Notes on the Texts

[The General Note on the texts of From Man to Superman published on pages 79-81 of the last issue applies to the pieces in this issue also. The data on manuscript sources and previous publication of these pieces, and the final totals (cf. the footnotes on pages 79 and 80) are as follows:

      The 88 pieces printed in the present issue are taken from 39 manuscripts (34 notebooks and 5 loose sheets). The total number of manuscripts used for the 165 pieces printed in the two issues is 56 (42 notebooks and 14 loose sheets).

      Of the 88 pieces printed in the present issue exactly half (44) are being published here for the first time. 29 appeared previously in journals and 13 previously in books. Parts of 2 others are newly published while parts of the same have appeared previously in a book. The totals for the 165 pieces are as follows: 88 published here for the first time, 41 published previously in a journal, 29 previously in a book, and 7 partly in one category and partly in another.]

Addendum Circa 1915. MS.NB G35, 2, 4-10. Pages 11-15 of the same notebook, written in the same handwriting and at the same time, were published in the Arya in May 1915 under the title "Thoughts and Glimpses" and subsequently as three parts of the book of the same name (SABCL vol. 16,380-85). The asterisks separating the segments of the present piece represent lines of three asterisks in MS. Published The Hour of God and Other Writings (HG) (1972), 149-53, as parts of the editorially titled "Words of the Master".

79 Circa 1940. MS.NB G60, 37-39, 36 (cf. piece 80). There is a draft, of the opening of this piece in MS.LS Glaa (cf. piece 77). The last three sentences of the present piece are taken from an earlier draft slightly longer than the one otherwise used here. Published, along with piece 80, Sri Aurobindo Circle, no. 33 (1977), 1-2, under the editorial title "The Triple Enigma".

80 Circa 1940. MS.NB G60, 45-53 (cf. piece 79). The manuscript is unclear in places: in the second paragraph both occurrences of the word "issue" are doubtful. The asterisk separating the two segments represents a "2" written in MS. The piece was left incomplete by Sri Aurobindo; the full stop at the end was supplied by the editors. Published, along with piece 79, Sri Aurobindo Circle, no. 33 (1977), 2-5.

81 Circa 1937. MS.NB G58, 31. Published here for the first time.

82 1930s. MS.NB G57, 3. The piece may have been written as a letter to a disciple; the page on which it is found, however, was never detached from its "chit-pad". Published here for the first time.

83 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S "S3", 8. Published here for the first time.

84 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 45-49 (cf. piece 7 etc.). The single asterisk separating the two segments represents a triple asterisk in MS. The piece was abandoned before the ideas presented in the last paragraph were worked out. Published here for the first time.

85 Circa 1940. MS.NB G60, 42 (cf. pieces 79 and 80). The phrase "continuous

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meaning" in the second paragraph is a doubtful reading. Printed here for the first time.

86 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 18. There is no full stop at the end of the piece in MS, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 1977), 18.

87 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S unclassified ("Red notebook"), 228. In MS the phrase "until it reaches the nadir of inconscience" was inadvertently written after the almost identical phrase printed at the end of the present piece. Published here for the first time.

88 1930s. MS.NB G48, 20-24. The piece is the incomplete second part of an untitled essay, the first part of which was published HG (1982), 101-05, as "The Evolution of Consciousness". In MS, a triple asterisk separates the two parts of the essay. Both parts published Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 4 (November 1976), the present part on pages 10-16.

89 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S"120", 9. The manuscript is very difficult to read; in one or two places the ink did not flow out of Sri Aurobindo's pen. Published here for the first time.

90 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 6,9. Heading: "1 The Inconscient Energy". Published, along with piece 91, Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 1977), 4-6.

91 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 7-8 (cf. piece 90 and several pieces in Part 1; one of these, piece 50, like the second segment of the present piece, deals with the subject of "Chance"). The single asterisk here represents a triple asterisk in MS. Published, with piece 90, Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 1977), 8-10.

92 Circa l927-28. MS.NB G43,41. Heading "Prologmena". Published HG (1972), 23.

93 Circa 1941-42. MS.NB G60, 142-43. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 2 (April 1978), 6-8.

94 Late 1930s to early 1940s. MS. NB S"96", 3 (cf. piece 95). The piece ends abruptly. Published, along with piece 95, Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 3 (August 1978), 6-8.

95 Late 1930s to early 1940s. MS.NB S"96", 177-75 (from back of book) (cf. pieces 94 and 67). The piece ends inconclusively. Published, along with piece 94, Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 3 (August 1978), 4-6.

96 Late 1916 or early 1917. MS.NB GA6, 2. Heading: "The Psychology of Social Development/VII": this is the title under which the book later published as The Human Cycle originally appeared in the Arya; the seventh instalment of the work, unrelated to the present piece, was published in the issue of February 1917. The present piece published here for the first time.

97 Circa 1917-18. MS.NB G38, 1-3 (cf. pieces 98 and 99; a half-page blank separates the present piece from piece 98). Heading:-"Psychological Maxims". The single asterisk separating the two segments represents a triple asterisk in MS. (In MS there is also a triple asterisk at the end, which has been removed by the editors.) In the second segment, paragraphs was written at the top of MS page 2 — its place of insertion seems to be marked by a caret following paragraph 3; paragraphs 8-10 were written in the margin — their place of insertion has been inferred from context. Published, along with pieces 98 and 99, Sri Aurobindo Circle, no. 32 (1976), 7-9.

98 Circa 1917-18. MS.NB G38, 4-5 (cf. pieces 97 and 99; a half-page blank separates the present piece from piece 99). Published, along with pieces 97 and 99, Sri Aurobindo Circle, no. 32 (1976), 9-10.

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99 Circa 1917-18. MS.NB G38, 6-10 (cf. pieces 97 and 98). In the seventh segment, the third paragraph was written in the margin of MS page 9; its placement is fairly certain because of the repetition of a phrase from the previous paragraph. The placement of the short fourth paragraph, which was written interlinearly, is more doubtful, but certain enough. Published, along with pieces 97 and 98, Sri Aurobindo Circle, no. 32(1976), 10-15.

100 1912-13. MS.NB V4, 180 (cf. piece 101). The piece ends abruptly. Published SABCL vol. 27, 184-85, as a part of "A System of Vedic Psychology"; the MS of the rest of this piece is found in the same notebook. (It should be noted that Sri Aurobindo here uses the term "Vedic" in its widest sense to comprehend all the ancient scriptures of India, making "Vedic" a practical synonym of "Vedantic".)

101 1912-13. MS.NB V4, 179 (Cf. piece 100; the present piece was probably written after that piece, which it faces in MS. There is a close textual relation between the two pieces; the present piece seems to be the revised form, although this would mean that here, contrary to his usual practice, Sri Aurobindo cut back rather than expanded during revision.) The present piece is a little difficult to read; the word "status" in the second to last sentence may be "state". Published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 4 (November 1977), 6-8.

102 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G43, 17-18. The piece is evidently incomplete. Published HG (1972), 21-22.

      Pieces 103 to 105 are examples of notes in which Sri Aurobindo recorded and to some degree systematised psychological observations made by him. They represent an attempt, not proceeded on very far in this form, to establish psychology, including what is currently known as parapsychology, on a more scientific basis. Since the notes differ in kind from the rest of the pieces published here, they have been grouped together in a "sub-subsection" headed by the rubric "Psychological Notes", the MS heading of piece 103.

103 1912-13. MS.NB G32, 3. Heading: "Psychological Notes". Published Archives and Research, vol. 3, no. 2 (December 1979), 194.

104 Circa 1912. MS.NB G26, 109, 108. Also on MS page 108 Sri Aurobindo has jotted down, among other things, "The Psychology of Memory"; this is possibly the title of a proposed work or chapter of a work which would have incorporated the substance of these notes. Published here for the first time.

105 Circa 1929. MS.NB G46, 6-8. (The lottery mentioned in item 2 took place on 7 September 1929. The date of item 3 is partly erroneous: 23 February fell on a Saturday in 1929; probably Monday 25 February was intended.) Published Archives and Research, vol. 4, no. 1 (April 1980), 83.

106 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 12 (cf. pieces 90, 91 etc.). Heading: "Notes on Consciousness" ; the piece is preceded by "1." (no other notes were written). Published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 1977), 12.

107 1 September 1947. The manuscript of the version of the piece published here is not presently available. The handwriting of a draft of the same piece (LS GAlrr, 1-6) shows it to be certainly from the late 1940s. The date given above was printed below the text when the piece was published in The Advent, vol. 33, no. 3 (August 1974), 8-9. Owing to the lack of an MS, the original typed transcript of the Advent

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text has been accepted without alteration. Heading of draft (and of Advent text): "Consciousness".

