Sri Aurobindo for All Ages

II: Manchester and St. Paul’s School, London (1879-1890)

AT MANCHESTER, the boys were readily given shelter by the Drewett family: Rev. Drewett, his wife and his elderly mother. Before he left, Dr. Ghose gave strict instructions that his sons should not be allowed to make the acquaintance of any Indians or to undergo any Indian influence.

Sri Aurobindo was to stay in England for the next fourteen years, from 1879 to 1893. The first five years were spent at Manchester, the next six in London and the last three mostly at Cambridge. During his entire stay, he was virtually cut off from his motherland, the only contact being through occasional letters, newspapers and a few acquaintances at Cambridge. As he was to write himself, he grew up 'in entire ignorance of India, her people, her religion and culture'. But love of the motherland was ingrained in him and, at the destined hour, it burst into flame.

The two elder brothers joined the Manchester Grammar School, but Auro was coached at home by Rev. Drewett, an accomplished scholar in Latin and English. His wife taught the boy arithmetic, geography and French. It took Mr. Drewett little time to realise that Auro was a boy of exceptional qualities: sharp intelligence and deep concentration, a sweet temper and a quiet reserve in manner and speech. Benoybhushan, the eldest brother, has said: 'Auro was a very quiet and gentle boy, but at times could be terribly obstinate.'

There is very little information available about Sri Aurobindo's stay at Manchester as a boy. It was certainly not the practice in England for a boy of his age to study exclusively at home but perhaps the Drewetts realised that Auro with his very unusual qualities would not fit into the rough and tumble of school life and so he needed special nurturing. Sri Aurobindo did receive help from the Drewetts but at the same time it would be true to say that he was largely self-taught.

As the young boy grew up, his studies covered a wide field: poetry, literature, history; Shakespeare, Shelley and the Bible were his habitual companions. Shelley's 'Revolt of Islam' pleased him a lot, although as he said later, much of it was then not intelligible to him but the vision of freedom from tyranny and injustice appealed to his juvenile sentiment, leaving its impact on his formative mind. Sri Aurobindo has mentioned that from early childhood he had an abhorrence for all kinds of cruelty and oppression. He said that at this time he also wrote some verses for Fox's family magazine.

Five years passed in absorbed growth. Sri Aurobindo has himself said that even at the early age of eleven he received a strong impression that a period of general upheaval and great revolutionary changes was coming in the world and that he was destined to play a part in it. This is indeed unusual for a boy of that age, an indication of an extraordinary life in the making.

There is a rather amusing story about an attempt to convert him during his stay at Manchester. What happened was this. Rev. Drewett's mother was a zealous Christian. The old lady was very fond of Auro and wanted to save his soul by making him a Christian too. So without disclosing her purpose she took him along when she went to attend a meeting of non-Conformist priests at Cumberland. Recalling the incident many years later, Sri Aurobindo said: 'After the prayers were over nearly all dispersed, but devout people remained a little longer and it was at that time that conversions were made. I was feeling completely bored. Then a minister approached me and asked me some questions. I did not give any reply. Then they all shouted, "He is saved, he is saved", and began to pray for me and offer thanks to God. I did not know what it was all about. Then the minister came to me and asked me to pray. I was not in the habit of praying. But somehow I did it in the manner in which children recite their prayers before going to sleep in order to keep up an appearance. I was about ten at that time.' However, it must not be supposed that Rev. Drewett had any hand in all this. He was a man with liberal views about religion and indeed Sri Aurobindo's father had strictly asked that the boys be kept free from religious instructions.

In 1884 Mr. Drewett decided to migrate to Australia, and left the three brothers in charge of his mother. The old lady also decided to leave Manchester and move to London where she took lodgings at 49, St. Stephen's Avenue, Shepherd's Bush.

When Sri Aurobindo came to London he had just completed his twelfth year. There is a painting by a well-known artist, Promode Chatterjee, from a photograph of Sri Aurobindo taken around this time. The portrait was done at the Ashram in Pondicherry and when the Mother saw it she remarked: 'His nature's spontaneous simplicity and freshness have come out very well; he came to this world with these virtues. His inner beauty is visibly in front. He had no idea of worldly life.' Sri Aurobindo has himself mentioned an unusual experience he had when he was twelve or thirteen. He said: was extremely selfish and then something came upon me and I felt I ought to give up selfishness. I tried in my own way — of course imperfectly — to put it into practice. But that was a sort of turning point in my inner life.' This shows how perceptive and sensitive he was, and endowed with an inner strength rare in a boy of that age.

