The  Early Revolutionaries

In this chapter we shall take note some of the early revolutionaries in the country. Although there were many centres of resistance, we shall mention only three names.

Phadke

The revolt of 1857 suppressed by ruthless reprisals was followed by a lull but the spirit of resistance did not die out completely.  Extreme economic distress and recurrent famines kept the smouldering fire alive.  People became desperate and began to think of adopting measures leading to violent action. The Mahratta country was simmering with discontent and troubles began with sporadic gang robberies and attacks on money-lenders and the whole military force had to take the field against them. 

The leadership of this band fell upon a young man, Vasudev Balvant Phadke, who tried to lead a national revolt upon the lines of  Shivaji on which Mahratta power had been founded. The miseries of the people became too much for him to bear and he thought of preparing the country with the help of the educated class, if possible and without them, if necessary, for an armed revolt. As he could not get the educated   class to participate, he turned towards the Ramoshi tribe, which once formed part of the Mahratta army and rose in revolt against the British army in 1826. He was very successful in his efforts and was able to recruit a valiant band of comrades around him.

Assured of selfless, sacrificing and brave soldiers he turned his mind towards organising a secret society of youth drawn from various quarters and enthused them with lectures and examples of suffering and sacrifice that he himself practised. He made arrangements for giving them military training in the areas near the Ferguson and Gultekdi hills. His whole mind and heart was set on this and he wrote: "From morning to night, bathing, eating, sleeping, I was brooding over the thought of driving the British and I could get no proper rest." This thought he expressed in all his speeches and would fire the audience.

Not getting any help from the rich men who thought him to be a mad man, he was forced to resort to plundering the Government properties. His army grew in strength and size. He was helped in the recruitment by a devoted friend, Daulatrao Ramoshi, and Govindrao Davare. Davare was a great source of strength and was known as the General and Phadke was  called 'Shivaji II'.

Phadke's plan was to attack simultaneously at a large number of points so that people could gradually come to think that he was irresistible with a big army at his command. He would strike at the system of communications, the  post, telegraph and the railways; he would also plunder Government treasuries and break open the jails and release the prisoners who would gladly  join his army.  He had plans to raise an  Indian army if he got sufficient  funds.

He began attacking the British far and wide and it was well nigh impossible to arrest him. In 1879 he attacked the village Dhamari followed by such places as Valeh, Palaspe. The districts around Poona became the playground of the Ramoshi heroes. Under the leadership of Daulatrao Ramoshi, they attacked areas in the Konkan and captured a large booty. Unfortunately  in one of  these encounters, Daulatrao lost his life and the morale of the Ramoshis was badly shaken.

In 1879, Phadke himself was captured on the 3rd of July in a temple of Kaladgi, a district in Hyderabad. He was charged for revolt and was awarded a sentence of transportation for life. He was sent to Aden, for it was not considered safe to keep such a resourceful enemy in India. However, he managed to escape from prison but before long he was arrested. This time he was kept under a more strict watch. This great fighter for the freedom of his motherland breathed his last in Aden on February 17 1883.

The Bengal revolutionaries

As already seen in the earlier chapters, one of the ideas of Sri Aurobindo was to establish secretly, under various pretexts and covers, revolutionary propaganda and recruiting throughout Bengal. Societies of young men were to be established with various ostensible objects, cultural, intellectual or moral and those already existing were to be won over for revolutionary use. Young men were to be trained in activities which might be helpful for ultimate military action, such as riding, physical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organised movement. As soon as the idea was sown it attained a rapid prosperity.

One of the chief leaders of the revolutionary movement in Bengal was Sri Aurobindo's younger brother, Barindra Kumar Ghose.  In the middle of 1907, he formed his own revolutionary group of about twenty young men. Their training centre was located in Manicktola, in the outskirts of Calcutta. This centre was spiritual-political in its character, a kind of Ashram for the creation of a band of revolutionary Sanyasins. Its diverse curriculum ranged from meditation and scriptural study to martial arts and the manufacture of bombs.

