Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

13 August 1940

Nirodbaran: Azad has refused to see the Viceroy.

Sri Aurobindo: He has refused?

Nirodbaran: Yes, he says that as there is no common ground, no use of any interview.

Satyendra: They will send a formal reply after the Working Committee meeting.

Nirodbaran: And Nehru finds a wide gulf between the Congress demand and the Viceroy’s statement.

Sri Aurobindo: Oh Nehru! But he should have seen the Viceroy. At least Gandhi would have done that.

Purani: No. All the same, since Kher and others are meeting the Viceroy they will know what he has to say.

Sri Aurobindo: Where is the Viceroy now? In Hyderabad?

Purani: Perhaps. He wants twenty crores from the Nizam, it seems.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, that is because the Nizam is anti-British, perhaps? So the Viceroy wants to squeeze out whatever he can before the English go down. Doesn’t want to leave anything for Hitler. (Laughter)

Nirodbaran: But why is the Nizam anti-British?

Sri Aurobindo: Don’t know, this is a funny world – a joke.

Purani: Montbrun has already made a broadcast from Madras. He has now left for England to fight. He wants to be somebody and if England wins, he may be that.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, if England wins. But that is the risk an ambitious person has to take, and he is very ambitious.

Purani: Dara has become double now. How fat he has grown!

Sri Aurobindo: Is there room for that? And will his room hold him?