Sri Aurobindo

“ On bur action now it depended whether salvation came swiftly or were put off and the struggle and suffering prolonged for decades.
On their fidelity to Swadeshi, to boycott, to passive resistance rested the hope of a peaceful and spiritual salvation. On that it depended whether India would give the example unprecedented in history of a revolution worked out by moral force and peaceful pressure. For on the 7th August the strength of the nation would be measured, not the numerical strength, but the moral strength which was greater than anything physical. ”

“ So long as in this country there were a few who had the courage of their faith, so long as there were even a few who were ready to proclaim their faith and live it, there was no fear for the ultimate triumph of the faithful. ”

“ Well, if it were true that only fear made them take to passive resistance, if they flinched now from the boycott because some had been deported, if they ceased to proclaim the ideal of Swaraj, if they ceased to preach the boycott, then only it would be true that they had adopted an ideal that they could not reach and proclaimed means of reaching it in which they did not believe, because they were anxious to save their skin. ”

“ Those who are led away by the reforms would not only diminish the powers of this country but lead others into the wrong path.
Only two or three days ago, his fears were confirmed. Certain utterances had come from one from whom they were least expected — one who had served and made sacrifices for the country. He said that those who spread the gospel of Swaraj were madmen outside the lunatic asylum and those who preached passive resistance as a means of gaining Swaraj were liars who did not speak out their real thoughts to save their skin ”

“ The position was such that if reforms gave any increase and enlargement of the people's rights or rather a beginning in that direction — for at present the people had no real right or share in the government — any beginning of the kind meant a shrinking of bureaucratic powers. ”

“ In his anxiety to help the Indians he followed the ancient maxim that truth meant only whatever was for the good of others. Unfortunately the judge would not take that large view of the matter. And so our friend was silently suffering. (A voice: "Passive resistance." Laughter) His friend said that he had heard that Sj. Aurobindo Ghose had promised to devote himself to literature and religion, and it was strange that Mr. Ghose should go to Jhalakati and make speeches on Swadeshi and boycott. ”