... them actually stabbed or crucified or torn by real wild beasts to embody his mimic imaginations. Sir Denzil has conceived a splendid melodramatic tragedy called The Rebellion Forestalled or British Empire Saved and the Punjab Bar have been obliged to play the leading parts. The conception is admirable. An inoffensive pleader sitting among his briefs, to all appearance harmless, unmilitary, civilian... tremendous schemes; a disarmed and helpless mob of workmen and peasants who are really a dangerous, well-equipped and well-organised army of a hundred thousand Jats capable of overthrowing the British Empire; a widespread and diabolically complex plot on the bursting point, Lahore Fort to be seized and, we presume, Lajpat to be crowned the first Punjabi Emperor of India,—when suddenly, lo and behold... rator in his mighty hand and a motor-car Page 400 tosses him over the continent to Rangoon or the Andamans, envelops the rebel province in a cloud of cavalry and siege-guns and the British Empire—and incidentally Lahore Fort—is saved. A most admirably dramatic denouement! And to add the right Shakespearian touch of grotesque humour, we are told that this phantom army foreshadows its attack ...
... weighing against me." The children were all ears. "You see, poor Mr. Prothero did not know that I had become an out-and-out revolutionary openly declaring my intention to help destroy the British empire, and this was the main substance of the fiery speeches I was making at the Indian Majlis. If Mr. Prothero had known about these activities of mine, he would most certainly have changed his opinion... inspired by European ideas, were preparing themselves already for a similar armed revolt, particularly in Bengal and in Maharashtra." "But what' could those small rebellions do against the mighty British Empire?" questioned Anand. "You know, success was not the only issue. It was also sacrifice, for sacrifice alone can give back to a moribund race its self-respect and confidence. And nothing as great... the hangman with a smile? If this is not a mantra, then what is? In those days of the Swadeshi Movement, the cry of 'Bande Mataram' rent the skies and shook the deepest foundations of the mighty British Empire, terrifying our masters so that they were forced to ban this cry. It was these words, ringing night and day from the lips of revolutionaries, politicians and non-cooperators that led us forward ...
... certain forces have been working for the destruction of the British Empire. I myself once worked for it but it is quite possible to change the action because if the same result can be achieved in a different manner then the destruction of the British Empire is not necessary. I myself would not have minded any result to the British Empire, if its destruction did not mean victory for Hitler. But that... would be after great suffering and through reactions on the part of men to that oppression, or even it may not come at all, or come after the Pralaya, whereas by changing the balance of forces the British Empire can be saved, and if it can win then the new order might take place more quietly and also the mental and vital changes necessary will take place without much disturbance and so much destruction ...
... its unrealized possibilities.' He had realized the futility of revolutionary violence in the then prevailing conditions in India; he was therefore prepared to accept self-government within the British Empire as the country's immediate political goal. Yet despite his changed political outlook the Moderates continued to distrust him. Realising his ineffectiveness outside the Congress mainstream, he set... surrendering to the cry of Home Rule for India he strongly deprecated any political discussion at a time when the whole strength of India ought to have been focused upon the War and upon helping the British Empire. It was simply impossible for him to tolerate the public excitement which the Home Rule Movement was fomenting against the British Government by its inflammatory language in discussing political... 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 parts of the country, registered noticeable progress in the South. Both Tilak and Besant engaged in extensive tours ...
... heroic struggle of Bengal in the following words: "The real awakening (of India) took place after the Partition of Bengal.... That day may be considered to be the day of the partition of the British Empire.... The demand for the abrogation of the partition is tantamount to a demand for Home Rule.... As time passes, the nation is being forged.... After the partition the people saw that they must... and grew as much eloquent in praise of the blessings of the British rule as he had been in its denunciation. "During 1906-08 he had been a most powerful exponent of Indian Swaraj outside the British Empire, but the major 71. Ibid. 72. "... The issues of this struggle involve the emancipation of India and the salvation of Humanity." — Bepin Chandra Pal Page 211 trend... unwept, unhonoured and unsung." 74 It would be interesting to recall in this context that the goal Sri Aurobindo had put before the country even in 1906 was complete independence outside the British Empire, and the means he had advocated for its attainment was Non- Cooperation and Passive Resistance. The armed insurrection organised on a country-wide scale, which he had preached and attempted at ...
... evolution does not work on the rigid lines of human ethics. Page 91 The Congress was started more with the object of saving the British Empire from danger than with that of winning political liberty for India. The interests of the British Empire were primary, and those of India only secondary; and no one can say that the Congress has not been true to that ideal. It might be said with justice... the ideal of independence which was regarded, when he entered into politics, by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera. It was thought that the British Empire was too powerful and India too weak, effectively disarmed and impotent even to dream of the success of such an endeavour. Thirdly, there was the organisation of the people to carry on a public ...
... platform, by his gagging ordinance turned into law. He has stiffened it, he says, into a tap which can be turned on wherever his vigilant eye sees a travelling spark of sedition, so on that side the British Empire and the profits of the clans are safe. But against the press he has not been able to find an equally effective extinguisher. The Government were apparently equal to the manufacture, but they want... complaints about his bearer and praises of whiskey and soda and other subjects too sacred to touch. And so on the note of "whiskey in moderation" Sir Harvey closed his historic speech. And the British Empire knew itself safe. Page 776 ...
