Bande Mataram

 

CONTENTS

 

Pre-content

 

 

Part One

Writings and a Resolution 1890 ­ 1906

 

India Renascent

India and the British Parliament

 

New Lamps for Old

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

At the Turn of the Century

Old Moore for 1901

The Congress Movement

Fragment for a Pamphlet

Unity: An open letter

The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal

On the Bengali and the Mahratta

Bhawani Mandir

Ethics East and West

Resolution at a Swadeshi Meeting

A Sample-Room for Swadeshi Articles

On the Barisal Proclamation

 

 

Part Two

Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal 6 August ­ 15 October 1906

 

Bande Mataram 20-8-06

Darkness in Light 20.8.06

Our Rip Van Winkles 20.8.06

Indians Abroad 20.8.06

Officials on the Fall of Fuller 20.8.06

Cow Killing: An Englishman's Amusements in Jalpaiguri 20.8.06

 

Bande Mataram 27-8-06

Schools for Slaves 27.8.06

By the Way 27.8.06

 

Bande Mataram 28-8-06

The Mirror and Mr. Tilak 28.8.06

Leaders in Council 28.8.06

 

Bande Mataram 30-8-06

Loyalty and Disloyalty in East Bengal 30.8.06

By the Way 30.8.06

 

Bande Mataram 1-9-06

Lessons at Jamalpur 1.9.06

By the Way 1.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 3-9-06

By the Way 3.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 4-9-06

Partition and Petition 4.9.06

English Enterprise and Swadeshi 4.9.06

Sir Frederick Lely on Sir Bampfylde Fuller 4.9.06

Jamalpur 4.9.06

By the Way 4.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 8-9-06

The Times on Congress Reforms 8.9.06

By the Way 8.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 10-9-06

The Pro-Petition Plot 10.9.06

Socialist and Imperialist 10.9.06

The Sanjibani on Mr. Tilak 10.9.06

Secret Tactics 10.9.06

By the Way 10.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 11-9-06

A Savage Sentence 11.9.06

The Question of the Hour 11.9.06

A Criticism 11.9.06

By the Way 11.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 12-9-06

The Old Policy and the New 12.9.06

Is a Conflict Necessary? 12.9.06

The Charge of Vilification 12.9.06

Autocratic Trickery 12.9.06

By the Way 12.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 13-9-06

Strange Speculations 13.9.06

The Statesman under Inspiration 13.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 14-9-06

A Disingenuous Defence 14.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 17-9-06

Last Friday's Folly 17.9.06

Stop-gap Won't Do 17.9.06

By the Way 17.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 18-9-06

Is Mendicancy Successful? 18.9.06

By the Way 18.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 20-9-06

By the Way 20.9.06

 

Bande Mataram 1-10-06

By the Way 1.10.06

 

Bande Mataram 11-10-06

By the Way 11.10.06

 
 

Part Three

Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 24 October 1906 ­ 27 May 1907

 

Bande Mataram 29-10-06

The Famine near Calcutta 29.10.06

Statesman's Sympathy Brand 29.10.06

By the Way. News from Nowhere 29.10.06

 

Bande Mataram 30-10-06

The Statesman's Voice of Warning 30.10.06

Sir Andrew Fraser 30.10.06

By the Way. Necessity Is the Mother of Invention 30.10.06

 

Bande Mataram Nov-Dec

Articles Published in the Bande Mataram in November and December 1906

 

Bande Mataram 26-12-06

The Man of the Past and the Man of the Future 26.12.06

 

Bande Mataram 31-12-06

The Results of the Congress 31.12.06

 

Bande Mataram 25-2-07

Yet There Is Method in It 25.2.07

 

Bande Mataram 28-2-07

Mr. Gokhale's Disloyalty 28.2.07

 

Bande Mataram 15-3-07

The Comilla Incident 15.3.07

 

Bande Mataram 18-3-07

British Protection or Self-Protection 18.3.07

 

Bande Mataram 29-3-07

The Berhampur Conference 29.3.07

 

Bande Mataram 2-4-07

The President of the Berhampur Conference 2.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 3-4-07

