Nevinson : Henry Wood Nevinson (1856-1941), an active journalist from 1897 to 1930 was a special correspondent of the Daily News of London. Prior to his Indian visit in later 1907, he had covered the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the Spanish-American War (1898) & the Russian Revolution (1905). His reportage would continue through the two World Wars, until his death. Before he left England he first met Lord Morley the Secretary of State – the Last Word on Indian administration. Then he interviewed the Committee set up by the INC in 1887 to lobby for its causes in England on an annual budget of Rs.45000/-. It was headed by Hume, Naoroji, Wedderburn, & Henry Cotton. Nevinson’s brief in India was to “discover the causes of the present discontent & to report without prejudice, the opinion of leading Indians as well as officials”. He landed in Bombay on 25 October 1907 & travelled for four months across India. In Pune, he met with & found Tilak & Gokhale equally impressive. In late November he was in Chennai where he visited the temples at Mylapore & Triplicane & a Swadeshi cotton mill, spoke a meeting of the Mahājana Sabhā & was interviewed by The Hindu & Madras Standard. On 23rd evening he attended a large Swadeshi meeting at the Marina Beach called to celebrate the release of Lālā Lajpat Rai & Ajīt Singh after six months of deportation without notice, charge or trial. The meeting began with cries of “Vande Mataram” & the Tamil translation by Bharati. The police report of the meeting mentioned these leaders of the assembly: V. Chakkarai Chettiar, S. Duraiswamy Iyer & G.A. Natesan. In December he attended the Surat Congress & his account is considered among the most reliable ones. His reports were also carried by Manchester Guardian, Glasgow Herald, & Daily Chronicle. The Indian Review, March 1908, carried an article by H.W. Nevinson contributed on the completion of his Indian tour. The irritating suppression which he had noticed everywhere had appeared to him more exasperating & degrading than savage persecution. He had not failed to notice the arrogance of English officials in India & the superiority-complex which upset the balance of the mind even of English jurors & judges. “You can” he remarked, “make apparent gentlemen into ‘bounders’ by setting them up as a superior race in the midst of a polite & gentle people, always too much inclined to submit to insolence with reverential astonishment.” – “Till I came out here, I could not have believed that Englishmen, who talk so much about fair play at home, could be so blinded by prejudice, when they act as judges, magistrates or jurymen in India.” – “The vulgarities of behaviour are only to be reformed by a change of heart; &, at present I see no sign of such a change. To some extent, Indians have the reform in their own hands; & they should remember that every time they resist vulgarity & refuse to bow to arrogance, every time they strike insolence full in the face, manfully disregarding the cost, something at least is gained for both the races.” – “If in addition to the double armour of having justice on your side, you feel the power of breaking the other man’s bones, you have triple armour.” His book The New Spirit of India containing edited versions of his reports during the tour appeared in the autumn of 1908. It makes it clear that despite his sympathy for Nationalists led by Tilak & Sri Aurobindo he put his money on the gradualism of the Moderate leaders Mehta, Gokhale, Wacha, & their counterparts in the rest of the country. Evidently he was told the Moderates were Govt.’s protégés – a fact proved by the arrests & convictions of Tilak & Sri Aurobindo, V.O.C. Pillai & scores of nationalist leaders all over the country, & the self-imposed exile of Lajpat Rai & Pal. Bharati translated those parts of his book in Tamil which appreciated the nationalist aspirations & positions, especially Nevinson’s comments on Tilak & Sri Aurobindo, omitting those to Gokhale. [A.R. Venkatachalapathy’s “A British journalist & the Tamil poet”, The Hindu, 11 Dec., 2012; s/a Karandikar’s Lōkamānya]
... there with Sri Aurobindo we shall meet a good number of its revolutionaries, including Mahakavi Bharati who had translated Bankim's song 'Bande Mataram' into Tamil. Page 409 H. W. Nevinson had met Sri Aurobindo and S. N. Banerji in Calcutta, and had travelled to Surat with the Moderate Party. He had been held in wonder by the magnificence of Surendra nath's phrases and continuity... were those of an English graduate." During their talk Sri Aurobindo explained his purpose and the simple means he proposed to work on. "But behind these simple means a deeper spirit was at work." Nevinson found a fervour of nationality in the young man. "There is a religious tone, a spiritual elevation, in such words very characteristic of Arabindo Ghose himself, and of all Bengali Nationalists...... most silent men I have known, he was of the stuff Page 410 that dreamers are made of, but dreamers who will act their dream, indifferent to the means." And Sri Aurobindo on Nevinson. "Yes, I met him twice. Once in Bengal at Subodh Mullick's place. I was very serious at that time. The next occasion was when I was president of the National Conference at Surat. Then also I couldn't ...
