Hitler and his God

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Peril

From the French armistice on 22 June 1940 onwards the French colonial territories were divided in their loyalties: some lined up behind Marshall Pétain, others behind General de Gaulle, even though the latter was still practically unknown. De Gaulle, whom Sri Aurobindo called “a remarkable man”, had formed a government in exile to save the honour of France and was therefore condemned to death in absentia by the Pétain government. Some French colonies, Pondicherry among them, kept their options open, anxiously following the day-to-day developments in Western Europe. There everything depended on the decision to be taken by Great Britain, under threat of an eventual invasion by Germany. If Winston Churchill had not become the premier of Great Britain, a peace settlement between Great Britain and Germany would have been a distinct possibility and the future of the world might have become quite different.

Pondicherry was a French comptoir; this means that it was one of the overseas places where the French ships could drop anchor, take in fresh water and provisions, and do business. Like that there were three more places on the east and west coast of the Indian subcontinent, and one in the estuary of the Ganges. At Pondicherry France was represented by a governor who, at the time of our story, seems to have been one of the hedgers. His position was difficult, for Pondicherry was but a small port town surrounded on its land side by British territory. As the comptoir had to obtain most of it essential stuff from France (and was a notorious smugglers’ den), the war had already made life there difficult and considerably more expensive; now the British could easily cut off this French enclave from the rest of the subcontinent.

“The Pondicherry Governor is sliding towards the Pétain Government”, said Sri Aurobindo on 4 July 1940. The next day his comment on the situation was: “The French Governor is now frightened because the Pétain Government has issued orders to carry out government orders, as it is the duty of the fonctionnaire to obey the superior authority. Moreover, Hitler has threatened the admirals, officials and others [in the colonial territories] that, if they don’t obey, their wives and children will be taken to the concentration camps.” When a disciple reported that the British had forbidden their ships to touch Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo replied: “Yes, they must have done that after learning of the Governor’s attitude.”

Two days later the same disciple had heard that, according to German sources, “France has cut off all diplomatic relations with England. In that case the [British] Indian Government will naturally take stern measures and they won’t hesitate to take possession of Pondicherry.” Sri Aurobindo: “Diplomatic relations are already cut off here.” The situation became still more complicated by another threat to the existence of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram if the Pondicherry Governor opted for Vichy. For the Catholic Pétain Government was known for its firm adherence to its confessional values and for being inimical against anything not Catholic, especially “idolatrous” religions and sects. Therefore, as Sri Aurobindo remarked, “if a Catholic government takes control, then our Ashram won’t be allowed to exist”. 1166

The most alarming threat in those uncertain days came, however, from within the Ashram, where a considerable part of patriotic sadhaks was anti-British and therefore pro-Hitler. On 11 May, Nirodbaran, the Ashram doctor, had already said to Sri Aurobindo: “In the Ashram the feeling is divided. Some are for the British and some for Hitler.” Sri Aurobindo: “For Hitler?” A disciple: “Not exactly, but they are anti-British.” Sri Aurobindo: “Not a rational feeling. How can India, who wants freedom, take sides with somebody who takes away freedom from other nations?”

The situation was quite serious, for about a week later Sri Aurobindo, against his habit, opened the daily conversation himself: “It seems it is not merely five or six of our people but more than half that are in sympathy with Hitler and want him to win!” A disciple, laughing: “Half?” Sri Aurobindo: “No, it is not a matter to laugh at. It is a very serious matter. The Government can dissolve the Ashram at any moment. In Indo-China all religious bodies have been dissolved. And here the whole of Pondicherry is against us. They cannot do anything only because Governor Bonvin is friendly towards us. But even he, if he hears that people in the Ashram are pro-Hitler, will be compelled to take steps, at least to expel those who are so. If these people want the Ashram to be dissolved, they can come and tell me and I will dissolve it instead of the police doing it.

“They have no idea about the world and talk like children. Hitler is the greatest menace the world has ever met. If Hitler wins, do they think India has any chance of being free? It is a well-known fact that Hitler has an eye on India. He is openly talking of world-empire. He will turn towards the Balkan, crushing Italy on the way, which would be a matter of three weeks, then Turkey and then Asia Minor. Asia Minor ultimately means India. If there he meets Stalin, then it is only a question as to who wins and comes to India. I hear K say that Russia can come now and conquer India. It is this kind of slave mentality that keeps India in bondage. He pretends to spirituality. Doesn’t he know that the first thing that Stalin will do is to wipe out spirituality in India …?” And when he heard that a disciple had been jeered at by his fellow-sadhaks for admitting that he was sad at Holland’s defeat, Sri Aurobindo said: “They are glad that Holland was occupied? Very strange, and yet they want freedom for India! This is one thing I can’t swallow. How can they have sympathy for Hitler who is destroying other nations, taking away their liberty? It is not only pro-Ally sympathy but sympathy for humanity that they are jeering at.” 1167

