Bengal : is the anglicised form of Bānglā evolved from the Bengali Baṇga of the Sanskrit Vaṇga which denoted Eastern & Central Bengal in the age of the Dharma sutras & the Epics. Western & north-western Bengal was then known as Gauḍa. Vaṇga & Gauḍa were both included in the empires of the Mauryas & the Guptās (q.v.). In the middle of 6th century Gauḍa became quite a powerful state. The Sena dynasty that ruled in Bengal in the 11th & 12th centuries built a powerful kingdom, promoted Sanskrit learning & patronised poets like Jayadeva. Vidyāpati’s “five Bengals’ stood for the five divisions of Gauḍa made by Vallalasena, Gaudesh (the king of Gauḍa), who ruled from 1159 to 1179, & whose father Vijayasena (ruled 1095-1158) had brought west & north Bengal under his control. The five divisions were: Bāgdī (q.v.), Rarha, Varendra, Vaṇga, & Mithila. In British India, Bengal proper, Bihar, & Orissa formed a single province from 1765 up to 1905, when it was divided by Lord Curzon: fifteen districts of eastern Bengal were separated & united with Assam to form a new province called “East Bengal & Assam”. The capital of this new province was Dacca; its people were mainly Muslims. The purpose of the division of the large province of Bengal, announced in July 1905, was to increase the conflicts between nationalist Hindus & Muslims in Bengal. The plan was approved by the Secretary of State without consulting the Parliament. The Bengal Legislative Council strongly denounced the plan on July 8, & the Indian press in Bengal & other provinces condemned the proposal. The weekly Sanjivani suggested a boycott of British goods on July 13, & a public meeting at Bagerhat adopted it three days later. The boycott idea spread as two thousand public meetings were organized in the cities & in hundreds of villages. In the town of Barisal students & even teachers went to school barefoot & were threatened with expulsion. On 16 Oct. 1905, Ananda Mohan Bose (q.v.) laid the Foundation Stone of the Akhanda Buṇga Bhavan, Hall of Indivisible Bengal, or Milan Mandir, Temple where East & West Bengal unite; – later known as Federation Hall. In 1911 because of continuing public agitation the British Govt. reunited East & West Bengal. Assam again became a chief commissionership, & Bihar & Orissa were separated to form a new province. The 1922 Gaya session of the Congress was followed by the resignation of C.R. Das as the President of the organisation. He then formed within the Congress a party called the Swaraj Party (q.v.). In the election to the Bengal Legislative Council held in 1923, the Swaraj Party led by C.R. Das became the largest single party capturing 46 seats out of its 139 seats but Das declined the offer made by Lord Lytton, the Governor of Bengal, to form a new ministry. He held discussions with prominent Muslim leaders of Bengal & early in December 1923 came to an agreement with them. The terms of the Bengal Pact, were passed in the meeting of the Swaraj Party Councillors held on 16 December 1923 & also passed in the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee meeting held on 18 December 1923. Chitta Ranjan Misra: The Terms of the Bengal Pact of 1923 included: (a) Representation in the Bengal Legislative Council would be on population basis with separate electorates; (b) Representation in the local bodies would be on the proportion of 60 per cent to the majority community & 40 per cent to the minority community; (c) Regarding Government appointments, it was decided that fifty five per cent of the appointments should go to the Muslims. Till the above percentage was attained, 80 per cent of posts would go to the Muslims & the remaining 20 per cent should go to the Hindus; (d) No resolution or enactment would be allowed to be moved without the consent of 75 per cent of the elected members of the affected community; (e) Music in processions would not be allowed in front of the mosques; (f) No legislation in respect of cow killing for food would be taken up in the Council & endeavour should be made outside the Council to bring about an understanding between the two communities. Cow killing should be taken up in such a manner as not to wound the religious feelings of the Hindus & cow killing for religious purpose should not be interfered with…. S.N. Bannerjea & B.C. Pal were among the Hindu leaders who stood up against the Pact…. Emphasising the necessity of the Pact, Das remarked that Swaraj would not come without Hindu-Muslim unity. He was supported in his stance by a considerable number of Congressmen in Bengal [&] got whole-hearted support for his scheme from the majority of the Muslims of Bengal. The latter welcomed the Pact wholeheartedly because in their opinion it was the sensible solution to their problems. The Muslim leaders of Bengal held that, if implemented, the Pact would strike at the root of communal strife. The Muslim press thanked those Hindu leaders for their greatness in meeting the just demands of the Muslims through formulating the Pact in consultation with them. But the Muslims were very disheartened when the Bengal Pact was rejected by the Cocānada (q.v.) Session of the Indian National Congress held in December 1923. The decision of the Congress was characterised by Muslim leaders of Bengal short-sighted & aggressively selfish. In their opinion the Cocānada Congress had committed the worst blunder in the history of the Congress movement for it dealt a serious blow to the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity, the cause for which the INC stood. But C.R. Das…criticised the stand of the INC & declared: “You may delete the Bengal Pact from the resolutions but you cannot delete Bengal from the Indian National Congress….” And he succeeded in getting the terms of his Bengal Pact ratified by the Bengal Provincial Congress Conference, held at Sirajganj in June 1924. Unfortunately his premature death in 1925 came as a blow to the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity. His death was followed by the repudiation of the Pact, even by some of his own followers. A large number of Bengali Muslim politicians became shocked at this act & began to move away from the Congress as well as the Swarājya Party. The defection of the Muslims was marked by the formation of the Independent Muslim Party in 1926 by some prominent Muslim leaders of the province like Maulvi Abdul Karim, Maulānā Abdur Rauf, Khan Bahadur Azizul Huq, Maulvi Abdullahil Baqi, Maulvi Ashraf ud-din Ahmed, Dr A. Suhrawardy, A.K. Fazlul Huq, & others. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy became the Provisional Secretary of the Party. Indeed, from this time on, the Muslims of Bengal began to reconsider their stand in Bengal politics. The result of all these manoeuvrings was a revival of communal politics in the province.” [“Bengal Pact”, Banglapedia] Abinash Bhattacharya: I was the first to return from the Andamans. Almost four years later, Hem-da & Ullāskar came back. I met Aurobindo-babu again for the first time in fourteen years in Pondicherry [in 1923]. I was with him for a month. Every day we used to talk on various subjects. I have brought out excerpts of these talks in the monthly Bāsumati. I mention one or two things here. When I first saw him he told me: “Chitta has made a big mistake.” – What has Chitta done this time? – “Signed this pact – this pact means admitting that there are two races in India, the Hindus & Muslims. Now we will have to face the virulent consequences.” – You are engaged in the discipline of yoga & have become a sadhu, why do you have to concern yourself with all this? – “I am not doing this yoga for my personal liberation; my sādhanā is for the good of the whole world. To lift man to a higher state of progress is my endeavour. – In that case you shouldn’t make a distinction between the Hindus & the Muslims. – “That is just what I say. In India there will be no Hindus & no Muslims, All will be one Indian.” – How are Europe & America to blame? – “I do not reproach or hate them. But I still want our fallen Mother India to rise once again, resplendent & glorious. I also want – without the others being diminished – that my Mother should stand out as the foremost among them – my mother Bengal. Let the Bengali be the foremost – this is my heartfelt desire.” I was fortunate enough to have lived together with Sri Aurobindo for a few days. I called him Sejda & addressed him as tumi [familiar form of the second person.] I had the opportunity to observe him at close range at his daily work…. He gave me affection & sometimes scolded me for my childish conduct. [Original published in Golpo-Bharati, Vol.6, 1950-51, pp. 829-50; its translation from the Bengali in Srinvantu, November 1984, was reproduced under title “Sri Aurobindo” in Mother India, July 2012, pp.528-39] Sri Aurobindo on 19 October 1946: “…the conditions of the Hindus [in Bengal] are terrible & they may even get worse in spite of the interim mariage de convenance at Delhi. But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal & they are not going to be exterminated, – even Hitler with his scientific methods of massacre could not exterminate the Jews who are still showing themselves very much alive &, as for Hindu culture, it is not such a weak & fluffy thing as to be easily stamped out; it has lasted through something like 5 millenniums at least & is going to carry on much longer & has accumulated quite enough power to survive. What is happening did not come to me as a surprise. I foresaw it when I was in Bengal & warned people that it was probable & almost inevitable & that they should be prepared for it. At that time no one attached any value to what I said although some afterwards remembered & admitted, when the trouble first began, that I have been right; only C.R. Das had grave apprehensions & he even told me when he came to Pondicherry that he would not like the British to go out until this dangerous problem had been settled.” [CWSA 36:208] S. Bhattacharya: In 1947, Bengal was partitioned into West Bengal & East Pakistan with the consent of the Indian National Congress resulting in the uprooting of millions of people, mostly Hindus of East Bengal. The truncated West Bengal is only one-third of its old self & is confronted with many problems of which the resettlement of the Hindu refugees is the most tremendous & at the same time the most baffling.
... you that Bengal would come forward as the saviour of India, how many of you would have believed it? You would have said, "No. The saviour of India cannot be Bengal; it may be Maharashtra; it may be Punjab; but it will not be Bengal; the idea is absurd." What has happened then? What has caused this change? What has made the Bengali so different from his old self? One thing has happened in Bengal, and it... is this, that Bengal is learning to believe. Bengal was once drunk with the wine of European civilisation and with the purely intellectual teaching that it received from the West. It began to see all things, to judge all things through the imperfect instrumentality of the intellect. When it was so, Bengal became atheistic, it became a land of doubters and cynics. But still in Bengal there was an element... that it will not be very long, as in Bengal it has not been very long, it has not taken a century or fifty years, it has only taken three years to change the whole nation, to give it a new spirit and a new heart and to put it in front of all the Indian races. From Bengal has come the creed of Nationalism, and from Bengal has come the example of Nationalism. Bengal which was the least respected and the ...
... that this Maya can be dispelled and the bitter fruit of the Partition of Bengal administered by Lord Curzon dispelled the illusion..."² What was the Partition of Bengal? In the nineteenth century, Bengal was the most populous province in India. In area also it was the largest, comprising, as it did, the whole of Bengal, Bihar, Chhota Nagpur, Orissa, and Assam. Later, it was found that such... and stood solidly by Bengal on her hour of the gravest trial, for, they knew, the trial of Bengal was the travail of India's political salvation. Perhaps it was something more, which time alone will reveal. Mahatma Gandhi paid a perceptive tribute to the heroic struggle of Bengal in the following words: "The real awakening (of India) took place after the Partition of Bengal.... That day may be... the size of Bengal, but nothing was definitely decided upon and done till 1905. In 1903, H.H. Risley, Secretary to the Government ². Speeches by Sri Aurobindo, pp. 44-45. Page 157 of India, wrote to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal a letter, known as the Risley Letter, detailing the proposed further reduction of the area and population of Bengal by sundering ...
... Fort St. William in Calcutta. In the nineteenth century, the 'Bengal' administration had included present-day West Bengal and East Bengal (Bangla Desh), and Bihar (including Chota Nagpur), Assam and Orissa. Even when Assam was formed (along with some Bengali border areas like Sylhet, Cachar and Goalpara) as a separate province, residuary Bengal - with its population of nearly 80 millions looking up to... breakdown would be - July 1905-July 1906: The "partition of Bengal", the "Hour of God" that roused and united the people of Bengal and if India as a whole against their unwanted British rulers. This year was the transitionary period of Sri Aurobindo's silent withdrawal from Baroda and of the beginnings of his open participation in Bengal and national politics. August 1906-August 1907: Sri Aurobindo... spectacular! In 1903, H.H. Risley of the Government of India - obviously on Curzon's initiative - put forward to the Government of Bengal a proposal to detach several districts from East and North Bengal, and with their addition to Assam to constitute the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. This was not motivated - like the later formation of Sind and Orissa, or the Post-Independence linguistic reor ...
... it circulated in Bengal. In various ways, he inspired the progressive political mind of Bengal to oppose by all means at their command - boycott of all British goods and British institutions, non-cooperation and passive resistance, village reconstruction, founding of national schools and colleges etc. - the Partition of Bengal which Lord Curzon had decided to inflict upon Bengal in order to stifle... The Mother) In 1902 Sri Aurobindo sent Barin to Bengal to help Jatin Banerji, who had been deputed there earlier, in organising the revolutionary group and rousing the youth of Bengal. But Jatin and Barin could not hit it off long together, and they separated, to the great detriment of the revolutionary cause. Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal to patch up their differences, 188. P.C. Mitter... 22.7.62 Page 149 In 1902 Sri Aurobindo went to Midnapur in Bengal during a vacation, Barin and Jatin Banerji accompanying him. The trip was for organising the projected six centres in Bengal. When he returned to Calcutta, he gave the oath of the revolutionary party to P. Mitter. He used to go to Bengal during the vacations for the revolutionary work. He thus visited Khulna, Dacca ...
... unless it has the support and sympathy of the people in general, particularly if it is a subject people. Therefore the partitioning of Bengal at that exact juncture helped us enormously. "The opposition to it lit a flame that soon spread to the rest of India. Bengal in an instant seemed to have found her true self. Thousands of voices echoed Bankim's mantra of 'Bande Mataram' from the pages of his... the open. I'll tell you about it later. "You see, I would often ask the Maharaja for extended leave and go to Bengal. There, my time would be mostly Page 123 spent in revolutionary activities. During one such stay, I attended the Barisal meeting after which I toured East Bengal with Bepin Pal. I had my own reasons for wanting to draw closer to the Liberals in the Congress Party. In those... one of the leaders of the nation. It was the dashed government that spoiled the lovely game I had been playing in secret! "Suren Banerjee was the undisputed leader of the Bengal Moderates and known as the uncrowned king of Bengal. He was middle-aged, short and thin; his scholarship was vast, his intelligence sharp. He was a fiery speaker and easily held sway over the minds of the Congressmen. As the ...
... dictated, and encouraged them instead to think for themselves. Then, in 1905, there was the Partition of Bengal at the instance of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy – and in no time the political situation in Bengal underwent a sea change with repercussions in the rest of India. With regard to Bengal, or the ‘Calcutta Presidency’ as it was then administratively called, the British had long been in a quandary... faster. Thanks to this and the indignation caused by the announced Partition of Bengal, an almost miraculous turnabout took place in the public mood, from one of ‘apathy and despair’ to fervent patriotism. On 16 October 1905 the Partition of Bengal was effected. When shortly afterwards Aurobindo went on a visit to Bengal, ‘he found the once apathetic province in the grip of an unprecedented enthusiasm’... received the name ‘Akroyd’ in honour of Annette Akroyd, an English acquaintance of his father who ran a Brahmo school in Bengal, and perhaps to give his name an English touch. Aravinda was the third son of Krishna Dhan Ghose, at the time the Civil Surgeon in Rangpur, a town in East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. Medical doctor Krishna Dhan Ghose (°1844) was a popular figure in Rangpur because of the ...
... almost certainly before "The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal" (see below). First published in Bande Mataram: Early Political Writings - I in 1972. The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal: Partition or Annihilation. Circa 1904. This piece was written during an early stage of the agitation against the partition of Bengal, after the original announcement of December 1903 but before... Returns to Calcutta after delivering speeches in a number of places in Maharashtra In Pabna, East Bengal, for the provincial conference In Kishoregung, East Bengal, for a political meeting Arrested and imprisoned 3 Due to want of space, information... Trial, and later cited in the Rowlatt Report (1919). Rediscovered after independence among 13 This file was later reproduced in Terrorism in Bengal: A Collection of Documents , volume 4 (Calcutta: Government of West Bengal, 1995), pp. 647 - 749. Page 1168 the Alipore Bomb Trial papers, it was reproduced in the Hindusthan Standard in October 1956 and ...
... influence of the paper. It had as its chief writers and directors three of the ablest younger writers in Bengal, and it at once acquired an immense influence throughout Bengal. It may be noted that the Secret Society did not include terrorism in its programme, but this element grew up in Bengal as a result of the strong repression and the reaction to it in that Province. ... addressed this conference (see p. 124). For the Bengal Provincial Conference of 1909 see note p. 256. [Ed.] Page 258 always dreamt of becoming again the leader of a united Bengal with the Extremist Party as his strong right arm : but that would have necessitated the Nationalists being appointed as delegates by the Bengal Moderates and accepting the constitution imposed... but he took up on his own responsibility the task of generalising Page 247 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. The ...
... of the paper. It had as its chief writers and directors three of the ablest younger writers in Bengal, and it at once acquired an immense influence throughout Bengal. It Page 50 may be noted that the Secret Society did not include terrorism in its programme but this element grew up in Bengal as a result of the strong repression and the reaction to it in that province. The public activity... directions by this Council, but he took up on his own responsibility the task of generalising 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. The... He published a book entitled Desher Katha describing in exhaustive detail the British commercial and industrial exploitation of India. This book had an immense repercussion in Bengal, captured the mind of young Bengal and assisted more than anything else in the preparation of the Swadeshi movement. Sri Aurobindo himself had always considered the shaking off of this economic yoke and the development ...
... the long-standing injury of the nation's enslavement. The Government-tolerated hooliganism in East Bengal Page 261 enraged the Nationalists, and the Risley Circular was like adding fury to the leaping fire of resentment against the bureaucracy. Where fierce repression, as in Bengal and in the Punjab, seemed to have succeeded in extinguishing the flames of revolt, it had only driven... meantime, as if it was meant to be a dress rehearsal of the coming Congress session, the Nationalists and Moderates of Bengal clashed at Midnapore where the District Conference was held from 7 to 9 December 1907. The imprisonment of some of his principal co-workers in Bengal, the exile or disappearance underground of some others, and the publicity that the Bande Mataram case had given to his... anyone except those who had attained a philosophic calm of mind. Curzon's highhanded administration and his decision to cut Bengal into two offered the necessary fuel to the engine of Nationalism, and the Bande Mataram, Swadeshi and boycott agitations in Bengal and elsewhere defined with fierce clarity the sanctions behind the nation-wide movement for the early achievement of Swaraj or i ...
... Vol. 7 ON NATIONAL HERITAGE The Heart of Bengal BENGAL is a land of many rivers. The land of Bengal has been formed by the alluvial soil of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and their branches. The poet Bankimchandra addressed the Mother Bengal thus: Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams... by all those who have left Bengal .and have become familiar with other provinces and countries. Such green, fertile and graceful land can hardly be seen to the same extent elsewhere. Water springs out from the soil of Bengal at a mere scratch, as it were. The peasantry of Bengal can produce a bumper crop by the sheer touch of their plowshare. Such is the soil on which Bengal is founded. And then,... Mother, Shakti. Bengal is the land of Delight. The immobile Brahman is not the aim Page 211 of Bengal. The power of Delight of the Divine is inherent in the heart of Bengal. We find Rammohan, the worshipper of Shakti, at the dawn of modern Bengal. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were also the worshippers of Shakti. Howsoever Vedanta may have influenced them, the worship of Shakti was ...
... 28 Lieutenant Governor of Bengal Sir Henry Cotton never served as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. He held various posts in the Bengal administrative and judicial services, including Chief Secretary in the Bengal secretariat, and in 1896 became Chief Commissioner of Assam, a position he... united Congress in Bengal were held in December 1909 (Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin , pp. 340 - 42, 363 - 71). This was before the third Lahore session of the Indian National Congress (December 1909). The Benares session of Congress was held in December 1905, two years before Sri Aurobindo emerged as a political leader. 76 Bengal Provincial ... Aurobindo sent Banerji to Calcutta to begin revolutionary work in Bengal. To an Officer of the Baroda State. 14 February 1903 . The "letter Page 572 to the Residency" mentioned in this note is the one published next in sequence. Sri Aurobindo was anxious to leave Baroda at this time because he had to go to Bengal to settle a quarrel among members of the revolutionary society ...
... training. Jatin was declared as a U .P. man, not a Bengali. Sri Aurobindo persuaded him to join the revolutionary movement he intended to launch in Bengal. Jatin agreed. He was sent to Calcutta to get men and materials for the revolutionary work in Bengal in 1900. He met P. Mitra and Bibhuti Bhushan Bhattacharya and introduced them to Sri Aurobindo. Probably this same year Barin passed his Entrance... already started his activity in Bengal. During this year (1902) a society was started at Deoghar under Satyen Bose. The revolutionary spirit was so rampant that even government servants were sympathetic to it and men like Jogendranath Mukherji, a magistrate, actively joined the movement. From 28 April 1902 to 29 May 1902 Sri Aurobindo was on Privilege leave in Bengal. It was mainly for the re... revolutionary work in Bengal through certain emissaries, I went there personally to see and arrange things myself. 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 ...
... parts of Bengal" and "was probably to the east of Tamra-lipti and bordered on the sea, as stated by Hiuen Tsang." If Samudragupta's campaign in Bengal was concerned with the outlying districts to the east of Tāmralipti, who could have conquered Bengal proper, the central parts, down to "the southern seas" (the Bay of Bengal) mentioned on the Meherauli Pillar? We know for certain that Bengal proper was... connection with the Gupta Era used or with Page 485 reference to overlordship. 1 Among the chiefs of Bengal, only one seems to have used the name of some Gupta. Majumdar 2 writes: "The name of a Gupta ruler is invoked as suzerain in a grant of N. Bengal in A.D. 543. Unfortunately the first part of the name is lost, but it might well have been 'Vishnu' and refer to the last Gupta... of the Grants of North Bengal and Gayā District Some light is thrown on the chronology of the kings preceding Āditya-sena by the fact noted by Majumdar 1 that Iśāna-varman, whom the fourth Later Gupta Kumāra-gupta defeated, flourished in c. 550-576 A.D. With this fact before us we may very well take the name of the unknown Gupta ruler in the grant of N. Bengal in 543 A.D. to have been ...
... enamoured of the way in which it seems to be practised outside Bengal. It seems there to be mixed up with the old kind of Tantra sometimes of the most paishachic & undesirable kind & to be kept merely as a sauce for that fiery & gruesome dish. Better no vyapti at all outside Bengal, if it is not to be purified and divine Yoga. In Bengal itself, there are faults which cannot but have undesirable consequences... on any account move out of Chandernagore so long as the war measures are in force; for in these times innocence is no defence. It is regrettable that Bengal should be unable to find anything in the Arya, but not surprising. The intellect of Bengal has been so much fed on chemical tablets of thought and hot spiced foods that anything strong and substantial is indigestible to it. Moreover people in... with absolute vision yet without that misleading false light which marred all my seeing till now & allowed me to be swept in the flood of confused sattwo-rajasic impure Shakti which came with you from Bengal. My first instruction to you therefore is to pause, stand on the defensive against your spiritual enemies & go on with your Vedantic Yoga. God is arranging things for me in my knowledge, but the ...
... role in framing the rules of the congress during these years. The Partition of Bengal and VOC The year 1905 is one of the most important years in the history of the Freedom Movement of India; the year that the British Government decided to partition Bengal. The decision to partition Bengal into two provinces shocked the whole country. It was part of the British political trump card;... whereby Hindus and Muslims would be forced to think that their religious identity was at peril. This effort culminated in the partition of Bengal in 1905. The Presidency of Bengal was divided into two parts apparently for administrative reasons. It was argued that Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, which formed a single province of British India since 1765, had grown too large to handle under a single administration;... Lord Curzon on a tour of East Bengal, confessed that his 'object in partitioning was not only to relieve the Bengali administration, but to create a Mohammedan province, where Islam could be predominant and its followers in ascendancy'. It thus provided an impetus to the religious divide and one of the consequences was the formation of the Muslim League. The people of Bengal were indignant and outraged ...
... In Bengal, there were already the revolutionary groups organised by Barrister P. Mitter and Sarala Ghoshal (Chaudhurani), and by 1903 a strong base had been established in Bengal, the central direction being vested in a committee of five consisting of Sister Nivedita, C. R. Das, P. Mitter, Suren Tagore and Jatin Banerjee.* Then came the Partition of Bengal, the great upsurge in Bengal and... leaders like Tilak in Maharashtra and Sri Aurobindo in Bengal was exceedingly difficult. Sarala Ghoshal, one of the pioneers of the revolutionary movement in Bengal, has been quoted as giving this important piece of information: Page 287 My lathi cult was in full swing in those days... and captured the heart of the Bengal youth. But to my dismay... some of my lathial boys felt... two-pronged long-term plan of campaign against the alien bureaucracy. Hence Sri Aurobindo's affiliations with the revolutionaries in Western India and Bengal: hence his continuing close links with the Revolutionaries after his coming to Bengal in 1906: hence his anxious watch on the Yugantar, and later on the Nova Śakti, which were the de facto organs of the Revolutionaries. And all this ...
... In those days Bengal, or more rightly the Presidency of Bengal, was a huge state. Bihar, Orissa and Bengal were together called Bengal. It was not easy to administer such a large province. That’s why in 1903 the British administration thought of a plan to divide the province of Bengal into two: Bihar, Orissa and the western half of Bengal on one side and the eastern part of Bengal and Assam on the... were indignant. The real intention of dividing the Province of Bengal was to break the backbone of Bengali strength and will. In a flash, the whole of Bengal rose as one in rage. Curzon’s plan for the partitioning of Bengal was opposed with vehemence and demonstrations broke out against it all over Bengal. In the towns and villages of Bengal, cries of Vande Mataram rent the air and shook heaven and... conviction had he breathed his last breath! And truly, in a flash, the people of Bengal as a whole were awakened by this great mantra Vande Mataram . This awakening was as unexpected as it was inevitable and happened in 1905. A defiant united Bengal rose up as one. They refused to accept Lord Curzon’s partitioning of Bengal. No kitchen-fire was lit in any home. In an instant, every man was transfigured ...
... to the Partition of Bengal. It is proved that in Bengal boycott was first declared as a protest against the Partition; it was declared when there was a great agitation in Bengal. Meetings were held to protest against the Partition; petitions were presented but with no success. When there was no remedy left, somebody suggested that boycott would be very good and the whole of Bengal accepted boycott. It... Swadeshi, boycott, Swaraj and national education, which have been recognised by all in Bengal. Today I wish to speak to you about two of these subjects because they go together. Swadeshi and boycott, as we understand them in Bengal, have been put as a single expression. There is no difference of opinion in Bengal as regards Swadeshi and boycott. Both parties entirely agree that boycott is an essential... the British people. We thought that boycott was the only pressure which told upon the pockets and material interests of England. This was the idea which was approved by all in Bengal, and boycott was first adopted in Bengal for a period of six months as a form of political agitation. If it was successful, boycott would become a prominent part of our political activity. But since the British public ...
... 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... 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... 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 ...
... met." The not unreasonable hypothesis that many tribes were contained by the group of the Calingae in Lower Bengal will answer also the query: "When Pliny says that the district, of the Mandei and the Malli has the Ganges for its boundary, why is the people of Lower Bengal alone designated as the Gangaridai?" We may submit: "The Mandei and the Malli are, like the Modogalingae, single tribes... the river Ganges." But he himself admits: "A people called Gāngā or Gahgeya inhabiting lower Bengal and having their capital at a city called Gāngā (Greek Gange or Ganges) is not known from ancient Indian literature." And we may make the addition: "The river Gāngā is not confined to Lower Bengal. Gange as a city-name is also not unique to the Ganges-delta. Artemidorus (c. 100 B.C.), the author... for a people called Gāngā or Gdhgeya or anything approximate to it, inhabiting Lower Bengal or any other locality, is beside the point. All this cuts the ground from under Sircar's further elaborate argument. He 1 says about the city Gange at the meeting of the Ganges with the Bay of Bengal: "The modern representative of this ancient city seems to be the holy place at the junction ...
... Partition of Bengal was radically different from the nationalistic view. The Muslims considered the partition of Bengal as an important step in getting their legitimate right. According to them, the unwieldy Bengal Presidency was partitioned for purely administrative reasons; and it was only as a by-product that there came about the emergence of the Muslim majority province of East Bengal and Assam.... whereby Hindus and Muslims would be forced to think that their religious identity was at peril. This effort culminated in the partition of Bengal in 1905. The Presidency of Bengal was divided into two parts, apparently for administrative reasons. It was argued that Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, which had formed a single province of British India since 1765, had grown too large to handle under a single admin... East Bengal, confessed that his "object in partitioning was not only to relieve the Bengali administration, but to create a Mohammedan province, where Islam could be predominant and its followers in ascendancy." It thus provided an impetus to the religious divide and one of the results was the formation of the Muslim League. The Reaction in Bengal The people of Bengal were ...
... THE LANDS OF BENGAL The lands of Bengal, the waters of Bengal, The winds of Bengal, the fruits of Bengal: Blessed be they, Blessed be they, Blessed by they , O lord! The huts of Bengal, the marts of Bengal, The woods of Bengal, the meadows of Bengal: Be they full, be they full, ... Be they full, O Lord! The vows of Bengal, the hopes of Bengal, The acts of Bengal, the voices of Bengal: Page 164 Be they true, be they true, Be they true, O Lord! The hearts of Bengal, the minds of Bengal, In homes of Bengal, brothers and sisters all: Be they one, be they one, Be ...
... shall be able to return to Bengal. Pondicherry is the appointed place for my Yoga Siddhi, except indeed one part of it, and that is action. The centre of my work is Bengal, although I hope that its circumference will be all India and the whole earth. 3 The fullness of Yogic realisation, first; then, perhaps, political action in Bengal. And yet, although Bengal might be the destined theatre... God's. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me then I will move. 4 Again, apart from Sri Aurobindo's readiness to engage in political action, was Bengal ready ? Even for revolutionary action of the Western variety, Bengal wasn't quite ready. And Sri Aurobindo didn't want a repetition of that kind of action. He had been nurturing an ideal of an altogether different kind: not a social... bundle is like the net of St. Peter, only crammed with the catch of the Infinite. I am not going to open the bag now. If I do that before the time, all would escape. Neither am I going to Bengal now, not because Bengal is not ready, but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes amidst the unripe, what work can it do? 9 This is a cross between godly omniscience and brotherly raillery. The humility ...
... This was, or looked, accidental. But its result was very strange. Biren was in fact a secret agent of the Bengal government. As he had joined Nagen Nag at Khulna there was no chance of any suspicion being aroused against him. Biren wanted to return to Bengal as he had passed six to eight months at Pondicherry. He asked the police department to send a substitute and the new man was... not mine but God's. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me, then I will move. I know very well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not the real transformation. Still this too was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old yogas and exhausting their samskaras , extracting their essence and fertilising... hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God . ... 1 am not going back to Bengal now, not because Bengal is not ready, but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes amid the unripe what can he do? ² Your Sejdada ³ . ¹ “The Fossilised House" or "The Home of Conservatism" ...
... is not yet finished. It may take another two years, and as long as it is not finished, I doubt if I shall be able to return to Bengal. Pondicherry is the appointed place for my Yoga siddhi , except one part of it—that is, the action. The first centre of my work is Bengal, although I hope that its circumference will be all India and the whole earth. I shall write to you afterwards what is the way... This work is not mine but God's. I will listen to no other's call. When God moves me then I will move. I knew well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not real change. Still it was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old Yogas and exhausting their sanskaras, extracting the essence and fertilising the soil... of St. Peter, all the catch of the infinite is crowded into it. I am not going to open the bundle now. If I do that before the time the śikār might run away. Neither am I going back to Bengal now. Not because Bengal is not ready but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes amidst the unripe what work can he do? ( Translated from the original in Bengali ) 18 November 1922 Arya Office ...
... During his visits to Bengal in 1905 and 1906 he saw that the situation there had undergone a radical transformation and he knew that the time had come for concerted action on the lines he had in mind. What had happened in Bengal was this. The province of Bengal or the presidency of Bengal as it was called, was at the time a very large area. It consisted not only of West Bengal and what is now Bangladesh... 1903 the Government announced a plan whereby the presidency would be partitioned or divided into two provinces. There would be one province consisting of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa; another new province would be created to include East Bengal and Assam. The plan created an uproar. In the undivided presidency the Bengali Hindus were the leading community. They had been the first to he exposed to... and other goods and to use Indian products instead. This was how the Boycott and Swadeshi movement was born. Like a tidal wave it gained ground in Bengal and soon it spread outside the province. Bepin Chandra Pal was at the forefront of the movement in Bengal and Balgangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai gave the lead to it in Maharashtra and the Punjab, forming the well-known trinity Lal-Bal-Pal. Indeed ...
... form of beauty that seized the hearts of her sons? Indeed, the first decade of the twentieth century was a stirring time in India. Curzon's effort to divide Bengal in 1905 the State of Bengal then consisted of the present West Bengal, Bangladesh, Bihar, Page 50 Chota Nagpur and Orissa —inflamed the nationalistic sentiments of the people on a hitherto unprecedented scale and... Aurobindo had said, "Bengal art has found its way at once at the first step, by a sort of immediate intuition." And we can be grateful to the Tagores for it. Abanindranath's role in the rebirth of taste and Page 47 understanding and the release of creativity in the world of Indian art is uncontested. He had his roots deep and widespread in the mind of Bengal, of India, in the life... pointing to a nadir of setting energy, the evening-time from which, according to the Indian idea of the cycles, a new age has to start." Inherent in the reawakening was this promise of a new age. Bengal, in the person of Ramakrishna Parama-hansa (1833-86), rediscovered the spiritual fountain of India. This discovery was taken to the West by his disciple Swami Vivekananda (1862-1902). The ...
... then 23 Scott's Lane, where Mrinalini and Sarojini (and for a time Barin) could also join them. What with the associate editorship of the newly started Bande Mataram and the Principalship of the Bengal National College - not to mention the behind-the-scenes contacts with the Nationalists and the underground direction of the revolutionaries - Sri Aurobindo had his hands full, and plenty to occupy... vibrant with singular expectancy. Bepin Pal called his paper the Bande Mataram for a very good practical reason - but it was a leap of intuition as well. The movement against the partition of Bengal had, by mid-1906, spread out and boiled up so as to include much more than the opposition to the partition, and - by one of those unpredictable but amazing quirks of fate - had come to be symbolised... "hundred lusty throats". The Principal of the College, a Bengali, could only note the self-evident fact: "I see, 'Bande Mataram' has become a war-cry". 1 A war-cry indeed it became, and not in Bengal Page 219 only, but over the entire subcontinent. In Sri Aurobindo's series of seven articles in the Indu Prakash (16 July to 27 August 1894) on Bankim Chandra Chatterji, ...
... have committed. Nothing has been proved of all this easy theorizing. It is yet to be known when and where the bomb has been associated with the work of the Samitis in Eastern Bengal. There was indeed a great dacoity in Eastern Bengal and the theory was started that it was done by one of the Samitis, but even our able detective police were unable to prove any association in that case. They did catch hold... association which has been coming into being, and has not been destroyed, since the movement came into existence. This is the mighty association, which unites the people of West Bengal with the people of East and North Bengal and defies partition, because it embraces every son of the land,— bhai bhai ek thain , or brother and brother massed inseparably together. This is the ideal that is abroad and is... ideal which is the dharma of the Kaliyuga, and it is the ideal of love and service which the young men of Bengal so thoroughly realised, love and service to your brothers, love and service to your Mother and this is the association we are forming, the great association of the people of Bengal and of the whole people of India. It increases and will grow for ever in spite of all the obstacles that rise ...
... galaxy of eminent personalities of the then Bengal. For his part, Sri Aurobindo who was never really interested in administrative work at Baroda State, was waiting for an opportunity to join the political storm then raging in the country and more particularly in Bengal. "As soon as I heard that a National College had been started in Bengal," he explained in 1938, "I found my opportunity... took part in the Harrison Road picketing should not be expelled. The publication of the above two brought a storm of indignation in the whole of Bengal. Then, adding insult to injury, P. C. Lyon, Chief Secretary of the newly formed province of East Bengal, sent two circulars to the Divisional Commissioner of Dacca, which let loose a ruthless repression. In the Lyon Circular of 8 November were orders... Meeting after meeting were held by public-spirited men of Bengal. Rabindranath was there, as were B.C. Pal, K.K. Mitra, C. R. Das, Satish Mukherji, Monoranjan Guha Thakurta, and scores of eminent men. It was finally decided to establish a National Council of Education. It was on 11 March 1906 that the National Council of Education, Bengal, was constituted. It was registered on 1 st June. There ...
... development of their nation, so we in Bengal are all agreed in holding the development of a well-organised, self-sufficient and self-governing people as the immediate and ultimate object of all our politics. This is only to say that Bengal has attained earlier than other provinces to political perception and sound political instincts. There are forces of disruption in Bengal as everywhere else, but it says... but to bring it about so far as Bengal can help towards that consummation. In Bengal there are three classes of opinion as to the best way of meeting the difficulty. There is a small section of the Moderate party which desires the Convention Congress to stand and the Nationalists to be excluded. There are two courses open to this minority. They may insist on the Bengal Provincial Conference and the... of the world. In the Page 197 matter of the Congress it is only Bengal, so far, that has shown the democratic capacity of being able to meet and discuss and to a certain extent work together in spite of grave and even fundamental differences. To a large extent this is due to the fact that all parties in Bengal have some common ground. Just as the different parties in a well-organised country ...
... Lord Curzon, the Viceroy, partitioned Bengal in 1905. This faithful application of the "divide-and-rule"policy aimed both at breaking the growing political agitation in Bengal and at using the Muslim-dominated East Bengal as the thin end of a wedge between Hindus and Muslims—a policy that was to culminate in the partition of India forty years later. Bengal responded to its partition by massive... contacting revolutionary groups in Maharashtra and Bengal, and tried to coordinate their action with the help of his brother, Barindra Kumar Ghose, and Jatindranath Banerjee; at Sri Aurobindo's initiative, P. Mitter, Surendranath Tagore, Chittaranjan Das and Sister Nivedita soon formed the first secret council for revolutionary activities in Bengal. Although an effective coordination between the various... __ * Thus wrote Lord Min to, the then Viceroy of India, on Sri Aurobindo. 9 Sir Edward Baker, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, concurred: "I attribute the spread of seditious doctrines to him personally in a greater degree than to any other single individual in Bengal, or possibly in India." 10 Page 47 May 30, 1909 (Extracts from the famous Uttarpara speech.) ...
... Aurobindo fulfilled it. The two parts of Bengal finally became one with the birth of Bangladesh. The Bengalis of East Bengal sought and got this name for their country from West Bengal which yielded it with delight. In that moment who could object? Not for giving a name. That East Bengal was finally free was what overjoyed everyone’s hearts. West Bengal gave proof of her inner magnanimity. Both the... experience of love for my country. Bengal of Gold, country mine, I love you in every soul, Your sky, your breezes in my heart forever with music roll. An intense prayer had surged up in me from early morning: May the Mother protect my country, Let both parts of Bengal awake and become one. Bengal’s hearts, Bengal’s minds, brothers and sisters in every Bengal home, Let them all become one, O... Bengals were tied with the same string. Two brothers came together again and this was amply proved during the war. When Vivekananda visited East Bengal he wrote: At last I am in Eastern Bengal. This is the first time I am here and never before knew Bengal was so beautiful. You ought to have seen the rivers here — regular rolling oceans of fresh water, and everything so green — continual production ...
... makes a political tour of East Bengal with Bepin Chandra Pal. June Returns to Baroda. Page 813 June 19 Takes one year's leave without pay from Baroda College, returns to Bengal. August 6 Declaration of the Bande Mataram. Sri Aurobindo joins the Bande Mataram as an assistant editor. August 14 Opening of the Bengal National College, Calcutta, with... the College. October 16 The partition of Bengal becomes an "accomplished fact". Sri Aurobindo writes the pamphlets "No Compromise" and "Bhawani Mandir" during the agitation that precedes the Partition. December At the Benaras session of the Indian National Congress. 1906 — February 19 Takes privilege leave; goes to Bengal. March 11 Present at the formation of the... Complaint lodged against Sri Aurobindo. August 2 Resigns the Principalship of the Bengal National College. ; August 16 Arrested on the charge of sedition for writings which had appeared in the Bande Mataram; released on bail. August 23 Speech to the students of the Bengal National College. After his acquittal in September, he rejoins the College as a professor ...
... springs largely if not altogether from the latter is evidenced by the amazing apathy which allows Western Bengal to sit with folded hands and allow Eastern Bengal to struggle alone and unaided. Eastern Bengal is menaced with absorption into a backward province and therefore struggles; Western Bengal is menaced with no such calamity and can therefore sit lolling on its pillows, hookah-pipe in hand, waiting... administrative necessities to be satisfied. Will then the people of Eastern Bengal finally, seeing the Government determined, pocket the bribe of a separate Lieutenant-Governorship, a Legislative Council and High Court and accept this violent revolution in our national life? Or will Western Bengal submit to lose Eastern Bengal on such terms? If not, then to nerve them for the struggle their refusal will... Writings and a Resolution 1890-1906 Bande Mataram The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal Partition or Annihilation? In the excitement & clamour that has followed the revolutionary proposal of Lord Curzon's Government to break Bengal into pieces, there is some danger of the new question being treated only in its superficial aspects and the grave & ...
... has been done in Bengal I have put before you. If you wish to see for yourselves, you are welcome. Those who have doubts in their minds, those who think that National Education is an impossibility, we challenge you to witness its achievements in Bengal. Come and confirm it for yourselves. National Education in a national way and under national control is what we have started in Bengal. In this work three... The difficulties about the concept of National Education that are encountered here do not exist in Bengal. Here in the Bombay Province, the meaning of the term "National Education" is not clear to many. National Education, with its specific connotation, is suspect and men of wisdom dismiss it. In Bengal, on the other hand, the need to explain the concept does not even arise. There may be people in favour... favour of it or against it, but National Education is something taken by them as a given fact, as something they have experienced. There is no need in Bengal to explain or discuss it in order to convince people about the sense it carries. But in the Bombay Province, it has only a verbal implication at the moment; it has not yet gone beyond mere talk, and that may be the reason why people are suspicious ...
... Aurobindo to Bengal with a clear-cut programme of revolutionary work. Jatin soon managed to establish contact with Barrister P. Mitter, Bibhuti Bhushan Bhattacharya and Mrs. Sarala Ghoshal, who had already started some revolutionary work (ostensibly on the plea that the groups of young men were learning lathi play) on the inspiration of Baron Okakura. Sri Aurobindo himself came to Bengal in 1900 or... in Bengal, and gave the oath of the Revolutionary Party to P. Mitter and Hemachandra Das. Holding a sword and the Gita in Page 62 their hands, they took the oath to strive to secure at any cost the freedom of Mother India. Sri Aurobindo thus became the secret link between the revolutionary groups in Western and Eastern India. By and by the revolutionary spirit spread in Bengal, especially... Jatin himself and Surendranath Tagore, to be in overall charge of revolutionary work in Bengal. Although this committee was no conspicuously successful in its work of coordination, the movement itself spread — presently fanned to a furious blaze by the legislature passing the Act that partitioned Bengal — to a phenomenal extent, and for this growing body of young men and dedicated workers Sri ...
... Conference. Afterwards makes a political tour of East Bengal with Bepin Chandra Pal. June Returns to Baroda. June 19 Takes one year's leave without pay from Baroda College. Returns to Bengal. August 6 Declaration of the Bande Mataram. Sri Aurobindo joins the Bande Mataram as an assistant editor. August 14 Opening of the Bengal National College, Calcutta, with Sri Aurobindo as... October 16 The Partition of Bengal becomes an "accomplished fact". Sri Aurobindo writes the pamphlets "No Compromise" and "Bhawani Mandir" during the agitation that precedes the Partition December At the Benares session of the Indian National Congress. 1906 February 19 Applies for privilege leave. March 2 Goes to Bengal. March 11 Present at the... office. Complaint lodged against Sri Aurobindo. August 2 Resigns the principalship of the Bengal National College. August 16 Arrested on the charge of sedition for writings which had appeared in the Bande Mataram; released on bail. August 23 Speech to the students of the Bengal National College. After his acquittal in September, he rejoins the College as a professor. ...
... is not yet finished. It may take another two years, and as long as it is not finished, I doubt if I shall be able to return to Bengal. Pondicherry is the appointed place for my Yoga siddhi, except one part of it — that is, the action. The first centre of my work is Bengal, although I hope that its circumference will be all India and the whole earth. I shall write to you afterwards what is the way... This work is not mine but God's. I will listen to no other's call. When God moves me then I will move. I knew well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not real change. Still it was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old Yogas and exhausting their sanskaras, extracting the essence and fertilizing the soil... of St. Peter, all the catch of the infinite is crowded into it. I am not going to open the bundle now. If I do that before the time the sikār might runaway. Neither am I going back to Bengal now. Not because Bengal is not ready but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes amidst the unripe what work can he do? 7 April 1920 (Translated from the original in Bengali) Dear Barin, I understand ...
... Purani: Evening Talks. Page 353 there till April, 1911. Nolini Kanta Gupta came from Bengal and joined them in November, 1910. Except for a few short visits to Bengal, Nolini Kanta, Moni and Be joy lived permanently with Sri Aurobindo as his disciples. Bejoy went back to Bengal sometime in the early thirties and died there soon after. Moni passed away at Pondicherry in 1951, and... out was a miracle." 25 Nolini Kanta, Saurin and Moni went to Bengal in February, 1914, but their sojourn was cut short by the outbreak of the first World War, and they had to return post-haste in September, for fear of being clapped into prison as old criminals. After their return, Bejoy became eager to go to Bengal. Sri Aurobindo did not quite approve of it, but headstrong that he was... Vaishnava who came. So that was the vision of a man I had never seen but as he was to be in future a prophetic vision." 10 Saurin, Sri Aurobindo's brother-in-law (Mrinalini Devi's cousin) came from Bengal by the end of September and stayed with Sri Aurobindo. In October - probably towards the end - Sri Aurobindo moved from Shankar Chetty's house to Rue Suffren in the southern part of the town and ...
... of the Indian mind and the direction in which it is turning. Especially the art of the Bengal painters is very significant, more so even than the prose of Bankim or the poetry Page 27 of Tagore. Bengali poetry has had to feel its way and does not seem yet quite definitively to have found it, but Bengal art has found its way at once at the first step, by a sort of immediate intuition. ... peculiar turn and tone given by the Calcutta painters is intimate to the temperament of Bengal. But India is great by the unity of her national coupled with the rich diversity of her regional mind. That we may expect to see reflected in the resurgence of her artistic creativeness. Poetry and literature in Bengal have gone through two distinct stages and seem to be preparing for a third of which one... last glow of productive brilliance, but outliving it to develop another strain and a profounder voice of poetry, released the real soul of Bengal into expression. The work of Bankim Chandra is now of the past, because it has entered already into the new mind of Bengal which it did more than any other literary influence to form; the work of Rabindranath still largely holds the present, but it has opened ...
... reformed Legislative Council representing both the Government and the people. In Bengal two gentlemen have been elected who represent the most lukewarm element in the popular party, for Sj. Baikunthanath Sen and Mr. K. B. Dutt stand not for the new movement in Bengal so much as for the old antiquated Congress politics which Bengal, even in its Moderate element, has left far behind. Behar sends one independent... whatever he may think it necessary to compel the Convention to do. The Bengal Conventionists are already in danger of drifting away from the moorings and the new Regulations have, we believe, created the imminence of another dissension among the remaining faithful. The resignation of Sir Pherozshah makes it easier for the Bengal Moderates to attend the Lahore Congress, and that may not have been absent... personal grace will not mend matters. The Bengal Council is likely to be an even more select and unrepresentative body than we expected. We counted the District Boards as possible constituencies for representatives of opposition and independent opinion, but, for the most part, they might almost as well have been preserves for the aristocracy. In East Bengal it is evident that the Councils will be a ...
... negotiations can be carried on by Bengal with the other provincial leaders and the organisers of what is called the Lahore Congress and, in case of unanimity proving impossible, for the assembling of a real united Congress on the initiative of Bengal in co-operation with all who desire union. We admit that the success of the plan depends on its acceptance by the Bengal Moderates, but we believe it was... activities of the people of Bengal in matters affecting the country and the province as a whole. These resolutions deal with particular local interests of the people of Hughly and the riparian towns and districts on the banks of the Ganges. If the Conference is to handle local matters, there is no reason why they should ignore similar wants and necessities in the districts of East Bengal. Finally, there are... character contrasts strangely with the company in which they are found, but for the most part the mass of the resolutions represent an attempt to go back to the tone of appeal, prayer and protest which Bengal had decided to give up until the concession of real control should impart to these forms the sense of power which can alone save them from the stamp of a futile mendicancy. The phrasing also of these ...
... same month, started the Bengali paper Yugantar, himself contributing articles to it. April: Attended the famous sessions of the Bengal Provincial Conference at Barisal, after which toured and lectured in the districts of East Bengal. June: Took one year's leave without pay from Baroda College. Joined the newly-started National College in... Pondicherry. February 22: Mother left Pondicherry for France. Sri Aurobindo's refusal of the then Governor of Bengal, Lord Carmichael's offer of a big bunglow for his permanent residence at Darjeeling, Bengal, with the ulterior motive of keeping him under constant Govt. surveillance. His Govt. had perhaps the delusion that Sri Aurobindo would welcome the Himalyan... Calcutta at the house of his father's friend Monmohan Ghose, a barrister and a public man of the time. Father, Dr. K.D. Ghose, I.M.S., belonged to the well-known Ghoses of Konnagar, Dist. Hooghly, Bengal. Mother, Srimati Swarnalata, daughter of Rishi Rajnarayan Basu, 'the grandfather of Indian Nationalism.* Sri Aurobindo had three brothers and one sister, Eldest Benoybhusan and ...
... the boycott resolution and make the weapon of boycott adopted by the Bengalis appear to apply only to English-made goods. The boycott movement inaugurated in Bengal has a wider significance than the boycott of British goods resorted to in Bengal. Taking the word "movement" to mean activity, Babu Bipin Chandra Pal expressed the hope before last year's Congress that the boycott movement would travel from... goods only, then why have honourable and spirited Bengali gentlemen resigned their seats in the Councils? Were the boycott in Bengal confined to goods only, were it merely a commercial boycott, where was the necessity of boycotting Government schools? It is true that Bengal has boycotted English goods. But that was merely a subsidiary part of the all-pervading boycott. One thing must be borne in mind... purposely tried to create the impression that the Bengal boycott was directed against English goods only. Or his intention might have been to show that the Surat Congress at least accepted Bengal's boycott to that extent. The changes that were made in last year's resolution were very important and of a retrograde nature, from the standpoint of the Bengal Nationalists at least. And yet Mr. Gokhale says ...
... memorial, suggesting alternative schemes of Partition based on racial and linguistic grounds, and to submit it to the Secretary of State through the Indian Government. Bengal has worked splendidly during the last 11 months,—Bengal will have to work a little longer,—not hysterically, but rationally and strongly,—making it clear that she will not accept the present Partition. I believe redress is at... came to be so closely associated with the late Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal and Assam. This failure is distinctly due to the resistful attitude that has been assumed by the people of late, and in view of the complications with which the Government is threatened by the present anti-Partition and boycott agitation in Bengal, the authorities in England, as well as in this country, are evidently anxious... the Partition of Bengal. It was agreed that the representation, if possible, Page 145 should be forwarded early in September. The representation is being drawn up, and in the meantime I beg you will forward to the Bengalee Office as many signatures (including of course the signatures of the leading inhabitants in your District). The representation would ask for Bengal (old and new Province) ...
... Bhupendranath Bose. Not a single Moderate deputy is forthcoming from the whole of India to support Bengal even to this extent in its bitter and arduous struggle. Yet men are not ashamed to go from Bengal as self-elected delegates to a Convention which has disowned and dishonoured Bengal and which Bengal has disowned. Page 383 Our Cheap Edition The difficulty felt by many students and educated... aspirations towards unity and self-development in Bengal, typified by Partition and Deportation. Nothing can be more inconsistent than the attitude taken by the Moderate Convention towards these two questions. They have telegraphed their sympathy with the heroic passive resistance of the Transvaal Indians; they have shown their sympathy with Bengal by boycotting our boycott. Eighteen thousand rupees... to which these creditable feelings were confined. To this body calling itself the Indian National Congress how many delegates did the Indian nations end? The magnificent total of three hundred. From Bengal Sjs. Surendranath, Bhupendranath and A. Chaudhuri with less than half-a-dozen followers enriched Lahore with their presence; Madras could muster only twelve; the Central Provinces sent so Page ...
... his duty lay in prodding his countrymen - especially his brothers and sisters in Bengal - from their all too humiliating stupor. An alien rule had brought in its equipage an entirely new set of values which had with fatal ease and all too quickly become the ruling ideas of the Indian intelligentsia. Not merely Bengal, but the whole of India, was "drunk with the wine of European civilisation and with... 1899 to establish contacts with the scattered few revolutionary groups in Bengal that Sri Aurobindo had himself followed later to bring the groups together when they tried to pull in different directions, that his younger brother Barindra had tried to establish a chain of samitis and youth organisations in the villages of Bengal, that Bal Gangadhar Tilak had likewise brought about an awakening in Maharashtra... with the purely intellectual teaching that it received from the West. It began to see all things, to judge all things through the imperfect instrumentality of the intellect. When it was so, Bengal [and, let us add, all India] became atheistic, it became a land of doubters and cynics". 11 The newly-educated Indian - especially if he happened to be an "England-returned" gentleman as well - became a ridiculous ...
... sneer is a little out of date, but a few years ago it would not have been so utterly beside the mark. All honour then to the women of Bengal, whose cultured appreciation kept Bengali literature alive! And all honour to the noble few who with only the women of Bengal and a small class of cultured men to appreciate their efforts, adhered to the language our forefathers spoke, and did not sell themselves... Yes, the women of Bengal have always been lovers of literature and may they always remain so; but it is no longer true that they are its only readers. Already we see the embryo of a new generation Page 116 soon to be with us, whose imagination Bankim has caught and who care not for Keshab Chandra Sen and Kristo Das Pal, a generation national to a fault, loving Bengal and her new glories... paths in which a cold eye or an untroubled brain is the one thing needful. Nevertheless let Bengal only be true to her own soul, and there is no province in which she may not climb to greatness. That this is so, is largely due to the awakening and stimulating influence of Bankim on the national mind. Young Bengal gets its ideas, feelings and culture not from schools and colleges, but from Bankim's novels ...
... The Conference which meets at Berhampur tomorrow is the most important that has been yet held in Bengal, for its deliberations are fraught with issues of supreme importance to the future of the country. A heavy responsibility rests upon the delegates who have been sent to Berhampur from all parts of Bengal. For this is the first Provincial Conference after the historic twenty-second session of the Congress... already been commenced in Bengal. But there are other fields in which self-development and self-help are urgently necessary; and it remains for each province to initiate action in each of them successively according to its own circumstances and under the pressure of its own needs. Both the policy of self-help and the Boycott policy have taken shape as a national policy in Bengal as a result of the exceptional... trend of events in our province. They are now travelling all over India. Swadeshi has been universally recognised, Boycott is a fact in Maharashtra as well as in Bengal and is now being publicly advocated in the North and in Madras. But Bengal cannot pause till the rest of India comes up with her,—she must still lead the way even if it be many miles in front. The very initiative she has taken will inevitably ...
... not yet finished. It may take another two years, and as long as it is not finished I doubt if I shall be able to return to Bengal. Pondicherry is the appointed place for my yoga siddhi [realization], except indeed one part of it, and that is action. The centre of my work is Bengal, although I hope that its circumference will be all India and the whole earth. I shall write and tell you afterwards... but God's. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me then I will move. I know very well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It Page 270 is not the real transformation. However this too was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old yogas and exhausting their samskaras [old habitual tendencies]... at another's—this is what I want. It is such men that will raise the country. You must not think from all this lecture that I despair of the future of Bengal. I too hope, as they say, that this time a great light will manifest itself in Bengal. Still I have tried to show the other side of the shield, where the fault is, the error, the deficiency. If these remain, the light will not be a great light ...