... Banerji." Here is Nevinson to take up the tale. "By noon the Pan-dal was again full to overflowing. At one o'clock the Presidential procession entered." The Congress leaders "took their seats behind the green table that stretched the whole length of the high-raised platform, before which there was no railing, but only, as it were, an escarpment for defence." Nevinson was surprised to see that... Volunteers to say he wished to speak on the election of the President after the seconder had spoken." The Chairman of the Reception Committee was Tribhuvandas Malvi of Surat. It is likely that Nevinson did not know. The Nationalists had really striven hard to avoid a showdown. Tilak and Khaparde had failed in their attempt to meet Malvi the previous day. Nor did they meet with more success in seeing... after it is seconded. I wish to move an adjournment with a constructive proposal. Please announce me. Yours sincerely, B. G. TILAK Deccan Delegate (Poona)." This note, noticed by Nevinson, was put by a volunteer into the hands of the Chairman as he was entering the pandal with the President-Elect in procession. Tilak received no reply. Even a reminder to the Chairman that "Mr ...
... hailed the Partition as a blessing in disguise, for he saw in it the hammering blows of benign Providence beating the torpid nation into a new life, a new aspiration, and a new shape. As Henry W. Nevinson puts it in his book, The New Spirit in India: "He (Sri Aurobindo) regarded the Partition of Bengal as the greatest blessing that had ever happened to India. No other measure could have stirred... State for India in the House of Commons in 1906, said: "I am bound to say, nothing was ever worse done in disregard to the feeling and opinion of the majority of the people concerned." Henry W. Nevinson writes in his The New Spirit in India: "Such was the Partition of Bengal, prompted, as nearly all educated Indians believe, by Lord Curzon's personal dislike ³ of the Bengali race, as shown... Surendra Nath Banerji, "half in jest and half in seriousness, to the amazement of all sober-minded men that he had two wives, Hindu and Mohammedan, but that the 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 ...
... demonstrative or expansive in public—but I never was. Nevinson seeing me presiding at the Surat Nationalist Conference—which was not a joke and other people were as serious as myself—spoke of me as that most. politically dangerous of men, "the man who never smiles" which made people who knew me smile very much. You seem to have somewhere in you a Nevinson impression of me. Or perhaps you agree with Shanta... contact with the multitude, even when I was a public leader; I have been always reserved and silent except with the few with whom I was intimate or whom I could meet in private. But my reference to Nevinson and the Conference was only casual; I did not mean that I regard the Darshan as I would a political meeting or a public function. But all the same it is not in the nature of a private interview, I ...
... e or expansive in public—but I never was. Nevinson seeing me presiding at the Surat Nationalist Conference—which was not a joke and others were as serious as myself—spoke of me as that most politically dangerous of men—"the man who never smiles" which made people who knew me smile very much. You Page 48 seem to have somewhere in you a Nevinson impression of me. Or perhaps you agree with... contact with the multitude, even when I was a public leader; I have been always reserved and silent except with the few with whom I was intimate or whom I could meet in private. But my reference to Nevinson and the Conference was only casual; I did not mean that I regard the Darshan as I would a political meeting or a public function. But all the same it is not in the nature of a private interview; I... the eye of the seer—নানা মত নানা মুনির. 1935 Sense of Humour The Divine may be difficult, but his difficulties can be overcome if one keeps at Him. Even my smilelessness was overcome which Nevinson had remarked with horror more than twenty years before—"the most dangerous man in India", Aurobindo Ghose "the man who never smiles". He ought to have added, "but who Page 51 always jokes"; ...