108 Circa 1936. MS.NB S"90", 1-2, 7 (cf. piece 3). Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 2 (April 1978), 4-6.

109 Circa 1926-27. MS.NB G40, 20. In the third paragraph, Sri Aurobindo first wrote "the morass and the precipice"; he did not cancel this phrase when he inverted the two nouns during revision. In MS there is no full stop at the end of the last sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published here for the first time.

110 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G43, 4. These lines were written (and later bracketted) at the top of an incomplete draft of what was published HG (1982), 5-7, as "The Law of the Way". (The version printed in HG occurs on pages 5-6 of the same notebook.) Published here for the first time.

111 1930s. MS.LS Glx, 1. In MS, there is no full stop at the end of the last sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published here for the first time.

112 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 12. There is no full stop at the end of this short fragment, indicating that work on it was broken off almost immediately after it was begun. Published here for the first time.

113 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 41-44 (cf. piece 114 and piece 84 etc.). Published here for the first time.

114 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 39-40 (cf. piece 113). Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 10.

115 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63,13 (cf. piece 106 etc.). Heading: "Yoga". Published here for the first time.

116 Circa 1930. MS.NB S "119", 4 (cf. pieces 145 etc.). Published here for the first time.

117 1930s. MS.LS Glx, 2. In MS, there is no full stop at the end of the last sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published here for the first time.

118 Circa 1917-18. MS.NB G38, 20 (cf. pieces 97-99 and 119). In MS, there is no full stop at the end of the sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published HG (1972), 46-47, as part of the editorially titled "Web of Yoga".

119 Circa 1917-18. MS.NB G38, 29 (cf. piece 118). There is no full stop at the end of the last sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Heading: "The Web of Yoga". This heading was used as the title of a compilation of several pieces on Yoga published HG (1972), 41-60; the present fragment was the first item in the compilation.

120 Circa 1913. MS.NB GA3, 2. Heading: "The Evolutionary Aim of Yoga". The piece is apparently related to "The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga" (HG (1982), 33-40) and so to piece 122. Published HG (1972), 41-42.

121 Circa 1913. MS.NB V3, 208. Written at the top of the page containing the beginning of piece 122, and then cancelled with a single stroke of the pen. The piece is at least as interesting as other pieces that were simply abandoned but not cancelled, and so it has been thought right to publish it. Published here for the first time.

122 Circa 1913. MS.NB V3, 207-13 + MS.NB GA1, 10. This long piece can be considered a first draft of what, differently developed, became two essays, "The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga" and "The Fullness of Yoga — In Condition" (HG (1982), 33-49). The draft has no heading; after writing sixteen paragraphs, Sri Aurobindo put a double bar to separate it into sections and wrote the rubric "The Fullness of Yoga in condition" before the next paragraph. The first sixteen paragraphs

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correspond in substance to the much expanded essay referred to above, "The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga", which was written shortly after the draft in a different notebook (NBGA3). There is even considerable verbal correspondence between the two pieces: compare the second sentence of the second paragraph of the essay — once the essay's opening sentence — to the opening sentence of the draft (i.e. the present piece); also the fifth sentence of the same paragraph of the essay to the second sentence of the draft, etc. Still, the draft retains enough independent value to warrant its separate publication. After completing "The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga", Sri Aurobindo turned his attention to the second half of the draft. He began by rewriting, in notebook GA1 under the heading "The Fullness of Yoga — In Condition", one and a half paragraphs that follow the V3 draft rather closely. This opening was then abandoned and, in the same notebook, the essay published in HG (1982) as "The Fullness of Yoga — In Condition" was written. (That essay has no heading in MS; the title was taken from the heading of the redrafted opening of one and a half paragraphs that precede it in the notebook. All pieces in HG (1982) were given titles. The title is appropriate for the piece, but it is only explained fully in the penultimate and last paragraphs of the NB V3 draft (i.e. the present piece), to which the title was originally applied.) The text of this part of the present piece (i.e. of the present piece after paragraph 16) is eclectic: the first one and one half paragraphs are reproduced in their redrafted form from NB GA1; the balance is from the original draft in NB V3. Sri Aurobindo left two alternatives in the MS: "man" for "each human individual" (paragraph 20); "Jivatman" for "individual ego" (paragraph 22). The NB V3 draft (i.e. what is published here, but without the substitution of the redrafted opening from NB GA1) published HG (1972), 52-60, as most of part V of "The Web of Yoga".

123 Circa 1920. MS.LS GAli, 2. Heading: "An Introduction to Yoga. / I / The Meaning of Yoga". Published here for the first time.

124 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 25 (cf. pieces 7 etc. and note the occurrence of the phrase "ekam evadvitiyam" in the present piece). The editors have deleted from the end of the piece the following incomplete continuation: "He must become aware". Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 8-10.

125 Circa 1915. MS.NB G35, 16. Heading: "Essays in Yoga/ The Seeds of Yoga". Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 4.

126 1915. MS.NB R14,1. Work on the piece was broken off abruptly, a comma being left after the last word in MS. Published here for the first time.

127 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G43, 19 (cf. piece 29, which the present piece faces in MS, etc.). Published here for the first time.

128 1930s. MS.NB G51, 20 (cf. pieces 154 etc.). There is no full stop at the end in MS, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published here for the first time.

129 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G43, 42 (cf. pieces 57 etc. and 58). Published HG (1972), 23-24.

130 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45,9. This piece and piece 131 were written in the same notebook; both may be not independent pieces but passages intended for insertion in a larger work, perhaps the revised version of The Synthesis of Yoga. (Note, in the first sentence of both pieces, the antecedentless "this".) Written above the present piece in MS are the following passages that were certainly intended for insertion somewhere (perhaps in something written in the first pages of the notebook, which were torn out by Sri Aurobindo):

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not a void Nothing, empty of substance or force, out of which somehow magically proceeded a false world of packed and teeming energies

miserable illusions, capable of bringing out of itself nothing but a vast cosmic error, though itself free from its own error.

Published here for the first time.

131 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 11. See the note to piece 130. Published here for the first time.

132 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S"S7", 107-09. Heading: "Yoga of Devotion". (The first paragraph has "(1)" before it, the third paragraph "2.".) The manuscript is difficult to read, almost illegible towards the end, and is rather defectively punctuated. The editors have indicated where the MS could not be read, supplied needed punctuation and sometimes supplied words that seemed obvious from context in MS in order to maintain the coherence of the piece. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 10-12.

133 Circa 1945. MS.NB G65, 3-5. Heading: "The Yoga of Devotion". The MS of this piece, like that of piece 132, is very difficult to read. In the second to last sentence after "of the spirit" Sri Aurobindo wrote perhaps "in" and another word (for which no ink mark was made), perhaps a single word beginning with "in-", perhaps even the start of an extraneous "united". Whatever he wrote has been deleted editorially. The following fragment has been deleted from the end: "These are the three glories:/ The glory". Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 12-14.

134 1930s. MS.NB G51, 1. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 6.

135 Circa 1926-27. MS.LS G1n, 1 + MS.NB G40,12-13. Heading in both MSS: "The Way of Works"; "Chapter I" added in LS Gln. There are two drafts of the first segment of the piece; the second draft (LS Gln), which has been used here, is an enlargement of the first paragraph of the first draft in NB G40. The second and final segments occur only in NB G40. The single asterisks separating the segments represent groups of asterisks in NB G40. The sixth paragraph of the second segment was written in the margin; its place of insertion is uncertain. The first draft was abandoned abruptly; the second left incomplete. The second draft (the first segment published here) published SABCL vol. 27, 376; the two segments from the first draft published here for the first time.

136 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB R26, 96-98 (cf. piece 15). Most of the first paragraph, from "To bring about" to "from our nature;" , was cancelled in MS. In MS, between the first and second paragraphs, is written the following incomplete passage which the editors have removed from the text, since it was taken up in the second segment:

But if we remain in the ordinary human consciousness, this vast and happy sublimation will always be impossible. For the human consciousness is mental and mind is chained to ignorance; mental personality can act only

At the end of the piece Sri Aurobindo wrote, and then cancelled, the following quotation from Dante's Paradiso: "In la sua voluntade e nostre pace."At the foot of the page he wrote, then cancelled, an English translation: "In his Will is our peace." He then, quite uncharacteristically for a notebook writing, signed his name "Sri Aurobindo Ghose". Published here for the first time.

137 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB R26, 21 (cf. piece 136). Written at the bottom of an MS

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page containing a draft of "The Seven Suns of the Supermind", HG (1982), 76. Published here for the first time.

138 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G43, 3 (cf. piece 110 and "The Law of the Way", HG (1982), 5-7; the MS of the present piece comes between two drafts of "The Law", and parts of the present piece, especially the fifth paragraph, are reminiscent in tone to that well-known writing). In the second paragraph the phrase "a universal impulse initiated by a transcendent impulse" was substituted for "a transcendent and universal impulsion", which was bracketted but not cancelled. Published HG (1972), 147-48.

