'Bande Mataram' - A Daily Organ of Indian Nationalism
An Organ of Indian Nationalism
'Bande Mataram' was an English newspaper edited by Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo’s first preoccupation was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as the aim of political action in India and to insist on this persistently in the pages of the journal.
The journal declared and developed a new political programme for the country as the programme of the Nationalist Party, non-cooperation, passive resistance, Swadeshi, Boycott, national education, settlement of disputes in law by popular arbitration and other items of Sri Aurobindo's plan. Sri Aurobindo published in the paper a series of articles on passive resistance, another developing a political philosophy of revolution and wrote many leaders aimed at destroying the shibboleths and superstitions of the Moderate Party.
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.
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.
A Force None Dared to Ignore
"Bande Mataram" ... at once secured for itself a recognised position in Indian journalism. The hand of the master was in it, from the very beginning. Its bold attitude, its vigorous thinking, its clear ideas, its chaste and powerful diction, its scorching sarcasm and refined witticism, were unsurpassed by any journal in the country, either Indian or Anglo-Indian. It at once raised the tone of every Bengali paper, and compelled the admiration of even hostile Anglo-Indian editors. Morning after morning, not only Calcutta but the educated community almost in every part of the country, eagerly awaited its vigorous pronouncements on the stirring question 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. It was a force in the country which none dared to ignore, however much they might fear or hate it...
Bipin Chandra Pal
Voice of Nationalist Extremism
"It had a full-size sheet, was clearly printed on green paper, and was full of leading and special articles written in English with a brilliance and pungency not hitherto attained in the Indian Press. It was the most effective voice of what we then called nationalist extremism."
Extract from S. K. Ratcliffe, a previous editor of The Statesman, in a letter to the Manchester Guardian of 28 December 1950
Fiery Words
..The words of Bande Mataram will drive out your fear; steel your arms with the might of thunder; fire will course through your veins;...
Brahmabandhav Upadhyay in Sandhya newspaper
Intellectual Feast
"... 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..."
Lajpat Rai wrote (on 4 May 1907, just five days before his deportation):
The Leading Spirit, the Central Figure
Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta in September 1907 after his acquittal in the Bande Mataram Sedition case
Teacher of a whole Nation
Bande Mataram... was a force in the country which none dared to ignore, however much they might fear or hate it, and Aravinda was the leading spirit, the central figure, in the new journal. The opportunities that were denied him in the National College he found in the pages of the "Bande Mataram", and from a tutor of a few youths he thus became the teacher of a whole nation..
Bepin Chandra Pal
Real Editor of Bande Mataram
"Sri Aurobindo was undoubtedly the real editor of the Extremist paper, the Bande Mataram, but still remained at large, partly owing to the number of 'prison editors' on his staff... the man who inspired official circles with the greatest alarm, because his influence, though least spoken of, was most profound..."
Henry Nevinson
The Bande Mataram Newspaper
Genesis
...
Bipin Pal, who had been long expounding a policy of self-help and non-cooperation in his weekly journal, now started a daily with the name of Bande Mataram, but it was likely to be a brief adventure since he began with only Rs. 500 in his pocket and no firm assurance of financial assistance in the future. He asked Sri Aurobindo to join him in this venture to which a ready consent was given, for now Sri Aurobindo saw his opportunity for starting the public propaganda necessary for his revolutionary purpose.
Organ of Indian Nationalism
He called a meeting of the forward group of young men in the Congress and [they] decided then to organise themselves openly as a new political party joining hands with the corresponding group in Maharashtra under the proclaimed leadership of Tilak and to join battle with the Moderate party which was done at the Calcutta session. He also persuaded them to take up the Bande Mataram daily as their party organ and a Bande Mataram Company was started to finance the paper, whose direction Sri Aurobindo undertook during the absence of Bipin Pal who was sent on a tour in the districts to proclaim the purpose and programme of the new party. The new party was at once successful and the Bande Mataram paper began to circulate throughout India.
