Bande Mataram
CONTENTS
Part One Writings and a Resolution 1890 1906 |
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India and the British Parliament
The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal On the Bengali and the Mahratta Resolution at a Swadeshi Meeting |
Part Two
Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal 6 August 15 October 1906
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
Schools for Slaves 27.8.06
By the Way
27.8.06
The Mirror and Mr. Tilak
28.8.06
Leaders in Council 28.8.06
Loyalty and Disloyalty in East Bengal
30.8.06
By the Way 30.8.06
Lessons at Jamalpur
1.9.06
By the Way 1.9.06
By the Way
3.9.06
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
The Times on Congress Reforms
8.9.06
By the Way 8.9.06
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
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
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
Strange
Speculations 13.9.06
The Statesman under
Inspiration 13.9.06
A Disingenuous
Defence 14.9.06
Last Friday's Folly
17.9.06
Stop-gap Won't Do
17.9.06
By the Way 17.9.06
Is Mendicancy
Successful? 18.9.06
By the Way 18.9.06
By the Way 20.9.06
By the Way 1.10.06
By the Way 11.10.06
Part Three
Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo
24 October 1906 27 May 1907
The Famine near Calcutta
29.10.06
Statesman's Sympathy Brand 29.10.06
By the Way. News from Nowhere
29.10.06
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
Articles Published in the Bande Mataram in November and December 1906
The Man of the Past and the Man of the
Future 26.12.06
The Results of the Congress
31.12.06
Yet There Is Method in It 25.2.07
Mr. Gokhale's Disloyalty
28.2.07
The Comilla Incident 15.3.07
British Protection or Self-Protection
18.3.07
The Berhampur Conference 29.3.07
The President of the Berhampur Conference
2.4.07
Peace and the Autocrats 3.4.07
Many Delusions
5.4.07
By the Way.
Reflections of Srinath Paul, Rai Bahadoor, on the Present Discontents
5.4.07
Omissions and Commissions at Berhampur 6.4.07
The Writing on the Wall
8.4.07
A Nil-admirari Admirer 9.4.07
Pherozshahi at Surat
10.4.07
A Last Word 10.4.07
The Situation in East Bengal
11.4.07
The Doctrine of Passive Resistance 11 23.4.07
I.
Introduction
II.
Its Object
III.
Its Necessity
IV.
Its Methods
VI.
Its Limits
VII.
Conclusions
The Proverbial Offspring
12.4.07
By the Way 12.4.07
By the Way
13.4.07
The Old Year 16.4.07
Rishi Bankim Chandra
16.4.07
A Vilifier on Vilification 17.4.07
By the Way. A Mouse in a Flutter
17.4.07
Simple, Not Rigorous 18.4.07
British Interests and British Conscience
18.4.07
A Recommendation 18.4.07
An Ineffectual Sedition Clause
19.4.07
The Englishman as a Statesman 19.4.07
The Gospel according to Surendranath
22.4.07
A Man of Second Sight 23.4.07
Passive Resistance in the Punjab
23.4.07
By the Way 24.4.07
Bureaucracy at Jamalpur
25.4.07
Anglo-Indian Blunderers 25.4.07
The Leverage of Faith
25.4.07
Graduated Boycott 26.4.07
Instinctive Loyalty
26.4.07
Nationalism, Not Extremism 26.4.07
hall India Be Free? The Loyalist Gospel
27.4.07
The Mask Is Off 27.4.07
Shall India Be Free? National Development
and Foreign Rule 29.4.07
Shall India Be Free?
