Autobiographical Notes

The Policy of the Bande Mataram

In other ways also Sri Aurobindo sought to appeal to the hearts of the Indian and British peoples.... Vidula ... appeared in the second issue of the Weekly Bandemataram, which also contained "An Unreported Conversation" in verse between a Briton and Ajit Singh on the eve of his arrest. Another inspiring item in the issue was ...

As a politician it was part of Sri Aurobindo's principles never to appeal to the British people; that he would have considered as part of the mendicant policy. These articles and other items (satiric verse, parodies, etc.) referred to in these pages (not of course Vidula and Perseus) were the work of Shyamsundar Chakrabarti, not of Sri Aurobindo. Shyamsundar was a witty parodist and could write with much humour, as also with a telling rhetoric; he had caught some imitation of Sri Aurobindo's style and many could not distinguish between their writings. In Aurobindo's absences from Calcutta it was Shyamsundar who wrote most of the Bande Mataram editorials, those excepted which were sent by Aurobindo from Deoghar.

He was able to contemplate politics purged of all rancour ...

Sri Aurobindo never brought any rancour into his politics. He

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never had any hatred for England or the English people; he based his claim for freedom for India on the inherent right to freedom, not on any charge of misgovernment or oppression; if he attacked persons even violently, it was for their views or political action, not from any other motive.