We need to keep these people in mind who gave up their lives and became inspiration to others to get free from the clutches of British empire.
Madan Lal Dhingra
This is what he said on 17th of August 1909 in court before he was sentenced to death.
I do not want to say anything in defense of myself, but simply to prove the justice of my deed. As for myself, no English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison, or pass sentence of death on me. That is the reason I did not have any counsel to defend me.
And I maintain that if it is patriotic in an Englishman to fight against the Germans if they were to occupy this country, it is much more justifiable and patriotic in my case to fight against the English. I hold the English people responsible for the murder of eighty millions of Indian people in the last fifty years, and they are also responsible for taking away ₤100,000,000 every year from India to this country. I also hold them responsible for the hanging and deportation of my patriotic countrymen, who did just the same as the English people here are advising their countrymen to do. And the Englishman who goes out to India and gets, say, ₤100 a month, that simply means that he passes a sentence of death on a thousand of my poor countrymen, because these thousand people could easily live on this ₤100, which the Englishman spends mostly on his frivolities and pleasures. Just as the Germans have no right to occupy this country, so the English people have no right to occupy India, and it is perfectly justifiable on our part to kill the Englishman who is polluting our sacred land. I am surprised at the terrible hypocrisy, the farce, and the mockery of the English people. They pose as the champions of oppressed humanity—the peoples of the Congo and the people of Russia—when there is terrible oppression and horrible atrocities committed in India; for example, the killing of two millions of people every year and the outraging of our women. In case this country is occupied by Germans, and the Englishman, not bearing to see the Germans walking with the insolence of conquerors in the streets of London, goes and kills one or two Germans, and that Englishman is held as a patriot by the people of this country, then certainly I am prepared to work for the emancipation of my Motherland. Whatever else I have to say is in the paper before the Court I make this statement, not because I wish to plead for mercy or anything of that kind. I wish that English people should sentence me to death, for in that case the vengeance of my countrymen will be all the more keen. I put forward this statement to show the justice of my cause to the outside world, and especially to our sympathizers in America and Germany.
I have told you over and over again that I do not acknowledge the authority of the Court, You can do whatever you like. I do not mind at all. You can pass sentence of death on me. I do not care. You white people are all-powerful now, but, remember, it shall have our turn in the time to come, when we can do what we like
Remembering the Independence martyrs
Re: Remembering the Independence martyrs
Kartar Singh Sarabha
Kartar Singh Sarabha was born on 24 May 1896 in Ludhiana, Punjab India into a Grewal Jat Sikh family in village Sarabha, district Ludhiana, Punjab. His father was Mangal Singh and his mother was Sahib Kaur. When he was very young, his father died and his grandfather Badan Singh Grewal brought him up. After receiving his initial education in his village, Kartar Singh entered the Malwa Khalsa high school in Ludhiana; he studied until 8th standard. Then he went to his uncle (father's brother) in Orissa and stayed there for over a year, During this time he took lessons for standard 10 from a high school in Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Orissa.
After coming back to his grandfather, his family decided to board him to the United States for higher studies. He sailed to San Francisco in July 1912. He was supposed to get enrolled in University of California, Berkeley but for some unknown reasons he did not take admission in any college. In a historical note by Baba Jwala Singh, what mentioned is that when i went to Astoria, Oregon in December 1912 i found Kartar Singh working in a mill factory. Most of the people will say that he studied in the respective college but the college itself did not get any record of enrollment with his name.
His association with Nalanda club of Indian students at Berkeley aroused his patriotic sentiments and he felt agitated about the treatment immigrants from India, especially manual, worker received in the United States.
A great man named Sohan Singh Bhakna founder of Ghadar Party almost double the age of Kartar Singh inspired him for independence of British Ruling India, from then he put all of his power in making this happen.Sohan Singh Bhakna called Kartar Singh as "Baba Gernal". He started learning how to shoot with a gun or pistol from local Americans, and he also learned how to make a bomb. One of the famous things about his learning is that he took lessons in flying an airplane.
In 1914, Indians worked in foreign countries either as indentured labourers or soldiers fighting for the consolidation of British rule or extending the boundaries of the British Empire. He frequently spoke with other Indians about freeing India from British rule.
Ghadar Party and newspaper
Main article: Ghadar Party
When the Ghadar party was founded in mid-1913 with Sohan Singh, a Sikh peasant from Bhakna village in Amritsar district, as president and Hardyal as secretary, Kartar Singh stopped his university work, moved in with Har Dyal and became his helpmate in running the revolutionary newspaper Ghadr (revolt). He undertook the responsibility for printing of the Gurmukhi edition of the paper. He composed patriotic poetry for it and wrote articles.
On 21 April 1913, the Sikhs of California assembled and formed the Ghadar Party (Revolution Party). The aim of the Ghadar Party was to get rid of the slavery of the British by means of an armed struggle. On 1 November 1913, the Ghadar Party started printing a paper named Ghadar, which was published in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati and Pushto languages. Kartar Singh did all the work for that paper.
This paper was sent to Indians living in all countries throughout the world. The purpose of the paper was to unmask the truth about British rule to Indians, impart military training, and explain in details the methods of making and using weapons and explosives.
Within a short time, the Ghadar Party became very famous through its organ: The Ghadar. It drew Indians from all walks of life.
Revolt in the Punjab
Main article: Hindu–German Conspiracy
With the start of World War I in 1914, the British became thoroughly engrossed in the war effort. Thinking it to be a good opportunity, the leaders of the Ghadar Party published the "Decision of Declaration of War" against the British in issue of 'The Ghadar' dated 5 August 1914. Thousands of copies of the paper were distributed among army cantonments, villages and cities. Kartar Singh reached Calcutta via Colombo on board SS Salamin in November 1914: he accompanied two other Gadhar leaders, Satyen Sen and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, along with a large number of Gadhar freedom fighters. With a letter of introduction from Jatin Mukherjee, the Jugantar leader, Kartar Singh and Pingle met Rash Behari Bose at Benares to inform him that twenty thousand more Gadhar members were expected very soon.[1] A large number of leaders of the Ghadar Party were arrested by the Government at the ports. In spite of these arrests, a meeting was held by members of the Ghadar Party at Ladhouwal near Ludhiana in which it was decided to commit robberies in the houses of the rich to meet requirements of finance for armed action. Two Ghadris, Waryam Singh and Bhai Ram Rakha were killed in a bomb blast in one such raid.
After the arrival of Rash Behari Bose at Amritsar on 25 January 1915, it was decided on a meeting on 12 February that the uprising should be started on 21 February. It was planned that after capturing the cantonments of Mian Mir and Ferozepur, mutiny was to be engineered near Ambala and Delhi.
Betrayal
Kirpal Singh, a police informer in the ranks of the Ghadar Party, had a large number of members arrested on 19 February and informed the government of the planned revolt. The government disarmed the native soldiers due to which the revolt failed.
After the failure of the revolution, the members who had escaped arrest decided to leave India. Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh Tundilat, Jagat Singh etc. were asked to go to Afghanistan and they did make a move towards that area. But Kartar's conscience did not permit him to run away when all his comrades had been held. On 2 March 1915, He came back with two friends and went over to Chak No. 5 in Sargodha where there was a military stud and started propagating rebellion amongst the armymen. Risaldar Ganda Singh had Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh Tundilat, and Jagit Singh arrested from Chak No. 5, district Lyallpur.
Verdict and execution
Main article: Lahore Conspiracy Case trial
The trial of arrested leaders in the Lahore conspiracy cases of 1915-1916 highlighted the role of Kartar Singh Sarabha in the movement. His defense was just one eloquent statement of his revolutionary creed. He was sentenced to death on 13 September 1915. A statue of Kartar Singh, erected in the city of Ludhiana commemorates his legendary heroism.
He soon became the symbol of martyrdom and many were influenced from his bravery and sacrifice. Bhagat Singh, another great revolutionary of Indian freedom, regarded Kartar Singh as his guru, friend and brother. A statue of him was erected in Ludhiana, and Punjabi novelist Nanak Singh wrote a novel called Ikk Mian Do Talwaran based on his life. The judges during his trial were impressed by his intellectual skills, but nevertheless he was sentenced to death by hanging. He wrote a popular song which he would sing and it is said that he died singing it:
"ਸੇਵਾ ਦੇਸ਼ ਦੀ ਜਿੰਦੜੀਅੇ ਬੜੀ ਔਖੀ,
Sewa desh di jindariye badi aukhi
ਗੱਲਾਂ ਕਰਨੀਆਂ ਢੇਰ ਸੁਖੱਲੀਆਂ ਨੇ,
Gallan karniya dher sokhaliyan ne
ਜਿੰਨੇ ਦੇਸ਼ ਦੀ ਸੇਵਾ ਚ ਪੈਰ ਪਾਇਆ
jihne desh di sewa 'ch per paeya
ਓਹਨਾ ਲੱਖ ਮੁਸੀਬਤਾਂ ਝੱਲੀਆਂ ਨੇ."
Ohna lakh musibtaan jhalliyan ne
Serving ones country is very difficult
It is so easy to talk
Anyone who walked on that path
Must endure millions of calamities.
The court observed that Kartar Singh was the most dangerous of all the rebels. "He is very proud of the crimes committed by him. He does not deserve mercy and should be sentenced to death". Kartar Singh was hanged in the Central Jail of Lahore on 16 November 1915, aged 19.
Re: Remembering the Independence martyrs
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.
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle was born in 1888 to a Marathi Brahmin family Talegaon Dhamdhere, near Pune District.[1] The youngest of nine siblings, Pingle grew up in a loving family and at the age of nine was admitted to the primary school in Talegaon. In 1905, Pingle enrolled at the Maharashtra Vidyalaya in Pune which at the time was linked to the Bombay University. While at school, Pingle came under the influence of the nationalist movement of the time, and actively participated in the movement under V. D. Savarkar.[1] However, Pingle later transferred to the Samarth Vidyalaya in Talegoan in 1908 following the closure of Maharashtra Vidyalay due to shortage of funds. However, his early involvement in the nationalist movement left a lasting imprint.[1]
In 1910, Samartha Vidyalaya was closed by the British Government. Vishnu left for Mumbai and found employment in Govindrao Potdar's Pioneer Alkali works at Mahim. Mr. Potdar was a nationalist and an expert at explosives. He belonged to the Nationalist Group and introduced Vishnu to his associates. One of them was Hari Laxman Patil, a lawyer from Vasai, with whom Vishnu came to form a close friendship. At the height of the Swadeshi Movement, inspired by the Japanese handloom industry, Pingle began his own small Swadeshi loom at Awasha, near Latur. However, Pingle's ambition was to be an engineer.[1]
United States
Main articles: Ghadar Party and Hindu-German Conspiracy
Vishnu was also strongly influenced by the history of the American War of Independence. In 1911, Pingle left Awasha for the United States. It is said that he kept the news of his impending departure from his family and only told his elder brother Keshavrao of his plans at the railway station. He reached America via Hong Kong, and enrolled as a student of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington in 1912.[2] While in the United States, Pingle became associated with the Ghadar Party and became an active worker. As World War I opened in Europe, plans began between the Germans, the Berlin Committee in Europe and the Ghadarite movement in America to attempt an insurrection in India.
