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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. India's
internal development and prosperity may be impeded, 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 &emdash; 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 civilization.
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 struggles 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 organized but 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 its 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 endeavor, 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.
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