Swaraj : English fortnightly started in England in February 1909 by B.C. Pal & G.S. Khaparde. But a few months later, its distributing agent G.B. Modak was convicted for an article in its issue of 16th June, proved fatal to the magazine.
... the goal of Swaraj. There has been much discussion about the definition of Swaraj. Swaraj has been defined as self-government. It has been defined by Dadabhai Naoroji as a self-governing colony. In our view, self-government is merely one aspect of Swaraj. We believe that India itself is entirely a separate nation. As a nation it is not part of the Anglo-Saxons. When we speak of Swaraj we mean the principle... any form of government. The word Swaraj is not a new word but an old one. It is as old as literature and civilisation. The meaning of Swaraj, in our ancient literature, is the spiritual condition of the soul which attains to Mukti. When the soul is independent of everything but itself, when it exists in the joy of its light and greatness, when it is Mukta, that is Swaraj. According to our ancient philosophy... boycott; third, Swaraj; and fourth, national education. Swadeshi is the method, the way, the road by which the nation advances. Boycott is only the other side of Swadeshi, and both the Swadeshi and the boycott movements are actually encouraged in principle in the greater part of this country. National education is the training of the mind and heart of the younger generation. Swaraj is the goal of our ...
... samitis are good, not for the sake of village samitis but for the sake of Swaraj. Boycott is good, not for the sake of Boycott but for the sake of Swaraj. Swadeshi is good, not for the sake of Swadeshi but for the sake of Swaraj. Arbitration is good, not for the sake of arbitration but for the sake of Swaraj. If we forget Swaraj and win anything else we shall be like the seeker whose belt was turned... eloquence which made the whole audience astir with feelings of impassioned aspiration. Swaraj was the theme of his eloquence and to anyone listening carefully it was evident that Swaraj unlimited and without reservation, was the ideal enthroned in the heart of the poet. Even Surendranath or those who voted for colonial Swaraj knew well in their heart of hearts that their ideal was not the ideal of the nation... country, at least Bengal, has now reached a stage when this dispute is no longer necessary. Whatever we may say out of policy or fear, the whole nation is now at one. Swaraj is the only goal which the heart of Bengal recognises, Swaraj without any limitation or reservation. Even the President in his second and closing speech was so much moved by the spirit in the air that he forgot the feeling of caution ...
... ." 136 At Nasik he delivered a lecture on 24th January on Swaraj. He said that Swaraj is life, Swaraj is amrita, Swaraj is mukti. Swaraj cannot be granted by any outside agency. Man is born free. If he has lost his freedom, he must regain it. Fitness for Swaraj can be acquired only in Swaraj. Among the means of winning Swaraj, he said, the first and greatest was faith in God. For, God 137... once more from the dead, the fixed and unalterable intention to fight for the renovation of her ancient life and glory. 10 Swaraj is the life-belt. Swaraj the pilot, Swaraj the star of guidance. If a great social revolution is necessary, it is be- cause the ideal of Swaraj cannot be accomplished 9. 10. Italics are ours. Page 169 by a nation bound to forms which are no longer... his third lecture - 'Commercial Swaraj' and 'Educational Swaraj'. 140 It pained him to see, he said, that some of the mill-owners in Bombay and Calcutta were opposing the growth of the Swadeshi industry. He appealed to the rich to come forward to help Swadeshi even at a sacrifice. He asserted that if the nation had commercial and educational Swaraj, political Swaraj would follow as a natural consequence ...
... towards Swaraj", the answer came readily, "It will be a very long way in that case". 19 Again, on another occasion when someone made the assertion "Khadi is an emblem of purity", Sri Aurobindo deplored the habit of equating Khadi with purity, Swaraj, politics, religion, etc., and asked: "Nobody objects to Khadi being used on its own merits. Why not use it as such? Why put music, religion, Swaraj, etc... that he was launching as the organ of the Swaraj Party, but Sri Aurobindo replied on 25 August 1923 that he would prefer not to send such a message, for he felt that any public support on the physical plane was more likely to interfere with the effectiveness of the silent occult support that he was giving to the cause already. The phenomenal success of the Swaraj Party during the next two years made a... If some of the leaders felt that Nagpur would reverse the Calcutta decision, they were doomed to disappointment. C. Vijayaraghavachariar of Salem presided over the session, and made the demand 'for Swaraj more comprehensive than the mere redress of the Punjab and Kilafat wrongs. But the non-cooperation plank couldn't be successfully assailed, and C.R. Das himself, who came with a huge contingent of ...
... the Congress, pronounced from that seat of authority Swaraj as the one object of our political endeavour, — Swaraj as the only remedy for all our ills, — Swaraj as the one demand nothing short of which will satisfy the people of India. Complete self-government as it exists in the United Kingdom or the Colonies, — such was his definition of Swaraj. The Congress has contented itself with demanding se... as it exists in the Colonies. We of the new school would not pitch our ideal one inch lower than absolute Swaraj, —self-government as it exists in the United Kingdom.' India must be free, even as England is free, and if the word Swaraj is ambiguous, let the goal be defined as 'absolute Swaraj' — nothing could be clearer! This theme was to find repeated utterance in the pages of the Bande Mataram ... was the first among political leaders to proclaim the ideal of complete independence in unequivocal terms. When Dadabhoy Naoroji introduced the word Swaraj at the Calcutta session of the Congress as its political objective, the Moderates interpreted Swaraj to mean a form of self-government as it existed in the British Colonies; to many of them even this ideal was too remote and impractical. But Sri Aurobindo ...
... in view, viz., Swaraj, I am afraid we, thirty crores of people, will become extinct. The people of Maharashtra must Page 833 have some recollection of Swaraj, because a century ago you represented it. Swaraj is life, it is nectar and salvation. Swaraj in a nation is the breath of life. Without breath of life a man is dead. So also without Swaraj a nation is dead. Swaraj being the life... patriot Dadabhai Naoroji in his Presidential address at the National Congress in Calcutta said, "We must have Swaraj on the lines granted to Canada and Australia, which is our sole aim." The true definition of Swaraj was given by Dadabhai Naoroji in his speech after the session of the Congress. Swaraj means administration of affairs in a country by her own people on their own strength in accordance with... the sway of the Roman Empire came to grief with its downfall, and were harassed by savage people. The reason is, they had no Swaraj. After a lapse of centuries they stood on their own legs and established for themselves Swaraj and became happy. It is for this reason that Swaraj is essentially needed, and is to be gained by our own exertions. If it is gained otherwise, which is impossible, it cannot last ...
... which Tilak had persuaded Sri Aurobindo to visit - and everywhere a spontaneous welcome, and everywhere a memorable speech or two. On the 24th January, he spoke at Nasik on Swaraj: the favourite theme - Swaraj was amrta, Swaraj was mukti, and this was true as much for the individual as for the nation. Hadn't Shivaji, inspired by the gospel of Tukaram and Ramdas, led the country to freedom? That... Mother's dwelling in the future, the house of her salvation, the house of Swaraj. 47 It was in a religious, rather than a political, spirit he had gone - and had asked his fellow-Nationalists to go - to Surat. Compromise was unthinkable on certain issues, and Sri Aurobindo did not want to compromise on the question of Swaraj. Repression too did not frighten him. It might be, he thought, repression... it in the mantra "Bande Mataram". From Amraoti to Nagpur, where Sri Aurobindo delivered three lectures, on "The Policy of the Nationalist Party", "The Work Before Us" and "Commercial Swaraj and Educational Swaraj" on 30 and 31 January and 1 February. Yet once again, Sri Aurobindo tore the veil of Appearance and showed that there was a spiritual reality behind the material facade, that behind the ...
... to make the masses feel Swaraj in the village, Swaraj in the group of villages, Swaraj in the district, Swaraj in the nation. They cannot immediately rise to the conception of Swaraj in the nation, they must be trained to it through the perception of Swaraj in the village. The political education of the masses is impossible unless you organise the village Samiti. Swaraj, finally, is impossible without... your desire for Swaraj is a thing not of the heart but of the lips or of the intellect at most. But if by that time Mymensingh is covered with village Samitis in full action, then we shall know that one district at least in Bengal has realised the conditions of Swaraj and when one district has solved the problem, it is only a question of time when over all Bengal and over all India, Swaraj will be realised... which I have been asked to speak is from one point of view the most important of all that this conference has passed. As one of the speakers has already said, the village Samiti is the seed of Swaraj. What is Swaraj but the organization of the independent life of the country into centres of strength which grow out of its conditions and answer to its needs, so as to make a single and organic whole? When ...
... Once again - this time Mahatma Gandhi - tried to hedge, by avoiding both Independence and Dominion Status but reviving the familiar Swaraj and further qualifying it as Puma Swaraj! Of the four planks (chatus-sūtri) in the new programme, - Swaraj, national education, Swadeshi and boycott, - Sri Aurobindo had expressed even in his "New Lamps for Old" articles (1893-4) his adhesion... end the wrangle between the Nationalists who wanted "independence" to be affirmed as the aim of the political movement and the Moderates who harped on the British connection, Dadabhai proposed "Swaraj" and this proved acceptable to all, though perhaps each party understood the word a little differently.* In any case, it was no small gain. It is curious how history tantalisingly repeats itself... Hironmoyee Devi, as reported in the Bande Mataram of 30 December 1906, for a sound reason: * According to the Israeli scholar, Daniel Argov, "Aurovindo Ghosh gave the clearest exposition of Swaraj by declaring it synonymous with independence — 'a free national Government unhampered even in the least degree by foreign control'". [Moderates and Extremists in the Indian National MweiM'1 1883-1930 ...
... ourselves, our real and actual self. Thus we found Swaraj within ourselves and saw that it was in our hands to discover and to realise it. 19 In his Kishoreganj speech, again, Sri Aurobindo went beyond the immediate subject of village samitis to lay the main stress on the basic problem of national "unity": But the unity we need for Swaraj is not a unity of opinion, a unity of speech, a... Mandir" pamphlet which acted as heady wine to numerous revolutionaries, and the launching of the Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education movements, and the stepping up of the national demand for "Swaraj" or Independence, and not merely colonial self-government on an unending instalment plan. Sri Aurobindo had, in the meantime, been initiated into certain Yogic practices like prānāyāma, and he... accepted mouthpiece and the keeper of the conscience of the Nationalists of Bengal, and in course of time even of the Nationalist party of India. When the National Demand became nothing less than Swaraj or Independence, where were the sanctions behind the demand? The Nationalists were a political party working openly and with due regard to the limitations imposed by the law. A disarmed nation, ...
... 1663 delegates and an audience of 20,000. A tumultuous enthusiasm greeted his words when in his Presidential address Dadabhai uttered the word 'Swaraj.' "We do not ask for any favour. We want Swaraj." He did not define the meaning he attributed to 'Swaraj.' The Moderates interpreted it as 'colonial self-government,' while the Nationalists said it meant 'Independence.' 1 Even the compromise programme... minority, succeeded under the leadership of Tilak in imposing part of their political programme on the Congress." Sri Aurobindo had played a major role in the formulation of its four-fold programme: Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, and National Education. It was the clever maneuvering by the Nationalist Party that forced the Moderate leaders to incorporate the programme in the resolutions of 1906. The programme... to repudiate the resolutions adopted by the Calcutta Congress. Pherozeshah Mehta, for instance, at the Surat Provincial Conference held in April 1907, 1. The Nationalist's definition of Swaraj: " It at once embodies the ideals of independence, unity, liberty." (Bande Mataram, 19-20.8.1907) . A very good picture of the then prevailing scenario can be had from 'The man of the Past and the ...