The increasingly complex and threatening situation made Sri Aurobindo, for a time, favour the Japanese. He had long been admiring this people for their samurai qualities. “The power of the Japanese for self-sacrifice, patriotism, self-abnegation and silence was remarkable … The Japanese are kshatriyas [the princely warrior caste], and their aesthetic sense is of course well-known.” But soon Sri Aurobindo had to recognize that these values had deteriorated, especially after the frequent reports of cruelty during the Japanese military campaigns. “European influence has spoiled all that, and see now how brutal they have become – a thoroughly un-Japanese thing … A heroic people with wonderful self-control … but these things perhaps belong to the past. It is a great pity that people who have carried such ideals into practice are losing them through contact with European civilization … The Japanese have become bullies now. It is the new spirit of the Nazis and Fascists which they have got from the West.” 1168

Still Sri Aurobindo, observing the simultaneous advance towards India by Germany from the west and Japan from the east, together with the age-old Russian threat to the country, would have preferred India to come under Japanese domination. His arguments were twofold. Firstly: “I don’t want the Japanese to go down in the fight against the Chinese because they may be needed as a counterbalance against Germany and Russia when, in case England goes down, they try to come to Asia … Out of the three evils, [Japan] may be the best and I don’t think she will annex India … [Japan] won’t like the ‘barbarians’ taking possession of Asia.” 1169 The second reason was spiritual: the religious-minded Japanese would tolerate an institution like the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, while Hitler and Stalin would, as Sri Aurobindo said, “wipe it out”.

In India a whole range of attitudes towards the warring powers could be found, a situation which increased the pressure of the complexities Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had to deal with. The ultra-nationalist Vishva Hindu Parishad favoured collaboration with the British and their Indian army, mainly because enlisting would provide them with training and military know-how to rise up against the British after the war. (It may be recalled that the British Indian Army numbered two and a half million men, and that it saw action in all theatres where British troops were involved.) The Muslim League was also in favour of supporting the colonial authorities, hoping that they would agree to their demand of a partition of India along religious lines. Within the Congress Party the opinions varied, sometimes in one and the same person. Some Congress members wanted India to side with the British, counting on a chance of obtaining the freedom of their country in return for their support in critical circumstances; others like S.C. Bose availed of the occasion to rise in armed rebellion against the colonial overlords.

Subhash Chandra Bose, a Bengali, was born in 1897; he followed an education similar to that of Sri Aurobindo, also renounced joining the Indian Civil Service, and became one of the top men of the Indian National Congress. When he could not see eye to eye with Mohandas K Gandhi, he founded his own Forward Block. In his resistance against the British – he was arrested eleven times in the course of his political career – he looked for inspiration in the examples of Mussolini and Hitler, and travelled to Europe to study the elements of the success of these dictators while they were at the height of their power. At the end of January 1941 Bose escaped the watchful eye of the British and undertook a venturesome journey to Berlin via Kabul, Samarkhand and Moscow. In Germany he founded the Indian Legion with Indian soldiers from British armies taken prisoner by the Germans. Henceforth he was called Netaji, which like Führer, Duce and Caudillo means “leader” in Hindustani.

Bose was sufficiently sensible to realize that he should not expect much from Hitler. In 1933 he had already said: “Today I regret that I have to return to India with the conviction that the new nationalism in Germany is not only narrow and selfish, but arrogant … The new racial philosophy, which has a very weak scientific foundation, stands for the glorification of the white races in general and the German race in particular.” Hitler deigned to receive him only once in what became a very tense encounter. Bose expected a declaration from the Führer that India would be fully independent, even if her independence would have come about with Germany’s assistance. This was contrary to Hitler’s character, racial ideas and political ambitions. When he began to proffer some advice to Bose, the latter said to the interpreter: “Tell his Excellency that I have been in politics all my life and that I don’t need any advice from any side.” Thereupon Hitler suggested that Bose try his luck in Japan.

