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APPENDIX TWO
Writings and Jottings Connected with the Bande Mataram 1906 1908
The pieces in this appendix deal with the formation of the Bande Mataram Printers and Publishers, Limited, or with the finances, management and production of the Bande Mataram newspaper. All but one of them are reproduced from Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts. The exception, the first piece, is a printed version of the original prospectus of the Bande Mataram Printers and Publishers, Limited (1906), which in all likelihood was written by Sri Aurobindo and which was signed by him and eight others.
“Bande Mataram” Printers & Publishers, Limited.
A Limited Liability Company has been formed, called the Bande Mataram Limited, which will take over the daily journal Bande Mataram and conduct it on a permanent and organized basis. This journal was started as the exponent of a new political ideal and the mouthpiece of a growing school of thought. Established at first by individuals and on a small scale it has already in the single month of its existence made a great reputation and promises to be a power in the land. It has not only a standing in Bengal itself, but is daily expected and read with eagerness in other parts of India. When once placed on a carefully prepared and permanent foundation it cannot fail to be financially a success and politically a power. The very opposition it has received in many quarters shows that it is the representative of a force which has been waiting for a daily means of self-expression and, once possessed of that necessary weapon, can no longer be ignored.
Page – 1131 But in order that Bande Mataram may fulfil its possibilities, it is desirable for all who are of its way of thinking, to unite and make it a success. No paper can be a great public organ which expresses merely the ideas of the few. Any party or school of thought which wishes to be strong and influential, must join in strengthening the mouthpiece of its common ideas. Bande Mataram is designed to be the organ of the most advanced school of nationalism in India. It will endeavour to propagate the gospels of self-help and self-respect. It will oppose the habit of mendicant petitioning and inert dependence on the Government. It will advocate the creation of a new basis for the Congress, definitely democratic in its nature, instead of the loose and ineffective constitution it now possesses. It will endeavour to rally into one great force all those who are desirous of organizing the nation for work and not for mere agitation and petitioning. Its ideal will be Swadeshi in all things,— Swadeshi in politics, Swadeshi in commerce and industry, Swadeshi in education. Another distinguishing feature of Bande Mataram will be that it is not the property or organ of a single individual, but the voice of a party. Many writers of ability, will be on the staff. Besides Srijuktas Bipin Chandra Pal and Arabindo Ghose, Srijut Chitta Ranjan Das, Srijut Rajat Nath Ray, Srijut Hemendra Prasad Ghose, Srijut Syam Sunder Chakrabarti, Srijut Bijoy Chandra Chatterjee and others will be regular contributors to its columns. We hope also to get eminent men from other provinces to correspond with the paper. A good Mofussil correspondence will be organized, and arrangements will be made for correspondents in other parts of the world. The execution of this scheme needs time and general support from the public. It will be gradually developed and in a few months perfected. The Company has been floated with a capital of Rs. 50,000 with option to increase to Rs. 1,00,000 and at present Rs. 21,000 is the money promised and another Rs. 29,000 will be placed on the market. Each share is worth Rs. 10. The shares have been purposely put at a low figure so that all who belong to the school of thought which Bande Mataram represents may
Page – 1132 take a personal interest. Anyone who wishes to subscribe more liberally to its support may do so by buying a large number of shares. All applications for shares with remittances should be sent to Raja Subodh Chandra Mullik of 12, Wellington Square, Calcutta.
Subodh Chandra Mullik. Chitta Ranjan Das. Aurobindo Ghose. Sarat Chandra Sen. Sundari Mohan Das. Surendra Nath Halder. Hemendra Prasad Ghose. Bipin Chandra Pal. Rajat Nath Ray. Bijoy Chandra Chatterjee. Syam Sunder Chakrabarti.
Draft of a Prospectus of 1907
The Bande Mataram Publishers and Printers Company have now been conducting the daily paper Bande Mataram for a full year and are now in a position to approach the public with an offer of shares on which a dividend for the next year is practically assured. So long as the paper was carried on at a loss and its future ill-assured, the Company had to invite the public to invest in it rather as a patriotic undertaking which deserved support than as a promising business enterprise; but the paper is now self-supporting and in a short time at the present rate of increase will be a paying concern, provided the capital required is subscribed. The following statement will show the present financial condition and give some basis for forming an opinion as to future prospects.
Page – 1133 No. of Shareholders. 66
Notes and Memos
[1]
I. Srijut Aurobindo Ghose is appointed Managing Director with full powers subject to the following provisions:— 1. The Budget to be fixed by the Directors, which he shall not exceed. 2. All appointments, dismissals, increments etc. to be in the power of the Directors only, but power of provisional appointments, degradations etc. is given to the Managing Director subject to sanction by the Directors at their next meeting. 3. When the Secretary and other officials or members of the Committee of Management are not in agreement, the orders of the Managing Director will be final.
