Shashibhushan Raychaudhury
Encyclopedia
Shashibhushan Raychaudhuri (8 January 1863 – 1922), also known as Shashida, was a patriotic educationist connected with the radical revolutionary activities that had their origins in Bengal
. He was the pioneer in what came to be known as the night-school movement, for building up a self-reliant society.
in present West Bengal
. He was the youngest son of Saudamini Devi and Anandachandra, who owned some land and belonged to an old respectable family. As a student at Sodepur
high school, Shashida opened a traditional primary school of the Pathshala
style, to give secular education to children of indigent families, usually looked after by zealous Christian preachers. In course of time, Shashida created also evening classes for adults and, in addition to rudiments of Bengali, history and mathematics, he invited competent collaborators to initiate them to weaving, agriculture including growing silk-worms, and cottage industry. In 1880, Shashida passed his Entrance examination and was admitted at the Metropolitan Institution of Kolkata, haloed by the presence of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar
as one of its directors and of Rashtraguru Surendranath Banerjea
and Khudiram Bose (not the martyr) as its faculty. Rashtraguru had instructed Yogendra Vidyabhushan to popularise the lives of Mazzini and Garibaldi and had a nation-wide reputation as orator. Khudiram Bose was a disciple of the famous Young Bengal
leader, Reverend Kalicharan Banerjee, and knew Keshub Chunder Sen intimately. There was an active physical education course in the college, supervised by Chandidas Ghosh. In no time Shashida caught the sparks of a nascent patriotic activism and, with Anandamohan Basu, formed the Students’ Association, which had contacts with Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das
, Pramathanath Mitra
also known as Barrister P. Mitter and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay. He was a regular visitor to the gym
nasium attached to the General Assembly's Institution (later Scottish Church College) and the Gohas’ club. For traditional self-defence, he met Swami Vivekananda
who practised wrestling with the Gohas. The Swami’s philosophy of man-making consolidated Shashida’s own plans of action. Here, probably thanks to Vivekananda, he discovered Jatindranath Mukherjee, too, the future Bagha Jatin
.
and knew Shashida’s popularity among the college students. Shashida sent him Satish Mukherjee, Nibaran Bhattacharya, Indranath Nandi, Nikhileshvar Ray Maulik. And he personally introduced Jatindranath Mukherjee alias Bagha Jatin
, who had already known Mitter during a meeting around Kakuzo Okakura at Surendranath Tagore’s house. Meanwhile, invited by Brahmabandhav, on 6 January 1902, Shashida joined the first batch of teachers at the new boarding school established by Rabindranath Tagore
at Santiniketan, along with Jagadananda Ray, Revachand Makhijani, Shivadhan Vidyarnav, Subodhchandra Majumdar and Manoranjan Banerjee. In March 1902, Shashida had to return to Kolkata for the inauguration of the Anushilan Samiti
. Soon, with the coming of Jatin Banerjee alias Niralamba, Mitter was under the impression that the organisation was taking too much of a military turn, while Banerjee disagreed with Barin Ghose’s untimely terrorist enterprise. In the midst of this tension, Shashida and Bagha Jatin
served as mediators. Coming from Baroda, in 1903, Sri Aurobindo
at Yogendra Vidyabhushan
’s place, tried to settle the disputes, and discussed with Bagha Jatin
and Banerjee his programme for Bengal. Very soon, Banerjee chose to set out for Upper India, where he continued his work as a revolutionary missionary.
The Anushilan Samiti
, under Shashida’s guidance, opened in Kolkata the Shramajivi Vidyalay or “Working Men’s Institution” where evening classes attracted people who had no means to be educated. Many poor students, too, received there supplementary coaching in various subjects. The Samiti also recruited volunteers for social services such as nursing the sick; cremating; sell handmade soaps, padlocks from Shashida’s village and cottage industry products, on a cooperative basis; organise significant public functions as the Shivaji, Pratapaditya and Sitaram
festivals. This was the prototype of the well-known Chatra-bhandar or “Students’ Store” and, later, of the Shramajivi Samavaya run by Amarendranath Chatterjee and other associates of Bagha Jatin
.
Probably as the Party’s emissary, Shashida went to Mungheyr in Bihar
towards the end of 1904 and, encouraged by Nimdhari Singh and other regional leaders, he opened a model school. Then, in 1905, he went to Orissa
, and inspired Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das to start a physical culture centre at Bhubaneswar
, in collaboration with Nilakantha Das, Krupasindhu Misra, Acharya Harihar Das and Godavarish Misra. This was the beginning of the Satyavadi Vidyalaya, founded near Puri
in 1909. Alerted by Shashida about the terrible flood in Orissa, in 1908, P. Mitter sent a relief delegation headed by Naren Bhattacharya alias M.N. Roy and Harikumar Chakravarti, two direct recruits of the restless Vedic scholar and radical leader Mokshada Charan Samadhyai.
