Sri Aurobindo is neither an impotent moralist nor a weak pacifist

The Portugal Journal - Page 72, Mircea Eliade, Mac Linscott Ricketts - 2010 - 272 pages

He doesn't seem to be much of a fan of Hitler. He believes René Guénon is the most interesting person of our time. (I don't believe this always, but often I do. Although I consider Aurobindo Ghose more “perfected.”)15 Very well read, ...

Terror and the Postcolonial: A Concise Companion - Page 173, Elleke Boehmer, Stephen Morton - 2009 - 395 pages

as a liaison between other Congress politicians and Aurobindo Ghose in Pondicherry. ... Placed under house arrest in 1940, Bose escaped to Europe, met Mussolini and Hitler, and eventually became the leader of the Indian National ...

Science, Spirituality and the Modernization of India - Page 166, Makarand Paranjape - 2009 - 296 pages

The vital world has descended upon the physical in Hitler as well as Stalin. He even dwelt on overmind consciousness, though briefly, in the form of ... Since 1970, inspired by Sri Aurobindo, I started working on the hypothesis ...

Globalizing Dissent: Essays on Arundhati Roy - Page 154, Ranjan Ghosh, Antonia Navarro Tejero - 2008 - 214 pages

However, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi's contemporary, recognized that such a movement of what Gandhi called ... plea to the British to surrender arms beforeHitler: I want you to fight Nazism without arms . . . or with non-violent arms. ...

Sri Aurobindo - A Contemporary Reader, Sachidananda Mohanty, Aurobindo Ghose - 2008 - 180 pages

efforts and sufferings of the intelligentsia failed to achieve. It is his coming which has been the precipitative agent for the reshaping of the modern world. If a Lenin, a Mussolini, a Hitler have achieved their rapid and almost ...

The crash and the phoenix, Ghunsiam Jhuboo - 2008 - 244 pages

de Gaulle, Hitler, Stalin, Mandela; scientists like Einstein, Edison; thinkers like Bertrand Russell, Sri Aurobindo; and the hosts of inventors, and Nobel prize winners that have characterized mostly the Western Hemisphere. ...

Gandhi & Churchill: the epic rivalry that destroyed an empire and Forged Our Age, Arthur Herman - 2008 - 721 pages 

M. N. Roy (1887-1954), un révolutionnaire indien et la question de ... Michel Naumann - 2007 - 187 pages M. N. Roy fut, avec Gandhi, l'homme politique le plus remarquable de l'Inde, mais il est de nos jours peu connu.

The Human Cycle - Page 98, Sri Aurobindo - 2007 - 320 pages

If a Lenin, a Mussolini, a Hitler have achieved their rapid and almost stupefying success, it was because this driving force, this response in quick acting mass was there to carry them to victory —a force lacking to their less fortunate ...

The Nation: A Study in Ideology and Fantasy - Page 12, Richard Koenigsberg - 2007 - 68 pages

Thus, typically, Hitler:1 From a dead mechanism (the state) there must be formed a living organism. (1962, p. 398) Aurobindo: (A nation) ... is an organism which grows under the stress of a principle of life within. (Mukherjee, 1964,p. ...

Indian literature in English: critical views - Page 23, Satish Barbuddhe - 2007 - 419 pages

When the Second World War broke, Sri Aurobindo declared himself publicly for the allied powers, and warned that Hitler was controlled by hostile forces, powers of darkness, and that a Nazi victory would mean a terrible slavery for ...

The Fantasy of Oneness and the Struggle to Separate: Towards a ... - Page 39, Richard Koenigsberg - 2007 - 100 pages

1977), we interpreted the revolutionary behavior patterns of Hitler, Lenin and Sri Aurobindo as constituting a struggle ... Hitler wishes to be "one" with Germany; Lenin wishes to be one with "the people." Each of them idealizes the ...

Bhagavad Gita: Der Gesang des Erhabenen, Michael von Brück - 2007 - 457 pages

Für Aurobindo ist das Leben, in all seinen Dimensionen einschließlich der schrecklichen, die Entfaltung des Göttlichen, ... ist sein »spirituelles Wörterbuch«, >eine 1 Dazu RN Minor, Sri Aurobindo (S. 229, Anm. 1), S. 86. ...

