Lord, Curzon : George Nathaniel, First Baron (Marquis) of Kedleston (1859-1925, Grand Master of the Star of India, Grand Master of Indian Empire, Privy Councillor, Fellow of the Royal Society, Justice of Peace, Doctor of Civil Law), son of Rev. 4th Baron Scarsdale, educated at Eton & Balliol College, Oxford, & appointed Asst. Pvt. Secretary in 1885 to Lord Salisbury (see St Paul’s School): toured Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan, the Pamirs, Siam, Indo-China, & Korea, & published Russia in Central Asia (1889), Persia & the Persian Question (1892), & Problems of the Far East (1894): Under Secretary of State for India in 1891-92, & for Foreign Affairs in 1895-98. As Viceroy & Gov.-Gen. Jan. 1899 to Apr. 1904, & Dec. 1904 to Aug. 1905), he conquered Waziristan; created North-West Frontier Province to tyrannise its ‘turbulent tribes’; reinforced British army presence in Persia to dominate that region; oversaw Bombay Govt.’s strong-arm measures during a famine there; built Calcutta’s Victoria Memorial Hall with funds extorted from ‘wealthy natives’; held the Delhi Coronation Durbar of Dec.’02–Jan.’03 (where Sayājirao broke protocol leading to legal wrangle with Sri Aurobindo then Gaikwād’s Secretary); imposed what he deemed ‘necessary improvements’ disregarding all protests in India & England; appointed commissions on (a) Universities to directly control Higher Education, (b) Irrigation to intimidate the farmers, (c) Police to stalk nationalists; passed the Official Secrets Act; sent army to Tibet ostensibly to neutralise Russian but to stir up a war & enforce the Anglo-Tibet Treaty in Sept 1904. He resigned in August 1905, owing to want of support of the British Govt. on his difference of opinion with the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Kitchener, regarding the position of the Military Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in India. ― Curzon was, arguably, Macaulay’s worthiest successor. E.g. his Commission on University Education had only European educationists, & the Act he passed handed over the entire system of education in India into the hands of the Govt. & the Christian missionaries swarming the country, thus ensuring Macaulay’s goal of creating an ‘educated’ a class of Indians European in tastes, opinions, morals & intellect. In his Convocation Address to the Graduates of Calcutta University in February 1905, Curzon declared that to many true friends of India, among whom he counted himself, the most distressing symptom of the day was the degree to which abuse was entering into public controversy & the tendency to exaggeration which those who indulged in controversy displayed (see Bengal National College). Let those who were now going forth from the portals of this University, he added, be on their guard against these dangers. “Do not exaggerate; do not flatter; do not slander; do not impute, but turn naturally to truth as the magnet flies to the pole. I hope I am making no false or arrogant claim when I say that the highest ideal of truth is, to a large extent, a western conception”; Truth in his opinion had taken a high place in the moral codes of the West before it had been similarly honoured in the East, where craftiness & diplomatic wile had always been held in high repute. The Amrita Bazar Patrika, always prompt in hunting out apposite references, confronted Lord Curzon with an egregious lie which, in the course of his Asiatic travels before his appointment as the Viceroy of India, he had told the Korean Minister. Quoting chapter & verse from Curzon’s ‘Problems of the Far East’ the Patrika had proved to the hilt that this apostle of truth glorified in telling lies. In the 21st February 1905 issue of Kesari Tilak wrote: “Lord Curzon has harped on the expression ‘Oriental Diplomacy’. Why did he ignore expressions like Machiavellian policy & perfidious Albion?” [Based Buckland; S. Bhattacharya; Sanderson Beck’s “India’s Freedom Struggle 1905-1918” & “India’s Renaissance 1881-1905” on internet; Karandikar: pp.209-10]
... Mohammedan was the favourite wife." Nevinson confirms Curzon's flirtations with the Muslims when he says: "Always impatient of criticism, Lord Curzon hastened through East Bengal, lecturing the Hindu leaders and trying to win over the Moslems.” 4 Lord Curzon himself remarked, 3. "... Bengal, where the agitation was most alive, was then rent in twain. The. Partition was not merely a... protect us, to teach us and even to feed us... "It is only through repression and suffering 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... its most cherished ideals hurled down from their pedestal and trodden underfoot - never had the condition of India been more critical than it was during the second ill-starred administration of Lord Curzon. The Official Secrets Act was passed in the teeth of universal opposition... and the Gagging Act was passed. Education was crippled and mutilated; it was made expensive and it was officialised; ...
