Bagha Jatin
Encyclopedia
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee (7 December 1879 – 10 September 1915) was an Bengali
revolutionary philosopher against British
rule.
He was the principal leader of the Yugantar
party that was the central association of revolutionaries in Bengal
. Having personally met the German Crown-Prince in Calcutta shortly before World War I, he obtained the promise of arms and ammunition from Germany; as such, he was responsible for the planned German Plot during World War I
.
Another of his original contributions was the indoctrination of the Indian soldiers in various regiments in favour of an insurrection.
In 1925, Gandhi told Tegart
that Jatin Mukherjee, generally referred to as “Bagha Jatin”, was “a divine personality”. Little did he know that Tegart had once told his colleagues that if Jatin were an Englishman, then the English people would have built his statue next to Nelson’s at Trafalgar Square
. In his note to J.E. Francis of the India Office in 1926, he described Bengali revolutionaries as “the most selfless political workers in India”.
subdivision of Nadia district
in what is now West Bengal
. He grew up in his ancestral home at Sadhuhati, P.S. Rishkhali Jhenaidah
until his father's death when Jatin was five years old. Well versed in Brahmanic studies, his father liked horses and was respected for the strength of his character. Sharatshashi settled in her parents' home in Kayagram with her husband and his elder sister Benodebala (or Vinodebala). A gifted poet, she was affectionate and stern in her method of raising her children. Familiar with the essays by contemporary thought leaders like Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Yogendra Vidyabhushan
, she was aware of the social and political transformations of her times. Her brother Basantakumar Chatterjee taught and practised law, and counted among his clients the poet Rabindranath Tagore
. Since the age of 14, Tagore had claimed in meetings organised by his family members equal rights for Indian citizens inside railway carriages and in public places. As Jatin grew older, he gained a reputation for physical bravery and great strength; charitable and cheerful by nature, he was fond of caricature and enacting mythological plays, himself playing the roles of god-loving characters like Prahlad, Dhruva, Hanuman, Râja Harish Chandra. He not only encouraged several playwrights to produce patriotic pieces for the urban stage, but also engaged village bards to spread nationalist fervour in the countryside. Jatin had a natural respect for the human creature, heedless of class or caste or religions. He carried for an aged Muslim villager a heavy bundle of fodder and, on reaching her hut, he shared with her the only platter of rice she had, and sent her some money every month.
, whose social thought, and especially his vision of a politically independent India - indispensable for the spiritual progress of humanity - had a great influence on Jatin. The Master taught him the art of conquering libido before raising a batch of young volunteers "with iron muscles and nerves of steel", to serve miserable compatriots during famines, epidemics and floods, and running clubs for "man-making" in the context of a nation under foreign domination. They soon assisted Sister Nivedita
, the Swami's Irish disciple, in this venture. According to J. E. Armstrong, Superintendent of the colonial Police, Jatin "owed his preeminent position in revolutionary circles, not only to his qualities of leadership, but in great measure to his reputation of being a Brahmachari with no thought beyond the revolutionary cause." Noticing his ardent desire to die for a cause, Vivekananda sent Jatin to the Gymnasium of Ambu Guha where he himself had practised wrestling. Jatin met here, among others, Sachin Banerjee, son of Yogendra Vidyabhushan
(a popular author of biographies like Mazzini and Garibaldi), who turned into Jatin’s mentor. In 1900, his uncle Lalit Kumar married Vidyabhushan's daughter.
Fed up with the colonial system of education, Jatin left for Muzaffarpore in 1899, as secretary of barrister Pringle Kennedy
, founder and editor of the Trihoot Courrier. He was impressed by this historian: through his editorials and from the Congress platform, he showed how urgent it was to have an Indian National Army and to react against the British squandering of Indian budget to safeguard their interests in China and elsewhere.
In 1900, Jatin married Indubala Banerjee of Kumarkhali
upazila in Kushtia
; they had four children: Atindra (1903–1906), Ashalata (1907–1976), Tejendra (1909–1989), and Birendra (1913–1991).
Struck by Atindra’s death, Jatin, with his wife and sister, set out on a pilgrimage and recovered their inner peace by receiving initiation from the saint Bholanand Giri of Hardwar. Aware of his disciple’s revolutionary commitments, the holy man extended to him his full support. Upon returning to his native village Koya in March 1906, Jatin learned about the disturbing presence of a leopard in the vicinity; while reconnoitring in the nearby jungle, he came across a Royal Bengal tiger and fought hand-to-hand with it. Mortally wounded, he managed to strike with a Gorkha dagger (Khukuri) on the tiger's neck, killing it instantly. The famous surgeon of Calcutta, Lt-Colonel Suresh Sarbadhikari, "took upon himself the responsibility for curing the fatally wounded patient whose whole body had been poisoned by the tiger's nails." Impressed by Jatin's exemplary heroism, Dr Sarbadhikari published an article about Jatin in the English press. The Government of Bengal awarded him a silver shield with the scene of him killing the tiger engraved on it.
in 1900, and as a pioneer in creating its branches in the districts. According to Daly's Report: "A secret meeting was held in Calcutta about the year 1900 [...] The meeting resolved to start secret societies with the object of assassinating officials and supporters of Government [...] One of the first to flourish was at Kushtea, in the Nadia district. This was organised by one Jotindra Nath Mukherjee [sic!].". Nixon reports further : "The earliest known attempts in Bengal to promote societies for political or semi-political ends are associated with the names of the late P. Mitter, Barrister-at-Law, Miss Saralabala Ghosal and a Japanese named Okakura. These activities commenced in Calcutta somewhere about the year 1900, and are said to have spread to many of the districts of Bengal and to have flourished particularly at Kushtia, where Jatindra Nath Mukharji [sic!] was leader." Bhavabhushan Mitra
's written notes precise his presence along with Jatindra Nath during the first meeting. A branch of this organisation (Anushilan Samiti
), was to be inaugurated in Dacca
. In 1903, on meeting Sri Aurobindo
at Yogendra Vidyabhushan
's place, Jatin decides to collaborate with him and is said to have added to his programme the clause of winning over the Indian soldiers of the British regiments in favour of an insurrection. W. Sealy in his report on "Connections with Bihar and Orissa" notes that Jatin Mukherjee "a close confederate of Nani Gopal Sen Gupta of the Howrah Gang (...) worked directly under the orders of Aurobindo Ghosh."
In 1905, during a procession to celebrate the visit of the Prince of Wales at Calcutta, Jatin decides to draw the attention of the future Emperor on the behaviour of HM’s English officers. Not far from the royal coach, he singles out a cabriolet on a side-lane, with a group of English military men sitting on its roof, their booted legs dangling against the windows, seriously disturbing the livid faces of a few native ladies. Stopping beside the cab, Jatin asks the fellows to leave the ladies alone. In response to their cheeky provocation, Jatin rushes up to the roof and fells them with pure Bengali slaps till they drop on the ground. The show is not innocent. Jatin is well aware that John Morley, the Secretary of State, receives regularly complaints about the English attitude towards Indian citizens, "The use of rough language and pretty free use of whips and sticks, and brutalities of that sort…" He will be further intimated that the Prince of Wales, "on his return from the Indian tour had a long conversation with Morley [10/5/1906] (...) He spoke of the ungracious bearing of Europeans to Indians."
