Nirodbaran
Talks with Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1
10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941
1 June 1940
Purani: The Muslim delegation was very pleased with Dilip’s music last night – especially so when Dilip said that the Muslims have made a great contribution to music. (Laughter) That pleases them very much but they are not so pleased when any Hindu contribution is spoken of. It is quite apparent. It was Aurangzeb who banned music among the Muslims. The Koran also forbids it.
Sri Aurobindo: The Koran also?
Purani: Yes, that is why other Muslim countries like Persia have no music. In India, after Akbar music dwindled among the Muslims; by Aurangzeb’s order all court musicians were thrown out of employment.
Sri Aurobindo: What about painting?
Purani: Painting also.
Sri Aurobindo: Do they think that birds and animals can be representative of God?
Purani: Perhaps they consider it a luxury.
Sri Aurobindo: But that is inconsistent. They can have many concubines. Is that not a luxury?
Purani: Yes, four are sanctioned and that only in Arabistan. It may be due to a disproportionate number of men and women.
Sri Aurobindo: That has not been recorded.
Purani: In this visiting Muslim group only one or two are open to spiritual things and interested in them. One is a professor of mathematics in Aligarh and another from Murshidabad is Secretary of the Assembly. The others are all closed. But the vice-chancellor took pride in the Ashram because it was started by a Bengali.
Sri Aurobindo (laughing): The Bengali Muslims have some such feelings. Nazimuddin said that the Congress has done injustice to Bose and it was an insult to Bengal.
Satyendra: Italy is coming into the war.
Purani: Demanding Corsica!
Sri Aurobindo: France can as well claim Sicily saying that France conquered it at one time, and Sardinia because it is near her.
Purani: It seems Roosevelt is standing for the third time.
Sri Aurobindo: Is he? Is it decided?
Purani: Almost. Somebody whom Roosevelt was to back for President has given a hint that Roosevelt will stand. Absence of precedence is no reason, he says. Some American admiral has said that instead of waiting to deliver four thousand airplanes after some years, America should send one thousand planes straightaway to the Allies.
Sri Aurobindo: Roosevelt would have done that except for this election affair. Wilson took his stand because he had already been elected.
Purani: The President has unlimited powers.
Sri Aurobindo: Oh yes, he can do practically anything except get money from the Congress.
Evening
Sri Aurobindo (starting the talk): The French are not clever at retreat. The Germans seem to have separated the French army from the B.E.F., the main part of which is now evacuating. The French were covering the B.E.F. By this separation two divisions seem to have been lost. The Germans claim that they have captured General Prioux. The paper says that the Germans have divided the line from Lille and Dunkirk and that there are some hills in Belgium which afford natural defence lines. The Germans were trying to occupy these hills, one of which, Mount Cassel, they have captured. By that move they have been able to separate the French army. (After a time) I was wondering why the Allies were not erecting something like trenches around Dunkirk to defend it more effectively against mechanised tanks, and I now find that they have done exactly that.
Satyendra: Yes, they have dug moats and flooded the area. What news about Narvik? (Laughter)
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, now we find that Narvik was taken by the French, Poles and Norwegians. The British helped only with their navy.
Purani: Sisir told me to ask Azizul Huque for the Calcutta University publications for our Ashram. Huque consented to give them. It seems he was only an ordinary pleader at Krishnanagar. It was because he was somehow connected with Fazlul Huque that he got a lift.
Sri Aurobindo: Oh, he belongs to the Huque dynasty?
Evening
Purani: The Allies did not seem to have correct information about the strength of the German air force. Their espionage system wasn’t very efficient. Neither did they know the strength of the German mechanised units.
Sri Aurobindo: No.
Purani: What a tremendous number of planes they have brought forth! They must have about 20,000, I suppose.
Nirodbaran: But not very efficient.
Sri Aurobindo: Even as regards their tanks they are inferior to the French ones, it seems.
Purani: Yes, one French tank is almost equal to two or three German ones.
Sri Aurobindo: You saw the story of two Frenchmen attacking, like the Abyssinians, a German tank with revolvers. As soon as the German tank driver saw the revolvers, he cried out, “Kamarad” and surrendered. (Laughter) The Germans act by sheer mass drive and daring. But individually the soldiers were better in the Kaiser’s time. They had more initiative.
Satyendra: If Italy joins in, the French will be in a difficult position. They will attack France from the south.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but the observers say that France has kept a big army there.
Satyendra: Yes.
Nirodbaran: It seems Italy is going to attack Egypt, Tunis and Corsica first. The Russians call it all bluff.
Purani: Their breaking off of trade negotiations with England is significant.
Sri Aurobindo: Still England hopes for an agreement!
Nirodbaran: The Amrita Bazar says that due to the influence of a certain general, Leopold surrendered.
Sri Aurobindo: The Amrita Bazar?
Nirodbaran: It is a special cable news. And Leopold’s sister and mother also, who were in Rome, exercised their influence on him. This general had been to Rome and returned just three days before the surrender. It seems Hitler exerted his influence through Mussolini and has promised Leopold the kingship of Holland. (The paper was shown to Sri Aurobindo and after reading it he asked us to give it to Pavitra for the Mother to see.)
Sri Aurobindo: Then what the Mother said comes true. She said that it might be due to some pro-Nazi general and the influence of his mother that he surrendered. (Looking at Nirodbaran) Have you seen what Rukmini Devi says?
Nirodbaran: No.
Sri Aurobindo: She says that it is not fair to blame the King and to demonstrate before the statue of King Albert in that way. She was in sympathy with Belgium.