... the revolutionary work in Bengal. Although some differences continued, the work under P. Mitter's leadership increased enormously. Hundreds of young people joined the movement and even some government servants lent their secret sympathy and help. And by 1905 the movement received a tremendous fillip as a result of the Government's ill-conceived decision to partition Bengal. From this time a relationship... 1905 Sri Aurobindo took over as acting Principal at Baroda College and he held that position until February 1906 when he took privilege leave to go to Bengal. Meanwhile much was happening in that province. On October 16, 1905, the Partition of Bengal had become an 'accomplished fact', the decision of an alien Government in complete disregard of the wishes of the people. This was to have far-reaching... his privilege leave in June 1906 Sri Aurobindo returned to Baroda but only to stay for a few days. On June 19 he took one year's leave without pay to go back to Bengal. This marked practically the end of his long association with Baroda. Bengal was in ferment and the agitation had spread to other parts of the country. Sri Aurobindo was to play a crucial role in the momentous hour which was now on the ...
... bring Sri Aurobindo back to Bengal". 58 But deeply concerned though Sri Aurobindo was about happenings in Bengal and in India, he had no intention of returning to the political fray. Founding the Life Divine was an absorbing task enough, and tolerated no diversions. But one thing was clear: boy, or adolescent, or teacher of literature, or lover of fair Bengal, or knight-errant of Indian... with the divisive developments in India. The situation in Bengal - as a result of the riots in Calcutta and Noakhali - particularly distressed him, and he wrote to a correspondent on 19 October 1946 that, although things were bad and might become worse, "we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair". Neither the Bengal Hindus nor their culture could be so easily exterminated... write such fine stuff as La Figlia che Piange?" 7 Again, on Nirod once remarking that some people criticised Nishikanto's poetry for its lack of refinement, Sri Aurobindo asked: "Since when has Bengal become so Puritan?", and added: Moni said that he was not allowed to sing in school by the teachers: it was considered immoral. If music is immoral, then there can be no question about ...
... to the remotest villages a new spirit of patriotism: Nationalism. A wonderstruck Ramsay MacDonald ejaculated that Bengal "is creating India by song and worship, it is clothing her in queenly garments." The 'Bengal Movement' was triggered by Lord Curzon's proposal to restructure Bengal ... by breaking it into pieces. But then India did not lack wide and clear intelligences which could see through... India's eyes and cried, 'Awake.'" The whole country seemed to be bubbling and boiling. The agitation generated by the Partition of Bengal had spilled Page 299 over its borders and spread to the whole of India. The hearts of Maharashtra, Punjab and Bengal seemed to beat to the same rhythm. In Calcutta, a mammoth gathering was held on 7 August 1905 at the Town Hall, in which "amid... which is dangerous for her, whereas we were trying to evolve the genius of the race along Indian lines and all working for independence." Referring to the uprising of 1905 he said, "Take the Bengal Movement. The whole country was awakened within a short time. People who were such cowards and trembled at the sight of a revolver were in a short period so much changed that the police officials used ...
... was an attempt made by certain leaders in Bengal and Maharashtra to secure admission for the Nationalists to the Convention. The United Congress Committee was con-fined to Bengal and sat to consider whether Bengal Moderates and Nationalists could not agree together before inviting the Conventionists of other provinces to accept the terms offered by United Bengal. Last year's Conference was a confabulation... Mehta is bound to subscribe to the Boycott. The four resolutions merely framed a compromise between the two political schools, not a declaration of Nationalist faith. As for Bengal, it is well-known that the whole of Bengal does not accept Colonial self-government as the ultimate goal of political aspiration. At Pabna it was only to avoid a discussion dangerous to unity that the Nationalists contented... confabulation of leading men representing their own opinions only, this year's negotiations were conducted by men elected for the purpose by the Provincial Conference representing the whole of Bengal. At the Conference in Bagbazar it was the middle section of opinion, Page 362 neither Moderate nor Nationalist, of which Sj. Motilal Ghose, Rai Jotindranath Chaudhuri, and some of the older leaders ...
... powerful brain at present at work in Bengal, but Srijut Bipin Chandra has himself often related that he was opposed to the Boycott in its inception, because his intellect refused to assent to the economic possibility of Boycott. So with all the men who were then the recognised brains and voices of Bengal. Only the nation had Boycott in their hearts and the heart of Bengal refused to be silenced by its brain... he once occupied. Our contemporary has forgotten the teachings of Vivekananda which were once so powerful in Madras. What does he think was the cause of the great awakening in Bengal? When Lord Curzon thought to rend Bengal asunder, he deprived her of all her old pride and reliance upon her intellectual superiority. She had thought to set her wits against British power and believed that the intellect... would be a match for the clumsy brains of the English statesmen. Lord Curzon showed her that Power is too direct and invincible to be outwitted. The brains of Bengal did their best to cope with him and they failed. No course remained to Bengal which her intellect could suggest. But when she was utterly reduced to despair, the time came for her own power to awake and set itself against that of the foreigner ...
... provinces other than Bengal were in some respects superior to Bengal and therefore ought to be able to do what Bengal succeeded in doing. He said, "We are seeing the light before us, we are walking on God's way, we are going to our ultimate goal surely and swiftly; nothing will daunt us, we welcome ordeals because they make us strong. 'Do as we have done' is the message of Bengal to the whole of India... Our Experiences in Bengal 13-January-1908 Babu Aurobindo Ghose paid a flying visit to Poona last week. On Monday evening he delivered an address in the Gaekwar's Wada, under the presidency of Mr. Annasaheb Patwardhan, and told his Poona audience how the new thought and the new movement spread all over Bengal and how the Bengalis were able to do things which... protest, was the next. Last came the Partition of Bengal and this stroke went right through the heart of every Bengali. They at first tried petitions, prayers, meetings, resolutions and protests, but soon found their uselessness. Something had to be done and the Swadeshi movement, which had received no attention when it was first introduced in Bengal, now gained fresh strength. The cry of boycott was ...
... conscience of the most cynical or the intelligence of the most deluded to tolerate. Any revival of the fiction that it is East Bengal which has been partitioned from West Bengal and therefore there is no obligation on the West Bengal leaders to boycott the Councils while the East Bengal leaders are so bound, will not be suffered. But the Moderates have definitely and rigidly excluded political boycott from... are severally the reaffirmation of two different programmes, the advanced Moderate programme of a section of opinion in West Bengal supported by Faridpur in the East and a sprinkling of individuals in some of the large towns and the Nationalist programme as advanced by East Bengal and a great section of opinion in the West. The advanced Moderate programme contemplates Colonial self-government as a distant... and if the older leaders of West Bengal accept the reforms and stand for Sir Edward Baker's Council or allow their followers to stand for it, the sooner the partition resolution is deleted from the proceedings of Provincial and District conferences and the celebration of the 16th October discontinued, the better for our national honesty and sincerity. If the West Bengal leaders, who under the pressure ...
... standing neutral.' These three were secretly in league with the East India Company. This battle gave the East India Company control over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Immediately after the Battle of Plassey, Moghul emperor Shah Alam granted Dewani of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa to the British East India Company. As a result, it secured permission to collect land revenue from these provinces in return... the sense of Indian Nationalism. First there was the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, which was suppressed most brutally and ruthlessly. Next, the Partition of Bengal in 1905 triggered off a strong reaction not only in Bengal but in the whole of India. Then there was the shooting and killing of innocent people in the Jallianwalabagh incident in 1919. At the same time, the British... on the Bhagirath comprising the village of Sutanati, to which in 1698 were added the villages of Kolikata and Govindapur. From this time onwards the three presidencies of Bombay, Madras and Bengal were established and became for all practical purposes the centre of British India's political and military activities. Within a century Britain had acquired almost complete sovereignty over India; ...
... admiring populace called him the "Bengal Tiger". Syamaprasad was no mean achiever either. He brilliantly completed his law studies. In 1934 he became the Vice- chancellor of Calcutta University, and introduced new subjects. He left a mark as an educationist. But his imprint as a politician is deeper. He was a minister when Fazlul Huq formed his second ministry in Bengal in 1941. Became a Cabinet minister... minister in Nehru Government in 1947 when India gained a fractured independence. He was also a member from Bengal of the Constituent Assembly. Following his bitter opposition to Nehru's Pakistan appeasement policy and the government turning a blind eye to the massacre of Hindus there, he resigned. Jawaharlal was afraid of this rival. He protested the Indian Government's Kashmir policy, was imprisoned... was held on 24th and 25th April 1951 for the establishment of Sri Aurobindo International University Centre, Pondicherry. Jaydev: an eminent poet contemporary of Lakshmana Sena, king of Bengal (c. 1180-1202 A.D.). He wrote the famous lyric Gita Govindam. Nishikanta's poem Rajhansa was in Jaydev's metre. Rabindranath Tagore also highly praised this song. Sahana and a few other ...
... The Trinity of Bengal RAMMOHAN, Bankimchandra, Vivekananda – these three personalities represent the three steps in the process of evolution in modern Bengal. Like the three strides of Vishnu these three great souls have occupied three stages of the evolving consciousness of Bengal. The soul of modern Bengal awoke in Rammohan, and then its mind blossomed in... and motive in his normal consciousness. Thus, in Rammohan is visible the primal stage of the consciousness of Bengal. It is he who may be called in this sense the psychic being or the causal being of modern Bengal. He alone before all others has brought forward the consciousness of Bengal to the free air and light of the modern era from the antiquity, the mediaevalism of the past. He has initiated... created by Bankim, this his great gift to the consciousness of modern Bengal. Now for the next stage, whatever has thus become manifest and taken form in the mind, becomes living, dynamic Page 221 and concrete when it descends into the vital. Vivekananda is the living embodiment of the life-energy of modern Bengal. Not simply in the world of mental imagination, not in the mere sport ...
... Loyalty and Disloyalty in East Bengal 30-August-1906 The Englishman and those who are evidently anxious to set the machinery of relentless state prosecutions against the leaders of the present national movement in this province, need not take so much trouble to prove that there is considerable disaffection and disloyalty in East Bengal which ought at once to be put down with a... disturb even this passive sentiment in the people. But there has always been another kind of loyalty also in this country, and that species of loyalty exists still among us, both in East Bengal and West Bengal, though it has been subjected during the last eight or nine months to a strain which would kill it altogether in any other country, and most of all in that country to which the Englishman... of the people would be an act of fatal folly on the part of the Government or their advisers. East Bengal, at least, has never been noted for such cowardice. It is not fear, but self-restraint due to considerations of larger and higher interests, and the command of their leaders that kept East Bengal so quiet under all these enormities during the last nine or ten months. But this loyalty also seems ...
... were extremely anxious for a settlement and they approached the Bengal Moderates to that end through the mediation of Sj. Motilal Ghose. The terms arrived at were so humiliating that, although they gave way rather than imperil the success of the negotiations, it was with great difficulty they could bring themselves to consent, and Bengal Nationalism has never accepted the surrender on the subject of... Moderates on their own terms, we shall be declaring ourselves seditionists and anarchists. That is a method of bringing about unity which we think the Bengal Moderates had better leave to their friends in Bombay and Punjab; it will not work in Bengal. If by constitutional means is meant acquiescence in the Reforms,—that is the only constitution given to us,—we decline to join in using constitutional... Surendranath expressly reserved his liberty to attend Sir Pherozshah's Congress and there is no reason why he should not do so if he thinks that his duty or his best policy. Nor do the Nationalists ask the Bengal Moderates to refrain, though they will naturally put their own interpretation on an alliance based on the pusillanimous surrender of the Boycott Resolution. On the other hand the Bengalee is quite ...
... political actualities of the country. It is an indisputable fact that a great deal of the best in the life of Bengal gravitates to-wards the capital and the Partition of Bengal has made no difference in this powerful tendency. Calcutta is to Bengal what Paris is to France. It is from Calcutta that Bengal takes its opinions, its inspirations, its leaders, its tone, its programme of action. On every important... the political life of Bengal is not new. In the earlier days of the new movement the Nationalist leaders made strenuous appeals to the Mofussil centres to liberate themselves from Calcutta domination and become equal partners in a better organised provincial activity. They thought it possible then because, in the first surge of the movement, the Mofussil centres in East Bengal had developed a young... have destroyed such freedom and organisation as had been created. Nor can they make their Councils the instrument of so vital a change unless they also make them the centre of the political life of Bengal. This they can only do by a large literate electorate, free elections and effectiveness of the popular vote. But, at present, that is not what the bureaucrats desire. They do not desire a free and ...
... here in Bengal it is being put to us, and He has driven it home. He has made it perfectly clear by the events of the last few years. He has shown us the possibility of strength within us, and then He has shown us where the danger, the weakness lies. He is pointing out to us how it is that we may become strong. On us it lies, on the educated class in Bengal, because Bengal leads, and what Bengal does today... Karmayogin Bakarganj Speech Delivered at Bakarganj, Eastern Bengal and Assam, on 23 June 1909. Text noted down by police agents and reproduced in a Government of Bengal confidential file. I have spent the earlier part of my life in a foreign country from my very childhood, and even of the time which I have spent in India, the greater part... been the means which we call passive resistance and specially the means of the boycott. Therefore just as we have said that the boycott is a settled fact Page 45 because the Partition of Bengal is not rescinded and it shall remain so until it is rescinded, so we must say that the boycott must remain a settled fact because we are allowed no real control over the Government. For the time ...
... against him. There is, however, no real doubt as to his being intimately connected with it.... The Lieutenant-Governor (of Bengal) has no doubt whatever on this point, nor has he any doubt that his is the master-mind at the back of the whole extremist campaign in Bengal.... The conviction of the other persons concerned would be of no avail if Arabinda were set free; for, in that case he would... revolutionaries were chafing at the Nationalists leash and were impatient to let go a campaign of terrorism. Such was the situation, generally in India, but to a much more pronounced degree in Bengal. In the eyes of the Moderates, Sri Aurobindo and his inflammable writings in the Bande Mataram were the major obstacle on the path of slow, orderly, constitutional "progress". In the eyes of the... had to be silenced, he had to be put out of the way. For some time past, events had been moving swiftly to what seemed to be their preordained configuration and conclusion. Curzon had divided Bengal, and injured and insulted a great nation; and, by a strange irony of history, his successor Minto was called upon to face the music. As Sir Pratap Singh, a titled dignitary of the time, put it with ...
... Around the eighth or ninth century A.D., the story goes, a king named Adisura is said to have invited to Bengal five Brahmins with five non-Brahmin attendants from Kannauj (near Kanpur in today's Uttar Pradesh), for the purpose of restoring the purity of Hindu cult and rites in Bengal. One Makaranda Ghose was among the five non-Brahmins. The Ghoses of Konnagar are the descendants of Makaranda... the Medical College Hospital." Dr. Ghose was twenty years old. Next year. "Orders by the Lt. Governor of Bengal. 20 th April 1866 —The third Grade Sub-Assistant Surgeon Kristo Dhan Ghose to have medical charge of the Dispensary, Bhaugal-pore." The following year, the Lt. Governor of Bengal issued another order on 5 th April: "Baboo Kristodhun Ghose" to become "a member of the local Commitee of... Ghoses are of kayastha caste, and were traditionally cowherds (like Krishna's father Nanda Ghose). Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Hooghly District of Bengal. Konnagar is a small township, about fifteen kilometres north of Calcutta, on the west bank of the river Hooghly. Some of Bengal's remarkable leaders of religious and social movements —such as Raja ...
... Barindrakumar or Barin for short, grew more frequent, and he used his holidays in Bengal for revolutionary purposes. The partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905 caused general public indignation — an atmosphere conducive to the spread of the spirit of revolution. In Calcutta, the National University of Bengal was founded for students who had participated in political manifestations and who were... from behind the scenes without his name being known in public.’ 8 But his prosecution in 1907 had ended his anonymity; no longer was he a hero only in Bengal, he had become a national celebrity. Such was the situation in 1907 when the Bengal leaders of the Congress travelled in a chartered train to Surat, a town on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent. The whole thousand-mile route from Kharagpur... not only as the leader of Bengal but of the whole country.’ His fame had spread even more because of the Alipore Trial, and the British authorities regretted that they had let him go scot-free once more. Letters of that time prove that the highest circles examined the possibility of doing away once and for all with ‘the famous Aurobindo.’ The First Secretary of the Bengal government described him as ...
... the Centenary Edition (1972). 11. Embarras du choix: in French, "too great a choice". 12. Amiya: Sahana's elder sister. 13. Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Zamindar of Gouripur, East Bengal. A veteran sarod player and Dilip's close friend. Page 390 14. The published version of this letter (in the 1972 Centenary Edition) continues with the following passage (perhaps added... The king then offered himself in the balance. Seeing that Agni and Indra blessed the king for his firm sense of sacrifice. 44. Bejoy Krishna Goswami (2.8.1841 -1899), was born at Shantipur in Bengal, and was a descendant of Adwaitacharya. He was married to Yogmaya Devi and became a brahmo. After he started his Yoga and was told by his guru that he could give diksha to others, he went out... became Pakistan's ambassador to Spain in 1955. 63. For the reader: Here is in Dilip's own words, what happened when he first met Baradakanta Majumdar at Lalgola, in the Murshidabad district of Bengal. "When I told him about my groping in darkness for a clue to light he asked me to sit down and meditate with him. 'I will find out about it,' he said somewhat cryptically. "I was not a little ...
... was called S.O.P.C (School of Physical Culture). In order to promote boxing he had formed the B.A.B.F. (Bengal Amateur Boxing Federation) and initiated the All Bengal School Championship, the All Bengal College Championship and the Bengal Amateur Boxing Championship in the whole of undivided Bengal. The time for the Inter-School Boxing Championship was near. Our School was supposed to take part. Every... went into the finals of the Bengal Championship but I lost by just a few points. The same thing happened in the invitational Page 208 fight for the Governor's Red Cross Fund Boxing Championship. Many thought that the final bout was much too close to be judged. Anyway in life there are always wins and losses and I accepted defeat graciously. In the Bengal Championship Finals I fought... needs to be said about Sri Biren Chandra. He was one of Jagat-babu's best students and quite well-known in the boxing circles of the time. The period was 1934-36. In his weight-category he was the All Bengal Champion and the Civil Military Champion. He also took part in categories above his own and almost always won on knockout. Sri P. L. Ray was an "Oxford Blue" in boxing. He held a high post in the ...
... called a private meeting on behalf of the Moderates of Bengal, to which he invited ¹ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin , pp. 61-66. Page 126 Sri Aurobindo and other prominent Nationalists of Bengal in order to present a united front at a congress to be held at Benares. Thus the Moderates wanted to remain with the Nationalists in Bengal. This was due to the fact that Surendranath Banerji... Sri Aurobindo piloted the Bengal Provincial Conference at Hooghly. The political situation was similar to that at the Surat Congress in 1907. The reception committee was formed of the Moderates who had framed draft-resolutions welcoming the reforms granted by the British government. Sri Aurobindo took up the Nationalist Party's cause single-handedly. He established the Bengal Nationalist association... experience subsequently in his epoch-making Uttarpara speech. Some other reminiscences of jail life are given here: "This reminds me of a compliment given to my eyes by Sir Edward Baker, Governor of Bengal. He visited us in Alipore Jail and told Charu Chandra Dutt, 'Have you seen Aurobindo Ghose's eyes? He has the eyes of a mad man!' Charu Dutt took great pains to convince him that I was not at all mad ...
... influence in India. Page 292 repercussion in Bengal, captured the mind of young Bengal and assisted more than anything else in the preparation of the Swadeshi movement." Published first in June 1904, Desher Katha sold ten thousand copies in four editions within the year. The fifth edition came out in 1905. The government of Bengal banned the book in 1910 and confiscated all the copies.... the Colonial Government set out to do from the very beginning. First they ruined the trade and industry- Bengal, for instance had a thriving commerce before the advent of the British both in agricultural produce and textile. "Time was, not more distant than a century and a half ago, when Bengal was much more wealthy than was Britain," wrote the British historian William Digby in 1901. Already in 1853... (1869-1912). Son of a Marathi Brahmin who had settled in Bengal, Sakharam was born in Deoghar. He studied in the Deoghar School and later became a teacher there. He was Barin's teacher of History. "One of the ablest men in these revolutionary groups," Sri Aurobindo reminds us, "[he] was an able writer in Bengali (his family had been long domiciled in Bengal).... He published a book entitled Desher Katha ...
... Chatterji Early Cultural Writings The Bengal He Lived In 23-July-1894 The society by which Bankim was formed, was the young Bengal of the fifties, the most extraordinary perhaps that India has yet seen,—a society electric with thought and loaded to the brim with passion. Bengal was at that time the theatre of a great intellectual awakening. A sort of miniature... original civilisation. Originality does not lie in rejecting outside influences but in accepting them as a new mould into which our own individuality may run. This is what happened and may yet happen in Bengal. The first impulse was gigantic in its proportions and produced men of an almost gigantic originality. Rammohan Ray arose with a new religion in his hand, which was developed on original lines by men... sixteenth century, it is the note of the astonishing return to Greek Paganism, which is now beginning in England and France; and it was in a slighter and less intellectual way the note of the new age in Bengal. Everything done byte men of that day and their intellectual children is marked by an unbounded energy and passion. Their reading was enormous and ran often quite out of the usual track. Madhu Sudan ...
... from public action by his position at Baroda. The outbreak of the agitation against the partition of Bengal in 1905 gave him the opportunity to give up the Baroda Service and join openly in the political movement. He left Baroda in 1906 and went to Calcutta as Principal of the newly-founded Bengal National College. The political action of Sri Aurobindo covered eight years, from 1902 to 1910. During... co-workers the beginnings of the Swadeshi (Indian Sinn Fein) movement, till the agitation in Bengal furnished an opening for the public initiation of a more forward and direct political action than the moderate reformism which had till then been the creed of the Indian National Congress. In 1906 Sri Aurobindo came to Bengal with this purpose and joined the New Party, an advanced section small in numbers and... yet gone farther than some ineffective clashes with the Moderate leaders at the annual Congress assembly behind the veil of secrecy of the "Subjects Committee". Sri Aurobindo persuaded its chiefs in Bengal to come forward publicly as an All-India party with a definite and challenging programme, putting forward Tilak, the popular Maratha leader at its head, and to attack the then dominant Moderate (Reformist ...
... the best means for becoming an efficient worker in the great days of the world. 36 (From a letter to Motilal Roy.) It is regrettable that Bengal should be unable to find anything in the Arya* but not surprising. The intellect of Bengal has been so much fed on chemical tablets of thought and hot-spiced foods that anything strong and substantial is indigestible to it. Moreover people in... not stay, narrowness and littleness come in. In a narrow and small mind, life and heart, love finds no room. Where in Bengal is there love? Nowhere else even in this division-ridden India is there so much quarrelling, strained relations, jealousy, hatred and factionalism as in Bengal. In the noble heroic age of the Aryan people there was not so much shouting and gesticulating, but the endeavour they... Brahmins but in all castes and classes, the old familiar faces, features, figures of my friends of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Hindustan, even, though this similarity was less widely spread, of my own province Bengal. The impression I received was as if an army of all the tribes of the North had descended on the South and submerged any previous populations that may have occupied it. A general impression of a Southern ...
... situation, the sooner they give up their leadership and attend to their spiritual salvation, the better for themselves and the country. The situation in East Bengal puts three important questions to any intelligent leadership. Is East Bengal to be left alone to fight out the battle of nationalism while the rest of the country looks calmly on? Is reaction to be allowed to persecute local and disorganised... Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 24.Oct.1906 - 27.May.1907 Bande Mataram The Situation in East Bengal 11-April-1907 While commenting on the proceedings of the Berhampur Conference, we expressed our opinion that the leaders had been guilty of the most serious deficiency in statesmanship and courage in failing to understand and meet... opposition-cum-cooperation theory these were functions of the alien Government, and the only duty of the popular leaders was to advise or remonstrate and look on at the results. The present position in Bengal is full of the uncertainty and confusion of a transition period when circumstances have changed and demand new qualities, new ideas and a new spirit in the people's chiefs; but the leadership still ...
... would be complete. Nothing would be left of the people of India except a disorganised crowd with no centre of strength or means of resistance. It was in Bengal that the middle class was most developed and self-conscious; and it was in Bengal therefore that a quick succession of shrewd and dangerous blows was dealt at the once useful but now obnoxious class. The last effort to bribe it into quietude... power and influence and to weaken the middle class of Bengal by dividing it. The suppression of the middle class was the recognised policy of Lord Curzon. After Mr. Morley came to power, it was, we believe, intended to recognise and officialise the Congress itself if possible. Even now it is quite conceivable, in view of the upheaval in Bengal and the Punjab, that an expanded Legislature with the ... retinue and tenants; and the village community independent and self-existent. The first result of the British occupation was to reduce to a nullity the supreme ruler, and this was often done, as in Bengal, by the help of the Zamindars. The next result was the disorganisation of the village community. The third was the steady breaking-up of the power of the Zamindars with the help of a new class which ...
... The Bengal Government's Letter 20-June-1907 The Statesman has recently become a confirmed sensation-monger and treats the public continually to its thick-coming opium visions. It has recently brought out a sensational statement about Government proceedings against the Nationalist Press in which a Bengal Government letter to three Calcutta journals... we received a communication from the Bengal Government addressed to the Editor, Bande Mataram , in which we were informed that the Lieutenant-Governor had had under consideration certain articles (not specified) recently published in our paper "the language of which was a direct incitement to violence and breach of the peace". This sort of language the Bengal Government was determined to put a stop... the Keshab Press, the Bande Mataram 's posters and some luxuriant imaginings of the Statesman 's own riotous fancy have been mingled together in wild confusion. We were one of the recipients of the Bengal Government's letter, and if we have not written on the subject, it is simply because the letter was marked confidential. Now, however, that the matter has got abroad, we may as well correct certain ...
... been the want of co-ordinated action. We have left everything to personal and local enthusiasm. The consequence is that while in East Bengal the boycott is a fact, in West Bengal it is an idea. There is some Swadeshi in West Bengal, there is no boycott. Moreover Bengal has not brought its united influence to bear upon the other provinces in order to make the boycott universal. The whole force of this... to bear on the struggle, Bengal and Punjab have been left to fight out their battles unaided, without the active sympathy of the rest of India. This must be altered, the rest of India must be converted and we must not rest till we have secured a mandate from the Congress for an universal boycott of British goods. Meanwhile we must bring West Bengal into a line with East Bengal, and for that purpose we ...
... the penal laws of the country, this Conference urges upon the Government the repeal of the Bengal Regulation III of 1818. VIII. That having regard to the prevalence of Cholera, Malaria and Smallpox in the province throughout the year and the abnormal death rate as disclosed in the last Sanitary Report of Bengal, this Conference urges the Government as well as the people to adopt amongst others the... Karmayogin Appendix: Bengal Provincial Conference Hughly - 1909 The draft resolutions in the left column were written by the Moderate Congress leaders. The Nationalist draft resolutions were written by Sri Aurobindo. DRAFT RESOLUTIONS I. That this Conference places on record its profound feelings of regret and sorrow at the death of Lord... also urges the Government to publish the rules framed in accordance with Lord Morley's Scheme before they are finally adopted. III. (a) That this Conference declines to accept the Partition of Bengal as a settled fact or question and resolves to continue the agitation against it with a view to its reversal or modification. (b) That in this connection this Conference appeals to the Government ...
... to come back to Bengal. When we returned to Bengal after a lapse of four years and they saw us play at Rungpore, we were given the name, "Madrasi players", and it was given out that two absolutely formidable "Madrasi players" had arrived in town. So the Town Club of Rungpore decided that they must now be able to annex the Dinajpur Shield, the most coveted trophy in North Bengal. A couple of players... point of view of football. In our team, four of us were what they called "Swadeshi" players – this was the name given to those who took asylum here after doing patriotic work. All the four were from Bengal. Moni was there and Bejoy – he played centre-half – and Purnachandra Pakre, Page 448 a student from Chandernagore who pursued his studies here, and myself. This Purnachandra had gone... where was he? Nothing was there, barring the row of stones. (2) I did not go to play in Calcutta. One of the reasons of course was that I belonged permanently to Pondicherry and my trips to Bengal were more in the nature of holiday excursions and I did not want to enter into binding commitments. For another thing, the atmosphere of Calcutta football was one that I was not likely to cherish; ...
... yet finished. It may take another two years, and as long as it is not finished, I doubt if I shall be able to return to Bengal. Pondicherry is the appointed place for my Yoga siddhi [realization], except one part of it – that is, the action. The first centre of my work is Bengal, although I hope that its circumference will be all India and the whole Earth.’ This letter is interesting and amazing... another’s some awake and manifest from within their slumbering Godhead and get the divine life – this is what I want. It is such men that will raise the country … Neither am I going back to Bengal now. Not because Bengal is not ready but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes among the unripe what work can he do?’ The Descent The Sadhana and the work were waiting for the Mother’s coming.... faint glimmer of light or a momentary wave of religious intoxication. And so long as this sort of thing continues any permanent resurgence of India is improbable.’ He also surveys the situation in Bengal and finds the situation not conducive to developments as yet. For it is clearly not Sri Aurobindo’s intention to remain in seclusion in Pondicherry. ‘These ten years, He [the Guru of the world] has ...
... counted. He went to Bengal "to see what was the hope of revival, what was the political condition of the people, and whether there was the possibility of a real movement". It might be added that he had begun a work that was still nameless; and it was in the course of that work that he went to Bengal "to see what was the hope of revival etc." He found that in Bengal "the prevailing mood... Even his own intrepid province of Bengal was in no mood to be persuaded by Sri Aurobindo and his gospel of virile nationalism. It was anything but intrepid at the time; it was the mantra of Bande Mataram and the leap into revolutionary action that changed the people of the province. [He sent some of his friends from Baroda and Bombay to Bengal to prepare for the revolutionary movement... movement.] It was not any of his friends at Baroda and in Bombay who went to Bengal on his behalf. His first emissary was a young Bengali who had by the help of Sri Aurobindo's friends in the Baroda Army enlisted as a trooper in a cavalry regiment in spite of the prohibition by the British Government of the enlistment of any Page 69 Bengali in any army in India. This man who was exceedingly ...
... I SRI AUROBINDO reached Baroda on February 8, 1893, i.e. only two days after his arrival at Bombay. What surprises us is that instead of first visiting his relatives in Bengal, he proceeded straight to Baroda. Could he have come to know the sad news of his parents — his father's death and his mother's illness? Difficult to surmise; perhaps there was urgent need to report... English, and taught at the College in addition to his other official duties. Thus began his long association with the Baroda College which continued until he took extended leave in June 1906 to go to Bengal. In 1899 the Principal of the College, (an Englishman), pressed the Maharaja to make Sri Aurobindo's appointment at the College permanent but the former did not agree as he wanted Sri Aurobindo to... experiences was approaching and during the last years of his stay at Baroda he was to be increasingly absorbed in these. I would now like to tell you how Sri Aurobindo resumed contact with his family in Bengal. Unfortunately, we have very little information to go on and there are many gaps which cannot now be filled. About eleven months after his arrival at Baroda, in a letter dated January 11, 1894, ...
... running with full vigour and the club celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1990. At this time, the idea came to Pranab's mind to open physical culture clubs in every town and every village of Bengal (Bengal was not partitioned at that time), which would produce strong, healthy, honest and capable people, who would build up a great India. He had a scheme of supporting each unit with a suitable industry... could be supported by the setting up of an appropriate little industry in the area. Gradually, this work would spread from the district to the whole of Bengal. With all our strength we would try to recreate the "sujalaam sufalaam shashyashyamalaam" Bengal and infuse the Bengalis with health, knowledge and economic strength once again. We had just opened a few centres of our club in Berhampur.... family in those days. Then, for about a year, he studied in Berhampur Krishnanath Collegiate School. At the age of seven he was taken to Calcutta where his father was serving as one of the engineers in Bengal Telephones. He stayed with his parents and was admitted to a private school called Anandamayee Institution, which was founded and run by a patriot and idealist named Charuchandra Dutta. Pranab imbibed ...
... that had made her the inspired author of Kali, the Mother. Returning to Bengal, she gave sustained support to him in his secret work, and in 1903 he appointed her a member of the controlling revolutionary committee of five; and during his first short spell of hectic political activity consequent on the Partition of Bengal, Nivedita kept close and continuous contact with him. His arrest and the... Aurobindo himself, he had no cause for exultation, he could have no sense of victory; Page 332 there was only a deep calm, a fecund serenity that seemed poised for some new action. Bengal - and all India - had suffered a dismal change during the twelve months of his incarceration. A political paralysis seemed to be creeping over the country drying up the blood-streams of national... political meetings held, and why were they attended - not by tens of thousands as before, but only by a few hundred? How had such listlessness and resignation seized the body and soul of the people of Bengal, the people of India? But Sri Aurobindo wouldn't feel defeated or dispirited. He started holding meetings, even if they should be but poorly attended. He held discussions with leaders, he waited ...
... in the eighteenth century and after. In Sisir Kumar Mitra's words, There were corruptions in every walk of life, social, cultural and political. Bengal seemed to be slowly sinking into a morass of decay and degeneration. Not only in Bengal, this tendency prevailed more or less in the whole of India, and its evils crept into the entire life of the Indian people, the forms and institutions of... years after the third Battle of Panipat, both decisive events that paved the way for Britain's overlordship of India; also, it was in 1772 that Warren Hastings was appointed Governor of Bengal. The terrible Bengal famine of 1770 had devastated that province, and demoralisation had followed reducing all vestiges of life to a dull stupor: It was the hour before the Gods awake. Across the path... feel demoralised. On the other hand, the divine singers of Tamil Nad, the Virasaivas and Dasas of Andhra-Karnatak, the Saints of Maharashtra, and the followers of divers bhakti cults in Assam, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Punjab did keep the embers of spirituality alive and hold the people together even in those dark dark days. The Muslim rulers (with notable exceptions) ...
... Aurobindo, and his unique place in India's political movement for freedom. "He was the outstanding personality in the great National Movement of Bengal," wrote Professor Jyotishchandra Ghose in Life- Work of Sri Aurobindo. "The coming of Sri Aurobindo to Bengal marks an epochmaking period in the annals of the Page 374 country. Never before in the history of the political evolution of... burn up all that was base and false in the national life of the country and turn it into true gold.........Everybody felt in his heart of hearts that the man for Bengal who had been long overdue ... had at last come and the honour of Bengal and her interest, and, for the matter of that, of all India would be safe in his keeping. "This 'Fire-Spark' as we know him was a man of medium height and could... altered by what seems to the superficial an accident." He was giving his impressions of the French Revolution of 1789 and its four central personalities. In India the 'moment' was the partition of Bengal. From the spontaneous outpourings from his countrymen Sri Aurobindo stands out as the 'man.' Some of his greatest contemporaries and the most ordinary of them alike, as well as his associates, biographers ...
... attends the Barisal Conference, then tours East Bengal with Bepin Chandra Pal. June 19 - Sri Aurobindo leaves Baroda for good. July 12 -In France, Dreyfus is cleared from all guilt twelve years after being convicted of treason, and reinstated to the Army. August 6 - Declaration of the Bande Mataram (English daily). August 15 -The Bengal National College opens in Calcutta, with Sri... articles published in the Bande Mataram ; released on bail; after his acquittal in September, Sri Aurobindo becomes the leader of the Nationalist party in Bengal. December 7-9 - Sri Aurobindo is the leader of the Nationalists at the Bengal Provincial Conference at Midnapore. Dec. 26-27 -The Surat session of the Congress, which ends in a break-up; on the 28 th , Sri Aurobindo presides over... China, Sun-Yat-Sen founds the Socialist Revolutionary Party; Boxer rebellion in Peking. - Sri Aurobindo makes first contacts with revolutionary Page 584 groups in Maharashtra and Bengal. 1901 - Rabindranath Tagore founds his school at Santiniketan. January 21 - Death of Queen Victoria; accession of King Edward VII April 30 - Sri Aurobindo marries Mrinalini Bose. ...
... sudden and stupendous magnanimity! Who would like to hurt our sympathetic Viceroy's feelings by such ungracious truths! Or again supposing the Bengal papers were contrasting silently events in the Punjab and Bengal? They do present a remarkable contrast. In Bengal we have agitated for two years—first with repeated petitions, with countless protest meetings, with innumerable wails and entreaties from press... The Statesman , which seems now to be the mouthpiece of the bureaucracy, published a semi-official communique to the effect that prosecutions are being launched against three of the journals in Bengal which have been the most violent in their recent utterances. This pleasant news opens the way to a most interesting line of speculation and we would suggest that one of our contemporaries, say, the... fortunate victims. The prize would of course be given to the competitor who got the right names in the right order. It would be interesting to know whether the impressions of the people and of the Bengal Government tallied on this knotty question. If we ourselves are to be one of the recipients of this Government distinction, we must petition the authorities beforehand—even at the sacrifice of our ...
... sprang up suddenly in Bengal. It has entirely changed the whole face of Bengal. There is an inspiration created in the heart of everyone by divine prompting. It must be a divine arrangement; otherwise how could such a superhuman work be achieved within two years by the agitation carried on by a few obscure men? Perhaps you may not have examined carefully the agitation in Bengal. It was started by a... the Bhagavad Gita: "Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits." The Nationalist party in Bengal did not shrink at all. Italy was merely a name before in the geography of the world. It became a mighty nation in the course of twenty years. The same thing is going on in Bengal. The divine splendour of Bengali youths is clearly shining forth. The divine element has manifested itself.... these very madmen spread Swadeshism, preached boycott and established gymnasiums. This spread the conflagration of the agitation everywhere. The young generation assisted the movement; the whole of Bengal became alive and pricked up its ears. The leaders had no faith in boycott, yet they could not hold their own against the current of public opinion. They joined the boycott movement. Government officers ...
... the honour of our women. But who are "we"? Not surely the people of Eastern Bengal and Northern Bengal, who, outnumbered, overwhelmed, are struggling against overwhelming odds, and, in spite of weak points like Jamalpur, are not acquitting themselves ill. In West Bengal the Hindus are in overwhelming majority; in West Bengal there is a sturdy Hindu lower class; there are thousands of students who throng... throng to Swadeshi meetings and parade at Swadeshi jatras and festivals. But West Bengal is under the spell of Babu Surendranath and his Moderate colleagues. Will Babu Surendranath give the word? Is he prepared to speed the fiery cross? Shall West Bengal pour into the East and North to help our kinsmen, to protect "our temples, our holy images and our women from defilement and dishonour"? If not, this... Bengalis are regarded by their rulers, deserves only to be trampled underfoot. And recent happenings in the district of Mymensingh show that the Government has taken an exact measure of the Hindus of Bengal. For are they not the embodiment Page 377 of patience and—propriety? They are too highly educated and reflective, you know, to do anything rashly and the native hue of their resolution ...
... the election is of some importance to Bengal owing to the desire of the people of this province for a United Congress. It is no longer a secret that in Bengal Page 240 Moderate circles the feeling against Sir Pherozshah is almost as strong as it is in the Nationalist party. It has even been threatened that, if Sir Pherozshah becomes the President, Bengal will not attend the session at Lahore... Lahore. This has since been qualified by the proviso that Bengal as a province will not attend, although some individuals may overcome their feelings or their scruples. Bengal as a province would in no case attend the sitting of a mutilated Congress. Even the whole Moderate party were not likely to attend unless their objections on the score of constitutional procedure were properly considered. All that... menace. Neither Sj. Surendranath nor Sj. Bhupendranath nor the Chaudhuri brothers are likely to forego attendance, and, for all practical purposes, these gentlemen are the Moderate party in Bengal. If the Bengal leaders do go to Lahore, they are certain to obey meekly the dictates of Sir Pherozshah Mehta; for there is not one of them who has sufficient strength of character to stand up to the roarings ...
... the government of Bengal decided 1 to erect a statue of Sri Aurobindo in place of Lord Curzon's—the very man who had sought the division of Bengal, and Sri Aurobindo had tried to stop him. Sri Aurobindo would take the place of Lord Curzon, across from the "Victoria Memorial." It's at the entrance to Calcutta. That's what they decided in principle. Then the government of Bengal was overturned and... what I think too. But they say, their argument is: if we put it in the house, it will be protected—the crows will not make a mess on it, and the students won't decapitate it! Are the students of Bengal against Sri Aurobindo? No, no, Mother! But it so happens they decapitated the statue of Gandhi, for instance! ( With a smile ) Ooh! For Sri Aurobindo himself, it's better in the house—it's... it loses its meaning. Obviously! Obviously. Page 278 What had a meaning is putting Sri Aurobindo across from the Victoria Memorial, in place of the Englishman who wanted to divide Bengal—that has a meaning. Yes, obviously. But then the Indians would have to behave decently. Anyway, the people of Pathmandir will do what you say. ( Mother remains concentrated ) The best ...
... better either. Only when he visited Bengal he had the chance of enjoying good cooking, especially at Bhupalbabu's residence. There was another entertaining feature which was a completely new experience to Sri Aurobindo. During meal-time, he used to be surrounded Page 9 by Mrinalini's relatives from the oldest to the youngest as was the custom in Bengal. While the old ladies would pester... marrying a Hindu girl according to Hindu rites is worth noting. I believe that Bankim's novels which he had read soon after returning from England gave him an insight into the character of Hindu women in Bengal. For, till then, he had had no opportunity to come into close contact with them. A fervent admirer of Bankim, he wrote in his essays on Bankim one year after his arrival in India: "The social reformer... his father had done. Sri Aurobindo after his return from England studied the Hindu religion and culture and must have found profound truths which must have influenced him in his choice. Besides, in Bengal the reformist Brahmo Samaj was at that time much in fashion and educated people were attracted by the modes and manners of that society. Sri Aurobindo, I am afraid, did not have much sympathy with ...
... back to Bengal. When we returned to Bengal after a lapse of four years and they saw us play at Rungpore, we were given the name, "Madrasi players", and it was given out that two absolutely formidable "Madrasi Page 87 players" had arrived in town. So the Town Club of Rungpore decided that they must now be able to annex the Dinajpur Shield, the most coveted trophy in North Bengal. A couple... point of view of football. In our team, four of us were what they called "Swadeshi" players—this was the name given to those who took asylum here after doing patriotic work. All the four were from Bengal. Moni was there and Bejoy—he played centre-half—and Purna-chandra Pakre, a student from Chandernagore who pursued his studies here, and myself. This Purnachandra had gone one better than the rest... he? Nothing was there, barring the row of stones. (2) I did not go to play in Calcutta. One of the reasons of course was that I belonged permanently to Pondicherry and my trips to Bengal were more in the nature of holiday excursions and I did not want to enter into binding commitments. For another thing, the atmosphere of Calcutta football was one that I was not likely to cherish; ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal IV. BRAIN OF INDIA (i) THE time has perhaps come for the Indian mind, long pre-occupied with political and economic issues for a widening of its horizon. Such a widening is especially necessary for Bengal. The Bengali has always led and still leads the higher thought of India, because he has... system of education Indian, and the instruction given in the Bengal National College was only an improved European system, not Indian or National. Another error which has to be avoided and to which careless minds are liable, is the reactionary idea that in order to be national, education must reproduce the features of the old tol system of Bengal. It is not eighteenth century India, the India which by... the long worship of Shakti and practice of the Tantra that has been a part of our culture for many centuries. No other people could have revolutionised its whole national character in a few years as Bengal has done. The Bengali has always worshipped the Divine Energy in her most terrible as well as in her most beautiful aspects, 'whether as the Beautiful or the Terrible Mother he has never shrunk from ...
... the one complementary to the other. Before the open session of the Congress, Surendranath Banerji, the Moderate leader of Bengal, tried to convene a meeting of all the Bengal delegates to arrive at a unanimous decision. He prepared a draft on behalf of the Moderates of Bengal containing conditions for an agreement with the Nationalists. This was placed before the meeting. Satyen Bose tore up the paper... of the Moderate school of politics – were opposed to the resolution. Dadabhai, the president, was undecided in the beginning. But when he found that there was a strong support to the resolution from Bengal and from other parts of India, he accepted it and got it accepted by all. The Congress would have been divided even at Calcutta but for the clever manoeuvring of the Nationalist party and Dadabhai's... search of the Bande Mataram office and on 16 August a prosecution was instigated. Sri Aurobindo was among the accused. On 23 August 1907 in an address given to the students and teachers of the Bengal National College, Sri Aurobindo said: "In the meeting you held yesterday I see that you expressed sympathy with me in what you call my present troubles. I don't know whether I should call them troubles ...
... The first Durga-puja took place here in 1944, the year that I came to the Ashram for good. Watching the billowing white clouds unfurl on the bright blue autumn skies, I would remember Durga-puja in Bengal. That was a time when I felt a little heavy-hearted. The thought that kept weighing on me was how I was going to spend these days of the Puja all alone. I kept wishing: “Ah, if only there was Durga-puja... younger ones were running around getting everything that was needed for the decoration. Very nervously I stood near Nolini-da’s room and watched all this while my childhood memories of the puja in Bengal overwhelmed me. In our uncle’s house (in Patgram, in the Niyogi House) the preparations for the making of Durga’s image started almost a month before the puja. The artists who made this image were... In the image of the Bengali puja I see the synthesis of diverse divine powers. The worship of the Ten-armed one has not captured the heart of any other community as it has the Bengalis. There is in Bengal too the worship of each of the different gods but it is the worship of the Ten-armed Mother that is truly the puja of the Bengalis…. The main goal of the Bengali is that Divine Plenitude that comes ...
... K. G. Deshpande Page 294 from Baroda. I told him that financial help could be arranged from Baroda, if necessary, to which he replied, "At present what is required comes from Bengal, especially from Chandernagore. Sothere is no need." When the talk turned to Prof. D. L. Purohit of Baroda Sri Aurobindo recounted the incident of his visit to Pondicherry where he had come to inquire... ....... Minute In August last the C. S. Commissioners reported that Mr Ghose, a native of India and allotted to the Lower Provinces of Bengal and Assam, who had passed his Final Examination, had still to satisfy the Commission in respect of Health and Riding. He has passed the medical examination (see note of 4th Nov.) and the Commission... W. Dear Sir Arthur Though I have not the pleasure of your acquaintance, I venture to think that my name may be known to you through Mr Whitley Stokes, or through my brother in the Bengal Secretariat. My present object in addressing you is to endeavour to arouse your good will on behalf of Mr A. A. Ghose, who has been rejected by the Civil Service Commissioners as a probationary ...
... Part I HUMANIST AND POET C HAPTER 2 Childhood, Boyhood and Youth I The district of Hooghly in West Bengal — the district that has given to Bengal and to India two such world-famous figures as Raja Rammohan Roy and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa — can almost be called the cradle of the Bengali or even of the Indian renaissance... carved out creditable names for themselves in the political and cultural history of Bengal. Among the many outstanding men who have sprung up from the fertile cultural soil of Konnagar, special mention may be made of Sib Chandra Deb, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj movement and one of the great philanthropists of Bengal and, besides, one whose munificence gave Konnagar most of its public institutions;... Swarnalata Devi, aged twelve and the eldest daughter of Rishi Rajnarain Bose, according to the rites of Adi Brahmo Samaj. It was the alliance of two authentic and forceful currents in the inner life of Bengal. A contemporary of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, a student of Henry Derozio and David Hare, Rajnarain Bose was an early synthesis of the East and the West, and in the heyday of his hallowed life "represented ...
... epochs generate. If India was to avoid alike Moderatist coma and terrorist violence. Nationalism must become a living force once again, as in the great days following the "partition" of Bengal. There was every need, then, to bring fresh vigour and commitment and dedication to the tasks of national education, arbitration, swādeśhi-boycott, economic self-sufficiency, industrial independence... Liberal, Lord Morley, at the India Office and a diehard. Lord Minto, as the Viceroy, there was always room for difference of opinion, at least on questions of detail. And even in India, the Government of Bengal and the central Government didn't always see eye to eye as regards the pace of repression or the intended victims. It was often a question of timing or the permissible limits of risk, but of course... he was himself to be soon arrested, convicted and hanged. Like the bomb-outrage on the Pringle-Kennedy ladies in April 1908, the killing of Shams-ul-Alam also suddenly queered the political pitch in Bengal, and different interests began reacting in predictable ways. On 29 January the Karmayogin, commenting on this "startling assassination" which had broken "the silence which had settled on the country" ...
... over the appointment of the Principalship of the Bengal National College at which 1 was appointed Professor of History directly working under him. 1 recall my personal anecdotes about his life and Page 335 work in those stirring times when the country, especially Bengal, was thrown into a whirlwind agitation over the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon. "At that time Sri Aurobindo... Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar taught Bengali at the College. And if we don't speak of Satish Chandra Mukherji, the founder of the Dawn Society, it will be unpardonable. He was the Superintendent of the Bengal National College. Sri Aurobindo said about him in a speech he delivered at Bombay in 1908: "I spoke to you the other day about National Education and I spoke of a man who had given his life to that... the Vedic Agni in its dual aspect —the blazing force of Rudra and the serene force of the Brahmic consciousness, radiant with supernal knowledge. When he started his work in the heaving politics of Bengal, it was the blazing, fiery aspect of Rudra that stood out in front. But those who associated with him in the National College saw his serene figure, glowing with a mellow lustre. These two aspects ...
... 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... 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... 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 ...
... system of education Indian, and the instruction given in the Bengal National College was only an improved European system, not Indian or National. Another error which has to be avoided and to which careless minds are liable, is the reactionary idea that in order to be national, education must reproduce the features of the old tol system of Bengal. It is not eighteenth Page 368 century India... Brain of India - I The time has perhaps come for the Indian mind, long pre-occupied with political and economic issues, for a widening of its horizon. Such a widening is especially necessary for Bengal. The Bengali has always led and still leads the higher thought of India, because he has eminently the gifts which are most needed for the new race that has to arise. He has the emotion and imagination... Shakti and practice of the Tantra that has been a part of our culture for many centuries. No other people could have revolutionised its Page 365 whole national character in a few years as Bengal has done. The Bengali has always worshipped the Divine Energy in her most terrible as well as in her most beautiful aspects; whether as the Beautiful or the Terrible Mother he has never shrunk from ...
... Nature with a pitchfork (or a regulation lathi ), yet it will come back at the gallop." But since then Nationalist sentiment in Bengal has grown immensely in volume; and although the Conference was held in a Moderate centre, in the peaceful and untroubled atmosphere of West Bengal, no positive mendicancy was permitted. There were, indeed, certain features of the Conference which we cannot view with approval... delegates of Bengal, and the latter kicked the beam. It will be said that the position of Babu Baikunthanath as host precluded the delegates from doing anything which would compromise that estimable gentleman. We deny that Babu Baikunthanath stood in the position of host to the Conference, whatever may have been his relation to individual delegates; in any case the representatives of Bengal went to Berhampur... because Babu Baikunthanath Sen had pledged his personal honour to a foreign bureaucrat that there would be no breach of the peace. Since this plea was accepted by the delegates, we must take it that all Bengal has acknowledged the shouting of "Bande Mataram" in the streets to be a breach of the peace! Here is a victory for the bureaucracy. And yet the Chairman of the Reception Committee Page 244 ...
... growing conflagration will set fire to Western Bengal, and India is now far too united for the bureaucracy to succeed long in isolating the struggle. The second feature of the year has been the rapid growth of the Nationalist party. It has in a few months absorbed Eastern Bengal, set Allahabad and the North on fire and is stirring Madras to its depths. In Bengal it has become a distinct and recognised... that we shall not be able to appreciate it properly until its results have worked themselves out. The year began with Barisal; it closes with Comilla. The growing intensity of the struggle in Eastern Bengal can be measured by this single transition, and its meaning is far deeper than appears on the surface. It means that the two forces which must contend for the possession of India's future,—the British... school, are indices of the rapidity with which Nationalism is formulating itself and taking possession of the country. A third feature of the year has been the growth of National Education. The Bengal National College has not only become an established fact but is rapidly increasing in numbers and has begun to build the foundations of a better system of education. The schools at Rungpur and Dacca ...
... the sacred mantra of "Bande Mataram", once more to declare that India was not lifeless, that Bengal was faithful to the vow she had made. He waited to see what would happen on that date in Bengal, whether they would attend in their hundreds or in their thousands or in their tens of thousands. It was Bengal on which the burden of the struggle fell because she first had preached the Gospel and she first... great wrong remained unremedied? Who could trust such a conciliation? Let them not forget what they had set out to do when they declared the boycott. They had determined to undo the Partition of Bengal. The Partition still remained. So long as that remained, should they listen to the soothing voice? Should they give up the boycott or slacken the boycott? They had determined to revive the industries... first had had the courage to bear suffering for the Gospel. Therefore God had given them the privilege to bear the greater part of the suffering. By so doing He had shown a great love towards Bengal. The fate of India was with the Bengalis. As they answered the question put to them, the future would be determined. It was not the first time the question had been put or the last time it would be put, ...
... wrote in April 1920 to his younger brother, Barin, who had been released earlier from the Andamans, following an amnesty to political prisoners by the Government after the armistice. On returning to Bengal, Barin visited a number of spiritual centres, including the Prabartak Sangha of Motilal Roy at Chandernagore, but apparently he was disappointed with what he saw. So he wrote to Sri Aurobindo seeking... the European style. If we had not done so, the country would not have risen, and we would not have had the experience or obtained a full development. Even now there is a need for it, not so much in Bengal as in the other provinces of India. But now the time has come to take hold of the substance instead of extending the shadow. We have to awaken the true soul of India and to do everything in accordance... Sri Aurobindo's early stay and helped by sending money etc. from Chandernagore. There is no doubt that Sri Aurobindo put a special force on Motilal to mould him into a fit instrument for the work in Bengal. In 1914, a beginning was made when Motilal Roy gathered together a small group at Chandernagore to give a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo's conception of a spiritual commune. Motilal drew his inspiration ...
... look at Bengal now! NIRODBARAN: What about Gandhi's Movement? SRI AUROBINDO: Gandhi has taken India a great step forward towards freedom, but his Movement has touched only the upper middle classes while ours comprised even the lower middle classes. NIRODBARAN: Has it diminished the spirit of revolution? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. NIRODBARAN: Was it Anderson, the Governor of Bengal, who killed... revolutionaries are not people to be deceived by promises. NIRODBARAN: Gandhi seems to have given much courage and strength to the people. In Bengal we were so afraid of the police. I think it was Gandhi who imparted strength there. SRI AUROBINDO: Did Bengal need it? NIRODBARAN: What do you think of C. R. Das? SRI AUROBINDO: He was the last of the old group. He came here and wanted to be a disciple... good warriors, were too ill-organised and ill-equipped. The work in Egypt was not a success. In Ireland and Turkey the success was tremendous. In Ireland I have done exactly what I wanted to do in Bengal. The Turks are a silent race. NIRODBARAN: Did you stop war the last time there was a chance of it? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes—for many reasons war was not favourable at that time. NIRODBARAN: But ...
... "Thou art the greater, King, for thou canst banish us from thy kingdom, whilst God cannot; for verily, all is His kingdom and there is nowhere to go outside Him." This Indian tale, which comes from Bengal, where Sri Aurobindo was born, was not unknown to him who said that all is He – gods, devils, men, the earth, not just heaven – and whose entire Page 2 experience leads to a divine reha... inner movements), when his brother Barin was ill with a severe fever. (Barin, born while Sri Aurobindo was in England, was Sri Aurobindo's secret emissary in the organization of Indian resistance in Bengal.) One of those half-naked wandering monks appeared. He was probably begging for food from door to door as is their custom, when he saw Barin rolled up in blankets, shivering with fever. Without a word... movement unambiguously promoting the ideal of complete independence; and finally to secretly prepare an armed insurrection. With his younger brother, Barin, he began to organize guerrilla groups in Bengal under the cover of athletic or cultural programs; he even sent an emissary to Europe, at his own expense, to learn how to make bombs. When Sri Aurobindo declared, I am neither an impotent moralist ...
