Mother's Chronicles - Book Four

29

The Indian Majlis

There was, apart from poetry, another subject in which Sri Aurobindo's interest was far from 'sporadic' It was in 1891 that Charles Stewart Parnell (born 1846) died. He had led a movement in favour of home rule in Ireland. From A. A. Ghose's pen flowed the following lines:

"O pale and guiding light, now star unsphered,

Deliverer lately hailed, since by our lords

Most feared, most hated, hated because feared,

Who smot'st them with an edge surpassing swords!

Thou too wert then a child of tragic earth,

Since vainly filled thy luminous doom of birth."

Appearances to the contrary, the youth was not only poet-dreamer, he was a poet-in-action.

The British Empire, we should remember, was at the height of its glory —and vainglory—and English intellectuals were often vying with one another to prove the superiority of the white race over others, of Christianity over other religions, and to demonstrate the inevitability of the 'success' of the

Page 213

Western civilization. It was clearly the duty of the white man — and especially of the British —to bestow on his benighted brothers the high benefits of his enlightenment. Why, if he had taken such pains to establish his presence in barbarian regions of the world, it was purely from that selfless motive. How else could they ever be pulled from their hopeless quagmire?

It did not take Sri Aurobindo long to see through this self-satisfied glitter. Despite his limited contacts with his motherland, he soon came to understand the unique value of her civilization. "Look at the India of Vikramaditya," he wrote at the age of eighteen in The Harmony of Virtue, a dialogue in the manner of Plato between Keshav, a young Indian, and a few English students. "How gorgeous was her beauty! How Olympian the voices of her poets! How sensuous the pencil of her painters! How languidly voluptuous the outlines of her sculpture! In those days every man was marvellous to himself and many were marvellous to their fellows; but the mightiest marvel of all were the philosophers. What a philosophy was that! For she scaled the empyrean on the winged sandals of meditation, soared above the wide fires of the sun and above the whirling stars, up where the flaming walls of the universe are guiltless of wind or cloud and there in the burning core of existence saw the face of the most high God. She saw God and did not perish; rather fell back to earth, not blasted with excess of light, but with a mystic burden on her murmuring lips too large for human speech to utter or for the human brain to understand. Such was she then. Yet five rolling centuries had not passed when sleepless all-beholding Surya saw the sons of Mahomet pour like locusts over the green fields of her glory

Page 214

and the wrecks of that mighty fabric whirling down the rapids of barbarism into the shores of night. They were barbarous, therefore mighty: we were civilized, therefore feeble."

"But was not your civilization premature?" asked one of Keshav's English friends. "The building too hastily raised disintegrates and collapses, for it has the seeds of death in its origin. May not the utilitarian justly condemn it as evil?"

The Indian boy replied: "What the utilitarian may not justly do, it is beyond the limits of my intellect to discover. Had it not been for these premature civilizations, had it not been for the Athens of Plato, the Rome of the Caesars, the India of Vikramaditya, what would the world be now? It was premature, because barbarism was yet predominant in the world; and it is wholly due to our premature efflorescence that your utilitarian can mount the high stool of folly and defile the memory of the great." Concluding, he said: "The utilitarian with his sordid creed may exalt the barbarism and spit his livid contempt upon culture, but the great heart of the world will ever beat more responsive to the flame-winged words of the genius than to the musty musings of the moralist. It is better to be great and perish, than to be little and live."

*

* *

In January 1941 some questions were put to Benoy-bhusan¹ concerning Sri Aurobindo's life at Cambridge.

1. Sri Aurobindo (in Bengali) by Girijashankar Roy chowdhuri,

Page 215

His answers:

i)"Indians had a Debating Society at Cambridge called 'Cambridge Mejlis.' He took an active part in that. He met C. R. Das at Cambridge.

ii)"In the Mejlis he made a number of strong speeches, specially about India. That showed his interest. At that time the India Society was started. The idea of terrorist activity (Bombing) came at that time."

iii)(G\ He helped in the election of some M. R — what do you know about this?) "Probably Dadabhai Naoroji."