, while Barin was to do the same at Maniktala
in Calcutta. Whereas Jatin disapproved of all untimely terrorist action, Barin led an organisation centred around his own personality : his aim was, aside from the general production of terror, the elimination of certain Indian and British officers serving the Crown. Side by side, Jatin developed a decentralised federated body of loose autonomous regional cells. Organising relentless relief missions with a para medical body of volunteers following almost a military discipline, during natural calamities such as floods, epidemics, or religious congregations like the Ardhodaya and the Kumbha mela, or the annual celebration of Ramakrishna
’s birth, Jatin was suspected of utilising these as pretexts for group discussions with regional leaders and recruiting new freedom fighters to fight the supporters of the Britain.
Duly appreciated for his professional competence, in 1907 Jatin was "sent to Darjeeling on some special work," for a period of three years. "From early youth he had had the reputation of a local Sandow and he soon attracted attention in Darjeeling in cases in which (…) he tried to measure the strength with Europeans. In 1908 he was leader of one of several gangs that had sprung up in Darjeeling, whose object was the spreading of dissatisfaction, and with his associates he started a branch of the Anushilan Samiti
, called the Bandhab Samiti.” In April 1908, in Siliguri
railway station, Jatin got involved in a fight with a group of English military officers headed by Captain Murphy and Lt Somerville, leading to legal proceedings, widely covered by the press. On observing the gleeful animosity created by the news of a few Englishmen thrashed single-handed by an Indian, Wheeler advised the officers to withdraw the case. Warned by the Magistrate to behave properly in the future, Jatin regretted that he would not refrain from taking similar action in self-defence or in the vindication of the rights of his countrymen. One day, in a pleasant mood, Wheeler asked Jatin : "With how many can you fight all alone ?" The prompt reply was : "Not a single one, if it is a question of honest people; otherwise, as many as you can imagine!"
In 1908 Jatin was not one of over thirty revolutionaries accused in the Alipore Bomb Case
following the incident at Muzaffarpur
. Hence, during the Alipore trial, Jatin took over the leadership of the secret society to be known as the Jugantar
Party, and revitalises the links between the central organisation in Calcutta and its several branches spread all over Bengal, Bihar
, Orissa
and several places in U.P.
. Through Justice Sarada Charan Mitra, Jatin leases from Sir Daniel Hamilton lands in the Sundarbans to shelter revolutionaries not yet arrested. They are engaged in night schools for adults, homeopathic dispensaries, workshops to encourage small scale cottage industries, experiments in agriculture. Since 1906, with the help of Sir Daniel, Jatin had been sending meritorious students abroad for higher studies as well as for learning military craft.
, Jatin issued a series of dazzling actions of daring and desperate self-sacrifice in Calcutta and in the districts "to revive the confidence of the people in the movement. These brought him into the limelight of revolutionary leadership although hardly anybody outside the innermost circle ever suspected his connection with those acts. Secrecy was absolute in those days – particularly with Jatin." Almost contemporaneous with the anarchist gang of Bonnot well known in France, Jatin invented and introduced in India bank robbery on automobile taxi-cabs, « a new feature in revolutionary crime. » Several outrages were committed : for instance, in 1908, on 2 June and 29 November; an attempt to assassinate the Lt Governor of Bengal on 7 November 1908; in 1909, on 27 February, 23 April, 16 August, 24 September and 28 October; two assassinations – of the Prosecutor Ashutosh Biswas (on 10 February 1909) and the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Samsul Alam (on 24 January 1910): both these officers had been determined to get all the accused condemned. Arrested, outwitted by the Police, Biren Datta-Gupta, the latter’s assassin, disclosed Jatin’s name as his leader.
On 25 January 1910, "with the gloom of his assassination hanging over everyone", the Viceroy Minto declared openly : "A spirit hitherto unknown to India has come into existence (…), a spirit of anarchy and lawlessness which seeks to subvert not only British rule but the Governments of Indian chiefs…”
On 27 January 1910, Jatin was arrested in connection with this murder, but was released, to be immediately re-arrested along with forty-six others in connection with the Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case, popularly known as the Howrah Gang Case. The major charge against Jatin Mukherjee and his party during the trial (1910–1911) was "conspiracy to wage war against the King-Emperor" and "tampering with the loyalty of the Indian soldiers" (mainly with the 10th Jats Regiment) posted in Fort William
, and soldiers in Upper Indian Cantonments. While held in Howrah jail, awaiting trial, Jatin made contact with a few fellow prisoners, prominent revolutionaries belonging to various groups operating in different parts of Bengal, who were all accused in this case. He was also informed by his emissaries abroad that very soon Germany
was to declare war against England
. Jatin counted heavily on this war to organise an armed uprising along with Indian soldiers in various regiments.
railway line. This provided him with a valid pretext and an ample scope to move about on horse-back or on bicycle to consolidate not only the district units in Bengal, but also to revitalise those in other provinces. Jatin with his family set out on a pilgrimage
, and at Haridwar
visited his Guru, Bholananda Giri. Jatin went on to Brindavan where he met Swami Niralamba (who had been Jatindra Nath Banerjee, the renowned revolutionary, before leading a sanyasi's life); he had continued preaching in North India Sri Aurobindo's doctrine of a revolution.
Niralamba gave Jatin complementary information about, and links to, the units set up by him in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab
. An important part of revolutionary activities in these regions were led by Rasbehari Bose and his associate Lala Hardayal. On returning from his pilgrimage, Jatin started reorganising Jugantar
accordingly. During the Damodar
flood in 1913, mainly in the districts of Burdwan and Midnapore
, relief work brought together leaders of various groups : Jatin "never asserted his leadership, but the party members in the different districts acclaimed him as their leader."
Drawn by Jatin's relief work during the flood, Rasbehari Bose left Benares to join him : the contact with Jatin added a new impulse to Bose’s revolutionary zeal : in Jatin, he discovered “a real leader of men” At the close of 1913, Bose met Jatin to discuss the possibilities of an All-India armed rising of 1857 type. Impressed by Jatin’s "fiery energy and personality", Bose renewed negotiation with the native officers posted at the Fort William
of Calcutta, the nerve centre of the various regiments of the colonial Army, before returning to Benares "to organise the scattered forces."
There were also attempts to organise expatriate Indian revolutionaries in Europe and the United States. Jatin’s influence was international. The Bengali best seller Dhan Gopal Mukerji, settled in New York and, at the summit of his glory, was to write : «Before 1914 we succeeded in disturbing the equilibrium of the government… Then extraordinary powers were given to the police, who called us anarchists in order to prejudice us forever in the eyes of the world… Dost thou remember Jyotin, our cousin – he that once killed a leopard with a dagger, putting his left elbow in the leopard’s mouth and with his right hand thrusting the knife through the brute’s eye deep into its brain ? He was a very great man and our first leader. He could think of God ten days at a stretch, but he was doomed when the Government found out that he was our head.”