... look upon him with suspicion, and the police kept him under strict surveillance. His acquittal had in no way allayed their fear. Sir Andrew Page 518 Fraser, the Lt. Governor of Bengal, went on pestering Lord Minto, the Viceroy to again deport Arabindo Ghose. The information gleaned from British intelligence reports, he claimed, had revealed that Arabindo Ghose had been the 'ring-leader'... indeed, contemplate an appeal against his acquittal; but decided against it as they could not be sure of the machinery of the law. As the Page 519 Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal reported, "If there were a good prospect of obtaining a conviction, he [Sir Edward Baker, the Lieutenant-Governor] would have been ready to prefer an appeal. Such a course would, however, certainly... bureaucrats, to arrest and deport him ... to the Andamans where his brother and colleagues in revolution were rotting? By that time Sir Edward Baker had replaced Sir Andrew as the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. The new incumbent began giving his most close and careful attention to the situation. He was convinced that after his release, Arabindo Ghose was again on the warpath. His Majesty's Government was ...
... Mother's Chronicles - Book Five 4 Bankim's Bengal At the intervention of the Maratha leader M. G. Ranade (1852-1904), the political series New Lamps for Old came to an end. Ranade, however, was keen to meet the intelligent and promising young critic. An interview was arranged that very year, and they met at Bombay. "I remember," wrote... years of laborious life were a parcel of the most splendid epoch in Bengali history; yet among its many noble names, his is the noblest...........The society by which Bankim was formed, was the young Bengal of the fifties, the most extraordinary perhaps that India has yet seen,—a society Page 40 electric with thought and loaded to the brim with passion. A sort of miniature Renascence... they were, had thoroughly understood that women, low-caste and high-caste men, have all an equal right to education and knowledge." Sri Aurobindo then spoke of another great gift Bankim gave to Bengal. "Bankim moreover has this splendid distinction that he more than any one exalted Bengali from the status of dialect to the majesty of a language.... We needed a language which should combine the strength ...
... religious fervour in Bengal and are now trying to recover it through the passion for the country, by self-sacrifice, by labour for our fellow-countrymen, by absorption in the idea of the country. When a nation is on the verge of losing the source of its vitality, it tries to recover it by the first means which the environment offers, whether that environment be favourable or not. Bengal has always lived... first requisite is that the enthusiasm, the idealism of the new movement should be kept alive. The perfect sense of self-abandonment which Chaitanya felt for Hari, must be felt by Bengal for the Mother. Then only will Bengal be herself and able to fulfil the destiny to which after Page 1030 so many centuries of preparation she has been called. The great religions of the world have all... enthusiasm would dry up the sources from which she derives her strength. The country of Nyaya is also the country of Chaitanya who himself was born in the height of the intellectual development of Bengal as its fine flower and most perfect expression. If now she tries to recover her enthusiasm and perfect power of self-abandonment, it must be through a means which her new environment provides. This ...
... renationalise himself. Next he referred to the comparative want of the Swadeshi spirit in West Bengal to which Shyamsunder Babu made very polite reference, himself coming from East Bengal. But Sj. Ghose as he belonged to West Bengal had no hesitation in admitting the drawback. This superiority of East Bengal he attributed solely to its privilege of suffering of late from the regulation lathis and ... self-dependence destroyed that we were unable to fulfil every function of human life. It is only through repression and suffering that this maya can be dispelled, and the bitter fruit of Partition of Bengal administered by Lord Curzon dispelled the illusion. We looked up and saw that the brilliant bird sitting above was none else Page 1035 but ourselves, our real and actual selves. Thus we... and not by any other unreal means. The Page 1036 voice is yet weak but it is growing. The might of God is already revealed among us, its work is spreading over the country. Even in West Bengal it is working in Uttarpara and Baruipur. It is not our work but that of something mightier that compels us to go on until all bondage is swept away and India stands free before the world. Page ...
... which binds together the hearts of our people. This is therefore no empty resolution, it is the practice of Swaraj to which you are vowing yourselves. Bengal is the leader of Indian regeneration, in Bengal its problems must be worked out and all Bengal is agreed in this—whatever division there may be among us—that the recovery of our self-dependent national life is the aim and end of our national movement... But if by that time Mymensingh is covered with village Samitis in full action, then we shall know that one district at least in Bengal has realised the conditions of Swaraj and when one district has solved the problem, it is only a question of time when over all Bengal and over all India, Swaraj will be realised. Page 1051 ... sincerity shall be judged by the extent to which you carry out this resolution. Before the necessity of these village Samitis was realised there was some excuse for negligence, but now that the whole of Bengal is awakened to the necessity, there is none. You have assembled here from Kishoregunj, from all quarters of the Mymensingh District and on behalf of the people of Mymensingh are about to pass this ...
... intellectual development of Bengal as its fine flower and most perfect expression. The land of Chaitanya is also the chosen home of the Mother and in Bengal she has set her everlasting seat. Immeasurable ages will pass, revolutions shake the land, religions come and go, but so long as the Ganges flows through the plains of the delta, so long shall the Mother sit enthroned in Bengal as sovereign and saviour... religious fervour in Bengal and are trying now to recover it through the passion for the country by self-sacrifice, by labour for our fellow-countrymen, by absorption in the idea of the country. When a nation is on the verge of losing the source of its vitality, it tries to recover it by the first means which the environment offers, whether it be favourable to it or not. Bengal has always lived by its... inspired, but the people heard his song and felt nothing. "Wait" said the prophet, "wait for thirty years and all India will know the value of the song I have written." The thirty years have passed and Bengal has heard; her ears have suddenly been opened to a voice to which she had been deaf and her heart filled with a light to which she had been blind. The Mother of Page 1114 the hymn is no ...
... different artistic forms in different provinces. There is first the use of the psychical symbol created Page 378 by the Puranas, and this assumes its most complete and artistic shape in Bengal and becomes there a long continued tradition. The desire of the soul for God is there thrown into symbolic figure in the lyrical love cycle of Radha and Krishna, the Nature soul in man seeking for... perfect lyrics of the Rajput queen Mirabai, in which the images of the Krishna symbol are more directly turned into a song of the love and pursuit of the divine Lover by the soul of the singer. In the Bengal poetry the expression preferred is the symbolic figure impersonal to the poet: here a personal note gives the peculiar intensity to the emotion. This is given a still more direct turn by a southern... symbol, but is rather addressed in language of a more direct devotion to Vishnu or centres sometimes around the Rama Avatar. The songs of Tukaram are the best known of this kind. The Vaishnava poetry of Bengal avoids except very rarely any element of intellectualising thought and relies purely on emotional description, a sensuous figure of passion and intensity of feeling: Maratha poetry on the contrary ...
... to follow the path of another nature. "As regard Bengal, things are certainly very bad; the condition of the Hindus there is terrible and they may even get worse inspite of the interim manage deconvenance at Delhi. But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal and they are not going to be exterminated — even Hitler... begun to have a glimpse of what Gurudev called the "sunlit path" when a sudden thunder-storm burst and, once more, my horizon grew darker than ever. And it happened like this: In 1946, in East Bengal, thousands of Hindus were massacred, their women raped, houses burnt and girls abducted. I felt depressed, the more so as many of my friends kept on writing to me about the urgent need of relief-work... are good' as they used to say when we were children. Now, now, now ! Let the past go and the future take care of itself. "It is natural that you should be painfully affected by the horrors of Bengal but that too is in Krishna's hands. He who has given himself to Krishna must keep his eyes on His feet, irrevocably, though the triple world fell into ruin." Upon this Gurudev finally commented: ...
... They had already started and when I visited Bengal I cam to know about it. I simply kept myself informed of their work. My idea was an open armed revolution in the whole of India. What they did at that time was very childish. e.g. beating magistrates and so on. Later it turned into terrorism and dacoities etc. which were not at all my idea or intention. Bengal is too emotional, wants quick results, can't... moderate later, we were planning to work on more extreme lines than the Congress. We brought Jatin Banerji from Bengal and put him in the Baroda army. Our idea was to drive moderates from the Congress and capture it. As soon as I heard that National College had been started in Bengal, I found my opportunity, threw off the Baroda job and went to Calcutta as the Principal. There I came in contact... Page 37 came in. It soon drew the attention of large number of people and became an All-India paper. One day I called the Bengal leaders and said, "It is no use simply going on like this. We must capture the Congress and throw out these moderate leaders from it." Then we decided to follow Tilak as the All-India leader. They ...
... him personally in a greater degree than to any other single individual in Bengal, or possibly in India." In a confidential note of 19 May 1908, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir Andrew Fraser, said that the public Page 456 records which he had collected, "make him the undisputed leader of the Bengal revolutionaries." The Movement must be throttled. The 'most dangerous... Garden, and arrested all whom they could lay their hands on. In simultaneous searches that went on for hours, they arrested many more from all over the city; and on subsequent days from other parts of Bengal, and the whole country. On May 2 Aurobindo was arrested from his Grey Street quarters. The first phase of the trial took place at the court of L. Birley, the District Magistrate of Alipore, and... rest his head on his pillow until he had crushed Aurobindo Ghose," said Sri Aurobindo with a laugh. The straight of it is that from the Governor-General of India to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal and down to the village Inspector of police, all, all without exception suffered from Aurobindo-phobia. "The police seem to be suffering from Aravinda-phobia," wrote the Nakya of Calcutta sarcastically ...
... was a great poet, a master of Page 637 beautiful language and a creator of fair and gracious dream-figures in the world of imagination; but it is not as a poet, stylist or novelist that Bengal does honour to him today. It is probable that the literary critic of the future will reckon Kapalkundala, Bishabriksha and Krishnakanter Will as his artistic masterpieces, and speak with qualified... Bankim was a seer and nation-builder. But even as a poet and stylist Bankim did a work of supreme national importance, not for the whole of India, or only indirectly for the whole of India, but for Bengal which was destined to lead India and be in the vanguard of national development. No nation can grow without finding a fit and satisfying medium of expression for the new self into which it is deve... perfect and satisfying medium. He was blamed for corrupting the purity of the Bengali tongue; but the pure Bengali of the old poets could have expressed nothing but a conservative and unprogressing Bengal. The race was expanding and changing, and it needed a means of expression capable of change and expansion. He was blamed also for replacing the high literary Bengali of the Pundits by a mixed popular ...
... Baroda College , II battle, 45 -46 ,51 , 102, 123-126, 143-144, 206,207, 238·240 beauty, 66 , 68, 103 , 127.217.218,220 Bengal, 39 , 111.112, 152, 153, 222,246 atrocities on Hindus in, 203, 241-242 awakening of, 21,22, 67(fn), 180 partition of, 17, 18, 54 (fn) Bengal National College, 27 Bhaga vat Gila, 46 , 48 ,52, 125-126, 170,171, 176, 183 ,201,206 Bharati. Subramania, 100(fn) Bhawani... 40, 52 , 60, 86, 88, 93 ,98(fn), 110, 114-115,124,126,129,132,133, 137,138,139, 145 ·146, 154,158 , 175, 179,184, 195,201,225,240,250 her unity, 62·64, 158,230.244-245, 247,249 see al so art, Bengal, British rule, education, Hindu, Hinduism, Indian, scholarship, etc. Indian, civilization, 24, 30, 64, 81, 85, 98(fn), 100,101 (fn), 137, 142, 152,247,248 culture, 64, 65, 67, 86, IIS, 137, 139... 22 7, 24 1, 245(fn), 253 Pal , Bepin Chandra , 17 Pales tine, 137 Panchayat (system), 178, 221 Pariah, 29, 20 8 parliamentary democracy, see under democracy Pars is,63 partition, see under Bengal, India, Pakistan passive resistance, 93 , ISI , 167 ·168 , 219,246 Patanjali, III Patel , Vallabhbhai, Sardar , 243 patriotism, 21 -22 , 23 , 24 -25, 76 peace, the gospel of, 4 5, 125 , 246 ...
... -Sri Aurobindo makes first contacts with secret societies in Maharashtra and Bengal. 1901,April 30 - Sri Aurobindo marries Mrinalini Bose. 1902,July 4 -Swami Vivekananda passes away. 1905 -Sri Aurobindo writes Bhawani Mandir, a revolutionary pamphlet. - Partition of Bengal, beginning of the Swadeshi movement. 1906, June - Sri Aurobindo... 15, the Bengal National College opens with Sri Aurobindo as its principal. 1906, Dec. At its Calcutta session presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji, the Congress declares Swaraj to be its goal. 1907,Aug.16 Sri Aurobindo is arrested for the publication of seditious writings in the Bande Mataram; released on bail. He resigns his post of principal of the Bengal National... July -Sub has Bose's Indian National Army and the Japanese are repulsed in Manipur. 1946, Aug. 16 -The Muslim League launches its "Direct Action" plan; bloody riots follow in Bengal and Bihar. 1946,Sept. 2 - Formation of the Interim Government, which the Muslim League joins a month later. 1947,March 24 - Lord Mountbatten is the new Viceroy. ...
... helped us to see? He was a great poet, a master of beautiful language and a creator of fair and gracious dreamfigures in the world of imagination; but it is not as a poet, stylist or novelist that Bengal does honour to him today. It is probable that the literary critic of the future will reckon "Kopal Kundala", "Bishabriksha" and "Krishna Kant's Will" as his artistic masterpieces, and speak with qualified... Bankim was a seer and nation-builder. But even as a poet and stylist Bankim did a work of supreme national importance not for the whole of India or only indirectly for the whole of India, but for Bengal which was destined to lead India and be in the vanguard of national development. No nation can grow without finding a fit and satisfying medium of expression for the new self into which it is deve... medium. He has been Page 316 blamed for corrupting the purity of the Bengali tongue; but the pure Bengali of the old poets could have expressed nothing but a conservative and unprogressing Bengal. The race was expanding and changing, and it needed a means of expression capable of change and expansion. He has been blamed also for replacing the high literary Bengali of the Pundits by a mixed ...
... Mehta Page 323 or Dr. Rash Behari Ghose will be admitted by permission, but that privilege we had on better terms under the old system. Let us pass to the Bengal Councils and establish our position. In East Bengal there will be twenty-two nominated and two specially nominated against eighteen elected members establishing at once a standing Government majority of six. Of the eighteen... avowedly Government members, twenty-eight being officials and seven nominated. Of the twenty-five elected members eleven will be sent from the new Councils all over India; as we shall show from the Bengal examples, these Councils will contain a predominant pro-Government vote even among the non-official members and their representatives will be therefore pro-Government men. That makes forty-six reliable... likely to be independent members. It is needless to point out that the representative of the non-official members on the Viceroy's Council is sure to be a pro-Government man. We pass on to West Bengal where things ought to be better. Here there are twenty-two nominated against twenty-six elected members, giving at first sight a non-Government majority of four. But we have to subtract from the apparent ...
... attempt to bring about the unity of the two parties in Bengal as a preliminary to the holding of a United Congress has split on the twin rocks of creed and constitution. We will place before the country as succinctly as possible the issues which were posited during the negotiations and state clearly the Nationalist attitude, leaving it to Bengal to judge between us and the upholders of the Convention's... Pabna the Moderates did not venture to demand any such subscription from the delegates, they did not ask it at Hughly. They knew very well that the demand would have been indignantly repudiated by Bengal. We now go farther and consent to accept it as the objects of Page 369 the Congress, to be only altered when all India wishes to alter it, for that is the provision in the Moderate Constitution... a limitation deprives the Congress of its free and representative character, it hampers aspiration and public opinion, it puts a premium on political hypocrisy. Even if we allow the argument of the Bengal Moderates, our fundamental objection to Article II is not removed. It is an exclusory clause, it limits the right of the people to elect any representative they choose, it sets up an authority over ...
... Karmayogin Facts and Opinions The Indiscretions of Sir Edward The speech of Sir Edward Baker in the Bengal Council last week was one of those indiscretions which statesmen occasionally commit and invariably repent, but which live in their results long after the immediate occasion has been forgotten. The speech is a mass of indiscretions from beginning... normal. When a Government expects co-operation, it is because it either represents the nation or is in the habit of consulting its wishes. The Government in India does not represent the nation, and in Bengal at least it has distinctly set itself against its wishes. It has driven the Partition through against the most passionate and universal agitation the country has ever witnessed. It has set itself to... country have no remedy except the refusal of co-operation and even that has been done only within the smallest limits possible. Under such circumstances it is indeed a grotesque attitude for the ruler of Bengal to get up from his seat in the Council and not only request co-operation but demand it on pain of indiscriminate penalties such as only an autocratic government can inflict on the people under its ...
... been of the derivative and alien kind, that result would have supervened. But the life-breath of the nation still moved in the religious movements of Bengal and the Punjab, in the political aspirations of Maharashtra and in the literary activity of Bengal. Even here it was an undercurrent, the peculiar temperament and vitality of India struggling for self-preservation under a load of foreign ideas and... exaltation of feeling and spiritual insight expressing itself with a plain concreteness and practicality—this is the soul of Bengal. All our literature, in order to be wholly alive, must start from this base and whatever variations it may indulge in, never lose touch with it. In Bengal, again, the national spirit is seeking to satisfy itself in art and, for the first time since the decline of the Moguls... something of an exotic appearance, but the development and self-emancipation of the national self from this temporary domination can already be watched and followed. There again, it is the spirit of Bengal that expresses itself. The attempt to express in form and limit something of that which is formless and illimitable is the attempt of Indian art. The Greeks, aiming at a smaller and more easily attainable ...
... meeting is also at hand, and I am afraid I have disappointed one or two speakers by getting up so soon. But there is just one word that has to be spoken today. Recently a speech has been made in the Bengal Legislative Council by the Lieutenant-Governor of this province, a speech which I think is one of the most unfortunate and most amazing that have ever been delivered by a ruler in his position. The... murder was dictated by personal and not political motives. That crime is still the subject of a trial which has not been closed. Was this the time,—was this the occasion for the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal to rise from his seat in the Legislative Council and practically associate the whole country with and make the whole country responsible for the crime of a single isolated youth in London? Not only... not Page 122 obtained, steps would have to be taken in which there would be no room for nice discrimination between the innocent and the guilty. The murders that have been committed in Bengal have been sufficiently proved by the failure of case after case to be the acts of isolated individuals. There has been only a single instance which is still sub judice , and even if it were fully ...
... of Bengal was almost complete when Lord Curzon struck his blow; but there were defects, little fissures which might under untoward circumstances develop into great and increasing cracks. Lord Curzon's blow devised in a spirit of Machiavellian statesmanship, but delivered in a fit of unstatesmanlike haste and fury, instead of splitting asunder, soldered Bengali unity into a perfect whole. Bengal one... attaches to the celebration this year. It is possible that, before the day comes round again, the fatal complaisance and weakness of leaders and people may have effected the division between East and West Bengal which the hand of Lord Curzon attempted in vain. The Reform drives in the thin end of the wedge, the rulers know how to trust to time and national cowardice and inertia to do the rest. But if we can... indivisibility has yet to be confirmed by withstanding the covert and subtle pressure of the reformed Councils, but, even if for a moment there is backsliding, the young hold the future and in their hearts Bengal is one and indivisible. The unity of India has been slowly prepared by the pressure from above and the creation of a reaction from below. It is only by that reaction giving birth to a self-conscious ...
... World War. Nolini and Saurin who had gone to Bengal came back hurriedly to Pondicherry. Now Bejoykanta also grew impatient to go to Bengal like them for a short visit. He persisted in it. Sri Aurobindo gave no consent to it. Bejoykanta’s friends in Pondicherry and some others, including Abdul Karim, had come to know that he was about to leave for Bengal. Either the very next day after Abdul Karim’s... Karim’s interview with Sri Aurobindo or one or two days later, Bejoykanta started for Bengal. The news circulated in the town that, as Bejoykanta was suspected to be a revolutionary, a warrant of arrest was in Abdul Karim’s pocket the very day of his interview with Sri Aurobindo. Bejoykanta started from Sri Aurobindo’s house and caught the train to Madras. Directly he crossed the French border he was... was arrested and taken into police custody at Cuddalore; he was then transferred a few days later to his native place in Bengal and interned there till the end of the War, that is to say, five long years. As soon as he got released he came back to Pondicherry. Before the publication of the Arya , it was widely talked about — and most amongst the Tamil poet Bharati and his friends — that a review ...
... 12 . Annadashankar Roy (1904-2002) was a celebrated novelist, poet and essayist of Bengal. He was awarded Padma-bhushan, Rabindra Puraskar and Vidyasagar Puraskar. He was the Founder-President of Paschimbanga Bangla Academy. 13 . Toru Dutt (1856-1877) was one of the earliest poetess of Bengal to write in English and French. 14 . Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was born in... Tajdar Begum was a sadhika of the Ashram who came from the Royal family of Hyderabad. She was the step-mother of Dara and Rene. 7 . Gyanprakash Ghose was a well-known tabla player of Bengal renowned for his extensive knowledge of all the tabla gharanas as well as his own Faroukhabad gharana. He was the Music Director and Station Director of All India Radio, Calcutta. ... Shankar’s first dance was staged there under Haren Ghosh, an impresario friend of Prithwi Singh and Dilipda. Page 268 41 . Raja Dhirendra Narayan Rao of Lalgola, Murshidabad, Bengal, and poet and friend of Dilipda. 42 . Keshav Chandra Sen (1838-1884) joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1857 and launched a dynamic program of social reforms. He was given the title of ‘Acharya’ ...
... Saurindranath Bose who had gone to Bengal came back hurriedly to Pondicherry. Now Bejoykanta also grew Page 40 impatient to go to Bengal like them for a short visit. He persisted in it. Sri Aurobindo gave no consent to it. Bejoykanta's friends in Pondicherry and some others, including Abdul Karim, had come to know that he was about to leave for Bengal. Either the very next day after... after Abdul Karinfs interview with Sri Aurobindo or one or two days later, Bejoykanta started for Bengal. The news circulated in the town that, as Bejoykanta was suspected to be a revolutionary, a warrant of arrest was in Abdul Karim's pocket the very day of his interview with Sri Aurobindo. Bejoykanta started from Sri Aurobindo's house and caught the train to Madras. Directly he crossed the French... French border he was arrested and taken into police custody at Cuddalore; he was then transferred a few days later to his native place in Bengal and interned there till the end of the War, that is to say, five long years. As soon as he got released he came back to Pondicherry. Before the publication of the Arya, it was widely talked about — and most amongst the Tamil poet Bharati and his friends—that ...
... the East India Company (John Company) had raised its own armed forces. The three administrative areas of India, the Presidencies of Bombay, Madras and Bengal, each maintained their own army with its own commander-in-chief. The commander-in-Chief of Bengal was regarded as the senior officer of the three. These armies were paid for entirely out of the Company's Indian revenues and together were larger than... repercussions of the Sepoy Mutiny in the south of India? There was apparently very little on the external plane. A question that naturally comes to mind is: Why didn't the Madras Army join the Bengal Army? The Madras Regiment was the oldest Battalion in the Indian Army and was known as the 9th Battalion, formerly the Nair Brigade. It was raised in 1704 at Padmanabhapuram, as bodyguards... got a tempting opportunity they would have joined it. They only want a beginning to be made, and a rallying point of some sort. We must never suppose that the Madras men are different from those of Bengal.' One of the reasons why not even a single of the many fuses of the rebellion was lit in the south is given in the above letter. There was no rallying point. They felt no loyalty towards the tottering ...
... The tension between Pakistan and India had grown more and more intolerable in every aspect, the massacres in East Bengal still seemed to make war inevitable and the Indian Government had just before Nehru's attempt to patch up a compromise made ready to march its army over the East Bengal borders once a few preliminaries had been arranged and war in Kashmir would have inevitably followed. America and... was contemplating taking some strong steps to protect the Hindus. Sardar Patel was then Home Minister and he faced the biggest test of his statesmanship when thousands of Hindus were driven into East Bengal by Pakistan - a development, which took everyone by surprise and angered the whole nation. Till then, the eastern front had been, by and large, peaceful and free from any communal backlash. The Sardar... natural reaction in India; at the annual session of the Congress in December 1948 at Jaipur, Patel warned Pakistan that if she did not stop the influx of Hindu refugees into India, especially from East Bengal, "we would have no alternative Page 80 left except to send out Muslims in equal numbers". It was a sort of ultimatum, a warning to Pakistan to conduct its affairs in a civilized ...
... for his writings, he would be in ecstasy. SRI AUROBINDO: Nolini could have said, "I am flattered by your reading my books." NIRODBARAN: There is again another hitch in Bengal between Congress and Sarat Bose over the Bengal Congress parliament fund. Rajendra Prasad has asked Bose to hand over the fund to Congress Parliamentary Committee and to have the accounts audited by some auditing company... swallow that money. He has plenty himself. NIRODBARAN: No, they don't suspect that. I think they fear that the Bengal Congress Committee may try to get that money. It has already passed such a resolution and Rajendra Prasad has especially asked Bose not to hand over that money to the Bengal Congress Committee. In any case, Bose is hurt because he takes it personally as a lack of confidence in him and... be checked. That is the only way to keep the politicians straight. NIRODBARAN: Bose's point is that it is a method suddenly adopted by the President and it discredits the regular auditors of the Bengal Congress Committee and the whole thing has been done without telling him anything. SRI AUROBINDO: What is there to mind about it? I suppose the Working Committee has the power to do such things ...
... AUROBINDO: Why? NIRODBARAN: Because they were worrying about what would happen to Bengal after this Muslim Raj. SRI AUROBINDO: What will happen to Bengal depends on Charupada and Sotuda. NIRODBARAN: Anyhow, it is the effect of the Muslim Raj. PURANI: It seems Huq is trying to come to an agreement with the Bengal Hindu leaders. SRI AUROBINDO: He is not out to get Muslim Raj? PURANI: He... FEBRUARY 1940 PURANI: Many people are coming from Bengal for the darshan and many Zamindars too. NIRODBARAN: Zamindars? Only in name, perhaps. SRI AUROBINDO: Kiran S. Roy is coming. Suren Ghose seems to be arranging for seven persons to accompany him. I don't know how many will actually come. NIRODBARAN: I am glad that Bengal is turning now to Sri Aurobindo. PURANI: How do you mean ...
... AUROBINDO: No, no, a secret society which I and some others joined along with some Rajput Thakurs. While in Bengal the revolutionary party was started by Okakura and joined by Nandy, Suren Tagore and others. The Swadeshi movement started before the Bengal Partition. I was coming and going between Bengal and Gujarat. Gujarat was very moderate at that time. With Pherozeshah Mehta it was just beginning to be... do it and through his influence I came in contact with the Gaekwar. DR. MANILAL: I thought that your political career began with the Bengal Partition. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh no! It began long before in Baroda. It was our men who got hold of the movement in Bengal and gave it a revolutionary character. Otherwise it would have been a moderate movement. We were training people in our secret society started ...
... There was a famous story in the Punch : two people asking themselves. "Bill, who is that man?", and Bill answered, "Let us strike at him, he is a stranger." And then in Bengal the West Bengal people used to call East Bengal people "Bangale" and composed a satire "Bangale Manush nohe oe ekta jantu" At one time I used to wear socks at all times of the year. West Bengalis used to sneer at that saying... centralizing. Disciple : It failed in agricultural provinces and seems to have succeeded in other places especially where people had no occupation. Disciple : In Bengal it did not succeed. Sri Aurobindo : In Bengal it did not. It may be all right as a famine-relief measure. But when it takes the form of an All-India programme it looks absurd. If you form a programme that is suited to ...
... washed by the Bay of Bengal from the east, and by the Arabian Sea from the west; mingling with them is the Indian Ocean. Bordering the Arabian Sea are the Malabar and Konkan coasts. The western coast extends from the Cape almost in a straight line towards the north up to the Gulf of Khambat, where Mahi, Narmada and Tapti rivers end their overland journey. Along the Bay of Bengal is the Coromandel coast... the Western Ghats in the Nilgiris. The Deccan has a distinct slope towards the east. Most major rivers that rise Page 113 on the crest of the Western Ghats course down to the Bay of Bengal, and not to the Arabian Sea. From very ancient times, from the mouth of the Narmada to the mouth of the Ganges, there were well-known port towns studding the long coast lines of India. Among the... a brisk trade with the Far-East since antiquity, and certainly during the Middle Ages. As we know, a profound Buddhist influence 1 had spread over the entire eastern coast of India from the Bay of Bengal to the island of Sri Lanka, spilling over to the east from the second century of the Christian era onwards. A substantial number of Chinese, Indochinese, Sumatrans, Siamese, Burmese, and so on, lived ...
... Education. Were the Bengal Moderates to be left behind? Not on your life !They set the stage for the second clash between the two parties which resulted in an open rupture. The District Congress Conference at Midnapore was held from December 7 to 9,1907. Surendranath Banerji led the Moderate Party from Calcutta. Sri Aurobindo , now the recognized leader of Nationalism in Bengal, led his party at... prevent him from taking part in Congress politics from behind the scenes, and associating himself closely with the forward group in the Congress. In 1906 he founded the new political party in Bengal. Then he "attended the Congress session at Calcutta at which the Extremists, though still a minority, succeeded under the leadership of Tilak in imposing part of their political programme on the Congress... is an important landmark in several ways. First of all for India's freedom struggle. For, by adopting the Swadeshi programme the Congress identified itself with it. Secondly, the main demands of the Bengal movement Page 394 were more or less met, and it became an all-India movement. Thirdly, this was no tame affair, no mere passing of already framed resolutions, with nobody bothering ...
... Five 44 Surat On Christmas eve, the Nationalist Party from Bengal reached Surat. There were already many delegates who had come and they kept arriving from all over the country. Among them were Ashwini Kumar Dutt from Bengal, G. S. Khaparde and Dr. Munje from the Central Provinces, Lala Lajpat Rai from Punjab, Chidambaram Pillai from the South... the stuff Page 410 that dreamers are made of, but dreamers who will act their dream, indifferent to the means." And Sri Aurobindo on Nevinson. "Yes, I met him twice. Once in Bengal at Subodh Mullick's place. I was very serious at that time. The next occasion was when I was president of the National Conference at Surat. Then also I couldn't laugh, being the President. So he called... the early European traders, Portuguese, Dutch, English and French —they came in that order—had set up their factories soon after Emperor Akbar's death in 1605. The Moderate Party leaders from Bengal reached the town on Christmas Day. "It was roses, roses all the way—almost all the way during the forty-four hours in the train from Calcutta to Surat ..." wrote Nevinson in his book The New Spirit ...
... Bankim Chandra Chatterji Early Cultural Writings What He Did for Bengal 20-August-1894 I have kept so far to Bankim's achievement looked at purely as literature. I now come to speak of it in the historic sense, of its relations to the Bengali language and potency over the Bengali race. Of this it is not easy to suggest any image without speaking in... were anathematised by the pedants. All the Pandits, all the Sanscritists, all the fanatics of classicism, even the great Page 113 Vidyasagara himself, then the intellectual dictator of Bengal, were startled out of their senses by these magnificent and mighty poems. Tilottama was a gauntlet thrown down by the Romantic school to the classical. Romanticism won: it was bound to win: it had... the geniuses, the literary men, the women, the cultured zamindars and those men of the stamp of Rajah Jyotindra Mohan Tagore, men of an extraordinary and original culture, who were then so common in Bengal, but are now almost obsolete. The great poet died with a limited audience and before the full consummation of his fame. Bankim came into that heritage of peace which Madhu Sudan had earned. There ...
... Published in 1910 Baji Prabhou. Circa 1904–9. Sri Aurobindo wrote that this work was "conceived and written in Bengal during the period of political activity". This leaves the precise date of its composition unclear. Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal and openly joined the national movement in February 1906, but he had been active behind the scenes for some years before that... independently ascribed to Sri Aurobindo by Hemendra Prasad Ghose, another Bande Mataram editor and writer, who was in a way responsible for its composition. In his report on the session of the Bengal Provincial Conference held in Behrampore in 1907, Hemendra Prasad wrote that the chairman of the Reception Committee, a loyalist named Srinath Paul (who bore the honourary British title... 1910. The handwriting of this draft is that of the later years in Baroda (1904–6), and it is probable the poem was written during that period. (Sri Aurobindo spent a good deal of time in Bengal during these years.) Baji Prabhou was published for the first time in three issues of the Karmayogin : 19February, 26 February and 5 March 1910. At some point he revised the first instalment ...
... the 16th October the threatened unity of Bengal was asserted against the disingenuous and dangerous attack engineered by Lord Curzon; and since it is on the solidarity of its regional and race units that the greater Pan-Indian unity can alone be firmly founded, the 16th October must always be a holy day in the Indian calendar. But on the 7th of August Bengal discovered for India the idea of Indian ... consecrated herself to the realisation of that supreme ideal by the declaration of the Boycott. The time has not come yet when the full meaning of that declaration can be understood; even the whole of Bengal has not yet understood, much less the whole of India. But the light is coming; partly by the efforts of the preachers of the light, still more by the efforts of the enemies of the light, it is coming:... Indian nationality was laid. Let us then celebrate the day in a spirit and after a fashion Page 623 suitable to its great and glorious meaning. Let it be a reconsecration of the whole of Bengal to the new spirit and the new life, a purification of heart and mind to make it the undivided possession and the consecrated temple and habitation of the Mother. And secondly let it be a calm, brave ...
... proof of the weakness and incapacity of the outraged; if this weakness is not felt, and this incapacity fails to be established, the wound also ceases to exist. This has happened in Bengal, and more particularly in East Bengal in connection with this Partition outrage; and there is a growing indifference in the country as regards the fate of this measure. People have found a larger and a more profitable... leaders of public opinion in the mofussil to join the Calcutta clique for sending a fresh representation to the Secretary of State for India, for the revocation or modification of the Partition of Bengal. The recent reply of the British Prime Minister to a question put to him by Mr. O'Donnell seems to be partly responsible for this recrudescence, which, we understand however, is mainly due to wire-pulling... to be playing into the hands of our Parliamentary friends, who are clearly anxious to help their own Government out of a very uncomfortable and undignified position in which the present agitation in Bengal has clearly placed them. Similar hopes were held out by some of our British friends, about six months ago, and it was in consequence of these that people were induced to join the last Town Hall de ...
... the British public that Bengal has revolted and chosen a King. Verily, the dog-star rages. Hare Street, having failed to impress the public with that fire-breathing seditious monster of Chinsurah, "Golden Bengal", turns sniffing round, nose to earth, for a fresh trail, and finds it in our own columns. We also, it appears, no less than Babu Surendranath and "Golden Bengal" have declared "open war"... war" against King Edward VII; we wish to get rid of "British control". Beside this the manifesto of "Golden Bengal" fades into insignificance. That Indians should openly express their aspiration to govern themselves and yet remain out of jail is a clear sign that the British Empire is coming to an end. The Statesman has at last come to the rescue anent the moral belabouring of Babu Surendranath... may imagine a King has been crowned in India to whom they must give their allegiance. We confess, this alarming idea never occurred to us; and when we spoke of Surendra Babu as King of independent Bengal, we thought we were indulging in a harmless jest. The Statesman has opened our eyes. It is an alluring idea and captivates our imagination. But what has happened to our sober-minded contemporary ...
... promote and organise the movement in Bengal. The resolution would then have had a meaning and the nation would have been inspirited to draw fresh resolve and energy from what would otherwise be a national calamity. As it stands, this "demand" rings hollow and savours of empty braggadocio. The second question before the meeting was the state of things in Eastern Bengal, and here again the meeting dispersed... The Bagbazar Meeting 14-May-1907 We do not clearly understand what has been gained by the Bagbazar meeting held on Sunday under the auspices of the leading lights of Bengal. There were one or two speeches made which said certain obvious things and there were certain resolutions passed in which we condoled, sympathised, demanded and protested. But when the meeting dispersed... after passing an utterly empty and unpractical resolution. There are various ways in which the situation might be met. It might have been resolved to arrange a meeting with the leading Mahomedans of Bengal and call upon them to dissociate themselves publicly from Nawab Salimullah and take active steps in order to put a stop to the anti-Hindu ferment which its misbegetters are Page 405 now ...
... other well-known men of Bengal, was excluded by the careful provisions of the Scheme. But to have placated Sj. Bhupendranath and at the same time disqualified the greater Moderate leader would obviously have been an infructuous concession. Accordingly, we are now given to understand that the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to intimate to the most powerful man in Bengal that, if he Page 334... head against the new Councils. These concessions remove not a single objectionable principle from the Bill. They are evidently designed to facilitate the admission into the Council of the two men in Bengal whose opposition may prove most harmful to the chances of the exceedingly skilful Chinese puzzle called the Councils Regulations, by which the consummate tacticians of Simla hope to preserve full control... this back-door had been opened to him by the indulgence of the bureaucracy to its dismissed servant. But to us the permission seems to be more humiliating and injurious than the original exclusion,—to Bengal, if not to Surendranath personally. As things stand, he cannot make use of the concession without forfeiting his already much-imperilled popularity and putting himself uselessly into a ridiculous and ...
... on, though, to say that these efforts were even moderately successful. But then Lord Curzon decreed the partition of Bengal (which would ultimately lead to the formation of what are now the Indian federal state of Bengal and Bangladesh). Such was the indignation of the Bengal people at the division of their holy land that they seemed to have caught a hot patriotic fever and that revolutionary action... also fed by the victories of the Japanese over the Russians at Port Arthur (1904) and Mukden (1905), which proved for the first time that an Asian nation could beat the haughty Westerners. In 1906 a Bengal National College was founded in Calcutta. Aravinda took leave from the Maharajah’s service and became the first principal of the College; that his payment was but a fraction of what he earned at Baroda... seen as part of the sanatana dharma , the eternal law. But the British authorities did not forget Aurobindo Ghose; on the contrary, even the highest-placed among them, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal and the Viceroy called him in their correspondence “the most dangerous man in India”. When once more a warrant for his arrest was signed, Aurobindo left Calcutta instantly at the command of his inner ...
... to follow the path of another nature. "As regards Bengal, things are certainly very bad; the condition of Hindus there is terrible and they may even get worse inspite of the interim mariage de convenance at Delhi. But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal and they are not going to be exterminated — even Hitler... the words of the Gita that even a little of this delivers us from great danger, Page 358 carries us to the other side of all difficulties, sarva durgani" In 1946, in East Bengal, thousands of Hindus were massacred, their women raped, houses burnt and girls abducted. I felt depressed, the more so as many of my friends kept on writing to me about the urgent need of relief... are good' as they used to say when we were children. Now, now, now ! Let the past go and the future take care of itself. "It is natural that you should be painfully affected by the horrors of Bengal but that too is in Krishna's hands. He who has given himself to Krishna must keep his eyes on His feet, irrevocably, though the triple world fell into ruin." Upon this Gurudev finally commented: ...
... on Hindus by Muslims in Bengal, notably in Noakhali and Tippera districts, now in Bangladesh; this organized violence —which the British government did nothing to stop— was part of Jinnah's plan of "Direct Action" which was intended to demonstrate the impossibility for Hindus and Muslims to live together, and therefore the inevitability of Pakistan.) As regards Bengal, things are certainly... the Muslim League had just agreed to join. Page 241 But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least twenty million Hindus in Bengal and they are not going to be exterminated,—even Hitler with his scientific methods of massacre could not exterminate the Jews who are still showing themselves very much alive and as for Hindu culture... like five millenniums at least and is going to carry on much longer and has accumulated quite enough power to survive. What is happening did not come to me as a surprise. I foresaw it when I was in Bengal and warned people that it was probable and almost inevitable and that they should be prepared for it. At that time no one attached any value to what I said although some afterwards remembered and admitted ...
... insincerity leads to ruin. Published 26 January 1964 Mother, I have just heard that about the new developments in Bengal. You said that Bengal is not receptive to Your Force and does not accept You. Nothing could be sadder for Bengal. But, Mother, how is it that Bengal, having worshipped You, the Divine Mother, throughout the ages and appealed to You in all circumstances, is now in such a ... am I responsible (for I must confess that I feel guilty) and what should I do so that You do not forsake this miserable land? Page 359 My dear child, I did not say anything against Bengal in particular. I said that all the events that are taking place are due to the lack of receptivity in human beings , who still seem to be in the same state of consciousness that was natural and general ...
... later, I was planning to work on more extremist lines than the Congress. We brought Jatin Banerji from Bengal and got him admitted into the Baroda army. Our idea was to drive out the Moderates from the Congress and capture it. As soon as I heard that a National College had been started in Bengal I found my opportunity and threw up the Baroda job and went to Calcutta as Principal. There I came into... correct account of things. I was neither the founder nor the leader. It was P. Mitra and Miss Ghosal who started it on the inspiration of Baron Okakura. They had already started it before I went to Bengal and when I was there I came to hear of it. I simply kept myself informed of their work. My idea was for an open armed revolution in the whole of India. What they did at that time was very childish-things... people came in to help the Bande Mataram. Soon it drew the attention of a large number of people and became an all-India paper. The Punjab and Maharashtra joined the Movement. One day I called the Bengal leaders and said, "It is no use simply going on like this. We must capture the Congress and throw out the Moderate leaders from it." Then I proposed that we should follow Tilak as the all-India leader ...
... There was a famous story in Punch. Two people were talking. One said, "Bill, who is that man?" And Bill answered, "Let us strike at him, he is a foreigner." And then in Bengal the West Bengal people used to call the East Bengal people "Bangal and composed a satire, "Bangal manush noy, oi ek jantu"3 Once I used to wear socks at all times of the year. The West Bengalis used to sneer that I was a... concentrating on it. PURANI: The Charka failed in agricultural provinces but seems to have succeeded in other places, especially where people had no occupation. NIRODBARAN: In Bengal it didn't succeed. SRI AUROBINDO: In Bengal it didn't. It may be all right as a famine palliative but when it takes the form of an all-India programme it looks absurd. If you form a programme that is suited to the condition ...
... And he has many disciples here. If he had the gerua (the saffron robe) he would have still more advantage. NIRODBARAN: But in Bengal he would have a hard time. SATYENDRA: Why? NIRODBARAN: In Bengal Sannyasis are not held in much esteem. SRI AUROBINDO: Bengal has Deshpande's idea, I suppose. I remember when Deshpande returned from England some Sannyasis came to him. He drove them away, asking... prefer different orders. For instance, the Socialists in England will want Socialism, while no one in Europe will agree to that, not even anyone in America. NIRODBARAN: There is Satish Das Gupta in Bengal, another lieutenant of Gandhi. PURANI: His is more of a personal attachment to Gandhi. SRI AUROBINDO: Not because of Gandhi's ideas? PURANI: Ideas are secondary; he is a lieutenant because... Brahmins eating cows at one time? SRI AUROBINDO: Oh yes, sacrificial cows. NIRODBARAN: It was the post-Buddhistic influence that stopped meat-eating. SRI AUROBINDO: No, it was Jainism. In Bengal where Buddhism was once very dominant they used to eat meat. It is remarkable how Jainism spread that influence throughout the whole of India. It was because of jainism that Gujarat is vegetarian. ...
... go near their mother. Soon after the demise of Soudamini, Bijoyshankar gave up his residence at Unao and came to Bengal. At first Nishikanto and Ushamoyee stayed with their maternal uncles at Ujirpur and afterwards they settled in the villageof Shivhati (of Bashirhat district of Bengal) where Bijoyshankar had some ancestral properties. Nishikanto’s aunt Birajbashini Devi looked after the motherless... his recovery did he receive the news of the birth of a son. As was the custom of those ages, the child was born in the house of his maternal uncles in the villageof Ujirpur of Barishal district of Bengal. Little did anyone know that the sickly new-born would be hailed as one of the greatest poets of the post-Tagore era. The boy with big and dreamy eyes was named Nishikanto. Bijoyshankar had nearly... received Sri Aurobindo’s praise: “His cooking is excellent.” (Years later when Sri Aurobindo had stopped eating sweets, Nirodbaran had taken to him two plateful of rasogollas [the famous sweetmeat of Bengal] prepared by Nishikanto. Sri Aurobindo took a bite and realized what a delightful preparation it was. He said: “Nishikanto has prepared it. I must take one more, there will be no harm.” When he was ...
... Gupta and Saurindranath Bose who had gone to Bengal came back hurriedly to Pondicherry. Now Bejoykanta also grew impatient to go to Bengal like them for a short visit. He persisted in it. Sri Aurobindo gave no consent to it. Bejoykanta's friends in Pondicherry and some others, including Abdul Karim, had come to know that he was about to leave for Bengal. Either the very next day after Abdul Karim's... Karim's interview with Sri Aurobindo or one or two days later, Bejoykanta Page 181 started for Bengal. The news circulated in the town that, as Bejoykanta was suspected to be a revolutionary, a warrant of arrest was in Abdul Karim's pocket the very day of his interview with Sri Aurobindo. Bejoykanta started from Sri Aurobindo's house and caught the train to Madras. Directly... Directly he crossed the French border he was arrested and taken into police custody at cuddalore; he was then transferred a few days later to his native place in Bengal and interned there till the end of the War, that is to say, five long years. As soon as he got released he came back to Pondicherry. Before the publication of the Arya, it was widely talked about—and most amongst the Tamil poet Bharati ...
... would reply, "you know I was enlisted in the Bengal Regiment in the War The War was on in the Middle East then. We attacked the Germans and they fled from their camp. Two of our regiments - the Bengal and the Gorkha Regiments - occupied the German camp. As the camp was too small for both the regiments the problem arose whom to assign the camp. Both the Bengal and the Gorkha Regiments were keen on staying... nowhere else." Finally he did die in the Ashram as he had wanted. (65) A nother sadhak with a quirk was Ardhendu-da. What an extraordinary man! He started life as a chemist with Bengal Immunity. And although a scientist he was well-versed in classical music. It is he who taught me to read musical notations when I started learning instrumental music. Ardhendu-da had a passion... staying there. "Ultimately it was left to the two Commanders and they reasoned, 'Since the Gorkha Regiment had permanent soldiers they should stay in the camp and the Bengal Regiment could stay under the trees a little further away.' "There was nothing we could do! We stayed under the trees a little further away while the Gorkhas stayed comfortably in the camp. "However, in the continuous ...
... indefinitely postponed if the Deacons' resolution is carried out." The Manchester Guardian . Monday, March 21, 1881. 4. Letter from Indian Office Library, 24 October 1956: " Henry Beveridge, Bengal Civil Service . "'Arrived in India on 20 January 1858. On the 1st of December 1876 he was appointed Officiating District and Sessions Judge at Rangpur and remained there until he was appointed ... Magistrate and Collector at Backer-gunge until 2nd October 1874 when he was appointed the District and Sessions Judge, Backergunge. He was granted furlough from 2 January 1875 to 28 October 1876. "[ Bengal History of Services , 1886]" "The following information has been gathered from Lord Beveridge's book about his parents entitled India Called Them : "Henry Beveridge married Miss Annette Susannah... and his two brothers for the past five years, and that I have been a witness of the pitiable straits to which they have all three been reduced through the failure of their father, a Civil Surgeon in Bengal and (I believe) a most respectable man, to supply them with adequate resources. In addition, they have lived an isolated life, without any Englishman to take care of them or advise them." ² Though ...
... initiation and instruction in Yoga. During this period, Motilal not only sent periodical financial help to Sri Aurobindo, he was also the link between Sri Aurobindo and his friends and admirers in Bengal. During those difficult years, Motilal paid occasional visits to Pondicherry, and with Sri Aurobindo's approval started the Prabartak Sangha at Chandernagore. The watchwords of the Sangha were "Commune... published Prabartak in Bengali and later the English Weekly, the Standard Bearer . Sri Aurobindo had hoped that the Prabartak Sangha would grow into a centre of spiritual and economic awakening in Bengal, translating something of his vision of the Future into contemporary reality. But with the passage of time, Sri Aurobindo couldn't be blind to the fact that, although Motilal Roy had apparently cast... The small group around Sri Aurobindo received an accession during the year with the arrival of his younger brother, Barindra (Barin), who had been released from the Andamans after the Amnesty. From Bengal, Barin had first written to Sri Aurobindo asking him for initiation into Yoga, and had been accepted but it would be Sri Aurobindo's own special way of Yoga, the Integral Yoga. Towards the end of his ...
... was the Officiating C. M. O., Noakhali District. On 10 February he was posted at Khulna. Again from March 1884, and for one year, the Government of Bengal appointed him "Superintendent of Vaccinations, Metropolitan Circle," meaning Calcutta. The Bengal Government made this appointment in spite of the many objections raised by the Government of India —which might have added to K. D. 's bitterness against... in Rangpur, not in Khulna. I went to Khulna long after returning from England." Sri Aurobindo reminisced. "Before the Swadeshi movement started, Debabrata Bose 1 and myself went on a tour of Bengal to study the conditions of the people. We lived simply on bananas. D. Bose was very persuasive and could win anybody round. We found the people steeped in pessimism, a black weight of darkness weighing... Indian Medical Gazette (November 1881), Dr. K. D. Ghose boldly took up arms against that authority in an article in the same review (June 1882), "A Plea for Malaria." 2.Edward George Glazier, Bengal Civil Service. He served in various grades of Magistrate, then Collector at Rangpur, broadly between September 1867 and March 1877. Page 106 not have succeeded immediately in getting ...
... may be noted that the secret societies did not include terrorism in their programme, but this element grew up in Bengal as a result of the Government's strong repression and the reaction to it. Although Sri Aurobindo was the Nationalist party's principal leader in action in Bengal and the organizer there of Page 279 its policy and strategy, he had left Barin with his boys to... and is as violent as ever." When the Government's own violent repression failed to suppress the paper, it enacted a new 'Act' in 1908 against the Swadeshi press. The revolutionary movement in Bengal was spearheaded by a band of young men under the leadership of Barin, who worked among schoolboys giving them religious, moral and Page 277 political education. He taught the boys... revolutionary ideas. It was during his sojourn at Baroda with Sejda that Barin had imbibed these ideas, for, he read not only novels but studied history and political literature also. In 1902 he went to Bengal and made an extensive tour all over the province. After one year, in 1903, he returned to Baroda, quite disappointed with the response to his efforts at spreading revolutionary ideas. It was, however ...
... Page 207 The Communal Problem As regards Bengal, things are certainly very bad; the conditions of the Hindus there are terrible and they may even get worse in spite of the interim mariage de convenance at Delhi. But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal and they are not going to be exterminated,—even Hitler... Perhaps a Mussolini will have to rise to get rid of the corruption and mutual quarrelling and disorder. 18 April 1935 You know it is the confounded Raj that has fomented this communal incident [in Bengal, as described in a newspaper report that the correspondent summarised for Sri Aurobindo]. It looks as if it were going to be like that everywhere. In Europe also. Page 206 In your... something like 5 millenniums at least and is going to carry on much longer and has accumulated quite enough power to survive. What is happening did not come to me as a surprise. I foresaw it when I was in Bengal and warned people that it was probable and almost inevitable and that they should be prepared for it. At that time no one attached any value to what I said although some afterwards remembered and admitted ...
... Boycott, for at that time the new spirit had not made itself prominently manifest in Bengal and other parts of India. But the Barisal barbarities left no room for doubt. Then came the Comilla excesses. Are we to believe that the Moslem population of East Bengal has really been deluded into the idea that East Bengal belongs to Salimullah? Are we, again, to believe that the British Government which now... of the province and the consequent growth of the influence and power of an ordinary Zamindar? Are we then to believe that the British Government is too weak to check the spread of rowdyism in East Bengal and the distribution of the "red pamphlet"? Then comes the deportation of the Punjab leader by the Government in a manner which reminds one of the conduct of "Cunning old Fury" in Alice in Wonderland ...
... impossible for the representatives of popular aspirations to submit to such paralysing exercise of an irresponsible and unlimited authority. This has been universally recognized in Bengal. Executive authority was defied by all Bengal when its representatives, with Babu Surendranath Banerji at their head, escorted their President through the streets of Barisal with the forbidden cry of "Bande Mataram." If... strategy. Immediately afterwards the right of public meeting was asserted in defiance of executive ukase by the Moderate leaders near Barisal itself and by prominent politicians of the new school in East Bengal. The second canon of the doctrine of passive resistance has therefore been accepted by politicians of both schools—that to resist an unjust coercive order or interference is not only justifiable but... death against your own country and people and helping in their destruction or enslavement,—a crime which in Free States is punished with the extreme penalty due to treason. When, for instance, all Bengal staked its future upon the boycott and specified three foreign articles,—salt, sugar and cloth,—as to be religiously avoided, anyone purchasing foreign salt or foreign sugar or foreign cloth became ...
... clamour and agitation as the least arbitrary act would be met with in Bengal. How have the bureaucracy treated this loyal and quiet people? What fruit have they reaped from their loyalty, the men who saved the British Empire in 1857? Intolerable burdens, insolent treatment, rude oppression. The Anglo-Indian cry is that disloyal Bengal has infected loyal Punjab with the virus of sedition. Undoubtedly,... to make administration impossible, held too low an opinion of British character and British civilisation. We fancy Srijut Bipin Chandra watching from the south the welter of official anarchy in East Bengal and the Punjab must have modified to a certain extent his trust in the bearing-power of British high-mindedness. We ourselves, though we had our own views about British character and civilisation,... the new spirit which has gone out like a mighty fire from Bengal lighting up the whole of India, has found its most favourable ground in the Punjab; but Page 382 a fire does not burn without fuel, and where there is the most revolutionary spirit, there, we can always be sure, has been the most oppression. The water tax, the land laws, the Colonisation Act legalising the oppressions and ...
... Boycott may be graduated in another way. When the boycott was declared in Bengal, it was declared specially against cloth, sugar and salt and only generally against other articles. Page 350 It is therefore the imports of English piece-goods, Liverpool salt and, though only to a slight extent, of foreign sugar into Bengal which have suffered. When this specific boycott has been proved effective... impossibility; and their infallible economic authority, Mr. Gokhale, has found out that a graduated boycott is an economic impossibility. They point to the failure of the thorough-going boycott in Bengal as a proof of the first assertion; the second, they think, requires no proof, for how can what Mr. Gokhale has said be wrong? This assertion of the impossibility of a graduated boycott is an answer... affected because there was already a mill industry and a handloom industry which have been enormously stimulated by the boycott, as is shown by the wholesale return of the weaver class to their trade in Bengal and by the increase in the number of weaving mills and the splendid dividends which the existing concerns are paying. On the other hand the campaign against foreign sugar has not been successful because ...
... not believe that the country is demoralised. On the contrary we believe that circumstances have taken an extremely favourable turn. There is, to begin with, an immense revolution of opinion all over Bengal which has brought all but the inveterate loyalists to understand the situation and face realities. Secondly if our information from the mofussil is correct, the people, the rank and file, are by no... news of men girding themselves for real work, now that the outer expression of our feelings is hampered and our hopes and aspirations driven in upon themselves. We are especially glad to find in West Bengal, so long apathetic, new stirrings of life and resolution. Nevertheless, in a certain small section there is undoubtedly bewilderment, hesitation and something like panic and we would be glad to believe... Will it be enough to modify our old policy to meet a new but surely not unexpected situation or will it be necessary for us also to change our plan of campaign? One thing at least is certain, we in Bengal have no intention of giving up Swaraj, no intention of giving up Swadeshi, no intention of giving up Boycott; to this the Bhupendranaths and the others must make up their mind. If any leader tries ...
... self-contradictory figment from dreamland) and the other repudiates the association, how Page 763 can there be united action? If united action is at all possible in Bengal, it is because the Moderate party in Bengal has ceased to be wagged by its loyalist tail and is now following the lead of its small but advanced head which is in sympathy with many of the Nationalist ideas though it is... fundamental ideas and difference of spirit make it impossible for that concord to be real and wholehearted, even if personal misunderstandings and dislikes did not stand in the way. But it is only in Bengal that even so much unity is possible, though there is a tendency in that direction in Madras. In the rest of India Moderatism is in its public professions and actions frankly loyalist and is quite prepared... so far as it can be done with safety to itself. The Nagpur affair and the action of the All-India Congress Committee prove that beyond doubt. Where then is the basis of unity? For that matter, the Bengal Moderates while they sing dulcetly to us the praises of unity, have invariably joined heartily in Loyalist attempts to suppress the voice of Nationalism in the Congress. They were, we are convinced ...
