Mahatma Gandhi is less relevant than Sri Aurobindo when it comes to national vision

What does future hold for Pakistan?
Posted by Team Folks on 10/24/09 • Categorized as Cover Stories

In his famous Uttarapara speech of 1909, Sri Aurobindo defined nationalism as a dharma invoking its history and tradition: Dr. NS Rajaram

Still the spirit of Indian nationalism withstood such assaults on unity as Gandhiji’s ill-fated Khilafat Movement, and Jinnah’s blood-soaked cry for Partition. Here lies the difference: where Sri Aurobindo’s was an all-inclusive national vision, Jinnah was for an exclusive and ill-defined sectarian state that is now crumbling against the forces of history and geography. Worse, he let loose forces of violence that are now on the verge of consuming what he created. [...]

The contrast with Aurobindo’s vision could hardly be starker: Jinnah’s is a negative, even a defeatist vision with a level of exclusivism that can never be a unifying force. So here is the real conflict of national visions— Aurobindo’s spiritual unity against Jinnah’s divisiveness rooted in exclusivism. Mahatma Gandhi is less relevant than Sri Aurobindo when it comes to national vision. (Gandhi was a more crusader in the name of ahimsa than national visionary, but that is a different story.)

The Hindu : Engagements: Chennai Today
Sri Aurobindo Society Centre: Meeting, AP-514, J Block, 8th St., Anna Nagar, 6 p.m.

The Hindu : Engagements: Coimbatore Today
Sri Aurobindo Devotees: collective prayers to Sri Annai, Sri Annai Meditation Centre, Kovaipudur, 4 p.m.; Sasi Balika Vidya Mandir, 9.30 a.m.

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Brinda Karat

Neither her Bengali mother (Asrukawna Mitra) nor her Punjabi father (Suraj Lall Das, a refugee from the newly-created Pakistan, who held corporate positions in Calcutta) was associated with party politics. But both were considered rebels at the time as they chose to marry outside their respective communities. While her mother’s maternal family was connected with Sri Aurobindo, her mother was an admirer of Subhash Chandra Bose. Posted: Sat, Aug 11 2007. 2:21 AM IST Mint Lounge Ashish Sharma New Delhi