Cosmic Teachings of a Lama: Gnosis, Science, and the Buddhist and ... - Page 170, Samael Aun Weor - 2007 - 280 pages

On the side of the Luciferians comes Hitler, shouting, “I am going to reveal the secret ... renovated Hinduism, Pauwels stated, “The master of the Ashram from Pondichery, one of the greatest thinkers of New India, Sir Aurobindo Ghose, ...

Esalen: America and the religion of no religion - Page 318, Jeffrey John Kripal – 2007 - 575 pages

controversial word—with an expression that could have come off the pens of FWH Myers, Sri Aurobindo, or Michael Murphy, that is, as “the study of the supernormal. ... Poland when Hitler put a price on his head for prophesizing the

Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions - Page 294, Richard Smoley, Jay Kinney - 2006 - 400 pages

(whose sister Moina was a leader of the Golden Dawn); the twentieth-century Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo; ... Hitler is said to have been obsessed by the idea of the superman or "new man": "The new man is living amongst us now! ...

Death, dying, and beyond, Dr. Alok Pandey - 2006 - 327 pages

It is well known that when this being would possess Hitler he would go into a convulsion of sorts, writhing on the carpet, even trying to chew it, uttering seeming inanities, terrified and subdued, only to come out of it and take the ...

Yoga and the Sacred Fire: Self-Realization and Planetary ... - Page 287, David Frawley - 2006 - 291 pages

He encouraged Gandhi to support the British in the war against Hitler, though Candhi declined. 95 Note various biographies of Aurobindo like Sri Aurobindo and the Mind of Light by Satprem. * His Hymns to the Mystic Fire contains ...

Nation state by accident: the politicization of ethnic groups and ..., Carsten Wieland - 2006 - 445 pages

Tilak, and Aurobindo, looked for a definition of 'Hinduism' (Hindutva).37 In order not to propagate hollow words ... Indo- European heritage, often in harmony with a sympathy towards Hitler, the ally against colonialist Britain. ...

Foundations of Education - Page 63, Srinibas Bhattacharya - 2006 - 376 pages

In the Life Divine written by Sri Aurobindo, it has been pointed out that man may reach the supramental stage or enter ... At the same time, we find Hitler and Mussoline. Thus, the man manifests himself in various ways and lifestyles. ...

Philosophical Foundation of Education - Page 63, S. Bhattacharya - 2006 - 106 pages

In the Life Divine written by Sri Aurobindo, it has been pointed out that man may reach the supramental stage or enter ... At the same time, we find Hitler and Mussoline. Thus, the man manifests himself in various ways and lifestyles. ...

Guru English: South Asian religion in a cosmopolitan language - Page 100 Srinivas Aravamudan - 2006 - 330 pages

Aurobindo was next to impossible after the mid-1920s except to a closed circle of initiates. The Master, closely guarded by an inner coterie, appeared in public only ...Aurobindo was convinced that Hitler and his followers represented ...

Holmes of the Raj - Page 320 Vithal Rajan - 2006 - 217 pages

When the Second World War broke out, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother came out openly on the side of the Allies because Hitler represented the forces of darkness. He who had fought the British earlier now put his full support and spiritual ...

Sri Aurobindo - Page 111 Purnima Majumdar - 2005 - 122 pages

1914: Arrival of Shri Ma in Pondicherry and her meeting with Aurobindo. Publication of the periodical ... that Aurobindo had predicted the destruction on the same tunes as in World War 1 if Hitler would come to power in future and ...

Mira to Mother - Page 130, Udhaya Kumar – 2004

The Second World War had its own impact on the ashram. 'One can say that Hitleris not a devil but is possessed by one/ said Sri Aurobindo. Mother said: 'He was a medium, a very good medium. Besides, he became possessed during seances ...

The Ideological Integration of East and West: An Enquiry ... - Page 79, Moazziz Ali Beg - 2005 - 240 pages

nationalist politics: today Hitler, their joint heir, has brought the whole movement to its demonic consumation" (p. ... an idea which, as Sri Aurobindo (1985) tells us "did not arise from a primary vital need, but from a secondary or ...

