Patriotic Streaks in Indian English Poetry: A Special reference to the Poetry of Sri Aurobindo

Literature has played an important role in history. It has been used and is still being used as a tool of propaganda. At the same time, it would be safe to say that literature has played a huge role pretty much in every major revolution in history. India is no exception. As we celebrate 71 years of Independence, it would behove us to remember the role of pre-Independence literature in our freedom struggle. Unlike other poets that appeared during this period, the poets like Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu wrote with an intense awareness of not only the country’s socio- political needs, but also its spiritual needs. Sri Aurobindo Ghose, the happy synthesis of the East and the West, was the master who imbibed styles and techniques of the western masters like Spenser, Milton, English romantics, Dante and the Greek and Latin masters and grew to spiritual heights, drawing heavily from his spiritual resources. Fired with religious fervor he preached Nationalism as a religion and he, the prophet of this new religion, infused by his precept and example the courage and strength into every one that came into touch with him. His emergence in Indian politics was as sudden as it was unexpected. Of him it may be truly said that he awoke one morning and found himself famous or that he came, he saw, and he conquered. He rose like a meteor and vanished like it – from the political atmosphere; but unlike the meteor, the dazzling light he shed on Indian politics did not vanish with him. The torch which he lighted continued to illumine Indian politics till it passed into the hands of worthy successors who led it to its distant goal.” This paper is an attempt to highlight the role of Sri Aurobindo in the Indian Freedom Movement.