Lord Minto
on
Sri Aurobindo

Gibert Eliot, 4th Earl of Minto, was the Viceroy and Governor-General of India at the time of the British colonialism. He wrote some private letters to the Viscount John Morley, Secretary of State for India, on Sri Aurobindo. We offer here the extract of the letter dater 26 May 1910.

«As to the celebrated Arabindo, I confess, I cannot in the least understand your hope that we shall not get a conviction against him! I can only repeat what I said to you in my letter of April 14th that he is the most dangerous man we now have to reckon with… and has an unfortunate influence over the student class, and Indians who know him well have told me he is quite beyond redemption. Surely you cannot hope that such a man should remain at large? We had to consider two courses of procedure against him — deportation and prosecution in accordance with law. The former I was decidedly opposed to, though Indian who knew him intimately would have thought it thoroughly justified. The alternative was to proceed by the machinery of the law. As to this it has been an accepted action that Prosecutions are not to be undertaken unless there is good reason to believe that conviction will be obtained and the Bengal Government after consulting their legal advisers, satisfied themselves as to this. In the meanwhile Arabindo is in Pondicherry where he seems to have formed some undesirable French connections and will probably sail for France.»