Ghadar Conspiracy
Main article: Ghadar Conspiracy
Pingle had known Satyen Bhushan Sen (Jatin Mukherjee’s emissary) in the company of Gadhar members (such as Kartar Singh Sarabha) at the University of California, Berkeley. Tasked to consolidate contact with the Indian revolutionary movement, as part of the Ghadar Conspiracy, Satyen Bhushan Sen, Kartar Singh Sarabha, V.G. Pingle and a batch of Sikh revolutionaries sailed from America by the S. S. Salamin in the second half of October 1914. Satyen and Pingle halted in China for a few days to meet the Gadhar leaders (mainly Tahal Singh) for future plans. They met Dr Sun Yat-Sen for co-operation. Dr Sun was not prepared to displease the British. After Satyen and party left for India, Tahal sent Atmaram Kapur, Santosh Singh and Shiv Dayal Kapur to Bangkok for necessary arrangements.[3]
In November 1914, Pingle, Kartar Singh and Satyen Sen arrived in Calcutta. Satyen introduced Pingle and Kartar Singh to Jatin Mukherjee. "Pingle had long talks with Jatin Mukherjee, who sent them to Rash Behari" in Benares with necessary information during the third week of December.[4] Satyen remained in Calcutta at 159 Bow Bazar Street. Charles Tegart, the Calcutta police superintendent, was informed of an attempt to tamper with some Sikh troops at the Dakshineswar gunpowder magazine. "A reference to the Military authorities shows that the troops in question were the 93rd Burmans" sent to Mesopotamia. Jatin Mukherjee and Satyen Bhushan Sen were seen interviewing these Sikhs.[5]
It may be remembered that since 1900, the Extremist leaders under Lokamanya Tilak’s inspiration, turned Benares into a centre for sedition. Sundar Lal (b. 1885, son of Tota Ram, Muzaffarnagar) had given a very objectionable speech in 1907 on Shivaji Festival in Benares. Follower of Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Sri Aurobindo, in 1908 this man had accompanied Lala in his UP lecture tour. His organ, the Swarajya of Allahabad, was warned in April 1908 against sedition. On 22 August 1909, Sundar Lal and Sri Aurobindo delivered "mischievous speeches" in College Square, Calcutta. The Karmayogi in Hindi was issued in Allahabad since September 1909: controlled by Sri Aurobindo, the Calcutta Karmagogin was edited by Amarendra Chatterjee who had introduced Rash Behari to Sundar Lal. In 1915, Pingle will be received in Allahabad by the Swarajya group.[6]
Rash Behari had been in Benares since early 1914. Large number of outrages were committed there between October 1914 and September 1915, 45 of them before February was over. On 18 November 1914, while examining two bomb caps, he and Sachin Sanyal had been injured. They shifted to a house in Bangalitola, where Pingle visited him with a letter from Jatin Mukherjee and reported that some 4000 Sikhs of the Ghadar had already reached Calcutta. 15.000 more were waiting to come and join the rebellion.[7] Rash Behari sent Pingle and Sachin to Amritsar, to discuss with Mula Singh who had come from Shanghai. Rash Behari’s man of confidence, Pingle led a hectic life in UP and Punjab for several weeks.[8]
During the Komagata Maru affray in Budge Budge, near Calcutta, on 29 September 1914, Baba Gurdit Singh had contacted Atulkrishna Ghosh and Satish Chakravarti, two eminent associates of Jatin Mukherjee, who actively assisted them. Since then, angry letters from US-based Indians reached India with hope of a German victory; one of the emigrant leaders warned that his associates were in touch with the Bengal revolutionary party. It was at this juncture, in December 1914, that Pingle arrived in the Punjab, promising Bengali co-operation to the malcontent emigrants. A meeting demanded revolution, plundering of Government treasuries, seduction of Indian troops, collection of arms, preparation of bombs and the commission of dacoties. Rash Behari planned collecting gangs of villagers for the rebellion. Simultaneous outbreaks at Lahore, Ferozepore & Rawalpindi was designed. Rising at Dacca, Benares, Jubbalpur to be extended.[9]
Preparing bombs was a definite part of the Gadhar programme. The Sikh conspirators - knowing very little about it - decided to call in a Bengali expert, as they had known in California Professor Surendra Bose, associate of Taraknath Das. Towards the end of December 1914, at a meeting at Kapurthala, Pingle announced that a Bengali babu was ready to co-operate with them. On 3 January 1915, Pingle and Sachindra in Amritsar received Rs 500 from the Ghadar, and returned to Benares.[10]
Pingle returned to Calcutta with Rash Behari’s invitation to the Jugantar leaders to meet him at Benares for co-ordinating and finalising their plans. Jatin Mukherjee, Atulkrishna Ghosh, Naren Bhattacharya left for Benares (early January 1915). In a very important meeting, Rash Behari announced the rebellion, proclaiming : "Die for their country." Though through Havildar Mansha Singh, the 16th Rajput Rifles at Fort William was successfully approached, Jatin Mukherjee wanted two months for the army revolt, synchronising with the arrival of the German arms. He modified the plan according to the impatience of the Gadhar militants to rush to action. Rash Behari and Pingle went to Lahore. Sachin tampered with the 7th Rajputs (Benares) and the 89th Punjabis at Dinapore. Damodar Sarup [Seth] went to Allahabad. Vinayak Rao Kapile conveyed bombs from Bengal to Punjab. Bibhuti [Haldar, approver] and Priyo Nath [Bhattacharya?] seduced the troops at Benares; Nalini [Mukherjee] at Jabalpur. On 14 February, Kapile carried from Benares to Lahore a parcel containing materials for 18 bombs.[11]
By the middle of January, Pingle was back in Amritsar with "the fat babu" (Rash Behari); to avoid too many visitors, Rash Behari moved to Lahore after a fortnight. In both the places he collected materials for making bombs and ordered for 80 bomb cases to a foundry at Lahore. Its owner out of suspicion refused to execute the order. Instead, inkpots were used as cases in several of the dacoities. Completed bombs were found during house searches, while Rash Behari escaped. "By then effective contact had been established between the returned Gadharites and the revolutionaries led by Rash Behari, and a large section of soldiers in the NW were obviously disaffected." "It was expected that as soon as the signal was received there would be mutinies and popular risings from the Punjab to Bengal." "48 out of the 81 accused in the Lahore conspiracy case, including Rash Behari’s close associates like Pingle, Mathura Singh & Kartar Singh Sarabha, recently arrived from North America."[12]
Along with Rash Behari Bose, Sachin Sanyal and Kartar Singh, Pingle became one of the main coordinators of the attempted mutiny in February 1915. Under Rash Behari, Pingle issued intensive propaganda for revolution from December 1914, sometimes disguised as Shyamlal, a Bengali; sometimes Ganpat Singh, a Punjabi.[13] Confident of being able to rally the Indian sepoy, the plot for the mutiny took its final shape. The 23rd Cavalry in Punjab was to seize weapons and kill their officers while on roll call on 21 February. This was to be followed by mutiny in the 26th Punjab, which was to be the signal for the uprising to begin, resulting in an advance on Delhi and Lahore. The Bengal revolutionaries contacted the Sikh troops stationed at Dacca through letters of introduction sent by Sikh soldiers of Lahore, and succeeded in winning them over.[14] The Bengal cell was to look for the Punjab Mail entering the Howrah Station the next day (which would have been cancelled if Punjab was seized) and was to strike immediately. However, the Punjab CID successfully infiltrated the conspiracy at the last moment through Kirpal Singh: a cousin of the trooper Balwant Singh (23rd Cavalry), US-returned Kirpal, a spy, visited Rash Behari’s Lahore headquarters near the Mochi Gate, where over a dozen leaders including Pingle met on 15 February 1915. Kirpal informed the police.[15] Sensing that their plans had been compromised, the D-day was brought forward to 19 February, but even these plans found their way to the Punjab CID. Plans for revolt by the 130th Baluchi Regiment at Rangoon on 21 February were thwarted. Attempted revolts in the 26th Punjab, 7th Rajput, 130th Baluch, 24th Jat Artillery and other regiments were suppressed. Mutinies in Firozpur, Lahore, and Agra were also suppressed and many key leaders of the conspiracy were arrested, although some managed to escape or evade arrest. A last-ditch attempt was made by Kartar Singh and Pingle to trigger a mutiny in the 12th Cavalry regiment at Meerut.[16] Kartar Singh escaped from Lahore, but was arrested in Benares, and V. G. Pingle was apprehended from the lines of the 12th Cavalry at Meerut, in the night of 23 March 1915. He carried "ten bombs of the pattern used in the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge in Delhi," according to Mumbai police report.[17] It is said that it was enough to blow up an entire regiment.[18] Mass arrests followed as the Ghadarites were rounded up in Punjab and the Central Provinces. Rash Behari Bose escaped from Lahore and in May 1915 fled to Japan. Other leaders, including Giani Pritam Singh, Swami Satyananda Puri and others fled to Thailand or other sympathetic nations.[16][19]
Trial and execution
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle along with a number of other Ghadarites including Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh and Bhai Paramanand were tried at the Lahore Conspiracy trial in April 1915 by a special tribunal constituted under the Defence of India Act 1915, for their roles in the February plot.[18] Pingle was executed by hanging at the Lahore Central Jail on 16 November 1915, along with Kartar Singh .[20]
Related Information
Pingle's granddaughter Rajani Patil is an Indian politician. She has served as a Member of the Indian Parliament.
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.
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle was born in 1888 to a Marathi Brahmin family Talegaon Dhamdhere, near Pune District.[1] The youngest of nine siblings, Pingle grew up in a loving family and at the age of nine was admitted to the primary school in Talegaon. In 1905, Pingle enrolled at the Maharashtra Vidyalaya in Pune which at the time was linked to the Bombay University. While at school, Pingle came under the influence of the nationalist movement of the time, and actively participated in the movement under V. D. Savarkar.[1] However, Pingle later transferred to the Samarth Vidyalaya in Talegoan in 1908 following the closure of Maharashtra Vidyalay due to shortage of funds. However, his early involvement in the nationalist movement left a lasting imprint.[1]
In 1910, Samartha Vidyalaya was closed by the British Government. Vishnu left for Mumbai and found employment in Govindrao Potdar's Pioneer Alkali works at Mahim. Mr. Potdar was a nationalist and an expert at explosives. He belonged to the Nationalist Group and introduced Vishnu to his associates. One of them was Hari Laxman Patil, a lawyer from Vasai, with whom Vishnu came to form a close friendship. At the height of the Swadeshi Movement, inspired by the Japanese handloom industry, Pingle began his own small Swadeshi loom at Awasha, near Latur. However, Pingle's ambition was to be an engineer.[1]
United States
Main articles: Ghadar Party and Hindu-German Conspiracy
Vishnu was also strongly influenced by the history of the American War of Independence. In 1911, Pingle left Awasha for the United States. It is said that he kept the news of his impending departure from his family and only told his elder brother Keshavrao of his plans at the railway station. He reached America via Hong Kong, and enrolled as a student of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington in 1912.[2] While in the United States, Pingle became associated with the Ghadar Party and became an active worker. As World War I opened in Europe, plans began between the Germans, the Berlin Committee in Europe and the Ghadarite movement in America to attempt an insurrection in India.