... This statement is also a manifesto of the philosophy of Swaraj. This philosophy regarded Swaraj as not mere political freedom but a freedom vast and entire, freedom of the individual, freedom of the community, freedom of the nation, spiritual freedom, social freedom and political freedom. Sri Aurobindo, in a powerful article on Swaraj (February 18, 1908), argued that if political freedom is absent... to run dry. Page 79 Therefore Swaraj has been revealed to us. By our political freedom we shall once more recover our spiritual freedom. Once more in the land of the saints and sages will burn up the fire of the ancient Yoga and the hearts of her people will be lifted up into the neighbourhood of the Eternal. 4 Swaraj without any limit or reservation came to be fixed... fixed as the aim of the philosophy of nationalism. Swaraj came to be seen as a life-belt, as the pilot, as the star of guidance. Sri Aurobindo also saw the necessity of Swaraj for the fulfilment of India's true role in the comity of nations. He wrote: India is the guru of the nations, the physician of the human soul in its profounder maladies; she is destined once more to new-mould the life of ...
... Jhalakati and make speeches on Swadeshi and boycott. He (the speaker) was devoting himself to literature and religion. He was writing as he wrote before on Swaraj and Swadeshi, and that was a form of literature. He was speaking on Swaraj and Swadeshi and that was part of his religion. ( Cheers ) Another quarter he had disappointed was the police. ( Laughter ) He had received a message from them... from one from whom they were least expected—one who had served and made sacrifices for the country. He said that those who spread the gospel of Swaraj were madmen outside the lunatic asylum and those who preached passive resistance as a means of gaining Swaraj were liars who did not speak out their real thoughts to save their skin; he invited the country to denounce them as enemies of the country and... repression. Well, if it were true that only fear made them take to passive resistance, if they flinched now from the boycott because some had been deported, if they ceased to proclaim the ideal of Swaraj, if they ceased to preach the boycott, then only it would be true that they had adopted an ideal that they could not reach and proclaimed means of reaching it in which they did not believe, because ...
... vital intuitions. Not that he commits no mistakes. He goes on committing mistakes and tries to rectify them and somehow comes to "something". Disciple : He may bungle into Swaraj. Sri Aurobindo : If not Swaraj, he may stumble into some way towards it. There are some people like Mustafa Kamal who never commit a mistake and everything about them is organised. Das is not that type. ... have left their propaganda of non-cooperation and taken to village reconstruction because enthusiasm has waned among the people. No one comes to attend meetings, no money is subscribed to the Tilak Swaraj Fund. Khadi does not evoke response. Sri Aurobindo : Yes, I had that experience in 1909 when I was in Bengal. That gave me an insight into my countrymen. After the arrests and deportations we... because it is against Ahimsa ! It is negative and not constructive. The same was said by Tagore about non-cooperation ! Disciple : C. Rajgopalachari says one yard of Khaddar means one step towards Swaraj. Sri Aurobindo : It will be a very long way in that case. Disciple : I hear that Gandhiji is getting text-books prepared for schools. Sri Aurobindo : One book will begin with how ...
... their contention is that these differences ought not in a free deliberative assembly to stand in the way of united progress. The Swaraj matter can easily be settled by the substitution of "full and complete self-government" for "self-government on Colonial lines" in the Swaraj resolution. The difference as to passive resistance hinges at present on the Boycott resolution which the Nationalist party—and... the ideal of complete autonomy or of the use of passive resistance in case of any future arbitrary interference with the rights of the people. It implies only the use of partial Swaraj as a step and means towards complete Swaraj. Where the Nationalists definitely and decisively part company with an influential section of the Moderates is in refusing to accept any petty or illusory concession which will... instruments of men incapable of a wise and strong rule, we can only oppose a steady and fearless adherence to the propagandism and practice of a lawful policy and a noble ideal. Our ideal is that of Swaraj or absolute autonomy free from foreign control. We claim the right of every nation to live its own life by its own energies according to its own nature and ideals. We reject the claim of aliens to ...
... such as purity, swaraj, politics, religion etc. with Khadi! Nobody objects to Khadi being used on its own merits. Page 57 Why not use it as such ? Why put music, religion, swaraj etc. into it ? Disciple : In the days of Khilafat-agitation they used to say : "Swaraj is Khilafat" (meaning thereby the identification of Khilafat" agitation with the fight for swaraj); "Khilafat is... Aurobindo : I don't understand how it is going to bring Swaraj. P . T . : In the absence of a better programme, it disciplines the people and makes them do something for the nation. It brings to the front the idea of common action for a definite end. Sri Aurobindo : The Charkha has its own importance, but it cannot bring Swaraj. P . T . : It may if one realises the Bhava – the... whether they would put up with a just British government they could not reply. India must want freedom because of herself, because of her own Spirit. I would very much like India to find her own Swaraj and then, like Ireland, to work out her salvation even with violence – preferably without violence. Our basis must be broader than that of mere opposition to the British government. All the time our ...
... the mention of a leader like Tilak who bent his whole leonine energy towards the attainment of Swaraj, who was a Swarajist first and last, who had no other life-passion than to free India from the British and who considered all means legitimate in breaking the fetter of foreign domination. With Gandhi, Swaraj was never the be-all and end-all. No doubt, he wanted India to be politically independent, but... of means. Either certain conditions must be observed by us, certain means adopted, or else no Swaraj was to be desired and worked for. There was in Gandhi's vision an ideal which seemed to him larger than India's political freedom - and that ideal was what he strove after and sought to represent: if Swaraj could be subsumed under that ideal, if it could attune itself to this "greater glory", then alone... inclined to treat us as untouchables. "Fail in this moral and humane duty," said Gandhi in effect, "and you do not merit to be set free. Social reform must go hand in hand with work for Swaraj: without social reform Swaraj is not worth a straw!" Can Non-violence be the Master Ideal? Nor is the attack on the pariah system the sole distinguishing mark of Gandhi being basically something ...
... dreamed of such triumphs in India ; the power of the spoken word had never been demonstrated on such a scale." 1 1. Swadeshi and Swaraj, Page 305 Pal spoke on Swadeshi and Swaraj. "Swaraj," he explained, "will be the Swaraj of the Indian people, not of any section of it." This new National Movement in India, he asserted, "is essentially a Spiritual Movement." In a word... towards the freedom of my nation." Sri Aurobindo based his understanding of Swaraj on the Vedic literature. The nature of the Universal, explain the Vedas, is "independent, self-protecting, and stands by its greatness, and in its greatness—stands sva-mahimni," which is synonymous with Swaraj. The word 'Swaraj' was a bugbear to the Europeans. When they heard it they became full of unreasoning... word, he became a popular exponent of the spiritual nationalism of Swami Vivek-ananda and Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo was always more explicit. "Swaraj" he said in his address at Jhalakati in June 1909, "is not the Colonial form of Government nor any form of Government. It means the fulfilment of our national life. That is what we seek, that is why God has sent us into the world to fulfil Him ...
... present irresponsible bureaucratic control, is directly threatened by the Swadeshi movement; for the declared object of that movement is Swaraj, which means the entire elimination of that control. To ask the bureaucracy, therefore, to protect us in our struggle for Swaraj is to ask it to assist in its own destruction. This plain truth is obviously recognised by the officials of the Shillong Government... preposterous a statement for even an Anglo-Indian Magistrate to make,—but all Indians, Hindus and Mahomedans alike, to work enthusiastically for Swadeshi Page 221 and Swaraj. By raising the cry of Swadeshi and Swaraj, then, we forfeit the protection of the law. Stated so nakedly, the reasoning sounds absurd; but, in the light of certain practical considerations we can perfectly appreciate... standpoint of these bureaucrats. Arguing as philosophers, they would be wrong; but arguing as bureaucrats and rulers of a subject people, their position is practical and logical. The establishment of Swaraj means the elimination of the British bureaucrat. Can we ask the British bureaucrat to make it safe and easy for us to eliminate him? Swadeshi is a direct attack on that exploitation of India by the ...
... and for this a free Asia and in Asia a free India must take the lead, and Liberty is therefore worth striving for for the world's sake. India must have Swaraj in order to live; she must have Swaraj in order to live well and happily; she must have Swaraj in order to live for the world, not as a slave for the material and political benefit of a single purse-proud and selfish nation, but as a free people... reproduce it here. It is often represented by our opponents that the cry for Swaraj is a mere senseless cry for freedom without any recognition of the responsibilities of freedom. This is not so. Those who have followed the exposition of the Nationalist ideal in Bande Mataram know well that we advocate the struggle for Swaraj, first, because Liberty is in itself a necessity of national life and therefore ...
... , Sri Aurobindo did not impose uniformity of opinion on the various Bande Mataram writers; their political views were however generally consistent. All agreed on basic matters of policy such as Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education. Page 1157 They differed occasionally on subordinate issues such as village uplift, caste, etc. Articles that express opinions at... Gujarat Lala Lajpat Rai's Refusal The Soul and India's Mission A Great Opportunity Swaraj and the Coming Anarchy The Village and the Nation Welcome to the Prophet of Nationalism A Great Message ... appeared in Two Lectures of Sriyut Aravinda Ghose, B.A. (Cantab.) (1908) and elsewhere. It has formed part of Sri Aurobindo's Speeches from the first edition (1922). The Meaning of Swaraj. Speech delivered in Nasik on 24 January 1908. A translation in Marathi was published the next day in the Nasik Vritta . This text was retranslated into English by a police agent and published ...
... Karmayogin "Swaraj" and the Musulmans We extract in our columns this week the comments of Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal's organ, Swaraj , on the Government's pro-Mahomedan policy and its possible effects in the future. We are glad to see this great Nationalist again expressing his views with his usual originality and fine political insight. We do not ourselves... The first three or four issues of Swaraj disappointed our expectations. A sense of the unreality of his position seemed to haunt the writer and robbed his writing of the former strength and close touch with the subject. It was the old views, the familiar thought, the well-known manner, but it neither convinced, illuminated nor inspired. This month's Swaraj is more confident and effective, although... England? Or what kind of message is this that he carries to the British public, "We do not welcome your favours, we reject your help and sympathy and will have no political association with you until Swaraj is ours,—and therefore I am here speaking to you and publishing my views to a British audience in London"? We can only suppose that Bipin Babu does really imagine he can produce some kind of effect ...
... of the Khilafatists granted. He had also promised to get Swaraj in one year. In December 1920, the Congress at its Nagpur session unanimously accepted the recommendation. But right from the outset Gandhi made it clear that the Khilafat question was in his view more important and urgent than that of Swaraj. He wrote: "To the Musalmans, Swaraj means, as it must, India's ability to deal effectively with... with the Khilafat question.... It is impossible not to sympathise with this attitude.... I would gladly ask for postponement of Swaraj activity if thereby we could advance the interest of the Khilafat." It is evident that this Khilafat Movement was a movement that had nothing to do with Indian Nationalism. It encouraged the Pan-Islamic sentiment and thus went against the very grain of Indian... entity in India, which ought never to have happened; the Khilafat affair made that separate political entity an organised separate political power. It was not Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Swaraj (our platform) which made this tremendous division, how could it? Tilak .was responsible for it not by that, but by his support of the Lucknow affair - for the rest, Gandhi did it with the help of ...
... India once more from the dead, the fixed and unalterable intention to fight for the renovation of her ancient life and glory. Swaraj is the lifebelt, Swaraj the pilot, Swaraj the star of guidance. If a great social revolution is necessary, it is because the ideal of Swaraj cannot be accomplished by a nation bound to forms which are no longer expressive of the ancient and immutable Self of India. She... Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo with Speeches Delivered during the Same Period 6.Feb-3.May.1908 Bande Mataram Swaraj and the Coming Anarchy 05-March-1908 Whoever tries to read the signs of the time, will be no little perplexed at first by their complexity. The beginnings of a great revolution which is destined to change the whole... her soul too calm and self-sufficient for such a surrender. If again an economical revolution is inevitable, it is because the fine but narrow edifice of her old industrial life will not allow of Swaraj in commerce and industry. The industrial energies of a free and perfect national life demand a mightier scope and wider channels. Neither need we fear that the economic revolution will land us in the ...
