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

Bhawani Mandir

 

This pamphlet, unsigned but certainly by Sri Aurobindo, was issued in 1905.  

 


Cover of Bhawani Mandir

 

This copy of the pamphlet was put in as evidence in the Alipore Bomb Case (1908­09). Note the signature of Barindrakumar Ghose (Sri Aurobindo's brother and the chief accused in the case), police and court identification numbers, and other markings.    


OM

Namas Chandikayai.

 

A temple is to be erected and consecrated to Bhawani, the mother, among the hills. To all the children of the mother, the call is sent forth to help in the sacred work.

 

WHO IS BHAWANI?

 

Who is Bhawani, the mother, and why should we erect a temple to Her?

 

 

BHAWANI IS THE INFINITE ENERGY.

 

In the unending revolutions of the world, as the wheel of the Eternal turns mightily in its courses, the Infinite Energy which streams forth from the Eternal and sets the wheel to work, looms up in the vision of man in various aspects and infinite forms. Each aspect creates and marks an age. Sometimes She is Love, sometimes She is Knowledge, sometimes She is Renunciation, sometimes She is Pity. This Infinite Energy is Bhawani. She also is Durga, She is Kali, She is Radha the Beloved, She is Lakshmi. She is our Mother and the Creatress of us all.

 

BHAWANI IS SHAKTI.

 

In the present age, the Mother is manifested as the mother of Strength. She is pure Shakti.

 

THE WHOLE WORLD IS GROWING FULL

OF THE MOTHER AS SHAKTI.

 

Let us raise our eyes and cast them upon the world around us. Wherever we turn our gaze, huge masses of strength rise before   

 

Page – 79


our vision, tremendous, swift and inexorable forces, gigantic figures of energy, terrible sweeping columns of force. All is growing large and strong. The Shakti of war, the Shakti of wealth, the Shakti of Science are tenfold more mighty and colossal, a hundredfold more fierce, rapid and busy in their activity, a thousandfold more prolific in resources, weapons and instruments than ever before in recorded history. Everywhere the Mother is at work; from Her mighty and shaping hands enormous forms of Rakshasas, Asuras, Devas are leaping forth into the arena of the world. We have seen the slow but mighty rise of great empires in the West, we have seen the swift, irresistible and impetuous bounding into life of Japan. Some are Mleccha Shaktis clouded in their strength, black or blood-crimson with tamas or rajas, others are Arya Shaktis, bathed in a pure flame of renunciation and utter self-sacrifice: but all are the Mother in Her new phase, remoulding, creating. She is pouring Her spirit into the old; She is whirling into life the new.

 

WE IN INDIA FAIL IN ALL THINGS

FOR WANT OF SHAKTI.

 

But in India the breath moves slowly, the afflatus is long in coming. India, the ancient mother, is indeed striving to be reborn, striving with agony and tears, but she strives in vain. What ails her, she, who is after all so vast and might be so strong? There is surely some enormous defect, something vital is wanting in us; nor is it difficult to lay our finger on the spot. We have all things else, but we are empty of strength, void of energy. We have abandoned Shakti and are therefore abandoned by Shakti. The Mother is not in our hearts, in our brains, in our arms. The wish to be reborn we have in abundance, there is no deficiency there. How many attempts have been made, how many movements have been begun, in religion, in society, in politics! But the same fate has overtaken or is preparing to overtake them all. They flourish for a moment, then the impulse wanes, the fire dies out, and if they endure, it is only as empty shells, forms from which the Brahma has gone or in which it lies overpowered.

 

Page – 80


with tamas and inert. Our beginnings are mighty, but they have neither sequel nor fruit.

Now we are beginning in another direction; we have started a great industrial movement which is to enrich and regenerate an impoverished land. Untaught by experience, we do not perceive that this movement must go the way of all the others, unless we first seek the one essential thing, unless we acquire strength.

 

OUR KNOWLEDGE IS A DEAD THING

FOR WANT OF SHAKTI.

