Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 17th, 1907 }   Slow but Sure   Commenting on Mr. Morley's Budget Speech the Statesman remarks— "It is to be hoped that the new concessions will be received in no carping spirit, and that there will be a resolute determination to make the best of them. Under English rule, wherever it is found, reforms are almost invariably slow and gradual. England abhors a revolution, or even the logical working out of a principle— unless it be very gradually. It proceeds by compromises and half-measures. But this cautious policy has been justified by results. The advance, if slow, is sure, and a persistent well-reason

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 11th, 1908 }   The Voice of the Martyrs   We are now rejoicing over the release of Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal, but who among us is prepared to forget that so many have suffered for the country not less or more than he, and are still suffering? Yesterday when we welcomed the great orator, the man of high thoughts and inspired eloquence, the prophet of new ideas to his people, our thoughts went for a while to those who are now in British prisons, to Bhupen, to Basanta, to the Editor of the Barisal Hitaishi and the Rangpur Vartabaha, to the aged Maulavi spending the last years of his noble life in the severities of a

   VOLUME 6 and 7 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2002 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA   Bande Mataram   Political Writings and Speeches 1890­ 1908  Publisher's Note

The Morality of Boycott   Ages ago there was a priest of Baal who thought himself commissioned by the god to kill all who did not bow the knee to him. All men, terrified by the power and ferocity of the priest, bowed down before the idol and pretended to be his servants; and the few who refused, had to take refuge in hills and deserts. At last a deliverer came and slew the priest and the world had rest. The slayer was blamed by those who placed religion in quietude and put passivity forward as the ideal ethics, but the world looked on him as an incarnation of God.   ****   A certain class of minds shrink from aggressiven

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 30th, 1907 }   The Ordinance and After   We have pointed out in previous articles what we considered to be the individual effect of three of the measures of repression adopted by the bureaucracy in their fight with the Swadeshi movement. The review has led us to the conclusion that there is so far no new element in the situation beyond, on one hand, the clear and universal conviction that has been carried home to the people of the nature and extent of the resistance which we may expect from the bureaucracy and, on the other, the more urgent necessity of adopting certain measures for national defence and

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, August 21st, 1907 }   A Malicious Persistence   The persistence of the Englishman's attack on Justice Mitter in connection with the Bloomfield Murder Case is worthy of the traditions of Hare Street. The Englishman is perhaps the only Anglo-Indian paper in Calcutta which has a rigidly settled and consistent policy. Others allow themselves to be swayed sometimes by feeling and by calm dispassionate reason, and yield perhaps to some gust of generous feeling or suffer the sense of justice or fair play to overcome the dictates of class interest or policy, but Hare Street is above such weaknesses. Not much brains o

Fragment for a Pamphlet   Having in an organisation of this kind a ready and efficient instrument of work, it remains to consider on what lines the energy of the nation may best expend itself. Strength and unity are our objective; ceaseless and self-reliant labour is our motive power; education, organisation and self-help are our road. It is moreover a triple strength we shall have to seek, strength mental, strength material and strength moral. Now it is not the object of this pamphlet to lay down rigidly or in detail the lines on which our movement ought to proceed; that is a question beyond the scope of any single intellect; it is for the united

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, October 29th, 1907 }   The Nagpur Imbroglio   It is difficult to get authentic and undisputed news of the Nagpur imbroglio, but if report is to be believed, there is a better chance than before of a satisfactory working compromise. It is in every way desirable that the present difficulties should be smoothed over if that can be done without any sacrifice of essential principle, and for any such compromise it is essential for both sides to recognise that while they may and should fight stubbornly for their principles both outside and inside the Congress, yet the National Assembly itself is not the monopoly of either. A gre

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 7th, 1907 }   Defying the Circular   It will not be long now before the Colleges open and the students begin to return to Calcutta; the moment they come the struggle for the possession of the youth of the country must begin. The bureaucracy has thrown out the challenge and there is every sign that it will be taken up. Men of all parties, except the party of Mr. N. N. Ghose which, as it consists of only one man, need not concern us, are agreed that to acquiesce in the Circular is out of the question. If there is any difference of opinion, it is as to the best method of defying it, and that is not a matter