Ghadar Conspiracy
Main article: Ghadar Conspiracy
Pingle had known Satyen Bhushan Sen (Jatin Mukherjee’s emissary) in the company of Gadhar members (such as Kartar Singh Sarabha) at the University of California, Berkeley. Tasked to consolidate contact with the Indian revolutionary movement, as part of the Ghadar Conspiracy, Satyen Bhushan Sen, Kartar Singh Sarabha, V.G. Pingle and a batch of Sikh revolutionaries sailed from America by the S. S. Salamin in the second half of October 1914. Satyen and Pingle halted in China for a few days to meet the Gadhar leaders (mainly Tahal Singh) for future plans. They met Dr Sun Yat-Sen for co-operation. Dr Sun was not prepared to displease the British. After Satyen and party left for India, Tahal sent Atmaram Kapur, Santosh Singh and Shiv Dayal Kapur to Bangkok for necessary arrangements.[3]
In November 1914, Pingle, Kartar Singh and Satyen Sen arrived in Calcutta. Satyen introduced Pingle and Kartar Singh to Jatin Mukherjee. "Pingle had long talks with Jatin Mukherjee, who sent them to Rash Behari" in Benares with necessary information during the third week of December.[4] Satyen remained in Calcutta at 159 Bow Bazar Street. Charles Tegart, the Calcutta police superintendent, was informed of an attempt to tamper with some Sikh troops at the Dakshineswar gunpowder magazine. "A reference to the Military authorities shows that the troops in question were the 93rd Burmans" sent to Mesopotamia. Jatin Mukherjee and Satyen Bhushan Sen were seen interviewing these Sikhs.[5]
It may be remembered that since 1900, the Extremist leaders under Lokamanya Tilak’s inspiration, turned Benares into a centre for sedition. Sundar Lal (b. 1885, son of Tota Ram, Muzaffarnagar) had given a very objectionable speech in 1907 on Shivaji Festival in Benares. Follower of Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Sri Aurobindo, in 1908 this man had accompanied Lala in his UP lecture tour. His organ, the Swarajya of Allahabad, was warned in April 1908 against sedition. On 22 August 1909, Sundar Lal and Sri Aurobindo delivered "mischievous speeches" in College Square, Calcutta. The Karmayogi in Hindi was issued in Allahabad since September 1909: controlled by Sri Aurobindo, the Calcutta Karmagogin was edited by Amarendra Chatterjee who had introduced Rash Behari to Sundar Lal. In 1915, Pingle will be received in Allahabad by the Swarajya group.[6]
Rash Behari had been in Benares since early 1914. Large number of outrages were committed there between October 1914 and September 1915, 45 of them before February was over. On 18 November 1914, while examining two bomb caps, he and Sachin Sanyal had been injured. They shifted to a house in Bangalitola, where Pingle visited him with a letter from Jatin Mukherjee and reported that some 4000 Sikhs of the Ghadar had already reached Calcutta. 15.000 more were waiting to come and join the rebellion.[7] Rash Behari sent Pingle and Sachin to Amritsar, to discuss with Mula Singh who had come from Shanghai. Rash Behari’s man of confidence, Pingle led a hectic life in UP and Punjab for several weeks.[8]
During the Komagata Maru affray in Budge Budge, near Calcutta, on 29 September 1914, Baba Gurdit Singh had contacted Atulkrishna Ghosh and Satish Chakravarti, two eminent associates of Jatin Mukherjee, who actively assisted them. Since then, angry letters from US-based Indians reached India with hope of a German victory; one of the emigrant leaders warned that his associates were in touch with the Bengal revolutionary party. It was at this juncture, in December 1914, that Pingle arrived in the Punjab, promising Bengali co-operation to the malcontent emigrants. A meeting demanded revolution, plundering of Government treasuries, seduction of Indian troops, collection of arms, preparation of bombs and the commission of dacoties. Rash Behari planned collecting gangs of villagers for the rebellion. Simultaneous outbreaks at Lahore, Ferozepore & Rawalpindi was designed. Rising at Dacca, Benares, Jubbalpur to be extended.[9]
Preparing bombs was a definite part of the Gadhar programme. The Sikh conspirators - knowing very little about it - decided to call in a Bengali expert, as they had known in California Professor Surendra Bose, associate of Taraknath Das. Towards the end of December 1914, at a meeting at Kapurthala, Pingle announced that a Bengali babu was ready to co-operate with them. On 3 January 1915, Pingle and Sachindra in Amritsar received Rs 500 from the Ghadar, and returned to Benares.[10]
Pingle returned to Calcutta with Rash Behari’s invitation to the Jugantar leaders to meet him at Benares for co-ordinating and finalising their plans. Jatin Mukherjee, Atulkrishna Ghosh, Naren Bhattacharya left for Benares (early January 1915). In a very important meeting, Rash Behari announced the rebellion, proclaiming : "Die for their country." Though through Havildar Mansha Singh, the 16th Rajput Rifles at Fort William was successfully approached, Jatin Mukherjee wanted two months for the army revolt, synchronising with the arrival of the German arms. He modified the plan according to the impatience of the Gadhar militants to rush to action. Rash Behari and Pingle went to Lahore. Sachin tampered with the 7th Rajputs (Benares) and the 89th Punjabis at Dinapore. Damodar Sarup [Seth] went to Allahabad. Vinayak Rao Kapile conveyed bombs from Bengal to Punjab. Bibhuti [Haldar, approver] and Priyo Nath [Bhattacharya?] seduced the troops at Benares; Nalini [Mukherjee] at Jabalpur. On 14 February, Kapile carried from Benares to Lahore a parcel containing materials for 18 bombs.[11]
By the middle of January, Pingle was back in Amritsar with "the fat babu" (Rash Behari); to avoid too many visitors, Rash Behari moved to Lahore after a fortnight. In both the places he collected materials for making bombs and ordered for 80 bomb cases to a foundry at Lahore. Its owner out of suspicion refused to execute the order. Instead, inkpots were used as cases in several of the dacoities. Completed bombs were found during house searches, while Rash Behari escaped. "By then effective contact had been established between the returned Gadharites and the revolutionaries led by Rash Behari, and a large section of soldiers in the NW were obviously disaffected." "It was expected that as soon as the signal was received there would be mutinies and popular risings from the Punjab to Bengal." "48 out of the 81 accused in the Lahore conspiracy case, including Rash Behari’s close associates like Pingle, Mathura Singh & Kartar Singh Sarabha, recently arrived from North America."[12]
Along with Rash Behari Bose, Sachin Sanyal and Kartar Singh, Pingle became one of the main coordinators of the attempted mutiny in February 1915. Under Rash Behari, Pingle issued intensive propaganda for revolution from December 1914, sometimes disguised as Shyamlal, a Bengali; sometimes Ganpat Singh, a Punjabi.[13] Confident of being able to rally the Indian sepoy, the plot for the mutiny took its final shape. The 23rd Cavalry in Punjab was to seize weapons and kill their officers while on roll call on 21 February. This was to be followed by mutiny in the 26th Punjab, which was to be the signal for the uprising to begin, resulting in an advance on Delhi and Lahore. The Bengal revolutionaries contacted the Sikh troops stationed at Dacca through letters of introduction sent by Sikh soldiers of Lahore, and succeeded in winning them over.[14] The Bengal cell was to look for the Punjab Mail entering the Howrah Station the next day (which would have been cancelled if Punjab was seized) and was to strike immediately. However, the Punjab CID successfully infiltrated the conspiracy at the last moment through Kirpal Singh: a cousin of the trooper Balwant Singh (23rd Cavalry), US-returned Kirpal, a spy, visited Rash Behari’s Lahore headquarters near the Mochi Gate, where over a dozen leaders including Pingle met on 15 February 1915. Kirpal informed the police.[15] Sensing that their plans had been compromised, the D-day was brought forward to 19 February, but even these plans found their way to the Punjab CID. Plans for revolt by the 130th Baluchi Regiment at Rangoon on 21 February were thwarted. Attempted revolts in the 26th Punjab, 7th Rajput, 130th Baluch, 24th Jat Artillery and other regiments were suppressed. Mutinies in Firozpur, Lahore, and Agra were also suppressed and many key leaders of the conspiracy were arrested, although some managed to escape or evade arrest. A last-ditch attempt was made by Kartar Singh and Pingle to trigger a mutiny in the 12th Cavalry regiment at Meerut.[16] Kartar Singh escaped from Lahore, but was arrested in Benares, and V. G. Pingle was apprehended from the lines of the 12th Cavalry at Meerut, in the night of 23 March 1915. He carried "ten bombs of the pattern used in the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge in Delhi," according to Mumbai police report.[17] It is said that it was enough to blow up an entire regiment.[18] Mass arrests followed as the Ghadarites were rounded up in Punjab and the Central Provinces. Rash Behari Bose escaped from Lahore and in May 1915 fled to Japan. Other leaders, including Giani Pritam Singh, Swami Satyananda Puri and others fled to Thailand or other sympathetic nations.[16][19]
Trial and execution
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle along with a number of other Ghadarites including Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh and Bhai Paramanand were tried at the Lahore Conspiracy trial in April 1915 by a special tribunal constituted under the Defence of India Act 1915, for their roles in the February plot.[18] Pingle was executed by hanging at the Lahore Central Jail on 16 November 1915, along with Kartar Singh .[20]
Related Information
Pingle's granddaughter Rajani Patil is an Indian politician. She has served as a Member of the Indian Parliament.
Re: Remembering the Independence martyrs
Lala Hardayal
Lala Har Dayal (in Punjabi ਲਾਲਾ ਹਰਦਿਆਲ; 14 October 1884 in Delhi, India – 4 March 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an Indian nationalist revolutionary.[1] He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians living in Canada and the U.S. to fight against British Imperialism during the First World War.
Biography
Early years
He was born in a Mathur Kayastha. family on 14 October 1884 at Delhi. Har Dayal was the sixth of seven children of Bholi Rani and Gauri Dayal Mathur. His father was a Reader in the District Court. Lala is not so much a surname as a sub-caste designation, within the Kayastha community, but it is generally termed as an honorific title for writers such as the word Pandit which is used for knowledgeable persons in other Hindu communities. At an early age he was influenced by Arya Samaj. He was associated with Shyam Krishnavarma, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Bhikaji Cama. He also drew inspiration from Giuseppe Mazzini, Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin. He was, according to Emily Brown as quoted by Juergensmeyer, "in sequence an atheist, a revolutionary, a Buddhist, and a pacifist".