Revista de occidente José Ortega y Gasset – 2004

A Hitler le gustaría la resistencia pasiva de Gandhi: es lo que él quería. Hitlerestaba obsesionado con el demonio. Para Aurobindo, y también para Stockhausen, «guerra y destrucción» eran «no sólo un principio universal de nuestra vida ...

Mysteries of death, fate, karma, and rebirth: in the light of the ..., Jugal Kishore Mukherjee - 2004 - 174 pages

Have we not seen in our own times how the Nemesis of Karma has violently overtaken the fates of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo and their compeers in misdeeds, in their present life itself. If we rummage through the pages of history books, ...

Decolonization: perspectives from now and then - Page 303, Prasenjit Duara - 2004 - 312 pages

Maghreb 119; Poland 182; reunited 164; scholarship 28; Shantung 119 Ghana 8, 158, 233 Ghose, Aurobindo 87, 90-1, ...  Hitler, Adolf 118, 222 Ho Chi Minh 6,...

Colonialism as civilizing mission: cultural ideology in British India - Page 355, Harald Fischer-Tiné, Michael Mann - 2004 - 361 pages

Ghose, Aurobindo, 244 Gilliland, JH, 171 Gini, Dr Hirji, 215 Goculdas, Narottam Morarji, 215 Gokhale, Gopal Krishna, 214 Goldsmith, ... 30 Hitler, Adolf, 272, 275, 276 Hobbes, ...

Southeast Asia: a historical encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East ... - Page 247, Keat Gin Ooi - 2004 - 1791 pages

Aurobindo Ghosh. He proceeded to England in 1919 and earned a place to read a tripos in moral sciences at Cambridge ... Having secured the support of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), dictator of Nazi Germany, Bose then traveled to ...

Indian Society, Institutions and Change - Page 313, Rajendra K. Sharma - 2004 - 378 pages

While some of the literature was imported from the West such as the works of Karl Marx, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, ... Among the later writers were Iqbal and Sri Aurobindo and the celebrated Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. ...

Antinomies of modernity: essays on race, orient, nation - Page 50 Vasant Kaiwar, Sucheta Mazumdar - 2003 - 353 pages

This view originated, as noted, with Friedrich Schlegel, was incorporated byAurobindo Ghose into the Indian militant nationalist ... Much as Hitler identified the Jews as the constant outside threat to Aryan civilization in Germany, ...

Life and works of Sri Aurobindo, Sita Ram Sharma - 2003 - 271 pages

In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively ... At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the ...

The flight and the glide, Ghunsiam Jhuboo - 2003 - 121 pages

"Hitlerism is the greatest menace that the world has ever met. If Hitler wins, do they (the ... Munshi made the following remarks in 1951: Sri Aurobindo " saw into the heart of things ... His perception of the political situation in ...

Knowledge, consciousness and religious conversion in Lonergan and ... - Page 277, Michael T. McLaughlin - 2003 - 318 pages

However, Aurobindo does not go on to try to elaborate ethical principles, a definition of the human good, ... for example, to Hitler and his men as "vital beings". However, Aurobindo's writings do not seem to offer much assistance in ...

Patterns of the present: from the perspective of Sri Aurobindo and ..., Georges van Vrekhem - 2002 - 238 pages

In June 1950, a few months before his departure, Sri Aurobindo wrote in a note to KD Sethna on the Korean War: "The whole affair is as plain as a pike-staff. It is the move in the Communist plan of campaign to dominate and take ...

Ethical choices in business - Page 106, R. C. Sekhar - 2002 - 308 pages

This would have been the case of General Rommel, who thought Adolf Hitler was unethical. ... evolving ethical values from the Indian perspective is that of Aurobindoas described by him in The Yoga of Divine Works — Karma Yoga (1986). ...

Holy war: violence and the Bhagavad Gita, Steven Rosen - 2002 - 229 pages

Sri Aurobindo is neither an impotent moralist nor a weak pacifist. The rule of confining political action to passive ... 23 No doubt Hitler would have been delighted had Britain followed such advice, just as Duryodhana would have been ...

