Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 2nd, 1907 }   The Acclamation of the House   A great deal is being made in the Anglo-Indian press of the unanimous appreciation with which the House of Commons received Mr. Morley's speech on the Budget. The discovery that superior culture has not destroyed the primitive savage in the Anglo-Saxon, has been welcomed with fierce gratification. One English paper writes:— "It was a healthy sign to which the attention of native sedition-mongers may be usefully directed that the House of Commons which gave an appreciative reception to the speech of the Secretary of State showed impatience at the captious and mi

Part Two Bande Mataram   under the Editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal 6 August ­ 15 October 1906   The Bande Mataram was launched by Bipin Chandra Pal in August 1906. Pal and other members of the group then known as the New Party or Nationalist Party, but since then generally referred to as the Extremist Party, had been intending to bring out their own English-language newspaper since the end of 1905. Eventually, acting on his own and "with only 500 rupees in his pocket", Pal had the first issue of the paper printed on 6 August 1906. The same day he left Calcutta for a tour of East Bengal. Before going, he asked Sri Aurobind

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 1st, 1907 }   Moonshine for Bombay Consumption   The Calcutta correspondent of the Indu Prakash seems to be an adept in fitting his news to the likings of his clientele. He has discovered that the old party and the new are united not against the Government but against the Mahomedans. All are looking to the Government with a reverent expectation of justice from that immaculate source. We do not know who this antiMahomedan and pro-Government Calcutta correspondent may be; but we hope the Bombay public will not be deceived by his inventions. If there is one overmastering feeling in Bengal it is indignation wit

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 21st, 1907 }   British Justice   There has been much to edify and instruct in the recent antics of the bureaucracy and, in the light of the object lessons they present, the people of India have been revising old ideas and outworn superstitions with a healthy rapidity. The belief in British liberalism, in the freedom of the Press, in the freedom of the platform, in the Pax Britannica, in the political honesty of Mr. John Morley and many other cherished shibboleths have departed into the limbo of forgotten follies. But the greatest fall of all has been the fall of the belief in the imperturbable impartialit

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 10th, 1908 }   The Work Before Us   The little that we have done is the first faint shadowing forth of our future activities, nothing more. If we are content with what we have done, even that little will disappear, the movement will be abortive and the country fall back into its former condition. It is therefore necessary to give a new impetus to the movement everywhere, and now that Srijut Bipin Chandra is out of prison, the necessary will no doubt be done. The first work is to revive courage in the hearts of the people. The effect of the recent repression has been not to crush the movement, but to discourage its ou

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 16th, 1908 }   Asiatic Democracy   Asia is not Europe and never will be Europe. The political ideals of the West are not the mainspring of the political movements in the East, and those who do not realise this great truth, are mistaken; for they suppose that the history of Europe is a sure and certain guide to India in her political development. A great deal of the political history of Europe will be repeated in Asia, no doubt; democracy has travelled from the East to the West in the shape of Christianity, and after a long struggle with the feudal instincts of the Germanic races has returned to Asia transformed

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, October 5th, 1907 }   Novel Ways to Peace   We learn from the Empire that on Wednesday evening the paharawallas got completely out of hand and that a number of them afterwards traversed the streets indulging in looting, destruction of property and assault. We are farther told by our contemporary that the moment the peace was broken, the budmash element asserted itself. And the Empire winds up with a genial and smiling prophecy to the effect that the atmosphere will be more or less disturbed for a month (that is till the Puja is over and the European merchants have been able to get their consignments through) and ther

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 11th, 1908 }   The Demand of the Mother   We have lost the faculty of religious fervour in Bengal and are now trying to recover it through the passion for the country, by self-sacrifice, by labour for our fellow-countrymen, by absorption in the idea of the country. When a nation is on the verge of losing the source of its vitality, it tries to recover it by the first means which the environment offers, whether that environment be favourable or not. Bengal has always lived by its emotions; the brain of India, as it has been called, is also the heart of India. The loss of emotional power, of belief, of enthusia

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 19th, 1907 }   The Main Feeder of Patriotism   There are many people who admit the superiority of Eastern civilisation, who recognise its humanitarian and socialistic aspect, who are not blind to its predominating feature of spirituality, who admire the absence of a militant Materialism in it, who praise the way in which it has balanced the interests of the different classes in the society, who are conscious how much attention it gives to the higher needs of humanity. But still patriotism is not a living and moving impulse with them. Apart from the natural attachment which every man has to his country,

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 31st, 1908 }   The Next Step   The condition of the poorer classes in this country is a subject which has till now been too much neglected, but can be neglected no longer if the blessing of God is to remain with our movement. The increasing poverty of the masses has been the subject of innumerable pamphlets, speeches and newspaper articles, but we are apt to think our duty done when we have proved that the poverty problem is there; we leave the solution to the future and forget that by the time the solution comes, the masses will have sunk into a condition of decay from which it will take the nation many decade