Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Calcutta, May 25^th, 1907

Part Three. Bande Mataram under the Editorship of of Sri Aurobindo (24 October 1906 – 27 May 1907)

Newmania

Yesterday the Special Correspondent of the Englishman finished his shilling shocker in many chapters, The Dreadful Boy Desperadoes of Dacca or The Violent Volunteers of Barisal. We have had many new things recently, the new Hinduism, the new School, the new Politics, the new Province, the new John Morley and now we have Newmania in the Englishman. The peculiarly delirious character of this disease can be easily understood from the Khulna telegram of the Secretary, People’s Association. Mr. Newman had published from Barisal a peculiarly blood and thunder incident of the villainous drowning and stabbing of British goods by whiskerless young desperadoes of Khulna. The Magistrate of Khulna seems to have been so far taken in by the life-like vividness of Mr. Newman’s style as to take this bit of heroic romancing quite seriously. He actually enquired into the alleged murder and sudden death and naturally found that nothing of the kind had happened. It is clear that we need a special liturgy for India. “From Denzil Ibbetson and deportation, from the stick of the Constable and the gun of the Gurkha¹, from sunstroke and the Civil and Military Gazette, from Pax Britannica and the Nawab of Dacca, from Sir Henry Cotton and Mr. Rees, from Fuller, Morley and Shillong Hare, Good Lord deliver us! From lesser plague and pestilence, from cholera and motor-cars, from measles and moderation, Good Lord deliver us! But most of all from the friendship of the Statesman and the ravings of Newmania, Good Lord deliver us!”

Earlier edition of this work: Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in  30  volumes.- Volume 1.- Bande Mataram: Early Political Writings. 1890 - May 1908.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1973.- 920 p.

¹ 1973 ed. SABCL, vol.1: Goorkha

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