... Indian Mirror is the chief source of joy and comfort to these allied powers. The Mahatma of Mott's Lane has waved his wonder-working wand and Nationalism is no more. Narendranath has spoken; the British Empire is saved. It is not surprising that the discoveries made by the Indian Mirror should have awakened admiring wonder and delight in Hare Street, for they are certainly such discoveries as are only... discovered that Lord Kitchener is Page 342 not a good general and is capable of nothing more heroic than digging up dead Mahdis, so it clamours for a better general who will defend the British Empire more efficiently and spend less over it. Poor Mr. Morley! Even the Indu has found him out at last. We cannot expect our contemporary to realise that only in a free and prosperous India can defence ...
... where he went into retirement before his important and always unexpected decisions. ‘For without victory there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages , that mankind will move forward towards its goal.’ × ...
... brought about by the military force or the political influence of some powerful king-state preponderant by land and sea,— pampotent par terre et mer , as Nostradamus prophetically described the British Empire,—not necessarily despotic and absolute but easily first among equals; and that I suppose is what would have happened if Germany had come up top dog in the struggle instead of a very much mutilated... principle or sustained practical policy? No combination of little American republics Page 646 and minor European powers could dictate a world policy to the United States, France and the British Empire or could be allowed to play by the blind rule of a majority with these great interests. But in the League the various constituents of the corporate body are so ranked and related as to give precisely ...
... instance most before our eyes both of the successfully evolved composite or heterogeneous nation and of the fortunately evolving heterogeneous empire is that of the British nation in the past and the British Empire in the present,—successfully, but, fortunately, with a qualification; for it is subject to the perils of a mass of problems yet unsolved. 1 The British nation has been composed of an Englis... and then by the creation of the Free State and not under a complete legislative union. This result may well reach beyond itself; it may create the necessity of an eventual remodelling of the British Empire and perhaps of the whole Anglo-Celtic nation on new lines with the principle of federation at the base. For Wales and Scotland have not been fused into England with the same completeness as Breton ...
... conceived by notions and prejudgments, even perhaps idio-syncracies. The British are more amenable to change, precisely because they do not force a change and do not know they are changing. The British Empire is more loosely formed, its units have more freedom than is the case with other Empires built Page 104 upon the pattern of the extremely centralised Roman Empire. Truly it has the... make a summer, even so, many such voices cannot perpetuate the past. The name, even the form of Imperialism is there, but the substance of it is how much changed, if one goes behind! The British Empire, as it stands today, is composed of three strands, we may say: the first, the front line, consists of Canada and Australia, the second, of Ireland, Egypt and Irak, and the third, mainly of India ...
... of a New World Order which is bound to come. But for this new arrangement the British Empire need not be destroyed. It can be achieved in quite a different manner by a change in the balance of different forces, more quietly and without much destruction. Were it not for Hitler I wouldn't have cared whether the British Empire remained or went down. Now the question is whether this New Order is to come ...
... Sri Aurobindo wrote: The Loyalists would be satisfied with good Government by British rulers and a limited share in the administration; the Moderates desire self-government within the British Empire, but are willing to wait for it indefinitely; nothing less than independence whether within the Empire, if that be possible, or outside it; they believe that the nation cannot and ought not to... capacities and qualities necessary for freedom and even if they succeed in developing the necessary fitness, they would do better for themselves and mankind by remaining as a province of the British Empire; any attempt at freedom will, they think, be a revolt against Providence and can bring nothing but disaster on the country. The Loyalist view is that India cannot, should not and will not be a ...
... prejudgments, even perhaps idio-syncracies. The British are more amenable to change, precisely because they do not force a change and do not know they are changing. Page 68 The British Empire is more loosely formed, its units have more freedom than is the case with other Empires built upon the pattern of the extremely centralised Roman Empire. Truly it has the spirit of a commonwealth... so, many Page 70 such voices cannot perpetuate the past. The name, even the form of Imperialism is there, but the substance of it is how much changed, if one goes behind! The. British Empire, as it stands today, is composed of three strands, we may say: the first, the front line, consists of Canada and Australia, the second, of Ireland, Egypt and Irak, and the third, mainly of India ...
... fulfilled when I no longer wanted them. For instance, I wanted to break the British Empire. Now Hitler wants to do it. But I don't want it, as it would mean the triumph of Hitler. Wherever he has gone, he has destroyed the higher values of life. If I want that British must not be destroyed it is not because I like the British Empire, but I see that it would push back the work tremendously. It is not mental ...
... Moderates and the Nationalists. The Loyalists would be satisfied with good government by British rulers and a limited share in the administration; the Moderates desire self-government within the British Empire, but are willing to wait for it indefinitely; the Nationalists would be satisfied with nothing less than independence whether within the Empire, if that be possible, or outside it; they believe... the capacities and qualities necessary for freedom and even if they succeed in developing the necessary fitness, they would do better for themselves and mankind by remaining as a province of the British Empire; any attempt at freedom will, they think, be a revolt against Providence and can bring nothing but disaster on the country. The Loyalist view is that India cannot, should not and will not be a ...