Right since 1907, Jatin’s emissary, Taraknath Das had been organising, with Guran Ditt Kumar
and Surendramohan Bose, evening schools for Indian immigrants (a majority of them Hindus and Sikhs) between Vancouver and San Francisco, through Seattle and Portland : in addition to learning how to read and write simple English, they were informed about their rights in the USA and their duty towards Mother India : two periodicals - Free Hindustan (In English, sponsored by local Irish revolutionaries) and Swadesh Sevak (‘Servants of the Motherland’, in Gurumukhi) – became increasingly popular. In regular contact with Calcutta and London (where the organisation was managed by Shyamji Krishnavarma), Das wrote regularly to personalities throughout the world (like Leo Tolstoy
and Éamon de Valera
). In May 1913, Kumar left for Manilla to create a satellite linking Asia with the American West coast. Familiar with the doctrine of Sri Aurobindo and an erstwhile follower of Rasbehari Bose, in 1913, invited by Das, Har Dayal
resigned from his teaching job at the University of Berkeley, coaxed by Jiten Lahiri (one of Jatin's emissaries) of wasting his time in daydreaming, Har Dayal set out on a lecture tour covering the major centres of Indian immigrants; enlivened by their ardent patriotism, he preached open revolt against the English rulers of India. Welcomed by the Indian militants of San Francisco, in November, he founded his journal Ghadar (‘Revolt’) and the Yugantar Ashram, as a tribute to Sri Aurobindo
. The Sikh
community also became involved in the movement.
. Very soon it merges into a bigger body, to form the Berlin Committee
, or the Indian Independence Party, led by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
alias Chatto
: it gained the support of the German government and had as members prominent Indian revolutionaries abroad, including leaders of the Ghadar Party
. Militants of the Gadhar party started leaving for India, to join the proposed uprising inside India during World War I, with the help of arms, ammunition, and funds promised by the German government. Advised by Berlin, Ambassador Bernstorff in Washington arranged with Von Papen, his Military attaché, to send cargo consignments from California to the coast of the Bay of Bengal, via Far East.
These efforts were directly connected with the Jugantar
, under Jatin's leadership, in its planning and organising an armed revolt. Rasbehari Bose assumed the task of carrying out the plan in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab. This international chain work conceived by Jatin came to be known as the German Plot, the Indo-German Conspiracy, or the Zimmermann Plan. Jugantar
started to collect funds by organising a series of dacoities
(armed robberies) known as "Taxicab dacoities" and "Boat dacoities". Charles Tegart, in his "Report No. V" on the seditious organisations mentions the "certain amount of success" in the contact that exists between the revolutionaries and the Sikh soldiers posted at Dakshineshwar gunpowder magazine; Jatin Mukherjee in company of Satyendra Sen was seen interviewing these Sikhs. Sen "is the man who came to India with Pingle
. Their mission was specially to tamper with the troops. Pingle was captured in the Punjab with bombs and was hanged, while Satyen was interned under Regulation III in the Presidency Jail." With Jatin's written instructions, Pingle and Kartar Singh Sarabha met Rasbehari in North India.
Preoccupied by the increasing police activities to prevent any uprising, eminent Jugantar
members suggested that Jatin should move to a safer place. Balasore
on the Orissa
coast was selected as a suitable place, being very near the spot where German arms are to be landed for the Indian rising. To facilitate transmission of information to Jatin, a business house under the name "Universal Emporium" was set up, as a branch of Harry & Sons in Calcutta, which had been created for keeping contacts with revolutionaries abroad. Jatin therefore moved to a hideout outside Kaptipada village in the native state of Mayurbhanj, more than thirty miles away from Balasore.
On reaching Orissa, in April, 1915, Jatin sent one of his close associates, Naren Bhattacharya (future M.N. Roy) to Batavia
, following instructions from Chatto
, in order to make a deal with the German authorities concerning financial aid and the supply of arms. Through the German Consul, Naren met Theodore, brother of Karl Helfferich
, who assured him that a cargo of arms and ammunition was already on its way, "to assist the Indians in a revolution."
. In the beginning of World War I, in 1915, Emanuel Viktor Voska organised the minority of Czech patriots in USA into a network of counter-espionage, putting up to date the spying activity of the German and Austrian diplomats against USA and the Entente powers. (He described these events later in his book Spy and Counter-Spy.) American publicist of Czech origin Ross Hedvíček claims that had E. V. Voska not interfered in this history, today nobody would have heard about Mahatma Gandhi
and the father of the Indian nation would have been Bagha Jatin. B. Jatin wanted to free India from the British hold but he had the idea of allying against them with the Germans from whom he expected to receive arms and other helps. Voska learnt it through his network and, as pro-American, pro-British and anti-German, he spoke of it to T. G. Masaryk. This latter rushed to keep the institutions informed about it. Thus, Voska transmitted it to Masaryk, Masaryk to the Americans, the Americans to the British. T. G. Masaryk mentions all these facts in the English version of the Making of a State.
side to Orissa. Harry & Sons was raided and searched, and the police found a clue which led them to Kaptipada village, where Jatin was staying with Manoranjan Sengupta and Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri; a unit of the Police Intelligence Department was dispatched to Balasore
.
Jatin was kept informed and was requested to leave his hiding place, but his insistence on taking Niren and Jatish with him delayed his departure by a few hours, by which time a large force of police, headed by top European officers from Calcutta and Balasore, reinforced by the army unit from Chandbali in Mayurbhanj State, had reached the neighbourhood. Jatin and his companions walked through the forests and hills of Mayurbhanj, and after two days reached Balasore Railway Station.
The police had announced a reward for the capture of five fleeing "bandits", so the local villagers were also in pursuit. With occasional skirmishes, the revolutionaries, running through jungles and marshy land in torrential rain, finally took up position on 9 September 1915 in an improvised trench in undergrowth on a hillock at Chashakhand in Balasore. Chittapriya and his companions asked Jatin to leave and go to safety while they guarded the rear. Jatin, however refused to leave them.
The contingent of Government forces approached them in a pincers movement. A gunfight ensued, lasting seventy-five minutes, between the five revolutionaries armed with Mauser
pistols and a large number of police and army armed with modern rifles. It ended with an unrecorded number of casualties on the Government side; on the revolutionary side, Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri died, Jatin and Jatish were seriously wounded, and Manoranjan Sengupta and Niren were captured after their ammunition ran out. Bagha Jatin died in Balasore hospital on 10 September 1915.And, observes Ross Hedvíček[41] in the article already mentioned : "India had to wait for another thirty years to have her democracy... Mahatma Gandhi was as yet in South Africa." During a conversation with Charles Tegart on 25 June 1925, Gandhiji qualified Jatin Mukherjee as "a divine man." And the author of the article (son of an officer in the Special Police created by Tegart) adds that Gandhiji did not know what Tegart told his colleagues : "Had Jatin Mukherjee been an Englishman, the English would have erected his statue at Trafalgar Square
, by the side of Nelson's."