Peace and the Autocrats 3.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 5-4-07

Many Delusions 5.4.07

By the Way. Reflections of Srinath Paul, Rai Bahadoor, on the Present Discontents 5.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 6-4-07

Omissions and Commissions at Berhampur 6.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 8-4-07

The Writing on the Wall 8.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 9-4-07

A Nil-admirari Admirer 9.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 10-4-07

Pherozshahi at Surat 10.4.07

A Last Word 10.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 11-4-07

The Situation in East Bengal 11.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 11-23-4-07

The Doctrine of Passive Resistance 11 ­ 23.4.07

I. Introduction

II. Its Object

III. Its Necessity

IV. Its Methods

V. Its Obligations

VI. Its Limits

VII. Conclusions

 

Bande Mataram 12-4-07

The Proverbial Offspring 12.4.07

By the Way 12.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 13-4-07

By the Way 13.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 16-4-07

The Old Year 16.4.07

Rishi Bankim Chandra 16.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 17-4-07

A Vilifier on Vilification 17.4.07

By the Way. A Mouse in a Flutter 17.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 18-4-07

Simple, Not Rigorous 18.4.07

British Interests and British Conscience 18.4.07

A Recommendation 18.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 19-4-07

An Ineffectual Sedition Clause 19.4.07

The Englishman as a Statesman 19.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 22-4-07

The Gospel according to Surendranath 22.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 23-4-07

A Man of Second Sight 23.4.07

Passive Resistance in the Punjab 23.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 24-4-07

By the Way 24.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 25-4-07

Bureaucracy at Jamalpur 25.4.07

Anglo-Indian Blunderers 25.4.07

The Leverage of Faith 25.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 26-4-07

Graduated Boycott 26.4.07

Instinctive Loyalty 26.4.07

Nationalism, Not Extremism 26.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 27-4-07S

hall India Be Free? The Loyalist Gospel 27.4.07

The Mask Is Off 27.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 29-4-07

Shall India Be Free? National Development and Foreign Rule 29.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 30-4-07

Shall India Be Free? 30.4.07

 

Bande Mataram 1-5-07

Moonshine for Bombay Consumption 1.5.07

The Reformer on Moderation 1.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 2-5-07

Shall India Be Free? Unity and British Rule 2.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 3-5-07

Extremism in the Bengalee 3.5.07

Hare or Another 3.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 6-5-07

Look on This Picture, Then on That 6.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 8-5-07

Curzonism for the University 8.5.07

Incompetence or Connivance 8.5.07

Soldiers and Assaults 8.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 9-5-07

By the Way 9.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 10-5-07

Lala Lajpat Rai Deported 10.5.07

 

 

Bande Mataram 11-5-07

The Crisis 11.5.07

Lala Lajpat Rai 11.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 13-5-07

Government by Panic 13.5.07

In Praise of the Government 13.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 14-5-07

The Bagbazar Meeting 14.5.07

A Treacherous Stab 14.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 15-5-07

How to Meet the Ordinance 15.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 16-5-07

Mr. Morley's Pronouncement 16.5.07

The Bengalee on the Risley Circular 16.5.07

What Does Mr. Hare Mean? 16.5.07

Not to the Andamans! 16.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 17-5-07

The Statesman Unmasks 17.5.07

Sui Generis 17.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 20-5-07

The Statesman on Mr. Mudholkar 20.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 22-5-07

The Government Plan of Campaign 22.5.07

The Nawab's Message 22.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 23-5-07

And Still It Moves 23.5.07

British Generosity 23.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 24-5-07

An Irish Example 24.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 25-5-07

The East Bengal Disturbances 25.5.07

Newmania 25.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 27-5-07

The Gilded Sham Again 27.5.07

National Volunteers 27.5.07

 

 

Part Four

Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo 28 May ­ 22 December 1907

 

Bande Mataram 28-5-07

The True Meaning of the Risley Circular 28.5.07

Cool Courage and Not Blood-and-Thunder Speeches 28.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 29-5-07

The Effect of Petitionary Politics 29.5.07

The Sobhabazar Shaktipuja 29.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 30-5-07

