Aurobindo Ghosh, one of the leading personalities of the revolutionary Bengal, during the latter part of his life became a saint when he came to be known as ‘Sri Aurobindo’ or ‘Rishi Aurobindo’.
He belonged to an anglicized family and was sent to England for study by his father. In about 1893 he returned to India. Here he began his career as the Vice-Principal of Baroda College.
It is mentionworthy here that despite family background and education in England Aurobindo felt no attraction for the English way of life. To him Indian religion and tradition appeared to be far superior to the western culture.
Aurobindo’s political career began in India when he took lively interest in it by writing columns for Induprakash, a Marathi daily published from Bombay. Aurobindo through his writings expressed dissatisfaction over the policy of ‘prayer and petition’ pursued by the moderate leaders of the Indian National Congress.
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It was during his stay in Baroda that revolutionary ideology made a powerful impact on him. Gradually Aurobindo established contacts “with revolutionary secret societies of Maharashtra which had already emerged there. Also he sought to channelize kindered development in this regard in Bengal to regular movement.
In fact, in 1902 Aurobindao sent from Baroda one of his agents to Bengal in order to organise secret society for revolutionary or terrorist activities. It is relevant to note that Margaret Elizabeth Noble, better known as ‘Sister Nivedita’, showed keen interest in the attempt made by Aurobindo and soon became associated with it.
Swadeshi upsurge in Bengal brought Aurobindo from Baroda to Calcutta, in 1906, accepting the post of Principal of the newly established National College (present Jadavpur University).
In that very year under his initiative ‘Bande Mataram’, a daily newspaper in English, was revived and he became its editor. Another newspaper that he used to edit was ‘Karmayogin’.
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Through these papers he propagated his political philosophy and popularized theories of nationalism. Swaraj had a different meaning for Aurobindo. He understood it as complete freedom-‘the life and breath of nation’.
Aurobindo’s propagandist activities led to several revolutionary outrages in Bengal. Meanwhile the British government implicated Aurobindo in the Alipore Conspiracy Case (1908-09). After a prolonged trial, in which Aurobindo was brilliantly defended by Chittaranjan Das, he was acquitted.
After his release from the prison Aurobindo was a changed man. He now began to advocate ‘spiritual and moral regeneration’ as a pre-condition for political advancement.
Later on, in 1910, Aurobindo left Chandernagore for Pondicherry where he concentrated on Yoga sadhana, writing and training his disciples. Thus came to an end the career of Aurobindo as a political leader who had deep influence on contemporary Indian politics.