139 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G44, 53-54. The single asterisk separating the two segments represents a triple asterisk in MS. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no.4 (November 1978), 6-8.

140 Circa 1938. MS.NB G55,2. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 6.

141 Circa 1912. MS.NB V2 68. The entire piece is cancelled in MS; also cancelled, but too fragmentary to reproduce here, are the following lines written on the same page:

To be pure and free in God-consciousness, to be perfect in God-consciousness, to be griefless and blissful in God-consciousness is the highest and full

Life is the will of God in man. Accept life and perfect it.

Published here for the first time.

142 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 38. Heading: "The Aim of the Integral Yoga". Work on both segments was broken off abruptly; neither ends with a full stop in MS. Published here for the first time.

143 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 28-29. Published here for the first time.

144 Late 1930s or early 1940s. MS.NB S"120", 116-17 (cf. piece 144). After the eighth sentence of the second paragraph, Sri Aurobindo wrote and bracketted the following: "He may be any of these Entities in unison or". This may have been meant for insertion in the text, but its intended position is too doubtful for the editors to insert it, and so it has been deleted. Published here for the first time.

145 Circa 1930. MS.NB S"119", 5 (cf. pieces 20, 116, 147 etc.; see the note to piece 148). Published HG (1972), 70, as the opening part of "The Supramental Yoga".

146 Circa 1913. MS.NB GA2, 25. Published HG (1972), 49, as part of the compilation "The Web of Yoga".

147 Circa 1930. MS.NB S"119". 1 (cf. pieces 145, 148 etc.). In MS there is no full stop at the end of the last sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published here for the first time.

148 Circa 1930. MS.NB S"119", 12 (cf. pieces 145 etc. and also "The Path", HG (1982), 106-08, to which the present piece is closely related; see the note to piece 150). The following fragmentary sentences, which precede, on the same MS page, the two passages published as the present piece, have been removed by the editors:

A supramental Yoga is a seeking after union with the Divine consciousness

The aim of the supramental Yoga Published here for the first time.

149 Circa 1930. MS.NB S"119", 2-3 (cf. pieces 145 etc.; see the note to piece 150). In the first sentence, "this" is an MS alternative for "the" (ignorance). Published here for the first time.

150 Circa 1930. MS. NB S"119", 7, 9 (cf. pieces 145 etc.). Heading: "The Path". The piece ends abruptly without a full stop in MS. It is the first draft of what was published in HG (1982), 106-08, as "The Path" (the heading of the present piece

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being used as the title of that essay). In HG (1972), 70-73, the essay, along with what is here published as piece 145 and the last four paragraphs of the present piece, had been published under the editorial title "The Supramental Yoga". (Other pieces on the same subject from the same notebook not included in HG (1972) have been published here as pieces 147, 148 and 149.)

151 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 23. In the first sentence of the last paragraph, "to liberate", cancelled in MS but not substituted for, has been reinstated by the editors. The last paragraph printed here ends abruptly in MS; beneath it occurs the following fragment which has been deleted from the text by the editors: "The aim of the ordinary Yoga is". Published here for the first time.

152 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 24 (cf. pieces 151 and 153; the present piece faces piece 153 in MS and probably was written while that piece was being revised. Published here for the first time.

153 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G45, 25 (cf. pieces 151 and 152). There are two drafts of the present piece on the same notebook page; the one chosen, shorter but more polished, was certainly written after the other. The word "culminates", cancelled in MS but not substituted for, has been reinstated by the editors. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 14.

154 1930s. MS.NB G51, 17 (cf. pieces 155-58. All of these pieces were written, apparently in this order, in a single notebook (piece 158 was also redrafted in another notebook); all are on the same theme and may be considered as drafts of a longer piece on this theme that was never written). The present piece ends abruptly; there is no full stop at the end in MS. Published here for the first time.

155 1930s. MS.NB G51, 17 (cf. pieces 154 etc.). Published here for the first time.

156 1930s, MS.NB G51, 18 (cf. pieces 154 etc.). Work on the piece was broken off abruptly; in MS the last sentence ends with a comma that has been changed to a full stop by the editors. Published here for the first time.

157 1930s. MS.NB G51, 19. The present piece is the most carefully worked out of several drafts on the theme of integral yoga written in notebook G51 (cf. pieces 154 etc.), and so was chosen for publication in Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 4.

158 1930s. MS.NB G48, 29 + NB G51, 21 (cf. pieces 154 etc.). The present piece was first written in notebook G51, then partly redrafted in notebook G48. The G48 draft besides being incomplete is, after the third sentence, filled with textual difficulties; therefore the text from the fourth sentence onward has been taken from NB G51. A short passage written at the bottom of NB G51, 21, has been published as piece 18; see the note to that piece. The present piece published here for the first time.

159 1930s. MS.LS GAlnn, 1-3. The piece is evidently incomplete; only one of the four elements alluded to in the first paragraph was taken up. Published Archives and Research, vol. 3, no. 2 (December 1979), 202-03.

160 Late 1930s to early 1940s. MS.NB S"120", 116 (cf. piece 144, begun on the bottom of the same MS page, and piece 162). The piece is evidently incomplete; only one of the three transformations mentioned was taken up. Published here for the first time.

161 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 60, 62, 64; 59, 61 (footnote). In the second paragraph, "strong and violent" replaces what seems to be "great borns", which

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is only partly cancelled, and perhaps not cancelled at all. The third word of the footnote was cancelled but not substituted for, and so has been reinstated. Published here for the first time.

162 Late 1930s to early 1940s. MS.NB S"120" 118 (cf. piece 160). Published here for the first time.

163 Circa 1936. MS.NB S"90", 5-6. Published here for the first time.

164 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB R26, 72. The first paragraph of this piece, cancelled in MS, has been reinstated by the editors. Published here for the first time.

165 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB G43, 7. It is quite possible that this piece was written as a draft of the message of 21 February 1927 that since 1928 has been published as the first chapter of the book The Mother (SABCL vol. 26, 1-5). Work on the present piece was broken off abruptly; there is no full stop at the end in MS. Published HG (1972), 46.

TABLE OF DATES AND NOTEBOOKS

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TABLE OF EMENDATIONS

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GLOSSARY

This glossary includes all Sanskrit and modern Indian terms occurring in the various pieces of From Man to Superman. A few Latin and Greek terms have also been included, but not those which can be found in an ordinary English dictionary. So far as possible definitions have been made using Sri Aurobindo's own words. Words are listed according to their proper transliterated spelling; if this differs from the informal spelling sometimes used by Sri Aurobindo, the informal form is given within parenthesis and, if necessary, a cross-reference provided.

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Documents in the Life of Sri Aurobindo

JUDGMENT IN THE ALIPORE BOMB CASE

1

MATERIALS FROM A BENGAL GOVERNMENT FILE

My dear Duke

      I am directed to refer to the correspondence ending with your telegram no. 70 P.D.M. dated the 16th April, communicating the decision of the assessors in the Alipore Conspiracy Case, and intimating that the Judge had reserved judgment for a month.

2. It is possible that on the day when judgment is pronounced attempts may be made to create a disturbance. The Government of India do not doubt that this possibility has already suggested itself to the Lieutenant Governor, and that such police precautions will be taken as will render impossible any disorder or attempt at rescue, and will ensure the safety of the Judge and of all concerned.

      3. I am to ask that the arrangements may be made for communicating to the Government of India by telegram direct from Calcutta, the finding of the Judge in respect of each prisoner and the sentences passed on those he convicts.

Yours sincerely,

H. Stuart

The Hon'ble Mr. F.W. Duke I. C. S.

    Chief Secretary to the Govt, of Bengal.

*

(Copy of telegram).

      The Judge sentenced to death Barindra Ghosh, Ullaskar Dutt under Sections 121, 121 A, 122 Penal Code to transportation for life and forfeiture all property Upendra Nath Banerjee Bibhuti Bhusan Roy Hrishikesh Kanjilal Birendra Sen Sudhir Ghosh Indra Nundy Abinash Bhuttacharjee Soilendra Bose Hem Chunder Dass transportation for life and forfeiture property Indu Bhusan Roy Section 121 A 122 Penal Code to transportation for ten years and forfeiture property Poresh Mullick Sishir Ghosh Nirapado Roy Section 121 122 to transportation for seven years Asoke Nundy Balkrishna Kane Susil Sen Section 121 A to one year's rigorous imprisonment Kristo Jiban Sanyal Section 121 A and acquitted Noren Buxshi Sochindra Sen Nolini Gupta Purno Sen Bijoy Nag Kanjilal Shaha Hemendra Ghosh Dharani Gupta Nogen Gupta Birendra Ghosh Bijoy Bhuttacharjee Hem Chundra Sen Provas Dey Dindayal Bose Debobroto Bose Nokhillessur Roy and Arabindo Ghosh.

