All surviving political writings and speeches from 1890 to 1908 including articles originally published in the nationalist newspaper 'Bande Mataram'.
All surviving political writings and speeches from 1890 to 1908. The two volumes consist primarily of 353 articles originally published in the nationalist newspaper 'Bande Mataram' between August 1906 and May 1908. Also included are political articles written by Sri Aurobindo before the start of 'Bande Mataram', speeches delivered by him between 1907 and 1908, articles from his manuscripts of that period that were not published in his lifetime, and an interview of 1908. Many of these writings were not prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication; several were left in an unfinished state.
Some time back a retired Anglo-Indian wrote a letter on the unrest in the Punjab in the Times. He said: "Many English officials live for weeks and months absolutely alone among Indians, far from others of their race, and their comfort and their safety are dependent on the prestige of the English name and on the good will of the cultivators for their English rulers." Mr. Newman the travelling editor of the Englishman has taken the cue from this gentleman and improved upon him. Writing on Mr. Crabbe's murder he comments: "It may be said that the solitary murder of a European committed evidently by a desperate man who would have killed anybody who interfered with him, has no bearing at all on the general political situation in this province. In one way of course it has not, but the non-official view is that the crime would not have occurred but for the fact that the European has entirely lost his prestige here." It is to maintain this lost prestige that Regulation lathis and bayonets have been sent to Eastern Bengal. But this prestige must be weak indeed to require more support. Threats cannot keep prestige intact when it has not the power to maintain itself nor can oppression ensure its safety. The origin of their prestige is not likely to touch the popular imagination and it cannot hope to hold its own when the people realise their own position in the land that is theirs. No amount of brandishing of the rusty sword will be able to take India back to the days gone by. The tide of progress cannot be turned back and the race-consciousness once awakened cannot be suppressed. The old superstitions must fall away and disappear and the English in India can no longer hope to effect a return to the old ways. It is the old vain attempt to turn back the wheel of Time and bring back the "good" old past that has gone for ever.
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