Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

36

Bande Mataram

Sri Aurobindo did not wield a gun. He wielded a pen.

In August 1906, when the National College began its work, Bepin Pal "who had been long expounding a policy of self-help and non-cooperation in his weekly journal [New India], now started a daily with the name Bande Mataram," wrote Sri Aurobindo. On 6 August 1906 the declaration of Bande Mataram was filed. S. K. Ratcliffe, a previous editor of The Statesman, in a letter to the Manchester Guardian of 28 December 1950 just after the passing away of Sri Aurobindo, wrote: "We knew Aurobindo Ghose only as a revolutionary nationalist and editor of a flaming newspaper which struck a ringing new note in Indian daily journalism ... Bande Mataram (Hail to the Mother). It was a full-size sheet, was clearly printed on green paper, and was full of leading and special articles written in English and with brilliance and pungency not hitherto attained in Indian Press. It was the most effective voice of what we then called nationalist extremism." Ironically, it was the very Statesman that used to complain that the Bande Mataram "reeked with sedition patently visible

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between every line, but it was so skilfully written that no legal action could be taken," recounted Sri. Aurobindo.

Do you know how these brilliant and pungent leading articles were written? "When a man from the Office would come for articles," explained Abinash C. Bhattacharya, a revolutionary worker, who was residing with Sri Aurobindo at 48 Grey Street, from where they were arrested at the same time in May the following year, "he would ask him to wait and start writing and go on sometimes with his eyes on, sometimes away from, what he wrote. No stop of his pen or pencil. A few pages done, he would ask if that would do." Any handy paper, even the back of a bill or a torn piece of packing paper served equally well for these editorials written without a scratch; editorials for which the whole of India waited with bated breath to read the next morning.

However, Suresh Chandra Deb, a sub-editor of the paper, in his first-hand account says: "It fell to me to come to him every evening about 5 P.M. and receive from him the article promised. I found it ready; I did not have to wait for it on any single day." Then Sri Aurobindo began to attend the Bande Mataram office. Here is Deb again. "We 'edited' the telegrams, and Sri Aurobindo passing through our room would ask us for the day's news on which to comment. He generally finished his articles by 3 P.M., and when handing these over to us would enquire whether they would be sufficient. If we replied in the negative, he would stand by our table, look over the telegram sheets, and write a 'para' or two, as the mood was on. Other denizens of the editorial sanctum were Shyam Sundar Chakravarty

A first page of the Bande Mataram,

with Swadeshi advertisements

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and Hemendra Prasad Ghosh, a witness to the 'high audacity' of those days, Sri Aurobindo's favourite words. The 'Chief,' the title by which he was known in the Bande Mataram Office, showed an instinct for journalism that was remarkable for one of his retiring and recluse habits."

When the British saw the fire of Nationalism taking hold of Punjab they hastened to stamp it out. On 9 May 1907, Lala Lajpat Rai, the Lion of Punjab, was arrested and deported to Mandalay in Burma, along with Ajit Singh. The news reached Calcutta at about midnight. In a couple of hours the Bande Mataram was to go to press. Sri Aurobindo was roused from his sleep and given the news. Instantly he wrote the following:

"The sympathetic administration of Mr. Morley has for the present attained its records;—but for the present only. Lala Lajpatrai has been deported out of British India. The fact is its own comment. The telegram goes on to say that indignation meetings have been forbidden for four days. Indignation meetings? The hour for speeches and fine writings is past. The bureaucracy has thrown down the gauntlet. We take it up. Men of the Punjab! Race of the lion! Show these men who would stamp you into the dust that for one Lajpat they have taken away, a hundred Lajpat will arise in his place. Let them hear a hundred times louder your war-cry—Jai Hindustan."

Years later, Sri Aurobindo gave a brief but comprehensive note on the genesis of the paper Bande Mataram, which could have been but a brief adventure since Pal began with a paltry amount and no firm assurance of financial assistance.

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"Bepin Pal started the Bande Mataram with Rs. 500 in his pocket donated by Haridas Halder. He called in my help as assistant editor and I gave it. I called a private meeting of theyoung Nationalist leaders in Calcutta and they agreed to take up the Bande Mataram as their party paper with Subodh and Nirod Mullick as the principal financial supporters. A company was projected and formed, but the paper was financed and kept up meanwhile by Subodh. Bepin Pal who was strongly supported by C. R. Das and others remained as editor. Hemendra Prasad Chose and Shyam Sundar joined the editorial staff but they could not get on with Bepin Babu and were supported by the Mullicks. " The editorial staff comprised Bepin C. Pal , Sri Aurobindo, Shyam Sundar Chakrabarty! and Bejoy Chandra Chatterji , both of them 'masters of the English language,' and Hemendra Prasad Chose. The dissension between Bepin Pal and others arose because of differences of political views "especially with regard to the secret revolutionary action with which others sympathised but to which Bepin Pal was opposed," clarified Sri Aurobindo. "Finally, Bepin Pal had to retire, I don't remember whether in November or December [1906], probably the latter. I was myself very ill , almost to death , in my father in-law's house in Serpentine Lane and I did not know what was going on." Sri Aurobindo would not have consented to Bepin Pal's departure as he regarded the qualities of Pal , an ardent

1. "Shyam Sundar was a witty parodist and could write with much humour as also with a telling rhetoric.... In Sri Aurobindo's absence from Calcutta it was Shyam Sundar who wrote most of the Bande Mataram editorials, those excepted which were sent by Sri Aurobindo from Deoghar."