... same for all empires which are not at the same time national units. It was not so long ago that most political thinkers perceived at least the strong possibility of an automatic dissolution of the British Empire by the self-detachment of the colonies, in spite of the close links of race, language and origin that should have bound them to the mother country. This was because the political convenience of... beginning to regard themselves as new separate nations rather than as limbs of an extended British nationality. Things are now changed in both respects, a wider formula has been discovered, and the British Empire is for the moment proportionately stronger. Nevertheless, it may be asked, why should this distinction be made of the political and the real unit when name, kind and form are the same? It must ...
... self-conscious maturity and no longer stand in need of a hereditary kingship to do their governing work for them or even to stand for them—except perhaps in certain exceptional cases such as the British Empire—as the symbol of their unity. Either then the monarchy can only survive in name,—as in England where the king has less power even, if that be possible, than the French President and infinitely... perish even without the collapse of the Great War. Only in England and in some small countries is it at once innocuous and useful and therefore upheld by a general feeling. Conceivably, if the British Empire, 3 even now the leading, the most influential, the most powerful Page 469 force in the world, were to become the nucleus or the pattern of the future unification, there might be ...
... of strength. The bureaucracy in India is in itself weak and powerless; it subsists greatly by the acquiescence and support of the people, partly by the existence behind it of the strength of the British Empire. The Congress leaders saw only the second source of its strength and sought to cut it off by depriving the bureaucracy of the moral support of the British public. Their initial miscalculation pursued... secession of thoroughgoing passive resistance does not forget that besides the support and acquiescence of the people the bureaucracy have another source of strength in the military force of the British Empire. They are often accused of forgetting it, but they realise it fully, only they also realise that this weapon of secession, of boycott and self-help, is the only chance which yet remained of a peaceful ...
... Africa, the Near East and the Caucasus, in conjunction with the conquest of Russia, he would push forward to Afghanistan. That country would then be used as a base from which to strike the stubborn British Empire at its heart, in India. Rule of the world was, as he saw it, within his grasp.” (Fest 1160) In the middle of August 1942, Hitler said: “As the next step we are going to advance south of the Caucasus... along the Caspian Sea toward Afghanistan and India. Then the English will run out of oil. In two years we will be on the borders of India. Twenty to thirty elite German divisions will do. Then the British Empire will collapse.” (Speer 1161) In Hitler’s mind India was always associated with Great Britain. “The birthplace of the English self-consciousness is India”, he said in one of his monologues. 1162 ...
... Allahabad Congress of 1930, he said: "I would like to see the Punjab, North West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated NorthWest Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India." A young man educated in Cambridge ...
... Movement Kittur Rani Chinnamma She was the first woman independence activist of India. She stood all alone with a vibrant fiery eye against the British Empire. She did not succeed in driving them away, but she did inspire many women to rise against the British rule. She was Chennamma Queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka. Today she is well... Lapse was imposed on native states by the British. Under this declaration, native rulers were not allowed to adopt a child if they had no children of their own. Their territory formed part of the British Empire automatically. The state of Kittur came under the administration of Dharwad collectorate in the charge of Mr. Thackeray. Mr. Chaplin was the commissioner of the region. Both did ...
... Allahabad Congress of 1930, he said: "I would like to see the Punjab, North West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan amalgamated into a single State. Self-government within the British Empire or without the British Empire, the formation of a consolidated North-West Indian Muslim State appears to me to be the final destiny of the Muslims, at least of North-West India." This idea was taken up by a young ...
... Bengal - with its population of nearly 80 millions looking up to Calcutta for leadership in politics, education, commerce, industry and administration - remained the principal constituent of the British Empire in India. Here was Curzon's chance to do something 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... British goods alone? The very word had "unsavoury associations" for Gokhale! As for the national goal, like Cotton who had pleaded in the previous year for a "United States of India" within the British Empire, Gokhale too thought that whatever "advance" India sought "must be within the Empire itself, and such advance could only be "gradual". No wonder Tilak pulled Sri Aurobindo out of the pandal and ...
... France, and naming it Louisiana for his patron, the French king Louis XIV." The English settlement on Virginia in 1607 was the start of their empire building, "nothing before could be called a British Empire." The Dutch were a little late in this colonizing game. They ousted the Portuguese from many places. Their most valuable possessions were Malacca, the Spice Islands, and the ports of India... Converted— more often by force than otherwise—"by their conquerors, native laborers and artisans erected Roman Catholic shrines and churches." Sixteenth-century Spanish gold seekers, French and British empire builders, brought with them diseases till then unknown in the New World. "From the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, diseases brought to the Americas by Europeans killed at least half and ...
... power and dominion, partly because we cling to old traditions and remember the great deeds of history; but beyond and above all these elements of satisfaction we feel that throughout the whole British empire we enforce those ideas of justice, personal freedom and religious toleration which are the results of the constitutional struggles of centuries." We are not concerned here with the discussion whether ...
