Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, February 18th, 1908 } Swaraj   Nationalism was filled at the Pabna Conference with a new spirit unlike anything yet known to us. Whatever resolutions were passed or steps taken, were taken in a spirit of practical utility, which has been hitherto absent from our Congresses and Conferences. We have hitherto been engaged in dispute about ideals and methods. We are confident that the country, at least Bengal, has now reached a stage when this dispute is no longer necessary. Whatever we may say out of policy or fear, the whole nation is now at one. Swaraj is the only goal which the heart of Bengal recognises, Swaraj without a

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 12th, 1907 }   The Proverbial Offspring   The great Mr. Morley has received the Viceroy's dispatch on the question of widening the powers of the Legislative Councils. It is long and important and requires his mature consideration, and he cannot therefore have it discussed in the Parliament. It has been prepared in secret, will be matured in secret, and then the official Minerva will see the light of the day in panoply. It will be born a settled fact. Rejoice, ye Moderates! The millennium is drawing nigh. The heart of Mr. Gokhale must be beating a little faster in anxious expectation. The tiresome voyages acros

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 25th, 1908 }   The One Thing Needful   A sort of atavism is at work in the Indian consciousness at the present moment which is drawing it back into the spirit of the fathers of the race who laid the foundations of our being thousands of years ago. Perhaps as a reaction from the excessively outward direction which our life had taken since the European invasion, the spirit of the race has taken refuge in the sources of its past and begun to bathe in the fountains of its being. A reversion such as this is the sole cure for national decay. Every nation has certain sources of vitality which have made it what it is

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, December 5th, 1907 }   By the Way   The Scots who had not with Wallace bled but emigrated from the land of Bruce and his spider to exploit and "administer" spider fashion the land of Shivaji and Pratap, met again this year for their great national feed. The menu began with relishes and proceeded through the wedded delights of ice-pudding and liqueurs to a regale of confidences and confessions by Sir Harvey Adamson which was perhaps the most enjoyable dish of the evening. The inventive Briton has discovered the great truth that out of the fullness of the stomach the heart speaketh and the result is that great British

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, October 31st, 1907 }   English Democracy Shown Up   Scratch an Englishman and you will find an Anglo-Indian,— this is what we said in these columns sometime ago. The Anglophilous Indian enthusiast who goes to England saturated with the old Congress poison of a morbid faith in the native generosity of English character, in the innate amenability of Englishmen to reason and persuasion regarding matters Indian, is doomed to a very rude awakening. He has not to stay long in the country before he finds every Englishman he may come across turning a deaf ear to his story of grievance and injustice. He is no doubt loudly appl

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 27th, 1908 }   Tomorrow's Meeting   The great opportunity of Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal's return has been utilised for a demonstration such as Calcutta has not yet witnessed, but the occasion will not be perfect unless the public complete their homage to the soul of Nationalism by coming in their thousands to hear him at the Federation Hall Ground on Saturday when the congratulations of the country will be given to him on his return to the great work he has yet to accomplish. He has returned with a double strength, a position of impregnable security in the hearts of his countrymen and a new conception of his work

Part Seven   Writings from Manuscripts   1907 ­ 1908   The pieces in this part were written by Sri Aurobindo during the period of publication of the Bande Mataram , but were not published by him in the Bande Mataram or anywhere else. They are reproduced here from his manuscripts. The first two pieces consist of separate passages that were never linked together to make a finished article.       The Bourgeois and the Samurai   Two oriental nations have come powerfully under the influence of Western ideas and felt the impact of European civilization during the nineteenth century, India and Japan. The results have b

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 2nd, 1907 }   The President of the Berhampur Conference   When the Moderate caucus which arranges our Congresses and Conferences selected Srijut Deepnarain Singh to preside at Berhampur, they thought, no doubt, that they had hit upon a doubly suitable choice. As a young man and one known to be an ardent patriot he would not disgust Bengal by an ultra-moderate pronouncement; as a Zamindar he might be expected to have the fear of the Government before his eyes and to avoid giving open support to the ideas and programme of the New School. It was this latter apprehension, we believe, that lay at the root of the

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 16th, 1907 }   The Old Year   There are periods in the history of the world when the unseen Power that guides its destinies seems to be filled with a consuming passion for change and a strong impatience of the old. The Great Mother, the Adya Shakti, has resolved to take the nations into Her hand and shape them anew. These are periods of rapid destruction and energetic creation, filled with the sound of cannon and the trampling of armies, the crash of great downfalls and the turmoil of swift and violent revolutions; the world is thrown into the smelting pot and comes out in a new shape and with new features. They

Baruipur Speech   Sj. Shyamsunder Chakravarti having finished his speech, Srijut Aurobindo Ghose rose to address the audience. He began with an apology for being under the necessity of addressing a Bengali audience in a foreign tongue, specially by one like himself who had devoted his life for the Swadeshi movement. He pointed out that through a foreign system of education developing foreign tastes and tendencies he had been denationalised like his country and like his country again he is now trying to renationalise himself. Next he referred to the comparative want of the Swadeshi spirit in West Bengal to which Shyamsunder B