1906

1905	1906	1907

(Peter Heehs:) “Before the year [1905] was over Aurobindo decided to leave his job in Baroda and come to Calcutta. He was given a chance to do so when Subodh Chandra Mullick offered him a position in the national education system. In November or December Aurobindo went to Bengal to make arrangements. … Red-tape kept him in Gujarat for another two months; but on 2 March [1906] he boarded the train for Calcutta. By the 7th he was busy with meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Education.”

(A. B. Purani, The Life of Sri Aurobindo:) “On 14 April 1906 the famous Barisal conference was held. Sri Aurobindo attended. The conference was declared illegal by the government and the participants were ordered to disperse. Krishna Kumar Mitra, Sri Aurobindo's uncle, refused to leave the pandal. There was a procession to protest against the government's action. In the first row were Sri Aurobindo, Bepin Chandra Pal, B.C. Chatterji. Behind them were delegates to the conference in rows of four. The procession was charged by the police. They allowed the leaders to pass and stopped the delegates from proceeding further. The delegates stood on the highway and refused to disperse. They were lathi-charged. Many ran away. Chittaranjan, son of Monoranjan Guha, was wounded in the head.
         It was criminal to shout “Vande Mataram” in the street in those days; so the young men were instructed to shout in the streets in defiance of the order. If they happened to see a policeman they first went over to the verandahs of the houses and shouted “Vande Mataram” from there – the verandah is not the road!”

(Peter Heehs:) “At the end of July Bipin Pal decided to launch a new English daily, to be called, provocatively, Bande Mataram. After seeing the first issue through the press on 6 August, he dashed off on a speaking tour of East Bengal. Before leaving he extracted a promise from Aurobindo to contribute an article every day.
         Since his return to Calcutta in June, Aurobindo had had little time for political, much less revolutionary work. His chief preoccupation was the Bengal National College, which opened its doors on 15 August with him as its first principal. During the last part of the year Aurobindo gave much of his time to administrative work and teaching. But the College proved to be a disappointment. Most members of the National Council of Education were reluctant to do anything to offend the government.”

(Mr. Ratcliffe, editor of the Statesman of Calcutta:) “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.
         It was in 1906, shortly after Curzon's retirement, that Sri Aurobindo and his friends started Bande Mataram (Hail to the Mother). It had a full-size sheet, was clearly printed on green paper, and was full of leading and special articles written in English with brilliance and pungency not hitherto attained in the Indian press. It was the most effective voice of what we then called nationalist extremism.”

(A. B. Purani, The Life of Sri Aurobindo:) “Sri Aurobindo met Tagore once during this year at Tagore's Jorasanko Street residence, where he went in answer to the poet's invitation for dinner. A Japanese artist, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and some other prominent people were present. Tagore visited the Sanjivani office now and then where he occasionally met Sri Aurobindo.”

(Rakhal Das Bose:) “It was in 1906 during my college life (when I was 20) that I attended some of the political meetings of Sri Aurobindo after the eventful Partition of Bengal. This Partition – a veritable act of God in disguise – had stirred the life and mind of Bengal, nay almost of the whole of India, after centuries of inertia and apathy. During those days there were no loudspeakers but voices of veterans like Surendranath Banerji and Bepin Chandra Pal reached the farthest ends of crowded meetings, sometimes over a lakh of people, amidst din and noise of the huge mass of humanity that had gathered. But when young Aurobindo Babu (Sri Aurobindo was known at that time as Aurobindo Babu or Aurobindo Ghosh) stood up there was a pin-drop silence. He spoke but little but his lisping words carried a mantric force reaching to the core of the heart of the assembly. This was my personal experience in the few meetings that I could attend.”

(Sujata in Mother's Chronicles:)
“July 14, 1906.
         It was the early hours of the morning. A distinguished-looking gentleman stood on the station platform, waiting for the train from Oran to come in. He was dressed in a white robe because of the day's coming heat. His long, wavy auburn hair framed the aristocratic face and fell to the shoulders. A soft breeze played hide and seek in his long beard. A lean figure, and although actually of medium height, he nonetheless gave an impression of being tall.
         A cloud of smoke in the distance signalled the train's arrival. It came nearer and nearer, and the engine chuffed more and more loudly. The train ran alongside the platform, slowed down and stopped. Doors swung open. A vision of beauty, momentarily glimpsed framed in a window, stepped out. Our waiting gentleman came forward to meet his guest. Théon greeted Mirra.”

(Mother:) “It was the first time in my life I had traveled alone and the first time I had crossed the Mediterranean. Then there was a fairly long train ride between Oran and Tlemcen – anyway, I managed rather well: I got there. He met me at the station and we set off for his place by car (it was rather far away). Finally we reached his estate – a wonder! It spread across the hillside overlooking the whole valley of Tlemcen.”

(Sujata:) “In those days there were two maritine companies operating the sea route France-Algeria and back. Each ran a weekly service. The port of departure was Marseilles. The ship weighed anchor between twelve noon and four in the afternoon. It went straight to Oran — Algeria was then a French colony — without calling at any other port. The passengers had ample time to rest and sleep and enjoy themselves on that cruise, since the steamboat covered the distance of 525 nautical miles (or 972 kilometres) in about forty hours.”

(Sujata:) “It was already a full month that Mirra had been in Zarif when Henri Morisset came to join her. That was on August 17. He went sightseeing with Mirra and Théon.”

{{#ask:Year::1906 |?Author |format=broadtable |link=all |headers=show |mainlabel=Writings from 1906 |searchlabel=      more... |class=sortable wikitable smwtable }}

---

See also

• Hem Chandra Das

{{#ask:Yr::1906 |searchlabel=      more... }}