30.4.07
Moonshine for Bombay Consumption
1.5.07
The Reformer on Moderation 1.5.07
Shall India Be Free? Unity and British Rule
2.5.07
Extremism in the Bengalee 3.5.07
Hare or Another
3.5.07
Look on This Picture, Then on That 6.5.07
Curzonism for the University
8.5.07
Incompetence or Connivance 8.5.07
Soldiers and Assaults
8.5.07
By the Way 9.5.07
Lala Lajpat Rai Deported
10.5.07
The Crisis 11.5.07
Lala Lajpat Rai
11.5.07
Government by Panic 13.5.07
In Praise of the Government
13.5.07
The Bagbazar Meeting 14.5.07
A Treacherous Stab
14.5.07
How to Meet the Ordinance 15.5.07
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
The Statesman Unmasks
17.5.07
Sui Generis 17.5.07
The Statesman on Mr. Mudholkar
20.5.07
The Government Plan of Campaign 22.5.07
The Nawab's Message
22.5.07
And Still It Moves 23.5.07
British Generosity
23.5.07
An Irish Example 24.5.07
The East Bengal Disturbances
25.5.07
Newmania 25.5.07
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
The True Meaning of the Risley Circular 28.5.07
Cool Courage and Not Blood-and-Thunder
Speeches 28.5.07
The Effect of Petitionary Politics
29.5.07
The Sobhabazar Shaktipuja 29.5.07
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
The Question of the Hour 1.6.07
Regulated Independence
4.6.07
A Consistent Patriot 4.6.07
Holding on to a Titbit
4.6.07
Wanted, a Policy 5.6.07
Preparing the Explosion
5.6.07
A Statement 6.6.07
Law and Order
6.6.07
Defying the Circular 7.6.07
By the Way. When
Shall We Three Meet Again? 7.6.07
The Strength of the Idea
8.6.07
Comic Opera Reforms 8.6.07
Paradoxical Advice
8.6.07
An Out-of-Date Reformer 12.6.07
The Sphinx
14.6.07
Slow but Sure 17.6.07
The Rawalpindi Sufferers
18.6.07
Look on This Picture and Then on That 18.6.07
The Main Feeder of Patriotism
19.6.07
Concerted Action 20.6.07
The Bengal Government's Letter
20.6.07
British Justice
21.6.07
The Moral of the Coconada Strike 21.6.07
The Statesman on Shooting
21.6.07
Mr. A. Chaudhuri's Policy 22.6.07
A Current Dodge
22.6.07
More about British Justice 24.6.07
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
The Statesman on Mr. Chaudhuri
26.6.07
"Legitimate Patriotism" 27.6.07
Khulna Oppressions
27.6.07
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
The Secret of the Swaraj Movement 29.6.07
Passive Resistance in France
29.6.07
By the Way 29.6.07
Stand Fast
1.7.07
The Acclamation of the House 2.7.07
Perishing Prestige
2.7.07
A Congress Committee Mystery 2.7.07
Europe and Asia
3.7.07
Press Prosecutions 4.7.07
Try Again
5.7.07
A Curious Procedure 9.7.07
Association and Dissociation
9.7.07
Industrial India
11.7.07
From Phantom to Reality 13.7.07
Audi Alteram Partem
13.7.07
Swadeshi in Education 13.7.07
Boycott and After
15.7.07
In Honour of Hyde and Humphreys 16.7.07
Angelic Murmurs
18.7.07
A Plague o' Both
Your Houses 19.7.07
The Khulna Comedy
20.7.07
A Noble Example 20.7.07
The Korean Crisis
22.7.07
One More for the Altar 25.7.07
Srijut Bhupendranath
26.7.07
The Issue 29.7.07
District Conference at Hughly
30.7.07
Bureaucratic Alarms 30.7.07
The 7th of August
6.8.07
The Indian Patriot on Ourselves 6.8.07
Our Rulers and Boycott
7.8.07
Tonight's Illumination 7.8.07
Our First Anniversary
7.8.07
To Organise 10.8.07
Statutory Distinction
10.8.07
Marionettes and Others 12.8.07
A Compliment and Some Misconceptions
12.8.07
Pal on the Brain 12.8.07
Phrases by Fraser
13.8.07
To Organise Boycott 17.8.07
The Foundations of Nationality
17.8.07
Barbarities at Rawalpindi 20.8.07
The High Court Miracles
20.8.07
The Times Romancist 20.8.07
A Malicious Persistence
21.8.07
In Melancholy Vein 23.8.07
Advice to National College Students [Speech]
