Anushilan Samiti

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Anushilan Samiti ("Self-Culture Association", meaning to follow the teachings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee) was the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in Bengal in the opening years of the 20th century. This association, like its offshoot the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club. The members were committed towards the path of armed revolution for independence of India from British rule. Kolkata and, later, Dhaka were the two major strongholds of the association. However, the group succeeded in penetrating rural Bengal and had branches all over Bengal and also other parts of India.


Contents

[edit] The beginning

Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin

The Anushilan Samiti was established in Kolkata by Pramatha Nath Mitra, a barrister and a patron of the revolutionary movements, in 1902. Sri Aurobindo and Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das were the vice-presidents, Suren Tagore the treasurer.[1]Jatindra Nath Banerjee (Niralamba Swami), Jatindra Nath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin), Bhupendra Nath Datta (Swami Vivekananda's brother), Barindra Ghosh were among other initial leaders.

An inner circle of the Anushilan Samiti formed Jugantar, the main outfit for revolutionary activities. They believed in Sri Aurobindo's global programme including a secret preparation for a timely armed uprising, out of which Bagha Jatin developed the Jugantar, a decentralised federation of loose regional units; this name came to limelight with the Howrah conspiracy case in 1910[1] The Dhaka branch of the Anushilan Samiti was formed by Pulin Bihari Das, who was once a teacher in the Dhaka Government College and, later, a founding headmaster of 'National School' (Dhaka), along with his followers, in 1906. He, like Barindra Ghosh, believed in a highly centralised one-leader organisation. Under their leadership, respectively in Dhaka and elsewhere, in a spirit of a boastful showdown, Anushilan Samiti slowly adopted untimely terrorism programmes during the first decade of 20th century, with 1905 Partition of Bengal acting as a major catalyst.

1907 – 1908 witnessed a surge in these revolutionary activities. On 6 December 1907 they attempted to blow up the train in which the Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam was travelling.

[edit] The Muzaffarpur killing

A few days later, on 23 December, they attempted to assassinate Mr. Allen, formerly District Magistrate of Dhaka. On 30 April 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki were sent to murder Douglas Kingsford, Magistrate of Calcutta and later District Judge of Muzaffarpur, Bihar. However, Mrs. and Miss Kennedy, two innocent English ladies, were mistakenly bombed and killed. The British police started a big hunt for the Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki. Prafulla Chaki took his own life by bullet while cornered by the police. Khudiram Bose was arrested, tried and hanged. Khudiram and Prafulla became revered martyrs among the mass of Bengalis and inspired more youth to join the revolutionaries.

[edit] Alipore Bomb Conspiracy case

Main article: Alipore bomb case

Further investigations led the police to a small scale bomb manufacturing unit in Maniktala of Kolkata. Barindra Ghosh and several other members of Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were arrested and tried in the famous Alipore Bomb Conspiracy case. Many were deported for life to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. The result of the trial was a division of the Anushilan Samiti. Two main groups that remained were the Jugantar itself and the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, in the western and the eastern parts of the Bengal, respectively. The initial Anushilan disappeared.

[edit] Some notable Jugantar members

[edit] Dhaka Anushilan Samiti

Pulin Bihari Das was in charge of the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti that maintained regular contact with the Kolkata group. Due to the police activities, the Kolkata group curbed its terrorist activities and the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti soon overshadowed the parent Kolkata organization. The Anushilan Samiti opened several branches all across the eastern Bengal and by 1932 it had 500 branches. The members of these samitis were mostly school and college students coming from Hindu middle-class educated families. The members were trained in traditional arms like Lathi and sword as well as firearms. However, firearms were not easily available. The revolutionaries looted wealthy families that were loyal to the British Raj to maintain funding.