, Jatin expressed his ideals in simple words: "Amra morbo, jagat jagbe" — "We shall die to awaken the nation". It is corroborated in the tribute paid to Jatin by Charles Tegart
, the Intelligence Chief and Police Commissioner of Bengal : "Though I had to do my duty, I have a great admiration for him. He died in an open fight." Later in life, Tegart admitted : "Their driving power (...) immense: if the army could be raised or the arms could reach an Indian port, the British would lose the War". Professor Tripathi analysed the added dimensions revealed by the Howrah Case proceedings: acquire arms locally and abroad; raise a guerrilla; create a rising with Indian soldiers; Jatin Mukherjee's action helped improve (especially economically) the people's status. "He had indeed an ambitious dream."
Informed about his JatinDa's death, M.N. Roy wrote: "I could not forget the injunction of the only man I ever obeyed almost blindly[...] JatinDa's heroic death [...] must be avenged. Only a year had passed since then. But in the meantime I had come to realise that I admired JatinDa because he personified, perhaps without himself knowing it, the best of mankind. The corollary to that realisation was that Jatinda's death would be avenged if I worked for the ideal of establishing a social order in which the best in man could be manifest."
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
revolutionary philosopher against British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
rule.
He was the principal leader of the Yugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
party that was the central association of revolutionaries in Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
. Having personally met the German Crown-Prince in Calcutta shortly before World War I, he obtained the promise of arms and ammunition from Germany; as such, he was responsible for the planned German Plot during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Another of his original contributions was the indoctrination of the Indian soldiers in various regiments in favour of an insurrection.
In 1925, Gandhi told Tegart
Charles Tegart
Sir Charles Augustus Tegart KCIE KPM , the second son of Rev. Joseph Poulter Tegart, was a colonial police officer in India and Mandatory Palestine, variously earning praise for his industry and efficiency, and notoriety for his brutality and use of torture.-Early Life:Tegart was the son of a...
that Jatin Mukherjee, generally referred to as “Bagha Jatin”, was “a divine personality”. Little did he know that Tegart had once told his colleagues that if Jatin were an Englishman, then the English people would have built his statue next to Nelson’s at Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
. In his note to J.E. Francis of the India Office in 1926, he described Bengali revolutionaries as “the most selfless political workers in India”.
Early life
Jatin was born to Sharatshashi and Umeshchandra Mukherjee in Kayagram, a village in the KushtiaKushtia District
Kushtia, Kushtia district or Kushtia Zila is a district in the Khulna administrative division of western Bangladesh. Kushtia has existed as a separate district since the partition of India. Prior to that, Kushtia was a part of Nadia District under Bengal Province of British India. Kushtia was home...
subdivision of Nadia district
Nadia District
Nadia district is a district of the state of West Bengal, in the north east of India. It borders with Bangladesh to the east, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts to the south, Bardhaman district to the west, and Murshidabad district to the north....
in what is now West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. He grew up in his ancestral home at Sadhuhati, P.S. Rishkhali Jhenaidah
Jhenaidah District
Jhenidah is a district in South-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Khulna Division. It is an area 1949.62 km². On the norther it borders the Kushtia District on the north, to the south by Jessore District and West Bengal , to the east by Rajbari District and Magura District and to the...
until his father's death when Jatin was five years old. Well versed in Brahmanic studies, his father liked horses and was respected for the strength of his character. Sharatshashi settled in her parents' home in Kayagram with her husband and his elder sister Benodebala (or Vinodebala). A gifted poet, she was affectionate and stern in her method of raising her children. Familiar with the essays by contemporary thought leaders like Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Yogendra Vidyabhushan
Yogendra Vidyabhushan
Yogendra Vidyabhushan was an Indian Bengali scholar in Sanskrit, thinker, journalist and popular author of biographies which stirred patriotic zeal in the readers’ heart...
, she was aware of the social and political transformations of her times. Her brother Basantakumar Chatterjee taught and practised law, and counted among his clients the poet Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
. Since the age of 14, Tagore had claimed in meetings organised by his family members equal rights for Indian citizens inside railway carriages and in public places. As Jatin grew older, he gained a reputation for physical bravery and great strength; charitable and cheerful by nature, he was fond of caricature and enacting mythological plays, himself playing the roles of god-loving characters like Prahlad, Dhruva, Hanuman, Râja Harish Chandra. He not only encouraged several playwrights to produce patriotic pieces for the urban stage, but also engaged village bards to spread nationalist fervour in the countryside. Jatin had a natural respect for the human creature, heedless of class or caste or religions. He carried for an aged Muslim villager a heavy bundle of fodder and, on reaching her hut, he shared with her the only platter of rice she had, and sent her some money every month.
Student in Calcutta
After passing the Entrance examination in 1895, Jatin joined the Calcutta Central College (now Khudiram Bose College), to study Fine Arts. At the same time, he took lessons in steno typing with Mr Atkinson: this is a new qualification opening possibilities of a coveted career. Soon he started visiting Swami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...
, whose social thought, and especially his vision of a politically independent India - indispensable for the spiritual progress of humanity - had a great influence on Jatin. The Master taught him the art of conquering libido before raising a batch of young volunteers "with iron muscles and nerves of steel", to serve miserable compatriots during famines, epidemics and floods, and running clubs for "man-making" in the context of a nation under foreign domination. They soon assisted Sister Nivedita
Sister Nivedita
- A benediction to Sister Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda Sister Nivedita ; ; , born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She met Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta, India in 1898...
, the Swami's Irish disciple, in this venture. According to J. E. Armstrong, Superintendent of the colonial Police, Jatin "owed his preeminent position in revolutionary circles, not only to his qualities of leadership, but in great measure to his reputation of being a Brahmachari with no thought beyond the revolutionary cause." Noticing his ardent desire to die for a cause, Vivekananda sent Jatin to the Gymnasium of Ambu Guha where he himself had practised wrestling. Jatin met here, among others, Sachin Banerjee, son of Yogendra Vidyabhushan
Yogendra Vidyabhushan
Yogendra Vidyabhushan was an Indian Bengali scholar in Sanskrit, thinker, journalist and popular author of biographies which stirred patriotic zeal in the readers’ heart...
(a popular author of biographies like Mazzini and Garibaldi), who turned into Jatin’s mentor. In 1900, his uncle Lalit Kumar married Vidyabhushan's daughter.
Fed up with the colonial system of education, Jatin left for Muzaffarpore in 1899, as secretary of barrister Pringle Kennedy
Pringle Kennedy
Pringle Kennedy was an author and barrister. He wrote 2 books for which he is best known:* A History of the Great Moghuls , in 2 volumes, during 1905-1911....
, founder and editor of the Trihoot Courrier. He was impressed by this historian: through his editorials and from the Congress platform, he showed how urgent it was to have an Indian National Army and to react against the British squandering of Indian budget to safeguard their interests in China and elsewhere.
In 1900, Jatin married Indubala Banerjee of Kumarkhali
Kumarkhali
Kumarkhali is a town in Kushtia District in the Khulna Division of southwestern Bangladesh....
upazila in Kushtia
Kushtia District
Kushtia, Kushtia district or Kushtia Zila is a district in the Khulna administrative division of western Bangladesh. Kushtia has existed as a separate district since the partition of India. Prior to that, Kushtia was a part of Nadia District under Bengal Province of British India. Kushtia was home...
; they had four children: Atindra (1903–1906), Ashalata (1907–1976), Tejendra (1909–1989), and Birendra (1913–1991).