... hitherto been engaged in dispute about ideals and methods. We are confident that the country, at least Bengal, has now reached a stage when this dispute is no longer necessary. Whatever we may say out of policy or fear, the whole nation is now at one. Swaraj is the only goal which the heart of Bengal recognises, Swaraj without any limitation or reservation. Even the President in his second and closing... Rabindranath. What matters it what resolutions may be passed or rejected? Swaraj is no longer a mere word, no longer an ideal distant and impossible; for the heart of Bengal has seized upon it, and the intellect Page 873 of Bengal has acknowledged it. We hold no brief for anyone, but we believe that Srijut Manoranjan Guha was an inspired speaker when he told the Conference never to lose sight ...
... the Gangaridai and Prasii on a level with that of Chandrāmśa as the king of Vidiśā. We are likely to be pulled up with the questions: "Are not the Gangaridai the people of the Ganges-delta in Lower Bengal and the Prasii the Prāchya, Easterners, and especially the people of Māgadha with their imperial capital at Pātaliputra, the Palibothra of the Greeks? How then can a Nāga monarch whose seat was... And in this passage Diodorus speaks also of Alexander wanting to cross the Ganges and make war upon the Gangaridai: the Ganges would be initially crossed more than 2,000 miles to the west of Lower Bengal. No wonder Diodorus does not refer to any other boundary in this locality than the eastern. "The existence of the Gangaridai not only in the Ganges-delta but also much further west emerges... the rest of India which was conquered by Alexander. So the Gangaridai stretch from the frontiers of the Punjāb where Alexander halted, across Madhyadeśa (Middle Country) through Māgadha to Lower Bengal. "A westerly extension of the Gangaridai is proved also when Diodorus (XVII, 9) 1 recounts how the Younger Porus fled for shelter to the nation of the Gangaridai from Alexander advancing ...
... movements started on account of the Partition of Bengal. Though the rates of the Swadeshi navigation companies were two or three times greater than those of the foreign companies, yet the former were patronised by the patriots. This is due to the development of the new force. It is well known to all what efforts were made by the young men of Bengal. It is they who worked for the boycott. They ... order to impress these ideas on the minds of the young. It is a good sign that attempts are being made to start schools for national training in our Bengal and in your town. Many such institutions are coming into existence at several places in Bengal. We do not want the unnecessary parrot-like education which wastes away the strength and intellect of our young men. It is much better to have a harmonious ...
... country." The resolution was moved by Srijukta Aurobindo Ghose, B.A. (Cantab) of the Bengal National College in a short but inspiring speech. He said that national education was a work which had already been accomplished and was already visible in a concrete shape to the eyes of the people. There was the Bengal National College at Calcutta and there were about 25 secondary National Schools at work... 12-February-1908 The subject of National Education, which has been recognised by the Indian National Congress as one of the main planks in its platform, received a further impetus in this year's Bengal Provincial Conference which was held in Pabna in the second week of February last. The resolution on the subject adopted by this year's conference has been a considerable advance upon those adopted... National Council of Education. There were besides some three hundred primary National Schools, all seeking the aid of the Council, which in its turn should be more liberally supported by the whole of Bengal in order to enable it to do its sacred work. The National Schools will train and send out workers who will Page 871 devote themselves completely to the service of the country and raise ...
... The following sentence was written in the top margin of the manuscript page; its place of insertion was not marked: Nationalism existed in India before it became definite and articulate in Bengal, but it is Bengal that gave it a philosophy, a faith, a method, a mantra and a battle-cry. × Sri Aurobindo... under which the ordinary Congress politician will recognize what he prefers to disparage as Extremism, but it will be well understood by those who are constant readers of the Nationalist journals in Bengal, whether the Bande Mataram or New India or vernacular journals like the Yugantar, the Nabasakti or the Sandhya. 1 Whatever their differences of temper, tone or style, however the methods they recommend... associated with heated discussions in Committee and Congress, altercations at public meetings, unsparing criticisms of successful and eminent respectabilities, sedition trials, National Volunteers, East Bengal disturbances, Rawalpindi riots. To him the Nationalist is nothing more than an "Extremist", a violent, unreasonable, uncomfortable being whom some malign power has raised up to disturb with his ...
... of national rejoicing. The speaker then dwelt upon the several aspects of Partition Day, when Bengal was split up, and said he did not recognise the separation and would not do so. It was on that day that they declared through the leaders of the nation, and by a national proclamation, that the unity of Bengal remained intact and that there was no power strong enough to break it. He explained the true... He emphasised the fact that every country in the world was more or less Swadeshi. So Bengal must learn the value of self-help. The Partition Day should also be associated with national determination to revive the commerce and industry of the country and to regain that prosperity which once prevailed in India. Bengal must remain united. Mr. Ghose proceeded to say that the national movement was ...
... in a small pocket notebook during a visit to East Bengal (the present Bangladesh). A month and a half earlier, he had been released from jail after his acquittal in the Alipore Bomb Case. As the most prominent leader of the Bengal Nationalist party, he had been invited to Jhalakati, a town in Bakarganj District, to attend the 1909 session of the Bengal Provincial Conference of the Indian National Congress... disappears from the terminology of the Record after that. [3-13] Sri Aurobindo wrote all but one of these eleven pieces on scattered pages of a notebook used in Pondicherry (and perhaps also earlier in Bengal) for miscellaneous writings, notably the play Eric , 1503 as well as notes on philology and other subjects. They date from the earliest years in Pondicherry, that is, 1910-12. Some ...
... almost a pauper. Why have I mentioned these three men who lie buried in some of the oldest cemeteries of Calcutta? This is because they were all participants of what was at one time called the Bengal renaissance, even the Indian renaissance. Examining their lives, works, and even their graves will convince us that what they represented was something unique and unprecedented in Indian culture. Whether... renaissance or not is debatable, but it was quite different in content, style, and substance from what was available in India earlier. II The Renaissance in India Can what happened in Bengal in the early 19th century be called a renaissance? This question is important, even crucial to our discussions today. Sri Aurobindo, whose ideas I propose to discuss later today, himself discusses... that something of this sort is not only possible but inevitable. IV Conclusion I started this paper by referring to a visit to the graves of some of the famous men of the Bengal, nay Indian renaissance of the 19th century. I should end by invoking them once again: Sir William Jones, Henry L.V. Derozio, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, but to this list let me now add the names of the ...
... the Gate — to the right (ground floor). Next to him was another old-timer, a Telugu gentleman, the late Krishnayya — an interesting man himself. Charu-da did not stay too long, then left for Bengal. When in Bengal Charu-da fell quite ill. At that time, when he lay feeling physically miserable, he had a darshan (vision) of Lord Narayana. Charu-da identified Him as Sri Aurobindo. He returned to Pondicherry... educated as he was in pucca British ways, kept repeating, at appropriate intervals: “I see… I see.” This puzzled and alarmed Charu-da, a pucca Bengali, much steeped in the traditions of rural bengal. Charu-da thought: “What is He seeing? Something perhaps not so good inside me.” (The story goes a step further — Charu-da, the next day, buttoned his kurta higher up so that Sri Aurobindo would... should be his worker — specially touch his drinking water ( kuja ). He did allow the water to be brought, but later discreetly threw away that water and brought some himself! Then Charu-da left for Bengal, maybe to settle and finish some halfdone work there. He came back in 1928 on the 4th of April. (Sri Aurobindo had arrived here on the same day 18 years earlier.) Charu-da came and enquired: “ Kothai ...
... important, there are Yoga, spiritual progress, bhakti, devotion, service. Page 222 I don’t know on what you found your idea that we have changed towards you since your return from Bengal and become cold towards you. There has been no such change on our part; on the contrary we have always had a full appreciation of what you have done there for us and for your untiring effort and... the movements of the body and not for any purpose of Yoga. * March 21, 1949 All that I need to say is that the Roxy 40 performance and all the work you have done for us in Bengal had our full support and approval. I don’t know who can have said that it was a disservice or what that could mean, there was no ground for saying so and it is a wholly unjustifiable aspersion. ... of the feeling I have always had about it, so I need change nothing. I still do not understand why you should think that Mother and myself do not appreciate the hard work you have done for us in Bengal and the help you have given us at a moment when we very badly needed it and still need whatever help you can get at this difficult and critical juncture. It helped us to meet to some extent a very ...
... two letters enclosed: one is that of a savant professor, the other of the foremost Musalman novelist of Bengal. So you see I have waxed somewhat of a celebrity in literature too, what? But if you doubt this, hear this convincing datum: an unknown Page 344 gentleman from a town of Bengal writes they have to present an address to a Doctor there honoured by a Raja. So whom do you think he... This suspicion entered my head as I read thro 'Jyoti's novel. The last part is poignant and strong and throbbing with a force which I would never have suspected her (or even a young male hopeful of Bengal) capable of. Did you supply her this strength consciously or are we building castles in the air in a delectable reverence ? I am thinking of asking my publisher to publish six of her short stories... (not altogether the same rhyme scheme all through) as my father's famous and beautiful song on Nostalgia which I copy out side by side for your convenience. I used to sing this song to thousands in Bengal. Anilbaran, you may remember, had composed a year or two ago a song in the same metre and rhyme scheme which Sahana sang to Mother: Tui Ma amar hiyar hiyā tui Mā āmār ankhir ālo [Mother thou art the ...
... of Shantipur, a staunch disciple of Sri Chaitanya ( fifteen-sixteen centuries AD), D. L. Roy himself was a rationalist. During his tenure as Deputy Magistrate he dared to tell the Lt. Governor of Bengal that the latter was not an expert in the laws of land survey. The result ? He was never granted promotion from his post in spite of his proficiency. That he was not altogether dismissed from service... Gaurishankar Mishra, Surendranath Majumdar, Hafiz Ali Khan and others. Wrote a book in Bengali on Indian music, Bhramyamaner Dina Panjika (Diary of a Musical Rover) which won him instant fame in Bengal. 1922 Met Ronald Nixon, a professor at Lucknow University, who introduced Dilip to Sri Aurobindo, asking him to read Essays on the Gita; he later came to be known as Yogi Sri ... till Krishnaprem's passing away in 1965. Their 1922 meeting took place at the residence of Atul Prasad Sen, a leading barrister of Lucknow, a musician and lyricist, whose music became popular in Bengal through Dilip. 1922-23 Became very popular as a musician and a composer. Started teaching music and giving charity concerts with his students at Rammohan Library in Calcutta. ...
... As the British gained power and exploited the country and moved from Bengal to Madras to Bombay to North India, famines followed resulting in the death of millions of Indian peasants. Romesh Diwan and Renu Kallinapur have tabulated these famines chronologically in Productivity and Technical Change in Foodgrains. In Bengal alone, 10 million died in the 1771 famine. Such exploitation and killing... Towards the end of the 19th century, one person who drew attention to the economic plight was Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar. He was a Bihar-born Maharashtrian (18691912), who spent most of his life in Bengal, and was an excellent teacher and writer in both Marathi and Bengali. An active public worker, his blending of rural roots and urban experience, of the language and cultures of two regions and of patriotic... Nationalist Movement. His book Desher Katha put forward in popular language the economic critique of colonialism developed by people like Ranade, Dutt, Naoroji and others and was very popular in Bengal as a pamphlet advocating Swadeshi and the boycott of Lancashire cotton. He was instrumental in the awakening of middle-class India as a thinker on economic Swadeshi; he was inspired by the ...
... population and gifting it to Muslims. While this did not impress the peasantry, it led to the exodus of more than eight million refugees (more than half of them Hindus) to neighbouring India. West Bengal was the worst affected by the refugee problem and the Indian government was left holding the enormous burden. Repeated appeals by the Indian government failed to elicit any response from the international... from helping the Mukti Bahini by being provocative. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in East Pakistan took to attacking suspected Mukti Bahini camps located inside Indian Territory in the state of West Bengal. In the Western and Northern sectors too, occasional Page 89 clashes, some of them quite bloody, took place. Pakistan suggested that should India continue with its plans it... free election, arrested its leader, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, and launched a repressive campaign that turned into a civil war with East Pakistan's Bengalis fighting to set up an independent Bangla Desh (Bengal Nation). Nearly 1,000,000 people were killed and 10 million refugees streamed into India. "We have borne the heaviest of burdens", Mrs. Gandhi said, "and withstood the greatest of pressure ...
... creation of the artistic taste of Bengal he has opened wide the doors of her consciousness so that the free air from abroad may have full play and all parochialism blown away. Yet she has not fallen a prey to foreign ways to become a mere imitation or a distant echo; it is the vast and the universal that has entered. True, Tagore's genius belonged intimately to Bengal, but not exclusively; for it has... The newness that has thus developed is perhaps the fundamental feature of modernism. Bankim and Madhusudan were modern, for they had infused the European manner into the artistic consciousness of Bengal. Europe itself is indeed the hallowed place, the place for pilgrimage of our epoch. Humanity in the modern age plays its great role in Europe. So to come into contact with Europe is to become modern... who first of all surpassed all others in adopting European ways. That is why their success and credit have no parallel in India. From Bharatchandra, Ishwar Gupta even up to Dinabandhu the genius of Bengal I was chiefly and fundamehtal1y Bengal's own. The imagination, experience and consciousness of the Bengalis had been I till then confined to the narrow peculiarities of the Bengali race. Bankim and ...
... of Nature – great beauty, great plenitude, great grandeur – are found in Bengal. Bengalis, the worshippers of Nature, do not pray to the gods to the same extent that they pray to the female deities. Consequently, the influence of Sri Radha, the Page 217 Delight-Power of God, dominates the heart of Bengal more. And that is why we see Siva lying down at the Feet of Sivani, his own... Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7 The Mother- Worship of the Bengalis BENGAL is the hallowed seat of Mother-worship in India. Generally, in India there are two modes of spiritual discipline which are popular. One is the Sakti-sadhana or Mother-worship; the other is Vedanta. There are two principles in the creation. At the... r of the Mother, who is but Consciousness, starts blossoming in the person (adhara). This adhara, itself having been transformed, manifests itself in a divine frame and a divine fulfilment. Bengal has realised this doctrine of Shakti-worship. Bengalis have realised that liberation may be attained without the Grace of Sakti but the full manifestation of life cannot. Bengalis have not longed ...
... of age, he was already striving to relieve his countrymen from the agony of subjugation. All his life he would pursue this work with steadfast diligence. Then came the turning point when in 1905, Bengal was divided by the rulers. This blow struck off, as it were, the Mother’s limbs from Her body and left Her maimed. In the unrest that followed it seemed that a new nation was struggling to break forth... punishments, such was their daily lot. But nothing could break their inner strength; these valiant warriors were sustained by an inner fire. Had not Sri Aurobindo written thus?: “When a young worker in Bengal has to go to jail… he goes forward with joy. He says: ‘The hour of my consecration has come, and I have to thank God now that the time for laying myself on this altar has arrived and that I have been... incidents written by Sudhir are indicated by an (S) at their end; those by Mona, by an (M). There are others based on reminiscences of persons who came in contact with Sudhir .) 1907 – Jamalpur, Bengal The Riots About the incident at Jamalpur [7] Sudhir observed: When all efforts for a compromise failed and the disguise of the seven revolutionaries proved futile they had no other option ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal A Scheme FOR THE EDUCATION OF BENGAL The present condition of Bengal From every point of view, Bengal is in a deplorable condition. She has forgotten her spiritual idealism and the worship of Matrishakti and is either under the influence of materialistic ideas or still bound to and satisfied with ...
... Barindra Kumar Ghose, Sri Aurobindo was rather more communicative about his plans. There was of course no question of an immediate return to Bengal, for Pondicherry was "the appointed place" of his Yoga Siddhi. When he moved from Knowledge to Action, Bengal might be its centre, but the circumference would be "the whole of India and the whole world". He was doubtless planning to build the future... There were other developments too. Sri Aurobindo's wife, Mrinalini, succumbed to the influenza epidemic in December 1918 at the very time she was making preparations to leave her parental home in Bengal for a prolonged stay at Pondicherry. Writing to his father-in-law on 19 February 1919, Sri Aurobindo said: God has seen good to lay upon me the one sorrow that could still touch me to the... for each of us, and now that the first sense of the irreparable has passed, I can bow with submission to His divine purpose. 18 Strange enough, surpassing strange, that first Mrinalini in Bengal, and a month later Mirra in Japan, one after the other they should both suffer the dangerous attentions of the Flu epidemic; but while Mrinalini succumbed, Mirra managed by sheer force of her occult ...
... Aurobindo wrote to a disciple admitting that things were "certainly very bad" in Bengal, and that the condition of the Hindus there might become even worse. But despair was not the way out of the difficulty. Surely, if Hitler couldn't quite exterminate the Jews, the Muslim fanatics too wouldn't succeed in liquidating the Bengal Hindus. As for Hindu culture, it is not such a weak and fluffy thing as... lasted through something like five millenniums at least and is going to carry on much longer and has accumulated quite enough power to survive. Sri Aurobindo added that he had warned the people of Bengal almost forty years earlier, and C.R. Das too - in the early 1920's had entertained grave apprehensions, and even told Sri Aurobindo while on a visit to Pondicherry that "he would not like the British... great Indian subcontinent stretching from Kashmir to Sri Lanka, from Sind to Burma, environed by the Himalaya in the North, the Indian ocean in the South, the Arabian sea on the West and the Bay of Bengal in the East, and with the Mother's symbol of her Shakti, her four powers and her twelve emanations concentrically arranged as the heart of the living Mother of a seething mass of humanity numbering ...
... That was the sudden transformation during the Swadeshi days. Before that the people used to Page 109 tremble before an Englishman in Bengal. The position was even reversed. I remember when I wanted to do political work I visited Bengal and toured the districts of Jessors, Khulna etc. We found that the people steeped in pessimism, a black weight of darkness weighing over the whole... the Englishman said "that will do!" He got up and shook hands with him and the two became great friends! ( Laughter ) Disciple : There was the case of Shamakant, the tiger-tamer, an athlete of Bengal. While he was traveling some Tommis came and tried to show their strength. He knocked them so well that they were extremely glad to get out of the compartment at the next station. They did not expect... red but aesthetic and used to visit Oscar Wilde in that suit. Page 111 Then we came away to India but the tailor was not to be deprived of his dues! He wrote to the Government of Bengal and to the Baroda State for recovering the sum from me and Mono Mohan. I had paid up all my dues and kept £4/a – or so. I did not believe that I was bound to pay it, since he always charged me ...
... present. The outbreak of the agitation against the partition of Bengal in 1905 gave him the opportunity to give up the Baroda Service and join openly the political movement He left Baroda in 1906 and went to Calcutta as Principal of the newly-founded Bengal National College. Sri Aurobindo persuaded the new-born nationalist party in Bengal to put forward Swaraj (Independence) as its goal as against... entirely in the practice of Yoga, his inner spiritual life was pressing upon him for an exclusive concentration. So in April, 1910, he sailed for Pondicherry in French India. Sri Aurobindo had left Bengal with some intention of returning to the political field under more favourable circumstances ; but very soon the magnitude of the spiritual work he took up appeared to him and he saw that it would need ...
... have granted Rs. 2/- per annum for the Minister's pay ! Sri Aurobindo : At last the Government has come out and the Governor is taking over the transferred departments. Disciple : In Bengal also the Governor has vetoed the resolution of the Assembly. Sri Aurobindo : The veto is with regard to the transferred subjects. This concerns the "reserved" subjects. The Government has simply... the people. No one comes to attend meetings, no money is subscribed to the Tilak Swaraj Fund. Khadi does not evoke response. Sri Aurobindo : Yes, I had that experience in 1909 when I was in Bengal. That gave me an insight into my countrymen. After the arrests and deportations we used to hold meetings in the College Square and some sixty or seventy persons used to attend, mostly passers by ;... non-cooperation no one span. There is also a resolution that the provinces should carry out the orders of the A.I.C.C. I wonder why that is brought forward, Sri Aurobindo : It is to bring Bengal under the "No-changers". Disciple : But formerly he talked of Provincial Autonomy in the Congress organisation. Sri Aurobindo : Yes. But now it does not suit him, then it was ...
... Congress ministries are successful almost everywhere. That is an indication of the power to govern if powers are given. Disciple : Only Bengal and Punjab remain under Muslim League influence. Sri Aurobindo : The Muslim League is not so strong in Bengal – there is the Praja party there. In the Punjab Sikandar Hayat Khan seems to be an able man. Only, in U. P. the Muslim League seems strong... Congress ministries are successful almost everywhere. That is an indication of the power to govern if powers are given. Disciple : Only Bengal and Punjab remain under Muslim League influence. Sri Aurobindo : The Muslim League is not so strong in Bengal – there is the Praja party there. In the Punjab Sikandar Hayat Khan seems to be an able man. Only, in U. P. the Muslim League seems strong ...
... Mullick, a reputed physician, was an enthusiastic patriot. He was perhaps the first to take the initiative in forming an army of Bengalis by inducting Bengalis into the Bengal regiment; similarly he was foremost in forming the Bengal Territorial Force. As Chairman of the Baroda College Union, Professor A. Ghose was required to deliver "a few speeches at functions in the Palace itself such as the reception... books or notes with him; everything was extempore. This procedure went on for one and a half hours. These notes were on the Augustan Age of English literature. "That same year agitation began in Bengal and his attention turned to it." The College students decided to have a photograph taken with their Professor before he left for good. Each of the three classes had one group photo taken. At the time... Umarani Judge.' That's the kind of man I like. He used to talk openly and frankly about his revolutionary ideas to Englishmen." Many of them appreciated him. In 1910 Sri Aurobindo left Bengal for Pondicherry. Thereafter for thirty years there was no direct contact between them. There was some contact in a roundabout way though. C.C. Dutt was in Santiniketan from 1931 to 1938. We too lived ...
... your splendour, has, like the poison which casts off lustre around the throat of Mahadeva, 1 created such a halo of beauty round you as will animate all Bengal with hope, will regulate the license of every heart, will bring a new life to Bengal. 1. Lord Shiva, who drank the poison that emerged from the churning of the ocean and held it in his throat (hence his name 'Nilakanta,' or... Anglo-Indian press, many Indian newspapers which had followed closely the unfolding drama in the two Courts for one full year, welcomed Sri Aurobindo's release from the Alipore Prison. Emotional Bengal rapturously poured its heart out. The Daily Hitavadi (Calcutta, 8 May 1909) wrote a long article entitled 'After All This Time.' Here is a short extract. "And after all these days, Aravinda's... of love, we have smeared with sandalwood paste in the shape of reverence only for you! Come to the beautiful golden seat in our hearts, well smoothed with affection and love. Come, sit, O glory of Bengal!" He was not to remain seated for a long time. The Anglo-Indian press was furious at the release of Sri Aurobindo. The Anglo-Indian government was flabbergasted, and at once began actively ...
... again means cholera in excelsis. The only resource will be for the whole State to go and camp out on the banks of the Narmada and the Mahi. "Of course if I get half-pay 1 shall send Rs. 80 to Bengal, hand over Rs.90 as my contribution to the expenses to Khaserao and keep the remaining 10 for emergencies; but supposing the third course suggested should be pursued? I shall then have to take a third... Baroda State. Page 139 very much, but it is better than nothing. At that rate I shall get Rs. 700 in 1912 and be drawing about Rs. 1000 when I am ready to retire from Baroda either to Bengal or a better world. Glory Halleluja! "Give my love to Sarojini and tell her I shall write to her — if I can. Don't forget to send the MS of translations. I want to typewrite and send to England... suppose this means that he does not want me to get my vacations. However, let us see what happens. "If I join the College now and am allowed the three months' vacation, I shall of course go to Bengal and to Assam for a short visit. I am afraid it will be impossible for you to come to Baroda just now. There has been no rain for a month, except a short shower early this morning. The wells are all ...
... A secret report of the Government, laying squarely the blame on Sri Aurobindo, says, "His is the master mind at the back of the whole extremist campaign in Bengal." "A dangerous character," opined the Lt-Governor of East Bengal and Assam, "more especially dangerous in that he is preaching a religious patriotism." This was in reaction to the article in the Karmayogin of 31 July 1909, where... were wild, some were way off the mark, as we have already seen. It is only towards late April or maybe early May, that the British government became finally certain that he was indeed in Pondicherry. Bengal Government's Chief Secretary confirmed it to the Indian government's Chief Secretary, Home Department, in a communiqué: "He is still at Pondicherry and is being watched by the Madras Police. Should... The government officials were dismayed. "Arabindo Ghose is apparendy at Pondicherry and not anxious to return at present. But, if he were to do so," wrote the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bengal despairingly, "we could not of course touch him." As we have seen, there was never any lack of sensation mongers. The same Home Dept. official who announced the cancellation of the warrant of ...
... through sleeping Bengal. Rajnarain felt the need to rebuild the life of the people on the basis of their own culture. But to realize this the first essential condition he envisioned was political freedom. So he was also the first to sow the seed of revolutionary ideas. Through his inspiration the 'Society for the Promotion of National Feeling among the Educated Natives of Bengal' was started in... self-assertion in the educated classes." The seed of revolution sown by Rajnarain in Midna-pore's fertile soil was to yield a rich harvest. Midnapore was to become a cradle of the revolutionaries of Bengal. Rishi Rajnarain Bose came to be known as 'the Grandfather of Nationalism.' Sri Aurobindo confirms this: "Aurobindo's maternal grandfather Rajnarain Bose formed once a secret society — of... seven musical notes in their purity" —his exuberance making up for all else, and the high wind playing joyfully amidst his wild beard. Indeed, much will remain unknown of mid-nineteenth century Bengal without a proper study of Rajnarain Bose's work. It was that forward vision of his that was recognized in the title 'Rishi' —a vision of the unfolding eternal truth. In September 1879 he settled ...
... whole foundation of the educational system in Bengal. All that is demanded from us is therefore a persistent resolution to make the Circular unworkable regardless of loss and sacrifice. We must take every opportunity of challenging the Circular and testing the resolution of the bureaucracy and the campaign must be carried on simultaneously all over Bengal, if not in other parts of India as well. But... attended and taken an active part; more meetings of the kind will be held and when the Colleges reopen, there must be a general defiance of the ukase. Once Calcutta leads the way, East Bengal will respond and West Bengal follow the general example. The Risley Circular must go the way of its predecessor. ...
... oppressions solely because it is the district in East Bengal which is best organized for the work of Swadeshi and self-help. It is to break down the organization of Nationalism that the bureaucracy is now struggling with all the resources that a system of arbitrary, absolute, personal rule places at their disposal. Khulna is the first district in West Bengal which has set itself heart and soul to the work... Khulna Oppressions 27-June-1907 What is the reason of the extraordinary activity of Government oppression in the Khulna District. At the present rate Khulna promises to be the Barisal of West Bengal. A District Conference forbidden and held, a prosecution for sedition against a leading pleader and influential citizen of the chief town of the District, a prosecution of a local Nationalist paper... especially dreaded by the bureaucracy because they know them to be the first step towards organization. We welcome the oppressions in Khulna because they mean the beginning of a true awakening in West Bengal. After its splendidly successful Conference Jessore ought to organize itself as Khulna has been doing. The Twenty-four Parganas and Midnapore will soon follow and as the organization spreads, the ...
... with Bengal has ceased and the surging waves are once again threatening to engulf the province. At Bagerhat the Sub-divisional Conference will not be allowed to meet. At Barisal the worst scenes enacted during the early days of Fullerism are being repeated. Honour is not safe in East Bengal, nor is the person. And a fresh outburst of repressive measures is likely to take place in West Bengal as the... harvest will be lost,—for full one year at least. Last year we said the same thing, and this year we can easily see through the trick. Let us then be prepared for a fresh outburst of Fullerism in United Bengal and organize our resources to withstand it. Let us stand fast as the rock which resists the billow and the sky, determined to do our duty according to the lights granted us,—to live for the regeneration ...
... actions of the executive unhesitatingly and without a qualm. These conditions have been secured in East Bengal and still more completely in the Punjab. But there is one weak point, the Achilles' heel in the otherwise invulnerable constitution of the bureaucracy, and that is the High Court of Bengal. The oldest and most venerable institution of British rule, with the most honourable traditions of integrity... Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 28.May-22.Dec.1907 Bande Mataram The High Court Miracles 20-August-1907 The situation in Bengal is one of a very peculiar kind and of extraordinary interest. There is a deep and widespread unrest in the country; a movement has commenced which the bureaucracy holds to be fraught with serious danger... certainly to the British monopoly of commercial exploitation, possibly to the supremacy of British officialdom. In order to save these threatened citadels the bureaucrats in the Punjab and Eastern Bengal have embarked on a policy of thorough-going repression in which the practically unlimited and arbitrary power of an autocratic executive is backed up and confirmed by a zealous judiciary. The union ...
... of Anglo Indian officialdom. For who is there so ignorant of things as not to know that since the assumption of the reins of the Bengal Government by Sir Andrew Fraser the Hindu Patriot has conveniently combined the functions of the apologist in ordinary to the Bengal Government with those of the organ of the British Indian Association; and like the clever equestrian in the circus arena the Editor... Here is a precious paragraph from the Patriot !— "THE following Press communique has been issued: 'There is no truth whatever in the rumour that questions affecting the Permanent Settlement in Bengal are under the consideration of Government. It would not have been thought necessary to take any notice of the absurd reports in circulation, but for the numerous references to the matter which have... and it was he again who fell ill when accompanying Page 690 Sir Lancelot Hare to Shillong. He should further note that this amiable Editor is now at Darjeeling, no doubt busy advising the Bengal Government on matters political. Page 691 ...
... revelation. Who imagined when the people of Bengal rose in 1905 against the Partition that that was the beginning of a great upheaval? It is a passing tempest, said the wise men of England, let it go over our heads and we will wait. But the tempest did not pass, nor the thunders cease. So there was a reconsideration of policy and the wise men said,—The people of Bengal are easily cowed down, and we will try... separated from the steadiness of the Moderates. Whatever may happen, it is His will. We look forward to the Easter meeting for light on what He intends. If the Moderate leaders of Bengal are wise, they will realise that Bengal at least is destined to become predominatingly Nationalist, that it is her mission to lead and force the rest of India to follow. Whoever tries to prevent her from fulfilling that ...
... the national will in a strong central authority. How impossible it is to carry out efficiently any large national object in the absence of this authority was shown by the fate of the Boycott in Bengal. It is idle to disguise from ourselves that the Boycott is not as yet effective except spasmodically and in patches. Yet to carry through the Boycott was a solemn national decision which has not been... also an iron endurance, tenacity, doggedness far above anything that is needed for the more usual military revolt or sanguinary revolution. These qualities we have not as yet developed at least in Bengal; but they are easily generated by suffering and necessity and hardened into permanence by a prolonged struggle with superior power. There is nothing like a strong pressure from above to harden and... has been formed; that Conferences are being held in various districts and sub-divisions and committees created; that the Provincial Conferences are expected to appoint a Provincial Committee for all Bengal. The mere creation of these Committees will not provide us with our central authority, nor will they be really effective for the purpose until the new spirit and the new views are paramount in the ...
... elementary conditions. National Education is an accepted part of the political programme in Bengal; yet all the best known and most influential of the Moderate leaders are either practically indifferent or passively hostile to the progress of the movement. Boycott is the cry of both parties within Bengal; yet the Moderate leaders did not hesitate to stultify the Boycott movement by the support they... Peace and the Autocrats 03-April-1907 Ever since the differences of opinion which are now agitating the whole country declared themselves in the formation of two distinct parties in Bengal, there has been a class of politicians among us who are never tired of ingeminating peace, peace, deploring every collision between the contending schools and entreating all to lay aside their differences... would confine our politics within those holy limits. Pundit Madan Mohan and the United Provinces Moderates are willing to add a moderate and inoffensive spice of self-help, Babu Surendranath and the Bengal Moderates will even admit passive resistance within narrow limits and for a special and temporary purpose. But the difference of all from the new party remains. Where there are such serious differences ...
... conflagration in the American prairies, the new spirit began to rush over the whole of India. By the time they had realised it, it was too late to crush it in Bengal by prosecuting a few papers or striking at a few tall heads. For the new spirit in Bengal does not depend on the presence of a few leaders or the inspiration from one or two great orators. It has embraced the whole educated Page 396 ... they can expect neither concession nor toleration. Indian aspirations and bureaucratic autocracy cannot stall together; one of them must go. The growth of the new spirit had been so long tolerated in Bengal because the rulers, though alarmed at the new portent, could not at once make up their mind whether it was a painted monster or a living and formidable force. Even when its real nature and drift had... pervading, irresistible. A hundred hands would catch the banner of Nationalism as it fell from the hands of the standard-bearer and a hundred fiery spirits rush to fill the place of the fallen leader. In Bengal, therefore, other measures have been adopted. But the moment the bureaucrats were sure that the fire had caught in the Punjab, they hastened to strike, hoping by the suppression of a few persons to ...
... students under cover of the Risley Circular. The objective of the authorities is clear enough. It is to prevent the promulgation and organisation of the Swadeshi and Swaraj sentiment in Punjab and Bengal. In the promulgation of Swadeshism we have used three great instruments, the Press, the Platform and the students. The Press by itself can only popularise ideas, it cannot impart that motive impulse... second outbreak went too far. It drove the Page 429 Hindus out of Jamalpur, it identified the officials publicly and unmistakably with the hooligans, it lit a fire that spread all over Bengal and created a commotion throughout India; it gave a stupendous impulse to the self-defence movement all over the province; it found a few scattered akharas and left the whole Hindu population feverishly... guard. Finally, it threatened to imperil Anglo-Indian trade by prolonging the disturbances into the critical part of the jute season. Moreover, the attempt of the officials to isolate Swarajism in East Bengal had failed. Swarajism had set fire to the Punjab, it had begun to permeate the United Provinces, it was spreading with great rapidity in Madras. Another year and the whole of India would have been ...
... authority of the bureaucratic administration, this was the policy publicly and frankly adopted by the Nationalist party. In Bengal we had advanced so far as to afford distinct proof of our capacity in almost all these respects and the evolution of a strong united and well-organised Bengal had become a near and certain prospect. The internal troubles which came to a head at Surat and the repressive policy... will draw away our aspirations from their unalterable ideal or delude the people into thinking they have secured real rights. Another question is that of cleaving to and enforcing the Boycott. In Bengal, even if there are some who are timid or reactionary enough to shrink from the word or the thing, the general feeling in its favour is emphatic and practically unanimous. But it is time now to consider... y without hands, and these we had provided for in the Sabhas and Samitis of young men which sprang up on all sides and were just succeeding in forming an efficient network of organisation all over Bengal. These are now being suppressed by administrative order. It becomes a question whether we cannot replace them by a loose and elusive organisation of young men in groups ordering each its own work by ...
... the great fight made by the Bengal Moderates are a tissue of exaggerations. There was no fight at all over the question of creed or objects, and indeed the difference of name is so trivial that the Page 1072 legend of this stout fight over a shadow has little verisimilitude. About the question of the subscription to the creed the only difference between the Bengal-Punjab party and the Bom... party were in entire agreement, only the Bengal members wanted to call the same things by other names. Not a creed but a statement of objects binding on every delegate; not a written subscription but a verbal oath of allegiance; not a new Congress without the Nationalists, but the old Congress without the Nationalists. If we are to believe the Advocate , the Bengal Moderates only succeeded in showing ...
... zealous member of the Bengal detective force. It was his misfortune that he took the leading part not only in the Alipur Bomb Case in which he zealously and untiringly assisted the Crown solicitors, but in the investigation of the Haludbari and Netra dacoities. The nature of his duties exposed him to the resentment of the small Terrorist bodies whose continued existence in Bengal is proved by this last... policy, but an outburst of gratitude to the man who removed a dangerous and reckless perjurer whose evil breath was scattering ruin and peril over innocent homes and noble and blameless heads throughout Bengal. We do not praise or justify that outburst,—for murder is murder, whatever its motives,—but it is not fair to give it a complexion other than the one it really wore. If it had really been true that... hanged or transported assassin, or his innocent relatives? House Search While we are on the subject we may as well make explicit the rationale of our objection to house search as it is used in Bengal. No citizen can object to the legitimate and necessary use of house search as an aid to the detection of crime; it is only to its misuse that objection can be made. We say that it is misuse to harass ...
... century to show how modernity in India was implicated in our spiritual traditions. I am, of course, referring to the movement from Derozio to Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the establishment of the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal, the Prarthana Samaj in Western India, the Arya Samaj in the North and the political, cultural and educational offshoots of these events. The Indian Renaissance, as it is called, is rooted in our spiritual... oneness of man thus became his faith. It was to be a faith which would move the elite sections of Bengali society and generate a rich stock of social, educational, political and intellectual ideas in Bengal. This had an impact elsewhere in the country and perhaps it is no accident that many of the Bengalis who were associated with the Indian National Congress were also Brahmos by faith. We must not forget... whether Tilak was a force for good or bad but only that one cannot understand nationalist extremism without acknowledging the place of revivalist Hinduism in it. A corollary is the extremist movement in Bengal where the nation was transformed into Mother India and a whole tradition of Sakti and Tantrik worship underscored the recourse to violent revolutionary methods. I shall be referring to this later ...
... Our love and blessings * Page 119 March 2, 1944 Please look at the Upadhi Patra – do – guru by Rasik Vidyabhushan. He is now the head of the Vaishnav Samaj of Bengal and is reputed to be one of the most learned men among savants. He is 105 now and he gave his blessings etc. of his own accord. I saw him at his residence in Calcutta. He looks still radiant and... Work I am fond of but I want to do it more and more in the right spirit. Do help me here, Guru. * March 13, 1944 Yes, the use to which you have turned your vital capacities in Bengal and Bombay – to turn them into instruments of service and the Divine Work, is certainly the best possible. Through such action and such use of the vital power, one can certainly progress... the book sell more (being on war) so that I may in future offer more to Mother! But Tarapada has failed me hopelessly, Guru. Not a pice yet, fancy! For a book which has made me all but famous in Bengal and Gujarat – for it has been translated into Gujarat! as you must know! I wonder how much he will send me though! Am I getting too commercial after Bombay and Ahmedabad? If you give the ...
... turning inward—her life of fame and celebrity palled on her. Then it was that Sahana turned to Mother and Sri Aurobindo. From Bangalore she took a train to Madras. There she joined a group from Bengal, in which was Moni. Strangely enough, Dilip had an experience in Lucknow on November 15, 1928, which decided him to take the plunge; he reached Madras (via Bombay) on the same day as the others. All... perfect (inner) foundation here, but I gave no date. I did give that date of two years long before in my letter to ____________________ 1. Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdury, Zamindar of Gouripur, East Bengal. A veteran sarod player and very close friend and admirer of Dilip. He became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo at the instance of Dilip. 2. Dilip's note: Birendrakishore had written to me a letter in... reality but the importance of the inner planes of experience. August 27, 1931 The calumnies don't really matter. What Tagore says about gossip and rumours is quite right, not only of Bengal, but everywhere. It is part of average human nature (the lower vital again!) to take pleasure in scandal, nind ā [criticism], believing and reporting anything against people, and __________ ...
... ngth - 4,000 - has a contribution from Lower Bengal too. The king of the Ganges-delta, although independent essentially, must be acknowledging in a loose way Xandrames as the chief Gangaridai-monarch. Hence, broadly, Xandrames was an overlord. But fundamentally he was the king of the middle Gangaridai group. This group was west of both Lower Bengal and the heart of Māgadha, Pātaliputra. ... Part. 5. The Classical Accounts..., p. 239. Page 116 (Alexander's halting-place) and the Ganges, across the Madhyadeśa (Middle Country) through Māgadha, into Lower Bengal where the Ganges, forming its delta, marks the Gangaridai off from Farther India. People of the entire Ganges-region - of what Pliny, intending to indicate an extensive unity, calls "the whole tract... foot-soldiers, 1000 horsemen and 700 elephants kept watch and ward. Comparing these figures with those associated with Xandrames, king of the Gangaridai, we conclude that the Gangaridai-king in Lower Bengal was distinct from Xandrames and a much smaller power. Xandrames was evidently a more westward ruler of a more central section of the Gangaridai. And, as Diodorus, Curtius and Plutarch set him on ...
... Maurya and His Times, p. 22. 7.Ed. E.B., Cowell and R. A. Neil (Cambridge, 1886), p. 370. Page 205 have exercised rule as small chiefs over some portions of Bihār 1 or of Bengal, 2 was, as its very name suggests, not Brāhman or Kshatriya but of lowly origin; for, according to the Vishnu Purāna, names ending in "Gupta" are characteristic of the Vaishya and Śūdra castes.... from the Nandas need not have been acquired by Chandragupta Maurya or else Chandragupta Maurya was not Sandrocottus. There is also the question of the Ganges-delta, what is now called Lower Bengal. Did this part of India fall within the conquests of Chandragupta? We know for certain from Megasthenes as reported by Pliny (VI.23)' that the whole extent of the course of the Ganges was ruled over... domain proper the port of Tamralipti. Also, Hiuen-Tsang (to quote Barua 3 ) "was an eye-witness to the existence of four stupas built by Aśoka near the chief town of each of the four divisions of Bengal." However, Barua 4 adds: "Fa-hian, too, stayed for a long time at Tamralipti, but he has nothing to say about any monument of Aśoka's to be seen there. Thus the testimony of the later Chinese pilgrim ...
... don't, it may still happen to us, as to Sri Chaitanya, whose life we are going to read now. India, February 27, 1486. It was the night of the lunar eclipse, and most of the people of Navadip, Bengal, were out on the bank of the holy Ganges, observing and celebrating the event. As the chants of "Hari" filled the air, a son was born to Jagannath Mishra and his wife Shashi. Of their eight other children... by wrestlers, melted at his touch. For the Chariot Festival of Jagannath, about two hundred Bengali disciples of Sri Chaitanya arrived at Puri, led by the close companions whom he had sent to Bengal to revive there the devotion for the Lord. A huge Kirtan procession, the first of its kind in Puri, was organised, in which Sri Chaitanya and his followers sang and danced in front of the chariot... Chaitanya, came from distant places to pay homage to him. The rush was so great and the crowd so numerous that, on the advice of two Brahmana brothers — ministers in the court of the Muhammadan King of Bengal and whom he had just won over to Bhakti — Sri Chaitanya decided not to go on towards Brindavan, but to return to Puri. He started for Brindavan again in the autumn of 1515. This time he took with ...
... correct various factual errors perpetrated by his biographers. Quite a number of people from outside started writing in English and Bengali about his life. One biography that gained some Popularity in Bengal and drew public attention was by a Bengali littérateur Shri Girija Shankar Roy Chowdhury. He was reputed to be a scholar and his articles were coming out in the well-known Bengali journal Udbodhan... months before Sri Aurobindo's withdrawal. I should not call them interviews, for he was Sri Aurobindo's political follower in the early days, and later his disciple, and a prominent political leader of Bengal. Whenever he visited the Ashram, he had meetings with the Master to get guidance in his political work which he had accepted as his work. Sri Aurobindo used him as his instrument and said to us, "He... insight into politics than politicians themselves. Surendra Mohan writes, "When I came here in October or November 1949, he asked me, 'Why have you not asked me anything about the communal situation in Bengal?' I said, 'There is nothing to report, it is all very quiet.' 'No, no, be careful. Something may happen.' And something terrible did happen — the communal killings." Yet, not even great leaders paid ...
... other Gandhi. Maharshi gives peace. SRI AUROBINDO: And Gandhi gives Charkha? (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: There sems to be a Khaskar movement in Bengal also. SRI AUROBINDO: I see; I didn't know that. In Bihar it exists, so it may also be in Bengal. NIRODBARAN: The Hindustan Standard says that the Government is not taking any measures against it while it talks of communists and other people... remember how during the Swadeshi movement the Bengal revolutionaries used to quote passages from it to show the downfall of the British. NIRODBARAN: Have you seen that Bose is trying to make a pact with Jinnah? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. What about Pakistan then? NIRODBARAN: He will agree to it. SRI AUROBINDO: Does he want to Mohammedanise Bengal? NIRODBARAN: Have you read Gandhi's statement ...
... Resolution. The Lahore Resolution subsequently known as 'Pakistan Resolution' was presided over by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The resolution was moved by Mr. Fazlul Haq, the chief minister of Bengal, and seconded by Chaudhry Khaliq uzzaman. On Mar. 23, 1940, Muslim League held its Annual session at Lahore under the Presidentship of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The Quaid-e-Azam in... at Lahore to pay homage to their leaders and listen to the fateful decision, the All India Muslim League was to make. On Mar. 23, 1940, in a packed pandal, Maulvi Fazl-ul-Haq, the chief Minister of Bengal, moved the following resolution: The Resolution: "While approving and endorsing the action taken by the council and the working committee of the All-India Muslim League as... each blaming the other. Gandhi, not getting a satisfactory response, went on a fast from Feb. to Mar. 2, 1943 but it was not clear what the fast was about. This was followed by a terrible famine in Bengal and parts of Orissa, Bihar and Madras in which over three million persons died; this famine was the result of the Government's scorched earth policy. This one act of the Quit India Movement ...
... every district in the Madras Presidency was represented, as well as the towns of Madras, Salem, Coimbatore and others. Bengal was very inadequately represented so far as the members actually present were concerned, though as the delegated exponents of educated native thought in Bengal they might claim a consideration to which their numerical strength would hardly entitle them. Then, there were the r... product of forces already at work in the country; it would have emerged soon enough, Hume or no Hume.' Allan Octavian Hume, who was the son of a radical politician, entered the Indian civil service in Bengal in 1849. After serving as magistrate in the district of Etawah at the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, he was assigned to the board of revenue in the North-Western Provinces. From 1870-79 he was... were even scoffed at by the British, they frittered it away. But the spirit remained dormant and was waiting for a chance to manifest itself. A spark was needed and that came with the partition of Bengal in 1905. Page 51 HOME ...
... and resorted to inspiration.¹ Bengal is chiefly the field of inspiration. It is inspiration that dominates the field of action, the art and religion of Bengal. Scholars hold that the Bengalees are three-fourths Buddhists in their culture and education and as a race they are Dravidians to the same degree. No wonder that by the union of these two currents Bengal has become the holy confluence of... good. Difference and polarity are the inviolable laws of nature. Therefore it is not that we do not find glimpses of pure intuition here and there among the Bengalees. Chandidas, the pioneer poet of Bengal, represents an unalloyed, pure inspiration and Vidyapati reflects glimpses of intuition. When a feeling of emotion tingled through the blood of Chandidas he turned deep within and sang to himself with ...
... founded on knowledge. " This was the logic of the soul of India which the small number of the nationalists, like Sri Aurobindo, followed. After the nine nationalist leaders were deported from East Bengal the Jhalakati Conference was held in 1909. A photo of Ashwini Kumar Dutt, the deported leader, was placed in the presidential chair and Sri Aurobindo, the only leader who happened to be out being acquitted... Ramakrishna Paramahansa represents the neo-spirituality of modern India and marks a stage in the evolution of Indian spirituality. Sri Aurobindo paid a tribute to Sri Ramakrishna in 1908 : " In Bengal there came a flood of religious truth. Certain men were born, men whom the educated world would not have recognised if that belief, if that God within them, had not been there to open their eyes, men... were very different from what our education, our Western education, taught us to admire. One of them, the man who had the greatest influence and has done the Page 37 most to regenerate Bengal, could not read and write a single word. He was a man who had been what they call absolutely useless to the world. But he had this one divine faculty in him, that he had more than faith and had realised ...
... conveyed to him the message of Sj. K. G. Deshpande from Baroda. I told him that financial help could be arranged from Baroda, if necessary, to which he replied, "At present what is required comes from Bengal, especially from Chandernagore. Sothere is no need." When the talk turned to Prof. D. L. Purohit of Baroda Sri Aurobindo recounted the incident of his visit to Pondicherry where he had come to... : It would be a sight for the Gods ! Disciple : First of all, it would be a sight for you ! (Laughter) Madness has certainly some attraction for Sadhana. I counted eight mad men with X of Bengal. Sri Aurobindo : I must say I have not yet advanced to the stage of having so many ! (Laughter) Disciple : There is a proposal that where there is a centre of Sadhana there ought to... that as we are poor, let us become poorer still and die. The talk then turned to a shooting tragedy at Calcutta. A young Bengali shot Mr. Day, mistaking him for Mr. Taggart, the Chief of Police in Bengal, Disciple : It would have been better if the young man had killed himself immediately after the shooting so that he would at least have had the satisfaction of thinking that he had killed Taggart ...
... the Lt. Governor of Bengal, A. Fraser, informed the Governor General, Lord Minto that if Sri Aurobindo were left free he would undo everything and that it would, therefore, be better to remove him to a fortress or some other place beyond human reach (Vide Home Dept. Progs. May 1908, Nos. 104-111). But the Governor General, instead, set up spy-nets around Sri Aurobindo, as Bengal then was surging in... Rumours were floating about. It was said that all the provinces were ready for a battle and that a hundred and fifty thousand Naga Sannyasins (naked ascetics) had pledged themselves to come to the aid of Bengal and fight unto death. Such stories filled the atmosphere. I was boiling with an inexpressible excitement and was completely under its sway. Home and family comfort no longer held any charm for me.... morning after taking his bath Sri Aurobindo selected a corner in the hall as his living space. There, with his head on the floor and feet in the air, he spent hour after hour. One day the Governor of Bengal, Mr. Baker, came to see our ward. Sri Aurobindo was then suspended in that pose with his feet upwards. Baker remained standing there for about half an hour without uttering anything. When Sri Aurobindo ...
... Chhaku Khansama Lane, Calcutta. So in all likelihood Sri Aurobindo at least saw his wife and could bid her good-bye. Every day counted; there were pulls from every side. He was organizing the Bengal delegates for the Surat Congress. Page 400 This included all the practical details for their journey and stay too I The experience of the Midnapore Conference had shown Arabindo... of Nationalist principles and Nationalist practice all over India, to make ready at whatever inconvenience and, if they find it humanly possible, go to Surat to support the Nationalist cause. ... If Bengal goes there in force it will, we believe, set flowing such a tide of Nationalism as neither bureaucrats nor Bombay Loyalists are prepared to believe possible." That was a reference to the followers... helping to put in one of the keystones of the house we are building for our - Mother's dwelling in the future, the house of her salvation, the house of Swaraj." On 21 December a whole contingent of Bengal Nationalists boarded the Bombay Mail from Howrah station. Among the leaders were Sri Aurobindo, Shyam Sundar, Suresh Chandra 1. Railways had four classes of bogies: first, second, intermediate ...
... Page 383 nationalism? Sri Aurobindo puts it more cogently. "The emergence of Bengal as a sub-nation in India was throughout a strongly subjective movement," he said, describing the discovery of the Nation-Soul which had become the demand of the Time-Spirit. "The movement of 1905 in Bengal pursued a quite new conception of the nation not merely as a country, but a soul, a psychological... the whole thing failed. How can you call a man modest," demanded Sri Aurobindo, "when he stands against his own party?" Surendranath Banerji, a Moderate leader, was called the 'uncrowned king of Bengal' at one time, so popular was he. But his popularity rapidly waned with the rise of the Nationalists. He was unequal to the new surging currents which were fast shifting the political seat from Council... Conference we met again to Page 385 consider the Morley-Minto reforms." The Morley-Minto reforms provided separate electorates for Indian Muslims, and after the partition of Bengal, were the British rulers' next step to divide Hindus and Muslims. "The Moderates urged in favour of accepting the reforms. We were against. We were in the majority in the Subjects Commitee, while in ...
... not stop him from shouting 'Bande Mataram.' That exemplifies the tyranny of the first Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal, Sir Bampfylde Fuller, and the undaunted courage of the youth. After the breaking up of the Conference Sri Aurobindo accompanied Bepin Pal in a tour of East Bengal "where enormous meetings were held —in one district in spite of the prohibition of the District Magistrate." ... was an avowed Moderate who believed in the 'Divine Providence' that had brought the British to India "to help it in working out its salvation." But the political turmoil unleashed by the Partition of Bengal, which brought him in close contact with B. B. Upadhyay and in closer association with Sri Aurobindo, wrought a change in him. Pal's speeches became full of the fire of Nationalism laced with philosophical... large human movement, essentially a movement of thought, has, whether consciously or unconsciously, some Philosophy of Life behind it." By 1907 he became, not only a foremost political preacher in Bengal, but swept Madras off its feet with his impassioned nationalism. Srinivasa Shastri gives a vivid description of those speeches. "Babu Bipinchandra Pal burst into full fame in Madras as a preacher of ...
... warrant of arrest was the fruit of much debate in the highest administrative circles. Letters and telegrams, proposals and counter-proposals had been triangularly exchanged between the governments of Bengal, of India, and the Secretary of State for India. The fact of the matter is that the Indo-British government was scared of Babu Arabindo Ghose. True, it was now able to breathe a little more easily... had left India. As 'leaders' only men like G. K. Gokhale and Pherozshah Mehta were acting out like puppets the part assigned to them by the wily British. India was more or less manageable. Even in Bengal, which continued to give the rulers a headache, the government could quite handle a Moderate leader like Surendra Nath Banerji, although he too was rather unreliable. Always seeking popularity, he... cause of the Indian government's headache was Babu Arabindo Ghose, an analyzer par excellence. He was "the most dangerous of our adversaries now at large" as the Chief Secretary to the government of Bengal put it. Here was a man who had a backbone, who always spoke out. Arabindo Babu was not just a run-of-the-mill politician, he was a statesman. He knew and acted on the principle that "truth has a greater ...
... worlds. Or ... Now one day before Amrita became familiar with Sri Aurobindo's house at rue Francois Martin, before Mother's arrival at the end of March, before Moni, Nolini, Saurin went away to Bengal in February 1914, something strange happened in that house. You may recall that in July 1913 Nagen Nag, a relative of Bejoy's, had come to stay with Sri Aurobindo to get cured of his illness.... depressed, as though an anxiety hung like a dark cloud at the back of his mind. When they strolled on the pier, he often asked Moni what he should do. He had passed about six months in Pondichery, and now Bengal was pulling him strongly. But Moni had been away for more than three years! So he told Biren dryly to decide for himself, and not to worry about Nagen. "In those early years," records Purani,... Moni. Details varied in these eyewitness versions as it always happens. But on one point there was unanimity: Sri Aurobindo did not utter a single word during the whole drama. After returning to Bengal in February 1914, Saurin met Motilal and narrated the incident to him. Full of anxiety Motilal wrote to Sri Aurobindo. It seems that in the meantime Biren had gone back to Sri Aurobindo. A torrent ...
... religion an expression of more delicate and complex richness voiceful of subtler and more penetratingly spiritual shades of feeling than Page 565 the deep-hearted but simple early age of Bengal could know. The old Vaishnav bhāva —there is no English word for it,—was easily seizable, broad and strong. The bhāva of these poems is not translatable in any other language than that the poet... feature of this number which is without merit or interest. We have left to the last Dr. P. C. Ray's long article on "The Bengali Brain and its Misuse". It is a long indictment of past and present Bengal, covering sixteen pages of the magazine. Dr. P. C. Ray is a name which is already a pride to the nation to which he belongs and his deep scientific knowledge, original research and creativeness are... tendencies his own character, life and achievements illustrate in so distinguished a manner. If it had not been for the past which Dr. P. C. Ray condemns, such noble types as the last fifty years of Bengal teems with, would not have been possible. As to the necessity of far-reaching changes in the future we do not greatly differ with the writer. The immediate past has been a period of contraction and ...