The Ordinance and After 30.5.07

A Lost Opportunity 30.5.07

The Daily News and Its Needs 30.5.07

Common Sense in an Unexpected Quarter 30.5.07

Drifting Away 30.5.07

 

Bande Mataram 1-6-07

The Question of the Hour 1.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 4-6-07

Regulated Independence 4.6.07

A Consistent Patriot 4.6.07

Holding on to a Titbit 4.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 5-6-07

Wanted, a Policy 5.6.07

Preparing the Explosion 5.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 6-6-07

A Statement 6.6.07

Law and Order 6.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 7-6-07

Defying the Circular 7.6.07

By the Way. When Shall We Three Meet Again? 7.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 8-6-07

The Strength of the Idea 8.6.07

Comic Opera Reforms 8.6.07

Paradoxical Advice 8.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 12-6-07

An Out-of-Date Reformer 12.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 14-6-07

The Sphinx 14.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 17-6-07

Slow but Sure 17.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 18-6-07

The Rawalpindi Sufferers 18.6.07

Look on This Picture and Then on That 18.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 19-6-07

The Main Feeder of Patriotism 19.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 20-6-07

Concerted Action 20.6.07

The Bengal Government's Letter 20.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 21-6-07

British Justice 21.6.07

The Moral of the Coconada Strike 21.6.07

The Statesman on Shooting 21.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 22-6-07

Mr. A. Chaudhuri's Policy 22.6.07

A Current Dodge 22.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 24-6-07

More about British Justice 24.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 25-6-07

Morleyism Analysed 25.6.07

Political or Non-Political 25.6.07

Hare Street Logic 25.6.07

The Tanjore Students' Resolution 26.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 26-6-07

The Statesman on Mr. Chaudhuri 26.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 27-6-07

"Legitimate Patriotism" 27.6.07

Khulna Oppressions 27.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 28-6-07

The Secret Springs of Morleyism 28.6.07

A Danger to the State 28.6.07

The New Thought. Personal Rule and Freedom of Speech and Writing

28.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 29-6-07

The Secret of the Swaraj Movement 29.6.07

Passive Resistance in France 29.6.07

By the Way 29.6.07

 

Bande Mataram 1-7-07

Stand Fast 1.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 2-7-07

The Acclamation of the House 2.7.07

Perishing Prestige 2.7.07

A Congress Committee Mystery 2.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 3-7-07

Europe and Asia 3.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 4-7-07

Press Prosecutions 4.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 5-7-07

Try Again 5.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 9-7-07

A Curious Procedure 9.7.07

Association and Dissociation 9.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 11-7-07

Industrial India 11.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 13-7-07

From Phantom to Reality 13.7.07

Audi Alteram Partem 13.7.07

Swadeshi in Education 13.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 15-7-07

Boycott and After 15.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 16-7-07

In Honour of Hyde and Humphreys 16.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 18-7-07

Angelic Murmurs 18.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 19-7-07

A Plague o' Both Your Houses 19.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 20-7-07

The Khulna Comedy 20.7.07

A Noble Example 20.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 22-7-07

The Korean Crisis 22.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 25-7-07

One More for the Altar 25.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 26-7-07

Srijut Bhupendranath 26.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 26-7-07

The Issue 29.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 30-7-07

District Conference at Hughly 30.7.07

Bureaucratic Alarms 30.7.07

 

Bande Mataram 6-8-07

The 7th of August 6.8.07

The Indian Patriot on Ourselves 6.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 7-8-07

Our Rulers and Boycott 7.8.07

Tonight's Illumination 7.8.07

Our First Anniversary 7.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 7-8-07

To Organise 10.8.07

Statutory Distinction 10.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 12-8-07

Marionettes and Others 12.8.07

A Compliment and Some Misconceptions 12.8.07

Pal on the Brain 12.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 13-8-07

Phrases by Fraser 13.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 17-8-07

To Organise Boycott 17.8.07

The Foundations of Nationality 17.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 20-8-07

Barbarities at Rawalpindi 20.8.07

The High Court Miracles 20.8.07

The Times Romancist 20.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 21-8-07

