Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Political Writings and Speeches. 1890–1908

Publisher’s Note on Part Two

Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal
6 August – 15 October 1906

The Bande Mataram was launched by Bipin Chandra Pal in August 1906. Pal and other members of the group then known as the New Party or Nationalist Party, but since then generally referred to as the Extremist Party, had been intending to bring out their own English-language newspaper since the end of 1905. Eventually, acting on his own and “with only 500 rupees in his pocket”, Pal had the first issue of the paper printed on 6 August 1906. The same day he left Calcutta for a tour of East Bengal. Before going, he asked Sri Aurobindo, who was about to become principal of the Bengal National College, to contribute articles regularly. Sri Aurobindo agreed and for the next two months was one of the Bande Mataram’s principal writers.

Front page of the daily Bande Mataram