El genio de la India - Page 180 Guy Sorman - 2002 - 278 pages

Del mismo modo que el hombre desciende del mono, Aurobindo nos dice que el superhombre descenderá del hombre y llevará una vida digna en la ... la fuerza maléfica de Hitler. Tomé nota, pero mi interlocutora no se tragó mi discreción. ...

The guru of joy: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar & the art of living, François Gautier - 2002 - 269 pages

Sri Aurobindo himself showed the way: "Politics is the outer expression of the working of forces which are always ... although he had fought the British during his nationalist days, was the only yogi to tell the world that Hitler was an ...

Sri Aurobindo Ghose: the dweller in the lands of silence, William Kluback, Michael Finkenthal - 2001 - 167 pages

Sri Aurobindo took the spirit seriously. He took seriously the idea of progress, of spiritual evolution and involution. ... We join to this the racial state of Hitler. The Holocaust became possible. I see in Sri Aurobindo's words a ...

GOD SHALL GROW UP Body, Soul,& Earth Evolving Together - Page 69, Wayne Bloomquist - 2001 - 351 pages

SRI AUROBINDO: That is very simple. I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began with it on a certain mental ... written from one's own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative.21 [1936:] SRI AUROBINDO: Hitler and his ...

Leadership and power: ethical explorations, S. K. Chakraborty, Pradip Bhattacharya - 2001 - 453 pages

dynamic power which ... is greater than any other and more effective'57 which Sri Aurobindo used particularly on two occasions during the Second War. ... when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him ...

Overman: the intermediary between the human and the supramental being, Georges van Vrekhem - 2001 - 189 pages

all evil in the past century; he was the being by whom Hitler was possessed.19 Who were the human instruments? ... "There are a group of people . . . who want to create a kind of religion based on the revelation of Sri Aurobindo. ...

Indian Political Thought - Page 92, Urmila Sharma, S.K. Sharma - 2001 - 416 pages
While some of the literature was imported from the West such as the works of Karl Marx, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, ... Among the later writers were Iqbal and Sri Aurobindo and the celebrated Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore. ...

The poetry of Sri Aurobindo: a journey from ego to self Kishor Gandhi - 2001 - 205 pages

Sri Aurobindo, thus, keenly observes the behavioural peculiarities of the cat and discovers in it the presence of ... The beastly hordes of Hitler, ironically enough, claim to be the "supermen dreamed by the sage" (23) and proudly ...

Selected essays and talks of Nirodbaran Nirodbaran, Supriyo Bhattacharya - 2001 - 271 pages

"In the last letter the topic of Hitler is raised. Andre asks the Mother if it was a question of a dangerous bluff or ... We catch here an echo of Sri Aurobindo and her. . for the moment. We catch here an echo of Sri Aurobindo's voice. ...

Journey to aloneness: commentaries on the Kaivalya Upanisad, M. N. Parthasarathi - 2001 - 411 pages

On the other end of the spectrum are super wicked beings, like for instance a Hitler, a Saddam Hussein — totally ... one could place people who are suffering from manic depression, which according to Aurobindo, represents an acute form ...

The genius of India, Guy Sorman - 2001 - 232 pages

descended from the ape, Aurobindo said the superman would descend from man and live a divine life on earth. ... appeared in the twentieth century because it was necessary for a beneficial force to neutralise the evil force of Hitler. ...

Passport photos - Page 25, Amitava Kumar - 2000 - 276 pages

"there is no trace in Nehru of that inwardly turned rage of an Aurobindo or Vivekananda, political intellectuals who strove to purge ... we have the reality of the Shiv Sena supremo, Bal Thackeray, who lists Hitler among his models. ...

The Mother: the story of her life, George Van Vrekhem - 2000 - 545 pages
'Unfortunately, in the Ashram itself there were some who wished for Hitler's victory, not for love of Hitler but because ... Besides, had not Sri Aurobindo himself been one of the foremost freedom fighters? 'Many, especially in India, ...

Indian political thinkers: modern indian political thought - Page 140, N. Jayapalan - 2000 - 370 pages

"At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the ... The retirement of Sri Aurobindo from active politics was not due to any feeling of helplessness of disappointment. ...