... ns of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield and other distinguished politicians on the question of the Budget have awakened much curiosity, ridicule and even indignation. The ubiquitous eloquence of Lord Curzon has been set flowing by what he considers this unscrupulous method of pressing the august departed into the ranks of Liberal electioneering agents, and he has penned an indignant letter to the papers... and communication with those we knew and loved in this, in fact, the ordinary human and earthly feelings existing between souls sundered by time and space, but still capable of communication. But Lord Curzon still seems to be labouring under the crude Christian conception of the blessed dead as angels harping in heaven whose spotless plumes ought not to be roughly disturbed by human breath and of spiritual... done with him. We should have thought that in the bold and innovating mind of India's only Viceroy these coarse European superstitions ought to have been destroyed long ago. It is not, however, Lord Curzon but Mr. Stead and the spirits with whom we have to deal. We know Mr. Stead as a pushing and original journalist, not always over-refined or delicate either in his actions or expressions, skilful ...
... Page 249 India. "The spirit prophesied that Lord Curzon would shortly leave India: he saw him looking across a blue sea. At that time there was no chance at all of Curzon's going back. But the prophecy came true. Curzon had a row with Lord Kitchener and had very shortly to leave India." But before he was chucked out of India, Lord Curzon had already put in motion forces that were to bring ...
... resolutions. As a matter of fact, the British had nothing but contempt for the Congress party. As Lord Curzon said: 'The Congress is tottering to its fall, and one of my greatest ambitions, while in India, is to assist it to a peaceful demise.' In another of those ironies of history, it was Lord Curzon who was directly responsible for giving the Freedom Movement a new lease of life. Here is ...
... 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." This cry rang throughout the many decades of... out as an incarnation of the true Indian genius. In him the culture of this hoary land sprang vibrantly to life and when he plunged into the political arena at the time of Bengal's partition by Lord Curzon and took up the leadership of the fight against foreign rule, he brought something more than patriotic vehemence, something more than democratic idealism. He came burning with the consciousness of ...
... decided to find out by practising this kind of writing what there was behind it 183 .... But the results did not satisfy him and after a few further attempts at Pondicherry he dropped 182. Lord Curzon had a quarrel with Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in- chief of the British Army in India, and had consequently to retire. 183. This practice was done in Calcutta. Page 142 ... 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 its fast growing political consciousness and nationalist spirit. We shall dwell upon the Bengal Partition and study how Bengal reacted to ...
... 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 overcome the temptation as... as we overcame the intimidation, the 16th of October will take its place among the national festivals of the future under the name of Union Day. The unity 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 ...
... 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 of her sons would be a match for the clumsy brains of the English statesmen. Lord Curzon showed her that Power is too direct and invincible ...
... existed for upwards of forty or fifty years. How is it that they had no success and no one was aware of their existence until the reaction after Lord Ripon's regime culminated in the viceroyalty of Lord Curzon? Dissatisfaction is not created by public criticism, it is created by the adverse facts on which public criticism fastens, and it crystallises either in public criticism or in secret discontent.... public peace and order, and helps nobody. This method does not even postpone the necessity of a solution, it hastens it by intensifying the problem to breaking-point. Yet this was the policy of Lord Curzon. He not only permitted the expression of public discontent, but he fostered it by arguing with and trying to persuade it; yet he invariably trampled on the thing he permitted. It is statesmanship ...
... its life history. The Moderate legend of its origin is that it was the child of Lord Curzon begotten upon despair and brought safely to birth by the skilful midwifery of Sir Bampfylde. Nationalism was never a gospel of despair nor did it owe its birth to oppression. It is no true account of it to say that because Lord Curzon favoured reaction, a section of the Congress party lost faith in England and ...
... II Let us now cover the ground of these three or four years a little more leisurely and with some greater attention to detail. First, then, about the "partition", and its author. Lord Curzon. After a brilliant career at Eton and Oxford, Curzon had already made his mark in law, letters and politics - and travelled extensively in Central Asia - before he was appointed at the age... al chair, and he could hardly avoid making a reference to Curzon and the evil legacy he had left behind: ...how true it is that to everything there is an end! Thus even the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon has come to a close!... For a parallel to such an administration, we must, I think, go back to the times of Aurangazeb in the history of our own country.... A cruel wrong has been inflicted ...