... self-government. What does Mr. Morley mean by British rule? Not the British connexion, not the continuance of India as a self-governing unit in a federation of free peoples which shall be called the British Empire. No, Mr. Morley is quite as hostile to the Moderate ideal of self-government on colonial lines, modified Swaraj, as to the Nationalist ideal of Swaraj pure and simple. The educated minority in ...
... Mr. Morley. It was the present hope of Anglo-India who tried to refute Professor Seeley and show that the striking amount of happiness which America began to enjoy after her secession from the British Empire was the consequence of that secession. Independence, Mr. Morley argued, not only put the Americans on their mettle, but it left them with fresh views, with a temper of unbounded adaptability, with ...
... which she has so prized all through her history. England, on the other hand, and quite consistently enough, thinks she is rightly acting in withholding from the Indian the citizenship of the British Empire, for in so doing she is strictly in the wake of European tradition, and has the full justification of history as she has known and understood it. And consequently John Morley hastens to remind ...
... holding of the session. The intrigue is now complete, to the huge delight of the Englishman , and officialdom is full of hope that Sir Pherozshah Page 743 will this year save the British Empire. For the Nationalists it should be a spur to redoubled efforts to spread their creed into every corner of the country so that Loyalism may nowhere find a secure resting place for its foot-soles ...
... 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 Banerji for his Shanti-Sechan indiscretion. The Statesman sees two ...
... respect its former traditions and professions as not to interfere finally with any course of action of the popular authority which does not itself try violently to subvert the connection of the British Empire with India. It is extremely doubtful whether this last condition will be satisfied. It is easy to see how the bureaucracy might put a summary end to National Education or an effective check on ...
... suppress the whole movement. The first blow at the Punjabee was a disastrous failure. The second has been delivered with extraordinary precautions to ensure its success. The whole might of the British Empire has been summoned to drive it home. The pomp and prestige of its irresistible might, the tramp of its armies and the terror of its guns, the slow mercilessness of its penal law and the swift fury ...
... the same class of lads now "pass a European with a cigarette between their lips and stare him calmly in the face," and a "large number of natives salaam with their left hands" the world, or the British Empire, which means the same thing, must be nearing its end. Bengal politicians seem determined to maintain the ancient reputation of the nation for its logical acumen and subtlety. The Barisal ...
... sedition and rebellion. The whirligig of Time brings round with it strange revenges and at this moment Srijut Surendranath is returning to India acclaimed by English Conservatives as a pillar of the British Empire, India's representative with a mighty organisation behind him pledged to loyalty, co-operation and the support of Morleyan reform. After Surendranath, Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal, reputed editor of ...
... in Natal is indeed an event of the first significance, but what it portends is the rise of a new and vigorous nation, perhaps a new empire in South Africa,—certainly not the consolidation of the British Empire. Great organisms like these tend inevitably to separate existence. The one thing that stands in the way is the present inability of these organisms to defend their separate existence. Australia ...
... as instruments or ideals and look beyond to an end which they do not serve except in a trifling degree. They might be sufficient if it were our ultimate destiny to be an outlying province of the British Empire or a dependent adjunct of European civilisation. That is a future which we do not think it worth making any sacrifice to accomplish. We believe on the other hand that India is destined to work ...
... is sufficient for an end so small. In the one case her destiny is to be a great nation remoulding and leading the civilisation of the world, in the other it is to be a subordinate part of the British Empire sharing in the social life, the political privileges, the intellectual ideals and attainments of the AngloCeltic race. These are the two ideals before us, and an ideal is not mere breath, it is ...
... as part of such an Empire, India can have no future. If she is to model herself on the Anglo-Saxon type she must first kill everything in her which is her own. If she is to be a province of the British Empire, part of its life, sharing its institutions, governed by its policy, the fate of Greece under Roman dominion will surely be hers. She may share the privileges and obligations of British citizenship ...
... naturalist, i.e. a person who studied nature, was normal procedure on a mission like this. Much of the planet and its denizens was still unknown, and the new knowledge favoured the expansion of the British Empire, the trade of its merchants and the zealous efforts of its missionaries. The nineteenth century was the age of geological, zoological and botanical exploration, of which the story of the mutiny ...
... children. Hitler is the greatest menace that the world has ever met. If Hitler wins, do they think India has any chance of being free?’ 33 ‘I have all my life been wanting the downfall of the British Empire,’ Sri Aurobindo said, ‘but the way it is being done is beyond all expectation and makes me wish for British victory. And if I want that England should win, it is not for the Empire’s own sake but ...
... to take one's chance. I am here already. The thing I said last time I came that there was a storm preparing in Asia I can now explain more clearly. It is still preparing and it threatens the British Empire. Mesopotamia is one centre, India is the other. In India the electricity is gathering force and before long it will be the beginning of the end.— There are three stages to be gone through. The ...
