Sri Aurobindo preached the doctrine of divinity in the motherland and stressed the need for awakening the spirit of the masses. He vehemently opposed the elitist programme of the Indian National Congress and adopted the programme of mass boycott to counter the dual policy of the colonial administration in granting concession on the one hand and ruthlessly suppressing the growth of nationalism in India on the other.
In Bande Mataram he fearlessly condemned the hypocritical behaviour, policies, strategies, rules and reforms framed by the colonial government as instances of ‘gross ingratitude’. His political speeches and journalistic writings not only challenged but also tried to subvert and undermine the ruling ideologies, ordinances, acts and policies with a view to overthrowing the hierarchies of the colonised and the coloniser. While registering his protest and resistance, he employed satiric techniques such as the process of diminution by witty juxtaposition and the establishment of unequal equation of the dignified with the admittedly trivial or undignified. Not only did the British rulers but also the leaders of the Moderate group in the Congress came under the scythe of his satiric writings.
The present study makes a modest attempt to situate Sri Aurobindo’s political writings published in the journal Bande Mataram in the context of its time and suggests that the text admirably addresses contemporary concerns and issues. In fact, Sri Aurobindo’s Bande Mataram initiates a strong anti-colonial oppositional discourse, very much set against the divisive politics of the colonial administration and emerges as a reference point to draw sustenance in our time.
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