Sri Aurobindo’s Invaluable Contribution to India’s Freedom Struggle
Namaskar! I would like to begin with a passage from Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri, as I believe that much of Sri Aurobindo’s own work was of this nature – silent, in the background, powerful in its results.
“When darkness deepens strangling the earth’s breastAnd man’s corporeal mind is the only lamp,
As a thief’s in the night shall be the covert tread
Of one who steps unseen into his house. …
A few shall see what none yet understands;
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;
For man shall not know the coming till its hour
And belief shall be not till the work is done.”[1]
India was asleep when Sri Aurobindo entered the scene of Indian politics in 1893 – the year of his return to India from a 14-year stay in England. He was 20. His entry was quiet, his action unobserved, for he preferred working behind the scenes and setting events into motion with far-reaching results. This is the primary reason why so little is known, and even less acknowledged, about his invaluable contribution to India’s Freedom Struggle.
From 1893 to 1906, Sri Aurobindo was based in Baroda, in the service of its Maharaja. While he could not openly engage in revolutionary activities, he developed and put into motion a revolutionary plan to awaken India and create an aspiration for Poorna Swaraj – complete independence from the British in the Indian psyche.
The first obstacle in this work was the supplicatory approach of the Indian National Congress at that time. It sought favours from the British without any action to become free from their yoke.
One of his first acts was to write a series of articles in a Bombay-based weekly, in which he examined the Congress policy, approach and action and denounced it in no uncertain terms. He wrote:
“I say, of the Congress, … that we are at present the blind led, if not by the blind, at any rate by the one-eyed.”[2]
And, further:
“If we are indeed to renovate our country, we must no longer hold out supplicating hands to the English Parliament, … but must recognise the hard truth that every nation must beat out its own path to salvation with pain and difficulty, and not rely on the tutelage of another.”[3]
He was keen sighted to go to the root of the problem facing India in its efforts for independence. He wrote:
“Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism.”[4]
His singular aim in entering the political scene was:
“to get into the mind of the people a settled will for freedom and the necessity of a struggle to achieve it.”[5]
To address the problem of building up India’s inner and psychological strength, as well as channelise its energies for dynamic and assertive action, Sri Aurobindo devised a three-pronged strategy.
- To create a secret revolutionary organisation capable of armed insurrection.
- To establish a country-wide propaganda drive to bring Indian society around to the ideal of independence.
- To set up a broad-based popular movement of passive resistance and non-cooperation with the British regime.
His approach was to build up from ground up. In 1901, he sent his first deputy to Bengal to set up samitis in every town and village, to train youth physically and psychologically.
It is important to note that while Sri Aurobindo did not advocate violence, he did not shy away from it either. He looked upon India as his mother. He wrote to his wife:
“What would a son do if a demon sat on his mother’s breast and started sucking her blood? … I know I have the strength to deliver this fallen race. It is not physical strength, … but the strength of knowledge. … This feeling is not new in me, it is not of today. I was born with it, it is in my very marrow. God sent me to earth to accomplish this great mission.”[6]
One of his major contributions was to instil this sentiment in the youth through his political action. The cry of Bande Mataram was to resound once again in India, firing up the youth with the ardour to overthrow the British rule at any cost and free their motherland.
After the 1905 partition of Bengal, Sri Aurobindo decided to quit his service at Baroda and shift to Kolkata, the centre of political action at that time. He had been touring India, meeting people, and was in touch with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal, who were aligned to more extreme measures than the moderates in Congress. The moderates were not comfortable with the demand for Swadeshi. However, in the December 1906 session of the Congress, the efforts of the Nationalists – Sri Aurobindo, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal, amongst others, succeeded. The resolution for Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education was passed, after much resistance. In fact, inadvertently, the moderate leader of Congress concluded the session declaring ‘Swaraj’ as a goal. While he meant it as a form of colonial autonomy, the Nationalists took up the cry for complete independence. This cry for Swaraj was yet another major contribution of Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo was one of the major forces behind the partition of Congress in 1907, as the moderates were unwilling to accept the 1906 Swaraj resolution as binding. The breakaway group of Nationalists formed its own party. What was set in motion in 1907 by Sri Aurobindo along with the other Nationalists, was finally adopted by the Congress in 1916, under Tilak’s leadership – India’s complete independence as the goal.
Sri Aurobindo’s prime weapon was his pen. It was not enough for the nation to have the intention for freedom; it must also have knowledge of what they were fighting against and towards what purpose. His articles in the Bengali journal Yugantar and the English daily Bande Mataram laid bare the nefarious designs of the British day-after-day. The impact was far-reaching. His words reached Gandhi in South Africa and Nehru in England. Every week excerpts were reproduced in the British Press, including the Times.[7] Sri Aurobindo’s scathing exposure of the British intentions through his articles led Lord Minto (the Viceroy of India) and others in the British government to declare him the most dangerous man with whom they had to deal[8] in India.
In line with his strategy to set up a broad-based popular movement of non-cooperation with the British, Sri Aurobindo laid out ‘The Doctrine of Passive Resistance’ in Bande Mataram. While, passivity meant to abstain from doing anything that would help the government, Sri Aurobindo did not rule out defensive or even active resistance if faced with violence. There was no turning of the other cheek.