From the year 1905 the British Government was ruthless in its suppression of the Swadeshi movement. In 1907 several Calcutta newspaper editors were imprisoned for sedition, protest meetings were banned or broken up, women and children were beaten for daring to shout "Bandemataram".    After the Congress split at Surat, the British had adopted the dual policy of encouraging and patronizing the Moderates while severely repressing the Nationalists. This policy was openly advocated by the Moderates. Thus in his undelivered speech for the 1907 session at Surat, Rash Behari Ghose had remarked that “if the Government can only rally the Moderates to their side ... they will   extinguish the new party completely, and the ominous shadow which has projected itself over the future fortunes of the country will disappear.” A cry for retribution naturally arose.

Douglas Kingsford was the magistrate of Calcutta and he was chiefly responsible for the arrest of editors of the National press and the caning of young men for singing Bandemataram.

One such case was the prosecution of the Bandemataram; the editor Bipin Chandra Pal refused to depose against Sri Aurobindo and this created a wild enthusiasm among the people. Young men would throng the court of Kingsford and shout Bandemataram. In response to this, large number of helmeted police was set against the boys. Indiscriminate beating followed and caused a stampede and many young boys sustained serious injuries. 

The government became aware of threats of revenge against Kingsford and it decided to transfer him to the remote district of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, in March 1908.  But by then Barin Ghose, had resolved to assassinate him.

For this mission, two young men were deputed, eighteen year old Khudiram Bose and nineteen-year old Prafulla Chaki. Armed with three revolvers and a small dynamite bomb, they went to Muzaffarpur towards the end of April and observed the judge's activities for a few days. On the evening of the 30th, they stood by a tree near the road across from Kingsford's house and waited for him to return from his club. At 8-30 a horse drawn carriage approached which they took to be his; in it, in fact, were two Englishwomen, Mrs Kennedy and her daughter Grace. Khudiram ran up and hurled the bomb into the carriage. A loud explosion shattered the vehicle and mortally wounded both its occupants. Kingsford travelling just behind them in a similar carriage had been saved. Unaware of the tragic mishap, the two boys fled from the spot and decided to split up. The police put out a widespread alert, with instructions to arrest any suspicious young Bengalis and offered a reward of Rs  5000 for information.

Khudiram walked through the night without food or drink and arrived the next morning, tired and exhausted, at the small town of Waini. There he was arrested by an alert policeman and sent back to Muzaffarpur to stand trial. Khudiram did not contest the case. He told his lawyer that there was no questioning of pleading innocent; he had thrown the bomb that had killed two innocent women and he was responsible for this act. He regretted that the ladies had died, but he also regretted that Kingsford still lived, for he considered the judge to be the greatest tyrant in India. The lawyer asked Khudiram if he was afraid to die. No, he replied, he has no reason to fear, for he had read the Gita well. During the proceedings Khudiram looked on passively, betraying no emotion. When the death penalty was read out, he remained so expressionless that the judge asked him if he understood the verdict. The boy's face brightened and he nodded his head yes.

Two years earlier, at the age of sixteen, Khudiram had been arrested for distributing an inflammatory pamphlet, but the Government dropped a court case for sedition because he was so young. This time there was no reprieve. At six in the morning of August 11, he walked firmly and cheerfully to the gallows erected at Muzaffarpur Jail. Before the cap was pulled over his head, he smiled. Having served his country faithfully, the young patriot was ready to die.

The Bandemataram editorial wrote on August 12th:

His last wish was to partake of the "Prasad" of the local deity by way of receiving its blessing. In the prison he was absorbed all day in the study of religion and patriotic literature. He was preparing to die and his conduct on the scaffold shows how complete was the preparation. He all along knew to what extent he was responsible for the crime. But that he was prepared to bear his full share of responsibility cannot in the least be doubted. His ambition was to die for his country like the Rajput women on the funeral pyres. ... It is not given to every man to overcome the weakness of flesh in this way. People can never forget how the Spirit got the better of the flesh in this young man. We are really reminded of the spiritual strength of yore.