... the absence of any will to crush out of existence all these different kingdoms and fuse together these different peoples and force them into a single substance and a single shape. Then came the British Empire in India which recast the whole country into artificial provinces made for its own convenience, disregarding the principle of division into regional peoples but not abolishing that division. For ...
... appeared to have felt that in the war he was conducting against Hitler the cause of civilisation was at stake and that to serve it at all costs was more important than to preserve the sanctity of the British empire. He wanted India to give up her distrust of the British and throw in her lot whole-heartedly with Britain's own valiant effort to fight the barbarism that was on the march from Germany under the ...
... the war. The Irish are quite independent, though so near to England. SRI AUROBINDO: Only, there is a Northern Ireland there. That is due to people—the Southerners—who didn't want to join the British Empire. Otherwise the British Government would have been willing to concede full Dominion Status to Ireland as one whole. In India, if Jinnah had had the good sense to come to an agreement with the Congress ...
... unit, and what is attempted is a free association of independent nations that choose to be linked together because of identity of interests or mutual sympathy in respect of ideal and culture. The British Empire is a remarkable experiment on this line: it is extremely interesting to see how an old-world Empire is. really being liquidated (in spite of a Churchill) and transformed into a commonwealth of ...
... with her fleet. That is why Japan kept quiet. NIRODBARAN: Britain is now all alone; she hasn't replied to the Japanese note yet. SRI AUROBINDO: All my life I have wanted the downfall of the British Empire, but the way it is being done is beyond all expectation and makes me wish for British victory. And if I want England to win, it is not for the Empire's own sake but because the world under Hitler ...
... he has. He has a most original mind, because it is not his own mind. I can understand if he wanted to take Gibraltar first. That wouldn't be difficult; then he could go to Africa and destroy British Empire there which would be a great stroke. Then he can turn towards Asia unless Russia comes in the way. The British island can then remain as it is. Of course it will still have its navy, Germany is ...
... PURANI: Sammer still holds that if France declared herself communist, the Russians would attack Hitler and come to help France. And people here in Pondy believe that Hitler doesn't want the British Empire. He only wants hegemony among his colonies. SRI AUROBINDO: Are they so idiotic as to believe that he will be satisfied with that? He has said plainly in Mein Kampf that his aim is to destroy ...
... was apprehended and even the question of disbanding the Ashram was in the air. Perhaps the British Government had never entirely believed that Sri Aurobindo, once the most dangerous enemy of the British Empire, could really become their ally. Was he not still engaged in secret revolutionary activities, his war-contribution serving just as a smoke-screen? Unfortunately, in the Ashram itself there were ...
... qualities necessary for freedom, and even if they succeeded in developing the necessary fitness, they would, it was argued, do better for themselves and mankind by remaining as a province of the British Empire. According to this view, India cannot, should not and will not be a free, great and united nation, and that India should remain satisfied with good governance by the British rulers and a limited ...
... at the Surat session. In this draft, among other changes, the goal of the Congress was defined as 'the attainment by India of self-government similar to that enjoyed by the other members of the British Empire.' Moreover, this was conceived as an ultimate goal, not an immediate objective. This was a far cry indeed from the Calcutta resolution. The Moderates also proposed that, under the new constitution ...
... party similar to Her Majesty's Opposition in England. Lala Lajpat Rai maintained that it was organised to serve as a 'safety-valve' for the growing unrest in the country and to strengthen the British Empire. However, very soon the Indian National Congress was taken over by the Indians. The first meeting of the Indian National Congress was held in Bombay in 1885. We reproduce a report of the ...
... rushed from Arcot 14 miles away, 350 Indians sepoys were put to death. Some British accounts place the figure at 800. This little documented event was the first major rebellion against the emerging British Empire in colonial India. It cost the governor of Madras, Lord William Bentinck his job. At the time of the revolt, the fort - a late 14th-century Vijayanagara construction of European design ...
... Krishna Dev Raya and others. The Hindu mind had awakened to the danger of Islamic domination. Then came the British conquest as a result of which both Hindus and Muslims became subjects in the British Empire. With the Hindu revival having taken place in the nineteenth century, the Muslims were in a state of total despair. There began a Muslim revivalism. But, unlike the Indian renaissance, this 'r ...
... hundred rupees. Thus he became a marked man, and it stood in his way when in afterlife his name was considered for a judgeship of the High Court. There could be no place for him as a Judge in the British Empire, and he had to remain an advocate. This however did not hurt him in any way, either by way of prestige Page 326 or emoluments. We had in our group another person considerably ...
... unit, and what is attempted is a free association of independent nations that choose to be linked together because of identity of interests or mutual sympathy in respect of ideal and culture. The British Empire is a remarkable experiment on this line : it is extremely interesting to see how an old-world Empire is Page 96 really being liquidated (in spite of a Churchill) and transformed ...
... policeman. If we have to say anything we must go and inform the officer and not talk to the policeman. It is absurd for me to think of going to court. I am not only a non-co-operator, I am an enemy of British-Empire. If the visitors, who are non-co-operators want to make a case it is their business." He then instructed two disciples to go to the Police Commissioner and inquire about the matter and make ...