Lala Har Dayal's ever favorite paper The Indian Sociologist (August 1909 issue)
He studied at the Cambridge Mission School and received his bachelor's degree in Sanskrit from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India and his master's degree also in Sanskrit from Punjab University. In 1905, he received two scholarships of Oxford University for his higher studies in Sanskrit: Boden Scholarship, 1907 and Casberd Exhibitioner, and award from St John's College, where he was studying.[2] In a letter to The Indian Sociologist, published in 1907, he started to explore anarchist ideas, arguing that "our object is not to reform government, but to reform it's [sic?] away, leaving, if necessary only nominal traces of it's [sic?] existence." The letter led to him being put under surveillance by the police. Later that year, saying "To Hell with the ICS", he gave up the prestigious Oxford scholarships and returned to India in 1908 to live a life of austerity. But in India too, he started writing harsh articles in the leading news papers, When the British Government decided to impose a ban upon his writing Lala Lajpat Rai advised him to leave and go abroad. It was during this period that he came into the friendship of the anarchist Guy Aldred, who was put on trial for printing The Indian Sociologist.
August 1909 issue of the Vande Mataram published from Paris
He moved to Paris in 1909 and became editor of the Vande Mataram. But he was not very happy in Paris, so he left the Paris and moved to Algeria. There too, he was unhappy and wondering whether to go- either to Cuba or Japan. After all he went to Martinique, where he started living a life of austerity. An Arya Samaj Missionary, Bhai Parmanand went there to look for him, and found him lonely and isolated. The two discussed founding a new religion modelled on Buddhism. Har Dayal was living an ascetic life eating only boiled grain and potatoes, sleeping on the floor and meditating in a secluded place. Guy Aldred later related that this religion's motto was to be Atheism, Cosmopolitanism and moral law. Emily Brown and Erik Erikson have described this as a crisis of "ego-identity" for him. Parmanand says that Har Dayal agreed to go to the United States to propagate the ancient culture of the Aryan Race.
Young Har Dayal
Hardayal went straight from Boston to California, where he wrote an idyllic account of life in the United States. He then moved on to Honolulu in Hawaii where he spent some time meditating on Waikiki Beach. During his stay he made friends with Japanese Buddhists. He also started studying the works of Karl Marx. Whilst here he wrote Some Phases of Contemporary Thought in India subsequently published in Modern Review. Parmanand persuaded him by letter to return to California.
He moved to the United States in 1911, where he became involved in industrial unionism. He had also served as secretary of the San Francisco branch of the Industrial Workers of the World alongside Fritz Wolffheim, (later a National Bolshevik after he had left IWW and joined the Communist Workers Party of Germany). In a statement outlining the principles of the Fraternity of the Red Flag he said they proposed "the establishment of Communism, and the abolition of private property in land and capital through industrial organisation and the general strike, ultimate abolition of the coercive organisation of government". A little over a year later, this group was given 6 acres (24,000 m2) of land and a house in Oakland, where he founded the Bakunin Institute of California, which he described as "the first monastery of anarchism".[3] The organisation aligned itself with the Regeneración movement founded by the exiled Mexicans Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón. He had a designated post of a lecturer in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Leland Stanford University. However, he was forced to resign because of embarrassment about his activities in the anarchist movement.
In California he soon developed contacts with Punjabi Sikh farmers in Stockton, California. Punjabis, great majority of whom were Sikhs, had started emigrating to the West Coast around the turn of the century. Having experienced hostility by the Canadians in Vancouver, they had already become disaffected with the British. Hardayal tapped into this sentiment of these energetic Sikhs and other Punjabis. Having developed an Indian Nationalist perspective, he encouraged young Indians to gain a scientific and sociological education. With the personal help of Teja Singh, Tarak Nath Das and Arthur Pope and funding from Jwala Singh, a rich farmer from Stockton, he set up Guru Govind Singh Sahib Educational Scholarship for Indian students. With Shyamji Krishna Verma's India House in London, he established his house as a home for these students. Amongst the six students who responded to the offer were Nand Singh Sehra, Darisi Chenchiah and Gobind Behari Lal, his wife's cousin. They lived together in a rented apartment close to the University of California, Berkeley.
Assassination attempt on Viceroy of India
India House where Lala Har Dayal stayed
At the time, he was still a vigorous anarchist propagandist and had very little to do with the nationalist Nalanda Club, composed of Indian students. However Basanta Kumar Biswas's attempt on the life of the Indian Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, on 23 December 1912 had a major impact upon him. He visited the Nalanda Club Hostel to tell them this news at dinner. He delivered a rousing lecture, which ended with the following couplet of the Urdu poet Mir Taqi 'Mir' of Delhi (India):
Pagari apani sambhaliyega 'Mir' !
Aur basti nahin, ye Dilli hai !!
Take care of your turban Mr Mir ! (Note: Here Mir is Quoted for Britishers.)
This is not just any town, this is Delhi, India Okay !!
The hostel then became a party with dancing and the singing of Vande Mataram. Hardayal excitedly told his anarchist friends of what one of his men had done in India.
He quickly brought out a pamphlet called the Yugantar Circular in which he eulogised about the bombing:
HAIL ! HAIL ! HAIL !
BOMB OF 23 DECEMBER 1912
HARBINGER OF HOPE AND COURAGE
DEAR REAWAKENER OF SLUMBERING SOULS
CONCENTRATED MORAL DYNAMITE
THE ESPERANTO OF REVOLUTION
Who can describe the moral power of the bomb? It is concentrated moral dynamite. When the strong and cunning in the pride of their power parade their glory before their helpless victims, when the rich and naughty set themselves on a pedestal and ask their slaves to fall down before them and worship them, when the wicked ones on the Earth seem exalted to the sky and nothing appears to withstand their might, then in that dark hour, for the glory of humanity comes the bomb, which lays the tyrant in the dust. It tells all the cowering slaves that he who sits enthroned as God, is a mere man like them. Then, in that hour of shame, a bomb preaches the eternal truth of human equality and sends proud superiors and Viceroys from the palace and the howdah to the grave and the hospital. Then, in that tense moment, when human nature is ashamed of itself, the bomb declares the vanity of power and pomp and redeems us from our own baseness.
HOW GREAT WE FEEL WHEN SOMEONE DOES THE HEROIC DEED? WE SHARE IN HIS MORAL POWER. WE REJOICE IN HIS ASSERTION OF HUMAN EQUALITY AND DIGNITY.
— Lala Hardayal (Yugantar Circular:1913)
In April 1914, he was arrested by the United States government for spreading anarchist literature and fled to Berlin, Germany. He subsequently lived for a decade in Sweden. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1930 from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. In 1932, he got his book Hints For Self Culture published and embarked on a lecture circuit covering Europe, India, and the United States.
He died in Philadelphia on March 4, 1939. In the evening of his death he delivered a lecture as usual where he had said "I am in peace with all". But a very close friend of Lala Hardayal and the founder member of Bharat Mata Society (established in 1907), Lala Hanumant Sahai did not accept the death as natural, he suspected it as poisoning.[4]
In 1987, the India Department of Posts issued a commemorative stamp in his honour, within the series of "India's Struggle for Freedom".
Literature of Lala Har Dayal
Some of his books with available references are listed hereunder:[5]
Our Educational Problem: Collection of Lalaji's articles published in 'Punjabi'(published from Lahore) published as a book in 1922 with introduction from Lala Lajpat Rai
Thoughts on Education: Lalaji had written so many articles in 'Punjabi'( published from Lahore) and 'Modern Review' (published from Calcutta). Most of these articles were written against the Education Policy of British Government in India. Mr Hem Chand Kaushik Alias Varadachari Pandit had given to this author this book which he had published in July 1969.
Social Conquest of Hindu Race: A booklet containing 21 pages was proscribed by British Raj is kept in National Archives of India under Acc.No.74. (Ref:Patriotic s Banned by the Raj)
Writings of Lala Har Dayal: This book was published in 1920 by Swaraj Publishing House,Varanasi. as per details given in the book of Dr. Vishwa Nath Prasad Verma's book 'Adhunik Bhartiya Rajneetik Chintan' on page 389.
Forty Four Months in Germany and Turkey: This book was published in 1920 by P.S.King and Sons. London when Lalaji was living in Sweden. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthy has quoted so many references of this book into his book Kranti Ka Udghosh.
Lala Har Dayal Ji Ke Swadhin Vichar: This book was translated in Hindi by Sri Narayan Prasad Arora and was published in Raghunandan Press, Kanpur by Pt. Ganga Narayan Shukla in 1922. It can be seen in Seth Soorajmull Jalan Library, Calcutta.
Amrit me Vish: This was the Hindi Translation of above book 'Thoughts on Education'. It was published by Lajpat Rai Prithviraj Sahni from Lohari Gate, Lahore in the year 1922. In the National Library, Calcutta under catalogue no 181.Rc.92.33.
Hints for Self Culture: This famous book of Lala Har Dayal was published by Hy.S.L.Polak and Co. London (U.K) in 1934. Jaico Publishing House published it in 1977 from Bombay by obtaining a copyright from its original publisher in 1961. Its Hindi Translalation has also been published from Kitab Ghar, Delhi (India) in 1997 under the title 'Vyaktitva Vikas-Sangharsh aur Safalata'.
Glimpses of World Religions: It was the presentation of several religions by Lala Har Dayal from so many angles of history, ethics, theology and religious philosophy. It reflects the individuality of every religion in a rational way of thinking. This book was also published by Jaico Publishing House India from Bombay.
Bodhisatva Doctrines: Lala Lajpat Rai, who was a mentor of Har Dayal, had suggested him to write an authentic book based on the principles of Gautam Buddha. In 1927 when Har Dayal was not given permission by British Government to return to India, he decided to remain in London. He wrote this book and presented it to the University as a thesis. The book was approved for Ph.D. and a Doctorate was awarded to him in 1932. It was published from London in the year 1932. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers of India published this book in 1970 with a title 'The Bodhisatva Doctrines in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.'
The Bodhisattva Doctrines in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature
This 392 page work of Lala Hardayal consists of 7 chapters which deal with the Bodhisattva doctrine as expounded in the principal Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.
In Chapter I the nature of the Bodhisattva doctrine is described, with particular emphasis upon the distinct characteristics of arhat, Bodhisattva and sravaka.
Chapter II recounts the different factors which contributed to the rise and growth of the Boddhisattva doctrine including the influences of Persian religio-cult, Greek art and Christian ethics.
In Chapter III the production of the thought of Enlightenment for the welfare and liberation of all creatures is expounded.
Chapters IV describes thirty-seven practices and principles conducive to the attainment of Enlightenment.
In Chapter V ten perfections that lead to welfare, rebirth, serenity, spiritual cultivation, and supreme knowledge are explained.
Chapter VI defines different stages of spiritual progress in the aspirant`s long journey to the goal of final emancipation.
The last Chapter VII relates the events of the Gautama Buddha`s past lives as Bodhisattva.
This book contains comprehensive notes and references besides a general index appended at the end. This book has been written in a particularly lucid style which exhibits scholarly acumen and the mastery of Lala Hardayal in literary art.
