Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 18th, 1907 }   Angelic Murmurs   There could hardly be a more moving instance of self-denying benevolence than the occasional anxiety of Anglo-Indian journals to point out the defects of Congress methods and teach us how to make our propaganda a success. The success of the Congress movement would mean the loss of all political and commercial preponderance to these grave mentors, but that is nothing to them. They will be benevolent. Buddha and Christ were not in it with these saintly Britishers. The Pioneer is the most persistent of these paper angels. It has recently been discoursing on Indian members of Par

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 21st, 1908 }   The Fund for Sj. Pal   The question of a fund for Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal was raised at first in a private way and without the idea of a public appeal, but as soon as it was suggested to the leaders of the Nationalist party, they rejected the idea of any action which would seem like an appeal to the private charity of the friends, admirers and sympathisers of Srijut Bipin Chandra. They resolved to ask the public for funds to present to Srijut Pal as a recognition of his services to the country, well knowing that he would insist on the money being utilised for further service to his country inst

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, October 4th, 1907 }   A Culpable Inaccuracy   The Empire has never been particularly famous for the accuracy of its news and reports, but there is surely a limit somewhere; and that limit is overpassed when a false statement is made which is likely to prejudice a public man with a charge of sedition already hanging over him. We state on good authority that the assertion in the Empire report to the effect that Wednesday's meeting in Beadon Square was called by Mr. Aswini Kumar Banerji is entirely unfounded. Mr. Banerji is not likely to disown any public action he has really taken, however obnoxious to the powers that

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 13th, 1908 }   The Tuticorin Victory   The success of passive resistance at Tuticorin ought to be an encouragement to those who have begun to distrust the power of the new weapon which is so eminently suited to the Asiatic temperament. When the Boycott was declared in Bengal the whole of the energy of the people was thrown into the attempt to get the Partition repealed and if that concentration of effort had been continued the Partition would by this time have become an unsettled fact; but for two different reasons the attempt to unsettle the Partition was unstrung and the energy diverted to a different goal. In

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 10th, 1907 }   Pherozshahi at Surat   The methods of Moderate autocrats are as instructive as they are peculiar. The account of the characteristic proceedings of Sir Pherozshah Mehta at the Surat Conference, which we published in yesterday's correspondence columns, bears a strong family likeness to the ways of the Provincial Congress autocrats all India over. The selection of a subservient President who will call white black at dictatorial bidding; the open scorn of public opinion; the disregard of justice, of fair play, of constitutional practice and procedure, of equality of all before recognised law and

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 24th, 1907 }   More about British Justice   We commented the other day on the policy of refusing bail which has recently been adopted by the bureaucracy in a spirit of petty vindictiveness and the scandalous manner in which men accused of political offences are being punished before conviction. Of course it is all under the law, but that only proves the contention we have always advanced that the criminal law in this country on which our rulers pride themselves, is barbarous, oppressive and semi-mediaeval in its spirit and that its provisions are governed far more by the principle of repressing the spirit

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 17th, 1906 }   Last Friday's Folly   Even at the risk of being branded as social reactionaries, we must, we feel, enter our protest against the notions and ideals that lay, evidently, under the so-called national dinner, celebrated at the Albert Hall on Friday last. The function, in itself, was too insignificant to deserve any notice. Two hundred and fifty men and boys meeting and dining together in public, regardless of caste-restrictions and old orthodoxy, is not even a new thing in Calcutta Society. Hindus and Mahomedans had dined publicly in Calcutta, on special occasions, before now. Dinners had

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, November 19th, 1907 }   Bureaucratic Policy   The policy of the bureaucracy at the present moment would be a curious study to any dispassionate observer of politics. It is not an unmixed and fearless policy of repression, yet the repression, wherever entered on, is as thoroughgoing, ruthless and without scruple as the most virulent advocate of the strong hand could desire. It is not a policy of frank and wise concession, though concessions of a kind are fitfully made with no very apparent rhyme or reason. A Coercion Act is put upon the Statute-book of the most thoroughly Russian severity; it is supposed to be passed in

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,