... is not by patriotic work that a nation can be built. For every stone that is added to the national edifice, a life must be given. It is not talk of Swaraj that can bring Swaraj but it is the living of Swaraj by each man among us that will compel Swaraj to come. The kingdom of Heaven is within you; free India is no piece of wood or stone that can be carved into the likeness of a nation but lives in... for our hearts, our lives, nothing less, nothing more. Swadeshi, National Education, the attempt to organise Swaraj are only so many opportunities for self Page 1032 surrender to her. She will look to see not how much we have tried for Swadeshi, how wisely we have planned for Swaraj, how successfully we have organised education, but how much of ourselves we have given, how much of our substance... their illuminating commentary in the actions of a people, then the chains will fall off of themselves and outward circumstances be forced to obey the law of our inward life. How then can we live Swaraj? By abandonment of the idea of self and its replacement by the idea of the nation. As Chaitanya ceased to be Nimai Pandit and became Krishna, became Radha, became Balaram, so every one of us must cease ...
... above Swadeshi to Swaraj. It is time that it left the path of self-realisation through disguises and side-issues and flung itself frankly and wholly into the attempt to win Swaraj. The Surat Page 1085 split took place over the side-issue of the President's election, but the Convention's attitude has brushed away all side-issues and brought to the front the question of Swaraj. The future success... to its action. The ideal of unqualified Swaraj has a charm for the national mind which is irresistible if it is put before it in the national way by minds imbued with Indian feeling and free from the gross taint of Western materialism. Swaraj as a sort of European ideal, political liberty for the sake of political self-assertion, will not awaken India. Swaraj as the fulfilment of the ancient life of... Satyayuga of national greatness, the resumption by her of her great role of teacher and guide, self-liberation of the people for the final fulfilment of the Vedantic ideal in politics, this is the true Swaraj for India. Of all the proud nations of the West there is an end determined. When their limited special work for mankind is done they must decay and disappear. But the function of India is to supply ...
... adopting Swaraj as its goal and Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education as the effective means of realising it. This was a serious setback for the Moderates, who had strongly opposed the resolutions, and they were waiting for an opportunity to get back their hold over the organisation. Moreover, their Bombay group led by Sir Pherozeshah Mehta and Gokhale, could not stomach the resolution on Swaraj. There... only, and which in practice would merely strengthen the British position in India. The Moderates, however, were determined to offer their cooperation to the British and not to offend them by cries of Swaraj. Meanwhile there were developments in Bengal which also clearly indicated the growing cleavage between the Moderates and the Nationalists. Sri Aurobindo was now the recognised leader of the Nationalists... Tilak spoke till the stars shone out and someone kindled a lantern at his side.' The Nationalists had come to know by this time that the Moderates were getting ready to scuttle the resolutions on Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, and National Education, but unable to go back openly on them, they had decided on a roundabout method. They had prepared the draft of a new constitution for the Congress, which ...
... make speeches on Swadeshi and Boycott. Yes, indeed, said Sri Aurobindo in reply: he was devoting himself to literature and religion; he was writing on Swaraj and Swadeshi, and that was a form of literature, and he was discoursing on Swaraj and Swadeshi, and that was part of his religion! 13 As for the 'Minto-Morley' Reforms that were dangling in all their insubstantiality in the mid-air... policy of Passive Resistance advocated by the Nationalists: This was a very dangerous teaching which Mr. Gokhale introduced into his speech, that the ideal of independence - whether we call it Swaraj or autonomy or Colonial Self-Government, because these two things in a country circumstanced like India meant in practice the same... - cannot be achieved by peaceful means; Mr. Gokhale knows or... of the Moderates; nor were they cowards or men of double-talk eager merely to save their skins. On the contrary, they were genuine patriots who were ready, if required, to pay the price for the Swaraj they thirsted for and must obtain at all cost. Repression, repression, hundred-limbed repression might prevail for the nonce, but that would not silence or cow down the Nationalists. What, after ...
... for the Swadeshi movement. Swaraj and Swadeshi thus came to be linked together, and to these were added a vitriolic third ingredient. Boycott of British goods, and these three formed the base-plank of the programme of the secret revolutionary organisation, whose aim of course was to make the programme adopted by the Congress and the nation as a whole. The magic word 'Swaraj' was later popularised by... Aurobindo also attended the Bombay Congress (1904) and the Benares (Varanasi) Congress (1905), and tried to bring together the few like-minded leaders who were prepared to fight for nothing less than swaraj or complete independence free of all foreign control. With a view to reinforcing his plea for "independence" (as against some attenuated form of colonial self-government), Sri Aurobindo seems at this... bold and striking presentation of facts and arguments. On being told who the author was, Surendranath is said to have exclaimed that Sri Aurobindo alone could have written it. 18 The word 'Swaraj' itself had first been used by Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, one of the ablest members of the Bengali revolutionary groups, in his popular biography of Shivaji in Bengali. He also wrote, on Sri Aurobindo's ...
... the sole object with which we advocate passive resistance is Swaraj or national freedom. The latest and most venerable of the older politicians who have sat in the Presidential chair of the Congress, pronounced from that seat of authority Swaraj as the one object of our political endeavour, Swaraj as the only remedy for all our ills, Swaraj as the one demand nothing short of which will satisfy the people... India. Complete self-government as it exists in the United Kingdom or the Colonies,—such was his definition of Swaraj. The Congress has contented itself with demanding self-government as it exists in the Colonies. We of the new school would not pitch our ideal one inch lower than absolute Swaraj,—self-government as it exists in the United Kingdom. We believe that no smaller ideal can inspire national revival ...
... writer in Bengali (his family had been long domiciled in Bengal) and who had written a popular life of Shivaji in Bengali in which he first brought in the name of Swaraj, afterwards adopted by the Nationalists as their word for independence,—Swaraj became one item of the fourfold Page 51 Nationalist programme. He published a book entitled Desher Katha describing in exhaustive detail the British... could have meant or at least included the Moderate aim of colonial self-government and Dadabhai Naoroji as President of the Calcutta session of the Congress had actually tried to capture the name of Swaraj, the Extremists' term for independence, for this colonial self-government. Sri Aurobindo's first preoccupation was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as the aim of political action... insist on this persistently in the pages of the journal; he was the first politician in India who had the courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful. The party took up the word Swaraj to express its own ideal of independence and it soon spread everywhere; but it was taken up as the ideal of the Congress much later on at the [Lahore] 4 session of that body when it had been re ...
... offered to the audience? What does it matter if the President broke his word? As for the interpretation of Swaraj as colonial self-government it is an unimportant matter, a prejudged matter; no Conference pretending to be a branch of the Congress organisation has any right to pass a resolution for Swaraj pure and simple and no responsible politician can support such a resolution. The Police Superintendent... the seceders did not take this ground for secession, for they had consented, on the strength of Srijut Surendranath's qualified assurance, to the election which, once made, could not be unmade. As to Swaraj, we do not think it an unimportant matter, nor can we see that a District or Provincial Conference is debarred from passing a resolution in its favour; for by this rule several District Conferences... an Majumdar, have forfeited their right to be Page 791 considered branches of the Congress organization. But we will let that too go, for it was not to pass a resolution on unqualified Swaraj that a second Conference was held. The secession took place because of the arbitrary conduct of the President supported by his party in evading the right of the whole body of delegates to express its ...
... dawned in their hearts? No petty object fired their soul, no small or partial relief was the hope in which they were strong. It was the star of Swaraj that shone upon them from the darkness of the night into which they willingly departed, it is the light of Swaraj which creates a glory of effulgence in the squalid surroundings of the jail and makes each hour of enforced labour a sacrament and an offering... waiting to see whether the Congress will be revived or not, or we are watching the progress of Swadeshi with self-satisfaction, or we are anxious for this or that National School, while the fight for Swaraj seems to have ceased or passed away from us into worthier hands. Madras has taken up the herol out of our hands, and today it is over Tuticorin that the gods of the Mahabharata hover in their aerial... bring back the glorious days of old. Gallant Chidambaram, brave Padmanabha, intrepid Shiva defying the threats of exile and imprisonment, fighting for the masses, for the nation, for the preparation of Swaraj, these are now in the forefront, the men of the future, the bearers of the standard. The spirit of active heroism and self-immolation has travelled southward. In Bengal the spirit of passive endurance ...
... the Boycott. Swaraj displaced the idea of a mere administrative unity and Swaraj is too mighty an object to be effected by a single and limited means. Secondly, the first magnificent unity of the movement was lost. The Mahomedans, lured by specious promises, broke away from the ranks and within the circle of the leaders themselves a division arose between those who believed in Swaraj pure and unadulterated... imprisonment so that a handful of mill coolies may get justice and easier conditions of livelihood, a bond has been created between the educated class and the masses which is the first great step towards Swaraj. There has been only one other instance of a victory as complete for passive resistance against the might of a great Government. We refer to the struggle in the Transvaal which was carried on with ...
... doubt whether you will succeed against such contrary forces, but I wish you success in your endeavour. I am most interested however in your indications about Swaraj; for I have been developing my own ideas about the organisation of a true Indian Swaraj and I shall look forward to see how far yours will fall in with mine. Yours... Aurobindo Ghose 6 April 1923 6th April, 1923 Arya Office... make clear the reasons why I hesitated to sanction the publication. I should have had no objection to the publication of the portion about the spiritual basis of life or the last paragraph about Swaraj but that about non-cooperation as it stands without further explanation and amplification would lead, I think, to a complete misunderstanding of my real position. Some would take it to mean that I... the rival policies in the field; for I have unable to gather from what I have seen in the papers what is the practical turn they propose to give these policies or how they propose by them to secure Swaraj or bring it nearer. Please therefore excuse my refusal. Yours sincerely, Aurobindo 1926 I received this morning your letter about Tirupati. I shall try to explain to you Tirupati's ...
... else. But now there appeared a book called Desher Katha written by Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar who, though he was a Marathi, wrote Bengali very well. It was he who, for the first time, used the word 'Swaraj'. He explained too, with the help of many well-substantiated proofs, how the British had exploited Bengal, had taken so much of its wealth by shattering its trade and commerce. Thus, he concluded,... Bepin Pal on a tour through the district towns, I had to bear the entire burden of bringing out the Bande Mataram. I used the paper to reiterate what I had proclaimed at the very outset - that Puma Swaraj, complete independence, was our aim. You could say that this was formulated for the first time in such clear terms. Until then the idea had seemed unthinkable to most people. In fact, the Moderates... Pal, editor of the Bande Mataram, invited me to become its assistant-editor, albeit secretly, I accepted this role. From that day, I began writing articles advocating complete independence. Puma Swaraj. These articles quickly made a great impact on the minds of Indians all over the country. I went to Calcutta, giving up my job in Baroda. When the Bengal National College was established, I became ...
... in Bengali (his family had been long domiciled in Bengal) and who had written a popular life of Shivaji in Bengali in which he first brought in the name of Swaraj, afterwards adopted by the Nationalists as their word for independence, – Swaraj became one item of the fourfold Nationalist programme. He published a book entitled Desher Katha describing in exhaustive detail the British commercial and... could have meant or at least included the Moderate aim of colonial self-government and Dadabhai Naoroji as President of the Calcutta session of the Congress had actually tried to capture the name of Swaraj, the Extremists' term for independence, for this colonial self-government. Sri Aurobindo’s first preoccupation was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as the aim of political... insist on this persistently in the pages of the journal; he was the first politician in India who had the courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful. The party took up the word-Swaraj to express its own ideal of independence and it soon spread everywhere; but it was taken up as the ideal of the Congress much later on at the Karachi session of that body when it had been reconstituted ...
