Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

6

The Arrest Warrant

Sri Aurobindo had left his own 'nearest and dearest' hundreds of kilometres away.

Days had turned into weeks, weeks had rolled into months since he had vanished from public view. "The sudden disappearance of Arabindo," wrote his cousin Sukumar, "and being without any news of him for a very long time, his uncles and aunts and others at Deoghar, particularly Arabindo's maternal grandmother, Rajnarain Bose's wife, were stricken with anxiety." The family's worry found expression in Sukumar Mitra's article in the Bengali monthly Basumati. "They wrote us letters in Calcutta for Arabindo's news, but we were unable to tell them anything about him." Sukumar, one of the key players in that crucial period, naturally knew all about Sri Aurobindo's movements, but he was bound by his promise not to divulge anything about his cousin. Indeed, not a word did he whisper to anyone, not even to his father, about the dramatic events of 31^st March, when his cousin had come down from Chandernagore and boarded the Dupleix for Pondicherry.

"Seven or eight days after Arabindo left Calcutta," Sukumar wrote, "one Sunday evening a man came and asked to

Page 51

meet my father. The gentleman told him that India's Director General of Criminal Investigation, Sir Charles Cleveland, was living at the Great Eastern Hotel of Calcutta. A coded telegram from Pondicherry had come to him. The work of the gentleman was to decode and put that into plain language. He learned from the telegram that Arabindo had gone to Pondicherry. He said to my father," Sukumar explained, "that they [father and other family members] were certain to be greatly worried, that is why he had come to give them the news. My father was relieved to know that Arabindo was safe. And I, hearing the news from behind the door, was happy: my labour and effort had been successful. Later, I gave the news to my helpers Nagendra and Surendra."

Sukumar's father, Krishna Kumar Mitra was a well-known and respected citizen of Bengal.

The newspapers did not lose the opportunity of Arabindo Babu's sudden disappearance to taunt the government. The Bengal Government was red in the face. Naturally, as is the habit of newspapers, they served the public with a delightful mixture of fact and fiction.

The Amrita Bazar Patrika, Friday, March 18, 1910.

MR. ARAVINDA GHOSE-MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

"Mr. Arabinda Ghose, who was since his release from 'hajut' [jail] in connection with Alipur Bomb case, residing in the house of his uncle, Babu Krishna Kumar Mitra, is reported to have mysteriously disappeared during last few days. He was last traced to Dakhineshwar 'Kalibari' where Rama Krishna Paramahansa used to live and from there is reported to have gone nobody knows where."—I.D. News

Page 52

Rumours abounded. To stem that wild flow Sri Aurobindo sent a text from Chandernagore, published unsigned in the Karmayogin on 26 March 1910.

"We are greatly astonished to learn from the local Press that Sj. Aurobindo Ghose has disappeared from Calcutta and is now interviewing the Mahatmas¹ in Tibet. We are ourselves unaware of this mysterious disappearance. As a matter of fact Sj. Aurobindo is in our midst, and if he is doing any astral business with Kuthumi or any of the other great Rishis, the fact is unknown to his other Koshas.'² Only as he requires perfect solitude and freedom from disturbance for his Sadhana for some time, his address is being kept a strict secret. This is the only foundation for the remarkable rumour which the vigorous

¹Mahātmā: mahat + atma: great soul. Mahatmas: Kuthumi is the chief of the Mahatmas, who are central to Theosophical teachings. They are stationed "beyond the spheres, above the mighty Gods," as Sri Aurobindo wrote in his poem "The Mahatmas," where he developed the central idea of Mahatma hood. These "souls to death denied" preserve the knowledge that preserves the world. For, when Kali comes men are endangered because they lose true knowledge and are covered in ignorance. But Kuthumi gives hope to man.

"... for the golden age

In Kali comes, the iron lined with gold,

The Yoga shall be given back to men,

The sects shall cease, the grim debates die out

And atheism perish from the Earth,

Blasted with knowledge; love and brotherhood

And wisdom repossess Sri Krishna's world."

