Aravinda Ackroyd Ghosh
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| Aravinda
Ackroyd Ghosh was born on 15th of August 1872, in Calcutta. His father
Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh was a civil medical officer in Bengal and his
mother's name was Swarnalata Devi. |
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| In 1877,
Aravinda and his two elder brothers went to a special school in
Darjeeling that was meant only for English children. For two years the
boys were educated under Irish nuns of the Loretto Convent School. In
1879, they were off to England. While the two elder boys were admitted
to a school, Aravinda, who was just seven years old at that time, was
left in the care of Rev. W. H. Drewett and his wife in Manchester.
Aravinda was taught by the Drewetts. He learned English and Latin from
the Reverend, and history, geography, arithmetic and French from Mrs.
Drewett. Soon Aravinda grew fond of reading and made good use of the
personal library of the Drewetts. |
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Aravinda
excelled in his studies. He won the Butterworth prize for
literature, the Bedford prize for history and a scholarship at St.
Paul's. While at the King's College at Cambridge, Aravinda was
awarded a senior classical scholarship of 80 pounds per annum, in
addition to a stipend as a candidate of the Indian Civil Service.
Aravinda also passed the Classical Tripos examination in the first
class with distinction and passed in the open competition for the
Indian Civil Service in 1890. He cleared the periodical and the
medical examinations but failed to appear for the horse-riding test
which was compulsory for entering the Indian Civil Service. A couple
of years later Aravinda returned to India on January 1893.
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Did you know? |
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It
was Arvinda's father who added the middle name Ackroyd to
Aravinda's name because a Miss Ackroyd, a visitor from England
happened to be around at the time of his birth. |
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At the
age of 21, Aravinda accepted a post promised by Sayaji Rao Gaekwad
of Baroda when he was in England, with a fixed salary of Rs. 200, on
his return. He first served in the survey settlement department, and
later in the department of stamp and revenue. Often he served as the
Gaekwad's personal secretary and prepared the Gaekwad's speeches and
wrote the communiques between Baroda State and the Indian
Government. In 1900, Aravinda took up the post of professor of
English at Baroda College and also taught French as a part-time
professor. |
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Aravinda
married Mrinalini, daughter of Bhupal Chandra Basu, in 1901. He was 29
years old at the time of marriage while Mrinalini was only 14. The spent
very little with each other as Aravinda lived in Baroda, and Mrinalini
stayed in Calcutta. Aravinda was always regular in writing letters to
her. The letters he wrote to her are published as a book called "Letters
to Mrinalini." Mrinalini died of influenza in 1918 in Calcutta at the
age of 31.
Aravinda's initial political activities as a freedom crusader were
limited to Baroda, but they soon extended to Maharashtra, Gujarat and
Bengal. Ghosh's aim was to mobilize the public opinion against the
foreign rule through writing. He made an extensive study of Indian
literature. Adept with fluency in Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali, he then
voiced his views in papers like the Indu Prakash, Bande Mataram, Dharma,
and Karma Yogin. |
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| His
writing soon became the inspiration for the Indian youth. He called on
the young to serve the nation as "karmayogins." He wanted the youth to
devote all their energies toward freeing Mother India. |
| Ghosh
also formed secret revolutionary societies in Bengal. Where he asked
members to take a solemn oath to "secure the freedom of Mother India at
any cost." He fuelled the fire of revolution by organizing a huge rally
on November 9, 1905, in Calcutta. In the meantime, the Bande Mataram, a
paper he edited, won the praise and admiration of all. The British, in
an effort to curb the growing dissent, prosecuted the Bande Mataram and
arrested Ghosh, and charged him with propagating anti-British ideas. The
British resorted to caning anyone chanting "Bande Mataram". However,
Aravinda was acquitted for lack of proof. Ghosh was again arrested and
put in jail in the Lal Bazar police station on May 5, 1908 as an
undertrial prisoner for what came to be known as the Alipore bomb
conspiracy. Whereby, an attempt was made by revolutionaries on Lord
Kingsford's life, a presidency magistrate in Calcutta known for his
harsh and prejudiced verdicts against Indians. The attempt turned into a
misshap when the bomb intended for Lord Kingsford landed in the carriage
of two English ladies and both the ladies died. Ghosh proposed the use
of an open rebellion to attain freedom. His secret societies practiced
bomb making along with the study of revolutionary literature and the
Gita. Following the bombing, Ghosh's residence was raided on May 2, 1908
and Ghosh was arrested at his Grey Street residence. |
At
the grueling trial, the renowned Calcutta lawyer Chittaranjan Das
defended Ghosh. In his statement, Ghosh said, "The whole of my case
before you is this- "It is suggested that I preached the idea of
freedom to my country which is against the law, I plead guilty to
the charge. If it is an offence to preach the idea of freedom, I
admit I have done it. I have never disputed it... I felt I was
called upon to preach to my country to make them realize that India
had a mission to perform in the comity of nations." Ghosh denied
having engineered the attempt on Lord Kingsford's life, declaring
the act as being against everything he stood for.
On his release from jail, Ghosh came out a changed man. He seemed
confident that India would attain her freedom. He now decided to
devote his life to the liberation of the whole of the human race. On
the advice of some friends, like Sister Nivedita, disciple of Swami
Vivekananda, Ghosh left British India and moved to French
Pondicherry on April 4, 1910 to avoid confrontation with the
British. |
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| Ghosh
came to be known as Sri Aurobindo to the world. Aurobindo completed his
"Savitri", which he began writing in 1899 and published in 1954. Savitri
represented, in Sri Aurobindo's own words "a means of ascension". "I
begin with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a
higher level I rewrote from that level...", he wrote in the "Savitri":
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| Besides
the "Savitri", Sri Aurobindo compiled numerous treatise on the Vedas,
Upanishads and the Gita. His "Life Divine", "The Superman", and "Ideal
of Human Unity" are fine examples of work done in simple prose. In
addition, his literary criticisms, poems, and plays made Sri Aurobindo a
litterateur of the highest order. |
| Sri
Aurobindo was a master of Yoga, which he believed, would develop the
"higher principles of life" that remain hidden within every individual.
He felt humanity could attain perfection little by little through
conscious preparation and effort. |
| On the
Independence Day, Sri Aurobindo's message to the nation was, "August 15,
1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old
era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it by our life and
acts as a free nation, an important date in a new age opening for the
whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of
humanity." |
| Sri
Aurobindo departed for the heavenly abode on December 5, 1950 in
Pondicherry. |
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