A Malicious Persistence 21.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 23-8-07

In Melancholy Vein 23.8.07

Advice to National College Students [Speech] 23.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 24-8-07

Sankaritola's Apologia 24.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 26-8-07

Our False Friends 26.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 27-8-07

Repression and Unity 27.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 31-8-07

The Three Unities of Sankaritola 31.8.07

 

Bande Mataram 3-9-07

Eastern Renascence 3.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 12-9-07

The Martyrdom of Bipin Chandra 12.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 14-9-07

Sacrifice and Redemption 14.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 20-9-07

The Un-Hindu Spirit of Caste Rigidity 20.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 21-9-07

Caste and Democracy 21.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 25-9-07

Bande Mataram Prosecution 25.9.07

Pioneer or Hindu Patriot? 25.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 26-9-07

The Chowringhee Pecksniff and Ourselves 26.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 28-9-07

The Statesman in Retreat 28.9.07

The Khulna Appeal 28.9.07

 

Bande Mataram 4-10-07

A Culpable Inaccuracy 4.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 5-10-07

Novel Ways to Peace 5.10.07

"Armenian Horrors" 5.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 7-10-07

The Vanity of Reaction 7.10.07

The Price of a Friend 7.10.07

A New Literary Departure 7.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 8-10-07

Protected Hooliganism -A Parallel 8.10.07

Mr. Keir Hardie and India 8.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 11-10-07

The Shadow of the Ordinance in Calcutta 11.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 23-10-07

The Nagpur Affair and True Unity 23.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 29-10-07

The Nagpur Imbroglio 29.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 31-10-07

English Democracy Shown Up 31.10.07

 

Bande Mataram 4-11-07

Difficulties at Nagpur 4.11.07

 

Bande Mataram 5-11-07

Mr. Tilak and the Presidentship 5.11.07

 

Bande Mataram 16-11-07

Nagpur and Loyalist Methods 16.11.07

The Life of Nationalism 16.11.07

 

Bande Mataram 18-11-07

By the Way. In Praise of Honest John 18.11.07

 

Bande Mataram 19-11-07

Bureaucratic Policy 19.11.07

 

Bande Mataram 2-12-07

About Unity 2.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 3-12-07

Personality or Principle? 3.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 4-12-07

More about Unity 4.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 5-12-07

By the Way 5.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 6-12-07

Caste and Representation 6.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 12-12-07

About Unmistakable Terms 12.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 13-12-07

The Surat Congress 13.12.07

Misrepresentations about Midnapore 13.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 14-12-07

Reasons of Secession 14.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 17-12-07

The Awakening of Gujarat 17.12.07

 

Bande Mataram 18-12-07

"Capturing the Congress" 18.12.07

Lala Lajpat Rai's Refusal 18.12.07

The Delegates' Fund 18.12.07

 
 

Part Five

Speeches 22 December 1907 ­ 1 February 1908

 

Speeches 13-1-08

Our Experiences in Bengal 13.1.08

 

Speeches 15-1-08

National Education 15.1.08

 

Speeches 19-1-08

The Present Situation 19.1.08

 

Speeches 24-1-08

The Meaning of Swaraj 24.1.08

 

Speeches 26-1-08

Swadeshi and Boycott 26.1.08

 

Speeches 29-1-08

Bande Mataram 29.1.08

 

Speeches 30-1-08

The Aims of the Nationalist Party 30.1.08

 

Speeches 31-1-08

Our Work in the Future 31.1.08

 

Speeches 1-2-08

Commercial and Educational Swarajya 1.2.08

 

 

Part Six

Bande Mataram

under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo with

Speeches Delivered during the Same Period 6 February ­ 3 May 1908

 

Bande Mataram 6-2-08

Revolutions and Leadership 6.2.08

 

Speeches 12-13-2-08

Speeches at Pabna 12 ­ 13.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 18-2-08S

waraj 18.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 19-2-08

The Future of the Movement 19.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 20-2-08

Work and Ideal 20.2.08

By the Way 20.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 21-2-08

The Latest Sedition Trial 21.2.08

Boycott and British Capital 21.2.08

Unofficial Commissions 21.2.08

The Soul and India's Mission 21.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 22-2-08