A Limited Liability Company has been formed, called the Bande Mataram Limited, which will take over the daily journal Bande Mataram and conduct it on a permanent and organized basis.
...Another distinguishing feature of Bande Mataram will be that it is not the property or organ of a single individual, but the voice of a party. Many writers of ability, will be on the staff...
The Company has been floated with a capital of Rs. 50,000 with option to increase... Each share is worth Rs. 10. The shares have been purposely put at a low figure so that all who belong to the school of thought which Bande Mataram represents may take a personal interest.....
The Bande Mataram Publishers and Printers Company have now been conducting the daily paper Bande Mataram for a full year and are now in a position to approach the public with an offer of shares on which a dividend for the next year is practically assured. So long as the paper was carried on at a loss and its future ill-assured, the Company had to invite the public to invest in it rather as a patriotic undertaking which deserved support than as a promising business enterprise; but the paper is now self-supporting and in a short time at the present rate of increase will be a paying concern, provided the capital required is subscribed. The following statement will show the present financial condition and give some basis for forming an opinion as to future prospects.
On its staff were not only Bipin Pal and Sri Aurobindo but some other very able writers, Shyam Sundar Chakravarty, Hemendra Prasad Ghose and Bejoy Chatterji. Shyam Sundar and Bejoy were masters of the English language, each with a style of his own; Shyam Sundar caught up something like Sri Aurobindo’s way of writing and later on many took his articles for Sri Aurobindo’s.
"As for calm and silence, there is no need of the supramental to get that. One can get it even on the level of Higher Mind which is the next above the human intelligence. I got these things in 1908, 27 years ago, and I can assure you they were solid enough and marvellous enough in all conscience without any need of supramentality to make it more so. Again, 'a calm that looks like action and motion' is a phenomenon of which I know nothing. A calm or silence which can support or produce action — that I know and that is what I have had — the proof is that out of an absolute silence of the mind I edited the Bande Mataram for 4 months and wrote 6 volumes of the Arya, not to speak of all the letters and messages etc. I have written since."
The articles by Sri Aurobindo were often written under pressure of time, sometimes at the very last minute. Yet the copy was always practically word-perfect, even the punctuation marks. Hardly any changes were needed.
Departure of Bepin Pal
But after a time dissensions arose between Bipin Pal on one side and the other contributors and the directors of the Company because of temperamental incompatibility and differences of political view especially with regard to the secret revolutionary action with which others sympathised but to which Bipin Pal was opposed. This ended soon in Bipin Pal’s separation from the journal. Sri Aurobindo would not have consented to this departure, for he regarded the qualities of Pal as a great asset to the Bande Mataram, since Pal, though not a man of action or capable of political leadership, was perhaps the best and most original political thinker in the country, an excellent writer and a magnificent orator: but the separation was effected behind Sri Aurobindo’s back when he was convalescing from a dangerous attack of fever.
Sri Aurobindo's Control of Policy
His name was even announced without his consent in Bande Mataram as editor but for one day only, as he immediately put a stop to it since he was still formally in the Baroda service and in no way eager to have his name brought forward in public. Henceforward, however, he controlled the policy of the Bande Mataram along with that of the party in Bengal.
The Message
Bipin Pal had stated the aim of the new party as complete self-government free from British control but this could have meant or at least included the Moderate aim of colonial self-government and Dadabhai Naoroji as President of the Calcutta session of the Congress had actually tried to capture the name of Swaraj, the Extremists' term for indepenence, for this colonial self-government.
Absolute Independence as the Aim
Sri Aurobindo’s first preoccupation was to declare openly for complete and absolute independence as the aim of political action in India and to insist on this persistently in the pages of the journal; he was the first politician in India who had the courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful. The party took up the word Swaraj to express its own ideal of independence and it soon spread everywhere; but it was taken up as the ideal of the Congress much later on at the [Lahore] session of that body when it had been reconstituted and renovated under Nationalist leadership. The journal declared and developed a new political programme for the country as the programme of the Nationalist Party, non-cooperation, passive resistance, Swadeshi, Boycott, national education, settlement of disputes in law by popular arbitration and other items of Sri Aurobindo’s plan.