And so it happened that S.C. Bose undertook another adventurous journey, this time by U-boat to Tokyo; he transshipped from a German unto a Japanese submarine in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The Japanese were more sympathetic towards his plans to liberate India from the British, although they too remained sceptical and kept all trump cards in their own hands. In South-East Asia Bose formed his Indian National Army (INA) again with Indian prisoners of war and also with expatriate Indians who were living in what are now Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore. The peak of this effort was the Imphal campaign in March 1944, when a Japanese army, including 3000 troops of Bose’s INA, crossed the Indian border in the North-Western hills. That Imphal would fall despite the dogged British-Indian resistance was a foregone conclusion. But suddenly the monsoon set in, more than a month early, and “the Japanese chances of success were washed away”, together with those of Bose’s INA. It became, as Hugh Toye puts it, “a military catastrophe of the first magnitude”. 1170 Bose died on 18 August 1945 when the twin-engined bomber in which he was flying to Japan crashed on take-off at Taipei. In India he is officially honoured as a hero.

In the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, many of the pro-Hitler inmates were supporters of S.C. Bose. Considering these circumstances, Sri Aurobindo felt it necessary to take a public stance against Hitler and the Axis. During a considerable part of his life he had been fighting the British, often at the peril of his life; now the world-situation had evolved in a way with made it necessary for him to support them. “He always stood for India’s complete independence which he was the first to advocate publicly and without compromise as the only ideal worthy of a self-respecting nation”, wrote Sri Aurobindo about himself; now he had to support the colonial power which he once had described as a demon sucking the blood of Mother India.

The first time Sri Aurobindo and the Mother made their position public was on 19 September 1940, just after the Battle of Britain, when they sent 500 rupees, then a considerable sum, to the Governor of Madras as a contribution to the Viceroy’s War Purposes Fund. In an accompanying letter was written: “We feel that not only is this a battle waged in just self-defence and in defence of the nations threatened with the world-domination of Germany and the Nazi system of life, but that it is a defence of civilization and its highest attained social, cultural and spiritual values and of the whole future of humanity. To this cause our support and sympathy will be unswerving whatever may happen; we look forward to the victory of Britain and, as the eventual result, an era of peace and union among the nations and a better and more secure world-order.” 1171 When this public gesture was reported in the newspapers, the result was a wave of indignation, also among Aurobindonians within and outside the Ashram.

The indignation would turn into a conflagration when Sri Aurobindo sent a message of support to Stafford Cripps on 31 March 1942. Cripps, former Ambassador to Moscow and at present member of Churchill’s War Cabinet, was sent on a mission to India by the British Government, with a proposal for India’s self-determination immediately after the war in exchange for her loyal support during the war. Sri Aurobindo saw at once that this would be equivalent to dominion status, which in turn would quasi automatically lead to complete self-determination and independence. He therefore sent the following message to Stafford Cripps: “… As one who has been a nationalist leader and worker for India’s independence, though now my activity is no longer in the political but in the spiritual field, I wish to express my appreciation of all you have done to bring about this offer. I welcome it as an opportunity given to India to determine for herself, and organize in all liberty of choice, her freedom and unity, and take an effective place among the world’s free nations. I hope it will be accepted, and right use made of it, putting aside all discords and divisions … In this light, I offer my public adhesion, in case it can be of any help in your work.” 1172

Sri Aurobindo also sent a trusted disciple to Delhi with a message for the leadership of the Congress Party, recommending that they accept the Cripps proposal. The reaction was one of disdain, questioning the advice of a man who had withdrawn from politics and chosen to live in seclusion many years ago. None of those politicians, prejudiced by the common notions about religion, yoga and spirituality, had an idea of what Sri Aurobindo was really doing. The Working Committee of the Congress Party rejected the Cripps Offer by 7 voices to 5. 1173 The long term consequences for the country would be catastrophic, leading among other things to its division into India and Pakistan.

Throughout the country the reactions against Sri Aurobindo’s position were “indignant and aggressive”, as an Indian correspondent wrote recently to the author. “Shri M.P., who has been a sadhak of [Sri Aurobindo’s] yoga for more than 40 years now, this Sunday gave me a first hand account of the violent reaction that Sri Aurobindo’s public support of the British war effort provoked among Indians. It seems that at that time M.P. was a young freedom fighter in Gujarat who idolized Gandhi, and who even tried to prepare himself for a possible armed struggle against the British. When news of Sri Aurobindo’s support for the British war effort broke it apparently drove quite a few of these freedom fighters mad with rage. In their blind indignation many of them physically attacked Sri Aurobindo centres and places associated with him. M.P. himself was one of those who violently attacked such a centre in Gujarat including, it seems, any property as well as the very person of anyone who was identified as a sadhak or follower of Sri Aurobindo in the area.”