Sri Aurobindo

Autobiographical Notes

and Other Writings of Historical Interest

Part One. Autobiographical Notes

2. Sri Aurobindo’s corrections of statements in a proposed biography

Political Life, 1893–1910

The Policy of the Bande Mataram [1]

In other ways also Sri Aurobindo sought to appeal to the hearts of the Indian and British peoples. . . . Vidula . . . appeared in the second issue of the Weekly Bandemataram, which also contained “An Unreported Conversation” in verse between a Briton and Ajit Singh on the eve of his arrest. Another inspiring item in the issue was . . .

As a politician it was part of Sri Aurobindo’s principles never to appeal to the British people; that he would have considered as part of the mendicant policy. These articles and other items (satiric verse, parodies, etc.) referred to in these pages (not of course Vidula and Perseus) were the work of Shyamsundar Chakrabarti, not of Sri Aurobindo. Shyamsundar was a witty parodist and could write with much humour, as also with a telling rhetoric; he had caught some imitation of Sri Aurobindo’s style and many could not distinguish between their writings. In Aurobindo’s absences from Calcutta it was Shyamsundar who wrote most of the Bande Mataram editorials, those excepted which were sent by Aurobindo from Deoghar.