... His life, his character, his work and endurance, his acceptance by the heart and the mind of the people are a stronger argument than all the reasonings in his speeches, powerful as these are, for Swaraj, Self-government, Home Rule, by whatever name we may call the sole possible present aim of our effort, the freedom of the life of India, its self-determination by the people of India. Arguments and... choice of the New Party on him as their predestined leader. The same master-idea made him seize on the four main points which the Bengal agitation had thrown into some beginning of practical form, Swaraj, Swadeshi, National Education and Boycott, and formulate them into a definite programme, which he succeeded in introducing among the resolutions of the Congress at the Calcutta session,—much to the... ing annually so potent a remedy. The four resolutions were for him the first step towards shaking the Congress out of its torpid tortoise-like gait and turning it into a living and acting body. Swaraj, complete and early self-government in whatever form, had the merit in his eyes of making definite and near to the national vision the one thing needful, the one aim that mattered, the one essential ...
... insist on the village as the secret of our life and ask us to give up our ambitious strivings after national Swaraj and realise it first in the village. Such counsel is dangerous, even if it were possible to follow it. Nothing should be allowed to distract us from the mighty ideal of Swaraj, national and pan-Indian. This is no alien or exotic ideal, it is merely the conscious attempt to fulfil the... serious obstacle to national cohesion. One or two of our leading publicists have sometimes expressed themselves as if our salvation lay in the village and not in the larger organization of the nation. Swaraj has been sometimes interpreted as a return to the old conditions of self-sufficient village life leaving the imperial authority to itself, to tax and pass laws as it pleased—ignored because it is too... into a mighty, single and compact democratic nationality. We must make the nation what the village community was of old, self-sufficient, self-centred, autonomous and exclusive—the ideal of national Swaraj. Page 910 ...
... The work of Nationalism is therefore twofold. It has to win Swaraj for India so that the present unhealthy conditions of political life, full of the germs of that social and political phthisis which is overtaking Europe, may be entirely and radically cured, and it has to ensure that the Swaraj it brings about shall be a Swadeshi Swaraj and not an importation of the European article. It is for ... Page 1039 this reason that the movement for Swaraj found its first expression in an outburst of Swadeshi sentiment which directed itself not merely against foreign goods, but against foreign habits, foreign dress and manners, foreign education, and sought to bring the people back to their own civilization. It was the instinctive protest of Nature against the malady that was eating its way ...
... in the pages of the journal; [Sri Aurobindo] was the first politician in India who had the courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful. The [Nationalist] party took up the word Swaraj to express its own ideal of independence and it soon spread everywhere.........The greatest thing done in those years was the creation of a new spirit in the country. " 4 The following passages... the Nationalist party, with Sri Aurobindo presiding over its conference, broke away from the Congress Moderates at the tumultuous Surat session over the tatter's refusal to reaffirm the demands of Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education, which had been adopted at the previous Calcutta session under the presidentship of Dadabhai Naoroji. It was going to take the Congress another twenty-two... Difficulty and impossibility will vanish from your vocabularies. For it is in the spirit that strength is eternal and you must win back Page 52 the kingdom of yourselves, the inner Swaraj, before you can win back your outer empire.... Recover the source of all strength in yourselves and all else will be added to you, social soundness, intellectual pre-eminence, political freedom, the ...
... that the Khilafat question was in his view more important and urgent than that of Swaraj. He wrote: "To the Mussulmans, Swaraj means, as it must, India's ability to deal effectively with the Khilafat question.... It is impossible not to sympathies with this attitude.... I would gladly ask for postponement of Swaraj activity if thereby we could advance the interest of the Khilafat." 88 *** A reference... 1926 (A disciple:) Didn't the non-cooperation movement give life to the country? Do you call that life? It was based on a falsehood. How could you expect it to create anything ? Swaraj was sought to be established by spinning—could anything come from such a false ideal ? Some life was given to the country during the Swadeshi days in Bengal. You ought to have seen what Bengal was ...
... clear that the Khilafat question was in his view more important and urgent than that of Swaraj. He wrote: "To the Musalmans, Swaraj means, as it must, India's ability to deal effectively with the Khilafat question.... It is impossible not to sympathise with this attitude.... I would gladly ask for postponement of Swaraj activity if thereby we could advance the interest of the Khilafat." Thus it becomes... entity in India which ought never to have happened; the Khilafat affair made that separate political entity an organised separate political power. It was not Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Swaraj (our platform) which made this tremendous division, how could it? Tilak was responsible for it not by that, but by his support of the Lucknow affair - for the rest, Gandhi did it with the ...
... policy to meet a new but surely not unexpected situation or will it be necessary for us also to change our plan of campaign? One thing at least is certain, we in Bengal have no intention of giving up Swaraj, no intention of giving up Swadeshi, no intention of giving up Boycott; to this the Bhupendranaths and the others must make up their mind. If any leader tries to lower this triple banner of the cause... of laying our views before the people and we have not failed to do so to the best of our ability. The policy we advocate now is the policy we have always advocated, the policy of the organisation of Swaraj and passive resistance. To push forward Swadeshi, to push forward National Education, to take up Arbitration in earnest and for the effective working of this positive side to create what we have not... and provide against them, never run our heads against them wantonly and without occasion; but to be turned from our path by possible dangers is neither true manhood nor true prudence. The path to Swaraj can never be safe. Over sharp rocks and through thick brambles lies the way to that towering and glorious summit where dwells the Goddess Page 480 of our worship, our goddess Liberty. Shall ...
... than ten years. “The Congress ceased for a time to exist …” Eventually Moderatism died a natural death. In 1929, more than twenty years after Sri Aurobindo defined Swaraj as full independence, Jawaharlal Nehru declared that “the word ‘Swaraj’ in Article 1 of the Congress Constitution shall mean Complete Independence.” After another score of years, the ideal was realized.’ 48 The Extremists concluded... position of its leaders, most of whom were advanced in age, was challenged with ever greater resoluteness by young extremist ‘upstarts’ such as Aurobindo Ghose and B.G. Tilak, with their programme of swaraj (independence), swadeshi (the use and consumption of Indian produce), boycott (of all things British) and upliftment of the Indian people. Ghose and Tilak had already met four or five years before ...
... R. Das, who was then on a political tour of South India, came to Pondicherry and met Sri Aurobindo. Das, Motilal Nehru and like-minded leaders had by then broken away from the Congress to found the Swaraj Party and participate in the elections to the legislative assemblies. C.R. Das requested Sri Aurobindo to give his support to the new party. Sri Aurobindo declined to do so openly but assured Das of... Consummately endowed with political intelligence, magnetism, personality, force of will, tact of the hour and an uncommon plasticity of mind, he was the one man after Tilak who could have led India to Swaraj.' G.V. Subbarao, a political leader from Andhra, met Sri Aurobindo in October 1923 and the visit is interesting because of a vivid pen-picture which Subbarao drew subsequently. He wrote: 'Sri Aurobindo... over it by shutting out all positions of power; our workers must get accustomed to it. They must learn to hold the positions for the nation. This difficulty would be infinitely greater when you get Swaraj. These things are there even in Europe. The Europeans are just the same as we are. Only, they have got discipline — which we lack — and a keen sense of national honour. As I have mentioned, many ...
... sympathiser, not Morley—Minto will give you Swaraj,—the Englishman stands guarantee for it. But after bidding us kowtow to the Government of India because it alone can help or harm us, our contemporary with light-hearted inconsistency declares that our habit of kowtowing to those who can help or harm us, is the chief reason of our unfitness for Swaraj. It seems, on the other hand, that our behaviour... departure makes neither for instruction nor for entertainment. Page 341 It followed up its great pronouncement, "For such a Time as this" with an almost equally fog-bound leader on "Swaraj". This document begins by entreating us to give up our political aspirations out of respect for the lamented memory of Professor Huxley. After paralysing our wits with this stroke of pathos, the ...
... but in its real aim and purpose? What is it that we seek? We seek the fulfilment of our life as a nation. This is what the word Swaraj, which is a bug-bear and terror to the Europeans, really means. When they hear it, they are full of unreasoning terrors. They think Swaraj Page 39 is independence, it is freedom and that means that the people are going to rise against them in rebellion, that... that means there are bombs behind every bush, that every volunteer who gives food to his famine-stricken countrymen or nurses the cholera stricken, is a possible rebel and dacoit. Swaraj is not the Colonial form of Government nor any form of Government. It means the fulfilment of our national life. That is what we seek, that is why God has sent us into the world to fulfil Him by fulfilling ourselves ...
... understand that free within is free without, you will be really free. It is for this reason that we preach the gospel of unqualified Swaraj and it is for this that Bhupen and Upadhyay refused to plead before the alien court. Upadhyay saw the necessity of realising Swaraj within us and hence he gave himself up to it. He said that he was free and the Britishers could not bind him; his death is a parable... 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 saw that it was in our hands to discover and to realise it. Some people tell us that we have not the strength to stand upon our own legs without the help of the aliens and we ...
... that he could do little. × The programme of this organisation was at first Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott—Swaraj meaning to it complete independence. The word Swaraj was first used by the Bengali-Maratha publicist, Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, writer of Desher Katha , a book compiling all the details of India's economic servitude ...
... philosophy of Swaraj, the philosophy of ends and means, the philosophy of patriotism, and the philosophy of education and national reconstruction. And the way and the speed with which this philosophy succeeded in a short period of two years in breaking the old apathy and timidity and in fixing in the national consciousness the idea and force of Swaraj and the programme through which Swaraj was sought ...
... Nationalism as we proceed. VI "Swaraj as the fulfilment of the ancient life of India under modern conditions, the return of the Satyayuga of National greatness, the resumption by her (by India) of her great role of teacher and guide, self-liberation of the people for the final fulfilment of the Vedantic ideal in politics, this is the true Swaraj for India.... She (India) cannot do it without... revolutionary groups was a Maharatta named Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar who was an able writer in Bengali and who had written a popular life of Shiva ji in Bengali in which he first brought in the name of Swaraj, afterwards adopted by the Nationalists as their word for independence... " 196 It is said that Sri Aurobindo sent Barin to Deuskar, requesting him to write an authentic book on the British exploitation ...
... defeat, sure of eventual emergence and triumph and always mindful of the responsibility which they owe not only to their Indian posterity but to the world. 1 The movement of Indian independence (swaraj) was to be part of a world-wide revolution. The rediscovery of India's soul was to be the prelude to the emergence of the world's soul, the soul of humanity. Thus, as Sri Aurobindo saw the problem... the phoney reforms had been published on 15 November 1909, and from the composition of the Councils it was clear that there was only the pretence of representation at the centre, while the reality of Swaraj was far, far beyond even the circumference. Secondly, the move for a united Congress, initiated by Sri Aurobindo at Hooghly Conference, hadn't succeeded, and there was no doubt that the proposed Moderate... Government stay their hand, even if they had earlier had the idea of arresting and deporting Sri Aurobindo. There it was, the Nationalist position, stated without reservations or ambiguity. The demand for Swaraj meant no hostility to the British people, no race hatred, but merely issued from the conviction that, without autonomy or a substantial measure of it immediately, the nation would not be able to develop ...
... 19 April 1949 The Swadeshi Movement (1905-1910) and Later Developments When I read the speeches you delivered before 1910, it seems to me as if Gandhi had almost copied everything from that—Swaraj, Samiti, Non-cooperation, and so on. If not outwardly he must have received these things from you in an occult way. The whole of Gandhi's affair is simply our passive resistance movement given... entity in India which ought never to have happened; the Khilafat affair made that separate political entity an organised separate political power. It was not Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Swaraj (our platform) which made this tremendous division, how could it? Tilak whom the Kripalani man blames along with me for it, is responsible not by that, but by his support of the Lucknow affair—for ...