... to speak even a little about them. Each life of these untold numbers of revolutionaries would make a full story in itself. Page 298 Flaming Apostle of Nationalism. In the event, 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 ...
... why, Clive should have been the first Englishman to suffer at the hand of Omichand. We are sorry the wisdom of the Englishman was not shared by Justice Norris who tried the O'Hara case, nor by Lord Curzon who was constrained to punish an entire regiment for misconduct, nor by the Bengal Government in the matter of the Barrackpur shooting case. But we do not quarrel with the Englishman for supporting ...
... reconsideration of policy and the wise men said,—The people of Bengal are easily cowed down, and we will try whether force cannot do what patience has failed to do. When Sir Bampfylde Fuller met Lord Curzon at Agra, this was the policy agreed on between them—to hammer the Bengalis into quietude. But Sir Bampfylde Fuller has gone and the movement remains. Hare too will go, and many will go, but the movement ...
... 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 their decision wasn't put into legal ...
... anywhere in the world in the 20 th century. A brilliant scholar in England in his youth, he returned to India after 14 years and immediately became deeply involved in the freedom movement. When Lord Curzon implemented the controversial decision for the partition of Bengal – the Bang Bhang – Sri Aurobindo left his academic assignment in Baroda and moved to Calcutta where for five years he shone like ...
... important date to the building up of the nation than the 16th October. On 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 ...
... 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 found Swaraj within ourselves ...
... and breadth of the country and a beginning should be made to impart national education. The English erred in the beginning in spreading their education, which they now regret, and on this account Lord Curzon adopted a new policy. People should take into their own hands judicial and executive work. They should get their disputes settled by arbitration. Look at the change which has been wrought during ...
... Madras. Another year and the whole of India would have been submerged. It was these circumstances, apparently, which led the Government to the resolution of grappling with the Frankenstein monster Lord Curzon had raised and of deploying all the powers and instruments of despotism for its suppression. The panic created by the Rawalpindi disturbance has only led it to unmask its batteries sooner and concentrate ...
... the USA. 1904, February - Beginning of the Russo-Japanese war. The Japanese sink the Russian fleet at Port Arthur (now Lüshun). August 3 — British forces under Younghusband, sent by Lord Curzon, reach Lhasa in Tibet. December - Sri Aurobindo attends the Bombay session of the Con- gress. 1905 - Einstein sets forth the special theory of Relativity and postulates the existence ...
... advantages. For development creates ambition and nothing is more fatal to the continuance of foreign rule than the growth of ambitions in the subject race which it cannot satisfy. The action of Lord Curzon in introducing the Universities Act was for the British Page 364 domination in India an act of inevitable necessity, which had to be done some time or other. Its only defect from the ...
... that of my father came and made some prophecies. He said that he had once given a golden watch to Barin. Barin tried hard to remember and at last found that it was true. The spirit prophesied that Lord Curzon would shortly leave India: he saw him looking across a blue sea. At that time there was no chance at all of Curzon's going back. But the prophecy came true. Curzon had a row with Lord Kitchener and ...
... diseases which thrive on poverty! Thirdly, the Government is seditiously charged with draining the resources of India for the benefit of England. So it is sedition too to talk of the drain or refer to Lord Curzon and his luminous remarks about administration and exploitation! These are, it seems, "turgid accusations which are made to sell and do not influence sober-minded men". So Mr. R. C. Dutt is not a ...
... much better lectures on the subject than any I can give you; it has besides been handled by a great many men in high places of authority; most of all, it has been taken up by no less a person than Lord Curzon himself and measures are to be formulated and perhaps carried into execution for the reform of what is defective in the present system. "What more do you want," you will perhaps ask, "or why should ...
... for secret revolutionary activities, after a while helped by his younger brother Barin. It would be an exaggeration, 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 ...
... wife Chellammal was there too. But as chance would have it, just at that time the Raja of Ettayapuram came to Benares for a few days. He was on his way back from the Delhi Coronation Durbar held by Lord Curzon on 1 st January 1903, to celebrate the ascension to the throne of Edward VII after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. The Raja invited his Subbiah back to Ettayapuram. For the next eighteen ...
... struggle. The collaboration with his younger brother, 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 ...