In September 1884 Manmohan and Sri Aurobindo were admitted to St. Paul's School, London, as day scholars. This was Sri Aurobindo's first experience of school life in England and it must have opened up new vistas for him, after his secluded life at Manchester. Fortunately, St Paul's was then one of the best schools in England and the Head Master, Mr. Walker, a great educationist of the Victorian period. He could spot at once Auro's exceptional merit: like an astute jeweller he knew the worth of a precious gem at a glance. He gave his personal attention to the boy and finding him to be well up in Latin but a little deficient in Greek, he helped him in this and other subjects, pushing him rapidly into the higher classes. Soon the boy caught the attention of other teachers by his quick intelligence and industry. He took an active part in the school literary society and came to be recognised as a good speaker. His faculties began to flower rapidly. Things were proceeding exceptionally well when, suddenly, Auro appeared to lose all interest in his studies. The teachers were puzzled and disappointed that the boy was wasting his immense talents through laziness. But the fact was otherwise, as Sri Aurobindo told us later. Actually, he was then using his time to read all kinds of books outside of the school curriculum — poetry, novels; history, French literature — and even learning a few other European languages. From time to time he composed a poem or two in Greek or Latin, and then he would be complimented by the teachers, but generally they deplored his lack of attention to school studies. However, Sri Aurobindo did in fact find the class lessons quite easy and secured many prizes. I remember his mentioning to us that one of these prizes was a full set of the Arabian Nights which he read with great pleasure. In the final examination, the young scholar did very well, securing prizes in literature and history; he had already shown exceptional proficiency in Latin and Greek. Of his school career, perhaps the last word was said by Mr. Walker. When Sri Aurobindo's name came prominently before the British public in connection with the Alipore Bomb Trials, the old Head Master is reported to have said that of all the boys who passed through his hands at St. Paul's, Aurobindo was by far the most richly endowed in intellectual capacity.

You may think that since Dr. Ghose was very well placed in life and had himself taken his sons to England for their education, they would not have to face financial difficulties during their stay there. In actual fact, the situation was very different. It is true that initially they had a fairly easy time at Manchester, for Dr. Ghose used to send £360 a year for them, a sum sufficient to meet their expenses. But, practically from the time they came to London, conditions turned very difficult because remittances from Dr. Ghose became irregular as well as insufficient and almost stopped at the end. The reason for this I have already indicated: Krishna Dhan was generous to others, to the point of recklessness, and in following the bent of his nature, he sadly neglected his sons. And the situation worsened when they had to leave the old lady's house in London.

The story about this is not without amusement. As you know, Mrs. Drewett was a very orthodox Christian and she used to hold prayers at home with readings from the Bible. At times the eldest brother Benoybhusan, had to perform this duty. One day, before their dinner, the Bible reading had just finished when Manmohan, in a mood of exasperation and mischief, cried out: 'This fellow Moses was rightly served when his people disobeyed him!' This, you can imagine, set the house on fire, for Moses was for the old lady the greatest of prophets and to speak of him with such irreverence was sacrilege. She said that she would not live another day under the same roof with unbelievers, as the house might fall down on her head and she left in a huff. When he recalled this incident, Sri Aurobindo mentioned, 'We felt relieved and I felt infinitely grateful to Dada [Manmohan).... In those days I was not particular about telling the truth always and I was a bit of a coward. Nobody could imagine that I could face the gallows or carry on a revolutionary movement. In my case it was all human imperfection with which I had to start....'

