Sachindra Nath Sanyal

Sachindra Nath Sanyal
Born 1893
Benaras, United Province, British India
Died 7 February 1942
Gorakhpur Jail, United Province, British India
Organization Anushilan Samiti, Ghadar Party, Hindustan Republican Association, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association,
Movement Indian revolutionary movement
Religion Hinduism

Sachindra Nath Sanyal  pronunciation  was an Indian revolutionary and the founder of Hindustan Republican Association (HRA, which after 1928 became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association or HSRA) that was created to carry out armed resistance against the British Empire in India. Under this association he set up Hindustan Republic Army in 1924. He was the mentor for revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. Several of his brothers and cousins were also active participants in the country's freedom struggle.

Early life

Hailing from the family of Pandits of Benaras, he was born to father Sri Hari Nath Sanyal and mother Smt. Kherod Vasini Devi in Benaras in 1893. He was married to Pratibha Sanyal and is survived by his son Sri Ranajit Sanyal.

Revolutionary career

Sanyal was extensively involved in the plans for the Ghadar conspiracy, and went underground after it was exposed in February 1915. He was a close associate of Rash Behari Bose. After Bose escaped to Japan, Sachindranath Sanyal was considered the senior-most leader of India's revolutionary movement. He and Mahatma Gandhi engaged in a famous debate published in Young India between 1920 and 1924. Sanyal argued against Gandhi's gradualist approach. He wrote a pamphlet called "Revolutionary" through which he represented a future picture of republic India.

In 1915, Rasbihari Bose and Sachindra Nath Sanyal made an unsuccessful attempt to organise a mutiny in Indian army against the British Raj.

He was sent to the dreaded Cellular Jail in the Andamans and in jail he wote the famous book "Bandi Jeevan" (A Life of Captivity). This book would become the bible for a generation of revolutionaries fighting British rule. Sanyal was briefly released from jail but when he continued to engage in anti-British activities, he was sent back to jail and his ancestral family home in Varanasi was confisticated. He was sentenced for the Kakori conspiracy case and was tried and sentenced to life for the same. Thus, Sachindranath Sanyal has the unique distinction of having been sent to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair twice. He contracted TB in jail, probably deliberately infected, and was sent to Gorakhpur Jail for his final months. He died in 1942.

Some of Sanyal's followers were Marxists but Sanyal was well known for his firm Hindu beliefs. Bhagat Singh discusses Sanyal's firm religious beliefs in his tract Why I am an Atheist. Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee was a close associate of Sanyal. He was also supplied with guns by Maulana Shaukat Ali, who was at that time a supporter of Congress and its non-violent methods but not with the same fervour for non-violence that was expressed by his organisation's leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Another prominent Congressman, Krishna Kant Malaviya, also supplied him with weapons.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Mittal, S. K.; Habib, Irfan (June 1982). "The Congress and the Revolutionaries in the 1920s". Social Scientist 10 (6): 20–37. JSTOR 3517065. (subscription required)

External links

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