Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910 — No.28
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review
Saturday 15th January 1910 — No.28
Facts and Opinions
The Arya Samaj and Politics
We have received a communication from a member of the Samaj in which he puts to us certain pointed questions relating to the aims, character and works of the Samaj and of its founder's teachings.
We have not that direct and firsthand knowledge which would enable us to answer these questions with any authority.
But on the general question our views are known.
Aryaism is not an independent religion.
It is avowedly an 
attempt to revive the Vedic religion in its pristine purity.
The Vedic religion is a national religion, and it embraces in its scope all the various activities of the national life.
Swami Dayananda as a restorer of Vedicism included the theory of politics in his scope and revealed the intensely national character of the Hindu religion and morality.
His work was avowedly a work of national regeneration.
In dealing with the theory of politics as based on the Vedic religion he had naturally to include the truth that independence is the true and normal condition of a nation and all lapse into subjection must be a sin and degeneration, temporary in its nature.
No man can deny this great truth.
Freedom is the goal of humanity and Aryaism was in its nature a gospel of freedom, individual freedom, social freedom, intellectual freedom, freedom in all things, and the accomplishment of such an all-pervading liberation cannot come about without bringing national freedom in its train.
If to perceive these truths of Vedism and of nature is to be political and seditious, then Swami Dayananda's teaching was political and seditious and the religion he preached may be stigmatised as political and seditious.
But if sedition be limited to its proper meaning, an attempt by illegal and violent means to bring about the fall of the established authority or prepare by word or action lawless opposition and revolution, then there is no sedition in the Swami's preaching or in the belief and actions of the Arya Samaj.
They use the perfectly legitimate means of strengthening the national life at all points and their objective is national regeneration through an active and free religion, not political revolution.
Individual members may be Loyalists, Moderates, Nationalists, even Terrorists, but a religious body is not responsible for the political opinions of its individual members.
The religious teaching of Swami Dayananda was inspired by national motives, not political; and the aims of the Arya Samaj are national, not political.