Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Bipin Chandra vs. Bipan Chandra

[Sri Aurobindo, Bankim Chandra Chetterji, Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal offered a national significance to religious signs and festivals. They were of the opinion that the basis of Indian nationalism is indisputably linked to the ancient Vedic . The revivals of the Ganapathi worship and Shivaji festival in 1893 and 1895 were in tune with this ideology. Bipan Chandra wrote:
“Many extremist leaders like Aurobindo Ghose, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Raj used Hindu symbols, ideas, and myths in their political speeches and writings. India was often referred to as Mother Goddess or compared with Kali, Durga and other Hindu Goddesses. The early revolutionary terrorists swore by the Gita and Kali and some even saw in the Hindu tinge a revolutionary feature, many leaders of the anti-partition of Bengal agitation tried to give a religious colour to the boycott movement in order to popularise it among the masses” (Communalism in Modern India)...
Sri Aurobindo came up with the theme of nationalism being the personification of immortal religion. . He says: “I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it moves and with it grows” (Sri Aurobindo, collected works). -- Iqbal and the Advent of Pakistan 16 January 2008 CE KALIM AHMED]
It should be remembered that the political activities by Sri Aurobindo were part of his strategy to mobilize people with the objective of fighting against the British rule. [TNM]

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