Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

51

In Pondicherry the Election is Done

Sri Aurobindo was there.

This time he took an active part in the elections. Specially on behalf of Paul Richard. He kept Motilal Roy of Chandernagore—the French enclave in Bengal—abreast of the unfolding scenario. Some of those letters have survived. A few selected extracts from them will help the readers to draw their own conclusions.

"Dear M." wrote Sri Aurobindo in April, 1914.

"I send you today the electoral declaration of M. Paul Richard, one of the candidates at the approaching election for the French Chamber. This election is of some importance to us; for there are two of the candidates who represent our views to a great extent, Laporte and Richard. Richard is not only a personal friend of mine and a brother in the Yoga, but he wishes like myself, and in his own way works for a general renovation of the world by which the present European civilisation shall be replaced by a spiritual civilisation. In that change the resurrection of the Asiatic races and especially of India is an essential point. He and Madame Richard are rare examples of European Yogins who have not been led away bv Theosophical

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and other aberrations. I have been in material and spiritual correspondence with them for the last four years. Of course, they know nothing of Tantric Yoga. It is only in the Vedantic that we meet. If Richard were to become deputy for French India, that would practically mean the same thing as myself being deputy for French India. Laporte is a Swadeshi with personal ambitions; his success would not mean the same but at any rate it would mean a strong and, I believe, a faithful ally in power in this country and holding a voice in France."

A code phrase, 'Tantric Yoga,' implies revolutionary activities. Laporte, an Indian, was then a criminal lawyer of Pondicherry.

"Of course, there is no chance, humanly speaking, of their being elected this time. Laporte is not strong enough to change the situation single-handed. Richard has come too late; otherwise so great is the disgust of the people with Bluysen and Lemaire, Gaebele and Pierre that I think we could have managed an electoral revolution. Still, it is necessary, if it can at all be done, to stir things a little at the present moment and form a nucleus of tendency and, if possible, of active result which would be a foundation for the future and enable us at the next election to present one or other of these candidates with a fair chance of success."

The First World War intervened and the whole political situation changed.

"I want to know whether it is possible without your exposing yourself to have the idea spread in Chandernagore, especially among the younger men, of the desirability of these candidatures and the abandonment of the old parochial and rotten politics of French India, with its following of interested

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local Europeans and subservience to their petty ambitions in favour of a politics of principle which will support one of our own men or a European like Richard who is practically an Indian in belief, in personal culture, in sympathies and aspirations, one of the Nivedita type. If also a certain number of votes can be recorded for Richard in Chandernagore so much the better; for that will mean a practical beginning, a tendency from the Sukshma [subtle] world materialised initially in the Sthula [gross]. If you think this can be done, please get it done,— always taking care not to expose yourself. For your main work is not political but spiritual. If there can be a Bengali translation of Richard's manifesto or much better, a statement of the situation and the desirability of the candidature succeeding,— always steering clear of extremism and British Indian politics, —it should be done and distributed.

In his next letter of 17 April, Sri Aurobindo described the fluctuating situation.

"The political situation here is as follows. In appearance Bluysen and Lemaire face each other on the old lines and the real fight is between them. Bluysen has the support of the whole administration, except a certain number of Lemairistes who are quiescent and in favour of it. The Governor Martineau, Gaebele, the Police Lieutenant and the Commissaries form his political committee. By threats and bribes the Maires of all the Communes [including Gaebele who "has taken huge sums from Bluysen"] except two have been forced or induced to declare on his side. He has bought or got over most of the Hindu traders in Pondicherry. He has brought over 50,000 rupees for his election and is prepared to purchase the whole populace, if

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necessary. Is it British rupees, I wonder? The British Government is also said to be interfering in his behalf and it is certain that a Mahomedan Collector of Cuddalore has asked his co-religionists to vote for this master of corruption. A violent administrative pressure is being brought to bear upon both at Pondicherry and Karikal and the Maires being on his side the electoral colleges will be in his hands with all their possibilities of fraud and violence."

Sri Aurobindo continued with a detailed picture of the murky manoeuvres, deals and cabals merrily taking place behind the "democratic" scene, and concluded that "At present it seems as if Bluysen by the help of the Administration money, the British Government and the devil were likely to win an easy victory.

"Then there is Richard. He has neither agent, nor committee, nor the backing of a single influential man. What he has is the sympathy and good wishes of all the Hindus and Mahomedans in Pondicherry and Karikal with the exception of the Vaniyas [merchants] who are for Bluysen. The people are sick to death of the old candidates, they hate Bluysen, they abhor Lemaire and if only they could be got to vote according to their feelings, Richard would come in by an overwhelming majority. But they are overawed by the Government and wait for some influential man among the Hindus to declare for him. No such man is forthcoming. All are either bought by Bluysen or wish to be on the winning side. Under these circumstances the danger is that the people will not vote at all and the electoral committee will be forced to manufacture in their names bogus votes for Bluysen. On the other hand an impression has been made at Karikal, where the young men are working zealously

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for Richard; some of its communes are going to support him; some of the leaders who are themselves pledged to Bluysen have promised to tell their followers that they are free to vote for Richard if they wish; the Mahomedan leaders of Karikal are for Bluysen or rather for his money, but the mass have resolved to vote neither for Bluysen nor Lemaire, and either not to vote at all or for Richard. At Pondicherry, Ville our [a commune of Pondicherry] has promised to declare for Richard the day before the election so as to avoid prolonged administrative pressure. Certain sections of the community e.g. the young men among the Christians and a number of the Mahomedans, —Richard is to speak at the mosque and a great number may possibly come over and a certain nucleus of the Hindus are certain to vote for him. We count also on the impression that can be given during the next few days. If in addition Chandernagore can give a large vote for Richard, there is a chance not of carrying Richard but of preventing a decisive vote at the first election, so that there may be a second ballot. If that is done, great numbers who hesitate to vote for Richard in the idea that Bluysen must carry all before him, may pick up courage and turn the whole situation,—to say nothing of the chances of Lemaire retiring and his whole vote coming over or a great part of it. Therefore, I say, throw aside all other considerations and let the young men of Chandernagore at least put all their strength on Richard's side and against the two unspeakable representatives of Evil who dispute the election between them. For if they do not, humanly speaking, Chandernagore seems to be doomed.

