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Beadon Square Speech — 2
THEN amidst fresh cheers and renewed and prolonged shouts of “Bande Mataram” in came Babu Aurobindo Ghose and the inevitable rush for rakhi bandhan ensued for a few minutes. Babu Aurobindo also spoke a few words in Bengali. He said that he was unwilling to speak in a foreign tongue on such a sacred occasion. He was not, on the other hand, accustomed to speak in his mother tongue. But he would only say one thing, viz., that the rakhi bandhan was not only a bond of thread but it was the semblance of another tie. It was the sign of uniting the hearts of millions of people of United Bengal. The rakhi might be removed in a day or two but that sacred bond of hearts would remain firm through all ages. There was no power on earth which could untie that sacred knot –it was a national bond. They had taken oath. They should stick to it, God helping.
Delivered at Beadon Square, Calcutta, on 16 October 1909, the fourth anniversary of the effectuation of the Partition of Bengal. Report published in the Bengalee on 17 October.
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