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Chapter X Part IV
The United States of Europe
The idea of a
European Union was not new; it was present in the realm of ideas
from as early as 17th century based on multifarious
considerations like regional peace, Christian unity and
political unification. However, Sri Aurobindo envisaged a
European Union not for consolidation of Pan-European power and
prestige but as an intermediary and transitional step towards a
broader global unification of all mankind. Naturally a European
Union could not be a final dream as such a continental
consolidation would be ‘a reactionary step of the gravest kind
and might be attended with the most serious consequences to
human progress’ (The Ideal of Human Unity, pg 351).
Among the many
factors guiding the collective destiny of mankind, the
Time-Spirit or the Zeitgeist has its unenviable significance. In
1916, in the backdrop of World War I, the major European nations
had colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America and a United
States of Europe at that stage ‘would therefore mean a
federation of free European nations dominant over half-subject
Asia and possessor of parts of America and thereby standing in
uneasy proximity to nations still free and necessarily troubled,
alarmed and overshadowed by this giant immiscence. The
inevitable result would be in America to bring together more
closely the Latin Centre and South and the English-speaking
North and to emphasise immensely the Monroe Doctrine with
consequences which cannot easily be foreseen, while in Asia
there could be only one of two final endings to the situation,
either the disappearance of the remaining free Asiatic States or
a vast Asiatic resurgence and the recoil of Europe from Asia.
Such movements would be a prolongation of the old line of human
development and set at nought the new cosmopolitan conditions
created by modern culture and Science; but they are inevitable
if the nation-idea in the West is to merge into the Europe-idea,
that is to say, into the continental idea rather than into the
wider consciousness of a common humanity. ’ (Ibid, pg 352-353)
[The Monroe doctrine was the first US foreign policy statement
issued in 1823 to discourage European nations from establishing
footholds in USA. In 1904, this doctrine was further emboldened
with the Roosevelt Corollary that declared that the USA had the
right to interfere in the internal affairs of any Latin American
State if it overstepped its boundaries. True to Sri Aurobindo’s
speculation, the Monroe doctrine began to signify the Western
Hemisphere as a US ‘sphere of influence’, once USA became a
superpower.]
Such an outcome
would not be conducive for the global unification of mankind and
a ‘free association of free human aggregates’. In fact, even if
the European Union had colonizing, imperialistic set-ups, the
subject people would rebel and revolts and revolutions would
occur once a threshold of oppression was crossed. A somewhat
better solution could happen if a subject-nation was held for a
time till it attained a capacity for self-administration. After
all, even a ‘healthy political, social and economic foundation’
needs a ‘natural unfolding of the spiritual and ethical progress
of the race’ so as to ‘enable mankind to turn from its
preoccupation with these lower cares and begin at last that
development of its higher self which is the nobler part of its
potential destiny or, if not that, -- for who knows whether
Nature’s long experiment in the human type is foredoomed to
success or failure, -- at least the loftiest possibility of our
future which the human mind can envisage’(Ibid, pg 353-354).
In fact, Sri
Aurobindo had suggested a United States of Europe formed at that
turbulent post –World War I phase would not be able to function
in isolation without acknowledging the increasing importance of
America in world-politics, the importance of Japan and China and
the renewed stirrings of life in Asia. He therefore suggested
(I) The notion and definition of Europe could be expanded to
mean not only Europe ‘but all nations that had accepted the
principles of European civilization as the basis of their polity
and social organisation. This more philosophical formula has its
obvious or at least the specious advantage that it … recognizes
all the actually free or dominant nations in the circle of
proposed solidarity and holds out too the hope of admission into
the circle to others whenever they can prove…that they too have
come up to the European standard.’ (Ibid, pg 352).
(II) If a new supra-national order evolves in the aftermath
of World War I, it should ideally combine free nations like
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United States, the Latin republics
together with the imperial and colonizing nations of
Europe(Ibid, pg 353). A mere union of imperialistic and
colonizing nations of Europe would be vehemently reactionary.
The Time-Spirit
came as a saviour and the European Union began actually to
crystallize at an opportune time in history when imperialism had
receded, colonization had become a past phenomenon and the
Soviet puppet regimes ceased to exist after the dissolution of
the USSR. Finally, when the idea of European Union started
materializing, economic and cultural considerations became
equally as important as military and political prowess. In the
post World War II backdrop, it was a question of European
survival with strength between the two super-powers, the USA and
the USSR. After the disintegration of USSR and with
unprecedented economic crisis not sparing even the USA in the
second decade of the 21st century, the European Union
has also to take into cognizance emerging powers like China and
India and cannot overlook the strength of the Arab world. In
this context, it is interesting to note that Sri Aurobindo, even
in 1916 was worried about ‘the often expressed resentment of the
continual existence of Turkey in Europe and the desire to put an
end to this government of Europeans by Asiatics, -- yet as a
matter of fact it is inextricably tangled up with America and
Asia .’ (Ibid, pg 352) That controversy still persists after a
century and the entry into a new millennium with the European
Union still not unambiguous about the acceptance of Turkey in
its intrinsic fold. Critics differ on the Turkey affair
speculating whether European values are synonymous with
Christian values in modern Europe where Christianity has become
more ornamental than reflective. Perhaps this controversy could
be resolved if the European Union decided to define Europe in
the way Sri Aurobindo conceived.
Nevertheless,
the European Union is an important stepping stone towards a
global governance of a free universal association of free human
aggregates.
Date of Update:
13-Aug-12 - By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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