Appreciations
According to Swami Rama Tirtha Lala Har Dayal was the greatest Hindu who ever came to America, a great sage and saint, whose life mirrored the highest spirituality as his soul reflected the love of the 'Universal Spirit' whom he tried to realise.[6]
In another appreciation Prof. Dharmavira has sketched the picture of Lala Har Dayal which is being quoted here in verbatim:
Har Dayal dedicated his whole life to the sacred cause of the mother land. Surely from such a person alone could one ask: "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Let us drink deep at this spring and wax glad and strong and brave in every nerve and fibre of our being. He was one of the race of those who wrote the New Era in blood. His course was laborious, truthful, simple, independent, noble; and all these in an eminent degree. His experience of the inward and the outward battle was not inconsiderable and it was not confined to his early manhood, but was spread over his whole life. Lala Har Dayal had the Janak and Dadhichi touch and his life demonstrated that he had what it takes.
Lala Har Dayal (in Punjabi ਲਾਲਾ ਹਰਦਿਆਲ; 14 October 1884 in Delhi, India – 4 March 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an Indian nationalist revolutionary.[1] He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians living in Canada and the U.S. to fight against British Imperialism during the First World War.
Biography
Early years
He was born in a Mathur Kayastha. family on 14 October 1884 at Delhi. Har Dayal was the sixth of seven children of Bholi Rani and Gauri Dayal Mathur. His father was a Reader in the District Court. Lala is not so much a surname as a sub-caste designation, within the Kayastha community, but it is generally termed as an honorific title for writers such as the word Pandit which is used for knowledgeable persons in other Hindu communities. At an early age he was influenced by Arya Samaj. He was associated with Shyam Krishnavarma, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Bhikaji Cama. He also drew inspiration from Giuseppe Mazzini, Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin. He was, according to Emily Brown as quoted by Juergensmeyer, "in sequence an atheist, a revolutionary, a Buddhist, and a pacifist".
Lala Har Dayal's ever favorite paper The Indian Sociologist (August 1909 issue)
He studied at the Cambridge Mission School and received his bachelor's degree in Sanskrit from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India and his master's degree also in Sanskrit from Punjab University. In 1905, he received two scholarships of Oxford University for his higher studies in Sanskrit: Boden Scholarship, 1907 and Casberd Exhibitioner, and award from St John's College, where he was studying.[2] In a letter to The Indian Sociologist, published in 1907, he started to explore anarchist ideas, arguing that "our object is not to reform government, but to reform it's [sic?] away, leaving, if necessary only nominal traces of it's [sic?] existence." The letter led to him being put under surveillance by the police. Later that year, saying "To Hell with the ICS", he gave up the prestigious Oxford scholarships and returned to India in 1908 to live a life of austerity. But in India too, he started writing harsh articles in the leading news papers, When the British Government decided to impose a ban upon his writing Lala Lajpat Rai advised him to leave and go abroad. It was during this period that he came into the friendship of the anarchist Guy Aldred, who was put on trial for printing The Indian Sociologist.
August 1909 issue of the Vande Mataram published from Paris
He moved to Paris in 1909 and became editor of the Vande Mataram. But he was not very happy in Paris, so he left the Paris and moved to Algeria. There too, he was unhappy and wondering whether to go- either to Cuba or Japan. After all he went to Martinique, where he started living a life of austerity. An Arya Samaj Missionary, Bhai Parmanand went there to look for him, and found him lonely and isolated. The two discussed founding a new religion modelled on Buddhism. Har Dayal was living an ascetic life eating only boiled grain and potatoes, sleeping on the floor and meditating in a secluded place. Guy Aldred later related that this religion's motto was to be Atheism, Cosmopolitanism and moral law. Emily Brown and Erik Erikson have described this as a crisis of "ego-identity" for him. Parmanand says that Har Dayal agreed to go to the United States to propagate the ancient culture of the Aryan Race.
Young Har Dayal
Hardayal went straight from Boston to California, where he wrote an idyllic account of life in the United States. He then moved on to Honolulu in Hawaii where he spent some time meditating on Waikiki Beach. During his stay he made friends with Japanese Buddhists. He also started studying the works of Karl Marx. Whilst here he wrote Some Phases of Contemporary Thought in India subsequently published in Modern Review. Parmanand persuaded him by letter to return to California.
He moved to the United States in 1911, where he became involved in industrial unionism. He had also served as secretary of the San Francisco branch of the Industrial Workers of the World alongside Fritz Wolffheim, (later a National Bolshevik after he had left IWW and joined the Communist Workers Party of Germany). In a statement outlining the principles of the Fraternity of the Red Flag he said they proposed "the establishment of Communism, and the abolition of private property in land and capital through industrial organisation and the general strike, ultimate abolition of the coercive organisation of government". A little over a year later, this group was given 6 acres (24,000 m2) of land and a house in Oakland, where he founded the Bakunin Institute of California, which he described as "the first monastery of anarchism".[3] The organisation aligned itself with the Regeneración movement founded by the exiled Mexicans Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón. He had a designated post of a lecturer in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Leland Stanford University. However, he was forced to resign because of embarrassment about his activities in the anarchist movement.
In California he soon developed contacts with Punjabi Sikh farmers in Stockton, California. Punjabis, great majority of whom were Sikhs, had started emigrating to the West Coast around the turn of the century. Having experienced hostility by the Canadians in Vancouver, they had already become disaffected with the British. Hardayal tapped into this sentiment of these energetic Sikhs and other Punjabis. Having developed an Indian Nationalist perspective, he encouraged young Indians to gain a scientific and sociological education. With the personal help of Teja Singh, Tarak Nath Das and Arthur Pope and funding from Jwala Singh, a rich farmer from Stockton, he set up Guru Govind Singh Sahib Educational Scholarship for Indian students. With Shyamji Krishna Verma's India House in London, he established his house as a home for these students. Amongst the six students who responded to the offer were Nand Singh Sehra, Darisi Chenchiah and Gobind Behari Lal, his wife's cousin. They lived together in a rented apartment close to the University of California, Berkeley.
Assassination attempt on Viceroy of India
India House where Lala Har Dayal stayed
At the time, he was still a vigorous anarchist propagandist and had very little to do with the nationalist Nalanda Club, composed of Indian students. However Basanta Kumar Biswas's attempt on the life of the Indian Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, on 23 December 1912 had a major impact upon him. He visited the Nalanda Club Hostel to tell them this news at dinner. He delivered a rousing lecture, which ended with the following couplet of the Urdu poet Mir Taqi 'Mir' of Delhi (India):
Pagari apani sambhaliyega 'Mir' !
Aur basti nahin, ye Dilli hai !!
Take care of your turban Mr Mir ! (Note: Here Mir is Quoted for Britishers.)
This is not just any town, this is Delhi, India Okay !!
The hostel then became a party with dancing and the singing of Vande Mataram. Hardayal excitedly told his anarchist friends of what one of his men had done in India.
He quickly brought out a pamphlet called the Yugantar Circular in which he eulogised about the bombing:
HAIL ! HAIL ! HAIL !
BOMB OF 23 DECEMBER 1912
HARBINGER OF HOPE AND COURAGE
DEAR REAWAKENER OF SLUMBERING SOULS
CONCENTRATED MORAL DYNAMITE
THE ESPERANTO OF REVOLUTION
Who can describe the moral power of the bomb? It is concentrated moral dynamite. When the strong and cunning in the pride of their power parade their glory before their helpless victims, when the rich and naughty set themselves on a pedestal and ask their slaves to fall down before them and worship them, when the wicked ones on the Earth seem exalted to the sky and nothing appears to withstand their might, then in that dark hour, for the glory of humanity comes the bomb, which lays the tyrant in the dust. It tells all the cowering slaves that he who sits enthroned as God, is a mere man like them. Then, in that hour of shame, a bomb preaches the eternal truth of human equality and sends proud superiors and Viceroys from the palace and the howdah to the grave and the hospital. Then, in that tense moment, when human nature is ashamed of itself, the bomb declares the vanity of power and pomp and redeems us from our own baseness.
HOW GREAT WE FEEL WHEN SOMEONE DOES THE HEROIC DEED? WE SHARE IN HIS MORAL POWER. WE REJOICE IN HIS ASSERTION OF HUMAN EQUALITY AND DIGNITY.
— Lala Hardayal (Yugantar Circular:1913)
In April 1914, he was arrested by the United States government for spreading anarchist literature and fled to Berlin, Germany. He subsequently lived for a decade in Sweden. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1930 from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. In 1932, he got his book Hints For Self Culture published and embarked on a lecture circuit covering Europe, India, and the United States.
He died in Philadelphia on March 4, 1939. In the evening of his death he delivered a lecture as usual where he had said "I am in peace with all". But a very close friend of Lala Hardayal and the founder member of Bharat Mata Society (established in 1907), Lala Hanumant Sahai did not accept the death as natural, he suspected it as poisoning.[4]
In 1987, the India Department of Posts issued a commemorative stamp in his honour, within the series of "India's Struggle for Freedom".
Literature of Lala Har Dayal
Some of his books with available references are listed hereunder:[5]
Our Educational Problem: Collection of Lalaji's articles published in 'Punjabi'(published from Lahore) published as a book in 1922 with introduction from Lala Lajpat Rai
Thoughts on Education: Lalaji had written so many articles in 'Punjabi'( published from Lahore) and 'Modern Review' (published from Calcutta). Most of these articles were written against the Education Policy of British Government in India. Mr Hem Chand Kaushik Alias Varadachari Pandit had given to this author this book which he had published in July 1969.
Social Conquest of Hindu Race: A booklet containing 21 pages was proscribed by British Raj is kept in National Archives of India under Acc.No.74. (Ref:Patriotic s Banned by the Raj)
Writings of Lala Har Dayal: This book was published in 1920 by Swaraj Publishing House,Varanasi. as per details given in the book of Dr. Vishwa Nath Prasad Verma's book 'Adhunik Bhartiya Rajneetik Chintan' on page 389.
Forty Four Months in Germany and Turkey: This book was published in 1920 by P.S.King and Sons. London when Lalaji was living in Sweden. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthy has quoted so many references of this book into his book Kranti Ka Udghosh.
Lala Har Dayal Ji Ke Swadhin Vichar: This book was translated in Hindi by Sri Narayan Prasad Arora and was published in Raghunandan Press, Kanpur by Pt. Ganga Narayan Shukla in 1922. It can be seen in Seth Soorajmull Jalan Library, Calcutta.
Amrit me Vish: This was the Hindi Translation of above book 'Thoughts on Education'. It was published by Lajpat Rai Prithviraj Sahni from Lohari Gate, Lahore in the year 1922. In the National Library, Calcutta under catalogue no 181.Rc.92.33.
Hints for Self Culture: This famous book of Lala Har Dayal was published by Hy.S.L.Polak and Co. London (U.K) in 1934. Jaico Publishing House published it in 1977 from Bombay by obtaining a copyright from its original publisher in 1961. Its Hindi Translalation has also been published from Kitab Ghar, Delhi (India) in 1997 under the title 'Vyaktitva Vikas-Sangharsh aur Safalata'.
Glimpses of World Religions: It was the presentation of several religions by Lala Har Dayal from so many angles of history, ethics, theology and religious philosophy. It reflects the individuality of every religion in a rational way of thinking. This book was also published by Jaico Publishing House India from Bombay.