The three brothers were now virtually stranded: the father silent, no remittances, food scarce. In this crisis they were fortunate in finding a timely benefactor in James Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton, who was a well-known figure in India and a friend of Dr. K.D. Ghose. James Cotton was then Secretary of the South Kensington Liberal Club which had its office at 128, Cromwell Road. The boys went and saw him and, realising their predicament, he engaged Benoybhusan on a small allowance. He also arranged for the brothers to stay in a room on top of the office. The room was unheated and not meant to be used as a living room but the boys were grateful for the shelter it provided. This was the beginning of a period of immense hardship. The three brothers had to live in a city like London on a pittance. During winter they could not afford to have a fire in the room and Sri Aurobindo did not have an overcoat to protect him from the cold. He later mentioned that for a whole year he lived daily on a few slices of bread and butter, an occasional sandwich or two, some cups of tea and a penny worth of sausage. In my letters to him I once asked whether the life of poverty he had to endure in England at such a young age had an adverse effect on his growing faculties or whether it acted as an incentive. He replied: 'Not in the least. You are writing like Samuel Smiles. Poverty has never had any terror for me nor is it an incentive. You seem to forget that I left my very safe and "handsome" Baroda position without any need to do it and that I gave up also the Rs.150 of National College Principalship, leaving myself with nothing to live on. I could not have done that, if money had been an incentive.' This shows how equal-souled he was to hardships and comforts even at that early age and gives an indication of his inner strength. I should add that in spite of all their difficulties the brothers never complained about their father's failure to support them.

Manmohan could not endure for long the strain of living at Cromwell Road and left when he found lodgings on convenient terms. His position also improved when he won a scholarship to go up to Christ Church College, Oxford in 1887. Sri Aurobindo seems to have lived at Cromwell Road from September 1887 to April 1889. Then he had the good fortune to find a landlady who was, in his own words, 'an angel', for she did not ask for her dues for months together. Afterwards he settled all the arrears from his ICS stipend.

Amidst these trials, Sri Aurobindo continued with his extensive studies. Now and then the poet in him would seek expression and he would work on a poem in Greek, Latin or English. Sri Aurobindo's interests were manifold and in course of time he tried and left many things but the Muse was his lifelong companion. Perhaps the original impulse came from his mother and he has himself acknowledged the stimulus he received from his elder brother who had the characteristics of a born poet. Manmohan had already attracted some attention as a poet. He was on friendly terms with his class-mate, Laurence Binyon, later to become a well-known literary figure, and with Stephen Phillips, the notable poet. He was also familiar with the famous Oscar Wilde. Sri Aurobindo when he was seventeen, translated from Greek a poem entitled 'Hecuba' and Binyon who happened to read it went out of his way to encourage him to write more poetry.

It was a spartan life that the brothers led but it was not without its times of carefree joy. When they could afford it during the vacations, they went on walking tours and once they visited the beautiful Lake District. Recalling one such excursion, Sri Aurobindo said: 'Manmohan used to have at times "poetic illness". Once we were walking through Cumberland. We found that he had fallen behind and was walking at a leisurely pace, moaning out poetry in a deep tone. There was a dangerous place there so we shouted to him. But he took no heed, went on muttering the lines and joined us in his own unconcerned way.'

In December 1889 Sri Aurobindo passed the Matriculation examination from St. Paul's. In the same month he also sat for a scholarship examination which enabled the successful candidate to go up to King's College, Cambridge. For this examination, which was open to all eligible students in England, Sri Aurobindo took the papers in the Classical languages i.e. Greek and Latin. He was adjudged the best candidate and won the Senior Classical scholarship which was worth £80 a year. With his own efforts and exceptional abilities, Sri Aurobindo had gained for himself the opportunity of going to Cambridge for further studies.

During 1890, his last year at St. Paul's, Sri Aurobindo prepared to sit for the ICS entrance examination which was held annually in London. After a good deal of pressure, the authorities had agreed to allow Indians of the required age and qualifications to take the examination, but they had to sit in open competition with the British candidates and succeed in a very stiff examination. The ICS career, with its immense prestige, power and rewards, held no attraction for Sri Aurobindo and he sat for the examination only to please his father. Krishna Dhan had high hopes that his son would glorify the country by becoming a brilliant administrator and Sri Aurobindo did not want to disappoint him by refusing to take the examination. When the results came out in 1890, his name was among the successful candidates. He had secured the 11th position, scoring record marks in Latin and Greek. In our talks with Sri Aurobindo in later years one of us made the comment that the ICS examination was regarded as an unusually difficult one to pass, but Sri Aurobindo merely said, did not find it so.'

As a probationer in the ICS Sri Aurobindo was now entitled to a stipend of £150 a year. The period of probation was for two years which he could spend at Cambridge whilst pursuing his other studies. In July 1890 Sri Aurobindo left St. Paul's and in October of the same year he joined King's College, Cambridge. He had completed his eighteenth year, two months earlier.