Mother's Chronicles - Book Five

39

Outpourings of Sympathy

The collapse of the Bande Mataram Sedition case put the nose of the bureaucracy out of joint. B. B. Upadhyay's Sandhya commented gleefully, "The Bande Mataram newspaper has pulled you by both your ears, and slapped both your cheeks and made fools of you in the midst of the market place."

In its hour of trial the paper had the sympathy of the whole of Bengal at its back. "We note with satisfaction and gratitude," wrote Sri Aurobindo, "that all classes of men, rich and poor, all shades of opinion, moderate or extremist, the purveyors of ready-made loyalty alone excepted, have given us a sympathy and support which is not merely emotional. This growing unity is mainly due to the action of the bureaucracy in attempting to put down by force a movement which has now taken possession of the nation's heart beyond the possibility of dislodgment."

The Anglo-Indian bureaucrats ought to have read Edmund Burke with attention. "If the entire population of a country comes to be awakened by the sacred light of patriotism is it proper to call it sedition? A whole nation cannot commit sedition."

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The news of Babu Aravindo Ghose's arrest spread all over India like wildfire. And the nation grieved. On 22 August the Bande Mataram reprinted extracts from many newspapers, such as Indian Daily News, Empire, Maharatta, Madras Standard, Indian Patriot, etc. Thus the young man who was not so well known publicly outside Bengal, became an all-India household name overnight. So far people had been wont to think that the pithy and pungent articles flowed out of Bepin Pal's pen, but now everybody knew that those were from the pen of Arabindo Babu, 'the power behind the paper.'

The Bande Mataram continued to reprint extracts in some of its numbers. We give here a few outpourings of sympathy.

From Jhalakati, Barisal: "We heartily sympathise with you in your trouble which has been brought on you for your unflinching devotion to the Swadeshi cause and for the independence of thought and the force of language which you have displayed all along in gallantly supporting the Swadeshi cause. We fervently pray to God for your ultimate success."

From Chandpur : "Much concerned on hearing the arrest of Sri Aurobindo. Hearty sympathy, high esteem for the noble soul. Country's hearts will bleed at his incarceration. May his delicate constitution bear the rigours of the ordeal of imprisonment."

From Rawalpindi: "The news of Srijut Arovindo Ghose's arrest has been received here in grave silence. Nationalists hope he will manfully face the ordeal."

From Tuticorin: "The prosecution of Bande Mataram, the daily Nationalist organ of new thoughts at Calcutta, has

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brought to light the hidden jewel and priceless gem of its Editor, Mr. Arabinda Ghose. It was a real feast of reason and flow of soul to read the thrilling discourses in its leading columns. Within the short period of its existence it has done more to awaken Nationalistic and patriotic aspirations than any other known power of agency...."

From a public meeting of the Swadeshi Manda at Amraoti: "The several speakers dwelt upon the rare attainments, the sage-like career and the exemplary character of Babu Aurobindo Ghose whose [vigorous] writings have gained him an abiding name in the journalistic literature of India."

From the Sanmitra Samaj, Poona: "We regard Srijut Aurobindo Ghose as a true champion of the Nationalists, a patriot of the patriots and a worthy model of the young generation of the Motherland. His sacrifice is great, but without it none can really be great. We sincerely believe that his name will occupy a high place in the history of future India."

From Daccaprakash: "The patriotism of this great man and his uncommon self-sacrifice attracted the heart of every son of Bengal. It rends the heart to say that the man who, in response to the call of duty, thus threw away all luxuries of life and was, though a human being, exhibiting divine traits, is now like a thief being sent to jail by the rulers of this land! Alas! the unfortunate land Our reckless rulers are yet unable to understand that as a result of their misdeeds a fire of disgust is burning in the country which it will be beyond their power to extinguish."