Doctrine of Passive Resistance
Sri Aurobindo published in the paper a series of articles on passive resistance, another developing a political philosophy of revolution and wrote many leaders aimed at destroying the shibboleths and superstitions of the Moderate Party, such as the belief in British justice and benefits bestowed by foreign government in India, faith in British law courts and in the adequacy of the education given in schools and universities in India and stressed more strongly and persistently than had been done the emasculation, stagnation or slow progress, poverty, economic dependence, absence of a rich industrial activity and all other evil results of a foreign government; he insisted especially that even if an alien rule were benevolent and beneficent, that could not be a substitute for a free and healthy national life. Assisted by this publicity the ideas of the Nationalists gained ground everywhere especially in the Punjab which had before been pre-dominantly moderate. 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.
It is a vain dream to suppose that what other nations have won by struggle and battle, by suffering and tears of blood, we shall be allowed to accomplish easily, without terrible sacrifices, merely by spending the ink of the journalist and petition-framer and the breath of the orator.
Under certain circumstances a civil struggle becomes in reality a battle and the morality of war is different from the morality of peace. To shrink from bloodshed and violence under such circumstances is a weakness deserving as severe a rebuke as Sri Krishna addressed to Arjuna when he shrank from the colossal civil slaughter on the field of Kurukshetra. Liberty is the life-breath of a nation; and when the life is attacked, when it is sought to suppress all chance of breathing by violent pressure, any and every means of self-preservation becomes right and justifiable, - just as it is lawful for a man who is being strangled to rid himself of the pressure on his throat by any means in his power.
To submit to illegal or violent methods of coercion, to accept outrage and hooliganism as part of the legal procedure of the country is to be guilty of cowardice, and, by dwarfing national manhood, to sin against the divinity within ourselves and the divinity in our motherland. The moment coercion of this kind is attempted, passive resistance ceases and active resistance becomes a duty. If the instruments of the executive choose to disperse our meeting by breaking the heads of those present, the right of self-defence entitles us not merely to defend our heads but to retaliate on those of the head-breakers.
The path to Swaraj can never be safe. Over sharp rocks and through thick brambles lies the way to that towering and glorious summit where dwells the Goddess of our worship, our goddess Liberty. Shall we dare to aspire to reach her and yet hope to accomplish that journey perilous with unhurt bodies and untorn feet? Mark the way; as you go it is red and caked with the blood of those who have climbed before us to the summit. And if that sight appals you, look up and forget it in the glory of the face that smiles upon us from the peak.
But its weakness was on the financial side; for the Extremists were still a poor man’s party. So long as Sri Aurobindo was there in active control, he managed with great difficulty to secure sufficient public support for running the paper, but not for expanding it as he wanted,...
...Of course Sir Harvey is strong on the seditious press, in other words, the organs of anti-bureaucratic Nationalism. Our newspapers are "of a low class", their editors have "discovered that sedition is a commercial success" and so write, it is suggested, what they do not believe because it sells. Fudge, Sir Harvey!
Immense Financial Challenges
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 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.
Personal Sacrifices for a Cause
Fudge, Sir Harvey! The Nationalists are not shopkeepers trading in the misery of the millions; they are men like Upadhyay and Bipin 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".
'Fudge, Sir Harvey!'
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...
Arrest Warrant for Sri Aurobindo in Bande Mataram Sedition Case
In August, 1907, The British sought to prosecute Sri Aurobindo under section 124A of Indian Penal Code for sedition as editor of Bande Mataram. The charges were made on the basis of a technical violation of law by 'a reprint of the official translations of certain articles from a vernacular paper' [Yugantar] that were related to a Sedition Case and 'an insignificant correspondence which did not even profess to give voice to the policy of the paper'.