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No. 5487

      Copy forwarded to the Chief Secretary to the Govt, of Bengal, Darjeeling, for information.

* 

My dear Mr. Duke,

      Beachcroft delivered judgment in the Alipore case at about 11 o'clock this morning. Halliday and I had made all necessary arrangements and brought in some extra men of the Military Police Coy. from Hooghly, and Halliday had arranged for a large body of European sergeants to be ready in case of necessity.

      However, in spite of all the newspapers yesterday having reported that Asoke Nandi had been called upon to surrender himself, the fact that judgment was to be delivered today does not appear to have leaked out, and there were very few people in or about the Court at the time it was delivered.

      Beachcroft merely read out the sections under which he found the different people guilty and the sentences passed on them. I wired this to you as soon as possible, sending a copy to the Home Department, Government of India and to the Director of Criminal Intelligence.

      Without seeing the full text of the judgment it will be rather difficult to understand on exactly what lines of reasoning the Judge has come to his decision in the case of some of the men acquitted. Seven of them I believe were actually arrested in the garden. The judgment is voluminous, and it will take several days to get a full copy; but I left Denham behind in the Alipore Court perusing it with Norton to take notes, and I will communicate to you the main points by today's post, should Denham arrive in time.

      Arabindo Ghose and Nikhileswar Roy Mullik are the two whose acquittal may be regarded as of serious importance.

      Two of those acquitted (Dharani & Nogen Gupta) are already undergoing sentence for conviction in the Harrison Road case, so were not released.

      Probash Chunder Deb was re-arrested on a charge under Section 124 A in connection with the publication of the "Desh Acharjya".

      We have a first information report already standing against the Garden boys under Section 19 of the Arms Act, which was dropped when they were committed to the Sessions in the case under Sections 121, etc. I considered the matter beforehand, and had decided not to arrest any of those acquitted with a view to pressing the case under the Arms Act against them.

      I trust this decision has your approval and His Honour's. Of course if I am desired to proceed with the old case already decided on, it can be done.

      The sentences were received in silence—that is, silence compared to the turmoil that has usually been in the Dock. Arabindo, as usual, looked stoically indifferent, but seemed well pleased with himself when he was allowed to walk out and leave the

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Court. The accused all embraced Baren in turn. Hem Das for the first time looked seriously depressed. I think he was disappointed at not being sentenced to death.

      I think there will possibly be a lot of information forthcoming from those who have been convicted, but I shall let them fully understand that they have nothing to hope for unless they give information that will really materially assist us in stamping out the remnants of their party.

Yours sincerely,

F. W. Daly

The Hon'ble Mr. F. W. Duke, C.S.,

      Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal,

            Darjeeling.

*

CONFIDENTIAL

My dear Stuart,

      I am desired to refer to your D.O. letter No. 228 Pol., dated the 28th April, 1909, in which you suggested that special police precautions should be taken on the day when judgment was delivered in the Alipore Bomb Conspiracy case, and asked that the Govt, of India might be informed by telegram from Calcutta of the finding of the judge in respect of each person and the sentences he passed on those he convicted.

2. It is understood that on the 6th instant, Daly D.I.G. C.I.D.II, sent you a telegram direct from Calcutta reporting the finding of the judge in the case. You will have seen that Beachcroft has convicted 19 persons, two of whom have been sentenced to be hanged. Ten others have got transportation for life and forfeiture of property; three, ten years transportation with forfeiture of property; three, seven years transportation, and one, one year's imprisonment. He has acquitted 17 persons of whom two (Dhorani and Nogen Gupta) are already under sentence for seven years' rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act in the Harrison Road Case; and a third Probhat Chandra Deb who was the author of the seditious book, Descharyya, has been rearrested on a warrant under section 124 A.

3. Among those acquitted were Arabindo Ghose, Nikhileswar Ray Mullick, Daba-brata Bose and Bejoy Bhattacharjya. During the course of the trial the last named is supposed to have been very fully instructed by Hem Chandra Das in the manufacture of explosives. The sentences were received in comparative silence. The general public had no suspicion that judgment would be delivered so soon, and very few people went down to the Court. It is said that Arabindo Ghose looked stoically indifferent but seemed well pleased with himself when he was allowed to leave the dock. He went first to the Bar Library to see some of his friends there. The accused all embraced Barendra Kumar Ghose in turn; and it is reported that Hem Ch. Das looked disappointed at not being sentenced to death.

4. With the exception of Arabindo Ghose it is not proposed to take any further action against those who have been acquitted, but they will all be kept under surveillance.

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As to Arabindo, Mr. Norton who has seen the judgment thinks that there is an excellent case for appeal, but suggests a reference to Inverarity of Bombay for an unbiassed opinion. In the meantime the L.R. has been asked to give special consideration to the reasons which Beachcroft has advanced for the acquittal. At whatever decision we may arrive the Govt, of India will be addressed before anything is done.

5. As you are aware, no disturbance was created on the 6th May. Halliday and Daly had made all necessary arrangements to prevent anything of the kind. But Norton and Withall both need protection till the appeal is over and such special precautions as are possible are being taken in their case.

6. Every effort is being made to get a copy of the judgment, which is very voluminous. Four or five typists are at work with carbon paper and I have arranged that a copy shall be sent you direct as soon as one is ready.

Yours sincerely,

[F. W. Duke]

Government of Bengal. Confidential file No. 194 of 1909.

2

EXTRACTS FROM BEACHCROFT'S JUDGMENT

      I now come to the case of Arabinda Ghose, the most important accused in the case. He is the accused, whom more than any other the prosecution are anxious to have convicted and but for his presence in the dock there is no doubt that the case would have been finished long ago. It is partly for that reason that I have left his case till last of all and partly because the case against him depends to a very great extent, in fact almost entirely, upon association with other accused persons.

      Before dealing with the evidence against him I shall put as shortly as possible the ideal which his counsel claims that he has always set before himself. It is the case for the prosecution as well as for the defence that he is of a very religious nature, in fact counsel for the crown takes the line that his religious ideas combined with a desire for independence for India turned him into a fanatic.

      His counsel argues that he is a Vedantist and that he has applied the doctrines of Vedantism to mould his political views; that as the doctrine of Vedantism applied to the individual is to look for the Godhead within oneself & so realise what is best within oneself, so in the case of a nation, it can only grow by realizing what is best within itself, that no foreigner can give it that salvation, which it can only attain by methods indigenous to the country. His doctrines are not those of passive resistance, but of the realization of salvation by suffering. If the law is unjust don't obey it, and take the consequences. Do not be violent, but if the law is unjust, you are not bound morally to obey it; refuse to obey it and suffer. He has been saying to the people, You are not cowards, believe in yourselves and attain salvation, not by assistance from outside, but through yourselves. And this Mr. Dass says is the key of his case.

      A written statement was put in by the accused¹ to which it is unnecessary

      1 This written statement was prepared by Sri Aurobindo's lawyers and merely signed by him. See On Himself (1972), p.53.

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here to refer at length, but I shall refer to two points because counsel for the crown took up a great deal of time in arguing his case as if the accused had made two statements which in fact he nowhere did make. The first assumption which he made was that Arabinda says that he had nothing to do with politics, the second is that he says that he did not know Abinash before he engaged his services in setting up a house. With regard to the first assumption I need only point out that Arabinda says that while in Baroda he took no part in the politics of Bengal, with regard to the second I need only refer to para 9 of the written statement, which gives no justification at all for the assumption.

      In dealing with the case of this accused I propose to take the evidence in seven groups (1) letters that passed between Arabinda & his wife (2) letters between Arabinda & other persons (3) Arabinda's speeches (4) his writings (5) letters between other persons (6) entries in documents (7) facts, whether depending on oral evidence or deducible from documents. Finally I shall deal with certain important documents which require consideration by themselves. . . .

      He points out [in a letter of 1905] that his views and mental attitude are different from those of the people of this country and goes on to say that an extraordinary man is generally looked upon as either great or mad: and then says that he had got three ideas, which he characterises as mad, in what is doubtless a play on the word used in the earlier part of the letter. The first idea is that gifts given by God should be used in the service of God and he refers more particularly to their use in works of charity. The second idea is that he is realizing the teachings of Hindu religion & feeling God within himself. The third idea is the one in which occur the passages on which the prosecution lays stress: "I know I have the strength to deliver this fallen nation. I may not have bodily strength, but I am not going to fight with sword or gun but with the power of knowledge." In the last paragraph but one of the letter he speaks of deliverance of the country. And in the last paragraph he speaks of all this as a secret.

