Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 25th, 1908 }   Oligarchy or Democracy?   Apart from questions of aim and method a fruitful source of discord between the two parties has been the divergence of views with regard to the spirit of the Congress, whether it is to be the Congress of the few or the Congress of the many. This divergence has been chiefly operative in bringing about struggles over the election of the President and his method of conducting the proceedings, over the selection of the Subjects Committee and the rights of the delegates to express their opinion and use every means to make it operative. One side demands implicit obedience to the a

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, March 5th, 1908 }   Swaraj and the Coming Anarchy   Whoever tries to read the signs of the time, will be no little perplexed at first by their complexity. The beginnings of a great revolution which is destined to change the whole political, social, and economic life of a great country, are always full of ebb and flow, perplexing by the multitude of details and their continual interaction. The struggle going on at Tuticorin exemplifies this remarkable diversity and intermingling of numerous tendencies each of which would in ordinary times be a separate movement. Society is full of anomalies which clash and jostle toget

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, June 29th, 1907 }   The Secret of the Swaraj Movement   The paragraphist of Capital in the course of a denunciation full of venom and adorned with one or two choice bits of Billingsgate, describes Swaraj as a far-off divine event to be made possible by our being gradually educated to it under the guidance of the beneficent aliens. We need not trouble about the choleric effusions with a daily output of which Anglo-Indian writers nowadays provide their readers. But apart from the natural unhinging of the reason for which the prospect of loss of power and prestige or of trade is responsible, there is a plentiful la

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 2nd, 1907 }   SHALL INDIA BE FREE?   Unity and British Rule   It is a common cry in this country that we should effect the unity of its people before we try to be free. There is no cry which is more plausible, none which is more hollow. What is it that we mean when we talk of the necessity of unity? Unity does not mean uniformity and the removal of all differences. There are some people who talk as if unity in religion, for instance, could not be accomplished except by uniformity. But uniformity of religion is a psychical impossibility forbidden by the very nature of the human mind. So long as me

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, October 11th, 1906 }   By the Way   Emerson and original sin have never as yet gone together. But Principal Herambachandra Moitra has achieved the impossible. Lecturing to a Bombay congregation on a Wednesday he solemnly declared that "even children themselves are not free from sin," and on the following Sunday discoursed on "Emerson". Poor sage of Concord!   *   Calcutta is going to have a Tower of Silence for the Parsis. The Patrika would, however, seem to hold that it is more needed by our own patriots. They evidently permit writing in that dreadful place.   *   A "vetera

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 20th, 1906 }   By the Way   The Statesman and the Indian Mirror appear to have entered into a Holy Alliance for the suppression of the extremists. The basis of this great political combination seems to be mutual admiration of the most effusive and affectionate kind. Mirror assures Statesman that he is a noble Anglo-Indian and a true and tried Friend of India; Statesman quotes Mirror's solemn lucubrations by the yard. It only needs the Hindu Patriot to join the league and complete the Triple Alliance. An Anglo-Indian paper, a Government journal masking under the disguise of an Indian daily, and t

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, May 29th, 1907 }   The Effect of Petitionary Politics   We are glad to notice a ring of boldness and sincerity in all the writings of the Indu Prakash relating to the deportation of Lajpat Rai. We hope this tone will be an enduring change for the better. Mr. Gokhale's resort to the Anglo-Indian Press in preference to the Indian, on which its observations are very pertinent, is an example of the very common, almost inevitable effect of petitionary politics on patriotism. That a prominent leader of the Congress party should show such an unseasonable partiality for the Anglo-Indian Press whose recent campaign of m

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, April 2nd, 1908 }   Swadeshi Cases and Counsel   We have received a letter from Tinnevelly requesting the aid of a Bengali barrister to defend the Tuticorin lawyers who are now being prosecuted before the Magistrate. There ought to be no difficulty in procuring a good counsel from Calcutta, for the Bengal Bar has shown a consistent patriotism and self-sacrifice in Swadeshi cases. At the same time it is doubtful whether in most cases the money spent on securing counsel from outside is not wasted. In political cases the connection is usually a foregone conclusion. In the rare cases where a conscientious judge acquits on app

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, September 12th, 1907 }   The Martyrdom of Bipin Chandra   We have felt considerable delicacy hitherto in writing on the prosecution of Srijut Bipin Chandra Pal for refusing to take the oath in the Bande Mataram case, as that prosecution has arisen directly out of our own. In fact all the more important events of recent occurrence in Calcutta have been so closely connected, directly or indirectly, with this case that we have been practically compelled to keep our lips closed on current public affairs. The imprisonment of the Nationalist orator and propagandist, the most prominent public figure of the New Par

Bande Mataram { CALCUTTA, July 9th, 1907 }   A Curious Procedure   That the bureaucracy and its instruments should look with disfavour on the Bande Mataram and dread the increase of its circulation, is only to be expected; but the means by which they combat its diffusion are sometimes of a peculiar, if characteristic kind. An up-country agent writes to us: "The police and the Government officials are obstructing us much. They are threatening the servants with punishment and imprisonment, if they sell the Bande Mataram paper, because the paper writes against Government. So the poor illiterate people of this place are afraid of selling th