 

Is it knowledge that is wanting? We Indians born and bred in a country where Jnana has been stored and accumulated since the race began, bear about in us the inherited gains of many thousands of years. Great giants of knowledge rise among us even today to add to the store. Our capacity has not shrunk, the edge of our intellect has not been dulled or blunted, its receptivity and flexibility are as varied as of old. But it is a dead knowledge, a burden under which we are bowed, a poison which is corroding us rather than as it should be a staff to support our feet, and a weapon in our hands; for this is the nature of all great things that when they are not used or are ill used, they turn upon the bearer and destroy him.

Our knowledge then, weighed down with a heavy load of tamas, lies under the curse of impotence and inertia. We choose to fancy indeed, now-a-days, that if we acquire Science, all will be well. Let us first ask ourselves what we have done with the knowledge we already possess, or what have those, who have already acquired Science, been able to do for India. Imitative and incapable of initiative, we have striven to copy the methods of England, and we had not the strength: we would now copy the methods of the Japanese, a still more energetic people; are we likely to succeed any better? The mighty force of knowledge which European Science bestows is a weapon for the hands of a giant, it is the mace of Bheemsen: what can a weakling do with it but crush himself in the attempt to wield it?   

 

Page – 81


OUR BHAKTI CANNOT LIVE AND WORK

FOR WANT OF SHAKTI.

 

Is it love, enthusiasm, Bhakti that is wanting? These are ingrained in the Indian nature, but in the absence of Shakti we cannot concentrate, we cannot direct, we cannot even preserve it. Bhakti is the leaping flame, Shakti is the fuel. If the fuel is scanty how long can the fire endure?

When the strong nature, enlightened by knowledge, disciplined and given a giant's strength by Karma, lifts itself up in love and adoration to God, that is the Bhakti which endures and keeps the soul for ever united with the Divine. But the weak nature is too feeble to bear the impetus of so mighty a thing as perfect Bhakti; he is lifted up for a moment, then the flame soars up to Heaven, leaving him behind exhausted and even weaker than before. Every movement of any kind of which enthusiasm and adoration are the life, must fail and soon burn itself out so long as the human material from which it proceeds is frail and light in substance.

 

INDIA THEREFORE NEEDS SHAKTI ALONE.

 

The deeper we look, the more we shall be convinced that the one thing wanting, which we must strive to acquire before all others, is strength— strength physical, strength mental, strength moral, but above all strength spiritual which is the one inexhaustible and imperishable source of all the others. If we have strength, everything else will be added to us easily and naturally. In the absence of strength we are like men in a dream who have hands but cannot seize or strike, who have feet but cannot run.

 

INDIA, GROWN OLD AND DECREPIT IN WILL,

HAS TO BE REBORN.

 

Whenever we strive to do anything, after the first rush of enthusiasm is spent, a paralysing helplessness seizes upon us. We often see in the cases of old men full of years and experience   

 

Page – 82


that the very excess of knowledge seems to have frozen their powers of action and their powers of will. When a great feeling or a great need overtakes them and it is necessary to carry out its promptings in action, they hesitate, ponder, discuss, make tentative efforts and abandon them or wait for the safest and easiest way to suggest itself, instead of taking the most direct; thus the time when it was possible and necessary to act passes away. Our race has grown just such an old man with stores of knowledge, with ability to feel and desire, but paralysed by simple sluggishness, senile timidity, senile feebleness. If India is to survive, she must be made young again. Rushing and billowing streams of energy must be poured into her; her soul must become, as it was in the old times, like the surges, vast, puissant, calm or turbulent at will, an ocean of action or of force.

 

INDIA CAN BE REBORN.

 

Many of us utterly overcome by tamas, the dark and heavy demon of inertia, are saying now-a-days that it is impossible; that India is decayed, bloodless and lifeless, too weak ever to recover; that our race is doomed to extinction. It is a foolish and idle saying. No man or nation need be weak unless he chooses, no man or nation need perish unless he deliberately chooses extinction.

 

WHAT IS A NATION? THE SHAKTI OF ITS MILLIONS.