Arrest and Acquittal
Sri Aurobindo was arrested on 16.August.1907 and released on bail the next morning. On 23.September.1907, Magistrate Kingsford ruled that the Prosecution had failed to prove that Sri Aurobindo was the Editor. Thus Sri Aurobindo was acquitted. Kingsford also did not find any evidence to support that "the Bande Mataram habitually publishes seditious matter".
Complete and Dismal Fiasco
The aim of prosecution was clear: to crush Bande Mataram and silence Sri Aurobindo, 'the master mind behind the paper', 'the one man who was wanted and none other'. The Bureaucracy held all the winning cards: a Civilian Magistrate, whose leanings had never been concealed, their own servants as part of Jury, a Police force with unlimited powers to generate evidence and witnesses. Yet not a scrap of convincing evidence was found. The prosecution of Sri Aurobindo in the 'Bande Mataram Sedition Case' thus ended in 'the most complete and dismal fiasco' for the British Government.
The prosecution of the Bande Mataram, the most important of the numerous Press prosecutions recently instituted by the bureaucracy, commenced with a flourish of trumpets, eagerly watched by a hopeful Anglo-Indian Press, has ended in the most complete and dismal fiasco such as no Indian Government has ever had to experience before in a sedition case. The failure has not been the result of any lukewarmness or half-heartedness in the conduct of the prosecution or any unwillingness to convict on the part of the trying Magistrate. The Police left no stone unturned to get a particular man convicted, the Standing Counsel did not hesitate to press every possible point and make the most of every stray scrap or faint shadow of evidence against the accused, the Magistrate was a Civilian Magistrate whose leanings have never been concealed, the same who gave two years to the Yugantar Printer, who sent Bipin Pal before a subservient Bengali Magistrate with a plain hint to give him a heavy punishment, who sentenced Sushil Kumar to fifteen stripes, who brushed aside the evidence of barristers in favour of Police testimony, and every paragraph of whose judgment in the present case shows that he would readily have dealt out a handsome term of hard labour if the evidence had afforded him the slightest justification for a conviction. All the winning cards in the game are in the hands of the bureaucracy in such a trial... ...yet with all this they were unable to bring forward a single scrap of convincing evidence to prove that the particular man they were bent on running down was the Editor...
Aim of prosecution
What has been the whole meaning and aim of this prosecution? ...It has been an obvious attempt to crush a particular paper and a particular individual. The bureaucracy has sought to cripple or silence the Bande Mataram because it has been preaching with extraordinary success a political creed which was dangerous to the continuance of bureaucratic absolutism and was threatening to become a centre of strength round which many Nationalistic forces might gather. It has sought to single out and silence a particular individual because it chose to think that he was, as the Friend of India [The Statesman] expresses it, the master mind behind the policy of the paper... The Bande Mataram has been for over a year attacking without fear and without disguise the present system of government and advocating a radical and revolutionary change. It has advocated that change on grounds of historical experience, the first principles of politics and the necessity of national self-preservation. It has not minced matters or sought to conceal revolutionary aspirations under the veil of moderate professions or ambiguous phraseology. It has not concealed its opinion that the bureaucracy cannot be expected to transform itself, that the people of India and not the people of England must save India, and that we cannot hope for any boons but must wrest what we desire by strong national combination from unwilling hands. Hundreds of articles have appeared in the paper in this vein and the bureaucrats had only to pick and choose. But they have not attacked one of these articles, nor did their counsel venture to cite even a single one of them to prove seditious intention. The fact is that, however dangerous such a propaganda may be to an absolutist handful desiring to perpetuate their irresponsible rule, no government pretending to call itself civilised can prosecute it as seditious without forfeiting all claim to the last vestige of the world's respect. But though the paper could not be characterised as seditious, it was highly inconvenient, and there was a growing clamour which extended even to the cloudy home of the Thunderer [The Times newspaper] in London, for its prosecution and, if possible, suppression. And so watch is kept to find the paper tripping over some trifle, for which it can be hauled up and got into trouble on a side issue.