... Rule was a possibility. Mrs. Besant, in fact, later carried that idea into effect. But Sri Aurobindo felt this would mean the abandonment of the ideal of total independence – free India within the British Empire would be the goal of the Home Rule movement – and therefore he did not execute it. He thought about passive resistance at this time, but he knew that he could not be the leader of such a movement ...
... sannyasins of Bankim's Anandamath were no fiction. Lord Dufferin, who was then the Viceroy (1884-88), lent his support to the nascent organization deeming it would serve the interests of the British Empire and save it from danger. The Congress held its first session in Bombay with Woomesh Chandra Bonnerjee, an eminent Barrister of the Calcutta High Court, as its president. A.O. Hume was one, of the ...
... gave me great happiness that Mr. Norton had chosen me as the protagonist of this play.... Of the national movement I was the alpha and omega, its creator and Saviour, engaged in undermining the British empire.... It is a pity I was not born as an Avatar; otherwise, thanks to his intense devotion and ceaseless contemplation of me for the nonce, he would surely have earned his mukti then and there and ...
... it was propounded by European scholars who could not help finding striking similarities between Sanskrit and Greek and Latin, pointing to an ancient link between these languages. And since the British Empire was then at the height of its glory and Europe as a whole was basking in her new-found Enlightenment, these proud scholars could hardly accept that they owed their languages and civilization to ...
... to move away from the dock. Then steamed out of Calcutta harbour. Then was out in the Bay of Bengal. The 'most dangerous man,' the prize Catch eluded the net cast wide for him by the mighty British empire. On 1 st April 1910, the British Government was made an April Fool I Whose whimsical humour weaves such time nets? On 4 April S.S. Dupleix reached Pondicherry harbour. There she dropped ...
... the natural working of economic laws but which is political in its nature, the result of the acquisition of political power by the East India Company and the absorption of India into the growing British Empire. As Mr Dutt shows in his able Economic History of British India , this political change had the gravest effect on our economic life. In the first place we had the economic policy of the East ...
... Force which is now sweeping over the earth. The freedom of India, in whatever form, will be a consequence of that victory. The working towards freedom was clear already in the world and in the British Empire itself before the War; Eire, Egypt had gained their independence, Iraq had been granted hers; many free nationalities had arisen in Europe and Asia; India herself was drawing nearer to her goal ...
... to the ideal of independence which was regarded, when he entered into politics, by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera. It was thought that the British Empire was too powerful and India too weak, effectively disarmed and impotent even to dream of the success of such an endeavour. Thirdly, there was the organisation of the people to carry on a public ...
... accept the current interpretations, whether Sayana's or the modern theory, the whole of this sublime and sacred reputation is a colossal fiction. The ________________ * To the British Empire in South Africa during the Boer War (1899-1902) and the 1906 Zulu rebellion. When Sri Aurobindo wrote this letter, Gandhi was still in South Africa; he returned to India a few months later, in ...
... 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, the new spirit ...
... the entire exclusion of British goods, the preference of Swadeshi goods at a sacrifice when they were attainable, and, when unattainable, the preference of any foreign goods not produced in the British Empire. To the argument that this programme was not immediately practicable in its completeness, he replied that as in Yoga, so in the boycott, "even a little of this dharma saves us from a mighty peril" ...
... And this too is British law and British justice. Nay, it is the climax, the apex, the acme, the culminating point which British justice has reached in this too fortunate country. After all, the British Empire must be saved at any cost. Page 532 ...
... consequence of this freedom that a highly respectable accused at Rawalpindi is taking his trial on Page 662 a sick-bed? Is it in the exercise of their rights as free citizens of the British Empire that Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh have been deported without even the mention of the charge against them? This freedom is perhaps responsible for the banishment of an Arya Samajist from his country ...
... If peaceful means are intended, we do not know that any party advocating public political action is in favour of any but peaceful means. Nor is it a question of adhesion to or secession from the British Empire. That is an ultimate action which is too far off to form a question of practical politics or a subject of difference. The dispute is one of ideal, whether we shall aim at being a province of England ...
... are wont to act politically. The Transvaal Government is not likely to yield to any sense of shame. The Boers are a stark race, stubborn to the death, and the grit they showed in the face of the British Empire, they are also likely to show in this very minor trouble. Nor are they likely to have forgotten the action of the Indians who rewarded the Page 348 comparative leniency of the Boer ...
... compel a concentration of all the potential strength of the empire under a system of almost total decentralisation seem to have made inevitable a tightening up of the loose and easy make of the British Empire which may go very far once the principle has been recognised and put initially into practice. 4 A loose federation in one form or another serves well where peace is the rule; wherever peace ...
... huge unities, Russian, French, German, American, would be a retrogression, not an advance. If at all, therefore, this kind of development is destined,—for we have only taken the instance of the British Empire as the best example of a possible new type,—then it must be as such a half-way house and with this ideal Page 335 before us that it can be accepted by the lovers of humanity who are ...