[edit] Notable Members of Dhaka Anushilan Samiti

[edit] Arrest of Pulin Das

The arrest and deportation of the leader Pulin Das created chaos among the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti which had to go underground temporarily. His successor, Makhanlal Sen, was attached to the social welfare and spiritual development taught by Vivekananda, disagreeing with gratuitous violence. Spending most of his time in Kolkata since 1910, in company of the Jugantar people and visiting regularly the Ramakrishna Mission, Makhanlal Sen let Narendra Mohan Sen assume the leadership of the Dhaka Anushilan.[2] Soon, working by his side, Trailokyanath Chakraborty and Pratul Chandra Ganguli took charge and the rebels were united again. The famous Barisal Conspiracy Case of 1913 established the fact that there were hundreds of revolutionary followers of the Samiti in the Barisal district alone. Informed about the Indo-German plot, desirous to determine the part his party could play therein, Pratul Chandra became close to Atul Krishna Ghosh, Jatin Mukherjee's intimate associate, going to the extent of discussing terms with Jatin. For unknown reasons, the Dhaka party decided not to collaborate in this revolutionary programme. [2]

[edit] After the first World War

After the first World War, the communication between the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti and the Jugantar party increased. However, during the Non-Cooperation Movement the Jugantar party supported Gandhi as the representative of the revolutionary tide, while the Dhaka faction continued the violent activities. Planning to oppose the Non-cooperation Movement, the Government offered a large sum of money : the Jugantar rejected it, while the Anushilan agreed to the proposal. (Source: Aurobindo and Jugantar, by Arun Chandra Guha, p44.) The police increased vigilance and arrested many leaders.

[edit] Unification and failure

Following these major setbacks, there was an attempt to unify the revolutionary activists in Bengal. Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were brought close by the joint leadership of Narendra Mohan Sen of Anushilan, represented by Rabindra Mohan Sen, and Jadugopal Mukherjee of Jugantar, represented by Bhupendra Kumar Datta. However, this merger failed to revive the revolutionary activities up to the expected level. [3] [4]

[edit] Neo-violence or the Revolt Group

The younger leaders of the revolutionaries belonging to the Anushilan as well as to the Jugantar were frustrated by the failure of the attempted merger. This led to the formation of a new confederation in 1929, called the Neo-Violence party or the Revolt group. On the forefront were Pratul Bhattacharya and Niranjan Sen Gupta of the Barisal Anushilan, Satish Chandra Pakrashi and Satya Gupta of the Dhaka Anushilan, Binoy Raychaudhuri and Jatin Das of the South Calcutta Anushilan, Panchanan Chakrabarti and Jatin Bhattacharya of the Madaripur Jugantar, Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh of the Chittagong Jugantar party, who enlarged the movement. (Source: Panchanan, pp16-17.)

[edit] Later years

The scenario changed with the years. The British were planning to quit India, while communal and religious politics came into play. The basic political background on which revolutionary ideas were founded seemed to evolve towards a new direction. The Revolutionary Terrorism can thus be said to have come to an end by 1936.

On 9 September 1938, the Jugantar members issued a statement not to reorganise their separate party headquarters and to avow full allegiance to the Congress. (Source: Guha, p70.) Some of the members chose, however, the trend led by Subhas Bose; some followed M. N. Roy; and a few joined the Communists.

The Anushilan Samiti evolved into the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The wing in East Pakistan evolved into the Shramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal in current day Bangladesh.

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Indian independence movement
History Gandhi during the Salt March, 1930

Gandhi during the Salt March, 1930

Congress flag of India (1931)

Flag of Azad Hind
Philosophies
and ideologies
Events and
movements
Organisations
Social reformers
Indian leaders
and activists
British Raj
Independence

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b (Mukherjee 1982)
  2. ^ a b (Ganguli 1976)
  3. ^ (Chakrabarti 1995)
  4. ^ Revolutionary Terrorism, in (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh 2003)

[edit] References

  • Mukherjee, Jadugopal (1982), Biplabi jibaner smriti (2nd ed.).
  • Ganguli, Pratul Chandra (1976), Biplabi'r jibandarshan.
  • Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (2003), Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of Bangladesh, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
  • Chakrabarti, Panchanan (1995), Revolt.
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