... differences of opinion we may have with Babu Surendranath, we have always recognized him as the leader of Bengal, the one man among us whose name is a spell to sway the hearts of millions. We do not like to see him making himself publicly ridiculous, for, by doing so, he makes the whole of Bengal ridiculous. Such performances are rather likely to diminish his prestige than increase it. But ever since... performed and the assembled Brahmins paid him regal honours as if he had been the just and truthful Yudhishthira at the Rajasuya sacrifice. If Babu Surendranath wishes to be the king of independent Bengal, he should surely conquer his Page 127 kingdom first and then enjoy it. Even Caesar refused the crown thrice; but Surendra Babu has no scruples. He accepted his coronation with effusive ...
... Government. Babu Bhupendranath as a loyal Legislative Councillor, will compel the people to act in association with the bureaucracy. Long live Babu Bhupendranath Bose, ally of England and Dictator of Bengal! It is very natural for the Comilla people to enquire whether this remarkable pronouncement is Babu Bhupendranath's own particular balloon, or Babu Surendranath Banerji also is tempting the airy... the source of which it is difficult to understand. He is a successful attorney, a conspicuous figure in Calcutta society, a man of the world gifted with consummate business ability, a member of the Bengal Legislative Council, who aspires, it is believed, to the cool heights of Simla. In all this there is nothing which gives him a claim to lead in a great patriotic upheaval. Yet he is the power behind... Legislative Council. But it is the slow horse that sets the pace. And hence we have Babu Bhupendranath Bose figuring as President-maker and policy-maker to His Majesty the lately awakened Democracy of Bengal. The question is, will the people sanction the appointment of Page 155 Babu Bhupendranath by himself to this important office? To the spirit of autocracy and government from behind ...
... with the money coming from Madras and Gujerat for one year's expenses here, just sufficient for the two houses. What I want you to do, if you can, is to raise money from Bengal for the next year and for the maintenance of your Bengal centre also for two years, so that there may be no need of hunting for funds for sometime to come. At present the main difficulty in your attempts to raise money there... The first, which will be transferred to British India when I go there, already exists at Pondicherry, but I need funds both to maintain and to enlarge it. The second I am founding through you in Bengal. I hope to establish another in Guzerat during the ensuing year. Many more desire and are fit to undertake this sadhana than I can at present admit and it is only by large means being placed at ...
... The card purports to issue from the Mymensingh Sadhana Samaj. The word is spelt Mâymensingh with a long a. Every Bengali in Bengal knows that it is Moymensingh with a short a and would at once be able to point out the mistake. 2) The word Swaraj well-known to everyone in Bengal, is spelt Saraj and that this is no casual slip of the pen is shown by its faithful repetition, the only other time that "Saraj"... done—a difference so great that we must suppose either two writers of each word or else a man copying unfamiliar forms sometimes carefully, sometimes with deficient care and skill. No tribunal in Bengal, presided over by a Bengali judge, would admit for a moment this clumsy forgery. April 1912 ...
... constitution disapproved by the Sikhs. As for Assam, will the Assamese consent to commit suicide? For that is what the grouping means if it is a majority vote that decides in the group. The Hindus of Bengal and Assam joining together in the section of the Assembly will not have a majority. This opens a prospect that the League in this group may dictate a constitution which will mean the end of the Assamese... Page 473 from it. The constituencies of the province could then be so arranged as to give the Mussulmans an automatic majority. Assam could then be flooded with Mahomedan colonies from Bengal and Assam be made safe for Pakistan; after that the obliteration of Hinduism in the province could be carried out either by an immediate and violent or a gradual process once the separation of India... × This letter was sent over the signature of Nolini Kanta Gupta. The recipient was Surendramohan Ghosh, a Bengal Congress leader who was then serving as a member of the Constituent Assembly in Delhi. Surendramohan had written to Nolini explaining some of the provisions of the Cabinet Mission proposals. Sri A ...
... was very much appreciated by those who were trying to do my work in Bengal and they had drawn much encouragement from it and felt heartened by it in their endeavours. I write this to convey to you my blessings for all you have done on the occasion of the Jayanti and the great push it has given to the work and to the workers in Bengal. I have long been acquainted with your name and what you have done... have to persevere with great courage before they can say, "It is done." But I believe that as the labour is arduous so will the outcome be sure and satisfying. It has been a great good fortune for Bengal that you have been sent there as Governor and you may be confident that my blessings will attend you in your work. 3.9.49 ...
... general movement towards independence. Whether the Biharis are wise in desiring administrative separation from Bengal under the present bureaucracy, it is difficult to say. For our own part, we are inclined to doubt whether Bihar is as yet quite strong enough to stand by itself unassociated with Bengal or the United Provinces in resistance to a bureaucratic oppression; but if the Biharis generally think ... selected Srijut Deepnarain Singh to preside at Berhampur, they thought, no doubt, that they had hit upon a doubly suitable choice. As a young man and one known to be an ardent patriot he would not disgust Bengal by an ultra-moderate pronouncement; as a Zamindar he might be expected to have the fear of the Government before his eyes and to avoid giving open support to the ideas and programme of the New School ...
... and skilful policy but it needs for its success two conditions—weakness, vacillation and cowardice on the part of the Calcutta leaders and want of tenacity in the strong men of East Bengal. But the situation in East Bengal is only a local symptom. In dealing with the general disease, the Government policy is mere confusion. We may take its treatment of sedition as an instance. The clause dealing with... It would like to crush the people, but it dare not; it feels it necessary to make concessions, but it will not. This is the way Empires are lost. The only instance of a coherent policy is in East Bengal where the bureaucracy has envisaged the situation as an unarmed rebellion and is treating it on the military principle of isolating the insurgent forces and crushing them with the help of local allies ...
... —with which we have met every fresh crisis. When the whole of Bengal flung itself into a passionate struggle with the bureaucracy, it was not from any consciousness of strength, for neither the people nor the rulers had any idea of the latent possibilities of political strength in the country. It was in a moment of uncalculating anger that Bengal took up the policy a few daring spirits suggested and was... bureaucrats try to break our resistance as at Rawalpindi by wholesale arrest, deportation and police and military violence, as well as the still more questionable methods we have seen in operation in East Bengal, shall we still be able to persist, and, if not, what will be our next course? This is the question which has given pause for a moment to the active prosecution of the Nationalist campaign, since it ...
... A Statement 06-June-1907 Mr. John Morley has committed himself in the House of Commons to a trenchant and unqualified statement that the whole blame for the disturbances in East Bengal lies upon the Hindus who, by a violent and obstreperous boycott attended with coercion and physical force, have irritated the Mahomedans into revolt. Whether Mr. Morley made this statement out of a... the fiction is disproved a thousand times over. It will go on acting as if the fiction were a fact. We do not see therefore the utility of the statement which a majority of Page 484 the Bengal leaders have published and which we hear is to be telegraphed or has been telegraphed to England. If the object is to set ourselves right in the opinion of the world, well, that is an innocent amusement... absurd to suppose that Mr. John Morley at his age is going to allow himself to be convinced. He is far too old and wise to admit inconvenient facts. The statement contains a number of facts which all Bengal knows, which all India is sure to believe and all officialdom sure to deny. Beyond that the statement, a very able one in its way, merely encourages the consumption of stationery, patronises a pri ...
... cannot undertake the responsibility of a final decision. A plebiscite on a whole programme is an impossibility. Neither would it be binding. Bengal, for instance, is practically unanimous for Boycott. If the majority of votes went against Boycott, would Bengal accept the decision and tamely submit to repression? Or if the majority were for Boycott, would Bombay City agree to carry out the decision?... even if it were possible, would neither be useful nor necessary. The national programme has already been fixed by the Calcutta Congress and there is no need of a further plebiscite to decide it; in Bengal at least it has been universally accepted, with additions, and reaffirmed by the District Conferences and District Committees appointed to carry it out. Our correspondent seems to have misapprehended ...
... Karmayogin Passing Thoughts The Bhagalpur Literary Conference The prevalence of annual conferences in the semi-Europeanised life of Bengal is a curious phenomenon eloquent of the unreality of our present culture and the inefficiency of our modernised existence. Our old life was well, even minutely organised on an intelligent and consistent Oriental... attempt to relate ourselves to each other, which evinces a vague desire for united living, but no capacity to effect it. There was a time when a vigorous literary life seemed about to form itself in Bengal, and its relics are seen in the literary magazine and the Sahitya Parishad; but at present these serve only to record the extremely languid pulsation of our intellectual existence. The great intellectual... Indian characteristic, they might have revolutionised our society with comparatively small friction, but the parade of revolution which they made hampered their cause. Even as it is, Indian society, in Bengal at least, is changing utterly while all the time loudly protesting that it has not changed and will not change. The mould in which Raghunandan cast society, is disintegrating Page 456 as ...
... heard of villages where the liquor shop and the prostitute, institutions unknown twenty-five years ago, have now the mastery of the Page 985 poorest villagers. Many of the villages in West Bengal are now well supplied with these essentials of Western civilization. The people ground down between the upper millstone of the indigo planter and the nether millstone of the Zamindar, are growing full... which will make it so irresistible that all the tyranny of the officials, all the police oppression, every obstacle and hindrance which man can interpose will be swept away like so much chaff, and all Bengal become the fortress of Page 986 Swadeshi, its temple and its domain. This is the work to which the finger of God has been pointing us from the beginning of the present year by the success... direction to its activities when it undertook Famine Relief, but Famine Relief is a temporary work, one which needs an immense fund to be really effective, and only a united body of the leading men of Bengal could successfully cope with it. What our Samitis can do is to take up the work which we have indicated as a permanent part of their duties, put themselves in touch with the people, lead them to hope ...
... no other was the root-meaning of Swadeshism Page 38 in Bengal and of the Irish movement in its earlier less purely political stages. The emergence of Bengal as a sub-nation in India was throughout a strongly subjective movement and in its later development it became very consciously that. The movement of 1905 in Bengal pursued a quite new conception of the nation not merely as a country ...
... Aurobindo would not cut the figure of a world-leader. The world needs guidance by a man who can lay moulding hands on whole nations. Professor Iyengar shows vividly how Sri Aurobindo stirred Bengal and, through Bengal, India from end to end to a magnificent nationalism which was yet neither narrow rior isolationist. In eight crowded years Sri Aurobindo, choosing for leader the sincere clear-headed ... at the age of fourteen, an expansion which neither Huxley nor Haeckel allowed to be possible. So Binyon's query may be considered as setting the secret basic rhythm to the life of the boy from Bengal who had been taken out of India in 1881 when seven years old, tutored privately at first in an English family at Manchester, sent later to St. Paul's School in London and finally to King's College ...
... air of the nation's reawakening consciousness. Sri Aurobindo was at that time the political guru of Bengal. He realised at once the creative energy packed into this poem. With a gesture as of an ultimate world-secret found at last, he scattered the words of Bankim Chandra all over idealistic Bengal from whose "seventy million voices" that are rightly celebrated in the poem they spread to Gujarat and... But the inspired drive of it is admirably caught in general in Sri Aurobindo's own rendering which is born of his having felt it in his very bloodstream during the days when he led the revolt of Bengal against foreign rule: Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams, Cool with thy winds of delight, Dark fields waving, Mother ...
... last year in Bengal when at a meeting of the Nationalists in Calcutta it was decided to suggest to the country the name of Mr. Tilak as President of the Calcutta Congress and in accordance with this decision Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal, who was then touring in the Mofussil, was communicated with and asked to bring the question forward and take the sense of the public upon it in Eastern Bengal. We have never... first to obviate all discord by withdrawing. But it is not a personal matter and Mr. Tilak has not himself come forward as a candidate for the Presidentship. His name was put forward last year by the Bengal Nationalists without consulting him and was again put forward this year as the embodiment of a principle. This being so, Mr. Tilak has no voice in the matter except as an individual member of the ...
... will be ours. We hope also that Bengal will present a solid front against any reaction, but we have no right to be sure of it, and only if there is the strong moral backing of a number of delegates who will not compromise with their principles or allow respect of persons or utter persuasion or browbeating to sway them from their firm position, can we expect the Bengal leaders to stand fast against the... delegates who will support progress and to save the National Assembly from the danger of a disastrous and ignominious relapse into the past methods and ideas which the nation is fast outgrowing and which Bengal has altogether renounced. Page 803 ...
... arbitration, self-defence or whatever other things may be given to their hands to do. From Bengal the ideas of the new age must proceed, from Bengal must come the life of the movement, its high sense of principle, its fearless courage, its greatness, its broadness of view and keenness of vision. From Bengal the stream must flow, which will cleanse India of her impurities. If the work is to be well ...
... capital is being made by the Moderate Press of the difference of attitude between Bengal and Maharashtra Nationalism over the acceptance of the creed. The Mahratta Nationalists are many of them willing to sign the creed on the understanding that it is not put forward as an ultimate aim of Indian political effort. The Bengal Nationalists, with one or two exceptions, are determined to have nothing to do... many of the Nationalist delegates from Maharashtra saw no objection to signing the creed as it stood, and some of them went to the Pandal and offered to sign but were turned away. It was because the Bengal delegates refused to sign that the party as a whole did not appear at the Pandal to resume the struggle for progress. The position taken up by Mr. Tilak and the Mahrattas has not altered. They object ...
... another nature. Page 184 As regards Bengal, things are certainly very bad; the condition of the Hindus there is terrible and they may even get worse in spite of the interim marriage de convenance at Delhi. But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest despair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal and they are not going to be exterminated – even... like five millenniums at least and is going to carry on much longer and has accumulated quite enough power to survive. What is happening did not come to me as a surprise. I foresaw it when I was in Bengal and warned people that it was probable and almost inevitable and that they should be prepared for it. At that time no one attached any value to what I said although some afterwards remembered and ...
... bad as Madras merchants—writing can't be a profitable occupation for authors in Bengal. A hundred copies sale for a novel by one of the two best-selling writers of fiction does not sound colossal! Evidently the sooner the Congress Ministers start universalising education and compel Fazlul 109 to do the same in Bengal the better. But perhaps they will only insist on the teaching of Charka and cottage... cottage industries—in which case things will not be better for the authors. It makes me long for Page 288 the Soviet Republic where the authors are the millionaire class. As things are in Bengal, you are served—you get the fame and Gurudas pockets the money. November 25, 1937 (From Mother) I was with you in thought at the time of the music. I hope you are all right ...
... galloped less steadily Roland a whit." 55 You have just only to get on a horse and try to do these marvellous things to realise their impossibility—I won't promise that you won't be in the Bay of Bengal and the horse God knows where before you are quarter of the way through. Anyway your moon and star chandrabindu is just nothing to that. I am glad you liked the poem of last evening... whose only dream is to live the life of gay senses, what? Truly, Sotuda 's coming here will cause some stir—for the ripples of the shock will well travel rather widely to distant shores beyond Bengal too, I think—Radhakumud, Radhakamal, Dhurjati, Somnath, Suniti Chatterji—and heaps of others will feel a gnawing malaise at this satyendrian vairagya, I am sure. I have recaptured the colour... "Let her go anywhere except Pondicherry, never allow her to visit Pondicherry.” How strange! Tagore wrote to Sahana lately that the very name of Pondicherry has become a nightmare with many in Bengal. Qu'en dites-vous ? Why on earth a nightmare ? Do they think they will them- selves be drawn willy-nilly into this awful whirlpool ? Or is it a philanthropic fear for others ? However it ...
... passed by an Indian Council or Assembly, she was the first to speak against it. She was not afraid of the British Government and spoke what was in her mind. Soon she came to be a great influence in Bengal. She was one of those patriots for whom the youth had great respect. She told them once, "The good of your country should be your true aim... Think that the whole country is your country and your... of a national education based on Indian culture, Indian values, Indian spirit. One of her great interest was in the revival of ancient Indian art. Among her friends were the great artists of the Bengal renaissance, Rabanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. Another of her dreams was the blossoming of Indian science. She encouraged her friend, the great scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, to publish... first met Sister Nivedita in Baroda when she came to give some lectures there. Sri Aurobido was then the secretary of the Maharaja of Baroda. When Sri Aurobindo started his revolutionary work in Bengal, they collaborated, trying to unite all the existing underground groups under a single organisation. When in 1910 Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta guided by an inner voice, he asked Sister Nivedita to ...
... Yaksa in his Meghadūtam? May be, but it does not justify that he belonged to Orissa on this count. Some regard him as belonging to Bengal, as his name was Kālidāsa, the servant of Goddess Kālī, the famous Deity of Bengal. But this does not imply that he was born in Bengal. Some others take him to be a poet of Kashmir, where many great poets of India have been born. He is the only poet Page ...
... rather depressing to hear about the atrocities committed by some Mohammedans on Hindu families in Bengal... That was in 1935. All these Hindu-Muslim riots were going on at Page 81 that time. So we were rather depressed, though we had very little to do with Bengal or Gujarat or anything else. But we couldn't help being a little provincial, even at that time. So I... In the first place I am not prepared at present to return to British India. This is quite apart from any political obstacle. I understand that up to last September the Government of Bengal (and probably the Government of Madras also) were opposed to my return to British India and that practically this opposition meant that if I went back, I should be interned or imprisoned under one ...
... complicity in the murder of Mr. Ashe, and a few other revolutionaries. During the proceedings five pictures were garlanded with flowers, namely those of (1) the goddessKali, the patron saint of the Bengal revolutionary movement, (2) Bharat Mata, the personification of Mother India, (3) B.G. Tilak and (4) and (5) Khudiram Bose and Profulla Chaki, the two young Bengalis who threw the bomb which killed... disreputable character but has gone too far to retreat and must go on with it. A curious air of expectancy seems to pervade the party. Arabindo Ghose says in reply to a friend that he will not go back to Bengal as there will be trouble there shortly and the police will be sure to attribute it to him if he is back; Bharathi writing to a friend in Natal says that all their bad times and troubles are past; for... some reason I have not yet fathomed, they think 1915 to be the year of trouble. I can see no connection between them and any centre in Madras City. But I do not know how far the wires are pulled from Bengal through Arabindo Ghose and his party. But they will certainly require a longer subsidy if they are to be really active. Longden 5/8/12 D.I.G. Police, Railway & C.I.D., Madras ...
... in an orthodox Brahmin family. From a very young age in high school, he was involved in national revolutionary activities. His group in South India was closely connected with the Jugantar group of Bengal. Because of his activities, Sadguru had to take asylum in the French territory of Pondicherry. He was one of the group along with the poet Subrahmaniam Bharati, which received Aurobindo Ghosh at P... also known as the 'Steel Frame' of the British Indian Government) and a tradition-bound Britisher was then the sub-collector at the small sea port town of Tuticorin (now Thoothukudi) on the Bay of Bengal in South India. Like most Britishers in India of the day Ashe felt that the British owned India lock, stock and barrel, and Indians were destined only to serve their white alien masters, and their... He too turned approver. The cops did not leave a single stone unturned. Searches were made all over South India and the root of it all pointed to Pondicherry, the port town on the Bay of Bengal, then a part of French territory beyond the pale of British India. As the public prosecutor of Madras High Court, C. F. Napier commented later during the trial on '[t]he extraordinary way in which ...
... ink-pots and mender of pens". The poignancy of the Muslim economic situation was summed up by Hunter in these words, "A hundred and seventy years ago it was almost impossible for a well-born Mussalman in Bengal to become poor; at present it is almost impossible for him to continue rich". In the rest of the subcontinent as well, the Muslims had fallen on evil days in the aftermath of the mass uprising. Thus... It was at this critical moment that the Indian renaissance began and this was essentially due to the manner in which Hinduism reacted to the foreign domination. This reaction, which first started in Bengal, spread to all other parts of the country and included all the fields of culture. The sole exception was in the political field; for, till the end of the nineteenth century, British rule was accepted... inevitable product of forces already at work in the country; it would have emerged soon enough, Hume or no Hume." Hume, who was the son of a radical politician, entered the Indian Civil Service in Bengal in 1849. After serving as magistrate in the district of Etawah at the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, he was assigned to the board of revenue in the North-Western Provinces. From 1870-79 he was ...
... India in the Freedom Movement The Cultural Influence on the Freedom Movement As mentioned earlier in the chapter on the partition in Bengal, Ramsay Macdonald had exclaimed: 'Bengal is creating India by song and worship; it is clothing her in queenly garments.' In South India too, culture had a very powerful impact. We shall illustrate this phenomenon through... Bharati and Kamala Devi Chattopadhay. Bharati's Literature On 4 April 1910, a significant event occurred: Sri Aurobindo, poet, patriot and Yogi, arrived in Pondicherry from Bengal. Towards the end of 1910, V. V. S. Aiyar - Barrister Savarkar's comrade-in-arms - also arrived, escaping from the prison that was British India. Pondicherry was fast becoming the refuge of Indian patriots ...
... he led the chorus and the rest of us followed. Some of the old refrains still ring in my ears, I can still recall the words of songs like "Deep from the heart of Bengal today", "The Page 334 soil, the rivers of Bengal", "My golden Hindusthan". I have heard that Ullas is still alive, though almost halfdead, they say. Ten or twelve years of jail in the Andamans deranged him in... due to their being crushed under an iron chest.¹ Let me in this connection announce one of the feats of my college life. It was in that same year, 1905. Loud protests had arisen on account of the Bengal Partition and there was going to be observed a Day of Fasting or Rakhi-day or something like that. In what manner did I register my protest? I went to college dressed as if there had been a death in ...
... not refuse, he was given the permission. The gentleman arrived with a huge bouquet by way of a present and had the darśan. The three of us, namely Moni, Saurin and myself, who had returned to Bengal after an interval of four years, had to hasten back here almost immediately owing to the outbreak of War, for there was a chance that old criminals like us would again be shut up in jail. As we... Amarendra had suddenly disappeared one day. He lived the life of a primitive savage in the jungles of Assam; he had been selling poultry and eggs at the steamship stations along the rivers of East Bengal, in the garb of a Muslim complete with lungi and fez. And so many other things he had done just in order to avoid the Government's vigilant eye. Page 57 It was a long romantic tale... one of his books. You must have heard or read what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have said on the subject. I do not wish to add anything of my own, for I was not an eye-witness; I had been away in Bengal for a while. Now that we are on this topic of cooks and cooking, let me add a few words about myself in this connection. I had, as Page 61 I said, some practice in the work of ...
... Boltey paarish bishwo-pita bhogbaner kon shey jaat? Kon chheyleyr taanr lagley chhonoua Page 26 The ancestral Bhattacharya residence in Berhampur in West Bengal A view of the courtyard leading to the covered verandah and the parlour of the Bhattacharya residence. The Chandi-mandap (a shrine to Kali) in front of the... also a member of the Congress. After some disagreement with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel over some issue he quit the party. When Page 27 Prafulla Ghosh became the chief minister of West Bengal the second time he joined his cabinet as the finance minister. Let me tell you something amusing in this con Nolinaksha-babu had a dog. This dog had a pretty thick tail. My father had taken one... Everyone had a good laugh. * Dada told us one day: People used to call my father Mangalda and Motakaka Bengalda. As Motakaka was born during the movement, against the partition of Bengal he was this name. My younger uncle who focussed on building his arm-muscles was called Dumbell-da. Dumbell-da was very bright in studies. He somehow scraped through Matriculation and then tried and ...
... reject her relation with her husband. She must remain firm in her resolve about the yoga and allow things to take their own course. Disciple : I know of some cures effected by Pagala Kali Baba in Bengal. An iron ring is given to the patient to be worn always on the person. If he takes it off under any circumstances he again gets a relapse. There are other rules also, e.g., he must change his clothes... in India Disciple : But Dr. S was saying that using high potencies might harm, or even kill the patient. It is dangerous if everybody begins to practice it, they say. Disciple : In Bengal it is practised everywhere. Sri Aurobindo : Is Unani medicine practised in India? Disciple : Yes, in cities where there is a Mohamedan population, and in the Muslim States. In Delhi... you to write books. Sri Aurobindo : Not only that, he wanted me to write more poetry and more letters to him. (Laughter) 19-7-1943 Disciple : A has written to some one in Bengal that the vital being in man is responsible for diseases and that the body has no part in it. What do you think of it? Sri Aurobindo : You can say "matter" knows nothing about good and bad ...
... powers are given. NIRODBARAN: Only Bengal and the Punjab remain now under the Muslim League. SRI AUROBINDO: The Muslim League is not so strong in Bengal, for there is the Praja Party. And in the Punjab, Sikander Hyat Khan looks like an able man. Only in the United Provinces does the Muslim League seem strong. If the Congress could win in Sind, then the Bengal and Punjab Premiers will stand on two ...
... activity, 191; political strategy, 191; Vice-Principal & Actg. Principal, 191; experimenting with planchette, 192; Bhavani Mandir, 194-200, 209, 282, 304; breakdown of political period, 201; reaction to Bengal partition, 207-8; Hour of God, 208-9; on the boycott of 16 Oct., 210; letters to Mrinalini, 213-15,235,265; the "three frenzies", 213ff; on "Mother India", 214; his mahavrata, 214; at Benaras Congress... the young, 528; reply to Moonje on Nagpur CongressPresidentship, 528ff; talk with Saraladevi, 530; reply to C. R. Das, 531; discussion with Das, 531-2; on HinduMuslim unity, 532; refusal to return to Bengal, 532; "evening talks", 532ff, 543, 544; on khadi, kilafat, 533; on corruption and lust for power, 534; talk with Devadas Gandhi, 534; first companions and disciples, 535-6; Purani's coming, 536, 537;... Pandit, M.P, 579, 690, 747 Panikkar, K. M., 722 Parabrahman, 158 Paradise Lost, 614, 664 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 42-3,191,281,328 Partition of Bengal, 201, 204ff, 282, 294 Patkar. R.N.,51,52,53,195 Patwardhan, Annasaheb, 276 Pavitra (P. B. de St. Hilaire), 539ff, 576 Pearson, N., 516fn Perse, St. John, 78 ...
... who believed in petitioning to the British rulers to vouchsafe doses of self-government, seemed to be out of tune with the temper of the people. The decision of Lord Curzon's Government to partition Bengal was felt as a blow to the unity of the Bengalees and a challenge to awakened India. Sri Aurobindo had been for some time playing an important part in the behind-the-scenes activities of the Indian... offered. A great nation which has had that vision can never again bend its neck, in subjection to the yoke of a conqueror. 17 Sri Aurobindo simultaneously took charge of the new Bengal National College, though later on he gave up the Principalship to devote himself entirely to politics. He was now content with a salary one-fifth of what he had been drawing at Baroda for some years... ladies. A few dates may be given as the significant landmarks of Sri Aurobindo's political period: August 1906 Sri Aurobindo was in effective charge of both Bande Mataram and the Bengal National College. December 1906 At the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress, Sri Aurobindo played a prominent part, along with noted fellow Nationalists like Bal Gangadhar ...
... Vaishnavic experiences, he remained, to the last day of his life, a most devoted and docile child of the Mother, moved by Her Will at every moment of his life. Page 48 In Bengal I had bought a copy of Sri Aurobindo's "The Mother" and I found that it insisted on the same surrender—unquestioning and integral surrender to the Mother. On coming here, when I saw the Mother, I felt... Vivekananda's Rajayoga is a famous book. No wonder you find it so illuminating. Most of his utterances are like that—full of light and aglow with his soul's fire. I read almost all his books in Bengal, and have read over again some of them here. I am reading the Savitri also everyday. I hope you are reading the Prayers & Meditations. Both these books have an inner affinity, as if they pulse... the Veda only at Pondicherry and not before, and found in the mystic verses of the Rig-veda an illuminating confirmation of his own experiences and realisations. The Kathopanishad was translated in Bengal and also Isha, Kena and Mundaka. The rest were probably done in Pondicherry. Isha and Kena he revised and elaborated in the Arya, so far as I can see. In the Arya he started with the Life Divine, the ...
... Disciple : Yes, it seems unfortunate that at this time the Congress should be divided. Sri Aurobindo : Quite so. Whenever he has been in authority there has been trouble. Congress-split in Bengal came in his time. He is an intellectual without grasp of the Page 196 realities. He talks of India exerting international influence! You are not even a nation and you talk of being... international! You have to be first independent. Even in a small affair like the China-Japanese war, what you have been able to do is to send an ambulance unit. Disciple : Our Y who was in Bengal politics has not a very high opinion about Subhas Bose. He says, he is a good lieutenant but can't be a great leader. Sri Aurobindo : That has been my impression all along. Disciple ... he stands for principles, but all the time he is asking 'vote for me'. Disciple : But he is very sincere and honest. Disciple : Many leaders are that. Disciple : Not in Bengal – they are almost all dishonest. Sri Aurobindo : What do you mean by sincerity? Sincere means ready to suffer for the cause and honest means, he accepts no bribe or money. Is it not? But even ...
... Mother said, "How people deceive themselves!" Page 163 14.4.72 Mother did not see anyone this morning. 15.4.72 Informed Mother of 5 lakhs from the West Bengal Government for the West Bengal pavilion. We can use 1.20 at present. Balance in future for the pavilion. * * * Blessings for Dick for sale work of books printed by Auropress. * * * Tomorrow... her was given to Mother. She touched it throughout with care and smilingly. * * * A request from an American woman to come to Auroville was approved 'on trial'. An old man from Bengal wants to come to Auroville to spend the last days of his life. Mother said, "Auroville is not for the last days of life". * * * 2.5.72 Piero has written to Mother requesting her ...
... On the previous year, when I was in class IX, an All-Bengal literary composition competition had been organised. Almost all the schools in Bengal had participated in this competition. From St. Margaret's School I had been selected. The subject of the composition was 'Rishi Bankim'. I came first in the competition among all the participants of Bengal, and a big silver cup was awarded to me. The Mother ...
... tantalisingly jumbled together that, at one and the same time, a lyric may be read both as sensuous erotic poetry and as the true mystical sublime of the poetry of devotion. The bhakti movement in Bengal was doubtless a part of a nation-wide movement, yet it had its distinctive local characteristics as well. Many years later, Sri Aurobindo brilliantly defined as follows the unique quality of this... reference to Anandamath, there was no mention of the song itself which was a part of the novel. But the song leapt out of its obscurity and blazed into sudden prominence during the 'Partition of Bengal' explosive agitation, and has since been enshrined in the nation's heart as an inspired anthem. In Sri Aurobindo's own words, The Mantra had been given and in a single day a whole people had... of the jīva for final union with the hourly experienced, yet still unapprehended, immensity and mystery and sublimity of the sea and the Universe that is like the sea. It is not simply the Bay of Bengal or the Indian Ocean, it is these, and beyond them (but also comprehending them), it is something more elemental, more primordial, - the ultimate Existence itself! As the sea is to Ellidda in Ibsen's ...
... great new beginnings, and of new ties that were destined to endure. Some of the young men, Nolini, Moni and Saurin, paid a visit to Bengal early in 1914, but on the war breaking out, they returned to Pondicherry in September. When Bejoy too wished to pay a brief visit to Bengal, he was arrested at the border near Pondicherry as an ex-revolutionary and kept in jail for the duration of the war. Another inmate... ultimate victory. Perhaps there was some suggestion that Sri Aurobindo should pursue his Yoga in a place less exposed to the peril of politics and publicity than Pondicherry; Lord Carmichael, Governor of Bengal, did in fact send out a feeler through Krishna Kumar Mitra in 1915 inquiring whether Sri Aurobindo would like the ban on him to be removed to facilitate his return to India and settling down in a quiet ...
... close quarters for some time.... Today new Bengal is eager to hear about him." Repeated D. K. Roy, "Today millions of Bengali readers are, indeed, very anxious to know something of the past life of Aurobindo. I hope the holy saga of this dedicated votary of Mother India will be appreciated by the youth of Bengal.... I believe that in future, people born in Bengal with a heart will feel joy and satisfaction ...
... targetting in the main the three extremist newspapers running in Bengal: Yugantar, Sandhya, 1 an eveninger, 1. Sandhya, a Bengali daily, made its debut in 1904, that is two years before Page 356 and the Bande Mataram. Between them they practically revolutionized the political attitude of Bengal. Press prosecutions were also directed against other vernacular... chief of the Yugantar band, who has exercised a greater influence over the revolutionary movement in India than perhaps any other man." 2 1. Life-Work of Sri Aurobindo. 2.West Bengal govt.'s I. B. Records (L.N.54A). From Haridas and Uma Mukherji's Sri Aurobindo ba Banglar Biplabbad. Page 358 We have further details from Professors Haridas and Uma Mukherjee. ...
... "to deprive His Majesty the King-Emperor of India of the Sovereignty of British India or a part thereof ..."; it was "to overawe by criminal force the Government of India or the Local Government of Bengal," etc. But all men are not alike. There were those who had courage. Among them was Bejoy Krishna Bose, who appeared for the accused from the very beginning to the end of the trial in all the Courts... (Law Publishers, 1922). He says in the Preface: "The Alipore Bomb Trial was the first State Trial of any magnitude in India, because it was held at a time when discontent reached its highest point in Bengal and it concerned people who were gentlemen belonging to the best society, cultured, educated and highly intelligent." The book tells us that the mass of documents filed, if counted individually, amounted... Beachcroft proceeded to acquit Sri Aurobindo. Here is an extract from the report of a dashed F. C. Dally, Deputy Inspector General, Special Branch, to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Bengal, F. W. Duke, on the moment all had been expecting for the past twelve months: "The sentences were received in silence —that is, silence compared to the Page 479 turmoil that there ...
... newspaper has pulled you by both your ears, and slapped both your cheeks and made fools of you in the midst of the market place." In its hour of trial the paper had the sympathy of the whole of Bengal at its back. "We note with satisfaction and gratitude," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "that all classes of men, rich and poor, all shades of opinion, moderate or extremist, the purveyors of ready-made loyalty... Mataram reprinted extracts from many newspapers, such as Indian Daily News, Empire, Maharatta, Madras Standard, Indian Patriot, etc. Thus the young man who was not so well known publicly outside Bengal, became an all-India household name overnight. So far people had been wont to think that the pithy and pungent articles flowed out of Bepin Pal's pen, but now everybody knew that those were from the... that his name will occupy a high place in the history of future India." From Daccaprakash: "The patriotism of this great man and his uncommon self-sacrifice attracted the heart of every son of Bengal. It rends the heart to say that the man who, in response to the call of duty, thus threw away all luxuries of life and was, though a human being, exhibiting divine traits, is now like a thief being ...
... drishti is seeing. That upwardly fixed gaze of Sri Aurobindo's was not a new phenomenon begun at Chandernagore. It had already drawn the attention of no less a person than the Lt. Governor 1 of Bengal at the time of the Alipore Sedition Case. He asked Charu Dutt, "Have you seen Aurobindo Ghose's eyes?... He 1 The same Lt. Governor Andrew Fraser (attempt on his life was made on 6 Dec... training was not limited to sight. Hearing too was included. He heard voices and could distinguish from where they came. Some told "prophecies of future; but with appeal to reason." That year the Bengal Nationalist Party's Provincial Conference was held in Jhalakati on 19 June. The speech Sri Aurobindo delivered there stirred his audience to the depth of its being. He tersely noted down in his diary... know that Ramsay MacDonald and his wife visited 6 College Square. Then there were the students. How they adored Sejdal With reason, of course. When, for instance, at the Hooghly Conference of the Bengal Congress Committee the Moderates conspired to eliminate the student community from participating in the deliberations, 'Aurobindo Babu' it was who, single-handedly, manoeuvred to get the students admitted ...
... mills are being started in Bengal, they have for the present stopped taking in fresh students. The capitalists of Bengal should take note of this and now that there will be no lack of trained experts should see that their expert knowledge is not wasted simply because there are no enterprising capitalists to utilise them. The whole country, and Page 607 specially Bengal, owes a deep debt of gratitude ...
... s majority had not been in force. It thus became apparent that the Nationalist party might easily command a majority of the local delegates and, since the place of session was within easy reach of Bengal and a strong body of Nationalist votes from the North, from Madras and from the Deccan might be expected, Loyalism was evidently in danger of a serious reverse compared with which its experiences at... the Surat respectables and Mr. Krishnaswamy Aiyar and his Mahajan Sabha danced to the skilful manipulation. We do not believe the Madras offer was anything but a feint, for Madras is much too near to Bengal and there is already a strong Nationalist party in the northern parts of that province; but to have only the single offer from Surat would have been to leave the whole intrigue too bare to the public... te the Committee and hold the session as arranged at Calcutta, the Moderate majority records a predetermined decision to transfer Sir Pherozshah's movable property to Surat at a safe distance from Bengal where the Loyalist position is as yet unbreached and there is no time for the Nationalists to instruct public opinion before the holding of the session. The intrigue is now complete, to the huge ...
... in lieu of Mr. Tilak. The reasons for this proposal and its rejection are not far to seek. Sj. Surendranath is recognised all over India as the acknowledged leader of one of the two great parties in Bengal, a man with a great name and a great following in the country and, what is more important from the Nationalist standpoint, one who, whatever vagaries his ideas of policy may lead him into, is believed... difficult to understand why the Moderates of Nagpur have shied at the idea of Srijut Surendranath's Presidentship. The Moderatism of Western India is much more Loyalist than Moderate, unlike that of Bengal, where except in the case of a small minority Moderatism wears loyalty more or less loosely as a sort of cloak or garment of respectability than as an essential part of its politics. This tendency... excuse to cover an untenable position. For our part we do not think the question of the Presidentship need be made a cause of final cleavage. Dr. Rash Behari Ghose is pledged like most public men in Bengal to Swadeshi and Boycott and this is still the most important issue before the Congress. If therefore the Loyalists can still be got to listen to reason in the matter of the Rashtriya Mandali funds ...
... National Assembly might see through the deception and publicly demand that there should be either substantial concessions or none at all. In India itself the Moderates feared that the forward party in Bengal might force through the Congress strong resolutions on Boycott and other alarming matters or else avenge their failure by wrecking the Congress itself, but they hoped that by an imposing show of e... independence that the spells on which the Moderate leaders had depended, failed of their power to charm. The lion of the Bombay Corporation found that a mightier lion than himself had been aroused in Bengal,—the people. For ourselves, what have we to reckon as lost or gained? No strongly worded resolutions have been pressed and we are glad that none have been passed, for we believe in strong action... the British Government and this is only a somewhat meaningless paraphrase of autonomy or complete self-government. The Congress has recognised the legitimacy of the Boycott movement as practical in Bengal without limitation or reservation and in such terms that any other province which Page 207 feels itself called upon to resort to this weapon in order to vindicate its rights, need not hesitate ...
... the leaders to go to East Bengal and hold meetings in every District; and those who go, should not be any lesser men but the leaders of the two parties in Bengal themselves. We are inclined to think it was a mistake to recall Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal Page 410 from Madras at this juncture; but since he has been recalled, it should be for a joint action in East Bengal against the policy of ...
... Banerji has constituted himself in the past the chief panda . We advocate abstention from Legislative Councils and other Government bodies, but so do the old leaders strongly recommend it—to East Bengal. We advocate the assertion by the people of their right to carry on the agitation in every lawful way,—but so did the old leaders at Barisal. We advocate abstention from all association with the ... agency and Indian energy in every department of life for our old state of dependency on foreign agency and energy. We advocate an organised system of self-development guided by a Council with regard to Bengal and an open democratic constitution for the Congress instead of the secret unconstitutional manipulations of a few leaders. We advocate finally, autonomy as the ideal and goal of our endeavours. Where... part in its deliberations. But at the present time the aspect of things has greatly changed. The party predominates in the Deccan, is extremely strong in the Punjab and a force to be reckoned with in Bengal. It numbers among its leaders and adherents many men of ability, energy and culture, some of whom have done good service in the past and others are obviously among the chief workers of the future. ...
... Government in the Punjab with that of the Government in Bengal. In the Punjab, because there was a popular riot, all the leading Hindu gentlemen have been arrested on outrageous charges, the town held by cavalry, siege-guns pointed upon it, the police ordered to butcher any group of five to be seen in the streets or public places. If the East Bengal Nawabs and Maulavis had been similarly treated and similar... similar measures taken in Jamalpur, we could have admired the impartial, if ferocious energy of the bureaucracy. Compare again the action in Bengal itself. A rumour is spread that the Hindus would attack the Mahomedan piece-goods shops in Comilla; at once Mr. Lees posts constables and himself stands on guard over the bazaar. A rumour is spread that the Jamalpur accused are coming up with an army of ...
... that the misgovernment in Eastern Bengal is a natural result of British policy or rather of the peculiar position of the bureaucracy in India. That position can only be maintained either by hypnotising the people or terrorising them. The new spirit is unsealing the eyes of the people and breaking the hypnotic spell of the last century; especially in East Bengal the process of disillusionment has been... been fairly thorough. The bureaucracy is therefore compelled to fall back on the only other alternative, terrorism. But our Moderate friends will persist in believing that the policy in East Bengal is only the policy of individuals. They are therefore "demanding" the recall of Mr. Hare. "He has eclipsed", says the Bengalee , "the record of Aurangzeb as a persecutor of Hindus, without Aurangzeb's excuse ...
... Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 24.Oct.1906 - 27.May.1907 Bande Mataram The East Bengal Disturbances 25-May-1907 We have said that the deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai brings no new element into the situation beyond hastening the processes of Nationalism and bringing us from a less to a more acute stage of our progress to independence... storm, while Pabna still hovers on the brink of it. It is not that the Nawab's campaign was not vigorously pursued in other parts. The Red Pamphlet has been ubiquitous throughout Eastern and Northern Bengal; the preachings of the Nawab's Mullahs have been as persistent, as malignant in Barisal, in Calcutta, in every strong centre of Swadeshism. But though there have been alarms and excursions even as... docile, peaceful and law-abiding. These superstitions exploded in the explosions at Jamalpur, and the conflagration that followed meant the collapse of a policy. The hooligan disturbances in East Bengal bring therefore no new elements into the situation, but, like the deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai, merely make it more acute and hasten the processes of Nationalism. They create no new conditions, but ...
... report can hardly be correct. So far as we are aware, Srijut Bipin Chandra has come to no final conclusion on the question of holding or not holding public meetings in East Bengal at the present moment. The Nationalist leaders in Bengal are in consultation at present on the best way Page 457 of meeting the new situation and until the opinions of all are known, no definite pronouncement on the... request the public neither to be depressed nor to lose their heads,—of both which contingencies there seems to be some danger,—but to remember that by their handling of the present crisis the people of Bengal will either keep or lose their political lead in the Nationalist movement. Page 458 ...
... So long the educated men of the upper castes debated among themselves about the better ordering of society, and outside Bengal and the Punjab it was no better than an academic dispute on the Social Conference platform or between the reforming and orthodox Press. Even in Bengal and the Punjab, the movement was sectional, a revolt of Page 903 a small minority of the educated few, and did... eruption is over, does not depend on the wishes or the wisdom of men. These social stirrings also are mingling with the political unrest to increase the confusion. The question of the Namasudras in Bengal has become a political as well as a social problem and in other parts of the country also the line between politics and social questions is threatened with obliteration. The future is not in our ...
... apparent in Bengal. Now that Bipin Chandra is coming out of prison, we look to his triumphant oratory, the Pythian inspiration of his matchless eloquence to reawaken the spirit of lofty idealism, of unflinching devotion to principle which it was his mission to confirm if not awaken, and which is now more evident in Madras where his influence is the chief inspiring force than in Bengal, the home of... of the bureaucracy except the exalted faith, the unflinching courage, the unswerving devotion to principle which has been so strangely, suddenly born in the hearts of this generation of young men in Bengal. There lies the true strength of Nationalism and the enemies of Nationalism instinctively feel it. They are concerned therefore not so much to crush the inadequate and rudimentary material means which ...
... the nation is awake write his welcome in letters of fire on balcony and roof of their dwellings not only in Bengal but in Madras, in Maharashtra, in the Punjab, wherever Nationalism is alive and the name of the Mother is honoured. We invite our countrymen all over India to become one with Bengal in the act of a rejoicing which is not for a man but for the cause he has served. Let us also arrange to lead... which all the world cannot fail to understand. Let it be the seal of the reconciliation which began at Pabna, and the beginning of united action for the better organisation of the work to which all Bengal without distinction of parties is now irrevocably pledged. Page 902 ...
... Jhalakati Speech Delivered at Jhalakati, Bakarganj District, Eastern Bengal and Assam, on 19 June 1909. Text published in the Bengalee on 27 June and reproduced in the Karmayogin on 3 July. Another version, taken down by police agents and reproduced in a Government of Bengal confidential file, appears in the last volume of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Fell... themselves in crowds on the roof and braved the fury of the hurricane and by main strength held down the roof over their heads? That is the lesson that all must learn and especially the young men of Bengal and India. The storm may come down on us again and with greater violence. Then remember this, brave its fury, feel your strength, train your strength in the struggle with the violence of the wind, ...
... sentiment of the great majority of the delegates gave them at Hughly. If things go by the counting of heads, as is the rule in democratic politics, the Nationalist sentiment commands the greater part of Bengal. But in leaders of recognised weight, established reputation and political standing the party is necessarily inferior to the Moderates, both because it is a younger force very recently emerged and... not to allow any resolution recognising general passive resistance, not to allow any resolution amounting to an absolute refusal of the Reforms, not to allow any resolution debarring delegates from Bengal from joining the Lahore Convention in case of that body rejecting union and not to consent even to the bringing forward of any amendment or proposal of a pronounced nationalist character in the Conference... ity of leadership fell in the absence of older colleagues who have been temporarily or permanently removed from the field. The Nationalist party is in practical possession of the heart and mind of Bengal. It is strongly supported in other parts of India and controls Maharashtra. It is growing in strength, energy and wisdom. It surely inherits the future. Under such circumstances it can afford to wait ...
... Karmayogin Speech at the Hughly Conference Delivered at the Bengal Provincial Conference, held at Hughly, Bengal, on 6 September 1909. Report published in the Bengalee on 7 September and reproduced in a Government of India Home Department file. Aurobindo Ghose spoke to Resolution No. IV—"that this conference urges the people to continue... view of politics and it was our intention to press this resolution upon the Subjects Committee. But we found that by pressing the point on the Committee the hope of a United Congress and the unity of Bengal and this Provincial Conference might be seriously imperilled. Now we are extremely anxious for the unity of the Congress. We are anxious we should throw no obstacle in the way of any hope of union ...
... violent rebound to the religion, the thoughts, the habits and the speech of his forefathers. It is the spirit of old Bengal which incarnated itself in him, with the strength, courage, passionate adherence to conviction which was the temperament of old Bengal and which modern Bengal had for a period lost. His declaration in Court and his death put a seal upon the meaning of his life and left his name ...
... Documents - I Suggested Rules of Business for the Congress SUBJECTS COMMITTEE: — 1) Each of the six Provinces, namely, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, United Provinces, The Punjab and the Central Provinces shall return Members to the Subjects Committee as follows:— Bengal & Assam - 20. Bombay - 15. Madras - 15. United Provinces - 15. Punjab - 10. Central Provinces - 10. 2) No subject... For the purpose of voting on any proposition that is brought before the Congress, the delegates of each Province shall elect 170 Representatives distributed among the six Provinces as follows:— Bengal - 40. Bombay - 30. Madras - 30. United Provinces - 30. Punjab - 20. Central Provinces - 20. The method of election shall be the same as in the case of the Members of the Subjects ...
... should be directed against British products first of all. The immediate exclusion of all foreign goods was obviously impracticable. But very soon it became evident that the voice of the whole nation in Bengal and Maharashtra was for the more comprehensive movement, and the leaders wisely put aside their own opinion and made themselves simply executors of the national will. Wisely, because at such times... must be a sup-plying agency which brings the goods to a near and convenient market and, as far as possible, to the doors of the people. The difficulty of supply is grievously felt in many parts of Bengal; but there is no one whose duty it is to consider the difficulty and meet it. Swadeshi is in danger of being stifled under the mass of spurious goods, foreign masking as indigenous, which the dishonest... that the great mass of the Indian people cherish this aspiration and would willingly follow any practicable means of bringing it into the list of accomplished ideals. Previous to the great movement in Bengal this idea had been twice put into motion and produced a certain result, but the idea then was absolute abstention from all purchase of articles not genuinely Indian. Such a self-denial may be possible ...
... men who lead it, not by any settled convictions or intelligent policy. The personalities of Mr. Gokhale and Sir Pherozshah Mehta in Bombay, of Sj. Surendranath Banerji and Sj. Bhupendranath Bose in Bengal, of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya in the United Provinces, of Mr. Krishnaswamy Aiyar in Madras constitute Moderatism in their respective provinces. What these old and respected leaders decide in their... years. Mr. Gokhale is still the political henchman of Lord Minto and echoes his sentiments with a pathetic fidelity. The manifesto of the Moderate leaders in Calcutta is of more importance. The Bengal veterans have not yet lost caste by publicly turning against their countrymen and approving Government repression; they still keep some touch with public sentiment and have not yielded body and soul... the modification of one clause and the complaint that the "relief" thus afforded was insignificant and many distinguished men would still be barred out of the Council. Are the distinguished men of Bengal paupers cringing for personal doles that this kind of language should be used or this kind of argument advanced? We cannot congratulate the framer of the manifesto either on the form or the matter ...
... would appear that he did the translation during the period of his stay in Baroda; yet he is recorded as saying, "I translated the Shwetashwatara Upanishad while I was in Bengal." It is possible that he did the translation in Bengal during one of his vacations from Baroda College between 1902 and 1906. He retranslated the fourth chapter in Pondicherry several years later. The early translation of chapters... The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Circa 1904-6. Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece during the latter part of his stay in Baroda. (He seems to have left the manuscript in western India when he came to Bengal in February 1906.) After completing six chapters and part of a seventh, he broke off work and never took it up again. The second to the seventh chapters of this work were included in The Upanishads ...
... But the Mother had other ideas. She gave him the flower “Aspiration in the Physical”, saying this flower would bring him back. And so it happened. Sahana-di, his aunt — well-known in Bengal as the Nightingale of Bengal — was already here. Then others of the family, mother Amiya, aunts Nolina and Aruna and brother Kunal followed. It seems Nolina-di’s husband, Dr. Ghosh, sent Bulada to the Ashram to bring... are, lose their identity, — or have they merged their individuality into a greater ONE? Just listen to this and draw your own conclusions. The famous Anandamoyee (a great guru in her Ashram) from Bengal, once visited our Ashram with a few of her disciples. Bula-da had a great wish to see her (meet her). He could not, due to his duties. He hurried through his work, and would have made it just before ...
... enough, with sympathy, to feel and go through the heat barriers he wore, one may feel the joy he felt. Yogananda (né Jotindra) was born in Kargaon village near Kishoreganj of Mymensingh District, Bengal. He was born on the 17th of August 1898. A sister preceded and four brothers followed him. They lost their mother early. Their father and his mother brought them up. Around 1918 Jotindra came under... disciples were anarchists. No proof was found nor was it necessary in those days. Jogdananda was put in jail for one and a half months in Mymensingh and then shifted to another jail somewhere in West Bengal. A year passed and he was released in January of 1920. He returned to the ashram. In jail he had ample time to think and ruminate over the same thoughts. There was nothing else to do. He confronted... everything, picked up his “ jhola and gerua ” (bag and ochre robes) and left, determined not to return and to go to the South. He set out in 1928 — but went to the east — Rangoon and Chittagong. Back to Bengal, anger subsided, he visited home, and then moved to Calcutta, in June 1932. In Calcutta he met a young sadhu. They talked and in their conversation the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry was mentioned ...
... to perform puja. These priests soon began to take the stone with them to their homes and then the Bhattacharya family house completely broke up. Ultimately refugees began to pour into West Bengal from East Bengal and the land now belongs to the government and is used partly for agriculture, partly for housing. Word was sent to Sri Aurobindo when Jhumur’s parents married in 1936 after which special... evident to me as the interviews proceeded. She was born in Calcutta on November 27, 1939. Her great-aunt, her paternal grandmother’s sister, was one of the first disciples of Sri Aurobindo in West Bengal. The aunt, Indubala Banerji, immediately recognized Sri Aurobindo as her guru and he gave her a very specific work. She had begun to read Sri Aurobindo’s early writings, came into contact with him ...
... I came back to Bengal with the idea of preaching the cause of independence as a Political Missionary. I moved about from District to District and started gymnasiums. There young men were brought together to learn physical exercises and study politics I went on preaching the cause of independence for nearly two years. By that time I had been through almost all the Districts of Bengal; I got tired of... of it and went back to Baroda and studied for one year. I then returned to Bengal convinced that a purely political propaganda would not do for the country and that people must be trained up spiritually to face dangers. I had an idea of starting a religious institution. By that time the Swaideshi and Boycott agitation had begun. I thought of taking men under my own instruction to teach them and so I ...
... stay with Sri Aurobindo in Baroo during this visit his brother initiated him with the revolutionary oath. Early in 1903 he left for Calcutta to join Jatin Banerji, Sri Aurobindo's first emissary to Bengal, in revolutionary recruitment and organization, At this time he met Abinash Bhattacharya, who became his companion and assistant in the following years. The two spread their militant ideas especially... modified form in the centre at Maniktola. Barin returned to Calcutta in the spring of 1906. Sri Aurobindo, having resigned his position in Baroda, also moved there at this time. The Partition of Bengal had awakened the people from their political slumber, and the two brothers realised that the moment had come for public work. Sri Aurobindo joined the staff of the Bande Mataram and put forth the... First World War. In 1920 Barin visited Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry and stayed for a brief time. He returned in 1923 and lived for six years in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In 1929 Barin settled in Bengal, where he remained for thirty years of his life. He left several memories of his experience revolutionary and a prisoner. Extracts from these reminiscences are given below. ...
... yoga. These ten years he has been making me develop it in experience; it is not yet finished. It may take another two years. And so long as it is not finished, I probably will not be able to return to Bengal.’ 10 This shows clearly that it was not Sri Aurobindo’s intention to remain in seclusion in his Pondicherrian ‘cave of tapasya’. He would in future confirm this several times, as late as in 1943... talk, jokes and criticism which might be called personal — there was seriousness and earnestness in abundance.’ 49 Dilip Kumar Roy was born in ‘one of the most aristocratic Brahmin families of Bengal.’ His father was a poet and playwright, and Dilip, when still young, made a name for himself as a singer mainly of religious songs, after having studied mathematics and music in Cambridge. He spoke... not stand in the way of my being accepted. Also I saw [Bertrand] Russell in his Cornwall home, gave a few lectures here and there and booked a passage home in November, 1927.’ After a short stay in Bengal, he arrived for the second time in Pondicherry in August 1928. ‘I was a little crestfallen to learn that Sri Aurobindo had in the meanwhile gone into seclusion.’ He had an interview with the Mother ...
... retraction has some- thing to do with Tagore's retraction—albeit private now, but I expect sooner or later he will write somewhere about your becoming a thorough introvert. There of course the whole Bengal intelligentsia (such as it is) will agree with him. Are you staggered at such a lugubrious prospect? I cannot find any symptom of a stagger in me, not even of a shake or a quake or a quiver—all... whole the book is a masterly creation." This is no formal praise as you can see. So can't help a little unyogic joy to hear such lavish encomium bestowed on my novel by the greatest novelist of Bengal (of India that is) and one of the greatest novelist of all ages. Your blessings! Page 117 It is indeed very high praise, as high as any man can give to another's work and coming from... my Judgment was mistaken, ignorant, partial and perhaps not wholly sincere. It began with your poetry even at the time of Anami73 and the forces at play spoke through some literary celeries of Bengal and reached here through reviews, letters, etc. There has been much inability to appreciate Arjava's poetry, Yeats observing that he had evidently something to say but struggled to say it with too ...
... second at the [district] 1 Conference at Midnapur where he for the first time acted publicly as the leader of the Bengal Nationalists, and the final break took place at Surat in 1907. × MS Bengal Provincial. See Table 1, page 566 .—Ed. ... there were sometimes disputes behind the scenes but nothing came out in public. These men of extremer views were not even an organised group; it was Sri Aurobindo who in 1906 persuaded this group in Bengal to take [a] public position as a party, proclaim Tilak as their leader and enter into a contest with the Moderate leaders for the control of the Congress and of public opinion and action in the country ...