      Mr. Dass argues that the 3rd idea is drawn from Vedantism. The idea is that the whole world is divinity: if you can't see that, it is Maya, or illusion. The country should not be regarded as so many rivers, fields etc but as a manifestation of the divinity. And if that be the true view of the passage it is only natural that he should speak of removing anything which stands in the way of that ideal.

      Taking the letter as a whole, it is a discussion with his wife, asking her whether she is going to follow the Hindu religion, which is his religion, or some other. He points out that she has been brought up in Brahmo schools, but is a Hindu none the less. Will she be a help to him in his religion, or will she follow foreign ideas? And as regards keeping the matter a secret, we find a reference to the same idea in the moral precepts in Biren Sen's book, do not disclose the principles of your religious faith.

      If we start with the knowledge that the writer of this letter is a conspirator we can find passages in it that are suspicious, viewing it in an unprejudiced way there is nothing in it that really calls for explanation. . . .

      Ex 294/4 dated 17th February 1907,—obviously a mistake for 1908 —relied on as showing that he felt that a crisis was on him. If that be a correct view it suggests that he was not at any rate previously a party to the conspiracy & if that be the case all the previous letters must bear an innocent meaning. The last words "I have not written or said anything about this to anybody except you: mention is forbidden,"

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Plate 1.

      Sri Aurobindo May 1909

Plate 2.   Ullaskar Dutt getting out of the prison van in the

              Alipore Sessions courtyard, September 1908

Plate 3.         A batch of undertrial prisoners in the

                   Alipore Sessions courtyard

may refer to the secrecy enjoined as to his religious principles. The letter reads like that of a man filled with religious zeal and unless he is deliberately trying to deceive his wife, shows the connection in his mind between religion & the doctrine of self education that he was preaching in Bombay. The result of the letters taken together is to show that he was a man of strong religious convictions and that he wanted his wife to share those convictions. There are some passages which may be suspicious, but which are also capable of an innocent explanation. . . .

      In Arabinda's speeches there is not much of importance. Evidence was given of his itinerary during January and February 1908 in the Bombay Presidency & reports of speeches made there. The whole of this evidence might very well have been omitted as it proved nothing beyond the fact that he was received with acclamation wherever he went, a fact which the defence have never attempted to deny. So far as these speeches went they help the defence more than the prosecution. From them we get an idea of the stress that he laid on national education, on lines other than those laid down in Government schools, and this is in accordance with what is claimed as the ruling thought in his policy, that India is to find her salvation from within & not from without. The only passage that can be construed as at all inflammatory is the concluding sentence of one of his speeches, "live for your swadeshi & die for your swadeshi," which may well be excused as a mere piece of hyperbole.

      More violent remarks are those which he is said to have used at a meeting on the 3rd April 1908, when he proposed a resolution of sympathy for the Tirunevelly rioters. The meeting was as usual attended by volunteers carrying lathis. From the short note made by the police officer who reported the proceedings, he appears to have spoken in support of swadeshi & used the expression, "now is the time when the brain is to be prepared for devising plans, the body for working hard and the hand for fighting the country's cause". The explanation given for this is that what he meant was it was too late merely to write and speak, the people must now be ready to put their whole heart into the cause. It is pointed out, with truth, that Arabinda constantly uses metaphors and figures of speech. . . .

      His writings are more important. I do not propose to refer to his writings in the Bande Mataram: I have already referred to the character of those, but to two documents that were found in his house. They are Exhibits 283 & 299/9. They appear to be articles written for some paper of review, in fact in the latter he speaks of "a former article in this Review," but whether they were ever published or not we don't know. In the absence of evidence of publication or of the intention for which they were written, they can only be treated as showing the trend of his ideas. The first, Ex 283, is headed, "The Morality of Boycott."¹ There are passages in it which taken by themselves certainly indicate support of the use of violent methods & suggest that his line was that revealed by this conspiracy, first inspire your followers with religious enthusiasm and then get them to take up arms. . . .

[Here several passages from the article are quoted.]

      The argument of the whole article shortly is this. "To drive out that which is evil violence is justifiable. We don't hate the English, but we object to their exploiting the country, for the interests of the two nations must be different: and we can stop

      1 See Archives and Research. Vol. 3, No. I , pp. 1-4.

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that exploitation by boycott. Boycott is not morally wrong for the ends at which it aims are the interests of the people. And that being so we should be morally justified in using force, if we were strong enough to do so."

      As a mere piece of philosophic writing there is no special harm in this. The danger is the state of feeling in the country at the time, & the suggestion that violence is justifiable if the nation wishes for a particular thing: the fact that in the circumstances the nation should not use violence is relegated to the background, equally so the questions who is to decide what are the best interests of the nation. It is left for the reader to come to the conclusion that those who can make their voices heard most are to decide what are the interests of the nation and impose on the inarticulate masses a tyranny far worse than that which they themselves condemn.

      Ex 299/9 is a still more extraordinary article.¹ I shall not quote from it, as the omission of any sentences would affect the whole. The gist of it is that the object of the nationalist is to build up the nation. The nationalist has a deep respect for the law, because without it the nation cannot attain proper development. But the law must be in accordance with the wish of the nation. If it is not, it is utilitarian & not moral. And if immoral it should be broken. The nationalist is not afraid of anarchy & suffering. He welcomes them if the result is the building up of the nation.

      Mr. Dass argues that the real point of the passage dealing with anarchy & suffering lies in the 3 questions which the nationalist puts to himself with regard to a method, (1) whether it is effective (2) is it consistent with the traditions of the people (3) is it educative of national strength, and he admits that Arabinda's views are that if violence answers those tests, it is a method to be adopted: that when strong enough to fight the nationalist will fight, but at present he must merely disobey the law, if he thinks it wrong, and suffer. He puts this supposition; suppose the people refused to pay taxes, their lands would be seized & put up to sale, no one would buy, then shooting by the English would begin to compel them to pay taxes & that would be the suffering contemplated. One cannot but regret that Mr. Dass should attribute such a character to the English race: he forgets the intermediate stage & that shooting would not begin till rioting had begun & that rioting would be the inevitable result of fields lying fallow & the means of sustenance gone; and who would be responsible for the intermediate stage?

      Mr. Dass also argues that the idea is the same that has been elaborated by European philosophers, that a Government cannot exist against the will of the people, and that fact has been the explanation of all revolutions in Europe. The difference is that in Europe rulers & ruled have been of the same race, here they are not.

      As an essay this article is a splendid piece of writing. The danger lies in the effect that it might have on ill balanced & impressionable minds. And that it is argued is perhaps the reason why it was not published. The fact that neither of these articles was published is again a point in Arabinda's favour. For though philosophic reflections may show the trend of a man's mind, it very much affects the question of whether he is a conspirator or not, if he does not publish writings which doing no harm to a careful reader might be misinterpreted by those of less mature understanding.

      Mr. Norton lays great stress on the passage where he refers to the other papers including the Jugantar & Sandhya. Wrongly I think, as the next sentence shows.

      1 "The Heart of Nationalism", published in Archives and Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 109-112.

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The writer says the methods advocated are different, though all have the same ideal, & it is conceded that there is no harm in independence as an ideal, the offence lies in the methods by which it is sought to be attained. . . .

      The next class of evidence is letters passing between other persons. ... At any rate in Ex CVI, from Ram Chandra to Hrishikesh we have indications that Ram Chandra did not know where Upen was. In this letter there is a reference to Arabinda, Ram Chandra speaks of him as "a simple childlike, saintly soul yet withal burning with a true patriot's passionate enthusiasm, such as I have rarely seen." Then he speaks of Baren & says, "He asked me to go over to Bengal & join them in their work." The sentences is open to two constructions. "Them" might refer to Baren & Arabinda as having a work in which both were interested, it might refer merely to Baren & his party, without having any reference to Arabinda. I have already referred to Ram Chandra & the fact that his name and address is also found in the garden in Ex CXVIIa.

      Ex 385/2 is a letter on which the prosecution lays much stress. It is the letter from Gobin to "brother doctor" found at No. 15. It is written on 24th April 1908. The writer says "I went to the house No. 23 at 3 p.m. on Wednesday & came to understand from Karta that you had left the place that very day at that very time after taking your meals there. When I asked Karta about Baren he said to me that he is in Calcutta but the address of both him & you were unknown to him. Thank you that you have set up such a Karta" (sarcastic). The prosecution suggests that the house is No. 23 Scott's Lane & that Karta means Aravinda & as I pointed out before that "brother doctor" means Upen.

      In the defence it is suggested that there was a doctor living at No. 15 just before it was taken by the conspirators, (see witness No. 118), & the letter may be one written to the former tenant. It is also suggested that No. 23 may refer to 23 Sib Narain Dass' lane. . . .