... and hunger-strike, 145, 168, 17 1 and Khilafat movement, 173 and Muslim demands, 227 and non-cooperation, 160, 180 and non-violence, 166,168,218,219, 225,226 in South Africa, 105 , 168 and Swaraj , 173 (11) and World War II , 217 , 224, 229 -230 Gangoly, O. C., 115-116 Germans , 239 Germany, 112 in World War II , 213, 23 6, 237(fn) Ghose, Barindra Kumar , 13, 17, 47, 150 Gita , see... ,253 Sufism, 168 supermind, supramental, 173-174. 199,200 super station. 55, 85. 87, 90. 95, 99-100, 106, 200 svadharma, 177 , 182,250 Swadeshi movement, 17.35,39. 40(fn), 156,180,183, 195 Swaraj, 17,35,56,93.180,209 inner, 53 T Tagore, Rabindranath, 17,27, 193, 194,215 Tagore, Surendranath, 13 Tamil (language), 109 Tamil saints, 146 Tantra, 105 Taoists, 190 tapasyd, III ...
... On August 15, the Bengal National College opens with Sri Aurobindo as its principal. 1906, Dec. At its Calcutta session presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji, the Congress declares Swaraj to be its goal. 1907,Aug.16 Sri Aurobindo is arrested for the publication of seditious writings in the Bande Mataram; released on bail. He resigns his post of principal of the Bengal... Aug.1 - Lokmanya Tilak passes away. 1920, October - Dr. B. S. Munje pays a visit to Sri Aurobindo. 1920, Dec. - Nagpur session of the Congress; the goal of Swaraj is eclipsed by the Khilafat agitation. 1923, June 5 - Chittaranjan Das meets Sri Aurobindo. 1923, Sept -Creation of the Swarajya Party. 1925, Jan. 5 ...
... (From a letter to a friend.) Be very careful to follow my instructions in avoiding the old kind of politics. Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfilment of the Sanatana Dharma its only Swaraj. I have no doubt we shall have to go through our Parliamentary period in order to get rid of the notion of Western democracy by seeing in practice how helpless it is to make nations blessed. India... great an improvement it may be on the past. I hold that India having a spirit of her own and a governing temperament proper to her own ________________ * The 1919 Amritsar session declared Swaraj to be the aim of the Congress, as did the following 1920 Nagpur session; but this demand was soon eclipsed by the Khilafat movement (for the continuance of the Sultan of Turkey as the Caliph of the ...
... offered it to us as a substitute for political mendicancy. Today Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education are the ideas of the day and Mr. Chaudhuri offers them as a substitute for the struggle for Swaraj. We do not wish to overrate the importance of Mr. Chaudhuri's pronouncements. Mr. Chaudhuri is not a political leader with a distinct following in the country who are likely to carry out his ideas... has been checked by superhuman efforts of repression on the part of the panic-stricken bureaucracy and it is natural that those who were not with their whole heart and conviction for the struggle for Swaraj, should begin to revert to their old ideas, to long to give up the struggle, to retreat into the fancied security of their fortress of unpolitical Swadeshism and a policy of self-help which seeks to ...
... Vein 23-August-1907 The Englishman is in melancholy mood. Swaraj and Justice Saroda Charan Mitter have been too much for our gentle contemporary's nerves, and he is full of sorrow and care-worn longings. He wants "to wipe out an unpleasant world and create a new and beautiful one to live in," where there is no Swaraj, and no High Courts, and no diminishing cotton imports, and no Anglo-Indian ...
... tration inevitable under a regime like the present does not lead to the redress of grievances; all that it does is to create a prejudice against the reigning bureaucracy. The basis of our claim to Swaraj is not that the English bureaucracy is a bad or tyrannical Government; a bureaucracy is always inclined to be arrogant, self-sufficient, self-righteous and unsympathetic, to ignore the abuses with... bureaucracy foreign and irresponsible to the people is likely to exhibit these characteristics in an exaggerated form. But even if we were ruled by a bureaucracy of angels, we should still lay claim to Swaraj and move towards national self-sufficiency and independence. On the same principle we do not notice or lay stress on the collisions between Englishmen and Indians which are an inevitable result of ...
... field, workers for self-defence, workers for arbitration, for sanitation, for famine relief, for every species of work which is needed to bring about the necessary conditions for the organisation of Swaraj. If the country is to be free, it must first organize itself so as to be able to maintain its freedom. The winning of freedom is an easy task, the keeping of it is less easy. The first needs only one... aspiration can be poured to fertilise the heart of the nation. When this is done, the aspiration towards liberty will become universal and India be ready for the great effort. The organization of Swaraj can only be effected by a host of selfless workers who will make it their sole life-work. It cannot Page 939 be done by men whose best energies and time are given up to the work of earning ...
... heresies which had been read into the Calcutta resolution by the Extremists. The Gujerati is equally plain about the creed, its object is to get rid of the spectre of Swaraj by exorcism and the creed is the magic formula which is to drive Swaraj and Swarajists out of the National Assembly. Mr. R. C. Dutt has declared that the split was a consummation much to be desired and must be perpetuated and the Gujerati ...
... Gandhi, done more than forty years ago by Amal Kiran in his book The Indian Spirit and the World's Future, has not received its due recognition. While an average Indian immediately links up Swaraj with Gandhi, the author of this exegesis wonders if the elements of Indian mysticism in the Mahatma's socio-political approach really draw nourishment from the rich and invigorating traditions... original Hinduism. There is also another fact which leads us to question whether Gandhi, for all his veneration of the Gita, embodied vitally the soul of the Hindu religion. It was not only Swaraj that he deemed undesirable without unsleeping agitation and activity to demolish the barrier between the Untouchables and the rest of our population: Even Hinduism itself, the whole grand structure ...
... strive for such an autonomy but were content with the status of mere subordination. That is why Vivekananda holds Indians responsible for their own downfall. Like Gandhi later in Hind Swaraj , Vivekananda is unwilling to blame others for our downfall: Materialism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, or any other ism in the world could never have succeeded but that you allowed them... Bradley-Birt (1923), 2nd ed., New Delhi: Oxford UP, 1980. Dutt, Michael Madhusudan, Madhusudan Rachanabali , Ed. Kshetra Gupta, 12th ed., Calcutta: Sahitya Sansad, 1993. Gandhi, M. K., Hind Swaraj (1909), Ahmedabad: Navjivan, 1994. Jones, William, Sir William Jones: A Reade r, Ed. Satya S. Pachauri, New Delhi: Oxford UP, 1993. -- The Letters of William Jones , 2 Vols, Ed. Garland ...
... whole of India was thrown into the cauldron; in Maharashtra, Bal Gangadhar Tilak took direct part, in Punjab it was Lala Lajpat Rai and in South India it was Subramaniam Bharati. Slogans of Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, and National Education, emerged during the anti-partition campaign. Tilak carried on a vigorous propaganda of this programme and recommended its adoption at the session of the... may get justice and easier conditions of Page 57 livelihood, a bond has been created between the educated class and the masses which is the first great step towards Swaraj.5 In another article Sri Aurobindo paid tribute to Chidambaram. Well Done, Chidambaram! A true feeling of comradeship is the salt of political life; it binds men together ...
... eaten by light, his spirit devoured. 47 The case for the defence simply was that it was perfectly true that Sri Aurobindo had taught the people of India the, name and meaning and content of Swaraj or National Independence. If that by itself was a crime, Sri Aurobindo would very willingly plead guilty to the charge. The guilt was writ large in his writings and in his speeches, and he would... that particular "guilt". There was no need at all to bring witness after witness to prove something that the accused himself did not dispute, and wouldn't dream of disputing. If to take the name of Swaraj and to propagate its meaning was to be deemed guilty, he would be ready to suffer to the uttermost for having preached the message of Independence to the people. But let not the prosecution charge ...
... 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 India have the presumption to think themselves capable of working the government of the country as smoothly as the heaven-born Briton himself ...
... of Sri Aurobindo 28.May-22.Dec.1907 Bande Mataram The Secret of the Swaraj Movement 29-June-1907 The paragraphist of Capital in the course of a denunciation full of venom and adorned with one or two choice bits of Billingsgate, describes Swaraj as a far-off divine event to be made possible by our being gradually educated to it under the guidance of ...
... co-ordinated attempt to attain an organised independence they are the necessity of the present time. They are merely component parts of Swaraj, which is made of all of them put together and harmonised into a single whole. It is mere ostrich politics to pretend to give up Swaraj, and confine oneself to its parts for their own sake. By such an attempt we may succeed in deceiving ourselves; we shall certainly ...
... against a local grievance or a grand universal means of establishing a State within the State, these are the points at issue between the Moderate party and the Nationalists. The Nationalists desire Swaraj, the Moderates desire Colonial self-government. The Nationalists wish to exclude all petitionary resolutions, all, that is to say, which depend on the will of the bureaucracy for their execution and... but they accepted the resolution on self-government as an expression of the immediate aim of the Congress at Calcutta, because they knew that the bulk of the nation was not yet prepared to accept Swaraj as an immediate purpose. They are in favour of boycott as an universal movement throughout India, but they accepted its restriction to Bengal because other provinces were not yet ready to declare in ...
... unable to resist. The public wish to hear him on Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education,—the old subjects of his unparalleled eloquence,—and he himself may desire to speak on them, but the voice of a prophet is not his own to speak the thing he will, but another's Page 1017 to speak the thing he must. India needed the gospel of Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education to nerve ...
... movement. Christ said to the disciples who expected a material kingdom on the spot, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." To them too he might say, "The kingdom of Swaraj is within you." Let them win and keep that kingdom of Swaraj, the sense of the national separateness and individuality, the faith in its greatness and future, the feeling of God within ourselves and in the nation, the determination ...
... doubt whether you will succeed against such contrary forces, but I wish you success in your endeavour. I am most interested however in your indications about Swaraj for I have been developing my own ideas about the organisation of a true Indian Swaraj and I shall look forward to see how far yours will fall in with mine. Yours... AUROBINDO GHOSE Arya Office, Pondicherry 18 November 1922 ...
... led to a split between the two trends in the Congress. Political moderation gradually died a natural death. In 1929, more than twenty years after Aurobindo defined swaraj as “full independence”, Jawaharlal Nehru declared “the word ‘swaraj’ in article 1 of the Congress Constitution shall mean Complete Independence”. Again eighteen years later the ideal was realized. The year 1908 would be a landmark ...
... succeed against such contrary forces, but I wish you success in your endeavour. I am most interested however in Page 261 your indications about Swaraj; for I have been developing my own ideas about the organisation of a true Indian Swaraj and I shall look forward to see how far yours will fall in with mine. Yours Aurobindo. ...
... consider the forms which the " will to freedom" assumed in the course of Indian History. In the 17th century, at the time of Shivaji, the movement for freedom started with the cry of " Swadharma " and " Swaraj " and the method adopted was guerilla warfare. After three centuries the same "will to freedom ' burst forth with the cry of " Vande Mataram " with a vision of free Mother India, and satyagraha was... arts. Mahatma Gandhi through his long and active life tried what might be called, an ethico-politico-economic integration of Indian culture. Ethics is the basis of his outlook. His book ' Hind-Swaraj' gives most of his fundamental ideas on life and philosophy. Simplicity, non-possession ( of wealth), self-control and service are some of the elements on which India would rebuild her life. Among ...
... held at the house of Subodh Mullick under Tilak's leadership where this support was secured. Sri Aurobindo's share in securing this support was not insignificant. To the main resolution demanding Swaraj others were added: viz., Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education. Sir Phirozshah Mehta, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Surendranath Banerjee – the leaders of the Moderate school of politics – were opposed... manoeuvring of the Nationalist party and Dadabhai's support. The breach came at Surat in 1907. It is difficult for the reader to imagine today what a great achievement it was to bring in the resolution Swaraj and get it accepted by the Congress. It is after this Page 91 that independence became the accepted goal of the Congress. Sri Aurobindo met Tagore once during this year (1906) ...