Bodhisatva Doctrines: Lala Lajpat Rai, who was a mentor of Har Dayal, had suggested him to write an authentic book based on the principles of Gautam Buddha. In 1927 when Har Dayal was not given permission by British Government to return to India, he decided to remain in London. He wrote this book and presented it to the University as a thesis. The book was approved for Ph.D. and a Doctorate was awarded to him in 1932. It was published from London in the year 1932. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers of India published this book in 1970 with a title 'The Bodhisatva Doctrines in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.'
The Bodhisattva Doctrines in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature
This 392 page work of Lala Hardayal consists of 7 chapters which deal with the Bodhisattva doctrine as expounded in the principal Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.
In Chapter I the nature of the Bodhisattva doctrine is described, with particular emphasis upon the distinct characteristics of arhat, Bodhisattva and sravaka.
Chapter II recounts the different factors which contributed to the rise and growth of the Boddhisattva doctrine including the influences of Persian religio-cult, Greek art and Christian ethics.
In Chapter III the production of the thought of Enlightenment for the welfare and liberation of all creatures is expounded.
Chapters IV describes thirty-seven practices and principles conducive to the attainment of Enlightenment.
In Chapter V ten perfections that lead to welfare, rebirth, serenity, spiritual cultivation, and supreme knowledge are explained.
Chapter VI defines different stages of spiritual progress in the aspirant`s long journey to the goal of final emancipation.
The last Chapter VII relates the events of the Gautama Buddha`s past lives as Bodhisattva.
This book contains comprehensive notes and references besides a general index appended at the end. This book has been written in a particularly lucid style which exhibits scholarly acumen and the mastery of Lala Hardayal in literary art.
Appreciations
According to Swami Rama Tirtha Lala Har Dayal was the greatest Hindu who ever came to America, a great sage and saint, whose life mirrored the highest spirituality as his soul reflected the love of the 'Universal Spirit' whom he tried to realise.[6]
In another appreciation Prof. Dharmavira has sketched the picture of Lala Har Dayal which is being quoted here in verbatim:
Har Dayal dedicated his whole life to the sacred cause of the mother land. Surely from such a person alone could one ask: "Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Let us drink deep at this spring and wax glad and strong and brave in every nerve and fibre of our being. He was one of the race of those who wrote the New Era in blood. His course was laborious, truthful, simple, independent, noble; and all these in an eminent degree. His experience of the inward and the outward battle was not inconsiderable and it was not confined to his early manhood, but was spread over his whole life. Lala Har Dayal had the Janak and Dadhichi touch and his life demonstrated that he had what it takes.
Re: Remembering the Independence martyrs
Rash Bihari Bose
Rash Behari Bose Bengali: রাসবিহারী বসু Rashbihari Boshu; 25 May 1886 – 21 January 1945) was an Indian revolutionary leader against the British Raj and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar Mutiny and later the Indian National Army. He was born in village-Subaldaha, Purba Bardhaman district in undivided Bengal, now West Bengal.
Rash Behari Bose was born in village Subaldaha, Bardhaman district, in the province of Bengal.His father's name was Binod Behari Bose. Bhubaneswari Devi was his mother.Tinkori Dasi was Rashbehari Bose's foster mother. The major part of childhood of Rashbehari Bose and Sushila Sarkar was spent in the village Subaldaha. They lived in this village at the house of madam Bidhumukhi.Bidhumukhi was a widow from her early life.Bidhumukhi was the sister in law of Kalicharan Bose. His early education was completed under the supervision of his grandfather Kalicharan Bose at village Pathsala (Presently Subaldaha Rashbehari Bose F.P School) at his birthplace.Rash Behari Bose got education of Lathi Khela in his child at Subaldaha. He got inspiration of revolutionary movement hearing stories from his grandfather at his birthplace Subaldaha. He was cynosure of all villagers. His nick name was Rasu .He was stubborn and the villagers loved him very much. It is heard from villagers that he was at Subaldaha till he was 12 or 14 years old.His father, Binod Behari Bose, was stationed in Hooghly district. Bose studied in Dupleix College with his friend Shrish Chandra Ghosh. The principal Charu Chandra Roy inspired them into revolutionary politics.Later he joined "Morton school "in Kolkata . Bose later earned degrees in the medical sciences as well as in Engineering from France and Germany.
He was interested in revolutionary activities from early on in his life, he left Bengal to shun the Alipore bomb case trials of (1908). At Dehradun he worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute. There, through Amarendra Chatterjee of the Jugantar led by Jatin Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin), he secretly got involved with the revolutionaries of Bengal and, he came across eminent revolutionary members of the Arya Samaj in the United Provinces (currently Uttar Pradesh) and the Punjab.[1] Originally Rash Behari Bose stay few years in Hooghly district, West Bengal.
Following the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge, Rash Behari was forced to go into hiding. The attempt was made on 12 December 1912 after Lord Hardinge was returning from the Delhi Darbar of King George V. He was attacked by Basanta Kumar Biswas a disciple of Amrendar Chattarjee, but he missed the target and failed. The bomb was made by Manindra Nath Nayak of Chandannagar. Bose was hunted by the colonial police due to his active participation in the failed assassination attempt (actually Bose's aim was to prove to the world that Indians do not accept the subjection of his country to foreign rule by consent, but by force of military power, which was successful. Otherwise he had no personal enmity with Lord Hardinge) directed at the Governor General and Viceroy Lord Charles Hardinge in Delhi. He returned to Dehra Dun by the night train and joined the office the next day as though nothing had happened. Further, he organised a meeting of loyal citizens of Dehradun to condemn the dastardly attack on the Viceroy.
Lord Hardinge, in his My Indian Years, described the whole incident in an interesting way. During the flood relief work in Bengal in 1913, he came in contact with Jatin Mukherjee in whom he "discovered a real leader of men," who "added a new impulse" to Rash Behari's failing zeal.[2] Thus during World War I he became extensively involved as one of the leading figures of the Gadar Revolution that attempted to trigger a mutiny in India in February 1915. Trusted and tried Ghadrites were sent to several cantonments to infiltrate into the army. The idea of the Gadar leaders was that with the war raging in Europe most of the soldiers had gone out of India and the rest could be easily won over. The revolution failed and most of the revolutionaries were arrested. But Rash Behari managed to escape British intelligence and reached Japan in 1915.
Indian National Army
In Japan, Bose found shelter with various Pan-Asian groups. From 1915–1918, he changed residences and identities numerous times, as the British kept pressing the Japanese government for his extradition. He married the daughter of Aizō Sōma and Kokkō Sōma, the owners of Nakamuraya bakery in Tokyo and noted Pan-Asian supporters in 1918, and became a Japanese citizen in 1923, living as a journalist and writer. It is also significant that he was instrumental in introducing Indian-style curry in Japan. Though more expensive than the usual "British-style" curry, it became quite popular, with Rash Bihari becoming known as "Bose of Nakamuraya".
Bose along with A M Nair was instrumental in persuading the Japanese authorities to stand by the Indian nationalists and ultimately to officially actively support the Indian independence struggle abroad. Bose convened a conference in Tokyo on 28–30 March 1942, which decided to establish the Indian Independence League. At the conference he moved a motion to raise an army for Indian independence. He convened the second conference of the League at Bangkok on 22 June 1942. It was at this conference that a resolution was adopted to invite Subhas Chandra Bose to join the League and take its command as its president.
The Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Malaya and Burma fronts were encouraged to join the Indian Independence League and become the soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA), formed on 1 September 1942 as the military wing of Bose's Indian National League. He selected the flag for the Azad Hind movement, and handed over the flag to Subhas Chandra Bose. But although he handed over the power, his organisational structure remained, and it was on the organisational spadework of Rash Behari Bose that Subhas Chandra Bose later built the Indian National Army (also called 'Azad Hind Fauj'). Prior to his death caused by tuberculosis, the Japanese Government honoured him with the Order of the Rising Sun (2nd grade)
Rash Behari Bose Bengali: রাসবিহারী বসু Rashbihari Boshu; 25 May 1886 – 21 January 1945) was an Indian revolutionary leader against the British Raj and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar Mutiny and later the Indian National Army. He was born in village-Subaldaha, Purba Bardhaman district in undivided Bengal, now West Bengal.
Rash Behari Bose was born in village Subaldaha, Bardhaman district, in the province of Bengal.His father's name was Binod Behari Bose. Bhubaneswari Devi was his mother.Tinkori Dasi was Rashbehari Bose's foster mother. The major part of childhood of Rashbehari Bose and Sushila Sarkar was spent in the village Subaldaha. They lived in this village at the house of madam Bidhumukhi.Bidhumukhi was a widow from her early life.Bidhumukhi was the sister in law of Kalicharan Bose. His early education was completed under the supervision of his grandfather Kalicharan Bose at village Pathsala (Presently Subaldaha Rashbehari Bose F.P School) at his birthplace.Rash Behari Bose got education of Lathi Khela in his child at Subaldaha. He got inspiration of revolutionary movement hearing stories from his grandfather at his birthplace Subaldaha. He was cynosure of all villagers. His nick name was Rasu .He was stubborn and the villagers loved him very much. It is heard from villagers that he was at Subaldaha till he was 12 or 14 years old.His father, Binod Behari Bose, was stationed in Hooghly district. Bose studied in Dupleix College with his friend Shrish Chandra Ghosh. The principal Charu Chandra Roy inspired them into revolutionary politics.Later he joined "Morton school "in Kolkata . Bose later earned degrees in the medical sciences as well as in Engineering from France and Germany.
He was interested in revolutionary activities from early on in his life, he left Bengal to shun the Alipore bomb case trials of (1908). At Dehradun he worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute. There, through Amarendra Chatterjee of the Jugantar led by Jatin Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin), he secretly got involved with the revolutionaries of Bengal and, he came across eminent revolutionary members of the Arya Samaj in the United Provinces (currently Uttar Pradesh) and the Punjab.[1] Originally Rash Behari Bose stay few years in Hooghly district, West Bengal.
Following the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge, Rash Behari was forced to go into hiding. The attempt was made on 12 December 1912 after Lord Hardinge was returning from the Delhi Darbar of King George V. He was attacked by Basanta Kumar Biswas a disciple of Amrendar Chattarjee, but he missed the target and failed. The bomb was made by Manindra Nath Nayak of Chandannagar. Bose was hunted by the colonial police due to his active participation in the failed assassination attempt (actually Bose's aim was to prove to the world that Indians do not accept the subjection of his country to foreign rule by consent, but by force of military power, which was successful. Otherwise he had no personal enmity with Lord Hardinge) directed at the Governor General and Viceroy Lord Charles Hardinge in Delhi. He returned to Dehra Dun by the night train and joined the office the next day as though nothing had happened. Further, he organised a meeting of loyal citizens of Dehradun to condemn the dastardly attack on the Viceroy.