23.8.07
Sankaritola's Apologia 24.8.07
Our False Friends
26.8.07
Repression and Unity 27.8.07
The Three Unities of Sankaritola
31.8.07
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 Prosecution
25.9.07
Pioneer or Hindu Patriot? 25.9.07
The Chowringhee Pecksniff and Ourselves
26.9.07
The Statesman in Retreat 28.9.07
The Khulna Appeal
28.9.07
A Culpable Inaccuracy 4.10.07
Novel Ways to Peace
5.10.07
"Armenian Horrors" 5.10.07
The Vanity of Reaction
7.10.07
The Price of a Friend 7.10.07
A New Literary Departure
7.10.07
Protected Hooliganism -A Parallel 8.10.07
Mr. Keir Hardie and India
8.10.07
The Shadow of the Ordinance in Calcutta 11.10.07
The Nagpur Affair and True Unity
23.10.07
The Nagpur Imbroglio 29.10.07
English Democracy Shown Up
31.10.07
Difficulties at Nagpur 4.11.07
Mr. Tilak and the Presidentship
5.11.07
Nagpur and Loyalist Methods 16.11.07
The Life of Nationalism
16.11.07
By the Way. In Praise of Honest John 18.11.07
Bureaucratic Policy
19.11.07
About Unity 2.12.07
Personality or Principle?
3.12.07
More about Unity 4.12.07
By the Way
5.12.07
Caste and Representation 6.12.07
About Unmistakable Terms
12.12.07
The Surat Congress 13.12.07
Misrepresentations about Midnapore
13.12.07
Reasons of Secession 14.12.07
The Awakening of
Gujarat
17.12.07
"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
Speeches 15-1-08
Speeches 19-1-08
Speeches 24-1-08
Speeches 26-1-08
Speeches 29-1-08
Speeches 30-1-08
Speeches 31-1-08
Speeches 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
Revolutions and Leadership
6.2.08
Speeches 12-13-2-08
waraj 18.2.08
The Future of the
Movement 19.2.08
Work and Ideal
20.2.08
By the Way 20.2.08
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
The Glory of God in
Man 22.2.08
A National
University 24.2.08
Mustafa Kamal Pasha
3.3.08
A Great Opportunity
4.3.08
Swaraj and the
Coming Anarchy 5.3.08
The Village and the
Nation 7.3.08
Welcome to the
Prophet of Nationalism 10.3.08
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
A Great Message
12.3.08
The Tuticorin
Victory 13.3.08
Perpetuate the
Split! 14.3.08
Loyalty to Order
14.3.08
Asiatic Democracy
16.3.08
Charter or No
Charter 16.3.08
The Warning from
Madras 17.3.08
The Need of the
Moment 19.3.08
Unity by
Co-operation 20.3.08
The Early Indian
Polity 20.3.08
The Fund for Sj.
Pal 21.3.08
The Weapon of
Secession 23.3.08
Sleeping Sirkar and
Waking People 23.3.08
Anti-Swadeshi in
Madras 23.3.08
Exclusion or Unity?
24.3.08
How the Riot Was
Made 24.3.08
Oligarchy or
Democracy? 25.3.08
Freedom of Speech
26.3.08
Tomorrow's Meeting
27.3.08
Well Done,
Chidambaram! 27.3.08
The Anti-Swadeshi
Campaign 27.3.08
Spirituality and
Nationalism 28.3.08
The Struggle in
Madras 30.3.08
A Misunderstanding
30.3.08
The Next Step
31.3.08
India and the
Mongolian 1.4.08
Religion and the
Bureaucracy 1.4.08
The Milk of Putana
1.4.08
Swadeshi Cases and
Counsel 2.4.08
The Question of the
President 3.4.08
The Utility of
Ideals 3.4.08
Speech at Panti's
Math 3.4.08
Convention and
Conference 4.4.08
By the Way 4.4.08
The Constitution of
the Subjects Committee 6.4.08
The New Ideal
7.4.08
The Asiatic Role
9.4.08
Love Me or Die
9.4.08
The Work Before Us
10.4.08
Campbell-Bannerman
Retires 10.4.08
Speech 10-4-08
The Demand of the
Mother 11.4.08
Speech 12-4-08
Peace and Exclusion
13.4.08
Indian Resurgence
and Europe 14.4.08
Om Shantih 14.4.08
Conventionalist and
Nationalist 18.4.08
Speech 20-4-08
The Future and the
Nationalists 22.4.08
The Wheat and the
Chaff 23.4.08
Party and the
Country 24.4.08
The Bengalee Facing
Both Ways 24.4.08
The One Thing
Needful 25.4.08
New Conditions
29.4.08
Whom to Believe?