Struck by Atindra’s death, Jatin, with his wife and sister, set out on a pilgrimage and recovered their inner peace by receiving initiation from the saint Bholanand Giri of Hardwar. Aware of his disciple’s revolutionary commitments, the holy man extended to him his full support. Upon returning to his native village Koya in March 1906, Jatin learned about the disturbing presence of a leopard in the vicinity; while reconnoitring in the nearby jungle, he came across a Royal Bengal tiger and fought hand-to-hand with it. Mortally wounded, he managed to strike with a Gorkha dagger (Khukuri) on the tiger's neck, killing it instantly. The famous surgeon of Calcutta, Lt-Colonel Suresh Sarbadhikari, "took upon himself the responsibility for curing the fatally wounded patient whose whole body had been poisoned by the tiger's nails." Impressed by Jatin's exemplary heroism, Dr Sarbadhikari published an article about Jatin in the English press. The Government of Bengal awarded him a silver shield with the scene of him killing the tiger engraved on it.
Revolutionary activities
Several sources mention Jatin as being among the founders of the Anushilan SamitiAnushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti was an armed anti-British organisation in Bengal and the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in the region in the opening years of the 20th century. This association, like its offshoot the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club...
in 1900, and as a pioneer in creating its branches in the districts. According to Daly's Report: "A secret meeting was held in Calcutta about the year 1900 [...] The meeting resolved to start secret societies with the object of assassinating officials and supporters of Government [...] One of the first to flourish was at Kushtea, in the Nadia district. This was organised by one Jotindra Nath Mukherjee [sic!].". Nixon reports further : "The earliest known attempts in Bengal to promote societies for political or semi-political ends are associated with the names of the late P. Mitter, Barrister-at-Law, Miss Saralabala Ghosal and a Japanese named Okakura. These activities commenced in Calcutta somewhere about the year 1900, and are said to have spread to many of the districts of Bengal and to have flourished particularly at Kushtia, where Jatindra Nath Mukharji [sic!] was leader." Bhavabhushan Mitra
Bhavabhushan Mitra
Bhavabhushan Mitra, or Bhaba Bhusan Mitter, alias Swami Satyananda Puri was a Bengali Indian freedom fighter and an influential social worker....
's written notes precise his presence along with Jatindra Nath during the first meeting. A branch of this organisation (Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti was an armed anti-British organisation in Bengal and the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in the region in the opening years of the 20th century. This association, like its offshoot the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club...
), was to be inaugurated in Dacca
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
. In 1903, on meeting Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
at Yogendra Vidyabhushan
Yogendra Vidyabhushan
Yogendra Vidyabhushan was an Indian Bengali scholar in Sanskrit, thinker, journalist and popular author of biographies which stirred patriotic zeal in the readers’ heart...
's place, Jatin decides to collaborate with him and is said to have added to his programme the clause of winning over the Indian soldiers of the British regiments in favour of an insurrection. W. Sealy in his report on "Connections with Bihar and Orissa" notes that Jatin Mukherjee "a close confederate of Nani Gopal Sen Gupta of the Howrah Gang (...) worked directly under the orders of Aurobindo Ghosh."
In 1905, during a procession to celebrate the visit of the Prince of Wales at Calcutta, Jatin decides to draw the attention of the future Emperor on the behaviour of HM’s English officers. Not far from the royal coach, he singles out a cabriolet on a side-lane, with a group of English military men sitting on its roof, their booted legs dangling against the windows, seriously disturbing the livid faces of a few native ladies. Stopping beside the cab, Jatin asks the fellows to leave the ladies alone. In response to their cheeky provocation, Jatin rushes up to the roof and fells them with pure Bengali slaps till they drop on the ground. The show is not innocent. Jatin is well aware that John Morley, the Secretary of State, receives regularly complaints about the English attitude towards Indian citizens, "The use of rough language and pretty free use of whips and sticks, and brutalities of that sort…" He will be further intimated that the Prince of Wales, "on his return from the Indian tour had a long conversation with Morley [10/5/1906] (...) He spoke of the ungracious bearing of Europeans to Indians."
Organiser of secret society
Jatin, together with Barindra Ghosh, set up a bomb factory near DeogharDeoghar
Deoghar is the headquarters city of Deoghar District in the Santhal Parganas division of the state of Jharkhand, India. It is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre, having in Baidyanath Temple one of the twelve Shiva Jyothirlingams in India and also one of the 51 Shakti Peethas in India.-Origin of...
, while Barin was to do the same at Maniktala
Maniktala
-Location:The Maniktala crossing is the intersection of Vivekananda Road and Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road — two main thoroughfares in north Kolkata. The adjacent area is known as Maniktala.-Landmarks:...
in Calcutta. Whereas Jatin disapproved of all untimely terrorist action, Barin led an organisation centred around his own personality : his aim was, aside from the general production of terror, the elimination of certain Indian and British officers serving the Crown. Side by side, Jatin developed a decentralised federated body of loose autonomous regional cells. Organising relentless relief missions with a para medical body of volunteers following almost a military discipline, during natural calamities such as floods, epidemics, or religious congregations like the Ardhodaya and the Kumbha mela, or the annual celebration of Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna , born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay , was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu...
’s birth, Jatin was suspected of utilising these as pretexts for group discussions with regional leaders and recruiting new freedom fighters to fight the supporters of the Britain.
Duly appreciated for his professional competence, in 1907 Jatin was "sent to Darjeeling on some special work," for a period of three years. "From early youth he had had the reputation of a local Sandow and he soon attracted attention in Darjeeling in cases in which (…) he tried to measure the strength with Europeans. In 1908 he was leader of one of several gangs that had sprung up in Darjeeling, whose object was the spreading of dissatisfaction, and with his associates he started a branch of the Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti was an armed anti-British organisation in Bengal and the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in the region in the opening years of the 20th century. This association, like its offshoot the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club...
, called the Bandhab Samiti.” In April 1908, in Siliguri
Siliguri
Siliguri is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck - a very narrow strip of land linking mainland India to its north-eastern states. It is also the transit point for air, road and rail traffic to the neighbouring countries of Nepal,...
railway station, Jatin got involved in a fight with a group of English military officers headed by Captain Murphy and Lt Somerville, leading to legal proceedings, widely covered by the press. On observing the gleeful animosity created by the news of a few Englishmen thrashed single-handed by an Indian, Wheeler advised the officers to withdraw the case. Warned by the Magistrate to behave properly in the future, Jatin regretted that he would not refrain from taking similar action in self-defence or in the vindication of the rights of his countrymen. One day, in a pleasant mood, Wheeler asked Jatin : "With how many can you fight all alone ?" The prompt reply was : "Not a single one, if it is a question of honest people; otherwise, as many as you can imagine!"
In 1908 Jatin was not one of over thirty revolutionaries accused in the Alipore Bomb Case
Alipore bomb case
The Alipore Bomb Case was an important court trial, during May 1908 to May 1909, in the history of the Indian Independence Movement. The trial involved more than 37 suspects, following a bomb attack, and was held in Alipore Sessions Court, in Calcutta, India, Judge C.P...
following the incident at Muzaffarpur
Muzaffarpur
Muzaffarpur Town is a town in Muzaffarpur district in the Indian state of Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of Muzaffarpur district and Tirhut division....