II. The Managing Director shall be assisted by a Committee of Management consisting of four persons including the Secretary,
1 The total was summed before the last entry (Rs. 1000) was added.— Ed.
Page – 1100 the work to be distributed among them according to the following Departments.
1. Cash and Disbursements and general assistance to the Managing Director, especially in the matter of seeing that the books are regularly written up. : NCM [Nirod Chandra Mullik] 2. Finance— i.e. Advertisements, Cash Sales, Subscriptions (V.P.P.) and generally whatever relates to the income of the paper. : HPG [Hemendra Prasad Ghose] 3. Editorial— i.e. the arrangements for work and the improvement of the paper. The responsibility for the matter does not go with this charge, as that can only be undertaken by a Managing Editor. : SSC [Shyam Sunder Chakravarti] 4. General Correspondence and Press, with Dispatch, Stores, etc. : Secretary
Srijut Benoy Banerji shall exercise general supervision with the Secretary over the General Department, and be given whatever assistance he may require for any duties he may find it impossible to discharge in person. The Managing Director shall have power to alter the distribution of work whenever he finds it working defectively.
III. The Budget is fixed at Rs. 4500 a month, according to the scheme drawn up by Srijut Prakash Chandra Dutt subject to the modifications subsequently made. It shall not on any account be exceeded until the paper becomes profitable, when the Managing Director will draw up a fresh scheme for the improvement of the paper. The reductions under the scheme shall be effected by the 24th February.
IV. Payments to the staff are to be made for the present out of the Rs. 500 received for shares with whatever comes in by way of daily realizations. No other money from shares is to be utilized henceforth for current expenditure but all strictly credited to Capital Account. The Rs. 500 abovementioned will be repaid to this account by instalments from the daily realizations.
V. Disbursements must be made according to the fixed rules. There shall be separate accounts for Capital Account, Paper,
Page – 1135 Establishment and general expenses, Daily Expenditure. The daily realizations shall be divided under these heads and only enough for the fourth item kept in the Office, the rest being paid into the bank. Whatever old bills have to be paid subsequent to the 24th February must be paid out of capital account except such as properly belong to the current month. When unexpected liabilities have to be met, an attempt should be made to raise shares to meet them.
VI. Srijut Girija Sundar Chukrabarti shall be appointed travelling Agent for the collection of shares, subscriptions etc. and asked to complete his Bombay tour as soon as possible so as to proceed to East Bengal for shares. Other agents shall be appointed on the commission system in Madras, Bombay and C. P. and Berar.
[2]
Budget
1. Money to be immediately paid for the scheme to be possible Schroder Rs. 1000 at least. Dickinson Rs. 1000. Type Rs. 1000. Establishment Rs. 2000 at least. 2. Arrears of work to be brought up and new system begun— yet no increase of establishment possible. 3. System of four accounts to be introduced rigidly as soon as 1 is solved. 4. List of old liabilities. _____
1. Cash sale going down. How to remedy this? Causes of decrease. 2. Advertisements difficult to procure unless paper is boomed and cash sale & circulation increase. 3. Subscriptions. _____
Page – 1136 1. Editorial matter insufficient. More hands required for articles etc. but fresh expenditure impossible. 2. News almost nil, more expenditure on telegrams, etc. necessary, but impossible. Reporters to be engaged but this means fresh expenditure. 3. Correspondent arrangements. 4. Working of Editorial Department— especially editing of Reports and Telegrams. Present staff seems unable to do it. _____
1. Correspondence. 2. Despatch horribly bad, how to improve it? 3. Stores— daily check. 4. Stocktaking. 5. Press. Another Press absolutely necessary but no money.
[3]
Elliot Rs. 50 paid on account of pay, not case. Rs. 20 paid by C. R. Das to E. through our office. He says we have nothing to do with that, but must pay it separately.
[4]
[5]
Englishman Bengalee Amritabazar Empire (Mallik’s)
1. Two copies of the above three papers absolutely necessary.
Page – 1137 Statesman & Daily News one copy for the present, whenever necessary another may be bought.
2. Bengalee & Amritabazar to be specially compared with our paper so as (1) to make sure that we are not fallen unnecessarily behindhand, (2) to see that full use is made of items we cannot secure.
3. Mofussil papers— to see that they are made fuller use of. See whether they all come.
[6]
Morning. 8 12 Selections. Local items from other papers. Afternoon. 11 6 Correspondence. 3d page Early Telegrams. Local— from 3 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. sometimes at evening. Evening Police Court Reports, between 5 & 7. High Court— generally 9 p.m. Later Telegrams.