In 1908, Sri Aurobindo was incarcerated in Alipore jail, along with 39 others. This was a landmark year. While imprisoned, he had several spiritual experiences, leading to a conviction that the Divine was guiding his trial and ultimate release. Upon coming out of jail after one year, he found that the Nationalist movement had slackened. Tilak was exiled, Yugantar and Bande Mataram had closed down, most samitis were driven underground.[9] Such was the state of affairs that Gokhale, the Congress president had even declared the idea of India’s independence as an insane and a criminal idea.
It was at this time that Sri Aurobindo gave the Uttarpara speech in which he talked about his spiritual experiences in Alipore jail. He put forth spirituality as the key to India’s freedom and future rise. He emphasised the necessity of connecting the daily life, all action – including politics, with spiritual reality.
Sri Aurobindo’s inner experiences did not result in a life or action-shunning spirituality. On the contrary, he once again took up the work of re-awakening India single-handedly. Besides carrying on with political tours and speeches, he started two journals – Dharma in Bengali and Karmayogin in English. The Karmayogin carried articles on philosophy, yoga, education, art and literature, besides those on politics.
While his earlier political action had been to prepare India psychologically, emotionally and physically to fight for India’s freedom, now he emphasised upon a spiritual revolution. He laid out ‘The Ideal of the Karmayogin’, who was not only to fight for India’s freedom, but was to build up the nation in tune with its mighty spirit. He wrote:
“The task we set before ourselves is not mechanical but moral and spiritual. We aim not at the alteration of a form of government but at the building up of a nation.”[11]
He looked beyond India’s freedom – that being a given – to the future strength of India and the role she was destined to play on the world stage. He wrote:
“We believe that it is to make the yoga the ideal of human life that India rises today; by the yoga she will get the strength to realise her freedom, unity and greatness, by the yoga she will keep the strength to preserve it. It is a spiritual revolution we foresee and the material is only its shadow and reflex.”[12]
It is quite remarkable that in 1909, when the nation was still in the grip of the British and moderate approach of the Congress, and the Nationalists’ strength had been suppressed, Sri Aurobindo stood firm and declared a spiritual ideal and spiritual methodology not only for India’s complete independence, but for her greater role in the rising of Asia and in the rising of humanity as a whole. No other politician before or since has integrated spirituality and politics the way Sri Aurobindo did.
It was his firm belief that India was bound to achieve her independence as the Divine was guiding that work. He continued to work in the political field till 1910, when in response to an inner command, he left Bengal, initially with the idea to return to political action. However, as things unfolded, the Divine had other plans for him, and India did become free. Today, we see several of Sri Aurobindo’s insights coming true, as regards India’s role in the world scene and in her own growth.
Though Sri Aurobindo retired from Indian politics in 1910, when in 1942 the Cripps Mission offered India the Dominion status, Sri Aurobindo sent a note to Sir Stafford Cripps welcoming this initiative; he also sent a note to the Congress in favour of the proposal, as he felt that during the 2nd World War, the greater threat was Hitler and all forces needed to unite against him. His victory would have meant doom for entire humanity. Sri Aurobindo felt that the Dominion status would also give time to India to overcome communal disharmony already generated by then. Unfortunately, the Congress rejected the Mission. As noted by the renowned politician and author, KM Munshi, had it been accepted, “there would have been no partition, no refugees and no Kashmir problem.”[13]
To sum up, Sri Aurobindo’s contribution was invaluable as it hit at the root of the problem and aimed at building the nation morally, psychologically, intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually. It raised the freedom struggle from a mere political movement to a spiritual movement in service of India, the Mother. It set into the Indian psyche the demand for Poorna Swaraj and the doctrine of both passive as well as active resistance. It created a road map for India’s future growth and her role upon the world scene. Sri Aurobindo showed through his person and dynamic action, how even politics could be imbued with spirituality – something that the entire world needs to emulate today in order to overcome its conflicts.
- Anuradha (The Gnostic Centre, India)
[1] Sri Aurobindo. Savitri (CWSA vol.33 Book 1 Canto 4). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
[2] Cited in: Luc Venet, The Never-dying Fire: the Life and Thought of Sri Aurobindo, p.15. Noida, UP, India 2023: BluOne Ink LLP.
[3] Ibid. pp.13-14.
[4] Cited in: Sri Aurobindo, Out of the Ruins of the West… India’s Rebirth, p.10. Paris 1993: Institut de Recherches Evolutives.
[5] Cited in: Luc Venet, The Never-dying Fire: the Life and Thought of Sri Aurobindo, p.65.
[6] Cited in: AB Purani, The Life of Sri Aurobindo, p.82. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, India, 1978.
[7] Refer to Luc Venet, The Never-dying Fire: the Life and Thought of Sri Aurobindo, p.89.
[8] Refer to: Sujata Nahar, Mother’s Chronicles book 5.
[9] Refer to Luc Venet, The Never-dying Fire: the Life and Thought of Sri Aurobindo, p.137.
[10] Ibid. p.138.
[11] Sri Aurobindo. ‘The Ideal of the Karmayogin’ in Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo vol.13. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Cited in: Luc Venet, The Never-dying Fire: the Life and Thought of Sri Aurobindo, p.245.
Congratulations, on a well-researched and presented talk.
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