... Corrections of Statements Made in Biographies and Other Publications Autobiographical Notes Principal of the Bengal National College The Bengal National College was ... founded and Sri Aurobindo became its Principal.... But [his nationalistic activities were] not to the liking of the management, and Sri Aurobindo therefore resigned his position. ... not to embarrass the College authorities but resumed it again on his acquittal. During the Alipur Case he resigned finally at the request of the College authorities. Now [after resigning from the Bengal National College] Sri Aurobindo was free to associate himself actively with the Nationalist Party and its accredited organ, Bandemataram. It was done long before that as the above account will ...
... revolutionary work in Bengal through certain emissaries, I went there personally to see and arrange things myself. 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... generation; but during my absence at Baroda the council ceased to exist as it was impossible to keep up agreement among the many groups. I had no occasion to meet Nivedita after that until I settled in Bengal as principal of the National College and the chief editorial writer of the Bande Page 99 Mataram. By that time I had become one of the leaders of the public movement known first as extremism ...
... Corrections of Statements Made in Biographies and Other Publications Autobiographical Notes Muslims and the 1947 Partition of Bengal Muslims, the descendants of foreigners, favoured the partition of Bengal. This would seem to indicate that all the Mohammedans in India are descendants of foreigners, but the idea of two nationalities in India is only a new-fangled... but even so the non-Mussulmans predominate. At present [ 1946 ] a Congress Government is in power in Assam elected by a large majority and Assam is vehemently refusing to be grouped with Mussulman Bengal in the new constitution. Page 105 ...
... ry work in Bengal on his own account. In Bengal he found some very small secret societies recently started and acting separately without any clear direction and tried to unite them with a common programme. The union was never complete and did not last but the movement itself grew and very soon received an enormous extension and became a formidable factor in the general unrest in Bengal. ...
... invoked. That was the message of Bankim Chandra's song and of Sri Aurobindo the politician, that was the core of the Aurobindonian Nationalism which made this song the throbbing life-blood of Bengal and, through Bengal, the entire sub-continent. None, in the political field, before or after Sri Aurobindo can be put on a par with him in fusion of spiritual energy with patriotic fervour. Is it not... fervour, and the most creative of its many forms has been the one with which it started on its career of revolt against British rule - the one which found its most puissant expression in the upsurge of Bengal during the partition of this province by Lord Curzon and which went to its fiery work with that open acknowledgment of the national soul, the worshipping cry of Bande Mataram, "I bow to you, O Mother ...
... respondents. These two qualities were among the least preferred elements in the perception of the managers. When asked what she meant by the expression 'ambitiousness', a civil services officer of the West Bengal cadre said that she meant, "pursuit of personal goals at the expense of the organization." Clearly, ambition meant 'personal ambition' for her and for most of the respondents— and this was something... managers tended to be more principles-centred rather than personality-centred. An Indian Administrative Services Officer and the Director of the Administrative Training Institute of the Government of West Bengal said, 'The leader cannot afford to be personality centred as he has to get along with many different personalities. He would much rather be a stickler for a set of principles. He can be a better leader... Assam University Silchar Assam auves@sancharnet.in Prof. Nityananda Saha Vice Chancellor University of Kalyani P.O. Kalyani -741235 Dr. Nadia, West Bengal nsaha@klyuniv.ernet.in Dr. Anil S. Kane Vice-Chancellor MS University of Baroda Shastri Bridge Road Vadodara-390002 Gujarat Vc.msu@Jwbdq.lwbbs.net ...
... important news of the day. Purani suggested that he may now join the Hindu Mahasabha and do something against the Bengal ministry. That led the talk to the Hindu-Muslim problem and the charges of the Muslims against the Congress Ministries. NIRODBARAN: Yes, but what about the charges of the Bengal Hindus against the Muslims? But strangely enough nobody knows or talks about that. SRI AUROBINDO: No; no... no Indian paper gives publicity to these things. They simply make a brief statement. NIRODBARAN: New Statesman says that there is no mishap in Bengal during this ministry. SRI AUROBINDO: Because there are no riots? NIRODBARAN: Perhaps. SATYENDRA: Huq has now given a list of charges which are not charges, They are all vague and general. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. SATYENDRA: I don't see how ...
... Everything going down? DR. MANILAL: In Bengal also there is much corruption. SRI AUROBINDO: In the High Court? DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: I suppose it has come after the new Government—with the advent of H and B. I am wondering what Swaraj will be like. NIRODBARAN: Was there no corruption before? SRI AUROBINDO: Not so much. Bengal and Pondicheny were the only two exceptions... exceptions. NIRODBARAN: H's ministry is almost openly doing these things. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, one has the impression that after this new Government, Bengal has become quite corrupt. There is one good thing about England: it is still free from corruption in public life. Of course England also was at one time corrupt but it has come out of that. Victoria's time was especially admirable. DR. MANILAL: ...
... (Beginning of practice of yoga), 2 1903 (Experience of the vacant Infinite), 7 1904 (Turned decisively to yoga),5 1904 (Practice of Pranayama), 7-8 1905 (Partition of Bengal), 1 1906 (Left for Bengal), 1 Physical mind, 132-4, 141, 172, 180,212 1907 (Realisation of undefinable reality beyond space and time), 9 Pondicherry, 14-5, 17, 23, 39, 49 1908 (Alipore... new way of, l68 Auroville, 3, 178-9 Bengladesh, 214 Education, revolutionary experiments in, 94 Baroda, 1, 5, 6, 9 Ego, 9,10,86,208-9,251,253,261 Bengal, 1 Equality, 269-70 Body consciousness, impersonalisation of, 160-3 Equilibrium, age of, 202 Body consciousness, individualised, 189 Evolutionary process, 69 ...
... subscribers can be got before the Review starts, we shall have a sound financial foundation to start with. The question is, can they be got?' In the event, even 250 subscribers could not be secured from Bengal and, after the Richards' departure, the French Revue had to be discontinued. However, although the original targets could not be achieved, the Arya did not incur any financial loss but, in fact... Government of India kept a specially close watch on the swadeshis. You will remember that, shortly after the outbreak of the war, Nolini, Saurin and Suresh had returned to Pondicherry from their visit to Bengal. Bijoy now wished to pay a brief visit also, although Sri Aurobindo warned him of the danger; and it turned out that, immediately he crossed the border, he was arrested and kept in jail for the duration... Some of us who were on the staff of New India went out on trips to build up a campaign of organisation. One of these trips took me to Pondicherry where Sri Aurobindo had made his home after leaving Bengal in 1910. Even in those early days there was an atmosphere of great peace and serenity about him which left on me a deep, enduring impression. He spoke softly, almost in whispers. He thought Mrs. Besant ...
... the British and not to offend them by cries of Swaraj. Meanwhile there were developments in Bengal which also clearly indicated the growing cleavage between the Moderates and the Nationalists. Sri Aurobindo was now the recognised leader of the Nationalists and he led the party at the session of the Bengal Provincial Conference at Midnapur from December 7 to 9, 1907. The Moderates were led by S... dramatic and fateful. The Surat Congress was scheduled to begin on December 26, 1907. Delegates came in strength from many parts of India. Sri Aurobindo led a large contingent of Nationalists from Bengal. Tilak was present along with other stalwarts from Maharashtra like Dr. Munje and G.S. Khaparde. The Nationalists also welcomed back Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Ajit Singh who came from the Punjab and ...
... the transfer of power without any delay. He accepted the plan of V.P. Menon, which involved the partition of India into two states, dividing Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan, with the predominantly non-Muslim areas in the Punjab and Bengal being excluded from Pakistan. On 3rd June 1947, Mountbatten announced the British plan to the nation. Page 111 It will be relevant... consider what the procedure would be immediately after HMG had made their announcement. For example, would a general election in India be necessary? How would we set about the partition of the Punjab, Bengal and Assam? Presumably, the decision will be left to HE and will not be open to argument. What will be the machinery... Yours very sincerely, Ismay.' Later on ...
... the British promised to advance towards self-rule. Secondly, it was for the first time that there was an all-India movement with the exception of Punjab and Bengal. In Punjab, the Arya Samaj rejected the theosophical movement of Besant and in Bengal the leadership of C. R. Das was too powerful to make a dent. Probably what led to the failure of the movement was the ambivalence in its accepting passive... reciprocity. Many others joined including Jawaharlal Nehru. Tilak's area of operation was mainly in Maharashtra and Karnataka, while Besant's was generally over the South and in some pockets of Bihar, Bengal, Gujarat and Sind. The objective of the movement was to attain a system of self-government within the British Empire. The agitation made rapid strides during 1916-17 and while broadly active in many ...
... it was adopted at the Calcutta Town Hall meeting on 7 August 1905 amidst the tempestuous rendering of the song Bandemataram. This was a special meeting summoned to protest against the partition of Bengal and pass resolutions on Swadeshi and Boycott, where thousands of students of all communities marched from College Square to the venue. The seeds were thus sown for the later use of this technique... thy, associate professor with the Madras Institute of Development Studies, says: 'Tamil Nadu has always been on the margins of nationalist historiography, dominated as it has been by the north and Bengal. The "anti-nationalist" trajectory that TN took even by the late 1920s under Periyar and subsequent phenomena like the anti-Hindi agitation and the rise of the DMK, seemed to justify such marginalisation... known as sati. One has only to read Page 26 Rammohun's works on social reform to realize that most of it deals with one aspect or another of man's inhumanity towards women in Bengal. The conclusion is that only by freeing women and by treating them as human beings could Indian society free itself from social stagnation.' Kandukuri Veeraselingam Pantulu expressed the opinion ...
... India is the geographical factor. Here is a piece of land cut off from the rest by the Himalayas on the north east, the Hindukush on the north west; in the south are the three big seas — the Bay of Bengal on the south east, the Arabian Sea on the south west and the Indian Ocean on the south. It is as if Nature herself had marked out this piece of land as a distinct unit and a separate entity. ... with a four-fold conformation" (chatuh samasthana samsthitam). On three sides, the South, West and East are the three great seas, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal; while the Himavat range stretches along its north like the string of a bow". The name Himavat in the above passage refers not only to the snow capped ranges of the Himalayas but also to their less... until the glacier melted and retreated to its present position above Gaumukh. From here onwards, the river passes through the plains of North India, covering the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and then through Bangladesh. Along the route that Ganga and her tributaries took, came up different settlements, each of which was distinct and had its own indigenous culture. Uttarkashi, ...
... Strange, this heaven is born out of a mystic roar! And as your wife in Bengal¹ is taken away, your consciousness broke up. ¹ The old ignorant life. Why Bengal ? Perhaps he is now up somewhere else –in the Himalayas? – leaving the plains of Bengal . Page 281 O strange ...
... did not refuse, he was given the permission. The gentleman arrived with a huge bouquet by way of a present and had the darsan. The three of us, namely, Moni, Saurin and myself, who had returned to Bengal after an interval of four years, had to hasten back here almost immediately owing to the outbreak of War, for there was a chance that old 'criminals' like us would again be shut up in jail. As we had... Amarendra had suddenly disappeared one day. He lived the life of a primitive savage in the jungles of Assam; he had been selling poultry and eggs at the steamship stations along the rivers of East Bengal, in the garb of a Muslim complete with Lungi and Fez. And so many other things he had done just in order to avoid the Government's vigilant eye. It was a long romantic tale. Finally, he made himself... in one of his books. You must have heard or read what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have said on the subject. I do not wish to add anything of my own, for I was not an eye-witness; I had been away in Bengal for a while. Now that we are on this topic of cooks and cooking, let me add a few words about myself in this connection. I had, as I said, some practice in the work of the kitchen and I took it ...
... Ullaskar's idea; he led the chorus and the rest of us followed. Some of the old refrains still ring in my ears, I can still recall the words—of songs like "Deep From the Heart of Bengal Today", "The Soil, the Rivers of Bengal", "My Golden Hindusthan". I have heard that Ullas is still alive, though almost half-dead, they say. Ten or twelve years of jail in the Anda-mans deranged him in body and mind... to their being crushed under an iron chest. 1 Let me in this connection announce one of the feats of my college life. It was in that same year, 1905. Loud protests had arisen on account of the Bengal Partition and there was going to be observed a Day of Fasting or Rakhi-day or something like that. In what manner did I register my protest? I went to college dressed as if there had been a death ...
... composite culture of the country - Vedantic, Islamic and European." He was a saintly man of high attainments, synthesising in himself the cultures of both the East and the West, and widely known in Bengal as a leader of the Adi Brahmo Samaj and as "the grandfather of Indian nationalism" .² The marriage was performed according to the rites of the Brahmo Samaj to which Krishna Dhan then belonged. ... his degree from the Medical College of the Calcutta University, Krishna Dhan proceeded to England for an advanced course of medical studies. He was one of the first Indians to go to England from Bengal, defying the ban of his orthodox society. His father-in-law, Rajnarayan Bose, strongly advised him to steer clear of the baneful influences of the sceptical and materialistic civilisation of the... a room in the South Kensington Liberal Club where Mr. J.S. Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton, for some time 5. Life of Sri Aurobindo by Purani. Page 7 Lt. Governor of Bengal, was the secretary, and Benoy assisted him in his work. Manmohan went into lodgings. This was the time of the greatest suffering and poverty." "During a whole year a slice or two of sandwich, bread ...
... (After some time) One can’t blame Hitler for suppressing these paintings. Germany has lost much. It .is surprising low this ugliness is spreading everywhere. Is the art of Bengal also like this? Disciple : Perhaps the art in Bengal is not so bad as the poetry – except that of Tagore. Sri Aurobindo : Bad in what way? Disciple : They are trying to be Eliotian (imitators of T S Eliot)... do not have to know Christian traditions in order to appreciate European art. This article is perhaps in answer to adverse criticism by someone who said that there is no art in the new art-school in Bengal. Sri Aurobindo : Nobody need answer ignorant criticism. In Europe itself there is a radical departure from Realism, and all bondage to tradition has disappeared. 31-12-1938 (A few ...
... highest puissance. It is perhaps in the tenth Mandala that it is used in the Puranic sense. 9-12-1925 Talk turned on X's demand on Y that he should acknowledge him as God ! This was in Bengal. Disciple : How did you escape from the god ? Disciple : X used to come to me in what he called the "divine mood", but which I found to be an abnormal mood. And then he used to tell... Disciple : Very hard test for God to pass ! Disciple : You wanted God to be Kikarsing ! A very athletic God ! { Laughter ) There was then talk about another spiritual figure in Bengal. A Disciple of this Guru, A, argued with a Pandit trying to prove the Avatarhood of the Guru. But the Pandit would not accept it. So when he slept at night on an iron bed-stead they applied an electric... Page 279 the Power in you. You have to allow it to organise your being and transform it. Then you can think of action. Therefore I say, it would be foolish to expect m to go to the Bengal Council and work there. But per haps your physical mind thinks that going and working in the Council is, perhaps, more important than anything else ! But your inmost being may have much more important ...
... 6 Deoghar Although more than a year had passed since his return to India, A. Ghose had neither gone to his natal land nor met any member of his family. Bengal now beckoned him. "I was at Deoghar several times," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "and saw my grandfather there, first in good health and then bedridden with paralysis." It was, we guess, sometime... beings is only right and proper, but it is a little hard that he should be denied existencealtogether. I hope it is only a slight attack. I am quite well. Ihave brought a fund of health with me from Bengal , which, Ihope it will take me some time to exhaust ; but I have just passedmy twenty-second milestone , August 15 last, since my birthdayand am beginning to get dreadfully old. "I infer from... this afternoon. I am at present in an exceedingly out of the way place, without any post-office within fifteen miles of it; so it would not be easy to telegraph. I shall probably be able to get to Bengal by the end of next week. I had intended to be there by this time, but there is some difficulty about my last months' salary without which I cannot very easily move. However I have written for a ...
... snapped the thin thread that linked them to their life-source. There, in the east, on the Bay of Bengal, lies a land painstakingly created by Ganga. There she lets down her hair and, crisscrossing the land, holds her creation in a close embrace. But now her children, the educated men of Bengal, were turning away from her, from the truth of their forefathers; many were becoming agnostic or embracing... a thing has lasted for five hundred years it must be perpetuated through the aeons. Thus, the Brahmo Movement stirred up the still and stagnated pond that the Bengali Hindu society had become. Bengal had borne the first impact of Western culture, and it was the first to recover. In the wake of the crude movement of blind imitation, the "first impulse was gigantic in its proportions and produced ...
... N°l Esplanade Moorings, on the Hooghly river on Friday the first April, at 6:30 a.m. Under the command of Captain Musseau, the French mail steamer made steady progress as she steamed down the Bay of Bengal with her precious 'cargo.' On 4 April 1910, around four in the afternoon, she cast anchor at Pondicherry's harbour. Those who were in the know wanted to give Sri Aurobindo a very special reception... Srinivasachari opened the letter brought by Moni, read the contents, and came to know of Sri Aurobindo's plans. He extended his hospitality to the eighteen-year-old youth from Page 30 Bengal. "I passed the four and a half days before Aurobindo's arrival in Mr. Achari's house doing nothing but eating and sleeping. Every day a little before sunset I went with three or four people to the... somehow managed to get into Page 31 a rocking rowing boat... by doing some gymnastics: "My! How it's rocking and tossing!" felt Moni. The boat was manned by eight to ten oarsmen. In Bengal Moni was used to see on the Padma or the Ganges covered boats, but the boat he now got into was open. It and they set out towards the ship. When they neared it they made out Sri Aurobindo and Bejoy ...
... with him, but soon abandoned the effort. In March 1952, fifteen months after his passing, the manuscript was handed over Page 1001 to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram by the Government of West Bengal. It was transcribed and in 1959 published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual , as well as separately. The source of the plot of The Viziers of Bassora is "Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis... these lines on two pages of a notebook he used at Cambridge between 1890 and 1892. Fragment of a Story. Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece around 1904, either in Baroda or while on vacation in Bengal. The Devil's Mastiff. Nothing is known for certain about the date of this piece, but it seems to belong to the period of "Occult Idylls" and may have been intended for that series. The ...
... Bengali press. He thinks that it means the "repudiation" of Surendra Babu and the abandonment of the Partition Agitation. Prodigious! Apparently the Englishman has yet to learn that the movement in Bengal was not created by Page 134 any single man and does not depend on any single man. It is a great natural upheaval and the leaders are no more than so many corks tossing on the surface of... this paper is one of our "leaders". The Mirror farther gives hospitality to an amusing utterance of Kumar Kshitendra Deb, that renowned statesman who is Page 135 standing for the Bengal Legislative Council. This Kumar first carefully differentiates true Swadeshi from false, the true being the kind of Swadeshi which allows Kumars and others to become Legislative Councillors, the false ...
... that again means cholera in excelsis. The only resource will be for the whole State to go and camp out on the banks of the Narmada and the Mahi. Of course if I get half pay I shall send Rs 80 to Bengal, hand over Rs 90 as my contribution to the expenses to Khaserao and keep the remaining 10 for emergencies; but supposing the third course suggested should be pursued? I shall then have to take a third... after ten years' service does not look very much, but it is better than nothing. At that rate I shall get Rs 700 in 1912 and be drawing about Rs 1000 when I am ready to retire from Baroda either to Bengal or a better world. Glory Halleluja! Give my love to Sarojini and tell her I shall write to her—if I can. Don't forget to send the MS of translations. I want to typewrite and send to England. ...
... around her, her own nature remained non-Oriental to the end. Yet she found no difficulty in arriving at realisation on the lines of Vedanta. I knew Satish Mukherji when he was organising the Bengal National College (1905-7), but afterwards I had no contact with him any longer. Even at that time we were not intimate and I knew nothing about his spiritual life or attainments—except that he was... the breaking of the Congress and was responsible for the refusal to join the new-fangled Moderate Convention which were the two decisive happenings at Surat. Even my action in giving the movement in Bengal its militant turn or founding the revolutionary movement is very little known. 22 March 1936 Leaving Politics I may also say that I did not leave politics because I felt I could do nothing ...
... examination for the I.C.S. It was after he had passed the competitive examination that Sri Aurobindo as a probationer who had chosen Bengal as his province began to learn Bengali. The course of study provided was a very poor one; his teacher, a retired English Judge from Bengal was not very competent, but what was learnt was more than a few words. Sri Aurobindo for the most part learnt Bengali for himself ...
... The tension between Pakistan and India had grown more and more intolerable in every aspect, the massacres in East Bengal still seemed to make war inevitable and the India Government had just before Nehru's attempt to patch up a compromise made ready to march its army over the East Bengal borders once a few preliminaries had been arranged and war in Kashmir would have inevitably followed. America and ...
... gentleman was delivered in Mango Lane on Monday of a speech which runs to more than a column of insults and misrepresentations against Swadeshi Bengalis. He informed a wondering world that things in East Bengal were quite the opposite of what the Bengali press reported. We do not exactly understand this phrase. Does Mr. Garth mean that it is the Mahomedans who are being plundered, their men wounded and injured... Anglo-Indian papers sympathise with them, Anglo-Indian speakers defend them, and the speeches and writings in which they are defended, are full of intolerable insults to the whole Hindu population of Bengal. Yet we do not cease to buy the Englishman and Empire , we do not cease to give briefs to Mr. Garth and men of his kidney. We even hear that a prominent Swadeshi leader gave a brief to Mr. Garth ...
... ornament, and when names were being juggled within the Pandal, we did not consider the matter of supreme interest. Nevertheless, the names of a few men of advanced opinions did find their way into the Bengal list. Men like Srijuts Motilal Ghose, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aswini Kumar Dutta and A. Rasul sitting side by side with Messrs. Tilak and Khaparde would form a leaven which, however small, might easily... heard. Or was it merely an amiable bit of "diplomatic tactics" such as it has been our privilege to witness on occasions? We heard that Mr. Gokhale had given up the idea because he could not get the Bengal leaders to agree—though we are not aware that he made any very strenuous efforts to bring about an agreement. Is it possible that it was only intended to call those of them this time who could agree ...
... and they serve the political ends of this paper whose efforts are wholly directed towards urging on the Government to a policy of thoroughgoing repression. Everybody in Bengal knows that previous to the disturbances in East Bengal there was no movement of the kind which has sent Mr. Newman into carefully calculated hysterics. There was a movement for physical training and the institution of akharas ...
... matter which he knew to be likely to bring the Government established by law, to wit certain mediocrities in Belvedere, Darjeeling, Shillong or Simla who collectively call themselves the Government of Bengal or of India, into contempt or hatred, or to encourage a desire to resist or subvert their lawful authority. If that were all, we might argue the question whether what he did was wise or what he wrote... is an illusion, the rule of one nation over another is against natural law and therefore a falsehood, and falsehoods can only endure so long as the Truth refuses to recognise itself. The princes of Bengal at the time of Plassey did not realise that we could save ourselves, they thought that something outside would save us. We were not enslaved by Clive, for not even a thousand Clives could have had ...
... riot, the Mahomedan rowdyism in East Bengal, the loan to Salimullah, Newmania, the changed and respectful attitude of Anglo-Indians towards Indians, the deportation of Lajpat and Ajit Singh, the proclamation, the unmasking of English liberalism, the awakening of Madras, the prosecutions at Rajamundry and Coconada, the continuing prosecutions in the Punjab and Bengal, the admission by the Times of the ...
... in starting a National College free from the shackles of the Government". Thus we find Madras students realising the situation better than the students in Bengal who played so prominent a part in the agitation that followed the Partition of Bengal. We have all realised that the education the Government prescribes for our young men is not calculated to help in developing the manhood of the nation. The ...
... Beadon Square Speech - II Delivered at Beadon Square, Calcutta, on 16 October 1909, the fourth anniversary of the effectuation of the Partition of Bengal. Report published in the Bengalee on 17 October. Then amidst fresh cheers and renewed and prolonged shouts of "Bande Mataram" in came Babu Aurobindo Ghose and the inevitable rush for rakhi bandhan... would only say one thing, viz., that the rakhi bandhan was not only a bond of thread but it was the semblance of another tie. It was the sign of uniting the hearts of millions of people of United Bengal. The rakhi might be removed in a day or two but that sacred bond of hearts would remain firm through all ages. There was no power on earth which could untie that sacred knot—it was a national bond ...
... to the Editor of the Barisal Hitaishi and the Rangpur Vartabaha , to the aged Maulavi spending the last years of his noble life in the severities of a criminal jail, to our fellow martyrs of East Bengal, to the few who are suffering in other provinces. For what are these men suffering? What was the hope that stirred them to face all rather than be unworthy of the light that had dawned in their hearts... nation, for the preparation of Swaraj, these are now in the forefront, the men of the future, the bearers of the standard. The spirit of active heroism and self-immolation has travelled southward. In Bengal the spirit of passive endurance is all that seems to remain and the bold initiative, the fiery spirit that panted to advance is dead or sleeping. "Work, there is no need to aspire; labour for small ...
... at Tuticorin ought to be an encouragement to those who have begun to distrust the power of the new weapon which is so eminently suited to the Asiatic temperament. When the Boycott was declared in Bengal the whole of the energy of the people was thrown into the attempt to get the Partition repealed and if that concentration of effort had been continued the Partition would by this time have become an... lesson of the Transvaal is one which needs to be learnt and put frequently into practice. We should lose no opportunity of letting our strength grow by practice. There have been many labour struggles in Bengal, but with the exception of the Printers' strike none has Page 925 ended in a victory for Indian labour against British capital. Either the unity among the operatives was defective or the ...
... Congress or the creed which Mr. Gokhale had so skilfully drawn up for that purpose. On the other hand the Pabna Conference has filled it with dismay, for it perceives a force in Bengal which may prove strong enough to separate the Bengal Moderate leaders from the ranks of pure Moderatism in this crucial matter. It is curious that while trying to throw the whole blame of the Surat fiasco on the Nationalists ...
... clear while forwarding its views to the Mofussil. We are entirely unaware of any general Committee having been formed of the leaders in Calcutta which can speak authoritatively to Page 918 Bengal, or of any draft constitution prepared by the common consent of Bengal's foremost men. The Convention Calcutta Committee met in secret and seem to have issued their draft in secret to a select few... other by a meeting of the delegates pledged to the four Calcutta resolutions. No attempt to arrogate to the Convention Committee the sole inheritance of the Congress can succeed; and if the people of Bengal desire union on the lines of the Pabna resolution they must insist either on the All-India Congress Committee being entrusted with the work of reviving the Congress or on both the Surat Committees ...
... of Asia will pass into Mongolian hands and the strength of India, the Sikh and the Rajput and the Mahratta, the force of Mahomedan valour and the rising energy Page 990 of new nations in Bengal and Madras will all be at the service and under the guidance of the Mongolian who will not fail to use them as England has failed, letting them run to waste, but will hammer them into a sword of strength... down of European pride, the humiliation of Western statecraft, power and civilisation and its subordination to the lead of the dominant Asiatic. The doom is drawing very near and the awakening of Bengal has come just in time to give India a chance of recovering her freedom of action. If she strains every nerve to use the chance, if she is able to develop her self-consciousness, her unity, her warlike ...
... cigarette. The difficulty of the sadhara vishaya is the doubt in the mind whether the vishaya is not really a strong perception of sthula, & not at all sukshma. 2) Varnamaya image on the wall; India, Bengal a vivid blue, the rest a bright & beautiful green, the whole floating in a haze of strong golden colour. Blue spirituality, green divine karma, golden knowledge. India is now shedding knowledge rather... denouement of the Army crisis, the non-resistance of the Unionists in East Fife, the relaxation of the Ulster difficulty, the growth of the idea of Federal Home Rule, the South African solution, events in Bengal, tendencies in Pondicherry etc. Even in physical things the power increases, eg the stoppage of the disordered pipe twice in two minutes after it had been running persistently for three or four days ...
... know this. The government of Orissa before was completely for Sri Aurobindo, and they were very faithful. Then there was a terrible cyclone that came straight at them, but it was deflected, went to Bengal [East-Pakistan] instead and killed an enormous number of people (that Page 296 was last year, I think). 5 Then, the government of Orissa changed. They've become aggressive, dark, just... wealth of the Ashram, the "regimentation" of the boys and girls of the Ashram—and the possibility that one day troops from the Ashram would drive the Tamils out of Pondicherry, "like Yahya Khan in Bengal," to establish an "Aurobindo-Desh"! × Among the band of doubtful businessmen who used Mother, there ...
... 33 years ago.... So I assume you know what they have been looking for in India...." Again a few days ago, Y.L. met André Malraux after his cry "Volunteer for Bengal"; he said to her, "What is essential in the fight I'm going to wage for Bengal is to know the attitude and action of Pondicherry." Y.L. therefore came to put the question directly to Mother. Mother asked, "When is André Malraux meeting Indira ...
... languages, and intense absorption of the culture of the Orient. A period of educationist activity followed. Soon he launched into politics and became an all-India figure as the leader of Bengal in the struggle against foreign rule. In eight years he changed the face of the Indian political scene: working with Tilak he fixed the idea of complete independence in his country's mind. Here... years he was accused of sedition, yet never convicted: on the most famous occasion of the three, when he went through a year's undertrial detention in jail and C.R. Das, the future leader of Bengal, appeared as his counsel and, by a curious stroke of fate, the judge at his trial was one Mr. Beachcroft whom he had beaten to second place in Greek and Latin in the I.C.S. competition, Rabindranath ...
... Aurobindo 28.May-22.Dec.1907 Bande Mataram Phrases by Fraser 13-August-1907 Sir Andrew Fraser has been receiving addresses from his loyal subjects of West Bengal and oratorising in answer. He has, among other things, discovered a surprising amity between the Hindus and Mahomedans in Burdwan and his prophetic eye foresees a splendid future for the capital city... prominence to the old and natural relations between the two communities is of course to convey the idea that they are anomalous, surprising and quite different from the normal relations in the rest of Bengal. Before the Boycott movement this refrain was only occasionally employed by Anglo-India, but since, it has become the constant burden of their song. It is labour lost, however. After the Jamalpur exposure ...
... third is the most essential, because the others are bound to lead a precarious existence if all the means of carriage are in the hands of the enemies of Swadeshi. The difficulties experienced in East Bengal by those who tried to import Swadeshi goods from Calcutta in the face of the control of the railway and the steam services by hostile interests, are only a slight foretaste of the paralysing obstacles... custom as the dearer Swadeshi services. A network of Companies holding the water carriage from Rangoon to Karachi and the Persian Gulf would soon have come into existence and the waterways of East Bengal would have been covered with boats plying from town to town in the ownership of Swadeshi concerns. If the Swadeshi Page 982 Steam Navigation Company is crushed, this fair prospect will ...
... and morals shared in the general disintegration, but ability & courage were even more in demand than before and for the bourgeois there was no place vacant. (The men who figured in the revolutions in Bengal, the Deccan, the Punjab & the North were often, like their European allies & antagonists, men of evil character, self-seeking, unscrupulous & Machiavellian, but they were at least men.) It was not... the new Nationalism; this is at the back of all its enthusiasm, audacity & turbulence and provides the explanation of all that has shocked and alarmed the wise men and the elders in the movement in Bengal. The new Nationalism is a creed, but it is more than a creed; it is a method, but more than a method. The new Nationalism is an attempt at a spiritual transformation of the nineteenth century Indian; ...
... The Bengalee Facing Both Ways 24-April-1908 We confess we cannot understand the position taken up by the Bengalee in the paragraph we quote on another page. The Bengal Moderates at the Convention tried partially but not completely to carry out the country's mandate, but when they were outvoted, they made no protest and have not separated themselves from the action... name of the Congress meets at Surat in December, they will take part in it with Dr. Rash Behari Ghose at their head. If so, they sever themselves from the country and forfeit their political future in Bengal, but their position is intelligible. The Bengalee , however, talks of reconciliation and the Convention in one breath. It trusts that the path of reconciliation is not yet definitely closed, although ...
... attractive double figure is under sentence of elimination and the budding Indian Finance Minister has spoken. The speech has caused confusion and searchings of the heart among the eager patriots of the Bengal Moderate school, rejoicing in the ranks of Anglo India. The Bengalee labours to defend the popular cause without injuring the popular leader, the Statesman rejoices and holds up the speech even... a mere cloak used by these men to save their own skins ." In other words we are charged with having contemplated violence such as we all see, viz ., the murders in London and the assassinations in Bengal, as inevitable effects of our propaganda, and physical conflict with the Government, in other words rebellion, as the only possible means of achieving independence. We are charged with preaching this ...
... Karmayogin Khulna Speech Delivered at Khulna, Bengal, on 25 June 1909. Noted down by police agents and reproduced in a Government of Bengal confidential file. A note preceding the report of the speech says that "about three-fourths of it have been taken down". The text needed emendation in many places. Gentlemen, today I will speak a few words ...
... and often obtained the recognition of the social boycott at various District Conferences and it has been freely and effectively applied in all parts, though mostly in East Bengal. It is gratifying to find the most moderate of Bengal Moderate leaders supporting and justifying it in a carefully prepared and responsible utterance on an occasion of the utmost public importance. National or Anti-national ...
... growing discontent, remains to be seen. It is quite possible that the pro-Mahomedanism of the Reform Scheme may lead to a Hindu upheaval all over India, as fervent and momentous as the convulsion in Bengal, Madras and Maharashtra which followed Lord Curzon's Partition blunder. How far it will advantage the Mahomedans to be in active opposition to an irritated and revolted Hindu community throughout the... diseased attachment to prestige and the reputation of an assured wisdom and an inflexible power have sealed up the eyes of those in high places. Students and Politics All India and especially Bengal owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Hasan Imam for his strong, manly and sensible remarks on the vexed question of students and politics as President of the Beharee Students Conference at Gaya. Contrast ...
... Two or three days ago. No one told me anything.... Was P. L. there? No, no, Mother, in Pakistan, Eastern Bengal. Oh, that I know. I heard "Vatican." No, no! That wouldn't be so bad! [laughter] In Pakistan, I know. Are they near the sea? Yes, on the Bay of Bengal. Page 372 ( Mother remains absorbed for a very long time ) We are in full uncertainty. Established ...
... if you form a foreign legion, we are ready to fight for Bangladesh." Malraux admits he is too old to serve in the infantry, but he claims he could serve in a tank. "One cannot seriously help Bengal by merely talking in its favor," he says. "One should go there in person and fight for her." Malraux acknowledged, of course, that India had been created by nonviolence, but in the present case... fight and the cause is lost." "While intellectuals are signing petitions in good faith, the Pakistanis are throwing tanks into the battle. Consequently, the only serious thing is the defense of Bengal. Do it intellectually if you like, but with the support of combat." ( Mother nods her head several times and goes within for a half hour. Then Satprem gets ready to leave and Sujata approaches ...
... I was born in one of the most aristocratic Brahmin families of Bengal. My father's maternal uncle, Kalachand Goswami, traced a direct descent from the saintly Adwaita Goswami, one of Sri Chaitanya's intimates. My father's father, Diwan Kartikeya Chandra Roy, was a Prime Minister of one of the noblest and most ancient States of Bengal. Apart from the high status he enjoyed, his honesty and strength ...
... sojourn in the West had set up in him strangely side by side with the spontaneous devotee that was part of him from his boyhood in post-Ramakrishna Bengal and that I who was not a Hindu by race but a Parsi and a resident Page xv not of Bengal but of Gujarat could hardly expect, for all my heart's faith, to find ready-made in myself. There were other differences too in our psychologies ...
... accomplished occultist and advanced in spirituality. She had accompanied her second husband, Paul Richard, to Pondicherry in order to meet Aurobindo Ghose, the revolutionary extremist politician from Bengal, who had sought refuge in that sleepy French town to escape the grip of the British and work out his still more revolutionary yoga. Their meetings had been up to Mirra’s highest expectations and she... occult influence on the historical processes which have carried the world to the threshold of a new millennium? What was the deeper meaning of the collaboration between a freedom fighter and yogi from Bengal and a Parisian painter and occultist, who had been living in the city of her birth for ten years among the impressionist and post-impressionist crowd of writers, painters and sculptors? If so much ...
... the ‘good conduct’ of Sri Aurobindo. In his Reminiscences Nolini calls them the ‘five noble men.’ At the beginning of the war a German battleship, the cruiser Emden, caused havoc in the Bay of Bengal by firing a few shells at the British possessions. Madras, too, was targeted and half the population fled miles inland. Though Pondicherry was nor hit, hundreds fled the town in panic when the ship... however, found out that the British police meant business. He was arrested as soon as he left Pondicherrian territory in October 1914 under the Ingress into India Ordinance. Bejoy was ‘regarded by the Bengal Police as an exceptionally dangerous person,’ read his police file, ‘and the records of the Madras special police in Pondicherry bear out this opinion.’ For not only was Bejoy one of the accused in ...
... Sri Aurobindo proposed or approved. But it was otherwise with rebellious spirits like Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother, Barin.’ 28 (K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar) Barin, after having come back from Bengal where his efforts to found centres and raise funds had borne little fruit, had been acting as a cook for Sri Aurobindo, looking after a small garden near the central Ashram building, and taking lessons... to their spiritual realization, known to their gurus alone. Let us conclude with a woman who ‘looked like a volley-ball on top of a balloon,’ the quarrelsome Mridu. Mridu was born in a village in Bengal in 1901, lost her husband early – a catastrophe for an Indian wife – and joined the Ashram in 1930. ‘She was a great cook, one of the greatest, for she cooked for the Lord [Sri Aurobindo] for sixteen ...
... naturalness of temperament of the English language. Here it may be mentioned en passant that Sri Aurobindo wrote that drama, with a Grecian theme, during his most hectic political activities in Bengal. It was published in 1907 in the weekly Bande Mataram. After his return to India in 1893 Sri Aurobindo straightaway joined the state services of Baroda accepting the invitation of Sayajirao... life. Presently he left the secure life of the princely Baroda State and went to Calcutta accepting all the hardships entailed by it. The immediate provocation was the ill-conceived partition of Bengal in 1905. There he initiated a comprehensive programme of building the nation founded on its sounder values, on its ancient wisdom and culture. In it was bom Indian nationalism, in the nourishing ...
... Ashalata, your friends in Europe because they were your friends and ____________________ 1. Moni or Suresh Chandra Chakraborty (12 December 189? – 28 April 1951) was a revolutionary from Bengal. He came to Pondicherry in 1910 with a letter from Sri Aurobindo to arrange a residence for him. He then stayed with Sri Aurobindo and Mother. 2. Khirode was headmaster of a school before he... that are happening—including the triumph of the British policy and deterioration ofGandhi's intellect are meant for the best. On top of it my noble-hearted friend Sengupta [...] is carried off. Bengal is now benighted and there is no sign of light anywhere. Tagore too has just written an article of despair in which he forebodes gloomily an end of the world pralay-kalpanta as perhaps the ...
... personal secretary, and returned to India. Soon thereafter, however, Sri Aurobindo switched over to the Baroda College as Professor of French and then of English, and when in 1905, he left for Bengal, he was the acting Principal of the College. It was during the Baroda period that he assimilated in himself the spirit and culture of India and prepared himself for his future political and spiritual... preparation for an armed revolution for the liberation of India. Sri Aurobindo was the first among the Indian leaders to declare and work for the aim of complete independence of India. In 1905, when Bengal was divided, he left Baroda and invited by the nationalist leaders he joined at Calcutta the newly started National College as its first Principal. It was here that he, while working secretly for the ...
... Personal Secretary, and returned to India. Soon thereafter, however, Sri Aurobindo switched over to the Baroda College as Professor of French and then of English, and when in 1906, he left for Bengal, he was the acting Principal of the College. It was during the Baroda period that Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself the spirit and culture of India and prepared himself for his future political... preparation for an armed revolution for the liberation of India. Sri Aurobindo was the first among the Indian leaders to declare and work for the aim of complete Independence of India. In 1905, Bengal was divided, and Sri Aurobindo left Baroda and, invited by the nationalistic leaders, he joined at Calcutta the newly started National College as its first Principal. It was here that Sri Aurobindo ...
... Vaishnavas puts on very different artistic forms in different provinces. There is first the use of the psychical symbol created by the Puranas, and this assumes its most complete and artistic shape in Bengal and becomes there a long continued tradition. The desire of the soul for God is there thrown into symbolic figure in the lyrical love cycle of Radha and Krishna, the Nature soul in man seeking for... perfect lyrics of the Rajput queen Mirabai, in which the images of the Krishna symbol are more directly turned into a song of the love and pursuit of the divine Lover by the soul of the singer. In the Bengal poetry the expression preferred is the symbolic figure impersonal to the poet: here a personal note gives the peculiar intensity to the emotion. This is given a still more direct turn by a southern ...
... 1898 as the acting Professor of English and lecturer in French in the Baroda College. On June 19, 1906, he took one year's leave without pay from Baroda College and returned to Bengal. He became the Principal of the Bengal National College. He plunged into political activities for the liberation of his motherland and was arrested on 2 May 1908, being implicated in the terrorist activities of a group ...
... Indian feelings, had come forward with some halfhearted proposals for political reforms, but as they did not really transfer any political power to India Sri Aurobindo did not accept. The Moderates in Bengal, under the leadership of Surendranath Bannerjee, were anxious to come to an understanding with the Nationalist leaders so as to repair the split at Surat. Sri Aurobindo led the Nationalist delegates... 4, 1910, he reached Pondicherry where he was beyond the writ of British authority. His departure also marked the end of his physical association with his native province, for he left the shores of Bengal never to return. How mysteriously does the Divine move in protecting those who surrender themselves to Him! Late in the afternoon of March 31, Sri Aurobindo's safety seemed to be in great jeopardy ...
... and his two brothers for the past five years, and that I have been a witness of the pitiable straits to which they have all three been reduced through the failure of their father, a Civil Surgeon in Bengal and (I believe) a most respectable man, to supply them with adequate resources. In addition, they have lived an isolated life, without any Englishman to take care of them or advise them. ...Should... in for velvet suits, not staring red but aesthetic, and used to visit Oscar Wilde in them. Then we came away to India but the tailor was not to be deprived of his dues. He wrote to the Government of Bengal and to the Baroda State for recovering the sum from me and Manmohan. I had paid up all my dues and kept £4 or so. I did not believe that I was bound to pay it, since he always charged me double. But ...
... Suresh, Saurin and Nolini left for Bengal on a visit, leaving Bijoy in charge of the household. However, by September they were back in Pondicherry. On August 4 war had broken out in Europe. In this grave situation the Government of India assumed special powers to deal with political dissidents and Nolini and Saurin were likely to be arrested if they stayed on in Bengal. The fateful year 1914 was to ...
... be merely Noble Rubbish But it is extremely surprising that we have heard very little about him! Have you? Never. This book has hit! Hit whom? Anyway, a great success for India, Bengal, Chittagong! I wonder if you have read it. Never set eyes on it. No use of success unless it is deserved. Can't forget that Kipling for whose poetry I have a Noble contempt (his prose has value... have advised her and Amiya to take calcium. We have calcium lactate which is as good. Shall we give that? [ Mother :] She did not speak of a medicine but of some food which is usually taken in Bengal, but I do not remember its name. 229 September 16, 1938 You are neither writing in my notebook nor sending me the poem. The "illumination" hasn't yet descended [29.8.38]. These ...
... Saral — simple. The Mother agreed to pay half the house- rent and allowed free boarding to the family. When my niece went to visit her father-in-law in Bengal she gave Page 97 birth to a second son. After some months, their stay in Bengal proved a trial, even unsafe, especially for the children. My niece wanted to come away. But the Mother kept quiet. A few months passed; another letter ...
... and moderate in its approach for the demand of freedom but it was evident that sooner or later this movement would take a more strident and aggressive approach. This happened with the Partition of Bengal in 1905. A section of the Congress named the Nationalist group demanded total freedom as a national birthright. The leaders of this movement were Sri Aurobindo, Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, among many... India; but it must be noted that there was no one leader who dominated or controlled the movement. A force and aspiration for freedom was released and leaders cropped up all over the nation. Thus in Bengal we had Sri Aurobindo, Bipin Chandra Pal and Surendranath Banerjee; in the West we had Tilak, Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta; and in the South there were Subramaniam Bharati and Annie Besant. This ...
... Atri 8 Atul Gupta 102 Auchathya 8 Avatara 27 B Bacchus 34 Balaka 92 Bamardo 23, 24 Baudelaire 72 Bauls 84 Beethoven 9 Bengal 91, 104 Bengalis 98 Bengal mysticism 88 Bengali Poetry 82 Bhakta 78 Boris Pasternak 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45 Brahman 12 Brihat 4 British 98 Brummagem 98 ...
... and to German, so too is Tagore the paramount and versatile poetic genius of Bengal who made the Bengali language transcend its parochial character. I think that Tagore has in many ways the title and position of a Racine amongst us. There is a special quality, a music and rhythm, a fine sensibility of the inner soul of Bengal. Its uniqueness is in its heart; a sweet ecstasy, an intoxicating magic which ...
... enthusiasm I began playing western music. Then after a few days I began a regular study. Our Ardhendu-da was a scientist. In his earlier life he Page 45 had been a chemist with Bengal Immunity. Although a scientist, he was also well versed in classical Indian music. He used to write down the musical notations of the various ragas and I filled a big notebook with these notations... school was a large playing-field. I used to walk about on this field. We did not have our Sports Ground yet. I used to run in that field and do my exercises. My father had bought me a discus from Bengal. I would practice discus-throwing. At four in the afternoon I would return to join Mother for tennis. On Sundays, with several other boys and girls, we used to go out on cycles. Mother used ...
... ignorance and partial knowledge ; we have to go beyond duality to the true Ananda which is here misrepresented by both pleasure and pain. Disciple : There is a sect of Shiva worshippers in Bengal who put themselves to great tortures. Perhaps their idea is that they will earn more Punya, merit, by doing so. Sri Aurobindo : The , Indian ascetic idea of torturing the body is not exactly... And in the next cycle he will be one of the Tirthankars ! He is now in hell because he was responsible for so much killing – himsa . Disciple : In Bengal the Madans have made Rama accept Madanism and they have written books to prove it! Disciple : There is a story of two Christian monks which is proved to be the same as that of Buddha and Ananda ...
... Arunachal Mission of Bengal wrote a letter to Sri Aurobindo . There is going to be a world-peace organ of the Mission. The founder has been rendering spiritual help to all the movements of peace under its inspiration. Somebody is working at Rome on behalf of the Mission. Disciple : There are according to news-paper reports fourteen Avatars – incarnations – in Bengal ! Sri Aurobindo ...
... leave, he opened them fully and looked at me. It seemed as if he could penetrate me and see everything clearly. That reminds me of a compliment given to my eyes by Sir Edward Baker, Governor of Bengal. He visited me in Alipore Jail and told Charu Dutt, "Have you seen Aurobindo Ghose's eyes?" "Yes, what about them?" asked Charu. "He has the eyes of a madman!" Charu took great pains to convince... convince him that I was not at all mad but a Karmayogi! PURANI: Nevinson, the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, said that you never laughed. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. I met him twice, once in Bengal at Subodh Mullick's place. I was very serious at that time. The next occasion was when I was president of the National Conference at Surat. Then also I couldn't laugh, being the President. So he called ...
... Srinivasachari, contributed generously in starting Pillai’s Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company and in launching Tirumalachari’s weekly India . Inspired by reports of revolutionary movements in Punjab and Bengal, Nayana’s student-followers at Madras, Vellore and Chittoor, persuaded him to form an association. He gave them the Mantra Umaam Vandemataram , as a source of their power, and the next year wrote... the bereaved parents. Appa passed away on 2 nd December 1976. "Even when it was clear that his end was approaching, he did not let Counouma call Kowma, or Akka to call his yogi friends in Bengal," Amma told me. "He kept saying, ‘I will tell you when to call them, so that they come in time.’ On the last day, after meeting each of us separately, he asked to be let alone and went into deep ...
... for a light meal. SRI AUROBINDO: Fasting with bread and milk? CHAMPAKLAL: People in Gujarat consider that they can take bread and milk on a fast. SRI AUROBINDO: That is also the custom in Bengal, isn't it? It reminds me of a story. Nevinson went to see Tilak and said, "Mr.Tilak received me naked in his loincloth." (Laughter) At the end of this talk, Purani entered. NIRODBARAN: Purani... AUROBINDO: Oh, that is the psychic voice. But there can be many other voices from many planes. And how will you say which is right? What would you say of Lord Curzon's decision? NIRODBARAN; For the Bengal Partition? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Was he right? He thought he had the right inspiration in what he was doing, while others thought he was quite wrong and yet but for his decision India would not be ...
... observe it as the Gita day also. NIRODBARAN: Some members of the League have tried to tone down. SRI AUROBINDO: Jinnah himself has done it. NIRODBARAN: What struck me as inconsistent in the Bengal Government's war resolution yesterday has been noted by The Hindu too. The resolution calling for the immediate grant of Dominion Status says that no further political development should be made... Tamil. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he will but he knows that it has no chance. PURANI: Vijay Raghavacharya has asked why these communal troubles in U.P., C.P. and Bihar occur. Why not in the Punjab and Bengal? And he asserts that these troubles are engineered by the Muslims themselves. SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. Or the Muslims will perhaps say that their Government was very popular and there were no grievances ...
... But I want to know. The word has been used in all Indian languages for a long time. If you say that such expressions should not be used, that is different. But how are they vulgar? Since when has Bengal become so puritan? It seems to be a Brahmo Samaj influence. NIRODBARAN: Tagore never uses such words. In Sanskrit they are used extensively. SRI AUROBINDO: Has Bhattacharya been to Shantiniketan... In English they use, "harlot" and "whore". At one time in Europe, particularly in England, such words were considered vulgar and they were not used. But now everybody is using them. The pre-Brahmo Bengal was also to a certain extent puritan. Moni said that he was not allowed by the teachers to sing in school: it was considered immoral. If music is immoral, then there can be no question about dancing ...
... AUROBINDO: Then how can they say that Bose met Baron on the 4th? Not only that, even after the interview Baron met the Bengal Governor and expressed his confidence in Bose. What is the matter then? PURANI: Perhaps the Indian Government has taken steps over the head of the Bengal Government. But even so, they usually inform the local Government. EVENING PURANI: About Baron, perhaps Bonvain is ...
... that division. For there had grown up out of the original elements a natural system of sub-nations with different languages, literatures and other traditions of their own, the four Dravidian peoples, Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Sind, Assam, Orissa, Nepal, the Hindi-speaking peoples of the North, Rajputana and Bihar. British rule with its provincial administration did not unite these peoples... existence; Maharashtra expects a similar concession and this would mean a similar development in Gujarat and then the British-made Presidencies of Madras and Bombay would have disappeared. The old Bengal Presidency had already been split up and Orissa, Bihar and Assam are now, self-governing regional peoples. A merger of the Hindi-speaking part of the Central Provinces and the U.P. would complete the ...
... should be to make "Heaven and Earth equal and one". In September 1916, Saurin opened the 'Aryan Stores' with capital advanced by the Mother, but the concern had to be sold in 1920 when he went away to Bengal. In the meantime the war continued, and the Arya continued; and when the war ended, the Mother came finally on 24 April 1920. Amrita and Barin were also of the group, and it became a more cohesive... take care of my body, but who will take care of my soul?" And so they came, and most of them remained. Nirodbaran, for example, after a brilliant medical education in Edinburgh, returned to Bengal, and then made a bee-line to Pondicherry. Reminiscing about his discipleship to Sri Aurobindo, Nirod says: A medical man, materialist by education, I cared very little for God and had no ...
... Aurobindo, Vol. 14, p. 399 18. Ibid., p. 407 19. lbid.,p.408 20. T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, II, 11. 395-98 21. Quoted in Arabinda Poddar's Renaissance in Bengal: Quests and Confrontations (WO), p. 17 22. Ibid. 23. Quoted in Alien J. Greenberger's The British Image in India (1969) 24. S. K. Mitra, Resurgent... 27. Dr. Wingfield-Stratfbrd in The History of British Civilisation, p. 964 28. Quoted in S. K. Mitra's Resurgent India, p. 76 29. Quoted in A. Poddar's Renaissance in Bengal, p. 81. 30. Ibid., p. 177 31. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 14, p. 419 32. Ibid., p. 411 33. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 17, p. 331 34. Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual ...
... he replied that the draft was in the handwriting of Phani Bhusan Mukherjee, a student of Sahebgunj. L.H. Barton Superintendent of Police The 10th May 1908. Criminal Investigation Department, Bengal. The Alipore Bomb Trial was the first State Trial of any Magnitude in India A few Reports of Evidence and Cross Examination of Witnesses : Mr. Norton then dealt with the case of Sudhir Kumar... to illness. From the Records of Home Department Political Sarkar, Sudhir Kumar, son of Prasanna Kumar, of Lakhipur, Police-station Pangsha, Faridpur. Year of birth 1890. A member of the West Bengal revolutionary party. Sent up for trial in the Alipore bomb case (1909) and sentenced to transportation for life. Sentence subsequently reduced by the High Court to one of 7 years’ transportation. While ...
... rooms. A few of the young men with Sri Aurobindo - like Nolini, for example - had been revolutionaries who followed him to Pondicherry, and perhaps they still hoped that he would one day return to Bengal to lead a new movement. There were also boys like Aravamudachari (to whom Sri Aurobindo later gave the name Amrita) who were irresistibly attracted to Sri Aurobindo the Yogi, the master-spirit of the... of Tantra, he added, exists now "only in a scattered way ineffectual for any great aid of humanity". The second stage, "our new Tantra [which in this context meant the revolutionary activities in Bengal] succeeded at first because it was comparatively pure ... but since then two things have happened. It has tried to extend itself with the result of bringing in undesirable elements ... [and] tried ...
... succeeded in making an impact on intellectual circles in wartime France, while the English edition was received without much enthusiasm in Bengal. Commenting on this paradoxical phenomenon, Sri Aurobindo wrote rather outspokenly to Motilal Roy: The intellect of Bengal has been so much fed on chemical tablets of thought and hot-spiced foods that anything strong and substantial is indigestible to it ...
... she had organisational and managerial qualities quite out of the ordinary, clearly an illustration of yogah karmasu kauśalam. But wasn't there something else too? When Anilbaran Roy returned from Bengal in December 1926, Sri Aurobindo told him that he must "now make a full surrender to Mirra Devi who has taken up the work of new creation", and that he must take all his instructions from her. 1 Why... produced. In the meantime there had been fresh accessions to the Ashram community: Vaun and Janet McPheeters from the U.S., Daulat and K. D. Sethna from Bombay, Sahana Devi and Dilip Kumar Roy from Bengal, Miss Maitland from the U.K. and others. Among the old-timers, Nolini was Secretary of the Ashram, silent and efficient as ever, and Amrita was its manager. Pavitra was in charge of the Workshop ...
... people around him though good warriors were too ill organized and ill occupied. Egypt was not successful. Ireland and Turkey, a tremendous success. In Ireland I have done exactly what I wanted to do in Bengal. Turks are a silent race. Disciple : What do you think of the China-Japan war? Sri Aurobindo : I don't think much of either party. They are like six and half-a-dozen. Both too much... not, India is now going towards European Socialism which is dangerous for her; while we were trying to evolve true genius of the race along Indian lines and all working for independence. Take the Bengal movement. The whole race was awakened within a short time. People who were such cowards and trembled before the sight of a revolver were in a short period so much changed that police officials used ...
... working out their practical implications for the larger life of humanity. He had, indeed, retired from active political participation, and cut off his connection with political leaders and movements in Bengal and India. But this did not mean that he had retreated to an inaccessible Silence or contrived an insulation from the currents of everyday actuality. On the other hand, it was basic to his Yoga that... recovery for Man. In modem times, man's awakened subjectivism has tried to put forth its first promising results in art, music, literature, education, and there has also been - as in Ireland and in Bengal - an attempt at the discovery of a nation's or of a sub-nation's soul. Sri Aurobindo rightly points out that it was not her soldiers and empire-builders like Bismark and Moltke and Kaiser Wilhelm II ...
