PREFACE

THE sages of ancient India have always held that at critical moments in history mighty souls appear on earth manifesting a power of God or representing the Godhead himself in order to liberate man from the overwhelming darkness and help the collective advancement of the race. They are the bringers of new dawns whose light and force reaffirm the Ideal and inspire fresh endeavours to realise it.

      It is these souls that are the real makers of history. It is in their life and work that lies the deeper meaning of Carlyle's concept of 'Universal History' which 'is at bottom the History of the Great Men Who have worked in the world.' He adds : 'History is the essence of numerous biographies. If one wants to know the meaning of history, let him look into the lives of great men.' For Emerson 'There is properly no history; only biography.' For Vivekananda 'The history of the world is the history of a 'few great men who had faith in themselves.'

      History cannot be truly conceived without those heroic souls that shine in its pages not only as saviours or liberators of mankind but as embodiments of the Time-Spirit, or the Will of God which impels them to infuse into their people a new life, a new spirit, a higher consciousness to push them up the scale of evolution. It is their example and their light that blaze the trail for others to follow and usher in a yugāntara, a new epoch.

      Thus is history made by those who, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, 'represent the ascending element in humanity'. Their life and teaching inspire the aspirations of the age in which they appear, live and work. This is how a people progresses, how the rhythm of the individual life of the pioneers transmits itself to the rhythm of the collective life of the people, and the divine purpose of their advent is fulfilled. Out of this inner process grow the contents of organic history.

      Sri Aurobindo says that it is the individual who is always the pioneer and precursor. The vision of the seer becomes the ideal of the people. The Mahayogi's ecstasy of spiritual experience moves a million hearts. The creation of the artist or the poet opens man to the world of beauty and delight that are for all and for all time. The thought of the philosopher leavens the collective mind. The gift of the scientist is for the entire human race. The zeal and determination that bum in the heart of the reformer set aflame other hearts. 'In all acts of social creation', says Arnold Toynbee, 'the creators are either creative individuals or at least creative minorities.'

      Intrinsically, history mirrors the march of the human soul moved by the

action and reaction of the master-spirits and the multitude.

      When I was asked to write a book on modem Indian renaissance through a biographical approach I felt particularly happy as I thought that I would thereby be able to pursue, if not prove, the truth of the basic theory of history which commands the unanimity of far-seeing minds. I was also glad of this opportunity to do a bit of planned work on a subject of my special study.

      It is indeed difficult, if not impossible, to trace the rise and growth of the movements of modem India without reference to their mighty initiators who were greater than the great work they did, in that they made possible more than they actually achieved. Hence it is all the more necessary to know the inner meaning of these lives and movements in order to be able progressively to actualise the possible and help the advancement of the human race, because this resurgence of India's soul cannot complete itself except in the resurgence of the world's soul in which India has her destined part to play. This has been the conviction of almost all the makers of modem India.

      The book begins with a brief survey of the main lines of India's historic evolution against the background of a philosophy of history, based largely on the writings of Sri Aurobindo. The object is to show the continuous process of the ever-unfolding Dawns of the Spirit from age to age down to the Present, rich in the potentials of a greater Future. The downward curve of the country's decline in the medieval times tended upward when there came on it 'the impact of the West'. At this point began modem India's resurgence with its vast possibilities envisaged by the Master-Seer of the race.

      Part One of the book studies the origins of the movements that have led up to this resurgence. Part Two studies the forces at work in it. The biographical medium is common to both the Parts. The division of the Parts does not imply any chronological order, many of the movements having been simultaneous and their leaders contemporaries. Their separate treatment under the two Parts is intended to show their distinctive contributions in different fields.

      Both the Parts constitute the subject of India's resurgence : how it began, how it developed, and how it has been developing.

      The central theme of the book lies in the delineation of the ever-growing movement of India's national being towards the fulfilment of her own self and of her world mission.

      The personalities that come under study, be it repeated, embody the forces at work in the national consciousness, their life and work impinging on the process of India's preparation for her high destiny.

      India's evolution, the evolution of her soul and her all-embracing spirituality, bom of the Vedic vision of the Truth, has been the life-line of her culture and civilisation all through the millenniums of her long and

chequered history. The book traces the continuity of this process in modem times through the life-work of the great figures thrown up by Nature to initiate and foster her resurgence, the story of which is one of epical depth and dimension.

      The approach in this book is based on the eternal and universal principles of ancient Indian spiritual thought and not on any particular religion, sect, creed or dogma. It may be noted that her growing spirituality, destined to consummate itself in the divine perfection of man and the world, will have no religion but the religion of the Spirit, if one may at all call it so.

      In order to avoid monotony and keep within set limits I have to deal with the more prominent of the pioneers with reference only to the contributions of their collaborators. This does not mean any disregard for those who do not figure in the present account.

      I wish to express my grateful thanks to Sri Nolini Kanta Gupta, an eminent litterateur, an authentic exponent of Sri Aurobindo, and Secretary, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and to Sri K.D. Sethna, a celebrated English scholar, poet and critic, for going through the MS. and for their many valuable suggestions. I also gratefully acknowledge the help I have received from Sri Rishabhchand, the renowned author of a number of works on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, from many friends in and outside the Ashram, and from my colleagues at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry, one of whom being Sri Har Krishna Singh who looked to the typing of the press copy. My grateful thanks are also due to Messrs. Allied Publishers (Private) Ltd., for undertaking to publish the book, and to my fellow-members of the Ashram working in the press, who took every care in its production.

  Above all, I have no words to express even a fraction of my gratitude to the Mother and the Master for their Grace and Guidance that have inspired and sustained me all through the period of my labours on the work.

      If this humble attempt helps to quicken the reader's interest in the emergence of the true India in modern history the book will have justified itself.

      The tide of the book Resurgent India is an expression hallowed by Sri Aurobindo's use.

SISIRKUMAR MlTRA