Communication with Correspondents.
Leading Article— 12 noon. Filing of Extra Copies. Paras up to 6 p.m. Extraordinary up to 9 p.m.
Suresh. Morning. from 7 to 11. Selection. Pages 2, 6 & 7. Afternoon from 11 to 7. Correspondence. Mofussil Notes. 3d page.
Page – 1138
[7]
Proofreading
A dictionary wanted. 7 11. Selections. Anucul 11 7. Mukunda 4 12. Manindra 9 2.
Selections. Page 2 & 7. First proofs are seen by Anucul final do [ditto]
Page 1.3.6.4 (Editorials) 1st proof. Mukunda 2d proof. Gokul Babu (final)
Page 4 (reports etc.) & Page 5.
Page – 1139 1st proof by Mukunda & the rest by Manindra & Night Editor 2d proof (final) by Manindra.
Nationalist Party Documents
The two pieces in this appendix are reproduced from Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts. Both are sketches of a proposed reorganisation of the Nationalist Party around the time of the Surat Congress (December 1907 } ).
[1]
SUGGESTED RULES OF BUSINESS FOR THE CONGRESS
SUBJECTS COMMITTEE:—
1. Each of the six Provinces, namely, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, United Provinces, The Punjab and the Central Provinces shall return Members to the Subjects Committee as follows:—
2. No subject shall be brought up for discussion at the Congress unless it should have been previously discussed in the Subjects Committee.
Page – 1141 VOTING:—
3. For the purpose of voting on any proposition that is brought before the Congress, the delegates of each Province shall elect 170 Representatives distributed among the six Provinces as follows:—
The method of election shall be the same as in the case of the Members of the Subjects Committee. 4. None but such Representatives shall be entitled to vote on any proposition that may come up before the Congress. 5. Any proposition for which the majority of the Representatives vote shall be deemed to be carried by the Congress, provided that if the Representatives of any two Provinces unanimously vote against any proposition, the same shall be dropped. 6. Election of Subjects Committee and Representatives. For the purpose of electing Members of the Subjects Committee and Representatives, each Province shall be sub-divided into Electoral Divisions each to return a fixed number of Electors. For the present the Delegates from each District of a Province attending shall meet and elect one person from among themselves to act as the Elector of that District and the capital City of each Province may be allowed to elect 5 Electors from among the Delegates representing that City. 7. The Electors of each Province shall meet separately before the session of the Congress opens and elect the Members of the Subjects Committee and the Representatives from among themselves by a majority of votes. The Voting shall be by ballot
Page – 1142 and each Elector shall put down in writing the names of the Members not exceeding the appointed number whom he may desire to be the Members of the Subjects Committee and Representatives for his Province. For this purpose each Elector shall receive a printed form to be supplied by the Secretaries. PRESIDENT:—
8. The Reception Committee of the Province where the Congress is being held shall have the right by majority of Votes to nominate the President of the Congress for that year and such nomination shall be accepted by the Congress unless negatived by a three-fourths majority of the Representatives. 9. The President shall preside over the Session of the Congress and control the conduct of business. 10. Every Representative shall have the right to bring forward any proposition for discussion before the Congress or to move any amendment to any proposition under discussion, provided in the first case he should have given 12 hours’ previous notice in writing to the General Secretaries to enable them to bring it up before the Subjects Committee for discussion and provided in the second case he should have given an hour’s previous notice in writing to the President. 11. On each contested proposition the votes of the Representatives shall be counted by the President appointing if necessary Tellers one from each side and either by the Representatives dividing or the President calling out each Representative by name and recording his vote. 12. The Members of the Subjects Committee shall meet once every day and oftener if necessary and frame the Resolutions to be brought up before the Congress on that or the following day and the Secretaries shall place a printed copy of such Resolutions in the hands of each Representative at least two hours before the time fixed for the Meeting of the Congress that day.
Page – 1143 13. The Subjects Committee shall select from among the general body of Delegates the speakers on each Resolution. In the case of amendments the Representative moving the amendment shall have the right to select his seconder and after an amendment has been seconded the mover of the original proposition shall have the right of reply or he may select any other person to reply on his behalf. 14. Where possible, the Representatives shall have a conspicuous portion of the Pandal reserved for them to facilitate voting and counting of votes.
[2]
A Council or Working Committee of 2 only from each province
Bengal— Aurobindo Ghose Motilal Ghose Aswini Dutt
Bombay
Panjab
U.P.
A Provincial Committee of 15 only
District Committees
Village Panchayets. A
National Fund.
Bande Mataram, as party organ.
Arbitration Courts
National Schools, Primary Especially
Swadeshi & Boycott.
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