 

For what is a nation? What is our mother-country? It is not a piece of earth, nor a figure of speech, nor a fiction of the mind. It is a mighty Shakti, composed of the Shaktis of all the millions of units that make up the nation, just as Bhawani Mahisha-Mardini sprang into being from the Shaktis of all the millions of gods assembled in one mass of force and welded into unity. The Shakti we call India, Bhawani Bharati, is the living unity of the Shaktis of three hundred millions of people; but she is inactive, imprisoned in the magic circle of tamas, the self-indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons. To get rid of tamas we have but to wake the Brahma within.   

 

Page – 83


IT IS OUR OWN CHOICE WHETHER WE CREATE

A NATION OR PERISH.

 

What is it that so many thousands of holy men, Sadhus and Sannyasis, have preached to us silently by their lives? What was the message that radiated from the personality of Bhagawan Ramkrishna Paramhansa? What was it that formed the kernel of the eloquence with which the lionlike heart of Vivekananda sought to shake the world? It is this that in every one of these three hundred millions of men from the Raja on his throne to the coolie at his labour, from the Brahmin absorbed in his sandhya to the Pariah walking shunned of men, GOD LIVETH. We are all gods and creators, because the energy of God is within us and all life is creation; not only the making of new forms is creation, but preservation is creation, destruction itself is creation. It rests with us what we shall create; for we are not, unless we choose, puppets dominated by Fate and Maya: we are facets and manifestations of Almighty Power.

 

INDIA MUST BE REBORN, BECAUSE HER REBIRTH

IS DEMANDED BY THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD.

 

India cannot perish, our race cannot become extinct, because among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul. In the sphere of morality, likewise, it is her mission to purge barbarism (mlecchahood) out of humanity and to aryanise the world. In order to do this, she must first re-aryanise herself.

It was to initiate this great work, the greatest and most wonderful work ever given to a race, that Bhagawan Ramkrishna came and Vivekananda preached. If the work does not progress as it once promised to do, it is because we have once again allowed the terrible cloud of tamas to settle down on our souls   

Page – 84


— fear, doubt, hesitation, sluggishness. We have taken, some of us, the Bhakti which poured forth from the one and the Jnana given us by the other, but from the lack of Shakti, from the lack of Karma, we have not been able to make our Bhakti a living thing. May we yet remember that it was Kali, who is Bhawani mother of strength, whom Ramkrishna worshipped and with whom he became one.

But the destiny of India will not wait on the falterings and failings of individuals; the mother demands that men shall arise to institute her worship and make it universal.

 

TO GET STRENGTH WE MUST ADORE

THE MOTHER OF STRENGTH.

 

Strength then and again strength and yet more strength is the need of our race. But if it is strength we desire, how shall we gain it if we do not adore the Mother of strength? She demands worship not for Her own sake, but in order that She may help us and give Herself to us. This is no fantastic idea, no superstition but the ordinary law of the universe. The gods cannot, if they would, give themselves unasked. Even the Eternal comes not unaware upon man. Every devotee knows by experience that we must turn to Him and desire and adore Him before the Divine Spirit pours in its ineffable beauty and ecstasy upon the soul. What is true of the Eternal, is true also of Her who goes forth from Him.

 

RELIGION THE TRUE PATH.

 

Those who, possessed with western ideas, look askance at any return to the old sources of energy may well consider a few fundamental facts.

 

THE EXAMPLE OF JAPAN.

 

I. There is no instance in history of a more marvellous and sudden up-surging of strength in a nation than modern Japan. All sorts of theories had been started to account for the uprising,   

 

Page – 85


but now intellectual Japanese are telling us what were the fountains of that mighty awakening, the sources of that inexhaustible strength. They were drawn from religion. It was the Vedantic teachings of Oyomei and the recovery of Shintoism with its worship of the national Shakti of Japan in the image and person of the Mikado that enabled the little island empire to wield the stupendous weapons of western knowledge and science as lightly and invincibly as Arjun wielded the Gandiv.

 

INDIA'S GREATER NEED OF SPIRITUAL

REGENERATION.

 

II. India's need of drawing from the fountains of religion is far greater than was ever Japan's; for the Japanese had only to revitalise and perfect a strength that already existed. We have to create strength where it did not exist before; we have to change our natures, and become new men with new hearts, to be born again. There is no scientific process, no machinery for that. Strength can only be created by drawing it from the internal and inexhaustible reservoirs of the Spirit, from that Adya-Shakti of the Eternal which is the fountain of all new existence. To be born again means nothing but to revive the Brahma within us, and that is a spiritual process,— no effort of the body or the intellect can compass it.