      Possibly the most dangerous piece of evidence against Arabinda that comes under this head is to be found in Ex 239. In the entries under "11th Jan & onwards"¹ we find 3 which may refer to Arabinda. They are, "J. B. to be informed of A.G's movements." "A.G's rules to be got out of him." "Dr. Dhande to be kept in the garden and letters & A. G.&B. G. informed. If A. G. refers to Arabinda this is a most damaging piece of evidence. The defence says it is not proved that A.G. stands for Arabinda. It could not be proved. The only person, who could & was willing to speak, is Naren-dra Gossain. He is dead. The other persons to be informed are Ullas & B. G. Evidently the prominent persons are to be informed & we have no knowledge of any other prominent person suggested, who bears those initials. In conjuction with B. G. they are insignificant.

      It is suggested that if A. G. means Arabinda, Baren may have told him they had a religious organization for the purpose of concealing facts from Arabinda. That might explain the 2nd entry, but what of the other two? . . .

      Aravindo's connection with the garden is sought to be established by the fact that persons from the garden frequently visited No. 23. That Sailendra was more than a mere casual visitor, werd, Exhibit No. 305/5 which was addressed to him at No. 23 from 48 Grey St. I have already pointed out

      1 These entries mentioned a certain "A.G."

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that visits to 23 of conspirators may be explained by the fact that Abinash was living there. . . .

[There follows the judge's consideration of "the really important documents as against Aravinda". These documents, the "Sweets letter" and the "Scribblings" were discussed in the last issue of Archives and Research.]

      What then are the chief points against Arabinda. In the letters we have the ambiguous references to the movement requiring unlimited money, and Abinash no longer doing Arabinda's work. As regards association with persons we have the fact that he was a friend of Subodhs, that he was acquainted with Lele and Ram Chandra Prabhu: that he employed for the purpose of looking after his house, Abinash, who is a conspirator: the possibility that he knew Upen & Birkumar, a name appearing in the garden, because a letter comes for the first to No. 23 & a telegram from someone given the name Birkumar goes from the second from No. 23: the possibility that he knew Hrishi Kesh, by the finding in the latter's house of the slip with the address 19/3, Choku Khansama's Lane, and the probability that he knew Biren Sen & Sushil, and tracing [?] the whereabouts of the latter [?] at the end of April. As regards connection with association[s] we have the suggestion that he was connected with the Midnapore Chhattra Bhandar, arising out of the reference to him in the letter of Manik to Nikhil. As regards association with the garden we have the fact that he was part owner of the garden, but no evidence that he ever went there. It was argued that he did not attempt to sell it as he wanted it to be kept for the purposes of the conspiracy. He says that he asked people to try to sell it, and so far as one can gather from his letters & writings, personal attention to business is not what one would expect from him. There is the further fact that 3 entries with the initials A. G. were found in the garden Exhibit 239, and that the draft telegram, which may be his, was found in a book in garden. As regards No. 15 there is the finding of No. 385/2, a letter which was not addressed to him. And as regards knowledge of the conspiracy there is this letter 385/2 and Ex 774, and they only connect him with the conspiracy if it be clearly established that he is the Karta referred to. In the case of the first letter I have pointed out that there is reason to think he is the Karta because of the mention of Baren & No. 23. But it is not clear who was the writer or who the addressee, & its connection with the conspiracy can only be assumed from the fact of its being found at No. 15 & the mention of Baren. The other contains direct reference to a garden & being addressed to Upen at Sil's lodge, doubtless has connection with the conspiracy. And further as regards knowledge of the conspiracy there is the piece of scribbling found in the old note book in his house.

      I should hesitate before saying that his complicity in the conspiracy can be considered established on these facts.

      In his favour we have the fact that he has in the columns of the Bande Mataram deprecated violence: there is such an article dated 28th May 1907. And so late as 10th April 1908 there is an article saying that the national movement cannot be allowed to be driven inward & made an affair of a secret society as it would if outward expression were stopped. His connection with the conspiracy can only be considered established if we find that while writing one thing he has been doing another.

      Of course it is possible that a man might join a conspiracy to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India, in which his share would be to preach discontent

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with the existing order of things and that he might be entirely ignorant of that branch of the conspiracy which commenced the collection of arms & ammunition. It is possible that Arabinda may have been in that position in this case, but in such a case it must be clearly shown that his preachings were part of such a conspiracy, and in the present case it would be difficult to do that without showing some connection with the part which the garden plays in the case. Considering the circumstances of India it may be dangerous for a man to publish doctrines inconsistent with the existing order of things, in certain circumstances it might justify a charge of sedition. Whether such a charge could be laid at Arabinda's door does not now concern me. The point is whether his writings & speeches, which in themselves seem to advocate nothing more than the regeneration of his country, taken with the facts proved against him in this case are sufficient to show that he was a member of the conspiracy. And taking all the evidence together I am of opinion that it falls short of such proof as would justify me in finding him guilty of so serious a charge.

Transcript of the Judgment of C.P. Beachcroft, Alipore Bomb Case Trial, Alipore Sessions Court.

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Archival Notes

THE TRIAL IN THE SESSIONS COURT

On 19 August 1908, twelve days before Norendra Nath Goswami was assassinated, the first batch of prisoners in the Alipore Bomb Case was committed to the Alipore Sessions Court. The commitment of the second batch followed on 14 September, and on 19 October the trial began. On the bench sat the District and Sessions Judge for 24-Parganas and Hooghly, Mr. Charles Porten Beachcroft. At the dock, along with thirty-five other prisoners, stood Sri Aurobindo. It was not the first time the two were meeting. Beachcroft had been a scholar at Clare College, Cambridge during the same two years that Sri Aurobindo was a fellow at King's, another college of the same university. Both had passed the "open Competitive Examination for the Civil Service of India" held in 1890.¹ Their paths must have crossed many times while they were preparing for the intermediate and final examinations, which both of them passed. In November 1892, while Sri Aurobindo was getting himself disqualified from service by avoiding the riding examination, Beachcroft was sailing back to India to begin his service — "back" because his father had been an I.C.S. man before him and the young Beachcroft had doubtless spent much time in the country. When he entered Rugby School in 1884, his father's address was given as Ferozepore, Punjab.

      Beachcroft had an outstanding career at Rugby. "He was awarded a scholarship internally in 1885, was a member of the 1st Cricket XI in 1889-90,² Head of the School and won a Major Leaving Exhibition when he went up to Clare College, Cambridge in 1890."³ His official career in India was no less notable. The following summary is taken from an obituary published in an English paper, probably The Times, on 17 May 1927.

      After two years' probationary study at Cambridge he went out to Bengal and

      1 Sri Aurobindo stood eleventh, Beachcroft thirty-sixth out of forty-five. In subsequent examinations Sri Aurobindo, his interest flagging, fell to twenty-third, climbed back to nineteenth, and dropped to thirty-seventh in the final examination. Beachcroft hovered near the bottom in the periodical examinations, ranking forty-fifth and forty-second; but he pulled ahead of Sri Aurobindo in the final, placing thirty-second. Sri Aurobindo, besides reading for the I.C.S., was obliged by the terms of his King's College foundation scholarship to prepare for the classical tripos examination. He had stood "very easily first in this subject ["classics", i.e. Greek and Latin] in the Entrance Scholarship Examination". It may be this fact that is behind Alipore lawyer Norton's ironic but inaccurate remark, made in his Foreword to The Alipore Bomb Trial (Calcutta: Butterworth & Co., 1922, p. v), that "at the final examination for the Indian Civil Service Arabindo, the prisoner beat Beachcroft the Judge in — Greek!" In fact Greek was not a subject in the I.C.S. final examination. It is even doubtful whether Beachcroft was a classical scholar. What the published results of the final examination do reveal is that Beachcroft the Englishman beat Sri Aurobindo the Indian in — Bengali! It must be said, however, that Beachcroft was only one point ahead of Sri Aurobindo in this subject, while Sri Aurobindo defeated his "rival" quite convincingly in Sanskrit. Examination results from India Office Library and Records IOR L/P&S/6/281 (Open Competition); L/P&J/6/300 (First Periodical); L/PJ/6/313 (Second Periodical); V(21)2174 (Final).

        2 See Plate 6.

        3 From a letter of Mrs. P.J. Macroy, Librarian, Temple Reading Room, Rugby School, to Archives, 21 November 1981. Our thanks to Mrs. Macroy for providing the obituary quoted from below and also the photograph reproduced as Plate 6.

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served his novitiate. He reached the grade of magistrate and district collector in 1904, but both by inclination and capacity he was best suited for the judicial side.