... Autocracy, 256ff; on politics and spirituality, 257-8; on Morley, 259-60; on Anglo-Indian administrators, 260; on Tilak, 263,267-8; on Gujarat and Gujaratis, 264; at Midnapore Conference, 265, 270; Nevinson on, 269; at Surat Congress, 269ff; order to break the Congress, 271; on "Death or Life", 272; with Yogi Lele at Baroda, 274ff; Nirvanic experience, 275,322,362, 371,388-9, 572; at Poona, 276; on ... The, 337, 353, 354-55 Navajata, 775 Nava Sakti, 284, 308 Nehru, Jawaharlal, 490,728,735 Nehru, Motilal, 229, 522,531 Netter, William T., 778 Nevinson, Henry, 205,207,269 New Lamps for Old', 56ff, 184,190, 228, 281 Newsman, J. H., 490 Nietzsche, 441-42 Nirodbaran, 215, 577-78, 589, 594, 599ff, 604, 608-09, 655 ...
... Minto had to reap the consequent whirlwind. The day partition became an "accomplished fact" was observed as a day of mourning in both the sundered parts of Bengal. As vividly described by Henry Nevinson in his The New Spirit in India: On that day... thousands and thousands of Indians rub dust or ashes on their foreheads: at dawn they bathe in silence as at a sacred fast; no meals are eaten;... rule impossible - that would wee the British to make a virtue of necessity and withdraw from India, may be without a sanguinary fight, or more probably after a brief spell of guerilla warfare. Henry Nevinson has left a record of his impressions of Sri Aurobindo at the tune: ...a youngish man, I should think still under thirty. Intent dark eyes looked Page 207 from his thin, clear-cut ...
... hope is there then for the likes of us?" To that he replied: "The Divine may be difficult, but His difficulties can be overcome if one keeps at Him. Even my smilelessness was overcome, which Nevinson had remarked with horror more than twenty years before — 'the most dangerous man in India, Aurobindo Ghosh who never smiles'. He ought to have added: 'but who always jokes' — but he did not know that... Anyhow since you have overcome _____________ * Vide Glossary. Page 45 that — my smilelessness — you are bound to overcome all the other difficulties also." Henri W. Nevinson, the well-known author, came to India in 1907 as a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian and his book entitled The New Spirit in India published in 1908 made a deep impression not only on Indians ...
... laughter, was somehow imprinted in the public mind even from the early days of his public career. "The man who never smiles," said Henry W. Nevinson, English writer and journalist who had met Sri Aurobindo in 1907 during his full revolutionary activities. Nevinson, an active journalist of U.K., has left his impressions of Sri Aurobindo in his book The New Spirit in India. Here are two extracts from ...
... his desk, he was a changed man. Warming up to his subject, he would weave exquisite patterns of romance and beauty, and fill the classroom with the vibrations of a naturally vocal sensibility. Nevinson writes of him in his New Spirit in India: "I found him there (in the Presidency College) teaching the grammar and occasional beauties of Tennyson's 'Princess' with extreme distaste for that sugary... He is a worshipper of Krishna and a high-souled Vedantist.... His notions of life and morality are pre-eminently Hindu and he believes in the spiritual mission of his people. ..." Henry W. Nevinson, an English M.P., who travelled in India with his eyes wide open, and his mind sympathetically attuned to the pulse of the new life which he witnessed all over India, had a talk with Sri Aurobindo ...
... tendency to stiffness and other things again tend to OK-ness. The Divine may be difficult, but his difficulties can be overcome if one keeps at Him. Even my smilelessness was overcome which Nevinson 8 3 had remarked with horror more than twenty years before—the most dangerous man in India, Aurobindo Ghose "the man who never smiles". He ought to have added, "but who always jokes"; but ...
