Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

33

The Revolutionary

A public propaganda to convert the whole nation to the idea of independence was a later acquisition in Sri Aurobindo's armoury. He had started out with a secret revolutionary propaganda and organization of which the central object was the preparation of an armed insurrection. "We wanted," he said, "to give battle after awakening the spirit of the race through guerilla warfare.... My idea was for an open armed revolution in the whole of India."

It was in 1901 that Sri Aurobindo made his first move by sending Jatin Banerji "as his lieutenant to Bengal with a programme of preparation and action which he thought might occupy a period of 30 years before fruition could become possible." It took about forty-five years.

Jatin Banerji (1877-1930) had turned up one day in 1898 at the door of A. Ghose. He wanted to get military training in order to prepare himself for the revolutionary work. With the help of Madhavrao and Khaserao Jadhav, Sri Aurobindo got him admitted to the Baroda army as a trooper in the cavalry regiment. Under the British, Bengalis were forbidden to be

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Sri Aurobindo in his revolutionary days

trained in any army, so he was declared a Hindustani and shortened his name from Bandopadhyay to Upadhyay. Later in life he became a sannyasi (Niralamba Swami), and his wife Hiranmoyee too took sannyas (Chinmoyee Devi).

Towards the end of 1901, Jatin was sent to Bengal to recruit young men. Barin states that that was six months before he himself was sent to Bengal. Jatin was also charged with setting up centres in every town and eventually in every village. "Societies of young men were to be established with various ostensible objects, cultural, intellectual or moral and those already existing were to be won over for revolutionary use. Young men were to be trained in activities which might be helpful for ultimate military action, such as riding, physical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organised movement. As soon as the idea was sown it attained a rapid prosperity." The few young men with revolutionary aim in no time became many. At Calcutta Jatin set up his residence at 108C, Upper Circular Road. It became a training ground and the Society's study centre. P. Mitter, Surendranath Tagore, A. Rasul, S. G. Deuskar, Debabrata Bose and others met here every Sunday evening, and discussed revolutionary subjects.

Bengal, of course, had secret societies running in its blood. Remember Rajnarain Bose who formed one in which Tagore brothers were members? Both Jyotirindranath and Rabindranath wrote rousing patriotic songs, a testimony to their continued sympathetic adherence to the Swadeshi Movement. Rabi Babu personally took part in many meetings that were held then. Their niece, Sarala Ghosal (or, Sarala Devi

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Choudhurani —1872-1945) was an exceptionally gifted woman. A polyglot, she knew English (gold medallist in B.A. Hon.), French, Persian, and naturally Sanskrit and Bengali. A talented writer, a gifted singer, and an educationist, she helped Jatin in his task of setting up a secret society, as Sri Aurobindo had sent him with a letter to her and to P. Mitter.

P. Mitter (Pramathanath Mitra— 1853-1910), a disciple of the famous Yogi Bejoy Goswamy, was the founder of the Anushilan Samiti. "P. Mitter had a spiritual life and aspiration and a strong religious feeling; he was like Bepin Pal and several other prominent leaders of the new nationalist movement in Bengal," said Sri Aurobindo. Along with P. Mitter, Sarala Ghosal had already started a sort of Revolutionary party of which Sister Nivedita was a member. Sarala Ghosal founded several clubs where not only boys but girls too were taught to wield lathi and sword. A worshipper of Shakti, she was the foremost organizer of physical education in Bengal. The Tagores had a tradition of physical training. There was a wrestling pit in their compound at Jorasanko and, as a young lad, Rabindranath practised wrestling.

"I was neither the founder nor the leader [of the revolutionary movement in Bengal]," Sri Aurobindo said candidly. "It was P. Mitter and Miss Ghosal who started it on the inspiration of Baron Okakura.¹ They had already started it before I went to Bengal and when I was there I came to hear of it. I simply kept

1. Baron Kakujo Okakura (1862-1913), a Japanese artist friend of the Tagores.

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myself informed of their work." He was still going and coming between Bengal and Gujarat.