. Hence, during the Alipore trial, Jatin took over the leadership of the secret society to be known as the Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
Party, and revitalises the links between the central organisation in Calcutta and its several branches spread all over Bengal, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
and several places in U.P.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
. Through Justice Sarada Charan Mitra, Jatin leases from Sir Daniel Hamilton lands in the Sundarbans to shelter revolutionaries not yet arrested. They are engaged in night schools for adults, homeopathic dispensaries, workshops to encourage small scale cottage industries, experiments in agriculture. Since 1906, with the help of Sir Daniel, Jatin had been sending meritorious students abroad for higher studies as well as for learning military craft.
The Jatin Mukherjee Spirit
Repressive measures in series were introduced to quench the rising sedition since the agitations against the Partition of Bengal in 1905. Protesting against these repressions and organising the defence of the militants under trial in the Alipore CaseAlipore bomb case
The Alipore Bomb Case was an important court trial, during May 1908 to May 1909, in the history of the Indian Independence Movement. The trial involved more than 37 suspects, following a bomb attack, and was held in Alipore Sessions Court, in Calcutta, India, Judge C.P...
, Jatin issued a series of dazzling actions of daring and desperate self-sacrifice in Calcutta and in the districts "to revive the confidence of the people in the movement. These brought him into the limelight of revolutionary leadership although hardly anybody outside the innermost circle ever suspected his connection with those acts. Secrecy was absolute in those days – particularly with Jatin." Almost contemporaneous with the anarchist gang of Bonnot well known in France, Jatin invented and introduced in India bank robbery on automobile taxi-cabs, « a new feature in revolutionary crime. » Several outrages were committed : for instance, in 1908, on 2 June and 29 November; an attempt to assassinate the Lt Governor of Bengal on 7 November 1908; in 1909, on 27 February, 23 April, 16 August, 24 September and 28 October; two assassinations – of the Prosecutor Ashutosh Biswas (on 10 February 1909) and the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Samsul Alam (on 24 January 1910): both these officers had been determined to get all the accused condemned. Arrested, outwitted by the Police, Biren Datta-Gupta, the latter’s assassin, disclosed Jatin’s name as his leader.
On 25 January 1910, "with the gloom of his assassination hanging over everyone", the Viceroy Minto declared openly : "A spirit hitherto unknown to India has come into existence (…), a spirit of anarchy and lawlessness which seeks to subvert not only British rule but the Governments of Indian chiefs…”
On 27 January 1910, Jatin was arrested in connection with this murder, but was released, to be immediately re-arrested along with forty-six others in connection with the Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case, popularly known as the Howrah Gang Case. The major charge against Jatin Mukherjee and his party during the trial (1910–1911) was "conspiracy to wage war against the King-Emperor" and "tampering with the loyalty of the Indian soldiers" (mainly with the 10th Jats Regiment) posted in Fort William
Fort William, India
Fort William is a fort built in Calcutta on the Eastern banks of the River Hooghly, the major distributary of the River Ganges, during the early years of the Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after King William III of England...
, and soldiers in Upper Indian Cantonments. While held in Howrah jail, awaiting trial, Jatin made contact with a few fellow prisoners, prominent revolutionaries belonging to various groups operating in different parts of Bengal, who were all accused in this case. He was also informed by his emissaries abroad that very soon Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
was to declare war against England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Jatin counted heavily on this war to organise an armed uprising along with Indian soldiers in various regiments.
The Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case
The case failed because of lack of proper evidence thanks to Jatin's policy of a loose decentralised organisation federating scores of regional units, as observed by F.C. Daly more than once: "The gang is a heterogeneous one, with several advisers and petty chiefs... From information we have on record we may divide the gang into four parts: (1) Gurus, (2) Influential supporters, (3) Leaders, (4) Members." J.C. Nixon's report is more explicit : "Although a separate name and a separate individuality have been given to these various parties in this account of them, and although such a distinction was probably observed amongst the minor members, it is very clear that the bigger figures were in close communication with one another and were frequently accepted members of two or more of these samitis. It may be taken that at some time these various parties were engaged in anarchical crime independently, although in their revolutionary aims and usually in their origins they were all very closely related." Several observers pinpointed Jatin so accurately that the newly appointed Viceroy Lord Hardinge wrote more explicitly to Earl Crewe (H.M.'s Secretary of State for India): "As regards prosecution, I (...) deprecate the net being thrown so wide; as for example in the Howrah Gang Case, where 47 persons are being prosecuted, of whom only one is, I believe, the real criminal. If a concentrated effort had been made to convict this one criminal, I think it would have had a better effect than the prosecution of 46 misguided youths." On 28 May 1911, Hardinge recognised : "The 10th Jats case was part and parcel of the Howrah Gang Case; and with the failure in the latter, the Government of Bengal realised the futility of proceeding with the former... In fact, nothing could be worse, in my opinion, than the condition of Bengal and Eastern Bengal. There is practically no Government in either province..."A new perspective
Jatin was acquitted in February 1911 and released. Immediately, he suspended terrorism. This lull proved Jatin's full command of violence as an antidote, contrary to the Chauri Chaura fiasco after him. During the German Crown Prince's visit to Calcutta, Jatin met him and received a promise about arms supply. Having lost his government job - and home interned -, he managed to leave Calcutta, to start a contract business constructing the Jessore–JhenaidahJhenaidah District
Jhenidah is a district in South-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Khulna Division. It is an area 1949.62 km². On the norther it borders the Kushtia District on the north, to the south by Jessore District and West Bengal , to the east by Rajbari District and Magura District and to the...
railway line. This provided him with a valid pretext and an ample scope to move about on horse-back or on bicycle to consolidate not only the district units in Bengal, but also to revitalise those in other provinces. Jatin with his family set out on a pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
, and at Haridwar
Haridwar
Haridwar is an important pilgrimage city and municipality in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India...
visited his Guru, Bholananda Giri. Jatin went on to Brindavan where he met Swami Niralamba (who had been Jatindra Nath Banerjee, the renowned revolutionary, before leading a sanyasi's life); he had continued preaching in North India Sri Aurobindo's doctrine of a revolution.
Niralamba gave Jatin complementary information about, and links to, the units set up by him in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
. An important part of revolutionary activities in these regions were led by Rasbehari Bose and his associate Lala Hardayal. On returning from his pilgrimage, Jatin started reorganising Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
accordingly. During the Damodar
Damodar
Damodar can refer to:* Damodar Das Arora a famous Punjabi Poet* Damodar River in India* Damodar * Damodar * Damodar Pande - First Prime Minister of Nepal...
flood in 1913, mainly in the districts of Burdwan and Midnapore
Midnapore
Midnapore is the district headquarters of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River . This area had taken a pioneering role in India's freedom struggle...
, relief work brought together leaders of various groups : Jatin "never asserted his leadership, but the party members in the different districts acclaimed him as their leader."