... their knowing it and get things done. It was the confounded British Government that spoiled my game by prosecuting me and forcing me to be publicly known and a "leader".' Around this time Henry Nevinson, author and journalist, who had come out to India as a special correspondent of the Manchester Guardian of London, met Sri Aurobindo for an interview. In his book The New Spirit of India, he records ...
... seen Aurobindo Ghose's eyes?" "Yes, what about them?" asked Charu. "He has the eyes of a madman!" Charu took great pains to convince him that I was not at all mad but a Karmayogi! PURANI: Nevinson, the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, said that you never laughed. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. I met him twice, once in Bengal at Subodh Mullick's place. I was very serious at that time. The next ...
... with bread and milk? CHAMPAKLAL: People in Gujarat consider that they can take bread and milk on a fast. SRI AUROBINDO: That is also the custom in Bengal, isn't it? It reminds me of a story. Nevinson went to see Tilak and said, "Mr.Tilak received me naked in his loincloth." (Laughter) At the end of this talk, Purani entered. NIRODBARAN: Purani seems to be bubbling with news. SRI AUROBINDO: ...
... where Barin's boys used to meet. "Barin was arrested with the rest of his fellows, and so was I afterwards, at my place. This was because I was Barin's elder brother, a revolutionary leader whom Nevinson, a British journalist, had described after having met me as 'the man who never smiles.' They also considered me 'the most dangerous man in the British Empire'! (Laughter) So, that most dangerous ...
... Banerjee, A Nation in the Making, pp. 187-88 4. Quoted in Sri Aurobindo — His Life and Work as it appeared serially in Bulletin, April 1961, pp. 152, 156 5. Henry Nevinson, The New Spirit in India, pp.220,222,226 6. Purani, The Life, p. 66 7. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 17, p. 1 8. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 1, pp. 481-82 9. Sri Aurobindo, ...
... 'Savitri'(1962); The Glory and the Good: Essays on Literature (1965); Subramania Bharati (1968) Naravane, V. S. Modern Indian Thought (1964) Navajata, Sri Aurobindo (1972) Nevinson, Henry W. The New Spirit in India (1908) Nirodbaran, Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo (1954); Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo: Part II (Humour) (1972); Sri Aurobindo: 'I Am Here ...
... agreement, but Satyen Bose tore up the paper, and the meeting came to an abortive end.42 The Nationalists from the different Provinces also met to review the position and plan their strategy.* As Nevinson had described the scene in The New Spirit of India: Grave and silent -I think without saying a single word - Mr. Aravinda Ghose took the chair, and sat unmoved, with far-off eyes, as one ...
... personality of Mr. Keir Hardie, but combines in himself, in a way Mr. Hardie scarcely does, the old culture and the new spirit. He has as broad a sympathy and as penetrating an intelligence as Mr. Nevinson, but not the latter's quick intensity. Nevertheless, behind the slow consideration and calm thoughtfulness of his manner, one detects hidden iron and the concealed roughness of the force that has ...
... free-thinking and loose-principled nobles of the day. He often ended his speeches thus: 'Carthage must be destroyed', before the 3rd Punic War in which Carthage was actually destroyed. H.W. Nevinson (1856-1941). War correspondent and novelist—for further details see Mother's Chronicles, Book V, Mirra Meets the Revolutionary. Francois Charles Baron (1900). Administrator of Chandernagore ...
... as soon as it would touch the ground he would hide himself behind a rock. He didn't expect it would explode before. SRI AUROBINDO: Even so, it was very risky to watch like that. I think it was Nevinson who said that the Indian revolutionaries were as good as the Russian. But this incident is hardly an encouraging one. Time is needed to become efficient. It took the Prussians more than a hundred ...
... religious bar or some such factor. SRI AUROBINDO: Religious bar? PURANI: They may happen to be Roman Catholics. SRI AUROBINDO: But Weygand and Pétain are Catholics. Foch was an ardent Catholic. Nevinson, during the last war, wrote strongly against a general who was a freethinker and who had made a mess. If there were any genius about today, Weygand should know. SATYENDRA: The Germans have made ...