The Glory of God in Man 22.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 24-2-08

A National University 24.2.08

 

Bande Mataram 3-3-08

Mustafa Kamal Pasha 3.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 4-3-08

A Great Opportunity 4.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 5-3-08

Swaraj and the Coming Anarchy 5.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 7-3-08

The Village and the Nation 7.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 10-3-08

Welcome to the Prophet of Nationalism 10.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 11-3-08

The Voice of the Martyrs 11.3.08

Constitution-making 11.3.08

What Committee? 11.3.08

An Opportunity Lost 11.3.08

A Victim of Bureaucracy 11.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 12-3-08

A Great Message 12.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 13-3-08

The Tuticorin Victory 13.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 14-3-08

Perpetuate the Split! 14.3.08

Loyalty to Order 14.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 16-3-08

Asiatic Democracy 16.3.08

Charter or No Charter 16.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 17-3-08

The Warning from Madras 17.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 19-3-08

The Need of the Moment 19.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 20-3-08

Unity by Co-operation 20.3.08

The Early Indian Polity 20.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 21-3-08

The Fund for Sj. Pal 21.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 23-3-08

The Weapon of Secession 23.3.08

Sleeping Sirkar and Waking People 23.3.08

Anti-Swadeshi in Madras 23.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 24-3-08

Exclusion or Unity? 24.3.08

How the Riot Was Made 24.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 25-3-08

Oligarchy or Democracy? 25.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 26-3-08

Freedom of Speech 26.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 27-3-08

Tomorrow's Meeting 27.3.08

Well Done, Chidambaram! 27.3.08

The Anti-Swadeshi Campaign 27.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 28-3-08

Spirituality and Nationalism 28.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 30-3-08

The Struggle in Madras 30.3.08

A Misunderstanding 30.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 31-3-08

The Next Step 31.3.08

 

Bande Mataram 1-4-08

India and the Mongolian 1.4.08

Religion and the Bureaucracy 1.4.08

The Milk of Putana 1.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 2-4-08

Swadeshi Cases and Counsel 2.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 3-4-08

The Question of the President 3.4.08

The Utility of Ideals 3.4.08

Speech at Panti's Math 3.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 4-4-08

Convention and Conference 4.4.08

By the Way 4.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 6-4-08

The Constitution of the Subjects Committee 6.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 7-4-08

The New Ideal 7.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 9-4-08

The Asiatic Role 9.4.08

Love Me or Die 9.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 10-4-08

The Work Before Us 10.4.08

Campbell-Bannerman Retires 10.4.08

 

Speech 10-4-08

United Congress [Speech] 10.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 11-4-08

The Demand of the Mother 11.4.08

 

Speech 12-4-08

Baruipur Speech 12.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 13-4-08

Peace and Exclusion 13.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 14-4-08

Indian Resurgence and Europe 14.4.08

Om Shantih 14.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 18-4-08

Conventionalist and Nationalist 18.4.08

 

Speech 20-4-08

Palli Samiti [Speech] 20.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 22-4-08

The Future and the Nationalists 22.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 23-4-08

The Wheat and the Chaff 23.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 24-4-08

Party and the Country 24.4.08

The Bengalee Facing Both Ways 24.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 25-4-08

The One Thing Needful 25.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 29-4-08

New Conditions 29.4.08

Whom to Believe? 29.4.08

By the Way. The Parable of Sati 29.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 30-4-08

Leaders and a Conscience 30.4.08

An Ostrich in Colootola 30.4.08

By the Way 30.4.08

 

Bande Mataram 2-5-08

Nationalist Differences 2.5.08

Ideals Face to Face 2.5.08

 

 

 

Part Seven

Writings from Manuscripts 1907 ­ 1908

 

The Bourgeois and the Samurai

The New Nationalism

The Mother and the Nation

The Morality of Boycott

A Fragment

 

 

Appendixes

 

Appendix One

 

Incomplete Drafts of Three Articles

Draft of the Conclusion of "Nagpur and Loyalist Methods"

Draft of the Opening of "In Praise of Honest John"

Incomplete Draft of an Unpublished Article

 

 

Appendix Two

 

Writings and Jottings Connected with the Bande Mataram 1906 ­ 1908

"Bande Mataram" Printers & Publishers, Limited.