Because Sri Krishna has utterly returned to the Earth.

²Kosha: parts or sheaths of the being.

Page 53

imagination of a local contemporary has set floating. For similar reasons he is unable to engage in journalistic works, and Dharma has been entrusted to other hands."

But earlier, on 21 March, the Bengali weekly Dharma had published a notice.

"It is rumoured that Sri Aurobindo Ghose has gone away somewhere, nobody knows where. So far as we know, he is engaged in the practice of yoga and will not take up any political or other work. Because he is not willing to see anybody for the moment, the place of his sadhana has been kept a secret."

Sri Aurobindo had trained Nolini Kanto Gupta in the task of editing the news columns of his Bengali paper Dharma. He then made "me slowly grow into a journalist underwriter," Nolini reminisced. "Next there came to me naturally an urge to write articles." Sri Aurobindo was pleased with Nolini's first Bengali article.

Well, then, after Sri Aurobindo went to Chandernagore, those who remained back in Calcutta continued to run the two papers, Dharma and the Karmayogin (left in Sister Nivedita's charge), for some time.

For some time.

"But afterwards," says Nolini, "we too found it impossible to carry on and our pleasant home had to be broken up. For news came that the police were after our blood, it became imperative therefore that we too should disperse and go into hiding." That is what they did. What happened to each of them is the stuff of several stories.

Let us go back to newspaper coverage of the 'mysterious disappearance of Arabindo Babu.'

Page 54

From the time newspapers came into existence there have been all kinds of them. It is therefore not surprising that not all were sympathetic to Arabindo Babu, some were quite hostile, to be frank. The Englishman led the field in anti-Arabindo Babu hectoring. That is not to say that other papers of the ilk trailed much behind! The Pioneer of Allahabad, for instance, wrote sarcastically:

"The sudden disappearance of Mr. Arabinda Ghose from Calcutta has naturally enough created some excitement as well as embarrassment among his friends. It is not, however, true, we understand that his absence from Calcutta has in any way necessitated a change in plan in connection with Bengal Govt.'s choice of its Executive Councillors."¹

' This calls for an explanation. So long the Imperial Government had carefully excluded any Indian from having a say in the governance of his own country. But in 1909, under growing pressure of Indian public unrest, the British Government awoke to the necessity of giving some representation to Indians and, for the first time, agreed to the appointment of an Indian to the Viceroy's Executive Council; one each to the Executive Councils of Bengal, Bombay and Madras; and two Indians to the Council of the Secretary of State for India. This was part of the Morley-Minto Reforms Act of 1909. John Morley was the Secretary of State for India (1905-1910), and Lord Minto was the Viceroy of India during the same period. Under the same Reform policy, the Anglo-Indian Machiavels reshuffled the constituent elements of Indian politics on the basis of not only creed, but of caste. Of course, the Colonialists had begun long ago to make capital of the religious diversities of Indian society, but under Minto they openly adopted the policy of setting Muslims as a counterpoise to the Hindus. Muslims were no more to be the children of the soil, an integral portion of one Indian people, but as a politically distinct and hostile interest, to nullify the Hindus. Worse was the seed of discord sown by creating caste as a political instrument. Is it not strange that the British rulers who did their best to undermine caste as a social institution were the ones who did their best to perpetuate it?

Page 55

On 22 March the Amrita Bazar Patrika reprinted the above text as Editorial Notes.

Among the papers which retorted to the sarcastic remarks of the Pioneer, was Bharat Mitra (2 April 1910):

'You may cut jokes at Babu Arabindo Ghose's cost; but all his countrymen know that prestige of the Government will no doubt be raised by admitting him into the Council. Arabindo Babu himself, however, is not expected to lower himself so as to accept such a post; he is much above it." Not only was Arabindo Babu 'above it,' he understood the sham concession for what it was. When the Viceroy talked of giving Indians a larger share in the government, he did not mean control but a mere voice, "a voice, and nothing more," as Arabindo Babu put it.