... thirteen herbs and barks. Madhyam literally means "middle". × "The man who never smiles", said Henry W. Nevinson, English writer and journalist who met Sri Aurobindo in 1907 during his full revolutionary activities. × ...
... Munshi,K.M.17 Murray, D.L. 5 Murray, Gilbert 55 Murry, Middleton 308, 355,412,414 Myers, F.W.H. 334,436 AWa256,458 Nehru, Jawaharlal 17 Nevinson, Henry 29 Newbolt, Sir Henry 412 Nidhu,Babu45 Nietzsche 30,400 Nirodbaran358,386,416 Noyes, Alfred 331,408 Olson, Elder 434 Omar Khayyam 262 O'Neill, Eugene 268 ...
... Disciple : There are people who believe that bread and milk can be taken while fasting. ( Laughter ) Sri Aurobindo : That is also the custom in Bengal, I believe. That reminds me of a story. Nevinson went to see Tilak and met him in Dhoti. While describing the meeting he said : Mr. Tilak received me naked in his cloth. ( Laughter ) By this time another disciple came and seemed to be bubbling ...
... in his life. Henceforth he was in politics, but not quite of it. He was like a man in a trance; he seemed to work and talk as other men but he also seemed to be detached from it all. In 1907 Henry Nevinson had found Sri Aurobindo, "grave with intensity, careless of fate or opinion, and one of the most silent men I have ever known...of the stuff that dreamers are made of..." 54 In 1908 Sri Aurobindo ...
... portrayed by our Bengali poet D. L. Roy. In point of fact, all those who had known Sri Aurobindo during the intense political period of his life, and even those who had but met him in passing (Nevinson, for instance), were aware of the Yogi in him. Sri Aurobindo also mentioned that he was practising yoga for the last six years, which should take us to 1905. He was evidently thinking of 'conscious ...
... Mother's Chronicles - Book Five 47 Lele "As one who gazes at futurity." Henry Nevinson had perception. On 31 December Sri Aurobindo left Surat for Baroda. Barin and Sakharia Baba were with him in the reserved compartment of the train. In that biting cold of Gujarat, Sri Aurobindo was going about with one shirt, and cheap canvas shoes ...
... simple in dress and bearing.... He writes from divine inspiration, sattwic intelligence, and unshakable determination.... None equal to Aravinda in self-sacrifice, knowledge and sincerity." H. W. Nevinson (as quoted in the Indian Patriot) on Sri Aurobindo : "A man of very fine culture, his is a lovable nature, 1. Rise and Growth of Indian Militant Nationalism. Page 379 ...
... the Nationalists. After the debacle of the Congress on 27 December at Surat, the Moderates opened their Convention on the 28 th , while two hundred policemen guarded the wreck of the pandal. Nevinson records. "In the afternoon the Extremists also held a convention, and also appointed a committee to watch events. In the large courtyard of a private house they met in silent crowds. Grave and silent ...
... Dr. H. V. Rutherford, Mr. Frederic Mackarness, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, all members of the House of Commons. They were ably assisted by a number of journalists, among whom was our friend Mr. H. W. Nevinson. The Calcutta newspapers had, as we just saw, prominently published (6 April 1910) reports of the police raids at the Karma-yogin office. Amrila Bazar Patrika, for instance, had headlines ...
... Aurobindo Babu presided and Tilak made another masterly statement, clear and concise and yet full, such as he alone can make. Everybody praises it.' There is also a vivid description of this meeting in Nevinson's The New Spirit of India. He writes: 'Grave and silent — I think without saying a single word — Mr. Aravinda Ghose took the chair, and sat unmoved, with far-off eyes, as one who gazes at futurity ...
... programme. 13 May. A letter to Motilal Roy; talk on the letter; a letter from Barin; an article by Upen Bannerji in the Bijoli . 15 May. Talk on communism in Russia. 16 May. Talk about Nevinson's impression of Sri Aurobindo; letter from Robert Bridges to Sri Aurobindo, asking him to recommend the Reforms for acceptance. Talk on K. G. Deshpande's Sadhakashram at Andheri. 18 May. An article ...
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