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Nationalist, as a great asset to the Bande Mataram. But it was effected behind his back when he lay ill with a dangerous attack of malarial fever, after he had stopped Pranayama practices for lack of time. On 4 November he had such high fever that he could not write his editorial. He recovered partially at the end of November, but had a relapse in December. On 11 December he went to Deoghar for a change, but returned to Calcutta by the 26^th in order to attend the Congress session. "They put my name as editor on the paper without my consent," continued Sri Aurobindo, "but I spoke to the secretary pretty harshly and had the insertion discontinued." For one day only, on 12 December, Sri Aurobindo's name appeared as the Editor of the paper. But from then on he controlled the policy of the Bande Mataram and the policy of the Nationalist Party.

It was not only against the British government that the articles abounded. "When I began the paper," Sri Aurobindo told a politician disciple in 1926, "I started attacking the big heads of the Moderate Party —among them Surendranath Banerji. And you will wonder, Bepin Pal wrote to me that I was unnecessarily creating trouble by writing them. Of course, I went on writing my articles without listening to what he said. I saw how little practical insight he had got in politics. At the 1906 Congress [at Calcutta] Tilak had to do the whole fighting alone against Pherozeshah and the rest and Bepin Pal could be of no help to him! I was then working behind the scenes."

Sri Aurobindo then called a meeting of the party leaders at which it was decided at his instance to give up the

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behind-the-scenes jostlings with the Moderates, and declare an open war on Moderatism — the Nationalist Party was born — and place before the country what was practically a revolutionary propaganda. In an inconceivably short time the Bande Mataram became the spearhead of the new party in Bengal. The Nationalist Party was at once successful and the Bande Mataram paper began to circulate throughout India. It came into being in a great and critical hour for the whole nation, and it had a message to deliver. Indeed, "the Bande Mataram was almost unique in journalistic history in the influence it exercised in converting the mind of a people and preparing it for revolution." Even three or four years before the Swadeshi movement was born the prevailing mood in Bengal was one of apathy and despair. But then came a sudden transformation. And the Bande Mataram played no mean part in it. "Anyone with an open mind," remarked a contemporary reader, "reading even a stray issue of the Bande Mataram was sure to be persuaded to its views and become a Nationalist."

Wrote Lajpat Rai to the Bande Mataram on 4 May 1907, just five days before his deportation, "Let me assure you that I spare no opportunity of recommending your excellent paper to my friends as well as those whom I meet. For me it is generally an intellectual feast and it is my earnest desire that nothing will happen to mar its usefulness. It is doing a splendid service. May it live long is the earnest prayer. "I am

"A humble servant of the motherland Lajpat Rai"

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Bepin Pal said, "Morning after morning not only Calcutta, but the educated community almost in every part of the country, eagerly awaited its vigour ous pronouncements on the stirring questions of the day. It even forced itself upon the notice of the callous and self-centered British press. Long extracts from it commenced to be reproduced week after week, even in the exclusive columns of the Times in London." Even Theodore Roosevelt, President of the USA from 1901 to 1909, after reading a copy of the Bande Mataram found that it was 'a very interesting paper.'

But the Bande Mataram did not confine itself to the 'stirring questions of the day.' It spoke of History—of Indian History to awake the people to India's glorious past. It spoke of Indian culture, comparing it with the Western one. It instilled a moral tone into the murkiness of politics. In a word, the Bande Mataram elevated Nationalism to another, higher level. Nationalism was the new religion.

Before closing the chapter we give a little extract from an assessment of the journal's impact made by J. L. Banerji. "The Bande Mataram leaped into popular favour almost in a day; and soon achieved for itself a remarkable position in the field of Indian journalism. The vigour and energy of its style, the trenchant directness of its tone, the fearless independence of its attitude, the high and inspiring ideal which it held up before the people, its passionate faith in the genius of the country —all combined to root the new paper in the hearts and affections of its ever-widening circle of readers. Moreover, the people knew that the Bande Mataram was their very own—no

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organ of any clique, or faction, but wide as Indian nationality itself. No newspaper that we know of has ever evoked such passionate personal enthusiasm as the Bande Mataram did during its short tenure of life.

"Whoever the actual contributor to the Bande Mataram might be —the soul, the genius of the paper was Arabinda. The pen might be that of Shyam Sundar or who not —the world did not care about it; but the voice was the voice of Arabinda Ghose: his the clear clarion notes calling men to heroic and strenuous self-sacrifice; his the unswerving unfaltering faith in the high destinies of his race; his the passionate resolve to devote life, fame, fortune, all to the service of the Mother."

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