Before openly joining politics Sri Aurobindo was pushing the movement from behind. "Okakura started the revolutionary movement at Calcutta, but there was always a quarrel going on among the members." After sending his emissaries, Sri Aurobindo went personally to Bengal to see and arrange things himself. "When I came to Calcutta, I came in contact with the party. They had no organization at all. Their main programme was to beat some magistrates and the quarrels were going on. So I organized them and reconciled their quarrels and went back to Baroda." He had constituted a Working Committee comprising P. Mitter, C.R. Das, Surendranath Tagore, Sister Nivedita, and himself. From the beginning, Sri Aurobindo used to contribute big sums for the work of the secret society; C.R. Das and P. Mitter also contributed. But he got a bit disappointed at the continued quarrels among the workers. "Again a quarrel broke out, again I came and reconciled them; the whole thing went then into Barin's hands. Terrorism was only a subordinate movement. It could have been important when the armed revolution would have come, the revolution for which we wanted to prepare the whole country; and I was too busy with the open political movement to prepare the country in that way. This terroristic movement was to prepare the young men to have some sort of a military training, to kill and get killed. Otherwise it was never my idea that by throwing a few bombs we could overthrow the British Government. And that probably was the reason of the split among them. P. Mitter was for

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the original idea while Barin was for this terrorism. I was never in direct contact with the movement nor with the young men and didn't know them. Only in jail I came in contact with them, especially Nolini, Bejoy, etc. When I came out of jail, Jatin Banerji and others again approached me and I organized the party again."

People do not know what an exceptional organizational ability Sri Aurobindo had. Almost single-handedly he brought order out of the primordial chaos of Bengal politics. In Bengal "I found a number of small groups of revolutionaries that had recently sprung into existence but all scattered and acting without reference to each other. I tried to unite them under a single organisation with the barrister P. Mitra as the leader of the revolution in Bengal and a central council of five persons, one of them being Nivedita. The work under P. Mitra spread enormously and finally contained tens of thousands of young men and the spirit of revolution spread by Barin's paper Yugantar¹ became general in the young generation ; but during my absence at Baroda the council ceased to exist as it was impossible to keep up agreement among the many groups."

Although Sri Aurobindo's attempt at a close organization of the whole movement did not succeed, "the movement itself did not suffer by that," he wrote, "for the general idea was taken up and activity of many separate groups led to a

1. According to a Secret Police report, "In more than one case a visit to the Yugantar office was th e first step towards an introduction to th e innercircles of the society ."

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greater and more widespread diffusion of the revolutionary drive and its action."

There were many leaders of all-India calibre —world-class, I ought to say—during the Swadeshi days, such as the Mahratta Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Punjabis Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh and the Tamilian Chidambaram Pillai. Bengal had a galaxy of them. But that Sri Aurobindo was the driving force behind the movement remains an undisputable fact. His "habit in action was not to devise beforehand and plan but to keep a fixed purpose, watch events, prepare forces and act when he felt it to be the right moment."

Sri Aurobindo was no believer in the gospel of nonviolence. If he "had not believed in the efficacy of violent revolution or had disliked it, he would not have joined the secret society whose purpose was to prepare a national insurrection." Historical studies had taught him quite the opposite lesson. "He had studied with interest the revolutions and rebellions which led to national liberation, the struggle against the English in mediaeval France and the revolts which liberated America and Italy. He took much of his inspiration from these movements and their leaders, especially Jeanne d'Arc and Maz-zini." Additionally, "Sri Aurobindo's position and practice in this matter was the same as Tilak's and that of other Nationalist leaders who were by no means Pacifists or worshippers of Ahimsa."

At the same time as he studied the conditions of the country, Sri Aurobindo was also studying the temperament of the leaders of the day. He met many of them, such as G. K.

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Gokhale. "After an hour's conversation with Gokhale, in the train between Ahmedabad and Baroda," he recorded, "it was impossible for Sri Aurobindo to retain any great respect for Gokhale as a politician, whatever his merits as a man." Khaparde was more plainspoken: "Gokhale has no backbone." The British Government also had a very poor opinion of the politician: "Gokhale, as a party manager, is a baby," wrote Morley to Minto on 31 October 1907. "Gokhale is always whining. ..." But it suited them to use him as they wanted to win over the Moderates with his help. They played the same game with several other prominent Congress leaders such as Pherozeshah Mehta.

