Sri Aurobindo

Autobiographical Notes

and Other Writings of Historical Interest

Part Two. Letters of Historical Interest

1. Letters on Personal, Practical and Political Matters (1890–1926)

Open Letters. Published in Newspapers 1909–1925

To the Editor of the Hindu [1]¹

Babu Aurobindo Ghose at Pondicherry

A Statement

Babu Aurobindo Ghose writes to us from 42, Rue de Pavillon, Pondicherry, under date November 7, 1910: –

I shall be obliged if you will allow me to inform every one interested in my whereabouts through your journal that I am and will remain in Pondicherry. I left British India over a month before proceedings were taken against me and, as I had purposely retired here in order to pursue my Yogic sadhana undisturbed by political action or pursuit and had already severed connection with my political work, I did not feel called upon to surrender on the warrant for sedition, as might have been incumbent on me if I had remained in the political field. I have since lived here as a religious recluse, visited only by a few friends, French and Indian, but my whereabouts have been an open secret, long known to the agents of the Government and widely rumoured in Madras as well as perfectly well-known to every one in Pondicherry. I find myself now compelled, somewhat against my will, to give my presence here a wider publicity. It has suited certain people for an ulterior object to construct a theory that I am not in Pondicherry, but in British India, and I wish to state emphatically that I have not been in British India since March last and shall not set foot on British territory even for a single moment in the future until I can return publicly. Any statement by any person to the contrary made now or in the future, will be false. I wish, at the same time, to make it perfectly clear that I have retired for the time from political activity of any kind and that I will see and correspond with no one in connection with political subjects. I defer all explanation or justification of my action in leaving British India until the High Court in Calcutta shall have pronounced on the culpability or innocence of the writing in the Karmayogin on which I am indicted.

published 8 November 1910

¹ 7 November 1910. Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Pondicherry on 1 April 1910. Shortly thereafter the Government of Bengal issued a warrant for his arrest on the charge of sedition for an open letter that had been published in the weekly newspaper Karmayogin on 25 December 1909. Sri Aurobindo remained incognito in Pondicherry until 7 November 1910, when he wrote this letter announcing his presence in the French enclave and his retirement from politics. He deferred “all explanation or justification of [his] action” until the Calcutta High Court had ruled on the appeal of the conviction of the printer in the Karmayogin sedition case. Coincidentally, that same day the Calcutta High Court threw out the printer’s conviction, thus nullifying the charges against Sri Aurobindo. His letter was published in the Hindu on 8 November.

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