CHINESE OCCUPATION OF TIBET :

Timely warning

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RESPONSE: Letter to the Editor of BORDER AFFAIRS

Source: BORDER AFFAIRS, N. Delhi :

October-December 2001

In his article, "India must notice the advancing dragon" (Border Affairs, July-September), Mr Vijay Kranti presents the Chinese strategy precisely and succinctly. Alas, even though the euphoria of "Hindi-Chini bhai, bhai" is mercifully dead, still ostrich-like the whole nation is trying to overlook the problem and the peril. Mr Kranti has the courage to raise the issue and astuteness to see the Chinese perfidy and warn the nation about it. His voice, alas, is a cry in wilderness.

The seer, Sri Aurobindo, saw the grave peril and warned India about it in 1950. He wrote then - 12 years before the Chinese attack on India in 1962 - in his book, The ideal of human unity: "In Asia a more perilous situation has arisen standing sharply across the way of any possibility of a continental unity of the peoples of this part of the world, in the emergence of Communist China. This creates a gigantic bloc which could easily engalobe the whole of northern Asia in a combination between two enormous Communist powers, Russia and China, and would overshadow with a threat of absorption of South Western Asia and Tibet and might be pushed to overrun all up to the whole frontier of India, menacing her security and that of western Asia with the possibility of an invasion and an overrunning and subjection by penetration or even by overwhelming military force to an unwanted ideology, political and social institutions and dominance of this militant mass of Communism whose push might easily prove irresistible."

In June, 1950, Mr K.D.Sethna, editor of the Mother India, a magazine of Sri Aurobindo ashram, wrote a letter to Sri Aurobindo seeking his guidelines on the Korean crisis. On June 28, 1950, Sri Aurobindo wrote in reply: "The affair is as plain as a pikestaff. It is the first move in the Communist plan of campaign to dominate and take possession, first of these northern parts and then of South-East Asia as a preliminary to their manoeuvres with regard to the rest of the continent - in passing Tibet, as a gate into India. If they succeed, there is no reason why domination of the whole world should not follow by steps..."

I may also recall that Mr Sudhir Ghosh, an emissary of Mahatma Gandhi at one time and a disciple of Sri Aurobindo later, met President Kennedy of the United States on March 28, 1963, and showed him as the last testament of the seer written on November 11, 1950, the following passage: "The basic significance of Mao's Tibetan adventure is to advance China's frontiers right down to India and stand poised there to strike at the right moment and with the right strategy, unless India precipitately declares herself on the side of the Communist block ... The gesture that can save is to take a firm line with China, denounce openly her nefarious intentions, stand without reservation by the United States and make every possible arrangement consonant with our self-respect to facilitate an American intervention in our favour and, what is of still greater moment, an American prevention of Mao's evil designs on India... We must burn it into our minds that the primary motive of Mao's attack on Tibet is to threaten India as soon as possible."

After being told by Mr Sudhir Ghosh who Sri Aurobindo was, President Kennedy read the words of the seer's last testament several times over and said:

"Surely there is a typing mistake here. The date must have been 1960, and not 1950. You mean to say that a man devoted to meditation and contemplation, sitting in one corner of India, said this about the intentions of Communist China as early as 1950?"

On being pointed out by Mr Ghosh that Sri Aurobindo had passed away in December 1950, Kennedy was somewhat shocked. "So there you are," said Kennedy. "One great Indian, Nehru, showed you the path of non-alignment between China and America, and another great Indian, Aurobindo, showed you another way of survival. The choice is up to the people of India."

There is yet another incident recounted to me by a person who had heard it from the late Surendra Mohan Ghosh, a freedom fighter who later became a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha. Ghosh was a follower of Sri Aurobindo and was the only person to have the rare privilege of meeting the seer every time he visited the Ashram even after Sri Aurobindo had withdrawn into his chamber on November 24, 1926, to give darshan to his disciples and devotees only four times in a year.

In 1950, Ghosh as usual went for Sri Aurobindo's darshan not knowing that it would be his last meeting. As Ghosh turned after offering pranama, Sri Aurobindo asked him: "You have not asked me about China?" Ghosh understood that Sri Aurobindo wanted to reveal some thing. Therefore, he waited in respectful silence. After a pause, Sri Aurobindo said: "China will disintegrate. It will break into three parts."

"Border Affairs" is a unique magazine. Once I get it I cannot put it down without finishing. I wish all our politicians would read it. Understandably most of "Border Affairs" is taken up by the Kashmir problem. All of us are deeply concerned at what is happening there. But then in one way or the other, the Kashmir problem is festering since Independence. In this respect, too, I wish to bring to your notice the words of the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the foremost disciple of the seer, as quoted by Nolini Kant Gupta:

"Not so long ago, the air was thick with rumours of a possible danger of a crisis for India: this was a little before the Chinese attack. Was India going to be invaded and subjugated by a foreign power once again? India was no doubt big and had ample resources in manpower. But her manpower was little more than that of a rabble, it lacked the cohesion of organised military strength. The question was put to the Mother at the Playground. The Mother gave a smile and pointing to the map of India on the wall, said:

'Can't you see who is guarding India? Isn't the north-eastern portion of Kashmir a lion's head with its jaws wide open?' The portion indicated does have the appearance of a lion's head as you can see if you look at it closely. Its nozzle projects with wide open mouth facing the front as if ready to swallow up anyone who dares to come. It is the lion of Durga."

- (Ms) Shyam Kumari,

C/O Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Vraja,

22 Lally Tollendal Street, Pondicherry - 605002.

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