 

RELIGION THE PATH NATURAL

TO THE NATIONAL MIND.

 

III. All great awakenings in India, all her periods of mightiest and most varied vigour have drawn their vitality from the fountainheads of some deep religious awakening. Wherever the religious awakening has been complete and grand, the national energy it has created has been gigantic and puissant; wherever the religious movement has been narrow or incomplete, the national movement has been broken, imperfect or temporary. The persistence of this phenomenon is proof that it is ingrained in the temperament of the race. If you try other and foreign methods,   

 

Page – 86


we shall either gain our end with tedious slowness, painfully and imperfectly, or we shall not attain it at all. Why abandon the plain way which God and the Mother have marked out for you to choose faint and devious paths of your own treading?

 

THE SPIRIT WITHIN IS THE TRUE SOURCE

OF STRENGTH.

 

IV. The Brahma within, the one and indivisible ocean of spiritual force is that from which all life material and mental is drawn. This is beginning to be as much recognised by leading western thinkers as it was from the old days by the East. If it be so, then spiritual energy is the source of all other strength. There are the fathomless fountain-heads, the deep and inexhaustible sources. The shallow surface springs are easier to reach, but they soon run dry. Why not then go deep instead of scratching the surface? The result will repay the labour.

 

THREE THINGS NEEDFUL.

 

We need three things answering to three fundamental laws.

 

I. BHAKTI— THE TEMPLE OF THE MOTHER.

 

We cannot get strength unless we adore the Mother of strength.

We will therefore build a temple to the white Bhawani, the mother of strength, the Mother of India; and we will build it in a place far from the contamination of modern cities and as yet little trodden by man, in a high and pure air steeped in calm and energy. This temple will be the centre from which Her worship is to flow over the whole country; for there worshipped among the hills, She will pass like fire into the brains and hearts of Her worshippers. This also is what the Mother has commanded.

 

II. KARMA— A NEW ORDER OF BRAHMACHARINS.

 

Adoration will be dead and ineffective unless it is transmuted into Karma.   

 

Page – 87


We will therefore have a math with a new Order of Karma-Yogins attached to the temple, men who have renounced all in order to work for the Mother. Some may, if they choose, be complete Sannyasins, most will be Brahmacharins who will return to the grihasthasram when their allotted work is finished; but all must accept renunciation.

 

WHY? FOR TWO REASONS:—

 

(1) Because it is only in proportion as we put from us the pre-occupation of bodily desires and interests, the sensual gratifications, lusts, longings, indolences of the material world, that we can return to the ocean of spiritual force within us.

(2) Because for the development of Shakti, entire concentration is necessary; the mind must be devoted entirely to its aim as a spear is hurled to its mark; if other cares and longings distract the mind, the spear will be carried out from its straight course and miss the target. We need a nucleus of men in whom the Shakti is developed to its uttermost extent, in whom it fills every corner of the personality and overflows to fertilise the earth. These, having the fire of Bhawani in their hearts and brains, will go forth and carry the flame to every nook and cranny of our land.

 

III. JNANA— THE GREAT MESSAGE.

 

Bhakti and Karma cannot be perfect and enduring unless they are based upon Jnana.

The Brahmacharins of the Order will therefore be taught to fill their souls with knowledge and base their work upon it as upon a rock. What shall be the basis of their knowledge? What but the great so-aham, the mighty formula of the Vedanta, the ancient gospel which has yet to reach the heart of the nation, the knowledge which when vivified by Karma and Bhakti delivers man out of all fear and all weakness.   

 

 

Page – 88


THE MESSAGE OF THE MOTHER.

 

When, therefore, you ask who is Bhawani the mother, She herself answers you, "I am the Infinite Energy which streams forth from the Eternal in the world and Eternal in yourselves. I am the Mother of the Universe, the Mother of the Worlds, and for you who are children of the Sacred land, aryabhumi, made of her clay and reared by her sun and winds, I am Bhawani Bharati, Mother of India."

