Speeches at Pabna   [1]   The subject of National Education, which has been recognised by the Indian National Congress as one of the main planks in its platform, received a further impetus in this year's Bengal Provincial Conference which was held in Pabna in the second week of February last. The resolution on the subject adopted by this year's conference has been a considerable advance upon those adopted at the previous years' conferences by the addition of the phrase "to establish and maintain National Schools throughout the country" in the following wording of the resolution:— "That in the opinion of this conference steps shou

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 18th, 1907 }   The Rawalpindi Sufferers   The bureaucracy which has decided upon coercion as the most effective means of crushing the growing national spirit in India must necessarily turn the machinery of judicial administration also to its advantage. We have observed on previous occasions that a certain portion of the positive laws enacted by the British Government has been designed not so much to secure the rights and interests of the people as to repress their free manhood. There is a popular saying that almost every action of a man can be construed as an offence according to the Penal Code. This at

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 25th, 1907 }   One More for the Altar   Srijut Bhupendranath Dutt has been sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment for telling the truth with too much emphasis. As to that we have nothing to say, for it is a necessary part of the struggle between Anglo-Indian bureaucracy and Indian democracy. The bureaucracy has all the material power in its hands and it must necessarily struggle to preserve its unjust and immoral monopoly of power by the means which material strength places in its hands, by the infliction of suffering on the bodies of its opponents and on their minds, so far as they allow the suffering

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 20th, 1907 }   The Khulna Comedy   The result of a political case is always a foregone conclusion in this country in the present era of anti-Swadeshi repression, for the object of the proceedings is not to detect and punish crime but to put down Swadeshi under the forms of law. Whether the accused is innocent or guilty of the particular charge it has been thought convenient to formulate against him, is a matter of very trifling importance. Neither the people nor the bureaucracy really accept a conviction as proof of any offence against the law. Indeed it is more or less a matter of caprice or convenience

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 14th, 1907 }   The Bagbazar Meeting   We do not clearly understand what has been gained by the Bagbazar meeting held on Sunday under the auspices of the leading lights of Bengal. There were one or two speeches made which said certain obvious things and there were certain resolutions passed in which we condoled, sympathised, demanded and protested. But when the meeting dispersed, we were not one whit more forward than we had been a few hours before. What we want to know, what the country wants to know, is not what we think— there is no doubt or difference of opinion about that, everybody is thinking the same

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 5th, 1907 }   Try Again   The announcement "authoritatively" made by the Hindu Patriot that the Ranchi College modified scheme has been finally sanctioned by the Government of India, reminds us of how the example of a spider succeeding on the seventh attempt to fix its web in the proper place resuscitated the drooping ambition of Robert the Bruce. In the present case too the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has, through sheer perseverance, succeeded in making the Government of India accept his proposal and thus relieve the revenues of Bengal of an unnecessary superfluity. The policy of the Government seems to

Resolution at a Swadeshi Meeting   [The first resolution of the meeting, proposed by Nagar Seth Haribhakti, was: "Kaka Joshi started the Swadeshi movement, but due to several reasons it became lifeless. Now however it is more alive than ever as a result of the life-giving medicine the Bengali physicians have given it."]   The second resolution was proposed by Principal Aravind Ghose. It ran: "Kaka Joshi's efforts proved unsuccessful because the conditions were not favourable at that time. The present wave of support for the movement is very strong, and we should make comprehensive efforts to prevent the wave from receding. We

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 17th, 1907 }   The Statesman Unmasks   We do not know why the paper which calls itself the Friend of India and usually puts on a sanctimonious mask of Liberalism, should have suddenly allowed its real feelings to betray themselves last Wednesday. Its attitude for some time past has been extremely ambiguous. During the height of the disturbances in East Bengal this Friend of India maintained a rigid silence on Indian affairs and discoursed solemnly day after day on large questions of European policy. Like the Levite it turned its face away from the traveller wounded by thieves and passed by. Since the deport

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, August 27th, 1907 }   Repression and Unity   One of the most encouraging signs of the present times is the effect of repression in bringing together men of all views who have the future welfare and greatness of their country at heart. At this time last year the great fight between the old and new parties was just beginning to pass from the stage of loose occasional skirmishes into a close and prolonged struggle. The emergence of Nationalism as a self-conscious force determined to take shape and fight for the domination of the national mind was indicated by the appearance of the Bande Mataram as the first out-and-

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 1st, 1907 }   The Question of the Hour   The writer of "A Word of Warning" which we publish today has voiced an opinion which we find to be held by several Nationalists who have the success of the movement sincerely at heart. Our correspondent, however, lays himself open to some misinterpretation when he speaks of "the suicidal folly of an unarmed and disorganised nation trying to measure its strength with that of the best-organised power in the land". The kind of resistance which seems to be suggested here is something in the nature of rebellion and it goes without saying that such resistance for "an un