Sri Aurobindo

Bande Mataram

Political Writings and Speeches. 1890–1908

Publisher’s Note on Part One

Writings and a Resolution 1890 – 1906

All the pieces in this part predate the launch of the Bande Mataram. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first one in Cambridge in 1890 – 92 and the last one in Baroda at the end of 1905 or the beginning of 1906 – a few months before he came to Calcutta to join the national movement.

Only four of these pieces were published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. “India and the British Parliament” and New Lamps for Old appeared in the Bombay newspaper Indu Prakash in 1893 – 94; Bhawani Mandir was issued as a pamphlet in 1905; the resolution of 1905 was published, in Marathi translation, in the newspaper Kesari. The other ten pieces are reproduced from Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts. He left most of them in an unfinished state; two of them lack their opening page or pages.