... suppression," he wrote. Suppression. Repression. The colonial government had let loose severe repression over the whole country. A steamroller of repression. And passed a profusion of strangling laws. Bengal bore the brunt of its wrath. Under an arbitrary 'law' of deportation the police had suddenly hurried away from their homes, or from the streets, nine of the most active and devoted workers for the... simmering discontent. The Daily Hitavadi m its article of 8 May 1909, 'After all this time,' had prefaced its welcome to Sri Aurobindo by alluding to the prevailing situation. "The educated community of Bengal is at the present moment silent in fear, amazement and confusion, the cry of Bande Mataram which used to pierce the heavens is hushed, all the energy, exultation and demonstration which used to be ...
... Shastri. From the eastern seaboard commerce with the Far-East would naturally become less time-consuming, not to speak of the advantages to be had by espying upon the rivals' shipping lines in the Bay of Bengal. The Dutch had established their factories in Nizampatnam and Masuli-patnam in 1605. Then they obtained permit to erect a factory at Pulicat with exclusive privileges of trade. The factory was in place... Martin breathed a sigh of relief. He was astute enough to procure a 'firman' (edict) from the Mahratta governor of the Deccan. Once officially established as the 'Director of the Coromandel coast, of Bengal and places in the South where the company will practise its commerce,' Martin set out to develop this small enclave into something else. He built a fort of brick and mortar some four hundred feet from ...
... Ghose's mother tongue, Bengali, "was not a subject for the competitive examination for the I.C.S. It was after he had passed the competitive examination that Sri Aurobindo as a probationer who had chosen Bengal as his province began to learn Bengali." He took Hindustani as optional. Sanskrit was the classical Indian language he chose: "I learnt Sanskrit by reading the Nala-Damayanti episode in the Mahabharata... the Principal of the Government College, Calcutta. He was a great personality, charitable, benevolent, but unbending where self-respect was in question. He was one of the towering personalities of Bengal who significantly contributed to its re-awakening in the nineteenth century. Page 211 A. A. Ghose found philosophy very dry. He tried to read Kant's Critique, "and after two pages ...
... Acrity who is described as equalling Parshurama in military skill & courage, the Chedies under the hero & great captain Shishupala, the Magadhas, built into a strong nation by Brihodruth; even distant Bengal under the Poundrian Vasudave and distant Sindhu under [Vriddhakshatra] and his son Jayadrath began to mean something in the reckoning of forces. The Yadava nations counted as a great military force... imperial & central has fallen out of the main flood of civilisation & is therefore becoming provincial & attached to its own isolation. That the nations of the East & South and the Aryan colonies in Bengal should oppose the imperialist policy of Krishna & throw in their lot with Duryodhana is therefore no more than we should expect. On the other hand nations at the very heart of civilisation, who have ...
... & sensuous. For the different races of this country have preserved their basic temperaments with a marvellous conservative power; modified & recombined they have been in no case radically altered. Bengal colonised from the west by the Chedies & Haihayas & from the north by Coshalas & Magadhans, contains at present the most gentle, sensitive and emotional of the Indian races, also the most anarchic... that thoroughly Bengali king & great captain, Pratapaditya; the other side shows itself especially in the women who are certainly the tenderest, purest & most gracious & loving in the whole world. Bengal has accordingly a literature far surpassing any other in an Indian tongue for emotional and lyrical power, loveliness of style & form and individual energy & initiative. The North West, inheritor of ...
... by nature a revolutionary leader; that is not his character or his political Page 648 temperament. The Indian peoples generally, with the possible exception of emotional and idealistic Bengal, have nothing or very little of the revolutionary temper; they can be goaded to revolution, like any and every people on the face of the earth, but they have no natural disposition towards it. They... politics and his character, sacrifices and sufferings at once fixed the choice of the New Party on him as their predestined leader. The same master-idea made him seize on the four main points which the Bengal agitation had thrown into some beginning of practical form, Swaraj, Swadeshi, National Education and Boycott, and formulate them into a definite programme, which he succeeded in introducing among the ...
... restraint in power, this contained fullness opening an amplitude of infinite suggestion, is not rare or exceptional, it is a frequent greatness in the art of India. The second article on Garuda in Bengal and Java by Akshaya Kumar Maitreya, besides its interesting and discerning treatment of its subject, the inception and humanising of the Garuda figure and the artistic use of the mythus, touches an... at its best, suggestive depths, begins the curve of the stream of spiritual feeling which came down through the Vaishnava art and poetry, found its most gracious and lucid embodiment in the poets of Bengal, has now taken, enriched by new elements, a large and living development in the lyrics of Tagore and the paintings of the Calcutta school and has yet a vital part to play in the spiritual future of ...
... web in the proper place resuscitated the drooping ambition of Robert the Bruce. In the present case too the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has, through sheer perseverance, succeeded in making the Government of India accept his proposal and thus relieve the revenues of Bengal of an unnecessary superfluity. The policy of the Government seems to have undergone a sea-change. Even Sir Alexander Mackenzie protested ...
... have been practically compelled to keep our lips closed on current public affairs. The imprisonment of the Nationalist orator and propagandist, the most prominent public figure of the New Party in Bengal, is nevertheless a matter of capital importance on which we cannot remain silent. Without touching on the relations of this affair with the Bande Mataram case we shall say what we have to say on... Babu that it was not as a boycotter, not with the political intention of making the working of the bureaucratic law-courts impossible that he declined to give evidence or take the oath. The boycott in Bengal has not yet been extended in practice to the law courts, and even in theory it is proposed to extend it only to voluntary resort to the protection of the alien authorities and not to cases in which ...
... somewhere in the Thunderer's logic, and we do not think the Bengal Government in its recent affectionate enquiries has come to the same conclusion. Bipin Babu has his own sufficient portion of anti-bureaucratic original sin without being burdened with ours. The Times should realise that almost the whole literary ability of Young Bengal is behind the movement of which we are the daily expression, ...
... impulse in Hindu society is already too strong and with most of us political division by castes is too foreign to our habits of thought to take root. The very idea of making a constituency of Bengal Kayasthas or Bengal Brahmins is absurd. Only where certain classes are much depressed and submerged a temporary strife may be created, but the onward sweep of the national movement, profoundly democratic as ...
... truth probably is that so far as the reproach has any foundation either in Bengal or Gujerat, the defect was due not so much to any constitutional cowardice as to indolence born of climate and a too fertile soil and to the prevalence of the peaceful and emotional religion of Chaitanya and Vallabhacharya. Be that as it may, Bengal under the awakening touch of Nationalism has wiped out that reproach for ...
... duties. Religious reconstruction Social reconstruction Educational reconstruction Science & Industry Political Reconstruction—the masses Elements in Bengal, Prince, pleader & peasant Possible expansion of Bengal In England or India? Prior necessity of Provincial Union... let the Bengalis & Mahrattas organize themselves & spread their influence over the rest of India. the ...
... whole clan of them. The interest which the British press has recently been showing in India was not brought about by this insignificant clique, it is the Swadeshi, the boycott, the violent unrest in Bengal which Page 193 have compelled the lordly Briton [...........................................] his [......]. There is only one process which can rouse him from his comfortable prosperous... red rag of sedition and capable of showing a very nasty temper. We do not think he is right when he attributes Mr. Morley's refusal to unsettle the Partition to irritation at the methods employed in Bengal: for Mr. Morley himself gave quite a contrary reason; and though he did not probably reveal the more important reasons at the back of his mind, we do not suppose Mr. Morley would tell an unnecessary ...
... degenerating into violence and sternness into ferocity, and that should be avoided so far as it is humanly possible. Babu Bhupendranath Bose got little by his attempt to frown down the Government of Bengal in their own den over the bureaucratic temper of their replies to his interpolations. It is to be feared that the Government have little appreciation for the opposition-cum-co-operation gospel which... have been hanging on the wise words of the popular and democratic leader, the influential adviser of Surendranath, the secret dictator of the Moderate caucus, it was really the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal to whom we listened and by whose counsel we were guided. The voice was the voice of Bhupen, but the thought was the thought of Andrew. These be thy gods, O Israel! Page 310 ...
... The belief in the personal honour and truth of individual Englishmen has somehow managed to survive; but it will not stand such shocks as the East Bengal bureaucrats have managed to administer to it. We would earnestly press upon the people of East Bengal the unwisdom of trusting to official promises or to anything but their own combination, organisation and the strong arm for their protection. We have ...
... its hand. We were prepared for press-prosecutions, we were prepared to go to jail on false charges, we refused to be appalled by regulation lathis , broken heads and Gurkha charges. Whatever use the Bengal Government might make of the repressive laws which stand on its statute books, to whatever advantage the local magistracy might turn their powers of government by ukase, we were prepared for everything... illusions of thirty years. Even up to the moment almost of the deportation the Bengalee was clamouring for the recall of Mr. Hare and confidently expecting that his criminal inactivity in the East Bengal disturbances would be punished by a just and benign Secretary of State. On such high expectations the deportation came as a blow straight in the face Page 434 and struck the Moderate party ...
... . But his reserve of language cannot succeed in blinding the public, still less the parties addressed, to the real nature of this promulgation. To parties circumstanced like the authorities of the Bengal Colleges official or private it is one of those hints which do not differ from orders. The whole Calcutta University has been placed under the heel of the Executive authority and no amount of writhing... them still pose as men of weight and leading, it is only for a moment. They will vanish and the whole earth heave a sigh of relief that that type at least is gone forever. But to the young men of Bengal we have a word to say. The future belongs to the young. It is a young and new world which is now under process of development and it is the young who must create it. But it is also a world of truth ...
... the nineteenth century some of which preserve their influence in the provinces where the balance in the struggle between the past and the future has not inclined decidedly in favour of the latter. In Bengal it is still represented by an undercurrent of the old weakness and the old want of faith which struggles occasionally to establish itself by a false appearance of philosophical weight and wisdom. It... everything that has happened, the only future it envisages is reform and the reversal of the Partition. Recently, however, the gospel of Nationalism has made so much way that the organs of this school in Bengal have accepted many of its conclusions and their writings are coloured by its leading ideas. But the fundamental idea of the movement as a divine manifestation purposing to raise up the nation not only ...
... vital point and is practically at one in resenting the act as fatally injurious to it. For instance when the turbulent Mahomedans of Eastern Bengal made an organised attack on the property of Hindus and on the honour of Hindu women, the Hindu community of East Bengal would have been perfectly justified in boycotting Mahomedans as servants. Similarly, now that the educated classes of the Hindu community ...
... that the bulk of the nation was not yet prepared to accept Swaraj as an immediate purpose. They are in favour of boycott as an universal movement throughout India, but they accepted its restriction to Bengal because other provinces were not yet ready to declare in favour of boycott. They are always ready in principle to accept the decision of the Congress for the time being, reserving the right to get... attitude if an organised political unity is to be achieved. Full right of discussion, free use of every legitimate means of protest, but not secession on account of opinions. The Moderate party outside Bengal is, at present, keen for separation. It holds the view, loudly preached by the Bombay papers, that if certain resolutions are passed, if a certain colour is given to the proceedings of the body or ...
... Morley as the basis for his Council of Notables? But if the Moderates of Bombay would welcome such a consummation, the Bengal leaders ought to know that the attempt to separate the Congress from the life of the people will be disastrous to the future of the movement for which Bengal stands. If they associate themselves with any such attempt to bring back the country to the footstool of the bureaucracy ...
... Pherozshah Mehta and the votes of his Bombay henchmen have overborne the feeble patriotism and wavering will of the Bengal Moderates and their Punjab supporters. The Convention has thrown in its lot with Minto and Morley and sacrificed the country at the altar of the bureaucracy and as the Bengal leaders have not dissociated themselves from the Convention we must hold that the entire Moderate party have agreed ...
... the omission was rectified, and Moti Babu's name seems to have been thrust in at the last moment in order to fill up the gap,—a proceeding not very complimentary to one of the first living names in Bengal. Nor do we quite understand how Rai Jotindranath Chaudhuri induced himself to be a consenting party to the omission, if indeed he knew of it. Be that as it may, the Nationalist leaders will do their... to have been sinking. And no wonder, with such leadership. Even a nation of strong men led by the weak, blind or selfish, becomes easily infected with the vices of its leaders, and the strength of Bengal though immensely increased, is not yet the perfect and tempered steel that it must become, hard as adamant and light in the lifting. The Anushilan Samiti The proclamation of the Anushilan Samiti ...
... unable to grasp the needs of the future, afraid to apply the bold and radical methods which could alone transform the nation, sweep out the rottenness in our former corrupt nature and, by purifying Bengal, purify India. It is now apparent that it was the Nationalist element which by its energy, courage, boldness of thought, readiness to accept the conditions of progress, gave the movement its force... it merely as the ladder by which they climbed and are busy trying to kick it down. They are really shutting off the steam, yet expect the locomotive to go on. The successful organisation of the Bengal National College in Calcutta was the work of its able and enthusiastic Superintendent aided by a body of young and self-sacrificing workers. The National Council which nominally controlled, in reality ...
... just a few sadhaks, no departments, no playground, no children etc., etc., it was naturally a very silent place, with no movement or change. Some people came from outside for a visit (probably from Bengal). They went back and friends there asked them: “How was that place — the Pondicherry Ashram?” They replied — “Mrito, Mrito!” (Dead, Dead!) But when bluntly asked about what experience(s) he had... , where are you going—how long will you be gone?” Vishwajit told him he wouldn’t be long, just a short visit and back. He went and returned, and there was Mohini-da (he was Tinkori-da’s student in Bengal, looked after him till his death and was now looking after Bihari-da) very troubled, calling Vishwajit — “Shigri ésho. Bihari-dar kichhu hoyéchhé” (Come quick — something is wrong with Bihari-da). ...
... were never referred to as “Charus”. But there were some more “Charus”, so the title “Bhater”. (The why will be clarified later.) Charu-da was born long, long ago in 1887 in the village Mala, in Bengal, on the 17th of November. His family was quite well-to-do, and possessed cultivable lands. In 1907, at the age of 20 Charu-da was in Calcutta (Kolkata). He was a student of Arts in the Intermediate... but he did not go. Nothing seemed to be working. Then after all these efforts and false starts, Charu along with Haradhan left for Pondicherry on the Vijayadasami Day of 1925. That was Charu in Bengal in the earlier part of the past century. It was but a preparation — a ploughing and a sowing. We will come to the “harvest” — reaped what? Who harvested? Maybe what follows could reveal the answers ...
... 25: Ancient Ballads of Hindustan is a remarkable work of young Tom Dutt (8 March 1856-30 August 1877) falling in the genre of early creative Indian writings in English. This "daughter of Bengal, so admirably and strangely gifted, Hindu by race and tradition, an English woman by education, a French woman at heart, [she] blended in herself three souls and three traditions." The character of... genius and she wrote things that were attractive and sometimes something that had strong energy of language and a rhythmic force." so While commenting on the 19th century literary contributions of Bengal, he mentions that Toru Dutt "could write English with perfect grace and correctness and French with energy and power." 51 It was a remarkable insight of Toru Dutt to have seen in the Savitri- ...
... of a motor car which was standing in front of the verandah where they were sitting. The sudden shock completely unnerved both of them, as may well be imagined. They all left Pondicherry for Bengal the day after, in the last week of August. What happened next will appear from what I wrote to Gurudev on 1.9.1931. "O Guru," I wrote, you remember the revolver incident? That was hair-raising... intervene — you will hear from the Mother one or two instances from her own experiences. In this instance we had no such knowledge of the actual accident. When Bhavashankar was about to return to Bengal, both the Mother and myself became aware, independently, of a danger of death overhanging him — I myself saw it connected with the giddiness from which he suffered, but I did not look farther ...
... The old pre-Buddhistic Sanscrit was, to all appearance, a simple, vigorous, living language understood though not spoken by the more intelligent of the common people just as the literary language of Bengal, the language of Bankim Chandra, is understood by every intelligent Bengali, although in speech more contracted forms and a very different vocabulary are in use. But the new Sanscrit of the revival... The old pre-Buddhistic Sanscrit was, to all appearance, a simple, vigorous, living language understood though not spoken by the more intelligent of the common people just as the literary language of Bengal, the language of Bankim Chandra, is understood by every intelligent Bengali, although in speech more contracted forms and a very different vocabulary are in use. But the new Sanscrit of the revival ...
... Moderate conference was not a success and was attended only by small and always dwindling numbers. Sri Aurobindo had hoped that the country would be strong enough to face the repression, at least in Bengal and Maharashtra where the enthusiasm had become intense and almost universal; but he thought also that even if there was a temporary collapse the repression would create a deep change in the hearts... party shrank into a small body of liberals and even these finally subscribed to the ideal of complete independence. Page 83 After the Surat debacle, Sri Aurobindo did not return to Bengal immediately, as he had originally intended; impelled by an inner urge, he undertook a political tour instead in the Bombay presidency and the Central Provinces. There was no tour. Sri Aurobindo ...
... The Question of Avatarhood The Guru and the Avatar About the question of the Avatar, I do not think it is useful to press in the matter. It has become very much the tendency, especially in Bengal, to regard the Guru as the Avatar. To every disciple the Guru is the Divine, but in a special sense—for the Guru is supposed to live in the divine consciousness, to have attained union and when he... gives to the disciple, it is the Divine that gives and what he gives is the consciousness of the Divine who is within the Guru. But that and Avatarhood are two different things. It is mostly in East Bengal recently that those have come who were acclaimed as Avatars; those who came had each of them the idea of a work to be done for the world and the sense of a Divine Power working through them, which ...
... that division. For there had grown up out of the original elements a natural system of sub-nations with different languages, literatures and other traditions of their own, the four Dravidian peoples, Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Sind, Assam, Orissa, Nepal, the Hindi-speaking peoples of the North, Rajputana and Behar. British rule with its provincial administration did not unite these peoples... existence; Maharashtra expects a similar concession and this would mean a similar development in Gujarat and then the British-made Presidencies of Madras and Bombay would have disappeared. The old Bengal Presidency had already been split up and Orissa, Page 501 Bihar and Assam are now self-governing regional peoples. A merger of the Hindi-speaking part of the Central Provinces and the U ...
... disappoint Jawaharlal, also the great importance of this other work at Dacca. If you finally decide after seeing the full development of the new situation in Bengal that your relinquishing the presidentship will not frustrate or injure the work in West Bengal, then I am ready to withdraw my objection. 12.6.48 ...
... quite a different matter because there the sex impulse is allowed within certain more or less wide or narrow limits and even the secret indulgence is common, although people try to avoid discovery. In Bengal when there is purdah, touching between men and women is confined to the family, in Europe there is not much restriction so long as there is no excessive familiarity or indecency; but in Europe sex... Someone said that if a yogi has his Shakti and if the Shakti demands physical contact the yogi has to fulfil it. Is that correct? If the sadhak is a left-hand Tantrik or a Vaishnava of the Bengal school, then his theories may have some validity but they have none in this Asram. Someone else also said that a special, though not sexual, relation can exist between sadhaka and sadhika. ...
... I suppose this means that he does not want me to get my vacations. However, let us see what happens. If I join the College now and am allowed the three months' vacation, I shall of course go to Bengal and to Assam for a short visit. I am afraid it will be impossible for you to come to Baroda just now. There has been no rain here for a month, except a short shower early this morning. The wells are... such a state of things is out of the question. You must decide for yourself whether you will stay with your father or at Deoghur. You may as well stay in Assam till October, and then if I can go to Bengal, I will take you to Deoghur where you can stop for the winter at least. If I cannot come then, I will, if you like, try and make some arrangement for you to be taken there. I am glad your father ...
... and the New Creation I cannot persuade myself that all the things that are happening—including the triumph of the British policy and deterioration of Gandhi's intellect—are meant for the best.... Bengal is now benighted and there is no sign of light anywhere. Tagore too has just written an article of despair in which he forebodes gloomily an end of the world, pralaya-kalpānta, as perhaps the quickest... that Romain Rolland's retraction has something to do with Tagore's retraction. But I expect sooner or later he will write somewhere about your becoming a thorough introvert. There of course the whole Bengal intelligentsia (such as it is) will agree with him. Are you staggered at such a lugubrious prospect? I cannot find any symptom of a stagger in me, not even of a shake or a quake or a quiver—all ...
... that division. For there had grown up out of the original elements a natural system of sub-nations with different languages, literatures and other traditions of their own, the four Dravidian peoples, Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Sind, Assam, Orissa, Nepal, the Hindi-speaking peoples of the North, Rajputana and Bihar. British rule with its provincial administration did not unite these peoples... existence; Maharashtra expects a similar concession and this would mean a similar development in Gujarat and then the British-made Presidencies of Madras and Bombay would have disappeared. The old Bengal Presidency had already been Split up and Orissa, Bihar and Assam are now self-governing regional peoples. A merger of the Hindi-speaking part of the Central Provinces and the U.P. would complete the ...
... the states, who seem the most willing to go forward and change something. And Bengal? Isn't it in the forefront? They're a little... fanciful. That is, they talk a lot - they talk very well! People in Orissa are more practical - generous, by nature very generous: they give much. In Bengal... they know they are or they feel they are intellectually at the head of the country ...
... it to create anything ? Swaraj was sought to be established by spinning—could anything come from such a false ideal ? Some life was given to the country during the Swadeshi days in Bengal. You ought to have seen what Bengal was before the Swadeshi movement to understand what it accomplished. At that time we gave forms and ideals which have since degenerated. Those forms have now been taken up and distorted ...
... east for purposes of trade. The various islands and other localities mentioned in them cannot be always identified but the stories leave the general impression that the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal and the islands in the East Indies were regarded in ancient India as the veritable El dorado which constantly allured enterprising traders by promising immense riches to them. This idea is also reflected... and c. 508 by the current one. Vainyagupta, about whom "there is hardly any doubt that he belonged to the imperial family", 1 shows himself associated in his Gunaigarh Inscription 2 with East Bengal and a Dūtaka, a high officer, named Vijayasena. After the king's death, Vijayasena passes to one Gopachandra who is evidently in the Gupta tradition and calls himself not only by the general Gupta ...
... Gupta Dynasties ... (London, 1914) Altekar, A. S., "Attribution of Chandragupta-Kumāradevī type", Numismatic Supplement XLVII, 105 - Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Letters III , Calcutta, 1937 "The Punjāb, Sindh and Afghānistān", "New Indian States in Rajputana and Madhyadesa", "The Administrative Organisation", "The Coinage", "Social and Economic Conditions"... In Asiatic Researches, IV Journal Asiatique, Le, Paris, CCXLVI, 1958, 1; CCXLXVI, Fasc. 2; Page 611 CCLII, 1965, Fascicule 2 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Letters, V Journal of Indian History , XXXIV, Part III Journal of the Numismatic Society of India , XI, 1949 Journal of the Punjab Historical Society , III Journal of the Royal ...
... provinces, they are the ones who seem the most eager to forge ahead, to change something. And Bengal? Isn't it ahead? They're a bit... fanciful. I mean, they talk a lot—they talk very well! Those from Orissa are more practical—they're generous, a very generous nature: they give a lot. Bengal... they know, or feel, that they are the country's intellectual leaders, so they are puffed up with ...
... has truly been opened wide by the wound of the Pakistani Falsehood—already, or very shortly, the Chinese are, or will be, in Khulna, some eighty miles from Calcutta, to help Yahya Khan to "pacify" Bengal. And Sri Aurobindo added, "If they succeed, there is no reason why domination of the whole world should not follow by steps until they are ready to deal with America." This is where we are today... before the massacre in Bangladesh, an Indian plane hijacked by some Pakistanis enabled India to close her airspace to Pakistani planes, thus forcing Pakistan to go around Ceylon to carry her troops to Bengal, which once more underscores the geographical absurdity of these two parts of a single country separated by fifteen hundred miles of Indian territory. ...
... around the bush, the more difficult the situation will become for her. Oh, but it's over, she's not procrastinating anymore. Yes, except that she doesn't want to recognize the government of Bengal officially. Yes, she does. ?? They have even helped to form it. !? That was these past few days—the news hasn't come out yet. I get news that hasn't come out. ( silence ) ... Mother sent a written message to Indira. × To coerce him publicly to abjure the independence of Bengal. × Satprem does not mean the physical liquidation of Pakistan, of course, but the disappearance of ...
... many parts of India, including Bihar, Varanasi, Bengal, Kashmir and Vidarbha have laid claim to the honour of being the birth-place of the poet. For instance an author could remark that Kalidasa, being able to describe a flower of saffron, must have lived in Kashmir. Others said that his description of the Ganges prove that he was a native of Bengal, etc. The date of Kalidasa's birth is also a ...
... colours, my two other answers were, though figurative, yet very much to the "point". Today I caught sight of an atrocious incident in the paper, at Rajshahi, Bengal. I am sure you have read it. Didn't. Have no time to read Bengal papers. ... You know very well that it is the confounded Raj that is behind and has fomented this communal incident. It looks as if it were going to be like ...
... This gave me the final push to Yoga. I thought: great men could not have been after a chimera, and if there was such a more-than-human power why not get it and use it for action? I had been to Bengal twice or thrice for political work. I found the workers quarrelling among themselves and got a little disappointed. While I was residing at Baroda a Bengali Sannyasi came to see me and asked me... prick of a nail. The Sannyasi took all the credit himself! What might have happened was that Brahmananda's death was near and this man got the suggestion of it from the subtle planes. When I went to Bengal for political work, my Pranayama became very irregular. As a result I had a serious illness which nearly carried me off. Now I was at my wits' end. I did not know how to proceed further and was searching ...
... which means "Long in the darkness". PURANI: There was an article about Saraswati in a magazine, saying that it was a river that flowed both into the Bay of Bengal and the Bay of Cambay. SRI AUROBINDO: What? Saraswati going through both Bengal and Cambay? That would be possible only if the inspiration ran riot. PURANI: I have tried to show that Saraswati of the Veda may after all be the flood of ...
... Pakistan scheme can be successful if the Frontier, Baluchistan and Sind don't want it. In that case only Punjab and Bengal remain. In Punjab the Sikhs and Hindus won't stand being Muslimised, I suppose. NIRODBARAN: The Sikhs won't. SRI AUROBINDO: The Hindus will, you mean? And in Bengal, I don't know what they will do. Perhaps they will wail like Sotuda. ...
... said that if only one district from U.P. was included in Punjab and one from Bihar in Bengal, then the Hindus would become a majority. This present division is fictitious and not natural. SRI AUROBINDO: In Assam it is like that. Sylhet has been included in Assam only for the Muslim majority there. Some parts of Bengal are included in Orissa deliberately and so also are Birbhum and Manbhum. EVENING ...
... But he doesn't want to lead and the others refuse to follow him. (Laughter) PURANI: Perhaps there may be a conference of Premiers in which Rajagopalachari will be present. Now only Punjab and Bengal are left to decide. Sind also to some extent. SRI AUROBINDO: Sind's stand is very near to that of the Congress. PURANI: But the Princes may stand in the way. They ought to make a common cause... SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but if Egypt loses, their chances of winning the war will be jeopardised. Egypt occupies an import position. NIRODBARAN: Shyama Prasad has given a one-month limit to the Bengal Government. SRI AUROBINDO: Inspired by Bose's success? But there won't be any Muslim to join him. NIRODBARAN: Tagore has been made an Oxford Doctor and got a Latin address. SRI AUROBINDO: ...
... seems to be kanpatla (credulous). What Schomberg said he quietly believed and acted on it, and now what the Bengal Governor says he believes! That is why his conferences are not successful. PURANI: Yes, he is influenced by the opinion of the Civil Service. SRI AUROBINDO: This Bengal Governor seems to be a man of will. ...
... one of the sadhaks who was living in Bombay and the editorials were sent to Sri Aurobindo for approval before publication. Sri Aurobindo gave many long and regular interviews to a political leader of Bengal and gave him advice and directions regarding the contemporary situation. The Mother too has said that the Supermind cannot but include in its ultimate work for world-change the political administration... marching into Assam. The Indian army seemed to be in a panicky retreat, and the British Government, counting its imperial glory to be almost at an end, was preparing to leave India. The then Governor of Bengal seemed to have said at a cabinet meeting, "This time the game is up." When the words were reported to Sri Aurobindo he remarked, "Now the wheel will turn." For the Allies the situation at that moment ...
... have said so much about his voice, I might as well add a few words about his eyes. Opinions about them vary according to the inner quality of the person who saw them. Sir Edward Baker, Governor of Bengal, archenemy of Sri Aurobindo's fiery nationalism, described them as "the eyes of a madman" when he visited him in Alipore Jail. The English Principal of the Baroda College said, "...There is a mystic... start talking of those bygone years. Satyendra recalled an incident I had completely forgotten. Once the Mother came to inform Sri Aurobindo that Bhishmadev, a former disciple and an eminent singer of Bengal, was going to sing on the radio, and he very much wanted Sri Aurobindo to hear him. So the radio was brought near and the sponge-bath and the music went on simultaneously. When at the end of Bhishmadev's ...
... the call and reached the haven of Sri Aurobindo's feet on 7 April 1921. A couple of years passed and, in different months of the year 1923, five more young aspirants, four from Gujarat and one from Bengal, came to live with Sri Aurobindo: they were A.B. Purani, Champaklal, Punamchand and his wife Champaben, and Kanailal Gangulee. The year 1924 saw the arrival of Punjalal, again from Gujarat. A French... Champaklalji's book Champaklal's Treasures and is entitled "1923: Inmates" showing the pictures of seventeen people who were staying with Sri Aurobindo at that time. Saurin Bose had already left for Bengal; instead, four new persons figure in the group photo. The list of the inmates of Sri Aurobindo's household as given by this particular photograph is as follows: (1) Suresh (Moni), (2) Bejoy ...
... Personal Secretary, and returned to India. Soon thereafter, however, Sri Aurobindo switched over to the Baroda College as Professor of French and then of English, and when in 1906, he left for Bengal, he was the acting Principal of the College. It was during the Baroda period that Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself the spirit and culture of India and prepared himself for his future political... of a preparation for an armed revolution for the liberation of India. Sri Aurobindo was the first among the Indian leaders to declare and work for the aim of complete Independence of India. In 1905, Bengal was divided, and Sri Aurobindo left Page 27 Baroda and, invited by the nationalistic leaders, he joined at Calcutta the newly started National College as its first Principal. It was here ...
... Personal Secretary, and returned to India. Soon thereafter, however, Sri Aurobindo switched over to the Baroda College as Professor of French and then of English, and when in 1906, he left for Bengal, he was the acting Principal of the College. It was during the Baroda period that Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself the spirit and culture of India and prepared himself for his future political... for an armed revolution for the liberation of India. Page 9 Sri Aurobindo was the first among the Indian leaders to declare and work for the aim of complete Independence of India. In 1905, Bengal was divided, and Sri Aurobindo left Baroda and, invited by the nationalistic leaders, he joined at Calcutta the newly started National College as its first Principal. It was here that Sri Aurobindo ...
... of the Physical Education department of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education and a very close attendant of the Mother. He came to the Ashram in the mid-forties from Behrampore in West Bengal, along with his mother, father and six brothers. Page 37 also as an England-returned professor, but they will not be convinced about me. Now don't laugh! I would like to know from... I'll give you another instance. Vijay Kumar Goswami was a great yogi. When he was a child, he went with some others for a pilgrimage somewhere in Orissa, or some other place, and his mother was in Bengal; he was a young boy of about ten. He hurt himself as he was walking, as some children do, against a stone - he kicked a stone with force, fell down and cried out, "Ma! Ma! Ma!" When he returned home ...
... and rhythm in action. So we say that the beautiful poetry and the poetry of beauty written by him are even surpassed by the beauty that he brought down into our life, particularly in the life of Bengal. The whole contribution of Rabindranath is not exhausted by his poetical works. Firstly, his was the inspiration that formed around him a world of fine arts, a new current of poetry, painting, music... Rabindranath came to our rescue and opened a new channel to create beauty. Page 155 Why should we speak of our own country alone, why should we try to keep his influence confined to Bengal or India only? I believe Europe, the West, have honoured him so much not primarily for his poetry. The modern world, freed from its life devoid of beauty due to the unavoidable necessity of technology ...
... oneness of the same entity. To-day we proclaim India an undivided nation, but as a matter of fact India is not exactly of that type. She is a collectivity of many diverse sub-nations, a continent. Bengal is a state or a sub-nation, the Punjab is a state or a sub-nation, the Tamil Nadu and the Andhra Pradesh are each a state or a sub-nation but the unity of the whole of India is merely a geographical... Britain is a homogeneous country or nation. Its collective being has a separate living individuality. As in Great Britain there are Scotland, Wales and England, so in India the separate states like Bengal, Maharashtra and the Punjab are the different limbs of the collective being of India. But the thing is that just as Asia is far larger than Europe, the states of India are larger than the European ...
... Paradise!– was a momentous day for Bengali literature to proclaim the message of the universal muse and not exclusively its own parochial note. The genius of Bengal secured a place in the wide world overpassing the length and breadth of Bengal. ¹ The son of Ravana. Page 50 And Bengali poetry reached that fourth stage or the highest status. Nevertheless, it may be asked if there ...
... Life-Sketch of Nolini Kanta Gupta Nolini Kanta Gupta was born on January 13, 1889, in Faridpur, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Raised in Rangpur, he went for higher studies to Presidency College, Kolkata. When the province of Bengal was partitioned in 1906, Nolini became increasingly involved in the movement to free India from British rule. In his fourth year of college ...
... Kantomudi then offered refuge to Hastings by keeping him hidden in a secure place for a few days. Hastings survived c fermented rice and greens. Then when Hastings became the governor-general of Bengal Kantomudi's fortune changed. He became Hasting's righ hand man. He was soon appointed his dewan and the jaghirs of Gazipur and Azamgarh were assigned to him. When Hastings wanted to confer the title... else after this. Page 108 The Mother with Pranab, Motakaka (Charupada) and others. A view of the Ganga (Bhagirathi) flowing through Berhampur in West Bengal. Motakaka's death too was as beautiful as him. He was very fond of good food. At night he had a delicious meal. This was topped by a pantua (an Indian sweet made with milk). He had ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal Preface This scheme is written to help a group of people who wanted to organise Physical Education in Bengal As physical education cannot go all alone, divorced from other education such as vital, mental, psychic and spiritual and general education, so all the branches of education were included and touched in ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal III. A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION (i) THE HUMAN MIND THE true basis of education is the study of the human mind, infant, adolescent and adult. Any system of education founded on theories of academic perfection, which ignores the instrument of study, is more likely to hamper and impair in... or it creates the fanatic, the pietist, the ritualist or the unctuous hypocrite. Religion has to be lived, not learned as a creed. The singular compromise made in the so-called National Education of Bengal making the teaching of religious beliefs compulsory, but forbidding the practice of anusthana or religious exercise, is a sample of the ignorant confusion which distracts men's minds on this subject ...
... of all places the railway station at Pondicherry and at dead of night? They are familiar with the story of Bengalis going to Bombay or Burma, Madras or the Malay Archipelago. Sons of the soil of Bengal have even been visiting the island of Ceylon since the days of Vijayasinha. But what is this strange thing now? To make that clear, I have to explain something of what had gone before. That is... that case. About the beginning of this century, a few of those who had been dreaming of the freedom of their motherland were attracted by the idea of terrorism. As a result there came to birth in Bengal a secret society with Calcutta as its centre. In course of time the police came to know everything about this secret society and in May 1908 they arrested in Calcutta most of its members. They also ...
... developed into a māyāvadin (illusionist) and finally left us as he could not reconcile himself to our viewpoint. Afterwards he became a sānnyasin. He has an ashram and receives an allowance from Bengal Government as a political sufferer. Our life in Shyampukur went on in its regular course, when, one evening as we gathered for our usual stance, our friend Ramchandra suddenly appeared with the... not less romantic than any Antarctic trip. First I went by train; next came the ferry steamer that carried me across rivers; then I had a country-boat that paddled along the little channels of East Bengal; and finally I had to walk the last lap of my journey before reaching the destination, Kumeru. 2 Perhaps I shall tell you about that romantic episode in more detail later if there is luck. I spent ...
... Aurobindo : Fasting with bread and milk! Disciple : There are people who believe that bread and milk can be taken while fasting. ( Laughter ) Sri Aurobindo : That is also the custom in Bengal, I believe. That reminds me of a story. Nevinson went to see Tilak and met him in Dhoti. While describing the meeting he said : Mr. Tilak received me naked in his cloth. ( Laughter ) By this... you believe everything to be Maya you can do as you like. But how will you say which is right? For instance, what will you say about Curzon's action? Page 165 Disciple : About Bengal partition? Sri Aurobindo : Yes, was he right? He thought he was quite right in what he was doing, while others thought he was wrong. And yet, but for his action India would not have been ...
... fact, he first went to yoga to be able to perfect his instruments so that they might serve the country more efficiently and purposefully. The Curzonian policy of repression and the decision to split Bengal into two halves brought matters to a head. In 1905 Sri Aurobindo wrote the pamphlet, Bhawani Mandir, and this 'packet of political dynamite' circulated privately and rattled the bureaucracy. Recovered... ing workers dedicated to the service of the country and the community, the Rowlatt Committee Report has recorded that the pamphlet "really contains the germs of the Hindu revolutionary movement in Bengal". Anyhow, soon after writing Bhawani Mandir, Sri Aurobindo was in the 'thick of the fight' and no wonder the bureaucracy interpreted the pamphlet in the worst possible light. There was much reading ...
... Aurobindo : Yes, they must give out authentic lies ! All the news that was given out officially about Riga was, as everybody knows, a lie from top to bottom. The talk turned to an organisation in Bengal in which the organiser made a declaration that it would use hand-made yarn for its looms without really intending to do so, or with a view to set up one or two such looms and take monitary help from... yoga also you have to continue Pranayama Page 340 once you begin it. My own experience is that when I was practising Pranayama at Baroda I had excellent health. But when I went to Bengal and left Pranayama, I was attacked by all sorts of illnesses which nearly carried me off. 8-8-1926 Disciple : Is there life on the Moon ? You said that the life-wave travels from ...
... Aurobindo Ghose, Girija Shankar Roy Chowdhury's so called life of Sri Aurobindo which appeared serially in the Bengali monthly, Udbodhan, and Hemchandra Das's story of the revolutionary movement in Bengal. I had occasion to refer to Sri Aurobindo all the doubtful points of these books for correction or corroboration. This gave me the correct ground for his biography. I had been collecting materials... alone is staggering in its volume, variety and originality. His contribution to the political freedom of India can be properly felt by those who have lived through the stormy days of the partition of Bengal when the national spirit burst out like a volcano in the placid, flat ground of Indian politics. The voice of awakened India was first heard week by week and day by day in the fiery columns of the ...
... Jewellers close to the Playground that sold sarees, kurtas and bed-linen etc. brought from Bengal. I got to know Robi-da because of our common interest in music. He was very fond of me and invited me from time to time to see the new arrivals in his shop. I was attracted to these different kinds of sarees from Bengal and although I could not afford to buy them, I still would enjoy seeing them. One evening ...
... Mother's benedictions Sri Aurobindo's relics were installed at "Bangavani" in Navadwip, West Bengal. Bangavani had been growing as an educational institution with an Aurobindonian orientation, and the installation of the relics in a shrine in historic Navadwip was the beginning of Sri Aurobindo's return to the Bengal he had loved so much and served so well. At Pondicherry, the Mother's birthday was celebrated ...
... wasn't about to spend my life in a monk's skin, you see. I needed another meaning to life. I needed to touch something TRUER than all that. Towarnicki: What regions of India did you visit? Bengal, primarily. And I... well, I traveled all over India. I went up through Benaras, Brindavan, into the Himalayas. Not much in western India. But mostly the east and northeast. Towarnicki: For several... their mouth, but not the real inner truth. Towarnicki: Yes, I understand. And what about your life? How did you come to the ashram? First, which part of India do you come from? We come from Bengal. And when we were young, my father took us to Rabindranath, at Shantiniketan. That's where we were raised, in nature. Satprem: Rabindranath Tagore. Sujata: Rabindranath Tagore, yes! (Laughter) ...
... were printed. They had eight children, five daughters and three sons. Some of them were talented. The eldest son, Jogindranath Bose (Sri Aurobindo's 'Boromama') was a sought-after columnist, and the Bengal Page 74 correspondent of the Madras-based newspaper The Hindu. His articles regularly found a place of prominence in The Bengalee of S. N. Banerji, The Indian Mirror of Keshab... power of the printed word. At Calcutta he met people after his own heart who, like him, were concerned with the fallen condition of Hinduism. Among them was Rajnarain Bose, one of the makers of modern Bengal. A wind, gentle or stormy, seemed to be blowing across the globe in 1872, suiting itself to the land over which it blew. If it was a budding nationalism in the East, it was a growing movement ...
... "the British monarchs have today sailed to Europe from Bombay." Well, King George V and Queen Mary left the shores of India after announcing that the Partition of Bengal—the settled and irrevocable fact—was now revoked, and that Bengal was again one, undivided. Everyone in the government heaved a sigh of relief, hoping fervently that now the terrorist menace had no more reason to exist. At least ...
... country. "There are very few Bengalis who are held in such high respect as Aravinda Ghose is," went on the Daily Hitavadi. "In education, talent, intelligence and character, he is honoured not only in Bengal, but in all India. Although he has many opponents in the field of political polemics, yet none is unwilling to give him the honour he deserves. Such a man the police arrested quite carelessly and with... to have books. Sri Aurobindo asked for the Gita and the Upanishads. It was at an identification parade that Sejda saw Bari ! They had not met since their arrest. The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir Andrew Fraser, once went to see 'the most dangerous man' in the jail, soon after the imprisonment of the accused. In later years Sri Aurobindo, in one of his numerous anecdotes, said, "He visited ...
... Nationalist Party was born — and place before the country what was practically a revolutionary propaganda. In an inconceivably short time the Bande Mataram became the spearhead of the new party in Bengal. The Nationalist Party was at once successful and the Bande Mataram paper began to circulate throughout India. It came into being in a great and critical hour for the whole nation, and it had a message... journalistic history in the influence it exercised in converting the mind of a people and preparing it for revolution." Even three or four years before the Swadeshi movement was born the prevailing mood in Bengal was one of apathy and despair. But then came a sudden transformation. And the Bande Mataram played no mean part in it. "Anyone with an open mind," remarked a contemporary reader, "reading even a ...
... "during the riots, we Hindus had organized ourselves, and not only begun 1. Ja dekhéchhi ja karechhi (What I have seen , what I have done). 2.R. C. Majumdar's A History of Modern Bengal, vol.2 , is illuminating in this respect. Page 233 to resist but to beat back the attackers, Gandhiji announced that he was going on fast to stop the riots." Intrepid that he... Calcutta during those pre-partition days, at the risk of his life and limbs. He and a few other Bengali leaders had organized the 'Resistance Group' in Calcutta. At first the Muslim Chief Minister of Bengal had watched unmoved the unfolding riots: what harm if Hindus are trampled and killed? But when the tide began to turn, the Hindus resisted keeping the Muslim ruffians at bay, he went and met Gandhi ...
... Some English Friends This was not the first time that the Government was questioned by the members of the House of Commons on its India policy and, more specifically, on the ongoing events in Bengal. India did have some English friends 1 who took interest in her. A few were in the Parliament. Even at the risk of displeasing their party bosses and of their renomination in Parliament, some members... extremely tasty and all mouth-watering. 2 His next, The Government of India, written after his second visit to India during 1913-14, was published eight years later. Page 72 "But Bengal is perhaps doing better than making political parties," he wrote. "It is idealising India. It is translating nationalism into religion, into music and poetry, into painting and literature. I called ...
... were carried on by Girish Babu on the bride's side......... Page 123 "The writer knows next to nothing about the married life of the couple at Baroda. After Sri Aurobindo came to Bengal and during the stormy years that followed, Mrinalini had little or no opportunity of living a householder's life in the quiet company of her husband. Her life during this period was one of continuous... though quiet affection on the side of the husband and a never questioning obedience from the wife. One can gather much in this respect from Sri Aurobindo's published letters. After Sri Aurobindo left Bengal, the two never met again, but all who knew her could see how deeply she was attached to her husband and how she longed to join him at Pondicherry. The fates however decreed it otherwise........ ...
... continue the struggle. Through his articles in the Karmayogin and Dharma he tried to dispel the confusion and show a path which the nation could tread. He toured the country, especially East Bengal, and he spoke in many towns and districts — Jhalakati (Barisal), Bakergunj, Khulna.... "Out on tour," reminisced Nolini, "Sri Aurobindo used to address meetings, meet people when he was free and give... dwindled to hundreds and had no longer the same force and life. "Once while describing his experience of the ebb of political enthusiasm," Purani tells us, "he said humorously, 'The experience I had in Bengal gave me a good insight into our people's psychology. Even when all the leaders were jailed and some deported we continued to hold our political meetings in College Square. In all there used to be about ...
... his ability, delicacy of judgment and careful work were recognised as something unusual: yet it would not be easy to find a more careful or cleverer set of administrators than the Hindu civilians of Bengal. At Jessore his life was chequered by a great boon and a great sorrow. It was here that he made fast his friendship with the dramatist Dinabandhu Mitra, which remained close-soldered to the end, and ...
... or it creates the fanatic, the pietist, the ritualist or the unctuous hypocrite. Religion has to be lived, not learned as a creed. The singular compromise made in the so-called National Education of Bengal, making the teaching of religious beliefs compulsory, but forbidding the practice of anuṣṭhāna or religious exercises, is a sample of the ignorant confusion which distracts men's minds on this subject ...
... build on what his penetrating glance perceived in it a whole education of youth, a whole manhood and a whole nation-hood. Rammohan Roy, that other great soul and puissant worker who laid his hand on Bengal and shook her—to what mighty issues—out of her long, indolent sleep by her rivers and rice-fields—Rammohan Roy stopped short at the Upanishads. Dayananda Page 664 looked beyond and perceived ...
... materials of an excellent quality to be obtained here, and that this too was quite feasible. We have already some glass-blowing factories at Kapadwanj and in the Panjab; paper mills in Bombay, Poona and Bengal; leather tanneries in Madras, Cawnpore and Bombay. It would be interesting to study the quantity and quality of these home products and to compare them with the articles imported from abroad. We may ...
... Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories (1891-1912) Collected Plays and Stories Fragment of a Story A quiet hilly country on the confines of Bengal after rain. Grey cloud yet banked up the horizon except in the north and sloped over the eastern down-curve in great sheeny ribs brownish and grey like the ribs of a fan. The mango trees by the road with ...
... withdrawn, it must be reissued and this time not by the Barisal leaders to their district but by the national leaders in Calcutta to every district, town and village whether in West, East or North Bengal & in order to constitute the Barisal committees, let Babu Surendranath Banerji go down in person aided by Mr. A. Chowdhury & Babu Bipin Chundra Pal, who, if summoned by Mr. Fuller or any Government ...
... Government should respect and give form to its irresponsible criticisms. The Government on its side took the measure of the Congress and acted accordingly. Under the stimulus of an intolerable wrong, Bengal in the fervour of the Swadeshi movement parted company with the old ideals and began to seek for its own strength. It has found it in the people. But the awakening of this strength immediately brought ...
... among the colleagues of the deposed proconsul. The Anglo-Indian press has for the most part grasped the fact that the resignation of Sir Bampfylde Fuller was a victory for the popular forces in Eastern Bengal. Had the new province allowed itself to be crushed by the repressive fury of Shayesta Khan or answered it only with petitions, like a sheep bleating under the knife of the butcher, bureaucracy would ...
... their friends, relatives and proteges for office under the Government. The people will take little interest in these Council-elections, because they will soon find out—as they have already done in Bengal—that the elected members cannot carry any popular measure successfully through the Council or oppose effectively even the most mischievous ones. Mr. Gokhale is not only anxious to keep the elected ...
... facts of the case to be known let them draw up a statement of their version with the evidence of the persons assaulted for the enlightenment of public opinion. The time ought to be now past, in Eastern Bengal at least, when appeal to the British courts could be either a remedy or a solace. Page 218 ...
... who—horrible to relate—are learning the use of deadly lathi . This startling resolution is the result of Babu Bipin Chandra Pal's recent visit to Sylhet. To crown these calamities, it appears that Golden Bengal is circulating its seditious pamphlets broadcast. Its irrepressible Page 175 emissaries seem not to have despaired even of converting the Magistrate to their views, for even he is in possession ...
... specimen, and the absurdity of that particular argument only brings out the triviality of this manner of criticism. It is on a par with the common objection to the slim hands and feet loved of the Bengal painters which one hears sometimes advanced as a solid condemnation of their work. And that can be pardoned in the average man who under the high dispensation of modern culture is not expected to have ...
... provinces and lead to a new victorious creation. In such thinking it will not do to be too dogmatic. Each capable Indian mind must think it out or, better, work it out in its own light and power,—as the Bengal artists are working it out in their own sphere,—and contribute some illumination or effectuation. The spirit of the Indian renascence will take care of the rest, that power of the universal Time-Spirit ...
... gracious enough to offer under similar circumstances to make an appointment of Rs 60. A start of the same kind [of] Rs 50 or 60 would be enough to induce my brother to settle here in preference to Bengal. If Your Highness will give him this start, it will be only adding one more act Page 164 of grace to the uniform kindness and indulgence which Your Highness has shown to me ever since I ...
... Letters on Personal, Practical and Political Matters (1890-1926) Autobiographical Notes To Dr. S. K. Mullick BENGAL NATIONAL COLLEGE AND SCHOOL 166, Bowbazar Street Calcutta, the 8th Feb. [1908] 1 Dear Dr Mullick, Your students have asked me to visit the National Medical College. They want to come for me here at 3.30. Will it inconvenience ...
... therefore advisable. 9 May 1933 Four months ago I begged the Mother for an interview, but up to this time she has not accepted my prayer. I have decided to cut off all my vital connections with Bengal, but if two of my friends there meet with spiritual death, I will never recover. At this critical juncture of my life, will Mother give me an interview? When one comes to the Mother, one must not ...
... the first place I am not prepared at present to return to British India. This is quite apart from any political obstacle. I understand that up to last September Page 254 the Government of Bengal (and probably the Government of Madras also) were opposed to my return to British India and that practically this opposition meant that if I went back I should be interned or imprisoned under one or ...
... Letters on Personal, Practical and Political Matters (1890-1926) Autobiographical Notes To Anandrao [June 1912] Dear Anandrao, My Bengal correspondent writes to me that you have sent me the following message, "The Baroda friend has left service and therefore there is difficulty in finding money. He asks, now you have become a Sannyasin, on what ...
... declaration In view of the conflicting rumours that have been set abroad, some representing Sri Aurobindo as for the Reforms and others as for Non-co-operation, Sri Mati Lal Roy, his spiritual agent in Bengal was requested by those in charge of their spiritual organ, in this humble instrumentality of our "Standard Bearer," to write to him in Pondicherry and as a result of the letter he had written to his ...
... if you don't mind taking the risk, you can use the letter which I send. Kindly ask Mr K.V.R. to send me money from time to time if he can for a while as just at present my sources of supply in Bengal are very much obstructed and I am in considerable difficulty. Yours sincerely Aurobindo Ghose Page 252 ...
... earthquakes, would the Ayurvedic buildings stand the shocks? Well, if it is done really according to old methods, an Ayurvedic building can stand many earthquakes. I remember at the time of the Bengal earthquake all the new buildings in the place where the Provincial Conference was held went down but an old house of the Raja of the place was the sole thing that survived unmoved Page 798 ...
... fall down on her. Afterwards Benoybhusan and Aurobindo occupied a room in the South Kensington Liberal Club where Mr. J. S. Cotton, brother of Sir Henry Cotton, for some time Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, 1 was the secretary and Benoy assisted him in his work. Manmohan went into lodgings. This was the time of the greatest suffering and poverty. Subsequently Aurobindo also went separately into lodgings ...
... far as Bhubaneshwar to bring him. We had wired to Jyotish Mukherji to stop there and bring him, but Jyotish had started before Page 410 receiving the wire. The next person expected from Bengal is Hrishikesh Kanjilal and we can ask him to do it; but this will take some time. If Durgadas is anxious to come at once , it will be better for him to make his own arrangements in the matter. ...
... said to represent Sri Aurobindo's views [nor can it be said] 1 that its political programme is backed up by him. But perhaps without committing yourself you can say there is a Party, especially in Bengal, which is working for Indian Unity—apart from the Page 514 well-known Forward Block which has the same end in view though working on a different line. 25.4.1949 ...
... Articles Sri Aurobindo revolved these things in his mind, and read, wrote and thought incessantly. Could not something be done? Could he not find an opportunity for service in the larger life of Bengal,—of the Indian nation itself? He had already in England decided to devote his life to the service of his country and its liberation. He even began soon after coming to India to write on political ...
... the front row 1 of three persons in the procession which was Page 76 dispersed by the police charge. After the breaking up of the Conference he accompanied Bepin Pal in a tour of East Bengal where enormous meetings were held,—in one district in spite of the prohibition of the District Magistrate. Besides Sri Aurobindo, there were also other fiery propagators of the new gospel ...
... rubbish and nonsense. As to mistakes all doctors make mistakes and very bad ones and kill as well as cure—my grandfather and one of my cousins were patently killed by one of the biggest doctors in Bengal. One theory is as good as another and as bad according to the application made of it in any particular case. But it is something else behind that decides the issue. Just hear what grave errors ...
... Bengali film, Rani Rasmani , which describes the lives of Sri Ramakrishna and Rani Rasmani, a rich, very intelligent and religious Bengali widow, who in 1847 built the temple of Kali at Dakshineshwar (Bengal) where Sri Ramakrishna lived and worshipped Kali. × On 24 November 1926 Sri Aurobindo withdrew into ...
... pietist, the ritualist or the unctuous Page 30 hypocrite. Religion has to be lived, not learned as a creed. The singular compromise made in the so called National Education of Bengal making the teaching of religioUs beliefs compulsory, but forbidding the practice of anusfhana or religions exercise, is a sample of the ignorant confusion vvhich distracts men's minds on this subject ...
... unjust and impoverishing land system maintained in force by a foreign power against the wishes of the people; but in India the foreign bureaucracy has usurped the functions of the landlord, except in Bengal where a refusal to pay rents would injure not a landlord-class supported by the alien but a section of our own countrymen who have been intolerably harassed, depressed and burdened by bureaucratic ...
... on their rights. Sir Pherozshah Mehta came to Calcutta, prepared to do at Page 255 the Congress precisely what he has now been doing at the Conference; but he found a spirit awakened in Bengal before which a hundred Pherozshahs are as mere chaff before the wind. It is a spirit which will tolerate no dictation except from the nation and from the laws which the nation imposes on itself. The ...
... The verbatim fidelity with which he reproduces whatever Anglo-India tutors him to say, is strikingly evidenced by his answers to Messrs. Rutherford and O'Grady. His remarks on the situation in East Bengal might have been taken for an extract from the Englishman 's editorials or from the imaginative reports of the special correspondent of the Empire . Mr. Morley makes no attempt to justify the arbitrary ...
... Liberalism, should have suddenly allowed its real feelings to betray themselves last Wednesday. Its attitude for some time past has been extremely ambiguous. During the height of the disturbances in East Bengal this Friend of India maintained a rigid silence on Indian affairs and discoursed solemnly day after day on large questions of European policy. Like the Levite it turned its face away from the traveller ...
... have expected from the pen of Sir H. Risley, but it manages to make its object and methods pretty clear. The object is to put a stop to the system of National Volunteers which is growing up throughout Bengal, to use the Universities as an instrument for stifling the growth of political life and incidentally to prevent men of ability and influence in the educational line from becoming a political power ...
... has he been the more intolerant of the Moderate's pretensions, the more merciless in felling to the ground all his cherished delusions based on his inverted conception of liberty. The Partition of Bengal Mr. Morley admits to be a wrong, but he will not undo it because it is a settled fact; in other words, in dealing with dependent India he refuses to observe the rules of political morality which he ...