Makers of Indian English literature, C. D. Narasimhaiah - 2000 - 292 pages

Recognising the services rendered by the language Sri Aurobindo further says: It has been elastic enough in the past to ... his own, when forces like Hitler had yet been reigning supreme he could see the beginning of a new era when "the ...

New perspectives on Sri Aurobindo's plays, Saryug Yadav - 2000 - 190 pages

When the Second World War broke, Sri Aurobindo declared himself publicly for the allied powers, and warned that Hitler was controlled by hostile forces, powers of darkness, and that a Nazi victory would mean a terrible slavery for ...

Sri Aurobindo and the new millennium: reflections and reviews, R. Y. Deshpande - 1999 - 340 pages

In the context of the executive action which was absolutely essential in the urgency of time Sri Aurobindo called this ... had taken complete possession of Hitler and had found in him his perfect instrument in the gruesome task of the ...

Tradition and the rhetoric of right: popular political argument in ... - Page 196 David J. Lorenzo - 1999 - 339 pages

The first three examples use the Second World War, and the moral grounds that justified the eventual American participation in the war against Germany and AdolfHitler, as reasons for rejecting particular policies. ...

Sri Aurobindo: realización espiritual y transformación integral - Page 182, Vicente Merlo Lillo - 1998 - 272 pages

Sri Aurobindo habló de ello y no dudó en afirmar que tras Hitler y el nazismo se hallaban las Fuerzas Oscuras que trataban de impedir el avance de la humanidad. Por ello hizo pública su condena del mismo y la necesidad del combate, ...

Selected Works of M.P. Pandit: The world, Madhav Pundalik Pandit - 1998 - 522 pages
universalisation, as Hitler did, as some other political leaders did in the West or even in India at some time in history. ... But that is not what is meant when Sri Aurobindo speaks of a universal man or a cosmic man ...

The common vision: parenting and educating for wholeness, David Marshak - 1997 - 246 pages

While Aurobindo lived in seclusion for the final third of his life, he broke his silence on two occasions. During World War II he saw Hitler and the Nazi forces as the expression of pure evil in the world and appealed to all Indians to ...

A house in Pondicherry, Lee Langley - 1995 - 275 pages

Aurobindo, the ex-fugitive, the man in the long- forgotten iron cage, had come to different conclusions: the mystic who had renounced violence saw Hitler as a force of evil who should be fought in every possible way. ...

The hour of God: selections from his writings - Page 303, Sri Aurobindo, Manoj Das - 1995 - 334 pages

The Dwarf Napoleon HITLER, OCTOBER 1939 Behold, by Maya's fantasy of will A violent miracle takes sudden birth, The real grows one with the incredible. In the control of her magician wand The small achieves things great, the base things ...

The Humanist way, N. Innaiah, G. R. R. Babu - 1994 - 197 pages

Aurobindo believes in a special spiritual role for India. For she "alone had been the grand workshop of spiritual ... It inspired fascists like Hitler. But when spiritual significance is added to it, the self -righteousness of its ...

India beyond today & tomorrow: dialogues on the future of India ..., Samyak - 1993 - 359 pages

British colonialism was weakening at that time. If Fascism h id triumphed, there would have been no democracy left and no freedom. It is interesting that Sri Aurobindo also took this line in the course of the war, saying that Hitler and ...

A secular agenda: for saving our country, for welding it, Arun Shourie - 1993 - 376 pages
"One World" notions: these were a good solvent for the nationalism thatAurobindo and Tilak and Gandhi were stoking up. ... It is entirely true of course that nationalism can become xenophobia, that under Hitler what started as ...

Guru, the search for enlightenment, John E. Mitchiner - 1992 - 146 pages

Aurobindo never fully abandoned his comments on political life; he claimed that he used his yogic powers to oppose Hitler and the Japanese, and on India's independence in 1947 his message for her spiritual destiny was broadcast on ... [Traditions of the Seven Rsis]

The vision and work of Sri Aurobindo, Kaikhushru Dhunjibhoy Sethna - 1992 - 238 pages
Now that Hitler is past history we are liable to forget the true significance of those six years of sweat and tears and blood ... That extreme decisiveness coming from a master of spirituality like Sri Aurobindo pointed to a vision of ...

