Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

31

The Anglo-Indian Press

Such then was the fixed idea of all British Police, of the entire administration, I dare say, from top to bottom, that 'Aurobindo Ghose' was a dangerous man plotting terrorism against Europeans and their assassination.

The Anglo-Indian press spread that idea with utmost enthusiasm, for, were those papers not the mouthpiece of the government? So, like a circle of foxes howling at the moon, those newspapers howled at the Nationalists.

We shall never really measure the extent of influence the media wielded. On the one side were Nationalist papers like Kesari of Maharashtra, Bande Mataram and Yugantar of Bengal, India of Tamil Nadu, and many others, all of which made Indians aware of the myriad injustices practised by a foreign government, and awakened them to their rich inheritance. Arrayed on the other side was the Anglo-Indian press which abhorred anything Indian. These newspapers, I am sure, were, the precursors to the modern Indian 'secularists,' and given to denying everything that was beyond them. Tooth and nail they tried to thwart India's progress which the Nationalists craved to bring about. We have yet to gauge the extent of damage the Anglo-

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Indian press inflicted upon the Indian consciousness.

A typical Anglo-Indian newspaper was the Madras Times. It led the chorus of hysterics over the activities of the Swadeshis which, if one were to go by it, led to the assassination of Ashe. Wildly piling conjecture upon hearsay, the paper targeted Sri Aurobindo. The following excerpts from his two letters published in The Hindu in July 1911 will help readers to draw their own conclusions.

"An Anglo-Indian paper of some notoriety," Sri Aurobindo wrote on 20 July 1911, "both for its language and views, has recently thought fit to publish a libelous leatherette and subsequently an article openly arraigning me as a director of Anarchist societies, a criminal and an assassin. Neither the assertions nor the opinions of the Madras Times carry much weight in themselves and I might have passed over the attack in silence. But I have had reason in my political career to suspect that there are police officials on the one side and propagandists of violent revolution on the other hand who would only be too glad to use any authority for bringing in my name as a supporter of Terrorism and assassination. Holding it inexpedient under such circumstances to keep silence, I wrote to the paper pointing out the gross inaccuracy of the statements in its leatherette, but the Times seems to have thought it more discreet to avoid the exposure of its fictions in its own columns. I am obliged therefore to ask you for the opportunity of reply denied to me in the paper by which I am attacked," wrote Sri Aurobindo with barbed sarcasm.

"The Anglo-Indian Journal asserts, (1) that I have adopted the saffron robes of the ascetic, but 'continue to direct' the

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movements of the Anarchist society from Pondicherry; (2) that one Balkrishna Lele, a Lieutenant of Mr. Tilak, is in Pondicherry for the same purpose; (3) that the most dangerous of the Madras Anarchists (it is not clear whether one or many) is or are at Pondicherry; (4) that a number of seditious journals are being openly published from French India; (5) that revolutionary literature is being manufactured and circulated from Pondicherry, parts of which the police have intercepted, but the rest has reached its destination and is the cause of the Ashe murder."

Point by point Sri Aurobindo refuted the charges.

"It is untrue that I am masquerading or have ever masqueraded as an ascetic; I live as a simple householder practising Yoga without Sannyas just as I have been practising it for the last six years. It is untrue that any Balkrishna Lele or any Lieutenant of Mr. Tilak is at Pondicherry; nor do I know, I doubt if anybody in India except the Madras Times knows, of any Mara-tha politician of that name and description. The statement about Madras Anarchists is unsupported by facts or names and therefore avoids any possibility of reply. It is untrue that any seditious journal is being published from French India. The paper India was discontinued in April, 1910, and has never been issued since. The only periodicals published from Pondicherry are the Tamil Dharma and Karmayogin which, I am informed, do not touch politics; in any case, the harmless nature of their contents, is proved by the free circulation allowed to them in British India even under the rigours of the Press Act. As to the production of revolutionary literature, my enquiries have satisfied me,—and I think the investigations of the police must

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have led to the same result,—that the inflammatory Tamil pamphlets recently in circulation cannot have been printed with the present material resources of the two small presses owned by Nationalists. In the nature of things nobody can assert the impossibility of secret dissemination from Pondicherry or any other particular locality. As to the actuality, I can only say that the sole publications of the kind that have reached me personally since my presence here became public, have either come direct from France or America or once only from another town in this Presidency. This would seem to show that Pondicherry, if at all guilty in this respect, has not the monopoly of the trade. Moreover, though we hear occasionally of active dissemination in some localities of British India, the residents of Pondicherry are unaware of any noticeable activity of this kind in their midst. Finally, the impression which the Times seeks sedulously to create that Pondicherry is swarming with dangerous people from British India, ignores facts grossly. To my knowledge, there are not more than half a dozen British Indians here who can be said to have crossed the border for political reasons. So much for definite assertions; I shall refer to the general slander in a subsequent letter."

Sri Aurobindo at once proceeded to refute the 'general slander' made by the Madras Times.

"In continuation of my last letter," he wrote, "I proceed to deal with the allegation that I 'continue to direct Anarchist activities from Pondicherry,' an allegation self-condemned by the gross implied imputation of a charge from which I have been exonerated by British tribunals. Here too a simple statement of facts will be the best answer." Sri Aurobindo declared,

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"My political conduct has been four times under scrutiny by different tribunals and each time the result has been favourable to me."

After briefly listing the trials he had had to undergo at the hands of the Anglo-Indian government, and how each time the judges acquitted him, he said, "After so many ordeals, I may claim that up to my cessation of political activity my public record stands absolved from blame."

Sri Aurobindo then gave the reasons for his 'cessation of political activity' Always factual and often sarcastic, he wrote:

"I left British India in order to pursue my practice of Yoga undisturbed either by my old political connections or by the harassment of me which seemed to have become a necessity of life to some police officials. Ceasing to be a political combatant, I could not hold myself bound to pass the better part of my life as an undertrial prisoner disproving charge after charge made on tainted evidence too lightly accepted by prejudiced minds. Before discontinuing activity myself I advised my brother Nationalists to abstain under the new conditions from uselessly hampering the Government experiment of coercion and reform and wasting their own strength by the continuance of their old activities, and it is well known, to use the language of the Madras Times, that I have myself observed this rule to the letter in Pondicherry. I have practised an absolute political passivity. I have discountenanced any idea of carrying on propaganda from British India, giving all who consulted me the one advice, 'Wait for better times and God's will.' I have strongly and repeatedly expressed myself against the circulation of inflammatory literature and against all wild ideas and reckless methods as a stumbling

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block in the way of the future resumption of sound, effective and perfect action for the welfare of the country. These facts are a sufficient answer to the vague and reckless libel circulated against me. I propose, however, with your indulgence, to make shortly so clear an exposition of my views and intentions for the future as will leave misrepresentation henceforward no possible character but that of a wanton libel meriting only the silence of contempt."

We don't know whether or not he made that 'exposition' he intended. But what is certain is that the British Government refused to believe him. It resorted to all sorts of underhand tricks to discredit the Swadeshis, as we have already seen, and shall see some more.

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