Jyotin Mukherjee

Jyotindra Nath Mukherjee, also known as Bagha Jyotin is one of the most resplendent personalities in the annals of the Indian freedom struggle. Born on the 6th of December 1879 in a village in Bengal, he was brought up by his mother, Sharatsashi Devi; she was a woman of strong character and instilled in the young lad daring and courage.  Jyotin's father died when he was only five and she took up the responsibility of bringing up Jyotin. It was she who planted in him the seeds of patriotism. He learned horse-riding from one of his uncles at a young age. He also was a very good swimmer and from his young age it was clear that fear and defeat were not for him. He joined a physical culture club and learned wrestling. He completed his training under Ferraz Miah whose account of Pathan resistance to British domination of his land inspired him greatly.

Jyotin who was fearless and strong had a heart full of compassion. When cholera broke out in his  village, he organised a volunteer group to nurse the villagers. He thus showed leadership qualities right from his young age. One of the most powerful influences on Jyotin was the songs of the Bauls. The Bauls are a religio-cultural group who sang songs which depicted the glory of God and which transcended religious sectarianism. He was deeply moved by these songs and they kindled in him a deep love and respect for the teachings of the Gita. It was the Gita that taught him to meditate on the essence of this creation and the relation between God and the Universe. He was convinced that every human individual has a God-given mission to fulfil in this world and that he too was to participate in a divine work. 

An incident at this period illustrates Jyotin's character. One day while at the market on the outskirts of Fort William he saw an English soldier with a stick in his hand striking at the heads of the shopkeepers and counting the strokes with malicious pleasure. Jyotin pounced on the fellow and with a few punches laid him down on the ground. The people around were flabbergasted but were also very pleased.

Jyotin was a very bright and intelligent young man; he got a job with Mr Kennedy, a barrister of Muzzafarpur in Bihar as stenographer. Mr Kennedy was pleased with his work and taught him politics, economics and the art of Government. Being deeply interested in sports and outdoor activities, he opened clubs and associations, where side by side with regular lessons in self-defence, gymnastics and athletics, organised tournaments and competitions, himself taking part in them. He was himself a good athlete and became very popular in the area. However, after his mother's death, he left the job and moved over to Calcutta.

The most powerful influence on Jyotin's life was that of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. He came in contact with Swamiji and was fired by the determination to free India from the British rule. He also began to interact with Sister Nivedita and through her came to know Okakura; in this way his contacts increased and he had a large circle of friends.

In 1903, he met Sri Aurobindo in Calcutta. By this time a large number of physical culture clubs had cropped up all over Bengal; these were actually secret revolutionary groups and were being guided by Sri Aurobindo, Sister Nivedita and a few others.

Jyotin began working and co-ordinating the activities of these groups and he plunged himself into the struggle for the liberation of his country.

The incident, which gave Jyotindranath his widely known name, Bagha Jyotin, happened some time in 1906. He was at Koya when villagers reported to him that a tiger had come into the village and was a great danger for men and animals. Jyotin's cousin, Phanindra, set out with a gun to hunt the animal and Jyoti accompanied him with a dagger. The tiger was found but Phanindra's shot missed it and the infuriated beast fell upon Jyotin. Undaunted, Jyotin struck the animal with his dagger but the animal ferociously attacked Jyotin and inflicted several wounds upon him. It was a mortal combat which ended in the death of the tiger but not before the beast had dug claws into Jyoti's knee. He had to be carried home and then to Calcutta and it took six months before recovery. The story of Jyotin's courage went round Bengal and earned him great public acclamation. Even the Government presented him with a medal.