Gandhi, saint or sinner?, Fazlul Huq - 1992 - 112 pages

the leading activists, Aurobindo Ghosh, as early as 1893 criticized the Bengal Congress for "dying of consumption". ... The Muslims were to Bankim Chandra what the Jews were to Hitler. All his books containing venom of Muslim hatred ...

Nationalist pursuit, Dattopant Bapurao Thengadi - 1992 - 300 pages

Shri Aurobindo said the same, adding that a vast country like Bharat needed a 'government of interests'. ... Hitler was an instance in point. Britain's parliamentary history has examples of the trickery to which a government with a thin ...

The Betrayal of Krishna: vicissitudes of a great myth, Krishna Chaitanya - 1991 - 556 pages

"It was Sri Krishna who sat there, it was my Lover and Friend who sat 11 there and smiled." But, mercifully, he did not see a smiling Krishna in Hitler. He supported the Allies in World War II and even made a contribution to the ...

Memorable contacts with the Mother, Nirodbaran - 1991 - 190 pages

Sri Aurobindo replied, "Mother never said anything of the kind about you. On the contrary she has always approved of his going to you because ... Hitler in his 'handsome Adolf days was not less pagla or prettier, so there is a chance. ...

The meeting of science and spirit: guidelines for a new age, John Warren White - 1990 - 288 pages

The images drawn from this theme vary in form and purity, ranging from the inspired visions of mystics such as Sri Aurobindo to the deranged fantasies of madmen such as Adolf Hitler. Nietzsche's Das Ubermensch or Overman was distorted ...

Symbiosis and separation: towards a psychology of culture, Richard A. Koenigsberg - 1989 - 89 pages

Psychoanalysis of Racism, Revolution and Nationalism (Koenigsberg, 1977), we interpreted the revolutionary behavior patterns of Hitler, Lenin and Sri Aurobindo as constituting a struggle against passivity. I would now view their patterns of ...

Bigotry has largely gone underground

Religion, Bigotry, And Political Hypocrisy Huffington Post (blog) - ‎Chris Weigant (ChrisWeigant.com) Posted: May 17, 2010

Pat Buchanan, in his usual less-than-charming manner, brought up a point last week about the religious diversity (or lack thereof) of the Supreme Court. … Americans, as a whole, see religion on a scale of acceptability. There are acceptable religions, and then there are unacceptable religious beliefs (starting with having no religious beliefs at all). Now, over time, some religions slide back and forth along this scale. And, over time, bigotry has largely gone underground, because such things are no longer seen as acceptable in polite conversation. …

Americans believe in the concept of freedom of religion. Up to a point. That point moves over time, and we are now inclusive of Catholicism and Judaism. But that wasn't always the case. And, while journalists and politicians are free to pretend that we actually are warmly inclusive of all religions, this is simply not true. America does exhibit bigotry towards religions that are seen as "too far outside the mainstream," and we always have. Covering this fact up with the hypocrisy of "religion would never, ever be a factor for me" doesn't change this basic fact, either.

Beyond Religion with Rabbi Rami: God is not One 27 Apr 2010 by Rabbi Rami

Stephen Prothero's new book, God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter, is a refreshing antidote to the too easy notion that all religions say the same thing. ...

Denying differences is a recipe for disaster 24 Apr 2010

Stephen Prothero is a professor of religion at Boston University . This essay was adapted from his book "God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter ," recently published by HarperOne.

Educated, creative, and diverse 23 Apr 2010

“Faith in the unity of religions is just that—faith, and perhaps even a kind of fundamentalism” and “A Dangerous Belief” stresses Stephen Prothero, the author of God Is Not One. Savitri Erans must wake to the significance of this ...

christians learn in sunday school that their religion is true, and ... 19 Aug 2009

stephen prothero, religion professor at boston university, has long framed the american propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of hinduism. you're not picking and choosing from different ...