... 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 took up the personal leadership of the Revolution which ushered in the nation's battle for freedom. Every day he would go from the Bengal National College to the ...
... journal, the Economist two years ago), more than ten thousand millions of Rupees." The Indian rupee in those days, as everybody knows, had a much higher value. 1 At any rate, 1. Lord Curzon had fixed the exchange rate at Rs.15 to the pound sterling. Before that it used to be Rs. lS to the pound. And in 1761, Rs. 8 to the pound. Page 289 there was thus a constant drawing ...
... British India since 1765, had grown too large to handle under a single administration; but it was quite clear that the partition was made along communal lines in order to divide the communities. Even 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 ...
... Bombay group led by Sir Pherozeshah Mehta and Gokhale, could not stomach the resolution on Swaraj. There was talk at this time of political reforms being introduced in India. Lord Minto had replaced Lord Curzon as the Viceroy and in England also there was a new Secretary of State, John Morley, said to be a statesman of liberal views. There were repeated warnings by Sri Aurobindo in the Bande Mataram not ...
... am not going to fight with sword or gun —but the strength of knowledge... . 3 * * * Page 16 (Alarmed by the rising force of Bengali feeling against British rule, 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 ...
... to Bengal to settle a quarrel among members of the revolutionary society he and others had founded the year before. Draft of Reply to the Resident on the Curzon Circular. 1903 . In 1900 Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor-General of India, issued a circular letter requiring the rulers of princely states to obtain the permission of the government before leaving the country. Although worded in ...
... indeed on the tenderest of all the crop. We have recently been permitted to know that our great Viceroy particularly objects to the imputation of motives to his Government—and not unnaturally; for Lord Curzon is a vain man loving praise & sensitive to dislike & censure; more than that, he is a statesman of unusual genius who is following a subtle and daring policy on which immense issues hang and it is ...
... is necessary to turn the journalist into the pamphleteer. No man of our time has had these gifts to the same extent as Romesh Dutt. The best things he ever did were, in our view, his letters to Lord Curzon and his Economic History. The former fixed public opinion in India irretrievably and nobody cared even to consider Lord Curzon's answer. "That settles it" was the general feeling every ordinary reader ...
... qualities of the British race, Surendranath with his unswerving loyalty, Narendranath with his gratitude are, one would imagine, so many pillars of British rule. What about Romesh Chandra's letters to Lord Curzon, Surendranath's boycott or Narendranath's secret hopes of Theosophical rule of Mahatmas? Whoever says one thing with his lips and another in his heart, can never hope to help his country. Truth ...
... absolutely necessary for the enforcement of the popular will in this matter, the power of using fiscal law for the same purpose being in the hands of authorities who have been publicly declared by Lord Curzon to be active parties in British exploitation of the resources of India. It means the coercion of a very small minority by a huge majority in the interests of the whole nation; it consists merely ...
... trying to resurrect the dead phantom of British Page 590 sympathy and good will. Henceforth they should seek rather the resurrection of our own national strength and greatness. When Lord Curzon aimed his first blow at self-government by giving his seal of approval to the Calcutta Municipal Bill, the Pratibasi published a cartoon exposing the unsubstantial nature of our rights and privileges ...
... can only extend to him our heart-felt sympathy. But we cannot hold these Indian princes responsible for all they do or say. Their so-called independence is nothing more than a mere name. Though Lord Curzon called them his "colleagues and partners in the task of Indian administration" the truth was better expressed by Lord Dufferin who characterised the independence enjoyed by them as a "regulated ...
... considered futile but harmful, how the people had grown apathetic and despondent and how this despondent and apathetic mood of the people was converted into an active mood by the repressive measures of Lord Curzon. The Calcutta Municipal Bill was the first of these measures. The Universities Act, passed in spite of universal Page 807 protest, was the next. Last came the Partition of Bengal and ...
... gifts of the prosecuting Magistrate who decided the case. Mr. Asanuddin Ahmed is a very distinguished man. The greatest and most successful achievement of his life was to be a fellow-collegian of Lord Curzon. But he has other sufficiently respectable if less gorgeous claims to distinction. Arithmetic, logic, English and Law are his chief fortes. His mastery over figures is so great that arithmetic is ...