Draft of a Prospectus of 1907

Notes and Memos

 

 

Appendix Three

 

Nationalist Party Documents

 

 

Appendix Four

 

A Birthday Interview

 

NOTE ON THE TEXTS

Bande Mataram


{ CALCUTTA, April 23rd, 1908 }


 

The Wheat and the Chaff

 

The result of the Convention meeting at Allahabad is now certain and it seems that after a brief struggle Sir Pherozshah has prevailed. We have done much for reunion, and have striven in vain. The personality of Sir Pherozshah Mehta and the votes of his Bombay henchmen have overborne the feeble patriotism and wavering will of the Bengal Moderates and their Punjab supporters. The Convention has thrown in its lot with Minto and Morley and sacrificed the country at the altar of the bureaucracy and as the Bengal leaders have not dissociated themselves from the Convention we must hold that the entire Moderate party have agreed to betray the mandate of their country and the future of their people. For a brief moment God placed the destiny of India in their hands and gave them a free choice whether they would serve Him or self, the country or the bureaucracy. They have chosen, and chosen the worse course. They too have made the great refusal. Whatever may happen henceforth, they must be reckoned as servants of the alien bureaucrat disguised as patriots to deceive and mislead the people, enemies of Nationalism, foes of Indian independence who prefer the service of a foreign domination to the perils of a struggle for freedom. They have refused to serve the Mother with an undivided heart, they have placed the alien on the throne of her future and dared to think that she will accept a left hand and inferior chair at the side of his seat of empire. Let them serve the master they have chosen and find what wages he will give them for their service. No Nationalist henceforth can consent to seek reconciliation with them or clasp the hand that has sold the country for a foreign hire. A cleavage has been made between those who will suffer for their country

 

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and those who have declared that they will have no share in those sufferings, no part or lot in the great struggle of the future. It is well. We need waste no farther time in seeking a union with the men who before Surat had resolved on a disruption motived by the desire of bureaucratic favour and the fear of bureaucratic displeasure. The day of compromises is past. Frank, clear and unmistakable let the great issue stand for the country to decide as between the lovers of freedom and the lovers of servitude, between the men who palter with the demand of the Mother for whole-hearted service and those who have given all to her, between the politicians and the martyrs, between the advocates of a contradiction and the preachers of the unadorned Truth. On the one side the cry is "For India and freedom", on the other "For India and the bureaucracy". Whichever appeals to its heart and its intellect, the country will choose. Of the Conventionalists let us speak no farther. If any of them have it in them to repent, let them repent soon, for the hour of grace that is given them will be short and the punishment swift. Into the secrets of their hearts we cannot pry, and it may be that there are some of them whose will only half consented to the betrayal or whose intellectual clarity was too small to understand what they were doing. But man's fate is determined by his acts which produce mechanically their inevitable result and they must share the fortune of those with whom they have cast in their lot. Before the world is much older, they will see the fruits of their work and rejoice over them if they can.

For Nationalism a new era begins with the 19th of April 1908. The sharp division that it has created between the two parties will bring the strength of Nationalism, the sincerity of its followers and the validity of its principles to the fiercest test that any cause can undergo. Only that cause is God-created, entrusted with a mission, sure of victory which can stand by itself in a solitude, absolute and supreme, without visible shield or sword, exposed to all that the powers of the world can do to slay it, and yet survive. The powers of the world are the servants of God commissioned to test the purity of His workers, their faith, their courage, their self-devotion, His angels of destruction   