... 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 by G. V. Subha Rao in the Swaraj of Madras comparing Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo. 20 May. Talk on Theosophy; a letter from Barin: meeting of Barin and Motilal. 26 May. Suggestions about sadhana; reading of the photographs... constructive imagination, magnetism, a driving force combining a strong will and an uncommon plasticity of mind for vision and tact of the hour, he was the one man after Tilak who could have led India to Swaraj." ¹ 1 July. A letter from Swarnaprabha, a sadhika, about her sadhana. A letter to Barin advising him to close the Bhawanipore centre at Calcutta. . ¹ Sri Aurobindo, On Himself , p. 390 ...
... he at once demanded swaraj. No middle path, no compromise — full independence." It was a revolution. They call Sri Aurobindo "a hero of that revolution." They assert: "Sri Aurobindo was, in the strictest sense of the term, a true prophet, path-finder and pioneer of India's Freedom Movement. Of all the statesmen modern India has produced, he had the clearest vision of Indian Swaraj in its fullness as ...
... The government of Bengal banned the book in 1910 and confiscated all the copies. Deuskar was the first to bring in the name of Swaraj, and Sri Aurobindo was the first to endow it with its English equivalent, 'Independence.' The Nationalists adopted this word, and Swaraj became the chief item of the fourfold Nationalist programme. The British administration introduced measures that were quite ...
... Much better done to store substantial honey Of commerce, taste the joys that roll in money. Be rich, my friends! who cares then to be free In hard uncomfortable liberty? Of boycott talk but not of Swaraj, sirs, And if of independence you'ld discourse, Let it of economic independence be. For that the law proscribes no penalty, Nor will your gentle hearts grow faint and sick At shadow of the fell ...
... why I hesitated to sanction the publication. I should have had no objection to the publication of the Page 333 portion about the spiritual basis of life or the last paragraph about Swaraj. But that about non-cooperation as it stands without farther explanation and amplification would lead, I think, to a complete misunderstanding of my real position. Some would take it to mean that I ...
... Mymensingh Sadhana Samaj. The word is spelt Mâymensingh with a long a. Every Bengali in Bengal knows that it is Moymensingh with a short a and would at once be able to point out the mistake. 2) The word Swaraj well-known to everyone in Bengal, is spelt Saraj and that this is no casual slip of the pen is shown by its faithful repetition, the only other time that "Saraj" appears in the card (on the flag to ...
... struggle between the Moderates and the Nationalists (called by their opponents Extremists) which in two years changed altogether the face of Indian politics. The new-born Nationalist party put forward Swaraj (independence) as its goal as against the far-off Moderate hope of Page 6 colonial self-government to be realised at a distant date of a century or two by a slow progress of reform; it ...
... rule to any Mahomedan influence, even if it be only a little. That was never the view of the Nationalists, even those who were ardent Hindus who would prefer Moslem to British rule. Even if Swaraj itself were postponed for a long time, it would be less of a shock to anybody in the Ashram than if Mahomedans got a little right. The Asram is not concerned with politics; but I cannot believe ...
... dangerous unknown? ... Sri Aurobindo was present at the Congress in 1904 and again in 1906 and took a part in the counsels of the extremist party and in the formation of its fourfold programme—"Swaraj, swadeshi, boycott, national education"—which the Moderate leaders after a severe tussle behind the scenes were obliged to Page 78 incorporate in the resolutions of 1906. Bepin Pal had ...
... have any terrors for you. Difficulty and impossibility will vanish from your vocabularies. For it is in the spirit that strength is eternal and you must win back the kingdom of yourselves, the inner Swaraj, before you can win back your empire. There the Mother dwells and She waits for worship that She may give strength. Believe in Her, serve Her, lose your wills in Hers, your egoism in the greater ego ...
... best-concerted combinations act to their own detriment. Dadabhai Naoroji was made President in order to dish the Extremists; yet it was this Moderate President who gave us the Page 229 cry of Swaraj which the Extremists have made their own and which is stirring the blood of the nation to great actions and great ideals. Madras and the United Provinces were declared to be unanimous against Boycott ...
... Power behind to make our mistakes as useful, perhaps more useful to the final success than our wiser judgments. On one thing only we must lay fast hold, on the triple unity of Swadeshi, Boycott and Swaraj. These must be pursued with unremitting energy, and so long as we hold fast to them, we cannot go far wrong. Page 472 ...
... full stature. There was no chance therefore that any reform would be acceptable which did not ensure popular control, make reactionary legislation by despotic Viceroys impossible and open the way to Swaraj. And even if Mr. Morley's reforms had had any chance of being acceptable, it was ruined by the series of repressive measures which preceded them. Reforms simultaneous and compatible with the deportation ...
... order and others obey, that some shall rule and Page 485 others submit, that some shall teach and others learn. The new nationalism with its boycott and Swadeshi, national education and Swaraj, seeks to invert this order and needs to be put down. It is here in our non-conformity to the bureaucratic conceptions of our duties that law and order have been disturbed and not in Eastern Bengal ...
... rejected. It was that work the repressions and reforms have come to do, and it is almost done. Had we gone on in our first victorious rush, unhampered and undefeated, we would have entered the kingdom of Swaraj with an imperfect national character, full of temporarily repressed vices which would have come to the surface as soon as the great stimulus of a successful struggle had been removed, and the last ...
... the Government and that party is notified by act and word that if they will accept the olive branch, be even temporarily satisfied with Mr. Morley's reforms and dissociate themselves from Boycott, Swaraj and Extremism, the bureaucracy will not confound them in one common ruin with the Extremists, but on the contrary give them its paternal blessing and a fair number of new playthings. Such is the ...
... absenting Page 787 ourselves the chance of helping to put in one of the keystones of the house we are building for our Mother's dwelling in the future, the house of her salvation, the house of Swaraj. ...
... poignant to be endured, not death itself could terrify. Laughing and singing, the patriots fought and served and died. Through all the Page 28 long years during which the struggle for swaraj went on, Bande Mataram stimulated and supported the peoples of India, instilling into them a hope and a strength beyond the human. It is the one cry that has made modern Indian history; not ...
... willing to make full use of that chance. The question of the function of the Congress hinges upon this acceptance or rejection of this weapon. Whatever be the aim of the Congress, whether it be Swaraj or Colonial self-government or administrative reform, it cannot be brought about by inoperative resolutions, it can only be brought about Page 954 by pressure; and the only means of pressure ...
... became the stamp of all our activities. Those who say that the new spirit in India which, before nascent & concealed, started to conscious life in the Swadeshi agitation and has taken Swadeshi, Swaraj and Self-help as its motto, is nothing new but a natural development of the old, are minds blinded by the habits of thought of the past century. The new Nationalism is the very antithesis, the complete ...
... Rawalpindi riots. To him the Nationalist is nothing more than an "Extremist", a violent, unreasonable, uncomfortable being whom some malign power has raised up to disturb with his Page 1110 Swaraj and Boycott, his lawlessness & his lathies the respectable ease and safety of Congress politics. He finds him increasing in numbers & influence with an alarming rapidity which it is convenient to deny ...
... Destiny of India and her fated Lord. It was at sacred Benares that she first saw Mahadeva face to face and betrothed herself to him, but the marriage took place at Calcutta with a fourfold mantra, Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, as the sacred formula of union. The marriage did not please Daksha, but the Rishis were importunate and Sati firm, so he was compelled to give way. He cursed ...
... entirely accommodating there would be any chance of union. The attitude of Mr. Gokhale is conclusive on this point. Not only has he definitely separated himself and his school from the advocates of Swaraj and passive resistance but he has denounced them as enemies of the country and handed them over to the "stern and relentless repression" of the authorities. The Tribune calls on Bengal to give up ...
... and inactivity to fall on the country. But these were never men of faith. We who believe in God's dispensations have not lost heart, we have not become unbelievers. Our cry is as loud as before for Swaraj and Swadeshi; our hearts beat as high. Intuitive Reason However there is hope for our contemporary. He has admitted in his idea of rationality the place of the intuitive reason, and it is precisely ...
... because the ideals and the thoughts of a nation could not be punished. This was a very dangerous teaching which Mr. Gokhale introduced into his speech, that the ideal of independence—whether we call it Swaraj or autonomy or Colonial Self-Government, because these two things in a country circumstanced like India meant in practice the same ( loud applause ),—cannot be achieved by peaceful means. Mr. Gokhale ...
... is possible that the Mahomedan may not recognise the inevitable future and may prefer to throw himself into the opposite scale. If so, the Hindu, with what little Mahomedan help he may get, must win Swaraj both for himself and the Mahomedan in spite of that resistance. There is a sufficient force and manhood in us to do Page 305 a greater and more difficult task than that, but we lack unity ...
... have any terrors for you. Difficulty and impossibility will vanish from your vocabularies. For it is in the spirit that strength is eternal and you must win back the kingdom of yourselves, the inner Swaraj, before you can win back your outer empire. There the Mother dwells and She waits for worship that She may give strength. Believe in Her, serve Her, lose your wills in Hers, your egoism in the greater ...
... has always craved can never bring a sense of fulfilment; for the hidden magnet to his deep self is the search by India of the soul's light above fetters and frailties and not merely of her body's Swaraj. Page 14 So Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru falls short of his highest possibilities and lives with a certain self-ignorance and discontent. But his achievement is still splendid ...
... rival policies in the field; for I have been unable to gather from what I have seen in the papers what is the practical turn they propose to give these policies or how they propose by them to secure Swaraj or bring it nearer. Please therefore excuse my refusal. Yours sincerely, AUROBINDO Pondicherry, 12 March 1926 ...
... I suppose in worldly life such things are necessary? SRI AUROBINDO: Not in the worldly life, but perhaps in the Corporation life. All this promises a bad look out when India gets Purna Swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi is having bad qualms about Congress corruption already. What will it be when Puma Satyagraha reigns all over India? DILIP 'S TELEGRAM: Nirod Ashram, arriving tomorrow ...
... do with this fellow. But I suppose in worldly life such things are necessary? Not in the worldly life, but perhaps in the Corporation life. All this promises a bad look out when India gets purna Swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi is having bad qualms about Congress corruption already. What will it be when purna Satyagraha reigns all over India? November 17, 1938 [A note from the Mother :] 18-11-38 ...
... a letter to a friend.) Be very careful to follow my instructions in avoiding the old kind of politics. Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfilment of the Sanatana Dharma its only Swaraj. I have no doubt we shall have to go through our Parliamentary period in order to get rid of the notion of Western democracy by seeing in practice how helpless it is to make nations blessed. India ...
... come to give it a definite shape and form. In a letter written in 1914, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfilment of the Sanatana Dharma its only Swaraj. I have no doubt we shall have to go through our Parliamentary period in order to get rid of the notion of Western democracy by seeing in practice how helpless it is to make nations blessed. India ...
... 13 July 1911. He wrote: Be very careful to follow my instructions in avoiding the old kind of politics. Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfilment of the Sanatana Dharma its only Swaraj. I have no doubt we shall have to go through our Parliamentary period in order to get rid of the notion of Western democracy by seeing in practice how helpless it is to make nations blessed. India ...
... economic logic that Sri Aurobindo convinced even a moderate like Dadabhai Naoroji who traditionally favoured 'Self-government within the British Rule' to declare publicly in an inspired moment, that 'swaraj' or 'complete freedom from British Rule' was the only governing idea of Indian Politics. We thus see that economic exploitation was the root cause of the Indian people's poverty and hunger ...
... one passed at Ramgarh but different in approach owing to changes in the political conditions since then. Rajaji then recalled how Gandhiji himself who adumbrated his policy of non-violence in Hind-Swaraj in 1913, went round the country in 1917, actively recruiting men for the army during the First World War. He cited this precedent to show there was nothing dishonorable in making an offer of co-operation ...