Drawn by Jatin's relief work during the flood, Rasbehari Bose left Benares to join him : the contact with Jatin added a new impulse to Bose’s revolutionary zeal : in Jatin, he discovered “a real leader of men” At the close of 1913, Bose met Jatin to discuss the possibilities of an All-India armed rising of 1857 type. Impressed by Jatin’s "fiery energy and personality", Bose renewed negotiation with the native officers posted at the Fort William
Fort William, India
Fort William is a fort built in Calcutta on the Eastern banks of the River Hooghly, the major distributary of the River Ganges, during the early years of the Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after King William III of England...
of Calcutta, the nerve centre of the various regiments of the colonial Army, before returning to Benares "to organise the scattered forces."
There were also attempts to organise expatriate Indian revolutionaries in Europe and the United States. Jatin’s influence was international. The Bengali best seller Dhan Gopal Mukerji, settled in New York and, at the summit of his glory, was to write : «Before 1914 we succeeded in disturbing the equilibrium of the government… Then extraordinary powers were given to the police, who called us anarchists in order to prejudice us forever in the eyes of the world… Dost thou remember Jyotin, our cousin – he that once killed a leopard with a dagger, putting his left elbow in the leopard’s mouth and with his right hand thrusting the knife through the brute’s eye deep into its brain ? He was a very great man and our first leader. He could think of God ten days at a stretch, but he was doomed when the Government found out that he was our head.”
Right since 1907, Jatin’s emissary, Taraknath Das had been organising, with Guran Ditt Kumar
Guran Ditt Kumar
Guran Ditt Kumar, also known as G.D. Kumar Singh, was an Indian revolutionary, associated with the pioneers of the Gadhar movement, involved in the Indo-German conspiracy during the First World War.-Beginning in the North-West of India:...
and Surendramohan Bose, evening schools for Indian immigrants (a majority of them Hindus and Sikhs) between Vancouver and San Francisco, through Seattle and Portland : in addition to learning how to read and write simple English, they were informed about their rights in the USA and their duty towards Mother India : two periodicals - Free Hindustan (In English, sponsored by local Irish revolutionaries) and Swadesh Sevak (‘Servants of the Motherland’, in Gurumukhi) – became increasingly popular. In regular contact with Calcutta and London (where the organisation was managed by Shyamji Krishnavarma), Das wrote regularly to personalities throughout the world (like Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
and Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
). In May 1913, Kumar left for Manilla to create a satellite linking Asia with the American West coast. Familiar with the doctrine of Sri Aurobindo and an erstwhile follower of Rasbehari Bose, in 1913, invited by Das, Har Dayal
Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service...
resigned from his teaching job at the University of Berkeley, coaxed by Jiten Lahiri (one of Jatin's emissaries) of wasting his time in daydreaming, Har Dayal set out on a lecture tour covering the major centres of Indian immigrants; enlivened by their ardent patriotism, he preached open revolt against the English rulers of India. Welcomed by the Indian militants of San Francisco, in November, he founded his journal Ghadar (‘Revolt’) and the Yugantar Ashram, as a tribute to Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
. The Sikh
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
community also became involved in the movement.
During World War I
Shortly after when World War I broke out, in September 1914, an International Pro-India Committee was formed at ZurichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
. Very soon it merges into a bigger body, to form the Berlin Committee
Berlin Committee
The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence...
, or the Indian Independence Party, led by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya alias Chatto was a prominent Hindu Indian revolutionary who aimed to overthrow the British Raj in India by using violence as a tool...
alias Chatto
Chatto
Chatto may refer to:* Chatto , Chiricahua Apache chief* Beth Chatto , plantswoman, garden designer and author* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya , prominent Bengali Indian revolutionary...
: it gained the support of the German government and had as members prominent Indian revolutionaries abroad, including leaders of the Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
. Militants of the Gadhar party started leaving for India, to join the proposed uprising inside India during World War I, with the help of arms, ammunition, and funds promised by the German government. Advised by Berlin, Ambassador Bernstorff in Washington arranged with Von Papen, his Military attaché, to send cargo consignments from California to the coast of the Bay of Bengal, via Far East.
These efforts were directly connected with the Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
, under Jatin's leadership, in its planning and organising an armed revolt. Rasbehari Bose assumed the task of carrying out the plan in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab. This international chain work conceived by Jatin came to be known as the German Plot, the Indo-German Conspiracy, or the Zimmermann Plan. Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
started to collect funds by organising a series of dacoities
Dacoity
Dacoity is a term used for "banditry" in India. The spelling is the anglicized version of the Hindi word and as a colloquial Anglo-Indian word with this meaning, also appears in the Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases Banditry is criminal activity involving robbery by groups of...
(armed robberies) known as "Taxicab dacoities" and "Boat dacoities". Charles Tegart, in his "Report No. V" on the seditious organisations mentions the "certain amount of success" in the contact that exists between the revolutionaries and the Sikh soldiers posted at Dakshineshwar gunpowder magazine; Jatin Mukherjee in company of Satyendra Sen was seen interviewing these Sikhs. Sen "is the man who came to India with Pingle
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle was an Indian revolutionary and a member of the Ghadar Party who was one of those executed in 1915 following the Lahore conspiracy trial for his role in the Ghadar conspiracy.-Early life:...
. Their mission was specially to tamper with the troops. Pingle was captured in the Punjab with bombs and was hanged, while Satyen was interned under Regulation III in the Presidency Jail." With Jatin's written instructions, Pingle and Kartar Singh Sarabha met Rasbehari in North India.
Preoccupied by the increasing police activities to prevent any uprising, eminent Jugantar
Jugantar
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence.This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in...
members suggested that Jatin should move to a safer place. Balasore
Balasore
Balasore is a strategically located city in the state of Orissa, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar, in eastern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It is best known for Chandipur beach. It is also the site of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defense...
on the Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
coast was selected as a suitable place, being very near the spot where German arms are to be landed for the Indian rising. To facilitate transmission of information to Jatin, a business house under the name "Universal Emporium" was set up, as a branch of Harry & Sons in Calcutta, which had been created for keeping contacts with revolutionaries abroad. Jatin therefore moved to a hideout outside Kaptipada village in the native state of Mayurbhanj, more than thirty miles away from Balasore.
On reaching Orissa, in April, 1915, Jatin sent one of his close associates, Naren Bhattacharya (future M.N. Roy) to Batavia
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, following instructions from Chatto
Chatto
Chatto may refer to:* Chatto , Chiricahua Apache chief* Beth Chatto , plantswoman, garden designer and author* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya , prominent Bengali Indian revolutionary...
, in order to make a deal with the German authorities concerning financial aid and the supply of arms. Through the German Consul, Naren met Theodore, brother of Karl Helfferich
Karl Helfferich
Karl Theodor Helfferich was a German politician, economist, and financier from Neustadt an der Weinstraße in the Palatinate.-Biography:...
, who assured him that a cargo of arms and ammunition was already on its way, "to assist the Indians in a revolution."