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who put forth their whole strength to uproot the infant faith and scatter its followers, so that the wheat may be sifted from the chaff, the true believers from the half believers, and the new religion grow by suffering to its intended stature. Every religion therefore has to begin with a period of persecution. The religion of Nationalism is already far on in this period and the retreat of the Conventionalists from the field of battle, their distinct repudiation of the new movement and its works, is the first fruit of the persecution. So much chaff has been sifted from the wheat, so many stones have been rejected by the great Builder from His material for the house He is building for our Mother. As time goes on, the test will be fiercer, the sifting more violent and the heavier part of the chaff, if any remains, will follow the lighter. Only the heart that is free from fear, the spirit that is full of faith, the soul that is passionate for realization will remain for the final test and the last purification. To men of doubtful views and undecided opinions the crisis precipitated by the decision of the Convention Committee will prove a cruel embarrassment. To all who have an emotional preference for the new ideas without a clear understanding of their supreme and urgent necessity, to all who understand the new ideas with their intellects only but have them not in their hearts, to all who, while loving and understanding the new ideas, have not faith to put aside the cloaks of prudence and dissimulation or courage to avow their faith openly before the world, the position is one of great perplexity. God is a hard master and will not be served by halves. All evasions, all subterfuges He cuts away and puts the question plain and loud; and before all mankind, before the friend ready to cut the ties of friendship asunder, before the enemy standing ready with lifted sword to slay the servants of God as soon as they confess their faith, it has to be answered: "Who is on the Lord's side?" Not once, not twice, but always that question is being put and the answer exacted. If you are unwilling to answer, either you do not believe that it is God's work you are doing and are therefore unfit for it, or you have insufficient faith in His power to get His work done without the help of your diplomacy and cunning, or you are unwilling 

 

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to meet any plain risks in His service. To serve God under a cover is easy, to stipulate for safety in doing the work is natural to frail human nature, to sympathise and applaud is cheap; but the work demands sterner stuff in the men who will do it and insists on complete service, fearless service and honest service. The waverer must make up his mind either to answer God's question or to give up the work. There is plenty for him to do in a cheap, safe and easy way if he cannot face the risks of self-devotion. He can hold Conferences, enrol himself as a member of the Convention's District Associations, open funds for national purposes, pass resolutions, sign petitions, hold patriotic interviews with Magistrates, Commissioners, Lieutenant-Governors, Governors and even perhaps with a live Viceroy; he can, if he is a barrister, plead in Swadeshi cases; he can take shares in profitable Swadeshi investments and boast himself a great Swadeshi worker, a captain of industry, a solid patriot; he can do real good to the country without peril to himself by subscribing to help National Education. In these and other ways he can satisfy his secret proclivities for the service of his country. But the days when this easy service could pass for Nationalism are numbered.

The work now before us is of the sternest kind and requires men of an unflinching sternness to carry it out. The hero, the martyr, the man of iron will and iron heart, the grim fighter whose tough nerves defeat cannot tire out nor danger relax, the born leader in action, the man who cannot sleep or rest while his country is enslaved, the priest of Kali who can tear his heart out of his body and offer it as a bleeding sacrifice on the Mother's altar, the heart of fire and the tongue of flame whose lightest word is an inspiration to self-sacrifice or a spur to action, for these the time is coming, the call will soon go forth. They are already here in the silence, in the darkness slowly maturing themselves, training the muscles of the will, tightening the strings of the heart so that they may be ready when the call comes. Whoever feels the power of service within him, let him make sure of himself while there is yet time; for the present is an hour of easy probation, of light tests in which the punishment of failure is also light, but whoever fails in the day that be coming, will be thrown away not   

 

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into the rubbish heap as the Conventionalists will be thrown, but into the fire of a great burning. For all who now declare themselves Nationalists the tests will be far severer than that before which the place-hunter, the title-hunter, the popularity-hunter, the politician of mixed motives and crooked ways, the trimmer, the light speaker and ready swearer of the old politics have paled and recoiled so early and so easily. The profession of Nationalism should not be lightly made but with a full sense of what it means and involves. The privilege of taking it is attended with severe pains and penalties for those who take it lightly. If we are few, it matters little, but it is of supreme importance that the stuff of which we are made should be sound. What the Mother needs is hard clear steel for her sword, hard massive granite for her fortress, wood that will not break for the handle of her bow, tough substance and true for the axle of her chariot. For the battle is near and the trumpet ready for the signal.   

 

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