Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Calcutta, June 4^th, 1907

Part Four. Bande Mataram under the Editorship of of Sri Aurobindo (28 May – 22 December 1907)

Holding on to a Titbit

When the Anglo-Indian Press has got a hold or thinks it has got a hold upon an opponent, it holds on to it like grim death. This peculiarity is shared by its pets and proteges. Sometime ago a vernacular paper in Maharashtra published an alleged interview with Mr. Gokhale in which that carefully moderate politician was actually represented as using expressions which might be taken for an incitement to rebellion. Mr. Gokhale repudiated the interview but the Nawab of Dacca and his Secretary of Comilla fame still persist in calmly ignoring the repudiation and attributing expressions to Mr. Gokhale which he never used. A similar spirit is being shown with regard to Srijut Bipin Pal’s repudiation of the Shaktipuja report. The Englishman, flattered probably by being preferred to the Daily News, was gracious enough, in a paragraph full of the most outrageous and insufferable impertinence, to acknowledge that Bipin Babu should not be held responsible for the “sins of the Bande Mataram”. Yesterday, however, it published lengthy letters in which its correspondents still insisted on this vicarious punishment. The Daily News also seems to have been piqued by not being noticed and tries to belittle the effect of Bipin Babu’s disclaimer. It even proposes to extend the principle of vicarious punishment much farther and make Bipin Babu responsible for the alleged utterances of a Madrasi speaker whom it gratuitously assumes to be his “associate”. We presume the Anglo-Indian journals consider themselves superior to the ordinary etiquette in such matters as observed in other countries; otherwise we should have imagined that a disclaimer by a public man of unauthorized reports of his utterances ought to be regarded as final. Whatever responsibility remains for the publication, now rests entirely on the Bande Mataram whose shoulders are quite broad enough to bear its own burdens unassisted. We have made our own explanation to the Indian public in this matter and we are quite indifferent whether Anglo-India official or unofficial is satisfied with it or not.

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