Question

'New Lamps for Old’ was a series of articles (1893-94) that criticized the Congress for being out of touch with the ‘proletariat’. Who was the author of these articles?
1. Aurobindo Ghose 
2. A. O. Hume
3. G. K. Gokhale
4. B. G. Tilak

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Aurobindo Ghose 

The correct answer is option 1, i.e. Aurobindo Ghose.

• Sri Aurobindo’s first political writings were a series of articles begun in 1893 entitled ‘New Lamps for Old’* written at the instance of his CamFridge friend Shri K. G. Deshpande who edited the English section of an Anglo-Marathi paper known as the Indu Prakash.
• The nine articles comprising New Lamps for Old were published in the Indu Prakash of Bombay from 7 August 1893 to 6 March 1894.
• Sri Aurobindo (born August 15, 1872, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died December 5, 1950, Pondicherry [now Puducherry]), is a yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist.
• From 1902 to 1910 Aurobindo partook in the struggle to free India from the British raj (rule). As a result of his political activities, he was imprisoned in 1908.
• Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondichéry (Puducherry) in southeastern India, where he devoted himself for the rest of his life to the development of his “integral” yoga, which was characterized by its holistic approach and its aim of a fulfilled and spiritually transformed life on earth.