... reckon with no mean or contemptible people in the North West of Africa. Cook versus Peary It is with a somewhat sardonic sense of humour that we in India, whom that eminently truthful diplomat, Lord Curzon, once had the boldness to lecture on our mendacity and the superior truth of the Occidental, have watched the vulgar squabble between Dr. Cook and Commander Peary about the discovery of the North ...
... under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 24.Oct.1906 - 27.May.1907 Bande Mataram Curzonism for the University 08-May-1907 At last the Brahmastra which Lord Curzon forged for the stifling of patriotism through the instrumentality of the University, is to be utilised, and utilised to its full capacity. We all remember the particular skirmish in the first Swadeshi ...
... either God himself, or his servant,—because as Sri Ramakrishna would have put it, she saw the chapras . It was a little of that daemonic, volcanic, elemental thing in the heart of the Indian which Lord Curzon lashed into life in 1905. But the awakening was too narrow in its scope, too feebly supported with strength, too ill-informed in knowledge. Above all the Avatar had not descended. So the movement ...
... one blow to kill the poor remnants of the Zamindar's 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 ...
... thought that there could be any real affection and loyalty to an alien despotism, such as the present Government in this country undoubtedly is, in the minds of the subject populations in India. Lord Curzon once declared that though differing in colour and culture, the Indians were as much human as the Britishers, and had the same sentiments and susceptibilities that the British people had. If the ...
... was rare. As a result of getting First Class I was offered a scholarship in Elphinstone College [Bombay]. He tried to dissuade me from leaving Baroda College but due to my pecuniary 1. Lord Curzon vehemently opposed the teaching of it: "Though as a composition it is excellent, it is certainly dangerous food for Indian students." Page 210 condition and the substantial amount ...
... ts, but of pure moral principles. They will not take anything wrongfully and they yield more than fairness requires. They do not practise deceit and keep their sworn obligation." A far cry from Lord Curzon, isn't it? In the latter part of the seventh century, another Chinese, I-tsing, on a long visit to India, gives quite a detailed account of the sanitary practices and personal comforts of the ...
... emergencies; but supposing the third course suggested should be pursued? I shall then have to take a third class ticket to Calcutta and solicit an 150 Rs place in Girish Bose's or Mesho's College—if Lord Curzon has not abolished both of them by that time. Of course I could sponge upon my father-in-law in Assam, becoming a ghor jamai for the time being, but then who would send money to Deoghur and Benares ...
... observer, could not ignore the intensity of popular feelings and gave support to the movement. Yet the Government was adamant and the man most responsible for its hardline policy was the Viceroy, Lord Curzon. A very able man and a brilliant administrator, he was a diehard imperialist who believed in Britain's divine right to rule over India. For him, the Partition was a 'settled fact' and the plan was ...
... s; but supposing the third course suggested should be pursued? I shall then have to take a third class ticket to Calcutta and solicit an 150 Rs. place in Girish Bose's or Mesho's 1 College —if Lord Curzon has not abolished both of them by that time. Of course I could sponge upon my father-in-law in Assam, becoming a ghorjamai 2 for the time being, but then who would send money to Deoghur and Benares ...
... British India since 1765, had grown too large to handle under a single administration; but it was quite clear that the partition was made along communal lines in order to divide the communities. 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 ...
... the prosecuting Magistrate who decided the case. "Mr. Asanuddin Ahmed is a very distinguished man. The greatest and the most successful achievement of his life was to be a fellow-collegian of Lord Curzon. But he has other sufficiently respectable if less gorgeous claims to distinction. Arithmetic, logic, English and Law are his chief fortes. His mastery over figures is so great that arithmetic is ...
... physical, intellectual and moral life into bondage. ... 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 but ourselves, our real and actual self. Thus we found Swaraj within ourselves and saw that it ...
... down, without a smatter of reflection, everything the professor 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 ...
... and defeat, joy and suffering have become its servants and cannot help ministering to its divine purpose. Was nationalism no more than a counsel of despair, the illegitimate issue of Lord Curzon, helped to birth by the skilful midwifery of Sir Bampfylde Fuller (Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal)? No, a thousand times no: Long before the advent of Curzonism and Fullerism, while ...
... 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 charming naïveté, "Lord Curzon has strewn Lord Minto's bed with thorns, and he must lie on them." 1 "Sedition" was divined here - there - everywhere, and prosecution after prosecution was launched. Disaffection - of course ...