Babu Aurobindo Ghose's acquittal was greeted with rejoicings and relief by one and all in the country, and even

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beyond the seas —a letter of sympathy came from ... Tokyo, Japan I

"Today let sounds of mirth rise from all directions," wrote Purba Bangla, Dacca, "and let 'Bande Mataram' be shouted with immense joy, piercing the Indian firmament.... This joy is not the outcome of tasting pleasure after a period of sorrow. For we have no ground to be sorry.... But when we saw that a devotee to the Mother, in his desire to worship her, was about to be burnt by the fiery anger of alien rulers, when we understood that in his attempt to restore the pristine glory of India and to bring under control the ideal of ancient India, the worthy son of the country was at every moment apprehending the fall of the thunderbolt as a result of the ire of the rulers upon his exposed head, we indeed prayed to God for his safety from danger, but we were not sorry for him. For he who has been suffering from persecution for his devotion to the country has his life blessed and his sacred personality, like a living ideal, will point out the duties of the Indians desirous of salvation. We are, therefore, glad indeed not because Arabinda has been let off, but because we have seen justice triumphant over injustice. Today we shall thank God alone, to whom is due all glory, and no man has any claim upon it."

Tilak's Kesari wrote: "The result of the Bande Mataram trial has been made known to the public by a telegraphic communication. Babu Arabindo Ghose, who was arraigned as Editor, has been acquitted.... His learning and patriotism are so profound that in his acquittal we discern the hand of providence." We forego the pleasure of quoting from Bengali newspapers.

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Rabindranath Tagore was in Bolpur, at his Santiniketan Ashram, when the news of the arrest of Sri Aurobindo reached ' him. Then and there he wrote his inspired 'Salutation' poem, in which he called him 'the voice incarnate of India's soul.' He had expected a term of imprisonment for Arabindo Babu. He was back in Calcutta and upon hearing about his acquittal, he went to 12 Wellington Square, at Subodh Mullick's. Many others had gathered there, of course. Rabi Babu hugged Sri Aurobindo in a big embrace. After congratulating him he said to the younger man (in Bengali), "What! You have deceived us!" Replied Sri Aurobindo in English, "Not for long will you have to wait." Prediction ? Premonition ? Some seven months later Sri Aurobindo was prosecuted on a charge of conspiracy to wage war against the Government, and was in prison for one year as an undertrial prisoner.

Remember Sir Harvey? His lamentations on the Yugan-tar? Well, he was always strong on the 'seditious' press, in other words, the organs of anti-bureaucratic Nationalism. Lambasting the Scottish official's slander of such publications, which he said had "discovered that sedition is a commercial success," Sri Aurobindo wrote in the Bande Mataram's columns : "Fudge, Sir Harvey! If you could be transformed from a perorating official Scot into the manager of a Nationalist newspaper for the first year or two of its existence, you would 'discover' at what tremendous pecuniary and personal sacrifice these papers have been established and maintained. If Sir Harvey knew anything about the conditions of life in the land he is helping to misgovern, he would know that an Indian newspaper, unless it is

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long established, and sometimes even then, can command immense influence and yet be commercially no more than able to pay its way, especially when on principle it debars itself from taking all but Swadeshi advertisements. Fudge, Sir Harvey! The Nationalists are not shopkeepers trading in the misery of the millions; they are men like Upadhyay and Bepin Chandra Pal and numbers more who have put from them all the ordinary chances of life to devote themselves to a cause, and in the few instances in which a Nationalist journal has been run at a profit, the income has gone to Swadeshi work and the maintenance of workers and not into the pockets of the proprietors, while in almost every case men of education and ability have foregone their salary or half-starved on a pittance in order to relieve the burden of the struggling journal. These are your editors of low newspapers, traders in sedition, 'interested agitators,' men without sense of responsibility or 'matured understanding.' You say the thing which is not and know it, a licensed slanderer of men a corner of whose brains has a richer content than your whole Scotch skull and whose shoes you are unworthy to touch."

Bande Mataram's 'economic situation was always rather weak, but during Sri Aurobindo's incarceration at Alipore it became desperate. Bejoy Chatterji then wrote an article, 'A Traitor in the Camp,' which brought down the wrath of the Government : it confiscated the journal's press. Thus instead of perishing by starvation Bande Mataram died a glorious death. A fitting end to that which had painted the sky with a fiery stain .

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