Then if you ask why we should erect a temple to Bhawani the mother, hear Her answer, "Because I have commanded it and because by making a centre for the future religion, you will be furthering the immediate will of the Eternal and storing up merit which will make you strong in this life and great in another. You will be helping to create a nation, to consolidate an age, to aryanise a world. And that nation is your own, that age is the age of yourselves and your children, that world is no fragment of land bounded by seas and hills, but the whole earth with her teeming millions."

Come then, hearken to the call of the Mother. She is already in our hearts waiting to manifest Herself, waiting to be worshipped,— inactive because the God in us is concealed by tamas, troubled by Her inactivity, sorrowful because Her children will not call on Her to help them. You who feel Her stirring within you, fling off the black veil of self, break down the imprisoning walls of indolence, help Her each as you feel impelled, with your bodies or with your intellect or with your speech or with your wealth or with your prayers and worship, each man according to his capacity. Draw not back, for against those who were called and heard Her not, She may well be wroth in the day of Her coming; but to those who help Her advent even a little, how radiant with beauty and kindness will be the face of their Mother!  

________

 

Page – 89


APPENDIX.

 

The work and rules of the new Order of Sannyasis will be somewhat as follows

 

GENERAL RULES.

 

1. All who undertake the life of Brahmacharya for the Mother, will have to vow themselves to Her service for four years, after which they will be free to continue the work or return to family life.

2. All money received by them in the Mother's name will go to the Mother's Service. For themselves they will be allowed to receive shelter and their meals, when necessary, and nothing more.

3. Whatever they may earn for themselves, e.g. by the publication of books etc., they must give at least half of it to the service of the Mother.

4. They will observe entire obedience to the Head of the Order and his one or two assistants in all things connected with the work or with their religious life.

5. They will observe strictly the discipline and rules of achar and purity, bodily and mental, prescribed by the Heads of the Order.

6. They will be given periods for rest or for religious improvement during which they will stop at the math, but the greater part of the year they will spend in work outside. This rule will apply to all except the few necessary for the service of the Temple and those required for the central direction of the work.

7. There will be no gradations of rank among the workers and none must seek for distinction or mere personal fame, but practise strength and self-effacement.   

 

Page – 90


II. WORK FOR THE PEOPLE.

 

8. Their chief work will be that of mass instruction and help to the poor and ignorant.

9. This they will strive to effect in various ways—

1. Lectures and demonstrations suited to an uneducated intelligence.

2. Classes and nightly schools.

3. Religious teachings.

4. Nursing the sick.

5. Conducting works of charity.

6. Whatever other good work their hands may find to do and the Order approves.

 

III. WORKS FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS.

 

10. They will undertake, according as they may be directed, various works of public utility in the big towns and elsewhere connected especially with the education and religious life and instruction of the middle classes, as well as with other public needs.

 

IV. WORK WITH THE WEALTHY CLASSES.

 

11. They will approach the zamindars, landholders and rich men generally, and endeavour—

1. To promote sympathy between the zamindars and the peasants and heal all discords.

2. To create the link of a single and living religious spirit and a common passion for one great ideal between all classes.

3. To turn the minds of rich men to works of public beneficence and charity to those in their neighbourhood independent of the hope of reward and official distinction.

 

V. GENERAL WORK FOR THE COUNTRY.

 

12. As soon as funds permit, some will be sent to foreign   

 

Page – 91


countries to study lucrative arts and manufactures.

13. They will be as Sannyasis during their period of study, never losing hold of their habits of purity and self-abnegation.

14. On their return they will establish with the aid of the Order, factories and workshops, still living the life of Sannyasis and devoting all their profits to the sending of more and more such students to foreign countries.

15. Others will be sent to travel through various countries on foot, inspiring by their lives, behaviour and conversation, sympathy and love for the Indian people in the European nations and preparing the way for their acceptance of Aryan ideals.

After the erection and consecration of the Temple, the development of the work of the Order will be pushed on as rapidly as possible or as the support and sympathy of the public allows. With the blessing of the Mother this will not fail us.  

_______

 

Page – 92