... Sri Aurobindo written about "The Khulna Comedy": Mr. Asanuddin Ahmed is a very distinguished man. The greatest and most successful achievement of his life was to be a fellow-collegian of Lord Curzon. But he has other sufficiently respectable if less gorgeous claims to distinction. ... His mastery over figures is so great that arithmetic is his slave and not his master.... His triumphant dealings ...
... Anirban. "I'll tell you. But first listen to even more fantastic stories. The spirit made two prophecies about the future, both of which later came true to the letter. The first one was about Lord Curzon. At that time it was he who had suggested partitioning Bengal, creating acute and widespread discontent; all over the state people were criticising and opposing the implementation of the idea. It ...
... has failed Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change. 113 Nirvana In 1906 Sri Aurobindo left Baroda to plunge into the heart of political turmoil in Calcutta. The blunders of Lord Curzon, the governor of Bengal, had led to student unrest; the time was ripe. With another great nationalist, Bepin Pal, Sri Aurobindo launched Page 129 an English daily, Bande Mataram ("I ...
... This then is the issue before us. We declared a war of passive resistance against the bureaucracy on the 7th of August; and we understood that the struggle was not to end till such a regime as Lord Curzon's Page 153 should be rendered for ever impossible in the future. Are we now to declare peace and alliance with the bureaucracy and blot out the last twelve months from our history? Babu ...
... Page 158 to our national development. The withdrawal of the Partition by itself will not improve the position of our race with regard to its rulers nor leave it one whit better than before Lord Curzon's regime. Even if the present Government were overflowing with liberal kindness, it cannot last for ever, and there is nothing to prevent another Imperialist Viceroy backed by an Imperialist Government ...
... have done in the interests of the country. Lord Minto ought therefore to be a very happy man, for it is not everyone whose actions are so blessed by Fate as to command equal approbation from the Englishman and the Bande Mataram . Our reasons for this approval are obvious on the face of it. The great strength of British despotism previous to Lord Curzon's regime was its indirectness. By a singularly ...
... when you spoke of a true voice? SRI 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 ...
... certain predictions which came true and statements of fact which also proved to be true although unknown to the persons concerned or anyone else present: there was notably a symbolic anticipation of Lord Curzon's subsequent unexpected departure from India and, again, of the first suppression of the national movement and the greatness of Tilak's attitude amidst the storm; this prediction was given in Tilak's ...
... known that many members of the Moderate party refuse to join a body constituted by a means which, even if it were not ultra vires, would be as arbitrary as the most arbitrary action of which even Lord Curzon's Government was ever guilty. The Nationalists on their part insist that they cannot be called on to accept a Constitution of many clauses of which they disapprove and which was imposed on a body ...
... 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. As if a huge cyclone was passing over the entire country. Quite an unimaginable event it was... mantra Vande Mataram . The people had at last woken up. Kumbhakarna’s long sleep was broken with the quickening cry of Vande Mataram . The people of Bengal rose as one in their opposition to Lord Curzon’s proposal of partitioning Bengal. There were protests everywhere. The cries of Vande Mataram , Vande Mataram reverberated in the land and in the skies of Bengal. Nolini-da was then a second-year... other. The Bengalis 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 ...
... together with another, the first B. A. of the Calcutta University which had come into being in 1857. Its jurisdiction then extended to Burma and Ceylon till 1904 when its territory was curtailed by Lord Curzon's decree. Bankim, with his usual distinguished success appeared for the B. L. His official appointment followed close on his degree. At Page 41 the age of twenty he was sent as Deputy ...
... 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 country they live in, is a question for Mahomedans... many years are over. We wonder whether Lord Morley and his advisers really believe that when they are surrounded by a free and democratic Asia, the great Indian race can be kept in a state of tutelage and snail-paced advancement, much less put off to a future age in the dim mists of a millennial futurity to which the penetrating vision of the noble and Radical Lord cannot pierce. The worst opponents of ...
... The politicians of the old school, 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 ...