The Czech interlude
The plot leaked out through Czech revolutionaries who were in touch with their counterparts in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In the beginning of World War I, in 1915, Emanuel Viktor Voska organised the minority of Czech patriots in USA into a network of counter-espionage, putting up to date the spying activity of the German and Austrian diplomats against USA and the Entente powers. (He described these events later in his book Spy and Counter-Spy.) American publicist of Czech origin Ross Hedvíček claims that had E. V. Voska not interfered in this history, today nobody would have heard about Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and the father of the Indian nation would have been Bagha Jatin. B. Jatin wanted to free India from the British hold but he had the idea of allying against them with the Germans from whom he expected to receive arms and other helps. Voska learnt it through his network and, as pro-American, pro-British and anti-German, he spoke of it to T. G. Masaryk. This latter rushed to keep the institutions informed about it. Thus, Voska transmitted it to Masaryk, Masaryk to the Americans, the Americans to the British. T. G. Masaryk mentions all these facts in the English version of the Making of a State.
Jatin's death
As soon as the information reached the British authorities, they alerted the police, particularly in the delta region of the Ganges, and sealed off all the sea approaches on the eastern coast from the Noakhali–ChittagongChittagong
Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...
side to Orissa. Harry & Sons was raided and searched, and the police found a clue which led them to Kaptipada village, where Jatin was staying with Manoranjan Sengupta and Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri; a unit of the Police Intelligence Department was dispatched to Balasore
Balasore
Balasore is a strategically located city in the state of Orissa, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar, in eastern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It is best known for Chandipur beach. It is also the site of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defense...
.
Jatin was kept informed and was requested to leave his hiding place, but his insistence on taking Niren and Jatish with him delayed his departure by a few hours, by which time a large force of police, headed by top European officers from Calcutta and Balasore, reinforced by the army unit from Chandbali in Mayurbhanj State, had reached the neighbourhood. Jatin and his companions walked through the forests and hills of Mayurbhanj, and after two days reached Balasore Railway Station.
The police had announced a reward for the capture of five fleeing "bandits", so the local villagers were also in pursuit. With occasional skirmishes, the revolutionaries, running through jungles and marshy land in torrential rain, finally took up position on 9 September 1915 in an improvised trench in undergrowth on a hillock at Chashakhand in Balasore. Chittapriya and his companions asked Jatin to leave and go to safety while they guarded the rear. Jatin, however refused to leave them.
The contingent of Government forces approached them in a pincers movement. A gunfight ensued, lasting seventy-five minutes, between the five revolutionaries armed with Mauser
Mauser
Mauser was a German arms manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols from the 1870s to 1995. Mauser designs were built for the German armed forces...
pistols and a large number of police and army armed with modern rifles. It ended with an unrecorded number of casualties on the Government side; on the revolutionary side, Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri died, Jatin and Jatish were seriously wounded, and Manoranjan Sengupta and Niren were captured after their ammunition ran out. Bagha Jatin died in Balasore hospital on 10 September 1915.And, observes Ross Hedvíček[41] in the article already mentioned : "India had to wait for another thirty years to have her democracy... Mahatma Gandhi was as yet in South Africa." During a conversation with Charles Tegart on 25 June 1925, Gandhiji qualified Jatin Mukherjee as "a divine man." And the author of the article (son of an officer in the Special Police created by Tegart) adds that Gandhiji did not know what Tegart told his colleagues : "Had Jatin Mukherjee been an Englishman, the English would have erected his statue at Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
, by the side of Nelson's."
Legacy of Jatin Mukherjee
Inspired by Swami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...
, Jatin expressed his ideals in simple words: "Amra morbo, jagat jagbe" — "We shall die to awaken the nation". It is corroborated in the tribute paid to Jatin by Charles Tegart
Charles Tegart
Sir Charles Augustus Tegart KCIE KPM , the second son of Rev. Joseph Poulter Tegart, was a colonial police officer in India and Mandatory Palestine, variously earning praise for his industry and efficiency, and notoriety for his brutality and use of torture.-Early Life:Tegart was the son of a...
, the Intelligence Chief and Police Commissioner of Bengal : "Though I had to do my duty, I have a great admiration for him. He died in an open fight." Later in life, Tegart admitted : "Their driving power (...) immense: if the army could be raised or the arms could reach an Indian port, the British would lose the War". Professor Tripathi analysed the added dimensions revealed by the Howrah Case proceedings: acquire arms locally and abroad; raise a guerrilla; create a rising with Indian soldiers; Jatin Mukherjee's action helped improve (especially economically) the people's status. "He had indeed an ambitious dream."
Informed about his JatinDa's death, M.N. Roy wrote: "I could not forget the injunction of the only man I ever obeyed almost blindly[...] JatinDa's heroic death [...] must be avenged. Only a year had passed since then. But in the meantime I had come to realise that I admired JatinDa because he personified, perhaps without himself knowing it, the best of mankind. The corollary to that realisation was that Jatinda's death would be avenged if I worked for the ideal of establishing a social order in which the best in man could be manifest."
Sources and external links
- Jatindranath Mukherjee — Bhupendrakumar Datta.
- Great Indians.
- Bhupendrakumar Datta, "Mukherjee, Jatindranath (1879–1915)" in Dictionary of National Biography volume III, ed. S.P. Sen (Calcutta: Institute of Historical Studies, 1974), pp 162–165.
- Saga of Patriotism article on Bagha Jatin by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan and R. Vivekanandan.
- Bimanbehari Majumdar, Militant Nationalism in India, Calcutta, 1966, p. 111, p. 165.
- W. Sealy, Connections with the Revolutionary Organisation in Bihar and Orissa, 1906-1916.
- Report classified as Home Polit-Proceedings A, March 1910, nos 33-40 (cf Sumit Sarkar, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 1903–1908, New Delhi, 1977, p. 376
- Sisirkumar Mitra, Resurgent India, Allied Publishers, 1963, p. 367.
- J.C. Ker, ICS, Political Trouble in India, a Confidential Report, Delhi, 1973 (repr.), p. 120. Also (i) "Taraknath Das" by William A. Ellis, 1819–1911, Montpellier, 1911, Vol. III, pp490–491, illustrated (with two of Tarak’s photos); (ii) "The Vermont Education of Taraknath Das : an Episode in British-American-Indian Relations" , Ronald Spector, in Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, Vol. 48, No 2, 1980, pp 88–95; (iii) Les origines intellectuelles du mouvement d'indépendance de l'Inde (1893–1918), by Prithwindra Mukherjee, PhD Thesis, University of Paris, 1986.
- German Foreign Office Documents, 1914-18 (Microfilms in National Archives of India, New Delhi). Also, San Francisco Trial Report, 75 Volumes (India Office Library, UK) and Record Groups 49, 60, 85, and 118 (U.S. National Archives, Washington DC, and Federal Archives, San Bruno).
- Amales Tripathi, svâdhînatâ samgrâmé bhâratér jâtiya congress (1885–1947), Ananda Publishers Pr. Ltd, Kolkâtâ, 1991, 2nd edition, pp 77–79.
- Bagha Jatin by Prithwindra Mukherjee in Challenge : A Saga of India’s Struggle for Freedom, ed. Nisith Ranjan Ray et al., New Delhi, 1984, pp 264–273.
- Sedition Committee Report, 1918.
- Bagha Jatin by Prithwindra Mukherjee, Dey’s Publishing, Calcutta, 2003 (4th Edition), 128p [in Bengali].
- Sâdhak Biplabi Jatîndranâth by Prithwindra Mukherjee, West Bengal State Book Board, Calcutta, 1990, 509p [in Bengali].