Prosecution Case
What is the matter for which the Bande Mataram was prosecuted? A reprint of the official translations of certain articles from a vernacular paper, translations issued as part of a case in the law-courts and reproduced as such, that is one count; and an insignificant correspondence which does not even profess to give voice to the policy of the paper, that is the second and third; and there is no other. The Yugantar was prosecuted on articles expressing its essential policy; the Sandhya has been proceeded against on articles expressing its views on important matters; but it was sought to crush the Bande Mataram partly for a technical offence and partly on a side-issue. ...Sanction is given to prosecute a nameless Editor and the police at once proceed to ask for a warrant against Aurobindo Ghose. It is in evidence that they had nothing better to go on than hearsay. But they had no hesitation in immediately pouncing on one particular writer of the Bande Mataram without possessing the least scrap of evidence against him. Obviously they cannot have done this without instructions. It was popularly believed that Srijut Aurobindo Ghose was all in all on the Bande Mataram staff, that all the best articles were written by him, that he gave the tone of the paper and that it could not last without him. Why did the police take a body-warrant against Aurobindo Ghose to the
office and why, having taken it, did they not arrest him? Obviously they took it because they thought that they would find plenty of evidence against him in the search, and they did not execute it because they found that not a scrap of proof rewarded their efforts.
After that there was a pause till Anukul Mukherji testimony was secured, and on that flimsy evidence the trial was started. Had it been honestly intended to deal only with the Editor, whoever he might turn out to be, the proceedings against Aurobindo Ghose would have been given up, but the police made no secret of the fact that it was this one man who was wanted and that no other, whatever the evidence against him, would be thought worth capture. Even when the case for the prosecution was complete without any evidence fit to raise more than a flimsy presumption the Standing Counsel would not give up, but in an outrageous address in which he rode roughshod over the higher traditions of his office, pressed weak points and wrested ambiguous evidence to get the charge framed. And after Anukul had broken down in cross-examination and made admissions fatal to their case, still the prosecution struggled for a verdict. And with what result? Even a civilian Magistrate willing to support the prestige of the Government had more sense of law and justice than the bureaucracy and its advisers and was able to see that a man could not be sent to two years' rigorous imprisonment without any shadow of evidence. Their prey escaped them; the Manager who seems to have been arrested on spec and tried without even any pretence that there was any evidence against him was acquitted, and only an unfortunate Printer who knew no English and had no notion what all the pother was about, was sent to prison for a few months to vindicate the much-damaged majesty of the almighty bureaucracy.
On 30 July 1907, the 'Bande Mataram' Office premises at 2/1 Creek Row, were searched. A body-warrant was furnished but not served. The next day the 'Bande Mataram' described the raid in its columns.
"The wolf has come at last.... Inspector Lahiri with the Casabianca like devotion to duty ransacked every creek and corner of the Manager's office and caught hold of everything that bore the semblance of paper.... They spent nearly two hours in the Office of the Joint Stock Company and went on with the same monotonous investigation and after a laborious search Lahiri afterwards stepped out of the room and paced the corridor heroically, carrying in both of his hands a cart load of booty. Lahiri seems to be the presiding genius of the Detective Department. Nothing escapes his vigilance; he suspects sedition bacillus in every bit of paper, closely eyes it, devours its contents and includes it into his trophy. Then they turned-towards the editorial room where the whole staff offered to sweeten their labour by jovial talk, evil retorts and repartees...Here ends the much expected search and the sequel will be felt in due time."