, when associations were officially banned by repressive laws, Bagha Jatin
and other leaders of the Anushilan Samiti
started the Bengal Youngmen’s Zamindari Co-operative Society in the Sundarban area: “the idea was to place revolutionary young men in the rural agricultural sector (…), organising small-scale cottage industries and swadeshi stores…,” remembers Arun Chandra Guha. Others went to Shashida’s village. In 1909, Shashida was to leave for Dehra Dun as a private tutor at the house of Prafullanath Tagore; on learning that Rasbehari Bose was suspected by the Police of involvement in the bomb making, Shashida arranged to send Bose to Dehra Dun for safety. He himself went to Daulatpur College as the Superintendent of its hostel. He shared his room with Manindranath Seth, the Vice-Principal and member of the secret society, and Bhupendra Kumar Datta
, a brilliant student leader : all the three were to be arrested in 1917. Every morning and evening, after some physical culture, the students assembled for meditating, accompanied by select readings, and devotional and patriotic songs conducted by Shashida. Since 1911, drawn by Shashida and the promising students he had been training, Bagha Jatin
visited the campus, while touring these districts regularly. Advised by the latter, the students took to intensive riding, rowing and military drills. In 1913, Shashida formed a volunteers’ corps to assist Jatin in the Damodar flood relief. Shattered by the sudden martyrdom of Bagha Jatin
in 1915, in the teeth of massive arrests under the Defence of India Act, Shashida with his students concentrated on social work, while helping the stray revolutionaries to reorganise the party. He was arrested in 1917. Judging from the state of this TB patient, the Government decided to home intern him with his wife Urmila Devi, his daughters Rani and Durga, and son Ashok, first in Daulatpur, then in Khulna. Released in 1919, Shashida returned to Tegharia to improve the status of his school and to campaign against malaria. In spite of his poor health, he maintained his social activities till his death in April 1922.
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...
. He was the pioneer in what came to be known as the night-school movement, for building up a self-reliant society.
Early life
Shashida was born on 8 January 1863 at the village Tegharia near BarrackporeBarrackpore
Barrackpore or Barrackpur is headquarters of Barrackpore subdivision in North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The town was a military and administrative center under British rule, and was the scene of several acts of rebellion against Britain during the 19th century...
in present 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 was the youngest son of Saudamini Devi and Anandachandra, who owned some land and belonged to an old respectable family. As a student at Sodepur
Sodepur
Sodepur is a small town yet very fast growing upmarket residencial suburb located about 15 km from Kolkata, which is one of the major Indian cities. Sodepur is a part of the Panihati Municipality under Barrackpore sub-division and North 24 Parganas district of the state of West Bengal...
high school, Shashida opened a traditional primary school of the Pathshala
Pathshala
Pathshala, the South Asian Institute Media Academy was originally set up in 1998 by the Bangladesh photographer, writer and activist Shahidul Alam , as "Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography". The school was phenomenally successful despite its limited infrastructure...
style, to give secular education to children of indigent families, usually looked after by zealous Christian preachers. In course of time, Shashida created also evening classes for adults and, in addition to rudiments of Bengali, history and mathematics, he invited competent collaborators to initiate them to weaving, agriculture including growing silk-worms, and cottage industry. In 1880, Shashida passed his Entrance examination and was admitted at the Metropolitan Institution of Kolkata, haloed by the presence of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE , born Ishwar Chandra Bandopadhyaya , was an Indian Bengali polymath and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance....
as one of its directors and of Rashtraguru Surendranath Banerjea
Surendranath Banerjea
Sir Surendranath Banerjee was one of the earliest Indian political leaders during the British Raj. He founded the Indian National Association, one of the earliest Indian political organizations, and later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress...
and Khudiram Bose (not the martyr) as its faculty. Rashtraguru had instructed Yogendra Vidyabhushan to popularise the lives of Mazzini and Garibaldi and had a nation-wide reputation as orator. Khudiram Bose was a disciple of the famous Young Bengal
Young Bengal
The Young Bengal movement was a group of radical Bengali free thinkers emerging from Hindu College, Calcutta in the early 19th century. They were also known as Derozians, after their firebrand teacher at Hindu College, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio....
leader, Reverend Kalicharan Banerjee, and knew Keshub Chunder Sen intimately. There was an active physical education course in the college, supervised by Chandidas Ghosh. In no time Shashida caught the sparks of a nascent patriotic activism and, with Anandamohan Basu, formed the Students’ Association, which had contacts with Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das
Chittaranjan Das
Chittaranjan Das was an eminent Bengali lawyer and a major figure in the Indian independence movement.-Personal life:...
, Pramathanath Mitra
Pramathanath Mitra
Pramathanath Mitra , known widely as P. Mitra was a Bengali Indian barrister and Indian nationalist who was among the earliest founding members of the Indian revolutionary organisation Anushilan Samiti.-References:...
also known as Barrister P. Mitter and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay. He was a regular visitor to the gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium attached to the General Assembly's Institution (later Scottish Church College) and the Gohas’ club. For traditional self-defence, he met Swami Vivekananda
Swami 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...
who practised wrestling with the Gohas. The Swami’s philosophy of man-making consolidated Shashida’s own plans of action. Here, probably thanks to Vivekananda, he discovered Jatindranath Mukherjee, too, the future Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
.