... dividing the race; a common Swiss culture does not exist. The problem is rather, on a larger and more difficult scale and with greater complexities, that which offered itself for a moment to the British Empire, how, if it is at all possible, to unite Great Britain, Ireland, the Colonies, Egypt, India in a real oneness, throw their gains into a common stock, use their energies for a common end, help them ...
... yet as a large compensation the Celtic spirit is now reviving and putting its stamp on the English tongue spoken by millions throughout the world, and the inclusion of the Celtic countries in the British Empire may lead to the development of an Anglo-Celtic life and culture better for the world than the separate development of the two elements. India by the partial possession of the English language has ...
... qualm or twinge a manifesto accusing his own countrymen, ready-made for him by an English pen. Nevertheless it is comforting to find that the relations between the Principality of Burdwan and the British Empire are still amicable and untroubled as ever. While such compliments can be bandied about between these high and mighty powers, the peace of nations is assured. Page 637 ...
... to the ideal of independence which was regarded, when he entered into politics, by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera. It was thought that the British Empire was too powerful and India too weak, effectively disarmed and impotent even to dream of the success of such an endeavour. Thirdly, there was the organization of the people to carry on a public ...
... the Socialist president Page 181 of the Congress. A clear conspiracy, sir—aristocracy, middle class and proletariate (represented by a Communist intellectual) to overthrow the British empire under the cloak of music. October 7, 1936 All right. It is better to know beforehand. And besides, I was thinking I wasn't likely to be over-enthusiast about Jawaharial's ...
... stood I, an extraordinarily sharp, intelligent and powerful, bold, bad man! Of the National Movement I was the alpha and the omega, its creator and saviour, indomitably engaged in undermining the British empire. As soon as he came across any piece of excellent or vigorous writing in English he would jump and loudly proclaim, Aurobindo Ghose! All the legal and illegal, the organised activities or unexpected ...
... self-conscious maturity and no longer stand in need of a hereditary kingship to do their governing work for them or even to stand for them - except perhaps in certain exceptional cases such as the British Empire as the symbol of their unity." "Even if the World-State found it convenient as the result of experience to introduce or to re-introduce the monarchical element into its constitution, it could ...
... Moderates and the Nationalists. The Loyalists would be satisfied with good Government by British rulers and a limited share in the administration; the Moderates desire self-government within the British Empire, but are willing to wait for it indefinitely, the Nationalists would be satisfied with nothing less than independence whether within the Empire, if that be possible, or outside it; they believe ...
... Evolution and the Earthly Destiny Vivekananda A PERSONAL reminiscence. A young man in prison, accused of conspiracy and waging war against the British Empire. If convicted he might have to suffer the extreme penalty, at least, transportation to the Andamans. The case is dragging on for long months. And the young man is in a' solitary cell. He cannot always ...
... things which I forgot and afterwards they were fulfilled. Again, other things I willed, which I now don't want to be fulfilled, but they have been and in a way which I don't want. I wanted the British Empire to be crushed and Hitler is now doing it in such a thorough fashion that I don't want it any more because Hitler has become a greater danger. (Laughter) Does it mean I willed that my leg should ...
... Conference at Surat. Then also I couldn't laugh, being the President. So he called me "the man who never laughs". (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Taggart regarded you as the most dangerous man in the British Empire. He was dead against lifting the ban on your entry into British India, when it was discussed in England I remember rightly. SRI AUROBINDO: How could that be? I never knew that there was such ...
... Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 2 Vivekananda A PERSONAL reminiscence. A young man in prison, accused of conspiracy and waging war against the British Empire. If convicted he might have to suffer the extreme penalty, at least, transportation to the Andamans. The case is dragging on for long months. And the young man is in a solitary cell. He cannot ...
... was a Jew. At that time the Jews had a lot of knowledge. He wrote a book of prophecy in an obscure language and foretold, among other things, the execution of Charles I, the establishment of the British Empire and the lasting of the Empire for 330 years. NIRODBARAN: Then there is a long time before it goes. SRI AUROBINDO: No. It is to be counted from the beginning of Britain's colonies. That means ...
... has many admirers and followers in South India. NIRODBARAN: You must have seen in yesterday's Hindu the review of an annual of English literature. It is a symposium of many writers of the British Empire. From India four names have been chosen—one Kashi Prasad Ghose, Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu and yourself . Do you know this Kashi Prasad Ghose? SRI AUROBINDO: No. Who is he? NIRODBARAN: Only ...
... destroyed. SRI AUROBINDO: How? He talks only of air attack. With aeroplanes he can, destroy a good deal no doubt, but the same can be done to Germany. SATYENDRA: He didn't want to attack the British Empire, but now he will if the British don't accept peace. He is a man who wants to live in peace and has no territorial ambition! SRI AUROBINDO: No, he didn't want anything outside Germany. Now there ...
... Gibraltar won't be difficult for him to take and then he may cross over to Morocco. In that case it will be difficult for the English ships to cross the strait of Gibraltar. If thus he can break the British Empire in Africa with the help of the possessions of the French whom he will oblige to hand them over, it will be a great stroke. Unless he achieves this, I don't see how he can invade England. No doubt ...