Arrest Warrant for Sri Aurobindo in Bande Mataram Sedition Case
The Arrest & Bail
On 16.August.1907, at about 11 a.m., a Detective Officer went to the 'Bande Mataram' Office premises at 2/1 Creek Row and informed that a warrant had been issued for the arrest of Sri Aurobindo (as reported in 'The Bengalee' newspaper). On receiving the information, Sri Aurobindo voluntarily presented himself at the Detective Police Office, Royd Street that night at about 9:30 p.m. He was arrested at once by Inspector Purna Chandra Lahiri. Sri Aurobindo was taken to Padmapukur police station and then released on bail the next morning. Principal [Bangabasi College], Girish Chandra Bose and Sj. Nirode Chandra Mallick [of 12, Wellington Square] agreed to stand surety for him of Rs. 2500 each.
Rabindranath Tagore was in Bolpur, at his Santiniketan Ashram, when the news of Sri Aurobindo's arrest in the 'Bande Mataram Sedition Case' reached him. It was then that he wrote his inspired poem in Bengali: 'Namashkar', in which he described Sri Aurobindo as 'the Voice Incarnate of India's Soul'.
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..
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 Tuticorin
"The prosecution of Bande Mataram, the daily Nationalist organ of new thoughts at Calcutta, has 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."
Repression and Unity
...The second year of the paper's existence has begun with a prosecution for sedition, but circumstances have so changed that in its hour of trial it has the sympathy of the whole of Bengal at its back. We note with satisfaction and gratitude 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...
Reports on 'Yugantar Sedition Case' in Bande Mataram newspaper
The Prosecution Charges
Sri Aurobindo was charged under Section 124A of Indian Penal Code with having attempted to excite Sedition against the Government. The charges were related to an Article titled "Politics for Indians" and republication of certain seditious articles which originally appeared in Yugantar newspaper. Sri Aurobindo was alleged to be the Editor of Bande Mataram newspaper. Hemendra Nath Bagchi, the Manager and Apurba Krisna Bose, the Printer were also arrested and charged.
The Standing counsel for the Government, Mr. Gregory asserted: "The whole tone of this article is of a seditious nature", in the court of Chief Presidency Magistrate, Douglas H. Kingsford. The Prosecution presented the testimony of an erstwhile proof-reader, Anukul Mukherji to prove that Sri Aurobindo was the Editor.
Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta in September 1907 after his acquittal in the Bande Mataram Sedition case
The Acquittal
Magistrate Kingsford delivered his verdict on 23.September.1907. After careful consideration of the evidence presented, including the testimony of Anukul Mukherjee (who had broken down during cross-examination and made admissions fatal to the Prosecution's case), he acquitted Sri Aurobindo saying: "..the inference I draw is that the evidence is inconclusive. I find in it nothing which is materially inconsistent with the theory that Arabinda is a mere member of the editorial staff and that he is without responsibility for and without cognisance of the articles charged..". The Magistrate also acquitted the Manager, Hemendranath Bagchi.
The Prosecution Fiasco
Magistrate Kingsford further noted: "The publication of Articles has been proved... There is no evidence before me to indicate that the 'Bande Mataram' habitually publishes seditious matter, and I must therefore assume that the articles charged form an exception to its general tone". Accordingly he sentenced the Printer, Apurba Krishna Bose, to rigorous imprisonment for three months.
Public Reactions to Acquittal
From Purba Bangla, Dacca
"Today let sounds of mirth rise from all directions, 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."
Making a Fool..
B. B. Upadhyay's 'Sandhya' newspaper commented gleefully, "The Bande Mataram newspaper has pulled you [The British Government] by both your ears, and slapped both your cheeks and made fools of you in the middle of the market place."
Hand of Providece
"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."
From Tilak's Kesri
Consequence of the Sedition Case
Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta in September 1907 after his acquittal in the Bande Mataram Sedition case
Leader Forced into Public View
..[Sri Aurobindo] preferred to remain and act and even to lead from behind the scenes without his name being known in public; it was the Government’s action in prosecuting him as editor of the Bande Mataram that forced him into public view. And from that time forward he became openly, what he had been for sometime already, a prominent leader of the Nationalist party, its principal leader in action in Bengal and the organiser there of its policy and strategy.
