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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The Karmayogin, "a Weekly Review of National Religion, Literature, Science, Philosophy etc.", was started by Sri Aurobindo in 1909, after his acquittal in the Alipore Conspiracy Case. The first issue appeared on June 19, 1909. In February, 1910, when he left for Chandernagore, he requested Sister Nivedita to conduct the journal. But after eight more issues, on April 2, 1910, the Karmayogin came to a stop. Some of the editorials in the last few issues from February 12 onwards seem to us, however, to have been Sri Aurobindo’s. Probably they were written earlier and left behind in the office. In his editorials in this journal Sri Aurobindo commented on the political and other significant events of the time. Besides these he published some translations of the Upanishads, a few of his poems and a number of articles on philosophical subjects, Yoga, Literature, National Education, the Spirit of Indian Nationalism, etc. The present volume contains only the political writings and public speeches of Sri Aurobindo after May 1909. They are reproduced exactly as they were originally published from week to week. The translations, poems and writings on non-political subjects are’ included in their respective volumes. A few articles from this weekly were first brought out in book-form as THE IDEAL OF THE KARMAYOGIN in 1918. The fourth edition published in 1937 was revised. A letter Sri Aurobindo published in the Bengalee, a prominent journal of those days, is given at the beginning of this volume in view of its significance and historical importance. Two of his speeches found recently in the files of the Government of Bengal Home Department have been reproduced here in Appendix II for the first time. Dr. Annie Besant asked for Sri Aurobindo’s opinion on the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms Proposals announced at the end of the First World War. Sri Aurobindo’s reply which appeared in the New India of August 10, 1918 is given at the end of the volume. |