Sri Aurobindo
Karmayogin
Political Writings and Speeches — 1909-1910
Appendix
Note on the Text
KARMAYOGIN: POLITICAL WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 1909 – 1910 consists of articles published in the weekly newspaper Karmayogin in 1909 and 1910 and speeches delivered during the same period. The articles are published issue by issue in the order of their appearance, the speeches by date of delivery.
Between May 1909 and February 1910 Sri Aurobindo was the most prominent leader of the Nationalist or Extremist Party in Bengal. He had spent the previous year in jail while the Alipore Bomb Case, in which he was the principal accused, was under trial. Acquitted and released on 6 May 1909, he found the party disorganised and without an English-language organ, as the Bande Mataram, a newspaper he edited from 1906 to 1908, had been suppressed a few months after his arrest. He resolved to continue to place the nationalist ideal before the country; but he now conceived this ideal in less purely political terms than before his arrest. During his imprisonment he had undergone a series of spiritual experiences that had changed his outlook on life. When he decided to launch the Karmayogin, he conceived of it as “AWeekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy, &c.”
The first issue of the Karmayogin, which came out on 19 June 1909, contained part of the “Uttarpara Speech”, which had been delivered on 30 May, as well as two important articles setting forth the purpose of the journal and the task before the country. Each issue of the journal after the first contained the following:
(1) A column consisting of from three to twelve headlined paragraphs dealing with one or more topics. Between 26 June 1909 and 5 February 1910 the column was called “Facts and Opinions” (with some variants). On 12 February the heading was changed to “Passing Thoughts”. Subjects dealt with included current events, British rule, party politics, “national religion”, and the like.
(2) One or two leading articles dealing with the same subjects in more depth. 470 Karmayogin
Many issues also contained material by Sri Aurobindo in one or more of the following categories:
(3) Articles on philosophy, yoga and related topics. There is no clear border between articles in this category and those on national religion.
(4) Single articles or instalments of longer works on cultural topics: education, art, literature, etc.
(5) Literary works, including translations from the Sanskrit and the Bengali, poems, etc.
(6) Transcriptions of speeches. These were reproduced from other newspapers, which employed shorthand writers to take down the proceedings of public meetings. Some of them were revised by Sri Aurobindo for publication in the Karmayogin.
In addition, the Karmayogin contained:
(7) Articles and speeches by other persons reproduced from the Indian and British press.
(8) Articles written for the Karmayogin by other persons.
(9) Two or three pages of ordinary news per issue.
(10) Advertisements.
After the first several issues, the Karmayogin contained few articles written for it by other persons. Almost all original matter appearing in the journal was written by Sri Aurobindo.
In Karmayogin: Political Writings and Speeches 1909 – 1910 the editors have reproduced only Sri Aurobindo’s columns (whatever the subject), his longer articles on current politics and national religion, and the speeches delivered during this period. Other writings by him published in the Karmayogin are listed at the end of each issue. A table at the end of the book gives the volume of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO in which these writings are published.
Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta in the middle of February 1910, probably before the nineteenth of the month. From that time the newspaper was edited by SisterNivedita (Margaret Noble), and most of its articles were written by her. Writings (essays, translations and poems) that Sri
Aurobindo had left behind in Calcutta continued to be published in the journal until it was discontinued on 2 April 1910. Sri Aurobindo spent late February and March incognito in the French enclave of Chandernagore, located thirty kilometers north of Calcutta. From here he sent the amusing letter published in the Karmayogin of 19 March. His essay “In Either Case” was either left behind in Calcutta or sent from Chandernagore.
On 31 March Sri Aurobindo left Chandernagore for Calcutta and the next morning boarded a ship that took him to Pondicherry, the capital of French India. Here he remained for the rest of his life. His departure from Calcutta marked the end of his active involvement in politics.
Printing history. Most of the writings in the present volume made their first appearance in print since 1909 – 10 in Karmayogin: Early Political Writings – II, volume 2 of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (1972). “An Open Letter to My Countrymen” was issued as a pamphlet shortly after its publication in the Karmayogin in 1909. Several articles from the journal were reproduced, sometimes after revision, in three booklets: The Ideal of the Karmayogin (1918, 1919, 1921, 1927, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1950 and subsequently), Man — Slave or Free? (1922, 1966), and The Need in Nationalism and Other Essays (1923). The Uttarpara Speech was published as a booklet in 1919, 1920, 1922, 1943, 1950 and subsequently. An edition of Sri Aurobindo’s Speeches, including six speeches published in the present volume as well as the “Open Letter”, was brought out as a booklet in 1922 and reissued four times between 1948 and 1974. A new edition, published in 1993, included five speeches not published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. Copies of them were discovered in British India government files and first published in Karmayogin: Early Political Writings and Speeches – II or in the journal Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research.
The texts of all the writings and speeches published in the present volume have been checked against the original Karmayogin, the booklets The Ideal of the Karmayogin and The Need in Nationalism, and the original sources of the speeches.