... Aurobindo requesting him to take up leadership of the Congress. Sri Aurobindo's polite 'No'. 1918 Benegal Sanjeeva Rao called, to whom Sri Aurobindo prophesised the future of the British Empire and the formation of the Common- wealth of Free Nations. December: Passing away in December of Srimati Mrinahni in Calcutta while arrangements were being made for her coming ...
... nation to the ideal of independence which was regarded, when he entered in to politics, by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera. It was thought that British Empire was too powerful and India too weak, effectively disarmed and impotent even to dream of the success of such an endeavour. Thirdly, there was the organization of the people to carry on a public ...
... and so I can fully understand the hatred and anger you feel towards the 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 ...
... about Nosterdamus? No? He was a Jew. At that time Jews had great knowledge. He wrote a book of prophecy in some obscure language and prophesied about the execution of Charles I, the end of the British Empire and the lasting of the Empire for about 330 years. Disciple : Then there is still a long time? Sri Aurobindo : No, it was to be counted from the beginning of her colonies. That ...
... rebellion stood I, an extraordinarily sharp, intelligent and powerful, bold, bad man! Of the national movement I was the alpha and the omega, its creator and saviour, engaged in undermining the British Empire. As soon as he came across any piece of excellent or vigorous writing in English, he would jump and loudly proclaim, "Aurobindo Ghose!".... It is a pity I was not born as an Avatar, otherwise ...
... drawn from history, Sri Aurobindo considers the different possibilities, and some of the footnotes - added later - modify or reinforce the points made in the text. For example, a reference to the British Empire is qualified in the footnote that takes cognisance of the fact that the Empire has since become a "free commonwealth". History has seen the rise and fall of empires, but no single formula will ...
... an obscure language," said Sri Aurobindo to his disciples who did not seem to have heard of Nostradamus, "and foretold, among other things, the execution of Charles I, the establishment of the British Empire and the lasting of the Empire for 330 years (to be counted from James I)." It so happened that Mother had seen the old Book of Nostradamus in the original form and she said that "anything could ...
... India too, for the renaissance of the nineteenth century was now bearing its fruit. With the partition of Bengal acting as a catalyst, the first great awakening of Indian masses shook the mighty British Empire. In September 1909, in an interview with the correspondent of a Tamil nationalist weekly, India, Sri Aurobindo made the following prophecy. "Since 1907, we are living in a new era which ...
... mooted for the first time the ideal of 'a Federation of free and separate states, the United States of India.' With the stipulation, however, that the whole country should remain a colony of the British Empire. The Benares Congress of 1905 was attended by eminent leaders from all the provinces. Rabindranath inaugurated the Page 392 Conference by singing the Bande Mataram song. ...
... then a child of tragic earth, Since vainly filled thy luminous doom of birth." Appearances to the contrary, the youth was not only poet-dreamer, he was a poet-in-action. The British Empire, we should remember, was at the height of its glory —and vainglory—and English intellectuals were often vying with one another to prove the superiority of the white race over others, of Christianity ...
... precise limits of moral suasion in struggling against the most powerfully organized commerce in the world backed by the whole administrative strength, the police, magistracy and troops of the British Indian Empire. As to the paltry meanness of such obstructions, we say nothing; "melancholy meanness" and bureaucracy have always gone hand in hand in all climes and ages. Page 582 ...
... building the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, aimed directly at the ever more important oil fields in the Middle East and at the heart of the British colonial empire, while securing a strong foothold in Turkey, on the southern threshold of Russia. It intended to challenge Great Britain also on the seas. In step with “the enormous German economic upswing” (Fischer) grew its hardly less considerable self-esteem... Chamberlain “the dominant principle of history. He saw the German race as the only one capable of creating culture and rising up, since the third century, from the ‘chaos of peoples’ caused by the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. To this race belonged the future if it could free oneself from the anti-Germanic elements, in the first place from the Jews. Of all Germanic peoples it was specifically the... merchants, the busiest bankers, penetrating every continent, financing the Turks, flinging out a railroad from Berlin to Baghdad, gaining the trade of Latin America, challenging the sea power of Great Britain, and in the realm of the intellect systematically organizing, under the concept of Wissenschaft , every branch of human knowledge. They were deserving and capable of mastery of the world. Rule by ...
... difficult to hold and administer. Local uprisings and guerrilla warfare eventually drove the British out. In the second war, the British sought to establish a mission at the capital, Kabul. Following the murder of their envoy, the British occupied the city and installed a new king. After this conflict, Britain managed the foreign relations of the country, until the third war gained independence for ... A Vision of United India Chapter 4 India under the British The British came to India originally as traders through the East India Company during the rule of Jehangir in the 16th century. The chief aim of the British at that time was to make an impact on the Dutch hold on the spice trade and to establish a lasting outpost. But the company soon established... most ancient times. Later in the 11th century, it came under Islamic rule. Britain wanted control of this Muslim nation in order to prevent Russia from expanding southward. From its base in India, Great Britain fought three Afghan Wars in less than 100 years: 1839-42, 1878-80, and 1919. Although the British had more modern arms than the Afghans, the English found the territory very ...
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