29.4.08
By the Way. The
Parable of Sati 29.4.08
Leaders and a
Conscience 30.4.08
An Ostrich in
Colootola 30.4.08
By the Way 30.4.08
Nationalist
Differences 2.5.08
Ideals Face to Face
2.5.08
Part Seven
Writings from Manuscripts
1907 1908
Appendixes
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
Writings and
Jottings Connected with the Bande Mataram 1906 1908
"Bande Mataram"
Printers & Publishers, Limited.
Draft of a
Prospectus of 1907
Notes and Memos
Nationalist Party
Documents
Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 3rd, 1907 }
Extremism in the Bengalee
The Bengalee, excited by the news of a second outrage on the Hindu religion at Ambariya in Mymensingh, came out yesterday with a frankly extremist issue. We only wish that we could look on this as anything more than a fit of passing excitement; but the Bengalee is hot today and cold tomorrow. Nevertheless, what it says is true, and it is well and pointedly expressed:— "Fifty years ago, such a revolting outrage, committed upon the religious susceptibilities of Hindus, would have resulted in grave complications and the Government would have left no stone unturned to propitiate the Hindu Chiefs and the Hindu population, and last, though not the least, the Hindu section of the Native Army. Today Government officials openly side, presumably with the approval of the head of the Provincial Administration, with those who break Hindu images, desecrate Hindu temples, plunder the houses and shops of Hindus and ravish Hindu women. "Is this the sum total of our progress after a century and a half of British rule? Have we, Bengali Hindus, become so craven-hearted, so utterly incapable of self-defence, that the Government no longer thinks it necessary to avoid wounding our tenderest feelings or even to keep up appearances? Verily, a nation gets precisely the kind of treatment it deserves; and it appears that in the opinion of Mr. Hare— so far tacitly endorsed by Lord Minto— a nation of weeping and shrieking women as the Bengalis are regarded by their rulers, deserves only to be trampled underfoot. And recent happenings in the district of Mymensingh show that the Government has taken an exact measure of the Hindus of Bengal. For are they not the embodiment
Page – 377 of patience and— propriety? They are too highly educated and reflective, you know, to do anything rashly and the native hue of their resolution is most reasonably and naturally and speedily sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. They may be quite right from their personal standpoint; but national heroes are not usually made of such stuff nor are national interests promoted by the wearers of soft raiment. The worship of Motherland is the sole privilege of those choice spirits who have the heart to incur sacrifice, the hand to execute the mandate of conscience, and the recklessness to hang propriety and prudence." And the Bengalee complains that we do not even lift our little finger to protect our temples, our holy images and even our women from defilement and dishonour. All this is surprising enough in a Moderate organ; if set before anyone without any clue as to its source, it might all be taken as a verbatim extract from the editorial columns of the Bande Mataram "Is this the sum total of our progress after a century and a half of British rule?"— asks the Bengalee. This precisely and nothing else than this is the one inevitable result of British rule. Has it taken our contemporary so long to discover that foreign rule, and especially such a rule as that of the British bureaucracy which demands entire subordination and dependence in the subject people, can have no other effect than to emasculate and degrade? Loyalists may enumerate a hundred blessings of British rule— though, when closely looked at, they turn out to be apples of the Dead Sea which turn to dust and cinders when tasted,— none of them can compensate for the one radical and indispensable loss which accompanies them, the loss of our manhood, of our courage, of our self-respect and habit of initiative. When these are gone, merely the shadow of a man is left; and neither the veneer of Western culture, nor enlightenment, nor position, nor British peace, nor railways, nor telegraphs, nor anything else that God can give or man bestow can compensate for the loss of the very basis of individual and national strength and character. Social reform? What reform can there be of a society of lay figures who pretend to be men? Industrial progress? What will be the use of riches which may be taken from us at any