... either for its introduction or, if introduced,—as, no doubt, Lord Morley will have some slight respect even yet for his own reputation,—for its retention in the future. What is to prevent a future Alexander Mackenzie in the Viceregal seat from so altering any measure that may be given as to render it nugatory and what is to prevent a future Curzon in the India Office from confirming this step rearwards... the first importance among changes of administrative structure. In any case it cannot outweigh, however full it may be, the disastrous character of the principle of separate electorates introduced by Lord Morley, intentionally or unintentionally, as the thin end of a wedge which, when driven well home, will break our growing nationality into a hundred jarring pieces. Only by standing aloof from the new... essential feature. Page 236 The Limitations of the Act There is another point in this connection which destroys the little value that might possibly have attached to the argument from Lord Morley's intentions about local self-government. One peruses the Act in vain for a guarantee of any measure of reform which may be conceded under it to the people except the number of elected and nominated ...
... dignity and sensational interest to actions really dictated by the exaggerated feelings common to Page 127 these nervous disorders. Madanlal Dhingra evidently considered that Sir William Curzon-Wyllie was his personal enemy trying to alienate his family and interfere with his personal freedom and dignity. To an ordinary man these ideas would not have occurred or, if they had occurred, would... demand that we shall cease to practise or to preach patriotism and patriotic self-sacrifice and submit unconditionally to the eternally unalterable absolutism which is the only system of government Lord Morley will tolerate in India. That demand has only to be mentioned to be scouted. Sir Edward's Menace The final indiscretion of Sir Edward Baker was also the worst. We do not think we have ever ...
... their rights and liberties as British subjects. Sir Anandacharlu of the Imperial Legislative Council is one among them'. Anandacharlu had also some British friends of high standing. Viceroys Elgin and Curzon held him in high esteem. Having remained for about two decades 'a shining light of the South Indian political firmament', Anandacharlu, retired in 1902. When the difference between the Extremists and... Viceroy helped the people in any of these directions, 'they will themselves arrange for a show in His Excellency's behalf. If not, let not insult be added to injury and let no senseless pageantry mark Lord Elgin's tour. Hyderabad will spend lakhs and Mysore Page 33 thousands and the people in British India may be satisfied with the waste in native states', wrote The Hindu. ...
... Henry, 36-7, 204, 206 Cotton, James S., 31, 33,37, 38 Cousins, James H., 610ff Craegan, Superintendent, 308 Crew, Lord, 369-70 Cripps, Arthur, 32 Cripps, Sir Stafford, 706ff, 710, 754,782 Curzon, Lord, 202ff, 204ff, 224, 268, 294, 304 Daly, Dr., 317, 321 Dante, 92, 619, 636 Das, C. R., 64, 68, 77, 79, 282, 326ff, 343, 411,... Buddha, The, 7,211, 239,498, 568 Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, 551, 718 Byron, Lord, 78, 490, 614 Caliban upon Setebos, 171 Cameron, D. R., 692fn. Carlyle, Thomas, 241, 271,352 Carmichael, Lord, 378, 408 Carpenter, Edward, 615 Cavour, Count, 237 Centre of Education, Sri Aurobindo International, 762ff;... Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 722 Khanna, Ravindra, 690 Khaparde, G. S., 227, 269,272, 528 Kimberley, Lord, 37 Kingsford, D. H., 246, 305,307, 313 Kingsley, Charles, 128 Kipling, Rudyard, 12, 241 Kitchener, Lord, 205 Krebs, K. A., 572 Krishnaprem, Yogi (Ronald Nixon), 468 Langley, G. H., 752 Lawrence, D ...
... he had been elected a delegate to the Congress session of Madras (1898) and Tilak too had attended it. But their meeting apparently did not take place. The tryst was delayed by a decade. Curzon's infamous partition of Bengal set afire the Swadeshi movement with its programme of native industry, boycott of foreign goods and national education. While Swadeshi enterprise across India was limited... they are on the Lord's side, that is enough for the work to be done. Even if I knew that the Allies would misuse their victory or bungle the peace or partially at least spoil the opportunities opened to the human world by that victory, I would still put my force behind them. At any rate things could not be one hundredth part as bad as they would be under Hitler. The ways of the Lord would still be open—to ...
