Institute of Indian
Culture in Bombay—needed a Book University, a series of
books which, if read, would serve the purpose of providing
higher education. Particular emphasis, however, was to be
put on such literature as revealed the deeper impulsions
of India. As a first step, it was decided to bring out in
English 100 books, 50 of which were to be taken in hand
almost at once. Each book was to contain from 200 to "250
pages.
It is our intention' to publish the "books we select, not
only in English, but also in t
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Foreword.htm
FOREWORD
I HAVE read this little book with much interest and
occasionally with some excitement. It brought to mind the
days of my own boyhood and youth when Sri Aurobindo
was writing his famous articles in the Bande Mataram.
I was then at school in England and later at college in
Cambridge, and was thus rather cut off from events in India
which were seldom reported in England. Nevertheless,
some news trickled through and the great anti-partition
movement in Bengal filled us with enthusiasm. Among the
famous figures of those days, Sri Aurobindo stood out and
drew the admiration of the young. So reading about him
in those days and, more particularly, his articles in the
Bande Matar
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Sri Aurobindo^s Approach to Political Technique.htm
-14_Sri Aurobindo^s Approach to Political Technique.htm
PART IV
SRI AUROBINDO AS A RADICAL
LEADER-HIS TECHNIQUE OF
POLITICAL ACTION
10
SRI AUROBINDO'S APPROACH TO
POLITICAL TECHNIQUE
THE ideal creates the means of attaining the ideal,
if it is itself true and rooted in the destiny of the race.'¹
The previous chapter reviewed the philosophical back-ground of Sri Aurobindo's political thought, founded as it
is on the Idealistic basis of his 'spiritual nationalism'. This
inevitably led to his adopting as the goal of his political
endeavours nothing less than the complete emancipation of
his motherland from foreign rule. If his masterly theoretical
exposition
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Active Politics in 1910 .htm
14
SRI AUROBINDO'S WITHDRAWAL FROM
ACTIVE POLITICS IN 1910
SRI AUROBINDO'S rise as a national leader in the critical years
1905-06 was meteoric. Before this he had been working very
much behind the scenes, but the events connected with the
partition of Bengal forced him to sever his relations with
Baroda and to come into the limelight in Calcutta. With his
inspiring articles in the Bande Mātaram he became almost
overnight a national hero, and the whole of the Bengali intelligentsia waited breathlessly for his stirring pronouncements
on current events. His career of active politics, however,
lasted barely five years, and his subsequent withdrawal
from
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Sri Aurobindo as an Idealist.htm
PART III
THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF
SRI AUROBINDO'S THOUGHT, AND HIS
POLITICAL GOAL.
6
SRI AUROBINDO AS AN IDEALIST -HIS
THEORY OF SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION
THE great thinkers of the world fall within two basic categories of thought, the Idealistic and the Materialistic. Most
Indian Philosophers have been Idealists and this applies to
Sri Aurobindo also, although as we shall see his philosophy
contains some original aspects not to be found in the traditional Hindu systems of thought. While his general philosophical system was finalized and perfected at Pondicherry
after his active political career, it is clear that its contours
began
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/_Passive Resistance and Boycott.htm
13
PASSIVE RESISTANCE AND BOYCOTT
BEFORE proceeding to analyse Sri Aurobindo's views on
passive resistance and boycott, it will be helpful to place
the matter in its historical perspective and take a brief look
at the political developments that led to the birth and
growth of this great movement of national protest against
British rule. The boycott movement that swept Bengal and
had its repercussions in other parts of India can directly be
traced to the ill-fated partition of the Province in 1905 by
Lord Curzon, who forced the measure down the throat of the
Bengalis despite their widespread and vociferous opposition.
It is not necessary here to go i
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/Appendix-Sri Aurobindo^s Independence Day Message.htm
-20_Appendix-Sri Aurobindo^s Independence Day Message.htm
APPENDIX
THE FIFTEENTH OF AUGUST, 1947
AUGUST 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks fur
her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But
we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation an
important date in a new age opening for the whole world,
for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of
humanity.
August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally
gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast
significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous
accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force
that guides my steps on the work with which I began life.
the
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Karan Singh, Dr./English/Prophet of Indian Nationalism/His Political Goal .htm
9
HIS POLITICAL GOAL
SRI AUROBINDO'S political goal for India was
nothing less than complete freedom from foreign domination. He poured scorn and
contempt upon the limited demands of the Moderates for expansion of the
Legislative bodies, progressive Indianization of the Indian Civil Service, tariff
protection for Indian industries and so on. In his view these
minor administrative and economic reforms were utterly
worthless without national freedom.
The question can now be posed as to why Sri
Aurobindo desired nothing less than absolute freedom for his country, at a time
when the idea appeared utterly impractical and impossible of achievement.¹ From
a st