... From Phantom to Reality 13-July-1907 The action of the omnipotent and irresponsible executive in obstructing District Conferences alike in the proclaimed and un-proclaimed areas of Bengal ought to carry home to every mind, however persistent in self-deception, the absurdity of vaunting the rights and privileges of a subject people. There is a taunt writ large over these ukases and it ...
... portion of Mr. Chaudhuri's address, and warmly approves of it. But he mildly rebukes the speaker for pinning his hopes on the new system of National Education which is gradually spreading throughout Bengal and advises him to transfer his affections to the old University. National Education will be a failure, says the Chowringhee prophet; Indians are too selfish and unpatriotic to make it a success. What ...
... crime would not have occurred but for the fact that the European has entirely lost his prestige here." It is to maintain this lost prestige that Regulation lathis and bayonets have been sent to Eastern Bengal. But this prestige must be weak indeed to require more support. Threats cannot keep prestige intact when it has not the power to maintain itself nor can oppression ensure its safety. The origin of ...
... almost everywhere where the boycott of foreign goods was not enforced by the boycott of persons buying foreign goods. This is one important reason why the boycott which has maintained itself in East Bengal, is in the West becoming more and more of a failure. Page 293 The moment these three unavoidable obligations are put into force, the passive resistance movement will lose its character ...
... of the most passive kind, the police or military would not "hesitate to shoot", is extremely probable from the action of the Punjab authorities and the known attitude of the local officials in East Bengal. Would it then be wise for us, it is argued, to expose ourselves passively to the arrest and deportation of our leaders, the dragooning of our towns and villages, the utmost outrages on men and women ...
... which somebody in authority pretends to believe likely to break the peace but he might just as well be charged with burglary or abduction or with contempt of the Magistrate's khansamah or with the Bengal stare or the Coconada grimace. The main object is to send him to prison or bind him over not to do any work for Swadeshi for six months or a year, and the pretext is a mere bagatelle. The real point ...
... Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 28.May-22.Dec.1907 Bande Mataram A Plague o' Both Your Houses 19-July-1907 The mellay between the Anglo-Indian Press and the Bengal Government over the dead body of Ganga Uriya shows no sign of diminishing in intensity. The indignation meeting which was foreshadowed by the Daily News is, we are told, to come off in the Town Hall ...
... The Indian Patriot on Ourselves 06-August-1907 We gave in full yesterday the article of the Indian Patriot in which our contemporary criticised the action of the Bengal Government in searching the Bande Mataram office as a preliminary, it is presumed, to a prosecution under the sedition clause. We thank our contemporary for his sympathy, but we are bound to say ...
... Indian Nationalism should choose the birthday of Nationalism in the country for the purpose of observing its anniversary. The 7th of August, therefore, has another importance to the Nationalists of Bengal who brought into existence their accredited journal just in time to hail that historic date. We shall only be telling the truth if we notice here that the birth of our paper took place under the most ...
... demonstrations at Lahore which followed the Punjabee conviction have evidently come as a shock upon the white population. So long as the political ferment created by the new spirit was mainly confined to Bengal, Anglo-India comforted itself by saying that the Bengalis were an unwarlike race unlikely to cause real trouble. Their main uneasiness was lest the agitation should spread to the martial races of whom ...
... Swaraj, seeks to invert this order and needs to be put down. It is here in our non-conformity to the bureaucratic conceptions of our duties that law and order have been disturbed and not in Eastern Bengal and Rawalpindi as they have been trying to make out. There were riots before this more fearful and far-reaching in their consequence but not followed by such systematic repression supported by everyone ...
... the importance of Mr. Chaudhuri's pronouncements. Mr. Chaudhuri is not a political leader with a distinct following in the country who are likely to carry out his ideas. He is a sort of Rosebery of Bengal politics, a brilliant, cultured amateur, who catches up certain thoughts or tendencies that are in the air and gives them a more or less striking expression, but he has not the qualities of a poli ...
... simple truths. Otherwise we would not have witnessed such scandalous scenes as are now being enacted at Rawalpindi or the gross infringements of equity and justice which are of frequent occurrence in Bengal. The amazing incidents of the Rawalpindi riot case are such as have hardly been paralleled in British India. The refusal of bail, which was the first scandal, has evidently become a part of bureaucratic ...
... tangible demonstration of our freedom that we cannot keep our food grains for our own use even when there is a terrible famine in the land? Is it because we are free to think and act that the Partition of Bengal has been carried out in the teeth of an unanimous and protracted opposition? The disarming of a whole people is another incontrovertible evidence of their freedom. They are not allowed the use of arms ...
... join and every limb falls into its fitting posture of humility. This dancing to the pipe is a natural phenomenon without any particular meaning. Page 633 So this loyal manifesto of the Bengal landholders has excited less interest than even a bear-dance or the performance of a clown. There are professional and mechanical genuflexions with less significance than the automatic movements of ...
... too far in expecting people to write poetry about his diminishing sale and circulation. As for his alternative hope, the Englishman 's pocket whether empty of cash or not, is full enough of Golden Bengal Mare's nests, Newmaniac effusions and other curious and assorted treasure. Finally our contemporary announces his intention of dismissing "mean-souled malice"—of the Statesman and Empire and o ...
... personal friend, Mr. Gokhale. Was it to stop these that the proclamation of all India became necessary? It has been freely alleged that the prevalence of bombs and Terrorism in Bombay, Punjab and Bengal is the justification of the measure, on the ground that open sedition leads to secret assassination, Nationalism to Terrorism. It is obvious that to attempt to meet secret conspiracy by prohibiting ...
... silence, and we proceed, therefore, to Page 410 make a few observations, treading amid the pitfalls of the law as carefully as we can. First, we have a word to the Government of East Bengal. It is very busy dealing with romantic dacoities, shapeless conspiracies, vague shadows of Terrorism, Arms Act Cases, meetings of Reform Councils overstocked with landholders and Mahomedans. We do ...
... Page 436 In India any violent propaganda is impossible; violent action takes its place and the swift succession of attempted or successful outrages in Gujerat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Bengal shows that if the movement is not organised, as in these foreign countries, it is equally widespread. The very existence of such a conspiracy must paralyse all other forms and methods of national ...
... the desire of wealth and honours to teach and labour so that the good religion might spread, there Nationalism grew slowly to its strength, unheeded and unnoticed, until in its good time it came to Bengal, the destined place of its self-manifestation and for three years, unheeded and unnoticed, spread over the country, gathering in every place the few who were capable of the vision and waiting for the ...
... Bengalee talks of authority. What authority? The authority of social position, wealth, professional success? Are we to obey Mr. K. B. Dutt because he is the leader of the Midnapore bar just as the East Bengal Mahomedans obey Salimullah because he is the Nawab of Dacca? We decline to accept any such law of obedience. Authority is always a delegated power which does not rest in Page 782 the individual ...
... first fruit of his sufferings in the increase of patriots wedded to the principles for professing and practising which he has suffered, and the people of Gujerat are waiting eagerly for our advent. If Bengal goes there in force it will, we believe, set flowing such a tide of Nationalism as neither bureaucrats nor Bombay Loyalists are prepared to believe possible. The Christmas concessions given by the ...
... a charge would be fatal to the very object of the University. Secondly, Mrs. Besant has forgotten that the basis of a National University has already been laid. The National Council of Education in Bengal has already commenced the great work on lines which have only to be filled in, and their work has received the blessing of God and increases. But Mrs. Besant has omitted to make any mention of their ...
... the Transvaal authorities, he will not allow Indians to register themselves in the book of the world. What, not even their thumb impressions, Mr. Sparkes? "The Partition wounded the people of Bengal to the quick but Mr. Morley had done well in refusing to reopen that question." This was the last fitting coruscation of Sparkes, and yet neither the Ganges nor the Maidan was ablaze. After this Mr ...
... milk and no more as will do his business for him. The separation of Judicial and Executive functions, the pet scheme of the old mendicancy, will be carried out only in a district or two of Eastern Bengal as an experiment. The policy of Sir Sydenham Clarke has confined itself to sweet words and abstention from repression, and the milk of Mr. Morley's sympathy is limited to so much as can be bottled ...
... the aid of a Bengali barrister to defend the Tuticorin lawyers who are now being prosecuted before the Magistrate. There ought to be no difficulty in procuring a good counsel from Calcutta, for the Bengal Bar has shown a consistent patriotism and self-sacrifice in Swadeshi cases. At the same time it is doubtful whether in most cases the money spent on securing counsel from outside is not wasted. In ...
... Appendixes Bande Mataram Draft of the Opening of "In Praise of Honest John" The onslaught of the bureaucracy on the Nationalists of Bengal has to a certain extent found the There is no more common question on men's lips nowadays than the question which is naturally suggested by our apparent inability to answer the attacks of a bureaucracy armed with ...
... fresh number of New India . His attitude towards the Reform scheme and the Mahomedan demand for a separate electorate is the attitude which has consistently been adopted by the Nationalist party in Bengal towards the Hindu-Mahomedan question in ordinary politics. We do not fear Mahomedan opposition; so long as it is the honest Swadeshi article and not manufactured in Shillong and Simla, we welcome it ...
... Srijut Girija Sundar Chukrabarti shall be appointed travelling Agent for the collection of shares, subscriptions etc. and asked to complete his Bombay tour as soon as possible so as to proceed to East Bengal for shares. Other agents shall be appointed on the commission system in Madras, Bombay and C. P. and Berar. Notes and Memos - II Budget 1) Money to be immediately paid for the scheme to ...
... Established at first by individuals and on a small scale it has already in the single month of its existence made a great reputation and promises to be a power in the land. It has not only a standing in Bengal itself, but is daily expected and read with eagerness in other parts of India. When once placed on a carefully prepared and permanent foundation it cannot fail to be financially a success and politically ...
... Appendixes Bande Mataram Nationalist Party Documents - II A Council or Working Committee of 2 only from each province Bengal—Aurobindo Ghose, Motilal Ghose, Aswini Dutt Bombay Panjab U.P. A Provincial Committee of 15 only District Committees Village Panchayets. A National Fund. Bande Mataram, as party organ. Arbitration Courts ...
... that my judgment was mistaken, ignorant, partial and perhaps not wholly sincere. It began with your poetry even at the time of Anami and the forces at play spoke through some literary coteries of Bengal and reached here through reviews, letters etc. There has been much inability to appreciate Arjava's poetry, Yeats observing that he had evidently something to say but struggled to say it with too much ...
... speech and action, void of self-will and self-assertion, watchful in all things is the condition for being a flawless servant. Yes, the use to which you have turned your vital capacities in Bengal and Bombay,—to turn them into instruments of service and the Divine Work, is certainly the best possible. Through such action and such use of the vital power, one can certainly progress in Yoga. Vital ...
... gave to it its most original minds and most living energies, getting through everything else perfunctorily, neglecting commerce, doing politics as an intellectual and oratorical pastime,—that it is Bengal which first recovered its soul, respiritualised itself, forced the whole world to hear of its great spiritual personalities, gave it the first modern Indian poet and Indian scientist of world-wide ...
... ashes of the age of rationalism and she has already, in literature at least, found the path of her salvation: India, that ancient home of an imperishable spirituality, has still, Rabindranath and the Bengal school of painting notwithstanding, to find hers, has yet to create the favourable imaginative, intellectual and aesthetic conditions for her voice to be heard again with the old power, but a renewed ...
... the idea. Nothing of all this can be really grasped except by the actual spiritual experience. Page 73 × In Bengal when one is about to kill a small animal, people often protest saying, "Don't kill—it is Krishna's Jiva (his living creature)." × ...
... It is only if he so rejects it that he can receive strength from us and stand in life or progress in the sadhana. It is also well that you have reconciled yourself with the place [ Sylhet, Bengal ] and have the feeling of strength to deal with the situation there. A certain power of adaptation and harmonisation of the surroundings is necessary—you had it very strongly and were therefore successful ...
... quite a different matter because there the sex-impulse is allowed within certain more or less wide or narrow limits and even the secret indulgence is common, although people try to avoid discovery. In Bengal when there is purdah, touching between men and women is confined to the family, in Europe there is not much restriction so long as there is no excessive familiarity or indecency; but in Europe sex ...
... beings or what we call specifically hostile forces. They are simply performing their role in nature and of course there may be and probably is a being of some kind presiding over each kind of illness—in Bengal they give a special name to some of them and worship them as goddesses to avert the visitation. But as I say these are really Forces, not vital hostiles. As for the interest of vital beings in ...
... ourselves in a noble couplet वसुधैव कुटुम्बकं; but everything which implies difference is based upon Avidya and the inevitable fruits of Avidya. Have you ever watched a big united family, a joint-family in Bengal especially in days when the Aryan discipline is lost? Behind its outward show of strength and unity, what jarring, what dissensions, what petty malice & hatred, what envy & covetousness! And then finally ...
... were coming here, drawing near. ( Mother nods her head and goes within ) × Satprem is especially thinking of East Bengal (Bangladesh), which has just proclaimed independence amid massacres perpetrated by the troops of West Pakistan. ...
... Consolidation of the Empire", The Classical Age. p. 19. 3."The Scythian and Parthian Invaders", The Cambridge History of India, I, p. 585. Page 24 Jayasena - all from Bengal - are dated from the cessation or destruction of a reign. 1 The very gauge-year which Albērūnī 2 uses -"the year 400 of Yasdajird" - in order to convey by comparison the chronology of the eras ...
... men and the poorer middle class form the bulk of the Nationalist party, although it contains a minority of the wealthier men. The lines of divergence are therefore somewhat different from those in Bengal and the gulf between the two parties wider both in opinion and in spirit. In Bombay or Nagpur it would be perfectly impossible for a man like Sj. Surendranath Banerji to be a leader of the Moderates; ...
... longer serve its purpose. The Empire errs grievously in thinking that police violence and hooliganism are the royal road to peace and conciliation. Jamalpur has not pacified and conciliated, East Bengal and the Chitpur outrages will not pacify and conciliate Calcutta. The only result will be to more fiercely embitter the struggle. One other result there may indeed be,—to eventually dethrone the N ...
... half-remembered past. The second year of the paper's existence has begun with a prosecution for sedition, but circumstances have so changed that in its hour of trial it has the sympathy of the whole of Bengal at its back. We note with satisfaction and gratitude that all classes of men, rich and poor, all shades of opinion, moderate or extremist, the purveyors of ready-made loyalty alone excepted, have given ...
... foreseen the possibility of this and worse things as the price we shall have to pay for liberty. We withdraw therefore this and all similar expressions. Calcutta has as yet suffered nothing like what East Bengal has suffered, to say nothing of Armenia and Bulgaria. We are as yet only at the beginning of our journey and have not gone down into the valley of death through which our way lies to the promised land ...
... strike. The Gita is the best answer to those who shrink from battle as a sin and aggression as a lowering of morality. Page 1117 A poet of sweetness and love who has done much to awaken Bengal, has written deprecating the boycott as an act of hate. The saintliness of spirit which he would see brought into politics is the reflex of his own personality colouring the political ideals of a sattwic ...
... shrank from it with misgivings, accepted it with tremors and even then would only have used it for a short time as a means of pressure to get the Partition reversed. Everybody knows how it spread over Bengal with the impetuosity of a cyclone. Was the National Education movement preceded by mature deliberation? It came suddenly, it came unexpectedly, unwelcome to many and still damned with a halfhearted ...
... famous athlete and tiger-tamer but it may not be known to all that after leaving the worldly life and turning to the life of the ascetic, this pioneer of the cult of physical strength and courage in Bengal has taken the name of Soham Swami and is dwelling in a hermitage in the Himalayas at Nainital. The Swami has now published a philosophical poem in his mother tongue called the Soham Gita . The deep ...
... Karmayogin Facts and Opinions Srijut Surendranath Banerji's Return The veteran leader of Moderate Bengal has returned from his oratorical triumphs in the land of our rulers. The ovations of praise and applause which appreciative audiences and news-paper critics of all shades of opinion have heaped upon him, were thoroughly deserved. Never has the great ...
... unless it were offered unanimously? A strenuous attempt was made Page 250 to save the face of the Dictator by representing in the Lahore cables that the nomination of Sj. Surendranath by the Bengal Convention Committee was only a suggestion in a private letter. But even then, what of Burma? What of this remarkable division in the toy committee itself at Lahore? We imagine that the Lion will put ...
... which they proceed is precise, reliable and highly probable. Judging from results not one of these epithets can be applied to the numerous searches which are now becoming a standing feature of life in Bengal. And if the search of the persons of ladies is to become another common feature of these domiciliary visits, we fear that the patience of a people jealously sensitive on these matters will not long ...
... वर्णम्। बङ्गेष्वसृक्कर्दममेव पश्य दिग्दक्षिणा भाति सुलोहितेव ॥६४॥ Yonder Jamuna, whose stream witnessed the sports of Krishna, has lost its sapphire hue, turning red with blood. Behold the soil of Bengal turned to a bloody mire, while the south-ern quarter gleams blood-red. स्पृष्टास्त्रिशूलेन विहायसीमाः सुलोहिता भान्ति दिशः समन्तात्। अभ्राणि ते रक्तमयानि भीमे विभान्ति युद्धेन सुदारुणेन ॥६५॥ ...
... a translation, the poem comes as something essentially Aurobindonian, born as it was of the translator's having felt the original in his very blood-stream during the days when he led the revolt of Bengal ("Seventy million voices") against British rule. And it has a depth of spiritual suggestion which the exegesis he is reported to have offered in a speech delivered in 1908 in the grand square of the ...
... yogic practice, Amal had decided to investigate the matter himself only to find that very properly the cot was indeed in the verandah — a word often pronounced as "barinda" in some parts of East Bengal. There were many more of such stories and I used to relish them all. In a year or so Amal Kiran once again became a familiar figure in the Ashram, especially since he began teaching ...
... Pakistani army soldiers surrendered to the Indian Army. From my point of view, it was clearly a Divine Intervention. The Mother had shown a great deal of interest in the developing situation in West Bengal. So, as soon as I could, I travelled to Pondicherry with my family. On February 22, 1972 we were granted a very powerful and special audience by the Mother. One by one we sat at her feet and gazed ...
... remember right), delightfully tasty khichuri, rasagollas etc. and lastly walls festooned with Sri Aurobindo’s writings to Mridu-di, all framed. What a change — or what a fall!! Mridu-di, born in Bengal in 1901, was widowed when quite young — a nasty experience at any age and time, much worse in those days. But she struggled through much and arrived here in 1930 and found a haven at the feet of the ...
... true, also, of his lovely assistant, Minna Paladino. He is given daily physical therapy sessions, receives many visitors and when I arrived he was often sitting in the sun room overlooking the Bay of Bengal, pondering the tireless waves and surf that pound the concrete walls along the boulevard. He seemed quite peaceful and contented. Amal was born Kekushru (Kekoo) D. Sethna on November 25, 1904 in ...
... They were there each for short periods. So Kalyan-da would go in a jeep and supervise the work himself. Some of the workers resided on our land and worked in the fields. Later Kamal, a young man from Bengal, landed up in Pondicherry and fortuitously, was put to work under Kalyan-da. He continues to reside there and run the show. He enjoyed his initiation and tutelage under Kalyan-da and has a great regard ...
... follow, etc. They were at the same time taught some moral values and slowly infused with a national spirit. Birenda learned his boxing skills under J.K. Sheel and went on to become the champion of Bengal. He won all his fights decisively, that earned him a title of “K.O. King” — i.e. Knockout King. He went through some training in wrestling and picked up folk and Bratachari dances. He gathered quite ...
... to find some fault with his new servant but Pavitra-da was a perfectionist. Charuda would even throw away the water that Pavitra-da brought from the Ashram, for it was “polluted”. Charu-da left for Bengal for a short duration and when he returned there was no sahib servant. The ‘servant’ had been given other responsibilities. A new phase in his (Pavitra-da’s) life here had started. (Charu-da to his ...
... n in her, but the babe of beauty is not fully born yet. The typescript I have been handed is captioned "An Old Man's Songs". The poet is no other than that versatile personality well-known in Bengal to-day - Sir Sahed Suhrawardy. I am not sure these poems have been published, but several deserve to be. It seems they were written a long time back, for the typescript is stained with age. Their dramatic ...
... and created an enormous economic and social problem; when America, thus forcing India into the Russian camp, chose the side of Pakistan and sent the aircraft carrier S.S. Enterprise into the Bay of Bengal. Before the hostilities started, Major General K.K. Tewari, at that time the brigadier of the Indian Signal Corps, was advised by one of his lieutenant-colonels to seek the blessings of the Mother ...
... another they feel attracted to something, and that is how they are brought together again.’ 15 This time, in the present, they had been and were being brought together on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, in Pondicherry. The Avatar never comes alone. Together with him descend the souls destined to share in the Great Work, ‘the pioneers of the new creation,’ ‘the great dynamic souls,’ ‘the rare souls ...
... full consent or she is marrying under pressure from her mother; if the former, for her sake you will attend the marriage and do the sampradan. * October 20, 1943 (Re: Bengal famine) I have been feeling very sad of late reading newspapers and talking to friends from Calcutta. The misery there is rampant. At such a time should I go to take part in a marriage ...
... soon as he was offered an opportunity Aurobindo, as he now spelled his name, left Baroda for Calcutta, the main centre of the struggle: in 1906 he was appointed Vice-Principal of the newly founded Bengal National College. The focus of his attention, however, was the daily newspaper Bande Mataram, which spread the message of freedom, often in Aurobindo Ghose’s sonorous English, through the entire ...
... Gangadhar grew up on "a drop of practice" based only on "small" books & correspondence. In 1920, when Arya was coming to a close, Sri Aurobindo refused to join the work of the saints & yogis in Bengal: "If the unripe goes amid the unripe, what can he accomplish?" In 1926, "Now if I have to write out all the truths I have experienced it will be necessary to write 100 Aryas for 70 years ...
... Chaitanya and Mira PREFACE It all happens in Navadwip, the hallowed town of Bengal, where Sri Chaitanya was born in 1486. At an early age, he felt an irresistible call to give up his hearth and home, his mother and young wife — in short, everything that man holds dear — for the love of Sri Krishna, his one love and dream on earth. A Vaishnava ...
... The India in which he arrived from Great Britain must have looked like a cultural desert to Aurobindo Ghose. The modern literature of the regional languages was still in its infancy (except in Bengal) and the literary production in English was of poor quality. Far away now were the lush cultural pastures of Cambridge and London, where Aurobindo’s eldest brother, the poet Manmohan, had befriended ...
... ledged by all as the greatest grammarian of Sanskrit. Keshav's making a fetish of him is characteristic of many a Bengali pundit as was humourously brought out by the great dramatist Dwijendralal Roy of Bengal in his famous drama, Chandragupta, in the cha- racter of the pundit, Katyayana. Page 25. Apsara: a dancing girl of Paradise endowed with sur- passing beauty and unfading youth. ...
... nought. Now the more we can grow into fit food for the Mother, the more bur assimilating capacity is bound to increase until at the end we may dare exclaim with Ramprasad the famous saint of Bengal: "This time I shall devour Thee utterly, Mother Kali: Thou must devour me first, or I myself shall eat Thee up; One or the other it must be. To show to the world that Ramprasad is Kali's ...
... near Chandod. In 1939 Sri Aurobindo described these three experiences in sonnets: Adwaita, The Hill-top Temple and The Stone Goddess In 1903 Sri Aurobindo took a month's leave and went to Bengal. His presence was required there to smooth out the differences that had arisen among some of the leading political workers. But he was soon called back by the Maharaja who wished that he should accompany ...
... difficulty. Now, I know I have something to tell you, but I don't know what! ( silence ) Everything is in a sort of hubbub. The whole country. You know there's now a Communist government in Bengal.... It would be better not to record this ( Mother touches the microphone ). I can erase it. So then, there were scenes (I forget the details), rather unpleasant scenes, then a sort of riot ...
... yourself under the domination of the Divine, who is all-powerful. Soon afterwards You know that L. went to Delhi to see Indira. He brought her a message about the situation up there [in Bengal]. Then, at the end of the conversation, he told her about the new Consciousness, saying she should open to this Consciousness and that it's all-powerful (he repeated it all to me), all-powerful. He ...
... × It was not Tagore's sister but a relative of his, Sarala Devi Choudhurani, a revolutionary whom Sri Aurobindo had known in Bengal. ...
... avoided the partition of the country in two, the artificial creation of Pakistan, as well as the three wars that were to follow (and which we haven't heard the last of), and the blood bath that ravaged Bengal and the Punjab in 1947 at the time of the partition. (See in Addendum an extract from Sri Aurobindo's message on the occasion of India's Independence.) ...
... afterwards, it was time and I woke up, I got up. And I said to myself, "I thought one wasn't tormented in that state!" Then I heard today that A., who was here and left to be a political activist there [in Bengal], is speaking in Sri Aurobindo's name, mon petit! And he issues political declarations. That's what I had seen. It wasn't that Sri Aurobindo was annoyed: the image of his face was the image of what ...
... ts of the cyclones that time and again sweep over Pondicherry. And you may have read in the newspapers how these cyclones develop: we are told they develop because of some depression in the Bay of Bengal! (laughter) Time is running out and I have still a few things to say. Let me touch on how the Mother can help us not only out of depressions but also out of severe illnesses. Perhaps ...
... came and settled down. And, soon after that, I saw the face of my friend Nirod. It was of course an unforgettable face, (laughter) I think he had come straight from England or via some place in Bengal, but he carried something of the air of England, (laughter) He had passed out as a doctor mentioned was the then librarian of the Ashram — Premanand — with whom I came to be associated ...
... both myth and symbol, and every age reads these legends and symbols according to its own appreciation of the truth they represent. The legend of Shiva and Parvati has afforded to the common people of Bengal an outlet for all their simple joys and sorrows, but to the seeker of truth the myth symbolises the highest truths. In the language of the Vaishnava mystics there is the Prakrita and the Aprakrita ...
... Rig-veda, the earliest account, tells of the coming of new people to the north-west; the Mahabharata stories record the movement to the middle Ganges Valley; the Ramayana is the final episode, which sees Bengal, Orissa, and Ceylon within the geographical bounds of the Vedic tradition however defined. Broadly reviewed, the literary trail is a good one." Fairservis, it is clear, leans heavily on "the ...
... now, after so many years, I have started to know her by the touch of her Grace. × Sahana Devi, a famous singer of Bengal, settled in the Ashram in 1928. × A poem written in a new metre by Sri Aurobindo on 31.12.1934. ...
... of peace, and through the power of inward culture and of love over the human heart, had come to rest at last on a certitude that could never be shaken. 1. Mathuratha Vilasini, Journal of Bengal Asiatic Society, vii, 812, 813. Page 94 Transition to Teacherhood The Buddha had arrived at Nirvana, utter transcendence, which no negative or positive idea can truly or adequately ...
... Notes 1. Alipur: Soon after his return from England, at the end of the 19th century, Sri Aurobindo became deeply involved with the young nationalist movement that had taken birth in Bengal. On May 1908, following a failed assassination on a British judge, he was arrested and put to jail. During the year he spent in prison (he was acquitted in May 1909) Sri Aurobindo was most of his time ...
... work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Sri Aurobindo was a professor and later Vice Principal at the Baroda College from 1897 to 1905. In 1906, he came to Calcutta as the Principal of the newly founded Bengal National College. At Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother laid the foundation of a new centre of education, and some of the last writings of Sri Aurobindo were meant for the Bulletin of Physical ...
... shall see exemplified in the passages below. But first a short introduction. On trumped-up charges of conspiracy and sedition against the British Government Sri Aurobindo, the then Principal of Bengal National College, was arrested on Friday, May 1, 1908 and put behind prison bars. After a successful defence put up by his friend, the famous barrister Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo was released ...
... struck by the clarity of her vision, he invited her to come and organise education ___________________________ ¹ Mother's Agenda, Vol. 4, pp. 116-8. Page 60 at his Santiniketan in Bengal. But Mother had already something else in view. During her stay in Japan, Mother also tried to put a little consciousness into the men and women of Japan, and something of this effort we can see ...
... has been a great educationist as well. Even those who are aware of the fact that Sri Aurobindo was a very successful teacher, — first at the Baroda College during the years 1899 and 1906, then in the Bengal National College, Calcutta, in the years 1906 and 1907, — have not much cared to study his educational thoughts and insights or may not even be cognisant of the other fact that the great propounder ...
... and other media and preparing the right materials of education. The Agenda speaks of the concept of the national system of education. As you all know, the idea of the national system was born in Bengal in the first decade of the century and the programme of freedom struggle conceived by the nationalists had Page 39 placed the creation of national system of education as its integral ...
... Aurobindo was on his bed eyes closed, like a statue of massive peace. He opened his eyes. Trouble?' 'Nothing troubles me—and suffering! One can be above it.' And he asked for news of the Bengal refugees. Then he plunged into a coma. _____________________________ ¹Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Centenary Library, Vol. 29 , p. 461. Page 100 But it was a peculiar coma. Whenever ...
... wide field to range over. Supermind, literature, art, religion, spirituality, Avatarhood, love, women, marriage, medical matters, sex-gland, any topical question, such as goat-sacrifice at Kalighat, Bengal political atrocities, sectarian fanaticism, hunger-strike, India's freedom, etc., etc. were my rich pabulum. I need not labour the point that in the process emeralds and lapis-lazulis of, rare value ...
... see that both you and your mother have been very ill. I hope this won’t happen again and all that has come to an end. This has happened in many places, here and also in the case of many sadhaks in Bengal. It hasn’t been easy to control the situation and bring it to an end. No, I am not angry with you, why should I be? Our love for you is undiminished, it will always remain so. There is no time ...
... realize all this greatness, because of his simple and humble ways. If he had put on the robe of a sannyasi, 22 we 20French for 'Mother, Mother.' 21One of the early sadhaks from East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh). Charu Dutt was a judge or magistrate during the British rule and a freedom fighter who saw no contradiction between the two roles. A close friend of Sri Aurobindo, he came ...
... nice quiet place on the seaside, ft was meant to be a halting station for the newcomers or even a jumping-board for prospective sadhaks. I had brought a silk dhoti for Sri Aurobindo and a well-known Bengal perfume for the Mother. The choice was made instinctively, or unthinkingly, if you like. My niece was much amused to see my present for the Mother and said with a laugh, "Do you imagine that the Mother ...
... Bengalis are a little romantic and sentimental, as you know very well - moon-gazers or philosophers. Secondly, I hail from a place 239 which can be legitimately and proudly called "The Kashmir of Bengal", by which I mean the natural beauty of the scenery there, though the natural beauty of the people is far less than that of the Kashmiris. (Laughter) So these are two factors, I suppose, which helped ...
... sharp differences within the party. In this Award, the seats allotted to the communities other than the Hindus were far in excess of their numerical strength. For instance, the position of Hindus in Bengal was especially deplorable. Out of the 250 seats in the legislature, only 80 seats were allotted to the Hindus while the Muslims were given 119. Quite naturally, the Muslims members of the Congress ...
... something afar – From the sphere of our sorrow. This is equally the quintessence of Tagore's message. For this reason people brought up in European culture used to call Rabindranath the Shelley of Bengal. There is a close kinship between the two in this upward urge. This spiritual aspiration was called quest in the scriptures of the West. The quest .of the Knights for the Holy Grail Page 180 ...
... and his son Orestes – Orestes was the Hamlet of Greek tragedy. The fourth piece in a tetralogy used to be something amusing, like a farce that rounded off the main programme in a Yatra performance of Bengal. But the theme of tragic drama in Greek is invariably and excessively melodramatic, with a full and free use of the terrible and even the horrid. Things like patricide, matricide and infanticide ...
... you would get at least seven years – of that you might rest assured. Page 344 Nevertheless, I managed to carry the weapon in a perfectly easy and natural manner all the way to North Bengal and reached it to the address given. This was the way in which they used to distribute weapons for future use to the different centres at various places. Now that I had passed the first test almost ...
... of the womb of this people weak and worn out, weighed down with inertia, narrowed into selfish bounds. It is for this reason that so many souls, full of strength and yogic power, are being born in Bengal. If such people attracted by the charm of asceticism abandon their true law of life and their God-given work, then with the destruction of their true law the nation too will perish. The younger generation ...
... spiritual realisation, Nolini Kanta Gupta stands foremost among the men of this century who are destined to leave their mark on generations to come. Born in 1889 of a cultured and well-to-do family in Bengal, he came early in his teens under the influence of Sri Aurobindo, the revolutionary par excellence, and 'a mighty prophet of Indian Nationalism' of the age. Leaving a brilliant academic career only ...
... Evolution and the Earthly Destiny The World is One WE say not only that India is one and indivisible (and for that matter, Bengal too is one and indivisible, since we have to repeat axiomatic truths that have fallen on evil days and on evil tongues) but that also the whole world is one and indivisible. They who seek to drive in a wedge anywhere, who are ...
... revolver in your possession, you would get at least seven years—of that you might rest assured. Nevertheless, I managed to carry the weapon in a perfectly easy and natural manner all the way to North Bengal and reached it to the address given. This was the way in which they used to distribute weapons for future use to the different centres at various places. Now that I had passed the first test ...
... myself. I have said that so far the Mother had been to us a friend and companion, a comrade almost, at the most an object of reverence and respect. I was now about to start on my annual trip to Bengal—in those days I used to go there once every year, and that was perhaps my last trip. Before leaving, I felt a desire to see the Mother. The Mother had not yet come out of her seclusion and Sri Aurobindo ...
... him there was a fine blend of strength and sweetness. Manoranjan's son Chittaranjan became for a time a centre of great excitement and violent agitation in those days. There was a session of the Bengal Provincial Conference at Barisal which was attended by all the leaders like Sri Aurobindo and Bepin Pal. But there came a clash with the Government, the police raided the pavilion and attacked the ...
... railway line. Nearly a mile from there, close to the railway line there was a house with only a ground floor and quite neat and clean on the whole. All around were open fields—not the green meadows of Bengal but the barren red moorlands of Bihar. Not entirely unpleasant scenery though, for it breathed an atmosphere of purity and peace and silence. A little farther away there stood a larger two-storied ...
... and ethics, culture and spirituality. We consider the Gita primarily as a work of philosophy, not of poetry. In the same way, Wordsworth has not been able to capture the mind and heart of India or Bengal as Shelley has done. In order truly to appreciate Wordsworth's poetry, one must be something of a meditative ascetic, dhy ānī, tapasvī , indeed, Quiet as a nun Breathless in adoration ...
... sanctity of the material form as an expression and objectification of the transcendent, the body as a function of Consciousness-Force-Delight are some of the very cardinal and supreme experiences in Bengal mysticism from its origin down to the present day. A mysticism that evokes the soul's delights and experiences in a language that has so transformed itself as to become the soul's native utterance ...
... emotional and passionate religion an expression of more delicate and complex richness voiceful of subder and more penetratingly spiritual shades of feeling than the deep-hearted but simple early age of Bengal could know." Certain coincidences and correspondences in their lives may be noticed here. The year 1905 and those that immediately followed found them together on the crest wave of India's ...
... Ashram (Sri Aurobindo), Iin., 63, 70-1 BACH, Richard, 82n. –Jonathan Livingston Seagull, 82n. Bajula, 280 Bali , 148-9 Baroda , 10-11 Bengal , 11, 164-5, 281 Bhade,280 Bhaskara, Guru, 151 Bhasunaka, 77 Bhattacharya, Purnenduprasad, 172 Bhattacharya, Sanjoy, 175, 177 Bhattacharya, Sisir, 182 Bhusuku ...
... "perdent volontiers leur chasteté, elles mettent en vent leur belle jeunesse."! L' amour de Radha.. un poème bengal du XV siècle II Je suis femme, mon coeur est l'innocence; je ne connais ni Ie bien ni Ie mal. Ma soeur ...
... with the spirit of prose. But it is not exactly so. This type of incantation is Page 141 the quintessence of prose itself. Perhaps it may have measure but no tune. Yet, in Bengal, we have not been able to rise to the standard of Eliot. The reason is that Eliot is highly serious and has depth of feeling. However whimsical and arbitrary may be his brains, he has behind all that ...
... culture and moral and spiritual discipline. We consider the Gita primarily as a work of philosophy, not of poetry. In the same way, Wordsworth has not been able to capture the mind and heart of India or Bengal as Shelley has done. In order truly to appreciate Wordsworth's poetry, one must be something of a meditative ascetic, dhyani, tapasvi,– indeed ...quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration ...
... refused, saying I hadn't a single thought in my head. But the yogi told me to go, for the thoughts would come of themselves. And it was true. So too I had to write in the papers. And I went back home to Bengal; at several places I had to speak. And always the mental work was done of itself without my being its plaything, in detachment and peace. This calm is at first mental; there are two parts in the ...
... kayastha titles like Ghosh, Bose, Mitra, Dutt, etc. He did they get these titles?' "Ah, you don't know that story, then? During the time BaIIal Sen, five Brahmins from Kannauj were brought Bengal. Accompanying these five Brahmins were five kshatriyas who came to take care of them. Ballal Sen asked them one by one who they were. 'Your Highness, I am Ghosh, the Brahmin's servant answered ...
... replied: "You want to remain absorbed in a permanent state of contentment." I understood, but I still could not get out of my problem. After spending four months in the Ashram, I returned to Bengal. There I finished my studies and three years later came back to the Ashram. This time it was for good. I began my life at the Ashram. Mother poured her affection, encouragement and help on me ...
... symbols and figures of a language seeking to express truths and realities of an invisible world, spiritual and occult. We are reminded of the "twilight" language of the poet-saints (Siddhacharyas) of Bengal of much later days. There is no end to the problems that face Dirghatama with his almost tormented mind. Listen once more to this riddle: Even he who has created this does not know it ...
... and ethics, culture and spirituality. We consider the Gita primarily as a work of philosophy, not of poetry. In the same way, Wordsworth has not been able to capture the mind and heart of India or Bengal as Shelley has done. In order truly to appreciate Wordsworth's poetry, one must be something of a meditative ascetic, dhyani, tapasvi indeed, . . . quiet as a nun Breathless with adoration ...
... religion an expression of more delicate and complex richness Page 227 voiceful of subtler and more penetratingly spiritual shades of feeling than the deep-hearted but simple early age of Bengal could know." Certain coincidences and correspondences in their lives may be noticed here. The year 1905 and those that immediately followed found them together on the crest wave of India's first ...
... held out to be emancipation from life, whether through desireless work or knowledge or devotion or even a combination of the three. The Modern School, on the other hand, represented by Bankim in Bengal and more thoroughly developed and systematised in recent times by Tilak, is inspired by its own Time-Spirit and finds in the Gita a gospel of life-fulfilment. The older interpretation laid stress upon ...
... auntie saw us and said, "These two boys will be hanged." The prophecy almost came true, for Barin got a death-sentence. Before the Swadeshi movement started, Debabrata Bose and I went on a tour of Bengal to study the conditions of the people. We lived simply on bananas. Debabrata Bose was very persuasive and could win anybody round. We found the country pessimistic, with a black weight of darkness ...
... there is some chance. Or if they agree to what the Indian leaders decide about the nature and formation of their own Government, subject to some conditions, there is also some chance. NIRODBARAN: In Bengal the Governor has formed a war committee representative of all the parties except the Congress. Shyama Prasad and M. N. Mukherji are there. SRI AUROBINDO: The Muslim League also? NIRODBARAN: Yes ...
... heights of the old world declaring and revealing the verities that are eternal and never die. They who seek to kill them do so at their peril. Tagore is a great poet: as such he is close to the heart of Bengal. He is a great Seer: as such humanity will claim him as its own. Page 201 ...
... realisation, Nolini Kanta Gupta stands foremost among the men of this century who are destined to leave their mark on generations to come. Born on 13 January 1889 of a cultured and well-to-do family in Bengal, he came early in his teens under the influence of Sri Aurobindo, the revolutionary par excellence, and 'a mighty prophet of Indian Nationalism' of the age. Leaving a brilliant academic career only ...
... time you have said that. Sirkar has gone to Wardha. SRI AUROBINDO: He is trying to enter the Congress again? NIRODBARAN: Looks like it, and he is placating everybody: the Hindu Mahasabha, the Bengal Congress. He justifies the Mahasabha and says that Bengalis have reason to be dissatisfied with Congress. SRI AUROBINDO: And he has reason to be dissatisfied with Huq, and Huq has reason to turn ...
... man had made pranam to Anilbaran, and looked at Champaklal. CHAMPAKLAL: Yes, he touched his feet, I am told. NIRODBARAN: Oh, that is the Bengali manner. SRI AUROBINDO: That is very common in Bengal. They do that to an elderly or a respectable person. It doesn't mean that he is doing it because Anilbaran is a big Yogi. CHAMPAKLAL: But in our parts they very rarely do it. If they do pranam like ...
... my plan and idea I gave him when I left that he worked out. PURANI: Yes, he got all the help from your name and association. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he described himself as my spiritual agent in Bengal. SATYENDRA: Everybody knew that he was connected with you. SRI AUROBINDO: He said at one time that his body was burning and his head was on fire—it was true—and that disappeared by his contact ...
... while battleships take more time. It is a foolish thing to scuttle such a ship. It could have remained interned during the war. Then the talk turned to democracy and war aims. NIRODBARAN: The Bengal Home Minister says the war is not fought for democracy but for the protection of small nations. SRI AUROBINDO: When the Muslim League thinks democracy is not suitable for India, how can he say otherwise ...
... the Rightists have disregarded the rules of the game and he has no such hope now. The masses are also with them. SRI AUROBINDO: The masses are with them? Is that why he doesn't want an election in Bengal now? NIRODBARAN: It is a queer argument they have given against the election. PURANI: And did he always play according to the rules of the game? SRI AUROBINDO: Doing what he says is playing ...
... long ago and the book came out from somewhere. I don't remember who published it, but I know that the publisher didn't even take my permission, I translated the Swetashwatara Upanishad while I was in Bengal. The manuscript is still with me. EVENING SRI AUROBINDO (before Purani and Satyendra came in) : I have read the Hymns . There I have distinctly said that the Vedic gods are no mere imageries ...
... but the official circles don't confirm the news. SRI AUROBINDO: If they have captured them, why should they conceal the fact? NIRODBARAN: Bose's group has indulged in rowdyism against the new Bengal Provincial Congress by hurling stones and shouting violently. SRI AUROBINDO: And the B.P. can't retaliate because they are non-violent. This creed of non-violence is very funny when put into practice ...
... CHAMPAKLAL: Nirodbaran was trying for some time to pick up Sanskrit and now has given up. NIRODBARAN: I was trying to learn the letters. I studied Pali in school, so I don't know Sanskrit. PURANI: In Bengal they write Sanskrit in Bengali script and their pronunciation of Sanskrit is awful. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. I remember in Barin's school he engaged a Bengali to teach Sanskrit. When the teacher left ...
... moderns, including us, were of poor physique, with hollow cheeks. The next time I heard of him he was dead. (Laughter) He tried to be witty also: he used to say that our cheeks were like the Bay of Bengal. (Laughter) PURANI: B has started a weekly where he has written two chapters on your life. SRI AUROBINDO: That was a long-cherished idea of his and he wrote something in English. He also wrote ...
... persuaded me? I came on my own to start a nationalist movement. There was no C.R. Das at that time. In fact, Bipin Pal had himself started the paper with Rs 500 as capital. When he went on a tour of West Bengal he asked me to edit it for the time being. I had accepted the principalship of the National College for Rs 150 a month. Tilak was coming to Calcutta as President of the Congress. We wanted to have ...
... further addition?" (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: If she were a professional beauty I could understand her fear! (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: You must have seen that K.S. Roy has become the leader of the Bengal Congress party. SRI AUROBINDO (smiling): Yes. Y and Z have seen that the game is up now. They are the most wonderful people for creating splits. I haven't seen anyone else like them. ...
... AUROBINDO: Yes, and she says it is for the sake of the Albanians. Wonderful people these! NIRODBARAN: I asked Ajit Chakravarty his opinion about Dilip's poetry and why Dilip is not appreciated in Bengal. He says that Dilip has not been able to blend bhava and bhasha 1 together and there are many lapses in his poetry. Of course, some of his pieces are very good, but they are very few. He doesn't ...
... rakshasas, they are a special type of hostile force. Rakshasas are well known for their greed for human flesh, the flesh of animals is the usual food for animals that take flesh excepting perhaps the Royal Bengal Tiger, even then it is said they do so only when compelled, but for the rakshasas the human flesh – nara mansa – is a supreme delicacy; sweet, very sweet indeed it is to the tongue of the rakshasa ...
... of Baroda, a very lofty position, a very lofty position indeed for an Indian, become another R. C. Dutt. But he threw all that overboard, wiped off the twelve years of his youthful life and came to Bengal as a national leader, a leader of the new movement that wanted freedom for India, freedom from the domination of Britain. He jumped into this dangerous life – the uncertain life of a servant of the ...
... sources came streams of significant suggestions. Anxious or curious people visited the 15 square mile site - located partly in Tamil Nadu State, partly in the State of Pondicherry - fringing the Bay of Bengal, and looked for the sudden flowering of the Lotus City, and some went away disappointed, while others thought that the reality might prove to be better even than what had been fondly imagined. Auroville ...
... (1969-71) Pearson, Nathaniel. Sri Aurobindo and the Soul Quest of Man (1952) Piper, Raymond F. The Hungry Eye: An Introduction to Cosmic Art Poddar, Arabinda. Renaissance in Bengal: Quests and Confrontations (1970) Pradhan, R.G. India's Struggle for Swaraj (1930) Prasad, Narayan. Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram (1965; 1968) Purani, A.B. The Life of ...
... always be with you.” And more than once my father was miraculously saved. Sudhir Kumar Sarkar before the Mother Once in the jungle of Assam, he found himself face to face with a royal Bengal tiger, but the tiger simply growled, then jumped over his head and did not hurt him. My father was on a cycle and could do nothing. The Mother: Yes, that is how it is when one is protected by the ...
... born amidst the chaos of a world in dissolution, and of the future India, the greater India of the rebirth that is to rejuvenate the mighty outworn body of the ancient Mother. * The young men of Bengal who had rushed forward in the frenzy of the moment, in the inspiration of the new gospel they had received, rushed forward rejoicing in the newfound strength and expecting to bear down all obstacles ...
... It was at about this time that Satprem wrote an essay entitled "Sri Aurobindo and Bangladesh", and copies in English and Hindi Page 808 were widely distributed. Was the eruption in East Bengal no more than a local affair? The author declared that the whole world was a single body with a single destiny, and within that single destiny each part, each nation, had its special role. India's role ...
... stopped moving as he hung silently from the tree. * Dada looks very happy this morning. He is telling us a lot of very amusing stories. Like Birbal in Akbar's court, in Bengal King Krishnachandra had his Gopal Bhand. And in South India there was Nasiruddin. All these three characters were very witty. There are so many amusing stories about them. Page 136 ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal IV. SUPERMIND AND HUMANITY WHAT then would be the consequence for humanity of the descent of Supermind into our earthly existence, its consequence for this race born into a world of ignorance and inconscience but capable of an upward evolution of its consciousness and an ascent into the light and power and bliss ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal III. SUPERMIND AND THE LIFE DIVINE A DIVINE life upon earth, the ideal we have placed before us, can only come about by a spiritual change of our being and a radical and fundamental change, an evolution or revolution of our nature. The embodied being upon earth would have to rise out of the domination over it ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal V. SUPERMIND IN THE EVOLUTION A NEW humanity would then be a race of mental beings on the earth and in the earthly body but delivered from its present conditions in the reign of the cosmic Ignorance so far as to be possessed of a perfected mind, a mind of light which could even be a subordinate action of the supermind ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal VII. THE EDUCATION OF THE VITAL OF all education, the education of the vital is perhaps the most important and the most indispensable. And yet is it rarely taken up and followed with understanding and method. There are several reasons for it: first, human thinking is in a great confusion over what concerns this ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal VII. SUPERMIND AND MIND OF LIGHT THE essential character of Supermind is a Truth-Consciousness which knows by its own inherent right of nature, by its own light: it has not to arrive at knowledge but possesses it. It may indeed, especially in its evolutionary action, keep knowledge behind its apparent consciousness ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal X. MESSAGE I TAKE the opportunity of the publication of this issue of the "Bulletin d'Education Physique" of the Ashram to give my blessings to the Journal and the Association—J.S.A.S.A. (Jeunesse Sportive de l 'Ashram de Sri Aurobindo). In doing so I would like to dwell for a while on the deeper raison d'etre ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal VI. MIND OF LIGHT A NEW humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open ...
... opens yet another brave new world! I was a teenager when I used to accompany my father in his daily walks, and listened to him reciting 'The Symbol Dawn'while we watched the sun rise above the Bay of Bengal: The brief perpetual sign recurred above. A glamour from unreached transcendences Iridescent with the glory of the Unseen, A message from the unknown ...
... was paid back in its own coin. The following year itself Mohammed Ghori attacked Kanyakubja and dethroned Jaichandra. Defeated, Jaichandra sought to flee and drowned in the Ganga and died. In Bengal it was Maharaj Nandakumar who fell a victim to conspiracy. The English understood that as long as Nanda- kumar was present they would not be able to hold sway. That's why through deceit and intrigue ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal VI. PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF all the domains of human consciousness, the physical is the one most completely governed by method, order, discipline, procedure. The lack of plasticity and receptivity in matter has to be replaced there by an organisation of details, at once precise and comprehensive. In this organisation ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal II. A TRUE NATIONAL EDUCATION FIRST it is necessary to disengage from all ambiguities what -we understand by a true education, its essential sense, its .fundamental aim and significance. For we can then be sure of our beginnings and proceed securely to fix the just place and whole bearing of the epithet we seek ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal V. EDUCATION THE education of a human being should begin at his very birth and continue throughout the whole length of his life. Indeed, if the education is to have its maximum result, it must begin even before birth: it is the mother herself who proceeds with this education by means of a two-fold action ...
... A Scheme for The Education of Bengal Appendix I. THE SCIENCE OP LIVING— The Mother (From Bulletin VoL 2 No. 4 Page 15.) II. A TRUE NATIONAL EDUCATION— Sri Aurobindo (From "A Preface on National Education" Arya 1921 January. Printed for the second time in Bulletin Vol. 3 No. I Page 2.) III. A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION— Sri Aurobindo ...
... × The first versions of Savitri date back to 1899, when Sri Aurobindo was working for the Maharajah of Baroda, before beginning his revolutionary activities in Bengal. ...
... wrung from the depths were by no means untypical of the response of sensitive visitors to Sri Aurobindo Ashram during the nineteen-thirties. The sadhaks were drawn from all over India, though Bengal and Gujarat were rather more heavily represented than other regions; and there was a sprinkling from abroad as well. Not all the sadhaks were intellectuals who could benefit by a careful study of ...
... of civil strife had been precipitated by the Quit India movement and by the widely scattered underground guerilla groups. And the situation had been further aggravated by the terrible famines in Bengal, Bijapur and elsewhere. There were serious shortages, there was a sudden spurt in the cost of living, and there was a serious erosion of values as well. Some of the sadhaks were still assailed by ...
... word to Prahlad's grieving mother, "Be consoled, Prahlad is in a very nice place!" She remarked, "He was very well. He was very 1. Moni or Suresh Chakraborty was a revolutionary from Bengal. He came to Pondicherry in 1910 with a letter from Sri Aurobindo to arrange a residence for him. Page 160 well dressed." In life the boy used to be dressed rather slovenly "Oh ...
... God is all compassionate and must look after everybody's food and cloth then of course his principle would be true. Disciple : At last all his disciples had to collect large sums far away in Bengal and send him the money to pay the debts, but he never reached Calcutta. I believe he died in Puri. Disciple : But I heard that he was poisoned by some jealous Sadhus; he made Sthambhan – control ...
... some understanding with Sikandar Hayat Khan. If they had not driven out Khalikuzaman in U. P. there would have been no Muslim League in the U. P. If the Congress had joined with the Krishak Party in Bengal then the Congress would not be so badly off. Instead of doing what was necessary the Congress is trying to flirt with Jinnah and Jinnah simply thinks that he has to obstinately stick to his terms ...
... Kumar Dutt used to jump and say : "This is life". Suren Banerji had a personal magnetism and he was sweet-spoken, he could get round anybody. His idea was to become the undisputed leader of Bengal by using the nationalists for the sword and the moderates for the public face. In private he would go up to and accept the revolutionary movement. He even wanted to set up a provincial board of control ...
... India. Disciple : But Dr. S was telling that using great potencies might harm, or even kill the patient. It is dangerous if everybody beings to practice it, they say. Disciple : In Bengal it is practiced everywhere. Sri Aurobindo : Is Yunani medicine practiced in India? Disciple : Yes, in cities where there is Mohammedian population, and in Muslim states. In Delhi there ...
... living symbol of surrender at the feet of the Mother. He achieved complete detachment from all material objects. For Rishabhchand, Divine was everything. Rishabhchand was bom at Jiaganj in West Bengal on the 3rd of December, 1900. He was the eldest son of Puranchand (1882—1967), an eminent scholar and writer mainly on Jain religion and philosophy in Bengali. After a brilliant academic career in ...
... field into one for playing football. Jalad-da agreed at once to give up his groundnut field. Then we got a second field. It was in this ground that the Ashram boys played against the formidable Bengal team. When the reputed Mohan Bagan played an exhibition match with a local team at the Police Ground the Mother was present as the chief guest. Thangaraj, Sailen Manna, Sharat Das, Anil Dey, Nair, ...
... English. But what can you, a handful of young people, with a few pistols, hope to achieve against the might of this huge British Empire? You’d better become a deputy magistrate instead. The Governor of Bengal would be only too happy to accept you if I put in a word.” But father was upset. He continued his studies along with the revolutionary work. He was awarded the Gold Medal twice for his M.A. examination ...
... Mother , ed. 1953, p. 208 × Nolini Kanta Gupta: from his eighteenth year since the time he was in Bengal, he has been Sri Aurobindo’s companion. He was arrested along with Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore bomb case. × ...
... is their own power. When A came here from Chandranagore he said, “There at Page 148 Chandranagore – everybody is a sheep following the shepherd but here everybody is a Royal Bengal Tiger. ( Laughter) Disciple : Somebody also said that here is a zoo where each one is a lion roaring in his den. Sri Aurobindo : When we were very few and the Ashram had not grown ...
... to celebrate. In India, the struggle for freedom continued. In February 1946 in response to increasing Indian demands for independence complicated by serious Hindu-Muslim disturbances in Bengal and other places, the British government announced it intention to leave the country by June 1948. ON 1 July 1947 The Indian Independence Bill was passed by Parliament; the date fixed by it for ...
... before Gandhi, 100 he was already the uncontested "revolutionary leader," "the most dangerous man we have to contend with," as Lord Minto, the Viceroy of India, wrote while bombs were exploding in Bengal. And Mirra was in contact with India as early as 1904. Then in China, also at the turn of the century, Chinese insurgents laid siege to the European legations in Peking—the famous "Boxer Rebellion” ...
... enrolled me in a music school named 'Sangeet Sansad'. It was a very big school and boys and girls of diff erent ages used to study vocal music there. They taught classical music, different folk styles of Bengal, devotional songs, etc. The teachers were very knowledgeable and meticulous. Thanks to their attitude, my own attitude to music had been imbued with love and reverence. Because of this passion for ...
... taste, he took me to Rishabhchand, who was a relative of his and one of the early Ashramites. Rishabhchand hailed from a Jain family settled at Calcutta, the ancestors having lived in the interior of Bengal. The family had grown in silk business; they were the owners of the famous Eastern Silk House. Rishabhchand himself was involved in the family trade before joining the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. W ...
... inverted Every gesture below Repeats a gesture from above And all reveals An eternal coincidence × Cholum = Bengal gram ...
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