      He became a district and sessions Judge in 1905, after one or two officiating periods, and it was indicative of the confidence of the authorities that, at a time when political outrage and anarchic conspiracy were first enticing the youth of Bengal, he was given judicial charge in the metropolitan district of Alipore, the suburban area in which so many subversive conspiracies have been discovered.⁴ His inflexible sense of justice saved him from ever being regarded as "pro-European" on the one side or "pro-Indian" on the other. He was popular with Indians without any trace of the sycophantic attitude which was a pose of some judicial officers. His appointment to the High Court Bench, first in 1912 as officiating Judge, then in 1914 as a temporary additional Judge, and finally in 1915 as a permanent member, met with general approval.

      On the Bench he was steadfast, earnest, and patient, and it was noted that he seldom interrupted counsel without very good cause. Moreover, Indian respect for him was deepened by his being prematurely grey-headed—for in the East even the appearance of advancing age is honoured. The grey hair was a sign of the ill-health from which he suffered.

      Still vigorous in 1908, the thirty-seven year old Beachcroft found himself presiding over the most important state trial ever held in Calcutta. It was also one of the most protracted. The evidence and arguments lasted six months — until 13 April 1909. The next day, "the 126th day of the hearing in the Sessions Court",⁵ the findings of the two Indian assessors were heard. Both found the four leaders and three of the others, Indu Bhusan Roy, Bibhuti Bhusan Sarkar and Hrishikesh Kanjilal, guilty under one of the counts against them. In addition, one of the assessors found sufficient evidence against Sisir Kumar Ghose, the other sufficient evidence against Poresh Chandra Maulick for conviction on this count, Section 121 A: "collecting arms and ammunition with the object of waging war". The other twenty-seven prisoners were found innocent or given the benefit of the doubt by both assessors. In regard to Sri Aurobindo, one assessor said, among other things, "It is inconceivable that a man of his attainments and intellectual capacity, would ever have believed in the success of this childish conspiracy or could have taken any part in it." The other wrote that "a man of Arabindo's education is incapable of trying to overthrow the British Government by bombs."⁶

      The Hindoo Patriot reports that while the assessors presented their findings to the judge in almost inaudible voices, "Arabindo Ghose who has hitherto preferred to sit quietly in the corner of the deck [dock], unobserved, took up a position in front."

      It is well known that Sri Aurobindo had taken little interest in the proceedings throughout the period of the trial. As he said at Uttarpara after his release:

           When the trial opened in the Sessions Court, I began to write many instructions

      4 This last phrase is a misstatement on the part of the obituary-writer. One famous conspiracy has been expanded into "many".

        5 The Hindoo Patriot (Calcutta), 16 April 1909.

        6 Ibid.

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for my Counsel as to what was false in the evidence against me and on what points the witnessess might be cross-examined. Then something happened which I had not expected. The arrangements which had been made for my defence were suddenly changed and another Counsel stood there to defend me. . . . When I saw him, I was satisfied, but I still thought it necessary to write instructions. Then all that was put away from me and I had the message from within, "This is the man who will save you from the snares put around your feet. Put aside those papers. It is not you who will instruct him. I will instruct him."⁷

Years later Sri Aurobindo, writing of himself in the third person, made a similar statement:

In the Sessions Court the accused were confined in a large prisoners' cage and here during the whole day he remained absorbed in his meditation, attending little to the trial and hardly listening to the evidence. C. R. Das, one of his Nationalist collaborators and a famous lawyer, had put aside his large practice and devoted himself for months to the defence of Sri Aurobindo, who left the case entirely to him and troubled no more about it; for he had been assured from within and knew that he would be acquitted.⁸

      In the light of these two statements a recent statement of Shri Nolini Kanta Gupta, one of the Alipore undertrials, is remarkable. He said in conversation that Sri Aurobindo continued to give advice to his lawyers throughout the trial-period.⁹ And he was, after all, in an excellent position to advise them. Had he not learned Jurisprudence, English Law and Indian Law at the same time as the judge? Indeed, had he not generally scored better in these subjects than the man on the bench? But what of the apparent contradiction between the two statements of Sri Aurobindo and the observation of Nolini-da? Questioned about this, Nolini-da clarified that when Sri Aurobindo put his defence into Das's hands — or rather into the hands of the Supreme Lord using Das as his instrument — it was an inner movement and that this did not prevent him from taking a detached outward interest in the affair. One is reminded of a well-known anecdote of Napoleon. Asked why he spent so much time planning if he believed in the power of Fate, he replied that it was fated that he should plan.

THE DEFENCE FUND OF SAROJINI GHOSE

Although C. R. Das was an old friend of Sri Aurobindo's, it was still necessary to raise a huge amount of money to pay him and the numerous other lawyers engaged

      7 Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin (1972), p. 5.

        8 Sri Aurobindo, On Himself (1972), p. 34.

        9 Conversation of July or August 1982; confirmed 15 September. The writer's thanks to Matriprasad for this and other pieces of information from Nolini-da. Details about Sri Aurobindo's advice may be found in an article by Nolini-da published twenty years ago (Nolini Kanta Gupta, "Reminiscences of Jail", Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, no. 21 (1962), p. 19). See also Biren Chandra Sen, "Sri Aurobindo as I Remember Him", Mother India, vol. 16, no. 3 (April 1964), p. 21, and, in regard to petitions submitted by Sri Aurobindo during the hearing in the magistrate's court, Lt. Col. G.L. Bhattacharya, "Stray Thoughts", Mother India, vol. 26, no. 4 (April 1974), p. 293.

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to defend the thirty-six accused. The expenses were met largely through a defence fund started by Sri Aurobindo's sister Sarojini at the time of his arrest. The reader may consult Manoj Das's Sri Aurobindo in the First Decade of the Century for material related to the fund-raising.¹⁰ Another relevant contemporary document has recently been acquired by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives. It is a charming letter from Sarojini to a donor to the defence fund, Shri H. I. Joshi, a noted South African agitator and early associate of Mahatma Gandhi. The letter, postmarked Baidyanath, Deoghar, 22 October 1908, is reproduced below. One should bear in mind while reading it that Sarojini, unlike her older brothers, had not been educated in England.

      Dear Brother

    Received with thanks the sum of rupees 10 and a half sent by you so very kindly. I am very grateful to you for your such kindness. You know this case is very serious one. So we have to require quite a big sum. But there is no hope to get any more. I depend only on God's mercy. God only knows what will happen to the unfortunate gentlemen. I also think [of] you all [as] my countrymen who are so very kind hearted to help me as my own brothers.

           The case [in the sessions court] is already going on from 19th October. The Indian barristers are conducting the case. With kind regards,

      I remain

Yours sincerely

Sarojini Ghose¹¹

POLICE PRECAUTIONS

The photographs reproduced as Plates 2 and 3 are taken from the Calcutta Municipal Gazette, Independence Number (1947, p. 97). They show the prison van standing in the Alipore sessions courtyard with several prisoners and their guards in front of it. One is reminded of a passage from Sri Aurobindo's Karakahini:

A small platoon of European sergeants accompanied us, each of them carrying a loaded pistol. When we got up into the van, a group of armed constables surrounded us and marched behind the van. The same routine was observed when we got down. Seeing this performance an uninformed spectator must certainly have thought, "These young laughter-loving boys must surely be a famous band of daredevil warriors. Surely they must have in their hearts and bodies enough strength and courage to break through an impenetrable cordon of a hundred constables and soldiers with their bare fists and make their escape! This surely is why they are being escorted with such ceremony.¹²

      This passage describes the precautions taken by the police at the beginning of the trial. After some time the measures were relaxed; but after Narendranath Goswami's

      10 Manoj Das, Sri Aurobindo in the First Decade of the Century (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust (1972), pp. 71-77, 196-201.

        11 Letter Sarojini Ghose to H.I. Joshi, 22 October 1908. The Archives would like to thank Shri Indra-vadan P. Joshi, grandson of H.I. Joshi, for donating this valuable document.

        12 Sri Aurobindo, Karakahini, Chapter 6 (new translation).

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assassination they were reinforced with vigour. As the day when the judgment would be delivered approached, the Secretary to the Government of India requested that on that day "such police precautions will be taken as will render impossible any disorder or attempt at rescue, and will ensure the safety of the Judge and of all concerned".¹³ On 6 May 1909 at eight o'clock in the morning

an extra company of the Gordon Highlanders marched up to the gates and gave out their orders. ... At ten o'clock five hundred men comprising the Bengal armed and military police, head constables and parawallas under Inspector Jones, were patrolling the many roads and by-lanes leading from the jail to the Court. Within half a mile radius of the court the roads were practically impassable. . . . Soon after ten o'clock the two prison vans guarded by the European armed police, under Superintendent Haultain, drove up to the court with the thirty-six prisoners.¹⁴

      The prisoners were led into the courtroom and, as usual, locked in the "cage" made of wire netting that covered the dock, "lest they should jump out and murder the Judge!"¹⁵ There they sat, till, "at ten minutes to eleven the Judge mounted the bench".