I do not care a button about my having my name in any blessed place. I was never ardent about fame even in my political days; I preferred to remain behind the curtain, push people without their knowing it and get things done. It was the confounded British Government that spoiled my game by prosecuting me [as editor of Bande Mataram] and forcing me to be publicly known as a "leader".
Reports on 'Yugantar Sedition Case' in Bande Mataram newspaper
'Diabolically Clever' Editorials
..the prosecution was for a letter written by somebody to the Editor and for the publication of articles included in the Jugantar case but not actually used by the prosecution. The Bande Mataram was never prosecuted for its editorial articles. The editor of the Statesman complained that they were too diabolically clever, crammed full of sedition between the lines, but legally unattackable because of the skill of the language. The Government must have shared this view, for they never ventured to attack the paper for its editorial or other articles, whether Sri Aurobindo’s or from the pen of his three editorial colleagues. There is also the fact that Sri Aurobindo never based his case for freedom on racial hatred or charges of tyranny or misgovernment, but always on the inalienable right of the nation to independence. His stand was that even good government could not take the place of national government, - independence.
...The restoration of our country to her separate existence as a nation among the nations, her exaltation to a greatness, splendour, strength, magnificence equalling and surpassing her ancient glories is the goal of our endeavours: and we have undertaken this arduous task in which we as individuals risk everything, ease, wealth, liberty, life itself it may be, not out of hatred and hostility to other nations but in the firm conviction that we are working as much in the interests of all humanity...
It is gratifying to find the 'Thunderer' [The Times newspaper] so deeply impressed with the ability with which this journal is written and edited... But we feel bound to correct certain misapprehensions.... It suits the Times to pretend that the Nationalist movement in India is a pure outcome of racial hatred and that the creation and fomentation of that hatred is the sole method of Indian agitators and the one object of their speeches and writings. But Nationalism is no more a mere ebullition of race hatred in India than it was in Italy in the last century. Our motives and our objects are at least as lofty and noble as those of Mazzini or of Garibaldi whose centenary the Times was hymning with such fervour a few days ago. The restoration of our country to her separate existence as a nation among the nations, her
exaltation to a greatness, splendour, strength, magnificence equalling and surpassing her ancient glories is the goal of our endeavours: and we have undertaken this arduous task in which we as individuals risk everything, ease, wealth, liberty, life itself it may be, not out of hatred and hostility to other nations but in the firm conviction that we are working as much in the interests of all humanity including England herself as in those of our own posterity and nation. ...our object is constructive and not destructive, to build up our own nation and not to destroy another. If England chooses to feel aggrieved by our nation-building, and obstruct it by unjust, violent or despotic means, it is she who is the aggressor and guilty of exciting hatred and ill-feeling....
... and when Sri Aurobindo was arrested and held in jail for a year [in the 'Alipore Bomb Case'], the economic situation of Bande Mataram became desperate: finally, it was decided that the journal should die a glorious death rather than perish by starvation and Bejoy Chatterji was commissioned to write an article for which the Government would certainly stop the publication of the paper. Sri Aurobindo had always taken care to give no handle in the editorial articles of the Bande Mataram either for a prosecution for sedition or any other drastic action fatal to its existence; an editor of The Statesman complained that the paper reeked with sedition patently visible between every line but it was so skilfully written that no legal action could be taken. The manoeuvre succeeded and the life of the Bande Mataram came to an end in Sri Aurobindo’s absence.
Yugantar was a Bengali weekly newspaper started by Sri Aurobindo that preached open revolt and absolute denial of British Rule and included such items as a series of articles containing instructions for guerrilla warfare.
Bengal National College started with Sri Aurobindo as its first Principal on 15.Aug.1906. Sri Aurobindo attached much importance to National education and included it as part of the new Nationalist Party's programme...