Religion as a subject should (non-confessionally) be taught in schools 8 Dec 2007

Stephen Prothero, Camille Paglia, Thomas Berry among many others have called for something similar. I think there are however major issues with the proposal that have not been deeply examined. (more…)

He taught us to think critically even about Marxism

from manindra thakur to  "Tusar N. Mohapatra" tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com cc Nilanjan Sarkar date 17 May 2010 13:41 subject    Re: [वीआइपी वाक : VIP VAK] Prof. Bibek Brata Sarkar passes

Hello Nilanjan,

I am writing this on behalf of the students of your father Late prof. B.B. Sarkar. We would like to share our feelings with you about him as his death has taken away from us a great teacher. Some of us who joined Delhi University in 1985 as M. A. students found Dr. B.B. Sarkar as a great teacher who would allow free discussion in the class room, would invite critical comments and welcome rejection of his own ideas. He used to challenge us to think a fresh. He never asked us 'where did you read that', a question favorite to many teachers. He would accept all our childish questions as serious intellectual concerns and used to engage with us with utmost sincerity.

We still remember those discussions in the University Coffee House which used to be his favorite place for creative discussion. Many of those discussions have transformed our ways of thinking. He never told us meet me after fixing time, he was always ready to spend time and help us with his Socratic attitude towards knowledge. I am sure he has generated similar feelings in generations of students who were in touch with him. I remember Prof. Neera Chandhoke telling us that there used to be a 'Dr. Sarkar fan club' of which she was also a part. We found Prof. Mohanty always treating him as his teacher, instead of his colleague. I still remember Prof. Randhir Singh gave a condition that he would teach Marxist Theory only if Prof. Sarkar agrees to teach Liberal Theory. For years and years this combination was most widely appreciated by the students. He taught us to think critically even about Marxism and I still remember many of his ideas like 'McPherson being a pink philosopher', and 'Enlightenment as explosion in the superstructure'.
We all not only admired him but also carried his impression in our mind when we became teachers and always tried to follow his path in engaging in the relations with our students. He was essentially a teacher in the classical sense. He is living in our hearts and in our everyday life as a teacher. It is the body which has vanished but Dr. Sarkar as an idea is living and re-living. We all are with you and your family in the moments of this grief.

Bankim synthesised Western secular concept of nationalism with tradition

An article on the concept of the Indian nationhood WHAT HISTORY DOESN'T TELL US  by Makarand Paranjape Life Positive August 1997

The importance of dharma in Indian life has been summed up well by Sri Aurobindo in his famous Uttarpara speech in 1909:

"When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is theSanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists. To magnify the religion means to magnify the country." When Aurobindo was in jail, the Divine actually spoke to him, giving him the following message: "Since long ago I have been preparing this uprising and now the time has come and it is I who will lead it to its fulfillment."

At the end of this historic speech, Aurobindo repeated his main contention:

"I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it, it moves and with it, it grows. When Sanatan Dharma declines, then the nation declines " 

Of course, it needs to be stressed that by Sanatan Dharma, Aurobindo meant the eternal, universal religion, not any particular sect or creed:

"If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose." […]

Vande Mataram, the anthem, was banned as was Anandmath. Yet the worship of Mother India or Bharat Mata once instituted was here to stay. Across the Indian political spectrum, regardless of ideological differences, the idea of the sacredness of the Motherland was widely accepted.

Bankim's novel inspired many revolutionaries who gave up their lives for their Motherland. Aurobindo himself considered to be a prophet of Indian nationalism, during his revolutionary phase wanted a Bharat Mata Mandir to be established in every province of India. These temples were to be the nucleus of revolutionaries who like Bankim's sanyasis would dedicate their lives to the freedom of the country. 

Thus the Indian revolutionaries, who were an important part of the struggle for freedom, also derived their inspiration from spirituality and religious sources. Of course such patriotism, taken to its extreme, may breed chauvinistic nationalism. 

