Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
21 December 1939
Purani: This German steamer Columbus was suspected of supplying oil to German cruisers and submarines and that is why it has been scuttled.
Sri Aurobindo: It has been scuttled?
Purani: Yes. The commander of the Graf Spee scuttled it on his own. He has committed harakiri.
Sri Aurobindo: I thought Hitler had asked him to do it.
Purani: No, Hitler left the entire decision to him asking him to do what he thought best.
Sri Aurobindo: I don’t understand these scuttles and suicides.
Nirodbaran: Perhaps the German naval authorities said that the ship must not fall into British hands.
Sri Aurobindo: But it could have been interned and then, after the war is over, could have been returned to the owner. That is the international law unless the British wanted to seize it as they did with other ships after the last war. But this time they are not likely to do the same because they prefer to be moral.
Satyendra: They are professing too much.
Sri Aurobindo (addressing Satyendra): You have read that Hitler has proclaimed a naval victory over fishing boats and trawlers? (Laughter)
Satyendra: Yes, Hitler speaks of his victories; his losses he suppresses or denies and invents all sorts of lies. Churchill seems to try to give true news.
Sri Aurobindo: He declares the losses correctly but about the gains he is silent because he says he doesn’t want to give such news to the Germans.
Satyendra: An English submarine torpedoed a German cruiser and Hitler denied it.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, he said there was some explosion underwater. (Laughter)
Nirodbaran: Somebody has said Hitler is such a liar that one can accept the opposite of what he says as true. (Laughter) Anyway, the war is getting more lively now.
Sri Aurobindo: That is only at sea.
Nirodbaran: In the air too, the recent attack on the German navy at Helgoland.
Satyendra (after some time): Tomorrow is the 22nd.
Nirodbaran: Why do you mention it?
Satyendra: Jinnah will heave a sigh of relief from mourning.
Nirodbaran: Oh!
Purani: Malaviya has asked to observe it as the Gita day also.
Nirodbaran: Some members of the League have tried to tone down.
Sri Aurobindo: Jinnah himself has done it.
Nirodbaran: What struck me as inconsistent in the Bengal Government’s war resolution yesterday has been noted by the Hindu too. The resolution calling for the immediate grant of Dominion Status says that no further political development should be made without the full consent of the minorities.
Sri Aurobindo: It means that the Dominion Status should make provision for the protection of the rights of the minorities. There is no inconsistency. They want to insert such a clause into the Constitution. But what does the resolution mean? That nothing should be given which doesn’t satisfy the Muslims and everything should be given which satisfies them? Is it that? But then there are other minorities who will come in and say the same and their demands may be granted subject to the consent of the Muslims?
Purani: Looks like it. Some Muslim will say Urdu must be the common language and Ramaswamy will say Tamil.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, he will but he knows that it has no chance.
Purani: Vijay Raghavacharya has asked why these communal troubles in U.P., C.P. and Bihar occur. Why not in the Punjab and Bengal? And he asserts that these troubles are engineered by the Muslims themselves.
Sri Aurobindo: Quite so. Or the Muslims will perhaps say that their Government was very popular and there were no grievances and the Hindus fell in love with the Muslims.
Nirodbaran: Huq has called the Congress dishonest.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, he is a judge of honesty or rather an expert!