'Bande Mataram' was an English newspaper edited by Sri Aurobindo. It was almost unique in journalistic history in the influence it exercised in converting the mind of a people and preparing it for revolution...
Sri Aurobindo presided over the Nationalist Conference at Surat in 1907 where in the forceful clash of two equal parties - the Moderates and the Nationalists - the Congress was broken to pieces...
Sri Aurobindo realized Nirvana or Silent Brahman Consciousness in January 1908. This experience turned out to be the beginning of a greater realisation...
Sri Aurobindo spent one year in Presidency Jail as an under-trial prisoner in the Alipore Bomb Case. He was kept in solitary confinement for certain periods...
Sri Aurobindo realized Cosmic consciousness and the Divine as all beings and all that is, during his confinement at Presidency Jail as an undertrial prisoner...
Bipin Pal was subpoenaed by the government as one of its witnesses in the [Bande Mataram Sedition] Case.
"I honestly believe," said Pal, refusing to testify, "that prosecutions like that of the Bande Mataram are unjust and injurious; unjust because they are subversive of the rights of the people, and injurious because they are calculated to stifle freedom of thought and speech - nor are they justified in the interest of public peace. I have accordingly conscientious objection to take any part in that prosecution. I therefore refuse to be sworn or affirmed in that case."
For his refusal, Bipin Pal was charged with 'Contempt of court', sentenced to six months' imprisonment and sent to Buxar Jail.
The country will not suffer by the incarceration of this great orator and writer, this spokesman and prophet of Nationalism, nor will Bipin Chandra himself suffer by it. He has risen ten times as high as he was before in the estimation of his countrymen: ... He will come out of prison with his power and influence doubled, and Nationalism has already become the stronger for his self-immolation. Posterity will judge between him and the petty tribunal which has treated his honourable scruples as a crime.
Sushil Sen was part of a crowd that gathered on 27.August.1907 outside the court-room at Lal Bazar in support of Bipin Chandra Pal, who was on trial for 'contempt of court' in refusing to testify in the 'Bande Mataram Sedition Case'. The presiding Judge, Douglas Kingford, ordered that the compound be cleared of the boisterous throng. The policemen drove away the crowd with lathis. The young Sushil struck by an English sub-inspector, returned the blow and a fight ensued.
Sketch of Police Headquarters at Lal Bazar
The newspaper Sandhya described it thus: Everybody who saw Susil's heroic conduct in the fracas at Lal Bazar was amazed. When Susil saw a red-faced inspector assaulting a number of people without any provocation, he stepped into the fray and in so doing got assaulted himself. ... Susil was a youth of fourteen, whereas the red-faced man was a huge and heavy fellow. But Susil's zest was a thing to see.... The red-faced fellow was thoroughly worsted.
Stoic endurance
Sushil was immediately arrested and tried the next day for assaulting a police officer. Kingsford ordered the boy to be given fifteen 'stripes' - fifteen strokes on the bared buttocks with a rattan cane. The inhuman severity of the punishment created a public outcry. Sushil bore his punishment resolutely, for, as the Bande Mataram noted, it would have been 'derogatory to the national cause to show any sign of weakness'. Sushil's courage in facing the police-officer and stoic endurance of his caning drew widespread admiration.
The third and supreme service of Bankim to his nation was that he gave us the vision of our Mother.... It was thirty-two years ago that Bankim wrote his great song and few listened; but in a sudden moment of awakening from long delusions the people of Bengal looked around for the truth and in a fated moment somebody sang 'Bande Mataram'. The mantra had been given and in a single day a whole people had been converted to the religion of patriotism. The Mother had revealed herself. Once that vision has come to a people, there can be no rest, no peace, no further slumber till the temple has been made ready, the image installed and the sacrifice offered. A great nation which has had that vision can never again be placed under the feet of the conqueror...
Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving, Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams
Over thy branches and lordly streams, -
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease,
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother, I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow....
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