Lord Hardinge, in his My Indian Years, described the whole incident in an interesting way. During the flood relief work in Bengal in 1913, he came in contact with Jatin Mukherjee in whom he "discovered a real leader of men," who "added a new impulse" to Rash Behari's failing zeal.[2] Thus during World War I he became extensively involved as one of the leading figures of the Gadar Revolution that attempted to trigger a mutiny in India in February 1915. Trusted and tried Ghadrites were sent to several cantonments to infiltrate into the army. The idea of the Gadar leaders was that with the war raging in Europe most of the soldiers had gone out of India and the rest could be easily won over. The revolution failed and most of the revolutionaries were arrested. But Rash Behari managed to escape British intelligence and reached Japan in 1915.
Indian National Army
In Japan, Bose found shelter with various Pan-Asian groups. From 1915–1918, he changed residences and identities numerous times, as the British kept pressing the Japanese government for his extradition. He married the daughter of Aizō Sōma and Kokkō Sōma, the owners of Nakamuraya bakery in Tokyo and noted Pan-Asian supporters in 1918, and became a Japanese citizen in 1923, living as a journalist and writer. It is also significant that he was instrumental in introducing Indian-style curry in Japan. Though more expensive than the usual "British-style" curry, it became quite popular, with Rash Bihari becoming known as "Bose of Nakamuraya".
Bose along with A M Nair was instrumental in persuading the Japanese authorities to stand by the Indian nationalists and ultimately to officially actively support the Indian independence struggle abroad. Bose convened a conference in Tokyo on 28–30 March 1942, which decided to establish the Indian Independence League. At the conference he moved a motion to raise an army for Indian independence. He convened the second conference of the League at Bangkok on 22 June 1942. It was at this conference that a resolution was adopted to invite Subhas Chandra Bose to join the League and take its command as its president.
The Indian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Malaya and Burma fronts were encouraged to join the Indian Independence League and become the soldiers of the Indian National Army (INA), formed on 1 September 1942 as the military wing of Bose's Indian National League. He selected the flag for the Azad Hind movement, and handed over the flag to Subhas Chandra Bose. But although he handed over the power, his organisational structure remained, and it was on the organisational spadework of Rash Behari Bose that Subhas Chandra Bose later built the Indian National Army (also called 'Azad Hind Fauj'). Prior to his death caused by tuberculosis, the Japanese Government honoured him with the Order of the Rising Sun (2nd grade)
Re: Remembering the Independence martyrs
Khudiram Bose
Khudiram Bose Bengali: ক্ষুদিরাম বসু (aka Khudiram Bosu) (3 December 1889 – 11 August 1908) was an Indian Bengali revolutionary, one of the youngest revolutionaries early in the revolutionary movement for Indian independence[1]. On the day of his hanging, he was only 18 years, 8 months and 8 days old.
Khudiram Bose was born on December 3, 1889 in the small village named "Habibpur" situated under Keshpur Police Station in Midnapore district of Bengal. His father was a Tehsildar in the Nerajol[2][3]. Khudiram was the fourth child in a family of three daughters[4]. His parents, Trailokyanath Bose and Lakshmipriya Devi had two sons before the birth of Khudiram but both of them died prematurely. Following the traditional believes and customs, the new born child was symbolically sold to his eldest sister in exchange of three handful of food grains locally known as Khud, in an attempt to save him from dying at an early age. This way he acquired the name Khudiram[5]. He lost his mother when he was six year old. His father died a year after. Aparupa Roy, his elder sister, brought him to her house at Hatgachha village under Daspur police station. Aparupa's husband, Amritalal Roy got him admitted to Tamluk's Hamilton High School[3].
In 1902 and 1903, when Sri Aurobindo and Sister Nivedita respectively visited Medinipur and held a series of public lectures along with secret planning sessions with the revolutionary groups; Khudiram was among the teenage student community of the town which was fired up with a burning inspiration of revolution. Apparently he joined Anushilan Samiti, and came into contact with the network of Barindra Kumar Ghosh of Calcutta. He became a volunteer at the age of 15, and was arrested for distributing pamphlets against the British rule in India[6]. At the young age of sixteen, Khudiram took part in planting bombs near police stations and targeted government officials[7].
Revolutionary activities
In 1907, Barindra Kumar Ghosh arranged to send to Paris one of his associates by the name of Hem Chandra Kanungo (Hem Chandra Kanungo Das), who was to learn the art of bomb making from Nicholas Safranski, a Russian revolutionary in exile in the French Capital.[8] Returning to Bengal, Hem began working with Barin Ghosh again. With Fraser alerted, a new target was selected in Douglas Kingsford. Kingsford was the Chief Magistrate of the Presidency court of Alipore, and had overseen the trials of Bhupendranath Dutta and other editors of Jugantar, sentencing them to rigorous imprisonment.[9] Jugantar itself responded with defiant editorials.[9] The defiance of Jugantar saw it face five more prosecutions that left it in financial ruins by 1908. These prosecutions brought the paper more publicity, and helped disseminate the Anushilan Samiti's ideology of revolutionary nationalism. Shukla Sanyal notes in 2014 that revolutionary terrorism as an ideology began to win support among a significant populace in Bengal, tacitly even if not overt[10] Kingsford also earned notoriety among nationalists when he ordered the whipping of a young Bengali boy by the name of Sushil Sen for participating in the protests that followed the Jugantar trial. Thus during his posting as Chief Magistrate of Calcutta Presidency, Kingsford had become unpopular for passing harsh and cruel sentences on young political workers. He was also noted for inflicting corporal punishments on such workers[3].
The Kingsford assassination – first attempt
The first attempt to kill Kingsford was in the form of a book bomb that Hem constructed. An empty tin of Cadbury's cocoa was packed with a pound of picric acid and three detonators. This was packed into a hollowed section of Herbert Broom's Commentaries on the Common Law and delivered wrapped in brown paper to Kingsford's house by a young revolutionary named Paresh Mallick. Kingsford placed the unopened package in his shelf to examine it later. By March 1908, fearful of the judge's safety, he was promoted to District Judge and transferred by the government to Muzaffarpur in northern part of Bihar. With him went his furniture, library and the unexploded book bomb made by Hem Chandra.
The reconnaissance at Muzaffarpur
Anushilan Samiti persisted in their attempt to kill Kingsford. In April, a two-man reconnaissance team visited Muzaffarpur, which included Parfulla Chaki[11]. On their return, Hem provided the bomb that was to be used, composed of 6 ounces of dynamite, a detonator and a black powder fuse. Prafulla returned to Muzaffarpur with a new boy, Khudiram Bose.
The police got the scent
The police got suspicious on the activities of Aurobindo Ghosh, Barin Ghosh and their associates[12]. The outlines of these plans to attempt to take Kingsford's life had also become known to Calcutta police, and commissioner F.L. Halliday had passed on the alert to Muzaffarpur superintendent of police. Kingsford was thus alerted by the superintendent, but had ignored the warnings. Four men were assigned to guard the magistrate's house[11]. In the mean time, Khudiram adopted the name "Haren Sarkar", and Prafulla "Dinesh Chandra Roy", and they took up residence in a 'dharmashala' (free, charitable inn) run by one Kishorimohan Bandopadhyay. For the next few days they closely observed the daily routine, activities and movements of their target, Kingsford, taking note of his timings at the court, the club and his house. On the evening of 29 April Khudiram and Prafulla were in place to execute their plans. Pretending to be schoolboys, they surveyed the Muzaffarpur park, opposite The British club frequented by Kingsford. They were noticed by a constable.
The Kingsford assassination attempt at Muzaffarpur
For three weeks the two revolutionaries were successful to hide their identities and movement. The CID officer who came from Calcutta following them had returned with a letter from Armstrong, the superintendent of Muzaffarpur police that the two had not arrived at Muzaffarpur at all, only six hours before they struck[12]. On the evening of 30 April, 1908, they returned and, being noticed by the same constable, they scurried away. The duo moved away, then doubled back, hiding in a tree with the bomb.[11] Kingsford was playing bridge that night at the club with his wife and the wife and daughter of Pringle Kennedy, a leading pleader of Muzaffarpur Bar. Finishing the last game at 8:30 in the evening, the group broke up to head home. Kingsford and his wife were in a carriage identical to and immediately behind that carrying the Pringles[13].
On the 30th April 1908 at, 8–30 P.M., Mrs. and Miss Kennedy left the Station Club in Muzaffarpur to drive home in a single-horsed carriage. Their carriage is similar in appearance to that which the District Judge, Mr. Kingsford, was then using. On their way home the ladies had to take the road turning to the right or west after leaving the Club grounds and to pass in front of the compound of the house occupied by Mr. Kingsford. The night was dark. As the carriage reached the eastern gate of Mr. Kingsford's compound, two men ran towards it from the opposite or southern side of the road where they had been concealed under the trees, and one of them threw a bomb or both threw bombs into the carriage. A loud explosion followed and the horse bolted with the carriage. It was stopped after a short distance and taken back to Mr. Kingsford's house. The body of the carriage was then found to have been shattered and the two ladies to have sustained terrible injuries. The syce who had been standing on the footboard at the back of the carriage was picked up near the eastern gate insensible and wounded. Miss Kennedy died of her injuries within an hour. Mrs. Kennedy survived till the morning of the 2nd May, when she also died of the injuries which she had sustained.[14]
A failed bid to escape
Since the attack took place before 9 in the evening, by midnight the entire town was aware of the incident and was in a state of chaos. All the stations in that rail-route were already occupied with armed police and the staff were ordered to keep a sharp eye on every passenger embarking or disembarking. Khudiram meanwhile had continued to walk through the countryside instead of boarding a train, and had been walking non-stop all night. Having covered nearly 25 miles, he reached exhausted at a station called "Waini" (Now known as Khudiram Bose Pusa Station or Pusa Road Station) in the morning of May 1, 1908. As he asked for a glass of water at a tea stall, he was confronted by two armed constables, Fateh Singh and Sheo Pershad Singh, who immediately suspected something upon seeing his dusty feet (without any footwear), and his exhausted and perspiring appearance. After a couple of questions, their suspicion became stronger, and they decided to detain Khudiram. Khudiram started struggling with the two men, and immediately, one of the two hidden revolvers fell out. Before Khudiram could use the other one to fire on the constables, one of them held him from behind in a bear-hug. The much younger and lightly built Khudiram had no more chance of defense or escape. On his person were found 37 rounds of ammunition, Rs. 30 in cash, a railway map and a page of the rail timetable. Khudiram's fate was sealed[14].
