Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 10th, 1908 }   Welcome to the Prophet of Nationalism   Today Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal is due in Calcutta, a free man once more until it shall please irresponsible Magistrates and easily-twisted laws to repeat his seclusion from the work which God has given him to do. A true leader of men today in India holds his liberty as a light thing to be lost at a moment's notice; when he chooses to defend himself he does so with the knowledge that no skill of defence but the choice of his prosecutors is the arbiter of the trial, no soundness of the law in his favour, but the convenience of those who employ and pay his judge

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, August 30th, 1906 } Loyalty and Disloyalty in East Bengal   The Englishman and those who are evidently anxious to set the machinery of relentless state prosecutions against the leaders of the present national movement in this province, need not take so much trouble to prove that there is considerable disaffection and disloyalty in East Bengal which ought at once to be put down with a strong hand. Our contemporary must be far more simple-minded than what one should expect him to be, judging both from his general education and experience and his position as an intelligent observer and critic of current affairs,

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 25th, 1907 }   The East Bengal Disturbances   We have said that the deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai brings no new element into the situation beyond hastening the processes of Nationalism and bringing us from a less to a more acute stage of our progress to independence. The second disturbing element has been the culmination of the alliance between Salimullah of Dacca and the bureaucracy in the anarchy and the outrages in the Mymensingh district. These disturbances are now almost over for the time being, though we must take full advantage of the lull allowed to us, so as to put our house in order against a

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 17th, 1908 }   The Warning from Madras   The outbreak at Tinnevelly is significant as a warning both to the authorities and to the leaders of the popular party. For the bureaucracy, if they have eyes to see or ears to hear, it should be an index of the fierceness of the fire which is burning underneath a thin crust of patience and sufferance and may at any moment lead to a general conflagration. Whence does this fire come or what does it signify? It is a suddenly blazing fire of straw, say the bureaucrats, kindled by the hands of mischievous agitators; it means nothing except that the authors of the mischief must be vig

Bande Mataram   { CALCUTTA, May 27th, 1907 }   The Gilded Sham Again   The Statesman on Sunday came out with the startling fact that Mr. Morley has "finally formulated a workable scheme giving prominent natives a larger representation on the various bodies having effective control of Indian affairs". This is, we presume, the last and most authoritative of the special cablegrams with which the Statesman has been regaling us, for want of more substantial fare, ever since Mr. John Morley became Chief Bureaucrat for India. For, we are told, Mr. Morley will make an important announcement when introducing the Indian budget. We would cal

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 12th, 1906 }   The Old Policy and the New   Babu Bhupendranath Bose has issued a manifesto of his views in the Bengalee, in which he explains his letter to the Secretary of the People's Association at Comilla. That document, it seems, was a private letter, although it was obviously intended to produce a public effect, viz. to prevent the nomination of Mr. Tilak and to counteract the effect of Babu Bipin Chandra Pal's meeting and speeches in Comilla. However, we have now an authoritative statement of Babu Bhupendranath's "policy", and no further misunderstanding is possible. This policy is precisely

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 14th, 1906}   A Disingenuous Defence   The strictures which the extraordinary announcement made at Bhagalpur by Babu Surendranath Banerji has aroused, have compelled the Bengalee to offer a sort of apology or explanation for the unconstitutional action of the leaders. It was distinctly stated at Bhagalpur that Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji had accepted the Presidentship of the Congress. It follows therefore that the Presidentship was unconstitutionally offered to Mr. Naoroji by one or two individuals behind the back of the Reception Committee. It is now explained that Mr. Naoroji simply wired his willingness to

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 17th, 1907 }   A Vilifier on Vilification   Our Bombay contemporary the Indu Prakash is very wroth with the Nationalist party for their want of sweet reasonableness. He accuses them of rowdyism "which would put the East End rowdy to shame," and adds, "Their forte seems to be abuse, vilification, impertinence and superlative silliness, and these are exhibited alternately." It strikes us that the Indu Prakash has been guilty of "abuse, vilification, impertinence and superlative silliness" not alternately but in a lump within the brief space of these two sentences. This sort of phraseology is however part of the

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 18th, 1907 }   British Protection or Self-Protection   There are two superstitions which have driven such deep root into the mind of our people that even where the new spirit is strongest, they still hold their own. One is the habit of appealing to British courts of justice; the other is the reliance upon the British executive for our protection. The frequent recurrence of incidents such as the Mymensingh and Comilla disturbances will have its use if it drives into our minds the truth that in the struggle we have begun we cannot and ought not to expect protection from our natural adversaries. It is perfectly

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 23rd, 1907 }   And Still It Moves   What is the precise difference which the recent Government measures have made in the conditions of the Swadeshi movement? The first to be considered, because the most dramatic and striking of these measures, is the deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai. Has this deportation brought any really new element into the problem? When we began the movement, we were prepared, or at least we professed to be prepared, for the utmost use by the Government of all the weapons the existing law puts in its hand. We were prepared for press-prosecutions, we were prepared to go to jail on false