Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Calcutta, September 11^th, 1906

Part Two. Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal (6 August – 15 October 1906)

A Savage Sentence

We hope that an appeal will be preferred against the barbarous sentence passed on one Bipin Behari Modak for throwing acid,– so it is alleged,– in the face of an unpopular non-striker in the Howrah Office. To us the evidence on the defence side seems to be exceedingly strong nor can we discover any motive for the attack on the part of a man who had no connection of any kind with the strike. But then it was a strike case, and strike, in magisterial eyes, means Swadeshi and Swadeshi means sedition. So by a strict chain of judicial logic the accused is not only convicted but meted out a savage and merciless punishment. Whatever may be the fact as to this particular prosecution, it is certain that a taint of Swadeshi in any case seems to double and treble the guilt in the eyes of the magistracy. The spirit of Sir Bampfylde Fuller has not left the country with his body.

This work was not included in SABCL, vol.1 and it was not compared with other editions.