Dear Friends,
It gives me immense pleasure to announce that on 12 March 2012 Overman Foundation has published the second and paperback edition of its e-book “Sri Aurobindo: His Political Life and Activities”.
Compiled and edited by Shri Anurag Banerjee and with a preface from the pen of Prof. Kittu Reddy, this book comprising 450 pages is a chronological study of Sri Aurobindo’s political life from 1906 to 1910 through British Government documents, press coverage, memoirs of his political colleagues as well as his own autobiographical account. Hundreds of documents collected from British Government records (most of which have been published in this book for the first time) and press cuttings—both being more than a century old—have been incorporated in this volume. In addition to the aforesaid documents and press coverage, the book includes rare letters written to Sri Aurobindo by Nationalist leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Surendranath Banerjea and others. It also includes the reminiscences of the likes of Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, Nolini Kanta Gupta, Sudhir Kumar Sarkar (who were Sri Aurobindo’s associates in the Nationalist movement) about the political activities of Sri Aurobindo.
A chief attraction of this book is the complete text of the speech of Chittaranjan Das which he had rendered while defending Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore Bomb Trial.
Another major attraction of this book is six extremely rare articles written on Sri Aurobindo by Bepin Chandra Pal, Charu Chandra Dutta, Hemendra Prasad Ghose, S. R. Das, Suresh Deb and Birendra Chandra Sen. And the reader is expected to find as many as nineteen speeches and two interviews of Sri Aurobindo in this book.
In his scholarly preface to this book, Prof. Kittu Reddy comments about the book and its author:
“In this book compiled by Anurag Banerjee of the Overman Foundation, a huge amount of material connected with Sri Aurobindo has been revealed for the first time. This is from the first two periods – 1893 to 1910. It is possible that much of this material has been published in different books and at different times. However, this is the first time that all this material is found in one book. This will be of great help to all researchers in the political life of Sri Aurobindo.
“Besides the notes written by Sri Aurobindo himself on his political life, there are very interesting details regarding his political activity which include the deliberations of Bengal National College, the details of the Calcutta Congress in 1906 and the Surat Congress in 1907. In addition, there are also many references taken from the journals and newspapers of the time; all this makes very not only very interesting reading but also gives a deep insight to the political atmosphere of the time. Serious historians will benefit from this huge data base that has been created by this compilation. For a close study takes one back to the atmosphere of the times. One almost relives the history of that period.
“One of the most delightfully attractive parts of the compilation is the personal anecdotes in the Appendix written by contemporaries of Sri Aurobindo; these give one a wonderful insight into the human personality of Sri Aurobindo and at the same time show his spiritual side. The Karma Yogi that Sri Aurobindo was is revealed most beautifully in these articles. Indeed these can serve as an inspiration to the modern youth and present day politicians. For that indeed is the need of the hour.
“I am sure this wonderful compilation will be of great use not only to research scholars, but will also help in giving guidance for the future development ofIndia. I believe that taken with all the literature written later inPondicherry, this compilation will give a comprehensive view of Sri Aurobindo’s political vision and serve as an inspiration for the future.”
Comprising 450 pages, “Sri Aurobindo: His Political Life and Activities” is available at a price of Rs. 490 (Four Hundred and Ninety) only.
To place an order, please write to the following email address:
Payment can also be made online.
With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Founder-Chairman,
Overman Foundation.
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