-091_Sankharitola's Apologia.htm Sankharitola's Apologia THE omniscient editor of the Indian Nation exposed himself last week to a well-deserved castigation at our hands by trespassing into history, of which he evidently knows less than a fifth form schoolboy in an English public school. We gave him his deserts, but were careful to couch our criticism, however deservedly severe, in perfectly courteous language. We find, however, that the courtesy was thrown away on the most hysterically foul-mouthed publicist in the whole Indian Press. The late Sambhunath Mukherji ironically described Mr. N. N. Ghose as a thundering cataract of law: he might more aptly have described him as a thunderi

The Fund for Sj. Pal THE question of a fund for Srijut Bepin 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 Bepin 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 instead of for his own personal benefit. Nevertheless certain friends and fellow

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

BANDE MATARAM   ( Early Political Writings From 1890 to May 1908 )  BANDE MATARAM       SRI AUROBINDO                                  

Europe and Asia THE London correspondent of a contemporary quotes, with the apposite change of a word, some verses from a poem by Wilfrid Blunt which so admirably express the basic motive of the Nationalist movement in India that we reproduce it here. It is often represented by our opponents that the cry for Swaraj is a mere senseless cry for freedom without any recognition of the responsibilities of freedom. This is not so. Those who have followed the exposition of the Nationalist ideal in Bande Mataram know well that we advocate the struggle for Swaraj, first, because Liberty is in itself a necessity of national life and therefore worth striving for for its own sake; s

The Issue THE bureaucracy as usual has over-reached itself in instituting a case under the sedition clause against the editor of the Yugantar. The Punjabee prosecution did untold harm to their prestige and helped to shatter the not over-abundant remnants of their moral ascendancy; its work was negative and destructive. But the Yugantar prosecution has been a positive gain to the national cause; it has begun the positive work of building up the moral ascendancy of the people which is to replace that of the alien and nullify his mere material superiority. This momentous result the editor of the Yugantar has brought about by his masterly inactivity. His refusal to plead has been wort

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 possible recrudescence after the jute season. We should now seriously consid

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 applauded and called a "true Briton" when he declaims against t

Bande Mataram Daily: August 6, 1906 to October 29, 1908 Weekly: June 2, 1907 to September 27, 1908 Page-129 Bande Mataram Darkness in "Light" We regret to find our contemporary Light surpassing the most moderate of the moderatists in the timidity of its aspirations. "What the most ambitious of Indians have dared to hope for is that a day may come, may be a century hence, when in the domestic affairs of their country they will enjoy some measure of freedom from autocratic control. "Here is an inspiring ideal indeed! Hail, Holy Light! thou art indeed a fit candle to illumine a somnolent constitutionalist's repose!

“Capturing the Congress” WE HAVE asked the Nationalists all over India to muster strong at Surat during the Congress session. It is believed in some quarters that we intend to march upon the Congress and re-enact a Pride's Purge. Another insinuation is that we form a band of vain, petulant upstarts who delight in wrecking and breaking for its own sake. The Bengalee calls upon the people to repudiate these traitors, and the Tribune of Lahore, the Indu Prakash and Social Reformer of Bombay, the Indian People of Allahabad have by this time swelled that cry. The principle that underlay our attempt to get Lajpat elected to the Presidential chair has not been appreci