Jyotin plunged into action soon; he began co-ordinating the different centres of revolutionary activity. A trading centre named Chhatra Bhandar was opened which was a follow up of the movement for boycott of foreign goods. It had a dual objective - providing money for conduct of revolutionary activities and providing boarding and lodging expenses of the revolutionary workers. In a short time many other such stores came into being.

Political activities also flourished. Contact was made with the 10th Jat Regiment stationed at Fort William. The idea was to create a revolution in the Indian army but it did not take off immediately. In the meanwhile the partition of Bengal had created a violent reaction and protest meetings were held all over Bengal. Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki became martyrs in the cause of the freedom of India. Kanai Dutt and Satyen Bose were hanged by the British. The persecution of young Indians was on the increase.  It was then decided to finish off Shamsul Alam, a police officer who was responsible for all the dastardly acts against Indians. On the 24th January 1910, Biren Dutt shot Shamsul Alam in the High Court.  Three days later, Jyotin was arrested and a court case was foisted against him. Biren Dutt was hanged but Jyotin was released.

Jyotin then began planning for an insurrection with foreign help.  In 1913 a meeting of three revolutionaries was held; they were Jyotin Mukherjee, Rashbehari Bose and Amarendranath Chatterjee. It was decided to create an uprising among the personnel of the Indian army and capture Fort William. It was also decided to take foreign and in particular German help for the import of arms.

The outbreak of the First World War hastened the process of Indo-German collaboration. It was decided to get help from abroad and at the same time hold up firms importing arms in India for use by the British army. A committee was set up to negotiate with the Germans and get shipment of arms into India in predetermined places. Contacts were made with the Germans to procure money and arms into India. The initial idea was to land the arms at Karachi and from there have them despatched to Balasore and some other places on the East Coast of India. From these centres the arms would be distributed to Calcutta and other districts. Detailed plans were also made for the uprising; villages were to rise in revolt and military barracks were to be raided and looted. But the whole plan depended on the promised shipload of arms reaching Balasore.

In the meanwhile, Jyotin left for Balasore with some of his trusted friends to await the arrival of the ship. The British had by this time got some information of the plot. There was also some delay in the arrival of the ship and the whole thing fell through. A police team was sent to Balasore and soon reinforcements joined and encircled the locality.

It was the 9th of September 1915, the fateful day when the battle between the guerrillas led by Jyotin fought the British. An announcement was made in the village that some dacoits were at large and that clues leading to their arrest would bring them large rewards. The villagers unknowingly obstructed Jyotin and his party, but Jyotin refused to fire on the villagers since they were ignorant. 

The British were led by Sergeant Rutherford and the district magistrate Mr Kilby.  With the help of some villagers the party traced the revolutionaries. The firing began and Jyotin was hit by a bullet in his right arm; his colleague, Chittapriya was shot in the head and he died on Jyotin's lap. A bullet hit Jyotin in his stomach, but he continued firing even in that state. Another bullet struck his left hand yet he continued firing with his injured right hand. It was then that his two comrades, Niren and Monoranjan surrendered to the overwhelming British force. Jyotin and his comrade Jyotish were taken into custody. Jyotin’s injuries were serious and he was sent to the Balasore hospital. An operation was performed and his life was saved for the moment. Jyotin's last statement to the British official was: "See that no injustice is done to my boys by the British Raj. Whatever has happened, I am responsible for all that."

Soon after, a stitch over the wound gave way and blood was pouring out. It is said that Jyotin himself loosened the stitch, as he did not want to face trial in the hands of the foreign rulers. Jyotin died soon after.  A chapter had come to a close but the cause for which the heroes of Balasore had sacrificed their lives was sure to triumph.

The battle of Balasore has become an epic and the death of Jyotin caused a spasm of sorrow throughout the ranks of Indian patriots.  Sri Aurobindo said of him: “Jyotin was a wonderful man who belonged to the front rank of humanity anywhere. He had the stature of a warrior and such beauty and strength were rare to find in one person.”

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