The only one who came up to scratch was Bal Gangadhar Tilak, whom Sri Aurobindo regarded as "the one possible leader for a revolutionary party." Tilak had profoundly appreciated the lucid exposure of the mendicant policy of the Congress in the articles 'New Lamps for Old.' He had seen the writer at Baroda in 1901. It was at the Ahmedabad Congress that the two met again; "there Tilak took him out of the pandal and talked to him for an hour in the grounds expressing his contempt for the Reformist movement and explaining his own line of action in Maharashtra." The Ahmedabad Congress was held in December 1902 under the chairmanship of Surendranath Banerji, who declared: "We plead for the permanence of British rule in India."

Sri Aurobindo built up a very close contact with Tilak, for he became — unless he already was ? — a member of a secret society started by Tilak in Maharashtra. It was one Mandal

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"who introduced me through someone else¹ to the Secret Society," disclosed Sri Aurobindo, "where I came into contact with Tilak and others.... I and some others joined [the Society] along with some Rajput Thakurs."

Thus Sri Aurobindo took the oath of the Society and was introduced to the Council in Bombay. Later he became the president of this Bombay Council. The oath-giver placed in the hands of the oath-taker an unsheathed sword and a copy of the Gita, with a pledge to the effect: "As long as there is life in me and as long as India is not liberated from her chains of subjection, 1 will carry on the revolution. If at any time I disclose a single word or a single event of the Society or harm it in any way, it shall be at the cost of my own life."²

Sri Aurobindo's future action was not pursued under any directions by this Council, but he took up on his own responsibility the task of generalizing support for its objects in Bengal where as yet it had no membership or following. He "spoke of the Society and its aim to P. Mitter and other leading men of the revolutionary group in Bengal and they took the oath of the Society and agreed to carry out its objects on the lines suggested by Sri Aurobindo." He revealed an unknown aspect of the revolutionary movement. "It was our men who got hold of the movement in Bengal and gave it a revolutionary character. Otherwise it would have been a

1.Purani says that a Marathi gentleman, "Mr. Mandvale, gave the oath of the Revolutionary Party to Sri Aurobindo," in 1901.

2.Agniyuga (in Bengali). by Barindra K. Ghose .

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moderate movement. We were training people in our Secret Society started by Tilak."

The leader of the Secret Society's movement was one of the Thakurs. He was not a Ruling Chief, "but a noble of the Udaipur State with the title of Thakur. The Thakur was not a member of the Council in Bombay; he stood above it as the leader of the whole movement while the Council helped him to organise Maharashtra and the Mahratta States. He himself worked principally upon the army of which he had already won over two or three regiments. Sri Aurobindo took a special journey into Central India to meet and speak with Indian sub-officers and men of one of these regiments," Sri Aurobindo stated explicitly.

Sister Nivedita also had links with Rajput Thakurs. "She went about among the Thakurs of Rajputana trying to preach to them revolution," said Sri Aurobindo with a chuckle. "At that time everybody wanted some kind of revolution. I myself met several Rajput Thakurs who, unsuspected by the Government, had revolutionary ideas and tendencies. One Thakur, Ram Singh, who joined our movement, was afterwards caught and put in jail. He suddenly died there in a short time. Moro-pant said, 'He died out of fright.' But he was not a man to be frightened. They may have poisoned him. Moropant, you know, turned afterwards a Moderate."

Sri Aurobindo then said earnestly, "More than one Indian battalion were ready to help us. I knew a Punjabi sentry at Alipore who spoke to me about the revolution."

When a man wanted to enter his yoga in 1923, Sri

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Aurobindo hid nothing. He told the aspirant that this yoga was a high adventure, for it was a radical transition from the present state of human consciousness; a sadhak of his yoga would be attacked by tremendous forces, and the sadhak would have to prove again and again his strength. "It is not a revolt against the British Government which anyone can easily do," Sri Aurobindo said candidly. "It is, in fact, a revolt against the whole universal Nature."

The Revolutionary of the Swadeshi days would become the Revolutionary of the universal Nature.

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