Auro bindo As A journalist

Sri Aurobindo is known as throughout the world as a great yogi,

a brilliant philosopher but before going to Pondicherry to do his
Sadhana he was one of the founders and conductors of the
Nationalist movement which was started to gain Independence
for India from British. In fact, very few people know that it was
Sri Aurobindo who gave the term "Independence" to the
freedom movement. During his political career he along with
Bipin Chandra Pal and others started a daily called Bande
Mataram. It was through this newspaper and others which he
started subsequently that the journalistic quality in him came
to the forefront.

Before starting “Bande Mataram” Sri Aurobindo’s writing skill

sparkled briefly before the public when he contributed a series
of political articles called “New Lamps For Old” in a Bombay
(Mumbai) paper called “Indu Prakash”. These articles were Sri
Aurobindo’s comment on the British rule in India, the lack of
political leadership in the country and a general state of his
countrymen. These comments ring a true note even today. Sri
Aurobindo began the series with well known, yet nonetheless
always starting question: “If the blind lead the blind, shall they
not both fall into a ditch?”
Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta (Kolkata) on 15th August
1872. It is significant that his birthday coincides with that of
free India. At the age of eight he was sent to England for his
studies.

He returned to India in 1983 and took up service as an I.C.S.

officer with the Maharaja of Baroda Siyaji Rao Gaikward. He
was also appointed as lecturer and principal of Baroda College.
But in 1905 he left the service and went to Calcutta to join the
freedom struggle.

Sri Aurobindo, Lok Manya Tilak, Bipin Ch. Pal and some others
believed in total Independence for India- “Swaraj”. In order to
create awareness among the people about the India of
Independence, Sri Aurobindo began holding public meetings in
various parts of the country. He soon became one of the most
popular leaders in the country and therefore one of the most
wanted man by British.

Sri Aurobindo’s brother Barindra Ghose was one of the

extremist leader at that time. At Barin’s suggestion Sri
Aurobindo agreed to the starting a paper, Yugantar, which was
to preach open revolt and absolute denial of the British rule
and include such items as series of articles containing
instruction for Guerrilla warfare. Sri Aurobindo himself wrote
some of the opening articles in the early numbers. It was a
weekly news paper in Bengali issued from Calcutta between
March 1906 and May 1908.

In order to reach the message he and Bipin Ch Pal wanted to

start a newspaper in Calcutta. On 6th August 1906 in joint
Editorship ‘Bande Mataram’ English daily’s first issue published.
Sri Aurobindo’s first preoccupation was to declare openly for
complete and absolute Independence as the aim of political
action in India and to insist on this persistently in the pages of
the journal. He was the first politician in India who had the
courage to do this in public and he was immediately successful.

The journal declared and developed a new political

programmer for the country and as the programmer of the
Nationalist party, Non- cooperation, and passive résistance.
Swadeshi. Boycott national education, settlement of disputes in
law by popular arbitration was other items of Sri Aurobindo’s
plan. The “Bande Mataram” was almost unique in journalistic
history in the influence it exercised in converting the mind of
people and preparing it for revolution.

After Lajpat Rai’s deportation “Bande Mataram” gave an

editorial:
Lala Lajpat Rai has been deported out of British India – The fact
is it is own comment. The telegram goes on to say that
indignation meeting have been forbidden for four days.
Indignation Meeting is the hour for speech and fine writing
past. The bureaucracy has thrown down the gaunt let. We take
it up. Men of the Punjab! Race of the lion! Show these men
who would stamp you into the dust that for one Lajpat they
have taken away a hundred Lajpat will arise in his place. Let
them hear a hundred time your war – cry Jai Hindustan.

Meanwhile the government was determined to get rid of sri

Aurobindo as the only considerable obstacle left the success of
their repressive policies.
As to what place the Bande Mataram occupied in the country
and in the estimation of Englishmen, a letter written by Retcliff
the then Editor The Statesman of Calcutta, to the “Manchester
Guardian” will make it clear:
We know Aurobindo Ghose only as a revolutionary nationalist
and Editor of a flaming Newspaper, which struck a ringing new
note in Indian daily Journalism. The Editor of the Statesman
seems to have bitterly complained that, although the editorial
articles in the Bande Mataram were diabolically clever and
crammed full of sedition between the lines, the paper was still
legally unassailable because of the superlative skill of the
writing. The government to must have said this view, for they
did not venture to prosecute the paper for its editorial or other
articles, which was from Sri Aurobindo’s pen.

About this period (April 1908) Sri Aurobindo had decided to

take a charge of the Bengali daily “Navashakti” but
unfortunately in may 1908 he was arrested in the Alipore
conspiracy case as implicated in the doings of the revolutionary
group led by his brother Barindra, but no evidence of any value
could be established against him and after his release from
prison Sri Aurobindo started a weekly in English called
“Karmayugin”. While Bande Mataram was started on purely
political lines the Karmayugin was devoted to mainly cultural
and philosophical writings. Sri Aurobindo had educated himself
in India and western philosophies and a number of Indian
languages he had already studied, Greek, Latin, French and
Italian in England. It is some measure of his versatility and
genius that the same man who ignited the minds of his fellow
country men with his political writings could now most
successfully conduct a cultural and a philosophical review.

…….Spirituality, the force and energy of thought and action

arising from communion with or self-surrender to that within
us which roles the world…..
This force and energy can be directed to any purpose god
desired for us: it’s sufficient to knowledge, love or service: It is
good for the liberation of an individual soul building of a nation
or the turning of a tool. It was from within, it works in the
power of god, it works with super human energy. The
reawakening of that force in 300 millions of men by the means
which are past has placed in our hands, that in our object.

Two months after the “Karmayugin” had been launched the

first issue of its Bengali counterpart The Dharma came out on
23 August 1909.
In Feb. 1910 Sri Aurobindo received information of the
government’s intention to search the office and arrest him.
While considering what should be his attitude, he received a
sudden command from above to go to Chandernagar in French
India. In a few hours he was at Chandernagar where he went to
secret residence. But Karmayugin and Dharma were continued
and ceased publication on March 26 and March 28, 1910
respectively.
Sri Aurobindo left British India and stayed at French occupied
Pondicherry. A philosophical review was started by Sri
Aurobindo on August 15, 1914 and continued without
interruption until January 1921. That monthly English journal
was “Arya”.