Revolutionary Organisation
In 1900, P. Mitter asked Shashida to send him some young men of character. It was the moment when Mitter was busy founding the Kolkata 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...
and knew Shashida’s popularity among the college students. Shashida sent him Satish Mukherjee, Nibaran Bhattacharya, Indranath Nandi, Nikhileshvar Ray Maulik. And he personally introduced Jatindranath Mukherjee alias Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
, who had already known Mitter during a meeting around Kakuzo Okakura at Surendranath Tagore’s house. Meanwhile, invited by Brahmabandhav, on 6 January 1902, Shashida joined the first batch of teachers at the new boarding school established by 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...
at Santiniketan, along with Jagadananda Ray, Revachand Makhijani, Shivadhan Vidyarnav, Subodhchandra Majumdar and Manoranjan Banerjee. In March 1902, Shashida had to return to Kolkata for the inauguration 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...
. Soon, with the coming of Jatin Banerjee alias Niralamba, Mitter was under the impression that the organisation was taking too much of a military turn, while Banerjee disagreed with Barin Ghose’s untimely terrorist enterprise. In the midst of this tension, Shashida and Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
served as mediators. Coming from Baroda, in 1903, 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, tried to settle the disputes, and discussed with Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
and Banerjee his programme for Bengal. Very soon, Banerjee chose to set out for Upper India, where he continued his work as a revolutionary missionary.
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...
, under Shashida’s guidance, opened in Kolkata the Shramajivi Vidyalay or “Working Men’s Institution” where evening classes attracted people who had no means to be educated. Many poor students, too, received there supplementary coaching in various subjects. The Samiti also recruited volunteers for social services such as nursing the sick; cremating; sell handmade soaps, padlocks from Shashida’s village and cottage industry products, on a cooperative basis; organise significant public functions as the Shivaji, Pratapaditya and Sitaram
Sitaram
Sitaram means Sita and Rama. It is one of the Indian names:* Raja Sitaram Ray, the Bengali hero who fought against the Mughal Empire.* K. N. Sitaram was the first Indian to head the famous Central Museum, Lahore, Pakistan....
festivals. This was the prototype of the well-known Chatra-bhandar or “Students’ Store” and, later, of the Shramajivi Samavaya run by Amarendranath Chatterjee and other associates of Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
.
Probably as the Party’s emissary, Shashida went to Mungheyr in 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....
towards the end of 1904 and, encouraged by Nimdhari Singh and other regional leaders, he opened a model school. Then, in 1905, he went to 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 inspired Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das to start a physical culture centre at Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar is the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, officially Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital...
, in collaboration with Nilakantha Das, Krupasindhu Misra, Acharya Harihar Das and Godavarish Misra. This was the beginning of the Satyavadi Vidyalaya, founded near Puri
Puri
Puri is district headquarter, a city situated about south of state capital Bhubaneswar, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Orissa. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple . It is a holy city of the Hindus as a part of the Char Dham pilgrimages...
in 1909. Alerted by Shashida about the terrible flood in Orissa, in 1908, P. Mitter sent a relief delegation headed by Naren Bhattacharya alias M.N. Roy and Harikumar Chakravarti, two direct recruits of the restless Vedic scholar and radical leader Mokshada Charan Samadhyai.
Daulatpur College
With the Alipore Bomb 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...
, when associations were officially banned by repressive laws, Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
and other leaders 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...
started the Bengal Youngmen’s Zamindari Co-operative Society in the Sundarban area: “the idea was to place revolutionary young men in the rural agricultural sector (…), organising small-scale cottage industries and swadeshi stores…,” remembers Arun Chandra Guha. Others went to Shashida’s village. In 1909, Shashida was to leave for Dehra Dun as a private tutor at the house of Prafullanath Tagore; on learning that Rasbehari Bose was suspected by the Police of involvement in the bomb making, Shashida arranged to send Bose to Dehra Dun for safety. He himself went to Daulatpur College as the Superintendent of its hostel. He shared his room with Manindranath Seth, the Vice-Principal and member of the secret society, and Bhupendra Kumar Datta
Bhupendra Kumar Datta
Bhupendra Kumar Dutta was a Indian militant and revolutionary who fought for Indian independence from British rule...
, a brilliant student leader : all the three were to be arrested in 1917. Every morning and evening, after some physical culture, the students assembled for meditating, accompanied by select readings, and devotional and patriotic songs conducted by Shashida. Since 1911, drawn by Shashida and the promising students he had been training, Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
visited the campus, while touring these districts regularly. Advised by the latter, the students took to intensive riding, rowing and military drills. In 1913, Shashida formed a volunteers’ corps to assist Jatin in the Damodar flood relief. Shattered by the sudden martyrdom of Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
in 1915, in the teeth of massive arrests under the Defence of India Act, Shashida with his students concentrated on social work, while helping the stray revolutionaries to reorganise the party. He was arrested in 1917. Judging from the state of this TB patient, the Government decided to home intern him with his wife Urmila Devi, his daughters Rani and Durga, and son Ashok, first in Daulatpur, then in Khulna. Released in 1919, Shashida returned to Tegharia to improve the status of his school and to campaign against malaria. In spite of his poor health, he maintained his social activities till his death in April 1922.