Desicritics.org: The Birth of Vande Mataram March 05, 2006
Vivek Sharma

Bankim Chatterjee gave us what Sri Aurobindo has described as the religion of patriotism. Vande Mataram was banned, as was Anand Math. Yet the worship of Mother India or Bharat Mata once instituted, was here to stay. Across the Indian political spectrum, regardless of ideological differences, the idea of the sacredness of the Motherland was widely accepted. […]

Bankim synthesised the Western secular concept of nationalism with the tradition and needs of Hindus even though he was thinking in terms of Bengal and not India when he wrote. He enunciated a specific relationship between culture and power, that certain cultural values are more advantageous than others in the pursuance of power. Since these attributes are not congenital characteristics, but the product of cultural conditioning, they can be developed through the cultivation of appropriate national-cultural values.

To his merit he aroused the cultural and idealogical identity of Indians, a majority of them being Hindus. In this respect, I believe that whatever comparisons are there between the Hindu goddesses (Durga, Kali, Lakhshmi or Saraswati) with Mother India, they are meant to enspirit the Indian soul with a devotion towards the deified country.

Such a deification of the country as we know was to inspire many millions of Indians throughout the freedom struggle. Aurobindo himself considered to be a prophet of Indian nationalism, during his revolutionary phase wanted a Bharat Mata Mandir to be established in every province of India. These temples were to be the nucleus of revolutionaries who, like Bankim's sanyasis, would dedicate their lives to the freedom of the country. Thus the Indian revolutionaries, who were an important part of the struggle for freedom, also derived their inspiration from spirituality and religious sources. Of course such patriotism, taken to its extreme, may breed chauvinistic nationalism. [Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Anandmatha: Genesis of bigotry in South Asia Posted on May 15, 2010]

Caste offers a protective cocoon for members in turbulent times

IBNLive : Sagarika Ghose's Blog : Caste off those blinkers Hindustan Times 12 May 2010 Sagarika Ghose 

Thus a caste census should thus not be seen as simply a political instrument designed to secure quotas. The fight against caste is best fought when we know the enemy. Caste is an immutable, invisible and overwhelming reality in our daily lives. If we continue to act as if caste does not exist, or deny its existence, we would be failing to do battle with one of the most urgent social inequalities of our time. Caste off those blinkers, Hindustan Times, Sagarika Ghose, CNN-IBN senior editor

Caste and liberals DNA Wednesday, May 12, 2010 R Jagannathan

Caste has proved to be a stronger binding force than religion precisely because it is rooted in Indian realities. The biggest attacks on caste —all futile — have come from sons of the soil, and not Islamic invaders or Christian proselytisers, as some liberals are prone to believe. The Buddha didn’t succeed. Neither did Vivekananda, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Ram Mohun Roy, Dayanand Saraswati, Ramanujam, or even Gandhi and Ambedkar. All frontal attacks on caste have been repulsed. The post-Ambedkar Dalits, and especially Kanshi Ram and Mayawati, have gone the other way and embraced caste with a vengeance.

They opted for a political consolidation of the Dalits and lower castes. The other backward castes have also made a virtue of caste consolidation and reaped huge gains from it — it started in the south and moved north. In the south, caste oppression today means non-Brahmin oppression of the lowest castes.

To get an arm around caste, you first need to understand it. For one, it is not just a system of discrimination; it became one. Caste is about kinship and community ties. It offers a protective cocoon for members in turbulent times. Caste will weaken and disappear only when people feel secure about themselves and their future. It will dissolve when the state protects individual rights, without necessarily setting it against community rights. […]

Market forces, urbanisation and globalisation are chipping away at the edifice. It will be diluted in due course. Socially, we can help the process by making simple changes in the institution of caste by drawing up objective entry and exit rules. Caste cannot remain an institution driven purely by birth. Once it behaves like a regular club, with proper entry and exit rules, its worst excesses will tone down. We can allow demography and market forces to finish the job.

Why caste should be counted in The Hindu - May 14, 2010 Yogendra Yadav‎

If the enumeration of religious communities has not led to the breakdown of secular order in India, and if enumeration of race in the U.S. has not made U.S. politics racist, it is unlikely that the enumeration of one more caste group would push the country into the prison of caste.

In any case, the way to transcend caste is not to close our eyes to it, but to look at it very closely, identify and neutralise its relationship with disadvantage and discrimination, and to discover how caste relates to other social divisions such as gender and class. That is what necessitates a caste-based census. (The author is Senior Fellow with the CSDS, Delhi. He is currently at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.)

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