Sri Aurobindo in 1906 has become much more relevant for India in 2016 as Hindutva has come to occupy the centrestage. It's common knowledge that the Communist as well as Congress politics too owe their origin to that period in Bengal. Sri Aurobindo is not known as a spiritual leader yet, yet his activities and utterances show a distinct stamp of some higher inspiration and a firm purpose. He is not deterred by unfavourable events, adversities, or adversaries; he moves ahead without vacillation and people start following him. Thus, the first signs of a Divine manifestation can very well be discerned during the initial days of Sri Aurobindo's tryst with politics. An added qualification being his thorough study and internalisation of Sanskrit scriptures in Vadodara.
While opposing the moderate Congress policies, Sri Aurobindo was fast to find his ideological moorings in Bankim, Tilak, Dayananda, Vivekananda, et al. A heady brand of religious nationalism filled the air culminating in stray attempts at armed struggle against the British. Congress, later, eschewed violence under Gandhi but the heroic strain is still traceable in sections of the Left as well as Hindutva. But more important is Sri Aurobindo's open advocacy of Hindu religion and its wisdom for which he is perceived as a staunch revivalist by many. Even, he is now considered as an eminent member of the gang of four which has earned notoriety as founders of Hindutva.
Be that as it may, it's not easy to lable Sri Aurobindo as his oeuvre of the Puducherry period prove. Understandably, the Hindutva faction sees him with suspicion and prefers to keep him at arm's length. But a section of Sri Aurobindo's followers who identify strongly with their Hindu roots are impatient to present him as a Hindu icon for drawing political milage. This triggers a serious ideological conflict and needs to be thrashed out without indulging in manipulation or misrepresentation. That apart, the larger goal of seeking a right understanding of Sri Aurobindo and what he is aiming at must concern the top echelon of intelligentsia in this country. [TNM55]
Misc. References:
Elleke Boehmer, Stephen Morton - 2015 - Preview - More editions
It is no coincidence that India's most celebrated movement of communist insurgency got its start in the West Bengal subdivision of Naxalbari. The state's Left parties, their ranks swelled by former terrorists, sponsored ... Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Ghose, Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo). (2002) Bande Mataram: Political ...
Debashish Banerji - 2015 - No preview - More editions
This critical volume addresses the question of Rabindranath Tagore's relevance for postmodern and postcolonial discourse in the twenty-first century.
In the year 1906, on February 19, Aurobindo took privilege leave and proceeded to Bengal. On March 1 1 , he was present at the formation of the National Council of Education in Calcutta. On March 12, the new Bengali weekly Yugantar was founded, he became one of the leading writers on revolutionary ideas in the above ...
He and his younger brother, Barindra Kumar Ghose, are now recognized to have been the main instigators and organisers of the earliest of the underground terrorist organizations in Bengal.24Aurobindo's inspiration for English educated young men is described by Nirad Chaudhuri.25 Aurobindoalready combined his ...
The furor over the first partition of Bengal threw up a number of shortlived anti-British, “Extremist”Bengali and English papers: Bande Mataram (1906–1908), founded by Bipin Chandra Pal andAurobindo Ghose, the latter of whom was sarcastically critical of Moderate Indian papers such as the Bengalee and the Indian Mirror; ...
K.Shivashankar, Litent - 2014 - Preview
Proful a was anative of Rangapur of East Bengal. Atthetime of the partition of Bengal,he hadwalked out of school witheighty boys, all shouting 'Vande Mataram'! The leader of the revolutionaries gave each of theboys , Khudiram and Profulla, two revolvers, a bomb and a little money,and sent them with his blessings. They set ...
Heehs, in his wellresearched history of early revolutionary terrorism in Bengal, does not find any archival evidence of Nivedita's involvement with revolutionary groups. Peter Heehs, The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India 1900–1910 (Delhi, 1993), pp. 264–66. The one discussion of Nivedita in ...
Maia Ramnath - 2012 - Preview
The newly politicized Anusilan Samiti emerged around 1902 or 1903 from a consolidation of several akharas , with Aurobindo Ghose as one of the key movers. ... After the Bengal partition, he along with his younger brother Barindra Kumar Ghose and a few of their friends began energetically recruiting and training young men ...
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