... must evolve her own political and social ideology; she must discover and establish in this domain also, as in all others that concern her collective life, her own genius and rule. This is what Swaraj really means and demands. Russia has her Sovietic Communism, Germany, for the present at least, her Nazidom, Italy her totalitarian Fascism, old England her Parliamentarianism and France her ...
... finished ? Sri Aurobindo : You want me to prophesy ? It does not! depend totally upon me ; time is about the last thine-1 one knows. And fixing the limit is more likely to prolong it" like "Swaraj in one year". Besides, a Yogin who is to take part in action is not shown all the things by the Supreme. Only when the universal conditions are ready then all things are shown to him ; while one ...
... INDIA must evolve her own political and social ideology; she must discover and establish in this domain also, as in all others that concern her collective life, her own genius and rule. This is what Swaraj really means and demands. Russia has her Sovietic Communism, Germany, for the present at least, her Nazidom, Italy her totalitarian Fascism, old England her Parliamentarianism and France her B ...
... Dominion Status, I think. SRI AUROBINDO: He is a practical man. Now they are neither doing civil disobedience nor going to the Ministry. Gandhi knows only his Charkha. The Charkha is going to give Swaraj, non-violence, everything—his wonderful "co-ordination" of ideas. NIRODBARAN: Won't it give realisation of God? SRI AUROBINDO: He has not come to that yet. But he has found the Charkha in the ...
... to Tiruvottriyur", by Cdr. R. Ganapati (Retd), in Madras Musings , March 16-31, 2009. [18] I believe Appa arranged for the printing of "An Outline Scheme of Swaraj" (a Constitution for India), which was drawn up by Das and his colleague Bhagawan Das for that year’s Congress session at Kakinada. [19] Sri Aurobindo Ashram — ...
... no fop sprung from the vulgarities of English life. That is why, a true son of the Mother, he has set up the Bhawani Temple. 192 There, bow down to the Mother, with the mantra of 'Bande Mataram'. Swaraj is now no far-off event. ...
... in English Verse (1958), pp. 55, 59-60 4. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 1, p. 481 5. Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 26, pp. 28,59 6. Purani, The Life, p. 90 7. From an article in Swaraj, reproduced in Karmayogin, and later included in Character Sketches, pp. 94-95 8. Foreword to Haridas and Uma Mukherjee's Sri Aurobindo and the New Thought in ...
... Piper, Raymond F. The Hungry Eye: An Introduction to Cosmic Art Poddar, Arabinda. Renaissance in Bengal: Quests and Confrontations (1970) Pradhan, R.G. India's Struggle for Swaraj (1930) Prasad, Narayan. Life in Sri Aurobindo Ashram (1965; 1968) Purani, A.B. The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1958; 2nd edition, 1960; 3rd edition, 1964; 4'" edition, 1978); Evening ...
... have any terrors for you. Difficulty and impossibility will vanish from your vocabularies. For it is in the spirit that strength is eternal and you must win back the kingdom of yourselves, the inner Swaraj, before you can win back your outer empire. There the Mother dwells and she waits for worship that She may give strength. Believe in Her, serve Her, lose your wills in Hers, your egoism in the greater ...
... get many workers for the movement." 6 The partition was but one move in a long war, and the anti-partition movement was to be a means of mobilising public opinion on the more fundamental issue of Swaraj or complete national independence unshackled by notion of gradualism or colonial self-government. Sri Aurobindo attended, as we saw earlier, both the Bombay and Benares sessions of the Congress, and ...
... problems. Sri Aurobindo suggested the convening of a Parliament of Religions with a view to carrying out Okakura's plan of Asian Federation. Sri Aurobindo's support to Deshabandhu's Swaraj Party programme. 1925 January: Lala Lajpat Rai and Sri Purushottamdas Tandon came with definite proposals and sought Sri Aurobindo's advice. Sri Aurobindo's ...
... movement He left Baroda in 1906 and went to Calcutta as Principal of the newly-founded Bengal National College. Sri Aurobindo persuaded the new-born nationalist party in Bengal to put forward Swaraj (Independence) as its goal as against the far-off moderate hope of colonial self-government to be realised at a distant date of a century or two by a slow progress of reform. He persuaded the party ...
... Mahatmaji is thinking of retiring to his Ashram and there playing with children? Sri Aurobindo : Yes. It may be a correct intuition. But I cannot understand how his argument about Khaddar bringing Swaraj holds. He says that if he can universalize Khaddar he can also make all who use it resort to civil disobedience. I do not quite see how it follows ; for, putting on Khaddar is harmless – except for ...
... "is the guru of the nations, the physician of the human soul in its profounder maladies; she is destined once more to new-mould the life of the world and restore the peace of the human spirit. But Swaraj is the necessary condition of her work and before she can do the work, she must fulfil the condition." Mother put it simply. "O India, Land of Light and spiritual knowledge, wake up to your true ...
... accepted full responsibility for the paper; then added, "But I don't want to take any part in the trial, because I do not believe that in carrying out my humble share of this God-appointed mission of 'Swaraj,' I am in any way accountable to the alien people who happen to rule over us and whose interest is, and must necessarily be, in the way of our National development." He also boasted, "No foreign government ...
... especially dangerous in that he is preaching a religious patriotism." This was in reaction to the article in the Karmayogin of 31 July 1909, where Sri Aurobindo had written, "Our ideal is that of Swaraj or absolute autonomy free from foreign control. We claim the right of every nation to live its own life by its own energies according to its own Page 172 nature and ideals. We reject ...
... arbitrary, absolute, personal rule places at their disposal. Khulna is the first district in West Bengal which has set itself heart and soul to the work of organizing Swadeshi and Page 546 Swaraj and Khulna suffers accordingly. This is the real reason of the attempts made by the Khulna officials to stop or punish the holding of Conferences. These District and Sub-divisional Conferences are ...
... preservation of society possible. The Nationalist does not quarrel with the past, but he insists on its transformation, the transformation of individual or class autocracy into the autocracy, self-rule or Swaraj, of the nation and of the fixed, hereditary, anti-democratic caste-organisation into the pliable, self-adapting, democratic distribution of function at which socialism aims. In the present absolutism ...
... the flowing tide. It wants instead to cut a new channel for the tide and divert it into a lake of notables where it will cease from its flowing and be at rest. As for the old channel of Swadeshi and Swaraj, it will be carefully stopped up with a strong composite of sedition laws, Gurkhas and regulation lathis. But meanwhile what does the tide itself think about this neat little plan? Well, says Sir Harvey ...
... the necessity of giving some kind of representation to the Indians, and petty details of administrative reform, the demand for which was then considered as much a crying for the moon as the cry for Swaraj nowadays, are fast coming into the range of "practical politics". Great are the virtues of unrest! Of course it is only representation and not representative government which Anglo-India is bending ...
... reproach for ever and there is no reason why Gujerat stirred by the same influences, awakened to the same energy, should not emulate her example and take like her a foremost place in the battle of Swaraj. We must not forget that she also has great traditions of old, traditions of learning, traditions of religion, traditions of courage and heroism. Gujerat was once part of the Rajput Page 797 ...
... In a series of articles, published in this paper soon after the Calcutta session of the Congress, we sought to indicate our view both of the ideal which the Congress had adopted, the ideal of Swaraj or self-government as it exists in the United Kingdom or the Colonies, and of the possible lines of policy by which that ideal might be attained. There are, we pointed out, only three possible policies; ...
... President's address. But even here the closing address with which Mr. Naoroji dissolved the Congress, has made amends for the deficiencies of his opening speech. He once more declared self-government, Swaraj, as in an inspired moment he termed it, to be our one ideal and called upon the young men to achieve it. The work of the older men had been done in preparing a generation which were determined to have ...
... store substantial honey Of commerce, taste the joys that roll in money. Page 242 Be rich, my friends! who cares then to be free In hard uncomfortable liberty? Of boycott talk but not of Swaraj, sirs, And if of independence you'ld discourse, Let it of economic independence be. For that the law proscribes no penalty, Nor will your gentle hearts grow faint and sick At shadow of the fell ...
... whole Conservative party. Who then is likely to listen to this empty "demand"? We could have understood it, if the demand had been coupled with a resolution that the campaign of Boycott, Swadeshi and Swaraj should be pursued with tenfold vigour, that Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal should be asked to return to Madras and complete his programme with additions and Srijut Surendranath Banerji should proceed at ...
... us to shut our gates to the guest and the visitor? Whatever they do, the country will gain. Every fresh object-lesson in bureaucratic methods will be a fresh impulse to the determination to achieve Swaraj and get rid of the curse of subjection. All that is needed to meet the situation, all that we demand of our leaders is a quiet, self-possessed, unflinching courage which neither the fear of imprisonment ...
... protection. We have already pointed out more than once what the Comilla officials took some pains to point out to those who applied to them for protection, that it is folly to raise the cry of Swadeshi and Swaraj and yet to expect protection from the Page 345 bureaucrats whose monopoly of power the movement threatens. ...
... the good fortune to see with it eye to eye are branded as seditious. This is what it wrote in its yesterday's issue:— "We regret that in a recent issue we confounded the two papers Swadesh and Swaraj , identifying the politics of the former with those of Bande Mataram and other journals of the same bilious tinge. As a matter of fact Swadesh is conducted with moderation and ability, and is by ...
... the first line of attack on the students under cover of the Risley Circular. The objective of the authorities is clear enough. It is to prevent the promulgation and organisation of the Swadeshi and Swaraj sentiment in Punjab and Bengal. In the promulgation of Swadeshism we have used three great instruments, the Press, the Platform and the students. The Press by itself can only popularise ideas, it cannot ...
... were certain to try their luck again in Mymensingh. We warned the country also that when the disturbances came, it would be idle to look for protection to the officials and the police. By announcing Swaraj as our ideal we had declared war against the existence Page 442 of the bureaucracy and we could not expect the bureaucracy to help us by making our efforts to put it out of existence safe ...
... drag this nation back into Page 921 servitude is selfishness, weakness and egoism in those who are entrusted severally with different departments of the work which has to be done so that Swaraj may be fulfilled. It has therefore been made an indispensable condition of the success of the movement that those who lead it shall learn this lesson that it is God's movement and not theirs, that ...
... may eventually rise above them. The crude commercial Swadeshi, which Dr. Coomaraswamy finds so distasteful and disappointing, is as integral a part of the national awakening as the movement towards Swaraj or as the new School of Art. If this crude Swadeshi were to collapse and the national movement towards autonomy come to nothing, the artistic renascence he Page 248 has praised so highly ...
... the people. In the first place a part of the quarrel is over ultimate ideals; the Conventionalists are for the declaration of Colonial Self-Government as the goal of our efforts, the Nationalists for Swaraj without any qualification. Whatever the rights of the controversy, the ideal of the Conventionalists has been accepted in the form of a resolution by the Congress, and as a resolution but not a binding ...
... with, the party which is against freedom, the party which seeks to perpetuate national slavery. In India today there are in appearance two parties at issue over the destiny of the country. One puts Swaraj as its goal, the other a modified freedom under the supreme control of a paramount and protecting Britain. Men of both parties try to show that their party is that of the true patriots, the other a ...
... defection from the cause of the people. Justice Chandavarkar, who long ago gave up the cause of his country for a judgeship and whose present political opinions can be estimated from his remarks in the Swaraj case, grandiloquently condemned the "vilification" to which Mr. Gokhale has been exposed, and declared that condemnation from such quarters was the greatest compliment a man like his protege could ...
... those Chinese puzzles which it seems impossible to solve, nevertheless presses for solution. In Nagpur it has been established that to laugh at the holder of a Government title is sedition. In the Swaraj Case Justice Chandavarkar has declared it to be the law that to condemn terrorism in strong language and trace it to its source is sedition. At Patiala it is contended that to read the Amrita Bazar ...