In spite of the vigilance mounted by the Calcutta police, Arabindo Babu had disappeared! The Daily Hitavadi could not resist poking fun at the government.

"We hear," it wrote on 11 April, "that Calcutta Police have offered a reward of three hundred rupees to anybody who will be able to cause Srijut Arabinda Ghosh to be arrested. We hear also that the disappearance of Srijut Arabinda Ghosh has put some Police officers to trouble. It is rumoured, though we are not prepared to believe in such a cock-and-bull story, that the Government used to spend four hundred rupees every month for the purpose of keeping Arabinda Babu under surveillance. We should think that the Government should publish a contradiction of these rumours, for we have heard them from many persons and at many places____"

Another paper was so annoyed with the bumbling police that it wrote, "It is absolutely useless to maintain that huge

Page 56

army of asses at an enormous cost of money."

Believe it or not, it was not such a 'cock-and-bull' story after all! Besides, 'four hundred rupees' a month was, well, Rs. 400 a month.

The times were dangerous. Before his disappearance, the threat of arrest had been hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles. But Arabindo Babu's sense of humour was irrepressible. The Pallivarta of 25 January 1910 wrote a longish article, quoting extensively from the Karmayogin. We give a few points.

"Mr. Aravinda Ghose has recently received an anonymous letter. This letter informs him that an officer of the Detective Department named Gopal Chandra Ray, along with some associates, is watching the premises N°6, College Square, and that they are also securing copies at the Post Office of all letters and post-cards addressed to him." Not quite dismissing it as a joke, but saying that there was nothing in all that for him to be anxious, the paper said, "But, for the information of Government he has made some suggestions to us." The suggestions were a blend of sarcasm and irony habitual to Arabindo Babu.

"Firstly, for humanity's sake there should be a shelter provided at College Square for this Gopal and his associates, wherefrom they would be able to discharge their duty with more care and efficiency than now." It was pretty cold there in January.

"Secondly, let Government kindly instruct the Post Office to see that many of Aravinda Babu's letters are not lost after they have been copied, and that the rest are not delayed in delivery. Probably the adoption of this suggestion will not do the Empire any harm."

Page 57

A third point. Arabinda Babu was never much of a letter writer, and now he has almost given it up altogether, so there was no need to employ a good many hands to copy out his letters "for the use of future generations." "So this part of the inquiry about him can be managed at a very small cost...."

Some advice to his would-be correspondents was included. "... It would be well to send a copy of any letter addressed to him to a Secretary to the Bengal Government or to Mr. Denham¹ of the Detective Department."

Finally a word of caution. "Then, again, if anybody wishes to send him a revolver or an explosive or any plans or estimates about a conspiracy, revolution, big or small, it would be best to deliver it in person or send it per the editor of the Statesman or of the Englishman. There is no need to await a reply in these cases."

Sukumar specifies that six police spies were always in duty in front of their house, one of them being equipped with a bicycle! The police would follow Arabindo Babu or Sukumar whenever they went out. The police also kept copious notes of the visitors to their residence. One such report on Sri Aurobindo says that "he spends most of his day in study of religious books and in writing. He is said to be accessible to almost anyone known or unknown, who goes to call on him." What a far cry from present-day 'leaders'! Among the most frequent callers were C.R. Das, Sri Aurobindo's advocate during the Alipore Bomb Case, the Modern Review's editor Ramananda Chatterji, and the Sanskritist Gispati Kavyatirtha.

¹ G. C. Denham was then Special Assistant to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Bengal. Here is his address: 7, Kyd Street, Calcutta.

Page 58

The Bengal Government was now desperate, as was the British-Indian government. They had to do something. They had to show that they were capable of taking some action against the 'arch revolutionary,' as they thought of Sri Aurobindo. Unable to lay their hands on him, they did the next best thing: issued a warrant of arrest against him.

Page 59