Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Calcutta, June 26^th, 1907

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

The Tanjore Students’ Resolution

At a meeting of the Tanjore students a resolution was passed exhorting the students and guardians at Rajamundry “to lose no time in starting a National College free from the shackles of the Government”. Thus we find Madras students realising the situation better than the students in Bengal who played so prominent a part in the agitation that followed the Partition of Bengal. We have all realised that the education the Government prescribes for our young men is not calculated to help in developing the manhood of the nation. The system of education that prevailed before the passing of the Universities Act was bad enough. But this education as deformed by the provisions of the Act was a direct attempt to stem the tide of political progress in India and produce men minus a backbone. Now that we have realised that to help the growing race consciousness in India we must have a system of education consistent with the traditions of the people and calculated to foster that spirit of Nationalism which alone can make a nation great, it is the duty of every Indian to help the inauguration of such a system of education and place it on a firm footing. The duty becomes all the more sacred in the face of the powerful opposition that such a system of education is sure to encounter at the hands of the bureaucracy whose interests are likely to be injured by it. It is only the unanimous support of the country that can make such an opposition fruitless. And it is a significant sign of the times that students all over the country are realising it. We are sure it will not be long before the whole country is on fire with a desire to strengthen the national system of education that has been inaugurated and the impending struggle against the Risley Circular will be the precursor of even a greater movement which will make National Education in India an accomplished success.

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