August
15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the
end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make
it by our life and acts as a free nation an important date in a new
age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural
and spiritual future of humanity.
August 15th is
my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should
have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not
as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine
Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the
beginning of its full fruition. Indeed, on this day I can watch almost
all the world-movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime,
though then they looked like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition
or on their way to achievement. In all these movements free India
may well play a large part and take a leading position.
The first of these
dreams was a revolutionary movement which would create a free and
united India. India today is free but she has not achieved unity.
At one moment it almost seemed as if in the very act of liberation
she would fall back into the chaos of separate States which preceded
the British conquest. But fortunately it now seems probable that this
danger will be averted and a large and powerful, though not yet a
complete union will be established. Also, the wisely drastic policy
of the Constituent Assembly has made it probable that the problem
of the depressed classes will be solved without schism or fissure.
But the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to
have hardened into a permanent political division of the country.
It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled
for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it
lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife
may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign
conquest, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired
or even frustrated.
This must not
be; the partition must go. Let us hope that that may come about naturally,
by an increasing recognition of the necessity not only of peace and
concord but of common action, by the practice of common action and
the creation of means for that purpose. In this way unity may finally
come about under whatever form - the exact form may have a pragmatic
but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, in whatever
way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it
is necessary for the greatness of India's future.
Another dream
was for the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and
her return to her great role in the progress of human civilisation.
Asia has arisen; large parts are now quite free or are at this moment
being liberated: its other still subject or partly subject parts are
moving through whatever struggled towards freedom. Only a little has
to be done and that will be done today or tomorrow. There India has
her part to play and has begun to play it with an energy and ability
which already indicate the measure of her possibilities and the place
she can take in the council of the nations.
The third dream
was a world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter
and nobler life for all mankind. That unification of the human
world is under way; there is an imperfect initiation organised by
struggling against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there
and it must inevitably increase and conquer. Here too India has begun
to play a prominent part and, if she can develop that larger statesmanship
which is not limited by the present facts and immediate possibilities
but looks into the future and brings it nearer, her presence may make
all the difference between a slow and timid and a bold and swift development.
A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being
done, but even then the final result is sure. For unification is a
necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement. Its necessity for the
nations is also clear, for without it the freedom of the small nations
may be at any moment in peril and the life even of the large and powerful
nations insecure. The unification is therefore to the interests of
all, and only human imbecility and stupid selfishness can prevent
it; but these cannot stand for ever against the necessity of Nature
and the Divine Will. But an outward basis is not enough; there must
grow up an international spirit and outlook, international forms and
institutions must appear, perhaps such developments, as dual or multilateral
citizenship, willed interchange or voluntary fusion of cultures. Nationalism
will have fulfilled itself and lost it militancy and would no longer
find these things incompatible with self-preservation and the integrality
of its outlook. A new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human
race.
Another
dream, the spiritual gift of India to the world has already
begun. India's spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever
increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of
the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and
there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but
to her psychic and spiritual practice.
The final dream
was a step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger
consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have
perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream
of individual perfection and a perfect society. This is still a personal
hope and an idea, an ideal which has begun to take hold both in India
and in the West on forward-looking minds, The difficulties in the
way are more formidable than in any other field of endeavour, but
difficulties were made to be overcome and if the Supreme Will is there,
they will be overcome. Here too, if this evolution is to take place,
since it must proceed through a growth of the spirit and the inner
consciousness, the initiative can come from India and, although the
scope must be universal, the central movement may be hers.
Such is the content
which I put into this date of India's liberation; whether or how far
this hope will be justified depends upon the new and free India.
Sri
Aurobindo was requested by the All India Radio, Thiruchirapalli
(former
Trichinopoly ), to
give a message for India's independence. This is the message which was
broadcast from the All India Radio on the 14th of August 1947. It is
of special relevance and importance even now. 