... attracted to or commented upon. Today we see fundamentalist forces at work in our society and regrettably they draw inspiration from the fiery platform of Tilak. Tilak's sacrifice and assertion of Swaraj are important aspects of our national struggle but our point now is not whether Tilak was a force for good or bad but only that one cannot understand nationalist extremism without acknowledging the ...
... make clear the reasons why I hesitated to sanction the publication. I should have had no objection to the publication of the portion about the spiritual basis of life or the last paragraph about Swaraj but that about non-cooperation as it stands without further explanation and amplification would lead, I think, to a complete misunderstanding of my real position. Some would take it to mean that I ...
... worldly life such things are necessary?" Sri Aurobindo replied: "Not in the worldly life, but perhaps in the Corporation life. AH this promises a bad look-out when India gets Purna Swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi is having bad qualms about Congress corruption already. What will it be when Puma Satyagraha reigns all over India?" Page 125 In another letter written ...
... was in the latter's making a fetish of ahimsd and on two or three crucial occasions spoiling by such a one-sided obsession the political mass-movement which he had brought about as a push towards Swaraj. Again, Sri Aurobindo could never hesitate to throw his full weight behind the effort of the Allies to check Hitler, never put any hindrance in their way as Gandhian politicians did when Cripps came ...
... writings and have occasional discussions with the teachers as also practised meditation. In 1925, they left the school and went over to Pondicherry. I had left off study and joined Gandhiji's movement for swaraj which had swept over the country since 1920. I had two attacks of appendicitis that year but had cured them with the help of nature-cure methods. When, however, I got the third attack, Gandhiji decided ...
... to Parthasarathi Aiyangar Be very careful to follow my instructions in avoiding the old kind of politics. Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfilment of the Sanatan Dharma its only Swaraj. I have no doubt we shall have to go through our Parliamentary period in order to get rid of the notion of Western democracy by seeing in practice how helpless it is to make nations blessed. India ...
... rival policies in the field; for I have been unable to gather from what I have seen in the papers what is the practical turn they propose to give these policies or how they propose by them to secure Swaraj or bring it nearer. Please therefore excuse my refusal. Yours sincerely, Aurobindo Ghose. Page 262 × ...
... constructive imagination, magnetism, driving force combining a strong will and an uncommon plasticity of mind for vision and tact of the hour, he was the one man after Tilak who could have led India to Swaraj. Aurobindo Ghose. published 22 June 1925 Page 279 ...
... Page 208 himself, in the soul behind, and the degree to which it manifests itself in his nature. 120 November 17, 1938 All this* promises a bad look-out when India gets purna Swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi is having bad qualms about Congress corruption already. What will it be when purna Satyagraha reigns all over India? 121 _______________ * Sri Aurobindo is referring ...
... of no defence and aims first and foremost at the country 's freedom and the expression of the country 's historic nature and does not bind itself to rigid dogmas of method, patriotism which says "Swaraj is my birthright" and will not fight shy of violent revolution and effective secret strategy, is not acceptable. A Page 4 particular brand of moral self-discipline deriving mainly ...
... super-vitality. A Presence greater than human individuals was felt by all who followed Sri Aurobindo in those dangerous days. And it was because this Presence was made a reality in the land that the Swaraj movement took on the aspect of Fate: the Shakti who had sustained Indian culture through millenniums and endowed it with a living continuity from a past beyond that of Egypt or Greece or Rome to a ...
... their ruin. Very often these Jagirs were given as hereditary posts without any consideration of the individual's fitness. Khare, ex-chief minister, also said to the Mahrattas, "You don't know what Swaraj is, you never had it." SRI AUROBINDO: They had it during Shivaji's time; at that time they were all united. Among the Sikhs too there was unity, though later on it broke down. The Rajputs, of course ...
... have glanced through it, and I don't think it is inspired. It must be more a mental interpretation. Tilak had a brilliant mind. DR. MANILAL: When someone asked Tilak what he would do when India got Swaraj, he replied that he would again be a professor of mathematics. NIRODBARAN: We heard about one paper, Sandhya. SRI AUROBINDO: At that time three extremist papers were running in Bengal, the Jugantar ...
... continued regarding Pondicherry politics, most of it being by us. Then Sri Aurobindo remarked: SRI AUROBINDO: When I see Pondicherry and the Calcutta Corporation I begin to wonder why I was so eager for Swaraj. They are the two object lessons against self-government and one's enthusiasm for it goes away. NIRODBARAN: Was the Calcutta Corporation so bad before the Congress came there? SRI AUROBINDO: ...
... time, he got a shock of surprise at everything. Looking at the French flag he remarked, "Why is that here? Why isn't it the Congress flag?" SRI AUROBINDO: He thought the Congress has established Swaraj already? (Laughter) CHAMPAKLAL: But he exaggerates things and always talks about himself. SATYENDRA: People in retirement usually do that. CHAMPAKLAL: He had a bunch of bananas. He said ...
... SATYENDRA: No, no. Gandhi has said that only about the defence policy. Otherwise why should the Congress seek any election at all? He says also that if you follow his programme, India will get Swaraj even before the war is over, provided you are non-violent. SRI AUROBINDO: But what is his programme? His programme is to sit and wait as he doesn't want to embarrass the Government during the war ...
... there is much corruption. SRI AUROBINDO: In the High Court? DR. MANILAL: Yes, Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: I suppose it has come after the new Government—with the advent of H and B. I am wondering what Swaraj will be like. NIRODBARAN: Was there no corruption before? SRI AUROBINDO: Not so much. Bengal and Pondicheny were the only two exceptions. NIRODBARAN: H's ministry is almost openly doing these ...
... form of the Cripps' Proposals which, if accepted, would have changed the fate of India. But the forces of distrust, discontent and wanting everything at once, led to a failure to see the substance of Swaraj, as Sri Aurobindo has said, in the offer. There was a pother about small points and overlooking of the central important objective to be attained. Sri Aurobindo found in the proposal a fine opportunity ...
... suppose in the worldly life such things are necessary?" Sri Aurobindo replied: "Not in the worldly life, but perhaps in the Corporation life. All this promises a bad look-out when India gets Puma Swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi is having bad qualms about Congress corruption already. What will it be when Puma Satyagraha reigns all over India?" In another letter written in 1935, I brought up a topic of ...
... England and voiced his concerns relating to the unfair treatment of the Indian people by Page 48 the British government. He pleaded for gradual reform to ultimately attain Swaraj, or self-government, in India. He was instrumental in the formation of the Minto-Morley Reforms of 1909, which eventually became law. Unfortunately, it was disappointing to see that the people were ...
... Realising his ineffectiveness outside the Congress mainstream, he set about building a strong political base. His programme consisted of four planks: National Education, Swadeshi, Boycott and Swaraj. Tilak was warmly acclaimed by the Bombay Provincial Conference in 1915 and electrified politics by his proposal of Home Rule. He set up a Home Rule League for the purpose of propagating the idea ...
... entity in India which ought never to have happened; the Khilafat affair made that separate political entity an organised separate political power. It was not Swadeshi, Boycott, National Education, Swaraj (our platform) which made this tremendous division, how could it? Tilak was responsible for it not by that, but by his support of the Lucknow affair - for the rest, Gandhi did it with the help of his ...
... than in any other at many great moments of our history. It is because God has chosen to manifest himself and has entered into the hearts of his people that we are rising again as a nation. ..." Swaraj means "the fulfilment of our life as a nation." He refused to bow down to repression and said: "It is by looking the storm in the face and meeting it with a high courage, fortitude and endurance ...
... have glanced through it and I don't think it is inspired. It is more a mental interpretation and he had a brilliant mind. Disciple : When some one asked Tilak what he would do when India got Swaraj, he said he would again become a professor of Mathematics. Disciple : What about A. B. Patrika? It was also an extremist paper. Sri Aurobindo : Never, it was impossible for A. B. Patrika ...
... some as teachers doing their work and trying to raise thelife there, bringing new light and new awakening. It is to be done slowly. The idea that somehow it will get done in a year or two – like "Swaraj in one year" – isegoistic ignorance. Solid work is to be done under the law of the physical plane. The Russians waited patiently for years together and then their organisation got slowly recognised ...
... to India), there was born in 1856, in Maharashtra, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Lokamanya who was destined to galvanise political activity and to teach his countrymen the other reverberating mantra, Swaraj is my birthright. In education, in literary activity, in spiritual, social and political action — in all fields of national life, in fact — there were visible the sure signs of an awakening into ...
... unstinted service of the people. He had a noble and lovable countenance too, and on one occasion a Christian missionary spoke * The quotation is taken from an article on the life of Sri Aurobindo in Swaraj, republished in Karmayogin, from the seventh issue onwards. †At one stage of his life, Rajnarain seems to have "remorsefully declared that it would have been much better if they had not at ...
... like an incubus on the nation. It is now for the people to save themselves, to save the soul of the nation. It is in the Spirit that Shakti is eternal, and if we can win back the inner Swaraj, we can win back the outer Empire. In the midst of depression and defeatism, listen to the Voice of Sri Aurobindo, who is the living embodiment of the creative flow of India's soul.... Almost ...
... in Burma to suffer a prolonged solitary confinement. He was released only in June 1914. Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, no corner of the country was spared the panic reaction of the government against Swaraj. It was the great good fortune of Tamil literature that Bharati listened to his friends and escaped to French India. Otherwise, Page 198 given his predilection to face the music ...
... had in him a true friend and a ready help. In fact, his regard for the poor frequently led him to sacrifice to their 1. Reprinted in The Karmayogin (7 and 14 August 1909, N°7 & 8) from Swaraj. Page 101 present needs the future prospects of his own family and children. . . . Keen of intellect, tender of heart, impulsive and generous almost to recklessness, regardless of his ...
... to miss by absenting ourselves the chance of helping to put in one of the keystones of the house we are building for our - Mother's dwelling in the future, the house of her salvation, the house of Swaraj." On 21 December a whole contingent of Bengal Nationalists boarded the Bombay Mail from Howrah station. Among the leaders were Sri Aurobindo, Shyam Sundar, Suresh Chandra 1. Railways ...
... to come to us as he was thinking that we had given him up for good and will not accept him back. Mother, he is mad after politics, which of course he does not accept. He is conducting a "Poorna Swaraj Movement", working very hard, begging for funds, etc. In spite of all their serious efforts, they are unable to meet even their own living expenses. Of course J is now living with us as your child ...
... Correspondence Surendranath Jauhar's Correspondence with The Mother 18 May 1967 Gracious Mother, Mother, you know that J is conducting a "Poorna Swaraj Movement". He has been writing and insisting upon us all to help and collaborate in this movement. He says that he is doing all this work under your instructions and command and he has shown to us ...
... daily). August 15 -The Bengal National College opens in Calcutta, with Sri Aurobindo as its principal. December — In Calcutta, the Indian Congress, presided over by Dadabhai Naoroji, declares Swaraj as its goal. 1907 -Powerful earthquakes in Jamaica and Turkestan. —A. Lumiere invents colour photography. May 9 — Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh are deported. August 16 - Sri Aurobindo ...
... ostentation and self-advertisement, as a matter of course and one's plain duty to the country, but as the first practical application in the face of persecution of the sheer uncompromising spirit of Swarajism. For the first time a man has been found who can say to the power of alien Imperialism, "With all thy pomp of empire and splendour and dominion, with all thy boast of invincibility and mastery ir ...
... Basanta deliberately exposed themselves to the worst effects of bureaucratic wrath in order to give an example to the country of heroic self-sacrifice and a living demonstration of the spirit of Swarajism; but they did it in the full confidence that the Yugantar would continue undaunted and unchanged in the course it conceived to be its duty to the nation. Had they exposed themselves with the knowledge ...
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