      As His Honour made his appearance a sudden hush fell upon the court and the prisoners pressed eagerly to the front of the netted dock.

Five minutes later, without making any speech, the judge "read the list of [those] convicted".¹⁶ He was, as Biren Sen recalls, "very grave. For a moment he seemed to have lost that composure of mind that should belong to a dispenser of Justice, and there was a perceptible tremour in his voice as he pronounced the death sentences" on Barindra Kumar Ghose and Ullaskar Dutt, both found guilty under sections 121, 121A and 122.¹⁷ The two were given one week in which to appeal.¹⁸ Ten other prisoners were sentenced to transportation for life, six to transportation for ten or seven years and one to imprisonment for one year. The remaining seventeen, whose names were not read out, were found innocent of all charges and released. Among those acquitted was Sri Aurobindo. A police official found that he, "as usual, looked stoically indifferent, but seemed well pleased with himself when he was allowed to walk out and leave the court."¹⁹ One may doubt the "well pleased with himself. We may assume rather that, like Nolini Kanta Gupta, another of those released, he "did not feel any surprise or elation. What had happened was perfectly natural, something that had to be."²⁰ To a newspaper reporter on the scene Sri Aurobindo "expressed no surprise at his release or the verdicts generally. This is one year out of

      13 See Document 1.

        14 The Hindoo Patriot (Calcutta), 7 May 1909.

        15 A.B. Purani. Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo. First Series, (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1970), p. 280.

        16 The Hindoo Patriot (Calcutta), 7 May 1909.

        17 Biren Chandra Sen, op. cit., p. 21.

        18 Upon appeal the sentences of both were reduced to transportation for life; both were granted amnesty after serving ten years.

        19 See Document 1.

        20 Nolini Kanta Gupta, op. cit., p. 17.

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the world, he said thoughtfully, and a year out of my life."²¹ Arrested on 2 May 1908 and placed in Alipore jail on the fifth, he had spent a year almost to the day behind bars.

      The Government was, of course, not happy with the results of the trial. A letter of F. W. Daly to F. L. Halliday dated 4 May 1909, two days before the judgment, contained the "information", provided by C. I. D. Inspector Shamsul Alam, that only nine of the thirty-six would be acquitted.²² Sri Aurobindo was not among the nine. It was therefore with somewhat rueful irony that Mr. Halliday noted on the sixth, "But Mr. Daly's information was wrong about Arabindo!"²³ Daly did not need to be reminded of this. He wrote in a confidential letter to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Bengal on the same day that "Arabindo Ghose and Nikhileswar Roy Mullick are the two whose acquittal may be regarded as of serious importance."²⁴ Finally the Government chose to question the innocence of only one man:

With the exception of Arabindo Ghose it is not proposed to take any further action against those who have been acquitted, but they will all be kept under surveillance. As to Arabindo, Mr. Norton who has seen the judgment thinks that there is an excellent case for appeal, but suggests a reference to Inverarity of Bombay for an unbiassed opinion. In the meantime the L.R. has been asked to give special consideration to the reasons which Beachcroft has advanced for the acquittal.²⁵

The Government pondered for more than three months whether to appeal or not, ultimately deciding in the negative. Beachcroft's judgment stood.

WAS BEACHCROFT SYMPATHETIC?

Legally it was an impeccable judgment. That judicial authorities were satisfied with it is shown by Beachcroft's appointment to the High Court in 1912. The three-hundred page text of his judgment shows how painstaking he could be. In discounting the "sweets" letter — and it was mainly his disbelief in this document and in the "scrib-blings" that led to Sri Aurobindo's acquittal—he considered many factors which were not "suggested by either prosecution or defence"²⁶ — much to prosecutor Norton's discomfiture. Beachcroft showed severity in condemning two of the prisoners to death, but mercy in acquitting nineteen others. One of those freed, Nolini Kanta Gupta, has always felt that Beachcroft had a soft spot in his heart for him. And if this was true of a twenty-year old Bengali youth whom the judge had never seen before, might it not also be true of Beachcroft's old university classmate? A statement made by Sri Aurobindo seems to contain a hint that he too suspected the possibility. On 3 January 1939 he remarked to a disciple: "Beachcroft who was

      21 The Hindoo Patriot (Calcutta), 7 May 1909.

        22 Government of Bengal, Confidential File 194 of 1909.

        23 Ibid .

        24 See Document 1.

        25 Ibid.

        26 Government of Bengal, Confidential File 194 of 1909.

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my school-mate somehow couldn't believe that I could be a revolutionary."²⁷

        The whole question has recently been brought into prominence by the publication of a report suggesting that Beachcroft anonymously supplied the defence with information helpful to its case.²⁸ This document contains many statements that to the present writer detract from its value as a biographical source material; and it would be easy to relegate it, taken by itself, to the category of apocrypha. However there exist in the files of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives two other documents of independent origin that are so similar to the published report that they make a reconsideration of the matter imperative.

      The interested reader is invited to study the published report. Since it is not possible to reproduce the others here, we give a summary of the substance of the three reports, designated for convenience Report A,²⁹ Report B,³⁰ and Report C (the published report):

1. A young man who later became Shankaracharya of Govardhan Math in Puri, Orissa (A,B) [C says "of Sarada Math", which is in Sringeri] was in 1908 living in "the South" (A), viz. in "Madras" (B) [C says "in Maharashtra"].

2. The young man (whose pre-sannyas name is given in A as Raman Sara-swati) was an ardent patriot, and when he read about the trial of Sri Aurobindo he went to Calcutta to help with his defence [C says to deliver a defence fund purse that had been collected in Maharashtra].

3. While in Calcutta the young man unexpectedly received or witnessed the receipt by post of information from an anonymous source that was helpful to the defence. (According to A: "It so happened that, many a time Shri C. R. Das received anonymous letters instructing him to put particular questions to witnesses or not to put particular questions to witnesses; in fact, the letters gave him many hints. ..." According to B, the future Shankaracharya "received from the postal peon along with certain other letters a packet of typed questions to be put to the witness whose examination-in-chief had been concluded. . . . This continued from day to day till the close of the trial." According to C: "One day ... we received a covered communication. When we opened the cover . . . there was nothing except two typed sheets. . . . We at once went to C. R. Das's residence. . . ." [According to this report the incident was apparently not repeated.]

4. After the judgment the future Shankaracharya went to Judge Beachcroft in order (A) to express his gratitude for Sri Aurobindo's acquittal, (C) to ask about the letters, or (B) for unspecified reasons. The Judge either (A) admitted typing and sending the letters, (B) left his visitors "morally convinced" that he had done so, or (C) "simply smiled"

The similarities, but also the divergences, between the three reports are remarkable.

      27 Nirodbaran. Talks with Sri Aurobindo. (Calcutta: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, 1966), p. 149.

        28 Raghunandan, "An Unpublished Aspect of Sri Aurobindo's Career" Mother India., vol. 32, no. 11 (November 1980), pp. 670-72.

        29 "Note" by Manjulal Sevaklal Dave, District and Sessions Judge, Baroda, 4 July 1966.

        30 "Statement" dictated by Sri Charu Chandra Ganguly to Pulaka Sika,Calcutta, 13 February 1970.

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The reader of these Notes is left to form his own opinion. Nolini Kanta Gupta, asked about report C shortly after its publication in 1980, said of it: "Quite possible." Even if future historians do not give this much credit to evidence that is, in their parlance, "anecdotal", the reports still throw an interesting sidelight on an event of the first importance in India's history.

A POSTSCRIPT ON CHARLES PORTEN BEACHCROFT

As stated above, Beachcroft was appointed to the Calcutta High Court in 1912 as an Additional Judge. In 1915 he was made Puisne Judge of the High Court, and he served in this position until 1921, when frequent illness led to his early retirement. He was knighted in 1922. Beachcroft spent his last years in Mountjoie, Camberley, rendering public service, playing golf and writing a book on auction bridge, the form of the game that ultimately lost out to contract bridge. He died on 15 May 1927 at the early age of 56.³¹

      31 Sources of information on Sir Charles Porten Beachcroft include Indian Civil Service lists and histories; letters from Clare College (9 March 1981) and Rugby School (referred to above); the obituary cited above; Who Was Who, 1916-1928; and letters from S.P. Beachcroft, nephew of CP. Beachcroft, dated 13 March 1982 and 24 June 1982. The Archives would like to express its special thanks to S.P. Beachcroft for donating the photograph reproduced as Plate 7.

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