"The damning facts are that Bluysen saw the Viceroy on

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his last visit, that it is known on this occasion the whole talk was about this cession of Chandernagore [to the British], that on his return he told Bharati the cession of Chandernagore was a settled fact and while before his trip northward, he was gushing over to the Swadeshis, afterwards he roundly declared that he could not help us openly because the Cabinet was pro-English and he must follow the Cabinet, that he went to Karikal and declared to a number of people (this has only yesterday come to my knowledge) that Chandernagore was going to be ceded to the British with Bluysen's consent; that, on his second and present visit, he was entertained by the Collector of Cuddalore on his way and that that Collector has condescended to act as an electoral agent for him with his co-religionists. It is perfectly clear now that the man has sold himself to England,—selling and buying himself and others seem to be his only profession in the world. Therefore every vote given for Bluysen in Chandernagore is a vote for the cession of Chandernagore to the British.

"On the other hand, if you vote for Lemaire, it means the same thing at a later date. For he was the first to broach the question in the public press in France, he has advised the suppression of the vote in French India, he has English connections and is an Anglophil.... Let these facts be widely known in Chandernagore both about Bluysen and Lemaire, let it be known that Richard is a Hindu in faith, a Hindu in heart and a man whose whole life is devoted to the ideal of lifting up humanity and specially Asia and India and supporting the oppressed against the strong, the cause of the future which is our cause against all that hampers and resists it. If after that, Chandernagore still votes for Bluysen or Lemaire, it is its own

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choice and it will have itself to thank for anything that may follow."

To the British government Paul Richard was 'a rabid socialist.' "He associated freely with extremists like Arabinda Ghosh and C. Subramanya Bharati," says a government report.

Normally, even a tortoise can outpace a government. But when that suits it, the government can move as fast as a leopard. The elections were held on 26 April. On 28 April an interim report was published giving the number of votes each candidate got. According to the report Paul Bluysen got 33,154 votes. As for Paul Richard ... well, he got a total of 231 votes out of 39,453 votes polled. All the same in Chandernagore he got 208 votes out of 885 polled. So Motilal must have done his bit. Now read on Sri Aurobindo's letter to Motilal dated 5 May 1914.

"The election is over,—or what they call an election,— with the result that the man who had the fewer real votes has got the majority. As for M. Richard's votes, they got rid of them in Pondicherry and Karikal by the simple process of reading Paul Bluysen wherever Paul Richard was printed. Even where he brought his voters in Karikal to the poll himself, the results were published 'Richard—0.' At Villen our people were simply prevented from voting for him or anyone else. As for the results they had been arranged on the evening before the election by M. Gaebele and were made to fit in with his figures. The extent to which this was done you can imagine from the fact that at Nanda gopalu's village where there is no single Bluysen te, there were only 13 'votes' for Lemaire and all the rest for Bluysen. The same result in Madanapalli which is strong for Pierre, except in one college where Sada (President of the Cercle Sportif)

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interpreter and did not allow any humbug; knowing whom they had to deal with, they did not dare to falsify the results. There Bluysen got only 33 votes against 200 and more for Lemaire. In most places, this would have been the normal result, if there had been any election at all. As for Richard, he would probably have got a thousand votes besides the Chandernagore total; as in some five colleges of Pondicherry alone he had about 300 which were transmuted into zero and we know of one village in which he had 91 who were prevented forcibly from voting. Bluysen normally would hardly have got 5000 in the whole of French India. Of course protests are being prepared from every side and if Bluysen is not supported by the Cabinet which is likely to come in after the election in France, the election may be invalidated. Otherwise for some time he may reign in spite of the hatred and contempt of the whole population by the terror of the administration and the police. This Madrasi population is so deficient in even the rudiments of moral courage that one cannot hope very much from it."

We are indebted to the West for teaching us how to make democracy work on the ground. We have refined the art of electoral malpractices—rigging, proxy voting, booth capturing, vote buying, not to speak of voter intimidation and violence. Aren't we Indians good pupils of the West?

"The young men of Pondicherry and Karikal are sending a protest with signed declarations of facts observed in the election and two hundred signatures to the Minister, the Chambre and the Temps

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of the 'jeunesse' is much valued and joined with the Lemairiste protests, it may possibly have some effect, unless either Bluysen buys the Validation Committee or is supported by the French 'homme d'etat' There is an ugly rumour that Poincare [France's president] supports Bluysen; there are always corrupt financial dealings underlying French politics which the outside world does not see. If so, we must put spiritual force against the banded forces of evil and see the result." Bluysen's election was validated.

In his letter Sri Aurobindo gave some other pieces of news.

"Meanwhile Richard intends to remain in India for 2 years and work for the people. He is trying to start an Association of the young men of Pondicherry and Karikal as a sort of training ground from which men can be chosen for the Vedantic Yoga. Everything is a little nebulous as yet. I shall write to you about it when things are more definite."

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