Page – 378 time by the strong hand? Moral and religious improvement? What truth or value have these phrases to men who see their religion outraged before their eyes and whose wives are never safe from dishonour? Get strength first, get independence and all these things will be added unto you. But persist in your foolish moderation, your unseasonable and unreasonable prudence, and another fifty years will find you more degraded than ever, a nation of Greeks with polished intellects and debased souls, body and soul helplessly at the mercy of alien masters. The Bengalee in these fiery paragraphs denounces for the moment prudence and moderation as mere weakness and cowardice. It recommends recklessness and asks us to lift our hands in defence of our temples, our holy images and the honour of our women. This is probably no more than a rhetorical outburst to relieve overcharged feelings. But if there is any seriousness at all in our contemporary's wrath, let him seriously consider what his appeal means. We are to rush to the defence of our temples, our holy images, the honour of our women. But who are "we"? Not surely the people of Eastern Bengal and Northern Bengal, who, outnumbered, overwhelmed, are struggling against overwhelming odds, and, in spite of weak points like Jamalpur, are not acquitting themselves ill. In West Bengal the Hindus are in overwhelming majority; in West Bengal there is a sturdy Hindu lower class; there are thousands of students who throng to Swadeshi meetings and parade at Swadeshi jatras and festivals. But West Bengal is under the spell of Babu Surendranath and his Moderate colleagues. Will Babu Surendranath give the word? Is he prepared to speed the fiery cross? Shall West Bengal pour into the East and North to help our kinsmen, to protect "our temples, our holy images and our women from defilement and dishonour"? If not, this momentary boldness and manliness is no more than a fire of straw which had better not have been kindled. To quote our contemporary,— "The worship of Motherland is the sole privilege of those choice spirits who have the heart to incur sacrifice, the hand to execute the mandate of conscience and the recklessness to hang propriety and prudence." __________
Page – 379 Hare or Another
Our Moderate contemporaries seem unable to understand that the misgovernment in Eastern Bengal is a natural result of British policy or rather of the peculiar position of the bureaucracy in India. That position can only be maintained either by hypnotising the people or terrorising them. The new spirit is unsealing the eyes of the people and breaking the hypnotic spell of the last century; especially in East Bengal the process of disillusionment has been fairly thorough. The bureaucracy is therefore compelled to fall back on the only other alternative, terrorism. But our Moderate friends will persist in believing that the policy in East Bengal is only the policy of individuals. They are therefore "demanding" the recall of Mr. Hare. "He has eclipsed", says the Bengalee, "the record of Aurangzeb as a persecutor of Hindus, without Aurangzeb's excuse of religious zeal. . . . He has made every Hindu hate British rule in the privacy of his heart." But will the recall of Mr. Hare be of any more effect than the recall of Bampfylde Fuller? For our part we had never any illusions on the point. We knew that what Sir Bampfylde began in his fury and heat of rage, Mr. Hare would pursue in cold blood and with silent calculation. Supposing the wish of the Bengalee's heart gratified and Mr. Hare sent home to the enjoyment of his well-earned pension, what then? A third man will come who will carry out the same policy in a different way. It is not Hare or Fuller who determines the policy of the Shillong Government, but the inexorable necessity of the bureaucratic position which drives them into a line of action insane but inevitable. They must either crush the Swadeshi movement or give up their powers wholly or in part to the people; and to the latter course they cannot be persuaded by any means which we have yet employed.
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