... this book and send back the other one. Right? Kept the wrong book. (Reminds me of the Sultan of Johore who when the Englishmen on board his ship were inveighing in fury against the murder of Sir Curzon Wylie by an Indian, wanted to sympathise and moaned out "Very bad! very bad! shot the wrong man!") April 15, 1936 The trouble is that I can't tell J all that I think of her poetry, so... procure one for your emergency use. Shall I try? That would only crush all your chances of a "delightful time"! No, sir, no pumping business for me! But concentration on "real work" [2.4.36]? Good Lord, you do that from 9 or 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. God alone knows what you do then. What is this transcendental rubbish? Perhaps you send Force to Germany, Abyssinia, or make a leap to the Supramental... modernised. Or rather he is carrying out without knowing it the plan I had laid down for Motilal Roy... One sees perhaps a glimpse of your future work here. [ Underlining "your future work": ] Good Lord, man! don't make such dismal prophecies. As I have said, it is an American magnification of my past work, nothing to do with my future work at all. And the Yoga they follow is the "Sound-Yoga". ...
... Wrong book has been sent? SRI AUROBINDO: Kept the wrong book (Reminds me of the Sultan of Johara who when the Englishmen on board his ship were inveighing in fury against the murder of Sir Curzon Wylie by an Indian, wanted to sympathise, and moaned with "Very bad! very bad! shot the wrong man!" MYSELF: D's temperature was 101-4 in the morning; evening, 103,4. Had two half-boiled... legible. For God's sake don't imitate me. MYSELF; The word you tumbled upon is 'whites' meaning leucorrhoea. But I thought it should be our ideal to imitate you! SRI AUROBINDO: Good Lord, what an h! I could not do worse myself. MYSELF: She took one pill which she says gave her a lot of burning in her eyes. I washed her eyes, but it caused much uneasiness in the head. But... -etc..-' SRI AUROBINDO: It's your clothes that made you plump? MYSELF: A says he feels heavy and sleepy and not refreshed. Is it the Force that does it? SRI AUROBINDO: Good Lord, no! It is forcelessness that does it. MYSELF: A has malaise, not refreshed. SRI AUROBINDO: I have been without light, so black, black. Keeping everything in hope of better luck today ...
... fail to materialise. Sri Aurobindo had thus to cross swords both with the bureaucracy and with the forces of Moderatism. Thus, when Gokhale made a speech in Poona in connection with the murders of Curzon Wylie and Lalcaca, the Karmayogin came out with a slashingly sarcastic editorial which concluded with these pointed and envenomed words: He [Gokhale] publishes himself now as the righteous... somebody of the Police, and that breed needs searching scrutiny step by step in these matters. Lawyers are not always to be trusted; still less are Police authorities." [Quoted in Syed Razi Wasti 's Lord Minto and the Indian Nationalist Movement: 1905 to 1910 (1964), p. 121] Page 334 including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the... scene. Papers like the Bengalee and the Indian Social Reformer had chosen to ridicule Sri Aurobindo's Uttarpara speech and the tremendous revelations of his sadhana in prison. What could the Lord have appeared and spoken - actually spoken - to an under-trial prisoner? Impossible and altogether improbable! The fourth issue of the Karmayogin gave a balanced and detailed rejoinder to these ...
... that Sri Aurobindo carried on the major part of the correspondence that passed between the Indian government and the Baroda state about the insult which Curzon felt when the Maharaja, who was in Paris, was called by the Indian government (as Curzon was visiting Baroda in 1900), and the Maharaja did not come. ² "I used to go out walking with Sri Aurobindo in those days. He usually was reserved and... there was a proposal of shaving the head. When that was turned down "an obliging Brahmin priest satisfied all the requirements of the Shastra for a monetary consideration!" Byomkesh Chakravarty, Lord Sinha and Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and his wife attended the marriage. It was performed according to Hindu rites. The bride was given away by Girish Chandra Bose. Sri Aurobindo was twenty-nine. ...
... earth or a mass of individuals? Had she not taken shape in a 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... gently, saying, 'But all this is given to us by Our Lord, so why don't you take it!'. . . I found him charming, he was charming. Whenever he looked at the paintings he would pat Morisset on the shoulder and tell him (Morisset was an unbeliever), 'Say whatever you like' (with the accent of southern France), 'Say whatever you like, but you know Our Lord, otherwise you could never have painted like that... Himavan meets Yamuna the daughter of the Sun, Agra with its Tajmahal like a teardrop on the cheeks of Time. And here lies its brightest jewel, Benares, where Shiva the Godhead reigns as Vishwanath, the Lord of the Universe. This land gave us: -Pandit Madan Mohan Malavya (1861-1946).He established the Benares Hindu University (1915). An advocate, a scholar, a journalist, he was also a ...
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