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), 'the grand old man of India,' belonged to the Parsi community and was a rich businessman of Bombay. Liberal in his outlook, he took great interest in the public affairs of India and was elected President of the Indian National Congress at its second session held in Calcutta in 1886. He became the first Indian to be elected a member of the House of Commons in England on a ticket of the Liberal party. This win was despite a pronouncement in bad taste of Lord Salisbury, who called Naoroji 'that black man of India.' Salisbury, an erstwhile Secretary of State, had also declared, "India must be bled." The Indian student community, including our A. A. Ghose, C. R. Das and K. G. Deshpande, reacted strongly to the public insult. In consequence Naoroji was elected and became a Member of Parliament, but in the process "I headed the list of the unsuccessful," as C. R. Das averred. Chittaranjan Das had gone to London in 1890 to study for the Indian Civil Service, and was turned down as a result of his protest.

A. A. Ghose followed closely all public questions and

Page 216

began to keep a finger on the pulse of politics. It was in 1891, during his stay at Cambridge that the 'Indian Majlis' was started. It was an association of Indian students. The Majlis played an important part in the social life of Indian students in England and very often moulded their political outlook. It was during his college days that A. A. Ghose "began first to be interested in Indian politics of which previously he knew nothing. His father began sending the newspaper The Bengalee with passages marked relating to cases of maltreatment of Indians by Englishmen and he wrote in his letters denouncing the British Government in India as a heartless Government." The Bengalee was the mouthpiece of Surendranath Bannerjee, a Moderate leader, who, at one time, was regarded as the uncrowned king of Bengal. But that was before Sri Aurobindo entered the political arena. "At the age of eleven Aurobindo had already received strongly the impression that a period of general upheaval and great revolutionary changes was coming in the world and he himself was destined to play a part in it. His attention was now drawn to India and this feeling was soon canalised into the idea of the liberation of his own country. But the 'firm decision' took full shape only towards the end of another four years. It had already been made when he went to Cambridge and as a member and for some time secretary of the Indian Majlis at Cambridge he delivered many revolutionary speeches which, as he afterwards learnt, had their part in determining the authorities to exclude him for the Indian Civil Service; the failure in the riding test was only the occasion, for in some other cases an opportunity was given for remedying this defect in India itself."

Page 217

Thus both Sri Aurobindo and Chittaranjan Das were 'excluded' from the Indian Civil Service, as was S. N. Bannerjee, by the British Government —exclusions that were to rebound on it.

Sri Aurobindo, however, avowed that it was he who chose not to appear for the riding test, for "they gave me another chance, and again I didn't appear. Then they rejected me."

A rejection that was to change the course of history.

On 17 November 1892 the Civil Service Commission informed the India Office that "although several opportunities have been offered to Mr. A. A. Ghose of attending for examination in Riding ... he has repeatedly failed to attend at the time appointed;" therefore they were "unable to certify that he is qualified to be appointed to the Civil Service of India." Whereupon a minute was prepared in the office of the Secretary of State 'for information': "Mr. Ghose obtained the 11^th place at the open competition of 1890, was No. 23 in the First Periodical Examination, No. 19 in the Second Periodical and No. 37 in the final last August."

That quite shows A. A. Ghose's flagging interest in the Indian Civil Service.

"I appeared for the I.C.S.," replied Sri Aurobindo to a Gujarati doctor-disciple, Dr. Manilal, in December 1938, "because my father wanted it and I was too young to understand. Later I found out what sort of work it was and I had no interest in administrative life." He said frankly, "My interest was in poetry and literature and the study of languages and patriotic action." Then he let fall, "I didn't want to be in the British

Page 218

Government Service. I had a strong dislike for the British."

"But then why did you appear for the I.C.S. exam at all?"

"I had no intention to do it," replied Sri Aurobindo. "It was my father who wanted me to be a Civilian. I had to play this trick [of appearing late for the test], otherwise my father and everybody would howl. My poet brother was horrified to see me along with my elder brother smoking and playing cards at the Liberal Club after avoiding the riding test. When they came to know they all asked me to try for another chance. But I didn't want it and I knew too that the British Government wouldn't give me another chance." '

"Why?"

"My record was too bad." "How?"

"They thought that I was a revolutionary, giving seditious speeches in the Indian*Majlis. There was a man named Mehedi Hussein, an Indian Deputy Magistrate —I don't know why he went to England—who used to come to the Majlis and was supposed to be a spy. He may have reported to the Government."

Thus the British Government — its India Office — dropped Sri Aurobindo like a hot potato. No, no, he was not 'hot'! Never. He was the Fire. During the Swadeshi days he came to be known as 'Fire-spark.' Or 'a volcano,' as Sister Nivedita saw immediately when they met.

Mother said, "A volcano upside down."

Page 220