We now embark on understanding an episode that represents a secret chapter of India’s struggle for independence. Only Sri Aurobindo and a few of his devoted followers can enlighten us about it, but most of them are no more. There are a few people who have a little knowledge of this period while others have erroneous ideas. Even one of those who was accused along with Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore Bomb case had given a wrong or a distorted account of this period and the analysis he has made of Sri Aurobindo’s political purpose is ludicrous.
It is gratifying to note that after India’s independence the ashram in Pondicherry published an English booklet incorporating some precious materials on Sri Aurobindo. With this publication, that unknown chapter of the history of India’s struggle for independence has come to light. The facts presented here about Sri Aurobindo’s political beliefs are based on this booklet.
It is now as clear as daylight that Sri Aurobindo returned to India with no mission other than to liberate this country from the British yoke. The seven political essays published in the Indu Prakash are the first proof of it. A few years after this publication, Sri Aurobindo chalked out a plan of action for the freedom movement of the country and he himself plunged headlong in this movement. He thought of a three-pronged strategy for the struggle for freedom.
On one hand, revolutionary ideals have to spread through the establishment of secret societies; the nation has to be made valiant and prepared for an armed uprising. On the other hand, the entire nation has to be awakened through public propaganda, that is, through writings in the newspapers and through public speeches. In those days, the vast majority of Indians regarded the ideal of complete independence as nothing more than sheer madness, a chimera.
The third approach was to organise people who would boldly carry on a public and united opposition to the government and undermine the very base of the foreign rule through noncooperation and passive resistance.
Although the earth trembled at that time at the might of the British Empire, Sri Aurobindo did not consider the violent revolutionary movement as insanity. While in England, he witnessed how a tiny Irish nation troubled the formidable British power. Even at that time, the mode of fighting was conventional, and with rifles and guerrilla warfare alone one could rattle a superpower.30 Over and above this, if one could involve the Indian army in this revolutionary movement! The Sepoy Mutiny (1857) did take place once in this land of ours, the memories of which are ever fresh in the minds of the Indians!
The Kshatriya spirit (spirit of a warrior) was then abysmally dim amongst the young Bengalis. The educated and the dandy Bengali used to be tagged as “babu” and despite his/ her intellectual exploits in various fields, India almost forgot his/her physical power. The Bengalis had no place in the army thanks to the policy of the British. Colonel Suresh Biswas31 could show his valour only because he settled in the far off country of Brazil.
Sri Aurobindo arranged for the military training of a spirited young man, Jatindra Nath Banerjee, in the infantry division of the Baroda army with the help of his close friend Lt. Madhavrao Jadhav and thereafter dispatched him to Bengal in order to organise secret resistance groups.
Sri Aurobindo himself taught Jatindra Nath Banerjee the modus operandi that included conducting revolutionary propaganda through the establishment of numerous secret groups and associations, wooing the youth to join these groups and drawing support and sympathy from the wealthy people. The youth in particular were encouraged to do physical exercises, participate in parades, and undergo martial training.
At that time in Bengal there was a great patriotic soul in Barrister P. Mitra. He took active interest in this movement. The groups organised by him acquired remarkable skills in wielding sticks (lathi play). Late Sarala Devi also was very enthusiastic in this regard. Much later, she introduced the Veerashtami Vrata (a religious vow) in Bengal. Thanks to her endeavour, the youth of Bengal embraced with zeal the spirit of warriors. The influence of Swami Vivekananda made the moral field of Bengal fertile, and now it was as though the seeds were sown upon this fertile land.32
Around the same time, a secret society was established in the western part of India too. Sri Aurobindo contacted a member of this society who introduced him to its advisory committee. Sri Aurobindo became a member of this society just as, while in England, he had become a member of the Lotus and Dagger Society. Thereafter, he discussed this society with P. Mitra, the barrister in Bengal, and other leading revolutionaries. They too took oath in this society and agreed to work on the lines suggested by Sri Aurobindo. However, contrary to the ideals of Sri Aurobindo, these secret societies were not working in unison, but the indomitable zeal and the indefatigable assiduity of these societies infused a new life in this country. During his annual vacations, Sri Aurobindo used to stay in Calcutta for long durations and thus worked for awakening the soul of this nation. The centre of action, however, was still in Baroda. During this time, Barindra Kumar, the younger brother of Sri Aurobindo, visited Baroda (he had abandoned his studies) and took initiation from his elder brother in the noble mission of serving the motherland.
Meanwhile, a meeting took place between Lokmanya Tilak and Sri Aurobindo. Lokmanya previously had suffered imprisonment and became well-known in the country. Sri Aurobindo discovered in Lokmanya an extraordinary revolutionary leader. He discussed the situation of the country with Tilak at the Ahmedabad Congress. There, Tilak took him out of the pandal and talked to him for about an hour. He expressed his contempt for the Reformist Movement of the Congress and explained his own line of action in Maharashtra. This was the beginning of a deep friendship33 between these two great patriots34 in the field of politics. It is for this reason that, during the Swadeshi Movement, Bengal and Maharashtra were fired up with the ideals of complete independence. A few years later, Lokmanya endured six years’ rigorous imprisonment because of his writings on the Muzaffarpur bombing. When the trial proceedings were going on for Lokmanya, Sri Aurobindo too was in prison as an undertrial.
A significant juncture in the national life dawned before long. It was as if at the invocation of Sri Aurobindo that Mother India was awakened. The nation dreamt of a new vision. The hopes and aspirations of the nineteenth century were fulfilled at the very beginning of the twentieth century. The auspicious hour came through the Partition of Bengal Movement. Even in this movement Sri Aurobindo wanted to carry on his work from behind the scenes, but it was the government’s action of prosecuting him as the editor of the Bande Mataram that forced him into public view and made him known to the entire country in a single day. Rabindranath Tagore, the national poet of Bengal, made an emotional invocation to him:
“Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee!”
With the arrival of Sri Aurobindo in the political arena the revolutionary movement started flowing, along the three directions. The ideal of complete independence was getting propagated publicly, secret societies made this dormant nation buoyant with life longing for valour and vigour; the national movement aimed at awakening the nation against the tyranny of the British rule and establishing her position securely through nationalism. It is with these objectives in view that the Nationalist Party was created and it is this party that endeavoured to influence the National Congress in multifarious ways. In later years, the National Congress embraced the ideals of the Nationalist Party and led the freedom movement to success.
The role Sri Aurobindo played publicly in politics was brief, three or three and a half years at the most, one year of which he was confined to prison. But during this brief period, he influenced this nation with his political and spiritual ideals in a manner such that a new life got infused into the body of the nation.