Chapter One: The Passing of War?

Part V

Commenting on Tolstoy's War and Peace and Norman Angell's The Great illusion, Sri Aurobindo commented that both were capable thinkers "but they ignored the one thing that matters, human nature". (CWSA 25, pg. 609) Tolstoy had opined that Science could stop wars through mathematical argument by armies coming to a standstill but to a certain extent that would hold true from a different perspective than visualized by Tolstoy. Sri Aurobindo points out what Tolstoy did not foresee, "scientific warfare has brought military movement to a standstill and baffled the strategist and the tactician, it has rendered decisive victory impossible except by overwhelming numbers or an overwhelming weight of artillery. But this has not made war impossible, it has only changed its character; it has at the most replaced the war of military decisions by that of military and financial exhaustion aided by the grim weapon of famine". (Ibid, pg.609-610)

Sri Aurobindo wrote this chapter in April, 1916. During 1914-1915 at the time of World War!, trench warfare had turned scientifically equipped armies into a military stalemate. Trench warfare involved digging long deep trenches by opposing armies and fighting from fixed positions leading to a stalemate instead of movement. At that time what was modern scientific weapons viz. machine guns, accurate rifles together with heavy artillery and continual reinforcement by railway supply - all made defense stronger than attack. Armies had become too lethal to attack and too equal to defeat prompting Sri Aurobindo to comment, "it has rendered decisive victory impossible". (Ibid, pg.610) In fact, the frozen nature of trench warfare where modern weapons supposedly made movements impossible made Sri Aurobindo write "The present war (World War 1) has justified to a certain extent the Russian writer though by developments he did not foresee". (Ibid, pg.609) In fact, trench warfare where two opposing armies with similar technology met resulted in an inability of the armies to advance without incurring massive losses and they were unable to retreat without collapse-an unique situation that led Sri Aurobindo to write that "scientific warfare has brought military movement to a standstill." (Ibid, pg.609-610) Thus science did not produce mastery but paralysis. One of the impacts of this stalemate was that future wars sought mobility at all costs to avoid another trench stalemate.

Sri Aurobindo introduces another dimension to the stalemate caused by trench warfare when he mentions, "it has at the most replaced the war of military decisions by that of military and financial exhaustion aided by the grim weapon of famine." (Ibid, pg.610) Why does he mention about the grim weapon of famine? War so long in the traditional sense was held between two armies in the battlefield but modern warfare in World War 1 extended to the whole civilian population by disrupting a nation internally by hunger. It is not a natural famine but a grim weapon of famine resulting in financial exhaustion. The classical example is the British naval blockade of Germany that severely restrained food imports resulting in the death of thousands of German civilians even before the war ended. The scientific war had become total and impersonal. Thus while trench warfare resulted in military blockade, famine was designed to break the deadlock.

Date of Update: 30-Jan-26