Publisher’s Note
These volumes include Sri Aurobindo’s surviving political writings and speeches from the years 1890 to 1908. His political writings and speeches from the years after 1908 are published in Karmayogin: Political Writings and Speeches 1909 – 1910, volume 8 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. The present volumes consist primarily of articles originally published in the nationalist newspaper Bande Mataram between August 1906 and May 1908. None of the articles that Sri Aurobindo and his colleagues contributed to the Bande Mataram were signed. The 353 articles published here have been ascribed to Sri Aurobindo by the editors for a variety of reasons. For 56 of them there exists documentary evidence that establishes his authorship conclusively; 107 others may be assigned to him with considerable confidence; the other 190 are more likely to be by him than by any other Bande Mataram writer. Details on the materials and methodology of the selection are given in the Note on the Texts.
These volumes also include political articles written by Sri Aurobindo before the start of the Bande Mataram, speeches delivered by him between 1907 and 1908, articles from manuscripts of that period that he did not publish during his lifetime, and an interview of 1908. Many of these writings were not prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication; several were left in an unfinished state.