Meanwhile, after a similar long journey, Prafulla Chaki, too, was exhausted with hunger and thirst. On that same day, 1 May, a local resident named Trigunacharan Ghosh, a civil servant, saw a young boy coming his way, totally exhausted in the midday heat at the peak of the summer. In the meantime the news of the bomb attack had also reached that area and the man could easily realize that he was another of the fleeing revolutionaries. Being an employee of the British government, he never could do anything for his country on a personal level, but he thought that if he could make a way for this boy to save his life, he could at least have his conscience clear and make at least one tiny contribution towards his country. He took "Dinesh", i.e. Prafulla to his house, and let him bathe, eat and rest. After he gave the boy some new clothes to wear, he arranged for the boy's safe return to Kolkata in a night train. But halfway on such a smooth road to safety, fate played a cruel trick on Prafulla, after such an initial smile, by a drastic turn-away and abandonment. After boarding a train From Samastipur, Prafulla was to get down at Mokamaghat, from where he intended to get on a train to Howrah. In the same compartment sat Nandalal Banerjee, a sub-inspector in the British police. He at once began to suspect the young Bengali student. He came up and started a conversation with the boy. After a few words from the unsuspecting, young boy, he realized that he was involved in the Muzaffarpur incident. When Prafulla, still unaware that his fellow traveller was a sub-inspector who has just trapped him, got down at the Shimuraighat station to drink water, the sub-inspector immediately telegrammed the Muzaffarpur police station about his encounter, suspicion and the conversation. The instructions immediately arrived to arrest Prafulla. Prafulla finished the journey up to Mokamaghat, and disembarked to get on the scheduled train to Howrah. Suddenly, he saw his fellow-traveller coming at him purposefully, with several policemen. Prafulla attempted to kill Nandalal Banerjee by firing on him, but was not successful. Determined not to end up in the hands of the British, Prafulla attempted to escape from the platform fighting his way through with his revolver and, down to his last bullet, shot himself in the mouth[13].
On 1 May, the handcuffed Khudiram was brought from that station to Muzaffarpur. The entire town descended at the police station to take a look at the teenage boy surrounded by a team of armed policemen. Khudiram was taken to the house of the district magistrate Mr. Woodman. The English daily, The Statesman, wrote on the following day, May 2, 1908:[15]
The Railway station was crowded to see the boy. A mere boy of 18 or 19 years old, who looked quite determined. He came out of a first-class compartment and walked all the way to the phaeton, kept for him outside, like a cheerful boy who knows no anxiety.....on taking his seat the boy lustily cried 'Vandemataram'.
Back in Muzaffarpur, Khudiram was made to give a statement or declaration to the magistrate Mr. Woodman. He was yet to know that Prafulla was dead. To save his partner, and to protect his revolutionary mentors and their entire group, Khudiram took up the full responsibility of the entire operation and the loss of lives solely upon himself. Only after Khudiram finished giving his statement that the body of Prafulla was brought to Muzaffarpur for identification. Khudiram realized too late that trying to save Prafulla was in vain. Even after he confirmed the identity of his partner, and even after they had previously received details of the encounter of Nandalal Banerjee with Prafulla aka "Dinesh's", the British, instead of believing Khudiram, thought it more proper to cut off the head from the body and send it to Kolkata for better confirmation[12].
Khudiram Bose Bengali: ক্ষুদিরাম বসু (aka Khudiram Bosu) (3 December 1889 – 11 August 1908) was an Indian Bengali revolutionary, one of the youngest revolutionaries early in the revolutionary movement for Indian independence[1]. On the day of his hanging, he was only 18 years, 8 months and 8 days old.
Khudiram Bose was born on December 3, 1889 in the small village named "Habibpur" situated under Keshpur Police Station in Midnapore district of Bengal. His father was a Tehsildar in the Nerajol[2][3]. Khudiram was the fourth child in a family of three daughters[4]. His parents, Trailokyanath Bose and Lakshmipriya Devi had two sons before the birth of Khudiram but both of them died prematurely. Following the traditional believes and customs, the new born child was symbolically sold to his eldest sister in exchange of three handful of food grains locally known as Khud, in an attempt to save him from dying at an early age. This way he acquired the name Khudiram[5]. He lost his mother when he was six year old. His father died a year after. Aparupa Roy, his elder sister, brought him to her house at Hatgachha village under Daspur police station. Aparupa's husband, Amritalal Roy got him admitted to Tamluk's Hamilton High School[3].
In 1902 and 1903, when Sri Aurobindo and Sister Nivedita respectively visited Medinipur and held a series of public lectures along with secret planning sessions with the revolutionary groups; Khudiram was among the teenage student community of the town which was fired up with a burning inspiration of revolution. Apparently he joined Anushilan Samiti, and came into contact with the network of Barindra Kumar Ghosh of Calcutta. He became a volunteer at the age of 15, and was arrested for distributing pamphlets against the British rule in India[6]. At the young age of sixteen, Khudiram took part in planting bombs near police stations and targeted government officials[7].
Revolutionary activities
In 1907, Barindra Kumar Ghosh arranged to send to Paris one of his associates by the name of Hem Chandra Kanungo (Hem Chandra Kanungo Das), who was to learn the art of bomb making from Nicholas Safranski, a Russian revolutionary in exile in the French Capital.[8] Returning to Bengal, Hem began working with Barin Ghosh again. With Fraser alerted, a new target was selected in Douglas Kingsford. Kingsford was the Chief Magistrate of the Presidency court of Alipore, and had overseen the trials of Bhupendranath Dutta and other editors of Jugantar, sentencing them to rigorous imprisonment.[9] Jugantar itself responded with defiant editorials.[9] The defiance of Jugantar saw it face five more prosecutions that left it in financial ruins by 1908. These prosecutions brought the paper more publicity, and helped disseminate the Anushilan Samiti's ideology of revolutionary nationalism. Shukla Sanyal notes in 2014 that revolutionary terrorism as an ideology began to win support among a significant populace in Bengal, tacitly even if not overt[10] Kingsford also earned notoriety among nationalists when he ordered the whipping of a young Bengali boy by the name of Sushil Sen for participating in the protests that followed the Jugantar trial. Thus during his posting as Chief Magistrate of Calcutta Presidency, Kingsford had become unpopular for passing harsh and cruel sentences on young political workers. He was also noted for inflicting corporal punishments on such workers[3].
The Kingsford assassination – first attempt
The first attempt to kill Kingsford was in the form of a book bomb that Hem constructed. An empty tin of Cadbury's cocoa was packed with a pound of picric acid and three detonators. This was packed into a hollowed section of Herbert Broom's Commentaries on the Common Law and delivered wrapped in brown paper to Kingsford's house by a young revolutionary named Paresh Mallick. Kingsford placed the unopened package in his shelf to examine it later. By March 1908, fearful of the judge's safety, he was promoted to District Judge and transferred by the government to Muzaffarpur in northern part of Bihar. With him went his furniture, library and the unexploded book bomb made by Hem Chandra.
The reconnaissance at Muzaffarpur
Anushilan Samiti persisted in their attempt to kill Kingsford. In April, a two-man reconnaissance team visited Muzaffarpur, which included Parfulla Chaki[11]. On their return, Hem provided the bomb that was to be used, composed of 6 ounces of dynamite, a detonator and a black powder fuse. Prafulla returned to Muzaffarpur with a new boy, Khudiram Bose.
The police got the scent
The police got suspicious on the activities of Aurobindo Ghosh, Barin Ghosh and their associates[12]. The outlines of these plans to attempt to take Kingsford's life had also become known to Calcutta police, and commissioner F.L. Halliday had passed on the alert to Muzaffarpur superintendent of police. Kingsford was thus alerted by the superintendent, but had ignored the warnings. Four men were assigned to guard the magistrate's house[11]. In the mean time, Khudiram adopted the name "Haren Sarkar", and Prafulla "Dinesh Chandra Roy", and they took up residence in a 'dharmashala' (free, charitable inn) run by one Kishorimohan Bandopadhyay. For the next few days they closely observed the daily routine, activities and movements of their target, Kingsford, taking note of his timings at the court, the club and his house. On the evening of 29 April Khudiram and Prafulla were in place to execute their plans. Pretending to be schoolboys, they surveyed the Muzaffarpur park, opposite The British club frequented by Kingsford. They were noticed by a constable.
The Kingsford assassination attempt at Muzaffarpur
For three weeks the two revolutionaries were successful to hide their identities and movement. The CID officer who came from Calcutta following them had returned with a letter from Armstrong, the superintendent of Muzaffarpur police that the two had not arrived at Muzaffarpur at all, only six hours before they struck[12]. On the evening of 30 April, 1908, they returned and, being noticed by the same constable, they scurried away. The duo moved away, then doubled back, hiding in a tree with the bomb.[11] Kingsford was playing bridge that night at the club with his wife and the wife and daughter of Pringle Kennedy, a leading pleader of Muzaffarpur Bar. Finishing the last game at 8:30 in the evening, the group broke up to head home. Kingsford and his wife were in a carriage identical to and immediately behind that carrying the Pringles[13].
On the 30th April 1908 at, 8–30 P.M., Mrs. and Miss Kennedy left the Station Club in Muzaffarpur to drive home in a single-horsed carriage. Their carriage is similar in appearance to that which the District Judge, Mr. Kingsford, was then using. On their way home the ladies had to take the road turning to the right or west after leaving the Club grounds and to pass in front of the compound of the house occupied by Mr. Kingsford. The night was dark. As the carriage reached the eastern gate of Mr. Kingsford's compound, two men ran towards it from the opposite or southern side of the road where they had been concealed under the trees, and one of them threw a bomb or both threw bombs into the carriage. A loud explosion followed and the horse bolted with the carriage. It was stopped after a short distance and taken back to Mr. Kingsford's house. The body of the carriage was then found to have been shattered and the two ladies to have sustained terrible injuries. The syce who had been standing on the footboard at the back of the carriage was picked up near the eastern gate insensible and wounded. Miss Kennedy died of her injuries within an hour. Mrs. Kennedy survived till the morning of the 2nd May, when she also died of the injuries which she had sustained.[14]
A failed bid to escape
Since the attack took place before 9 in the evening, by midnight the entire town was aware of the incident and was in a state of chaos. All the stations in that rail-route were already occupied with armed police and the staff were ordered to keep a sharp eye on every passenger embarking or disembarking. Khudiram meanwhile had continued to walk through the countryside instead of boarding a train, and had been walking non-stop all night. Having covered nearly 25 miles, he reached exhausted at a station called "Waini" (Now known as Khudiram Bose Pusa Station or Pusa Road Station) in the morning of May 1, 1908. As he asked for a glass of water at a tea stall, he was confronted by two armed constables, Fateh Singh and Sheo Pershad Singh, who immediately suspected something upon seeing his dusty feet (without any footwear), and his exhausted and perspiring appearance. After a couple of questions, their suspicion became stronger, and they decided to detain Khudiram. Khudiram started struggling with the two men, and immediately, one of the two hidden revolvers fell out. Before Khudiram could use the other one to fire on the constables, one of them held him from behind in a bear-hug. The much younger and lightly built Khudiram had no more chance of defense or escape. On his person were found 37 rounds of ammunition, Rs. 30 in cash, a railway map and a page of the rail timetable. Khudiram's fate was sealed[14].
Meanwhile, after a similar long journey, Prafulla Chaki, too, was exhausted with hunger and thirst. On that same day, 1 May, a local resident named Trigunacharan Ghosh, a civil servant, saw a young boy coming his way, totally exhausted in the midday heat at the peak of the summer. In the meantime the news of the bomb attack had also reached that area and the man could easily realize that he was another of the fleeing revolutionaries. Being an employee of the British government, he never could do anything for his country on a personal level, but he thought that if he could make a way for this boy to save his life, he could at least have his conscience clear and make at least one tiny contribution towards his country. He took "Dinesh", i.e. Prafulla to his house, and let him bathe, eat and rest. After he gave the boy some new clothes to wear, he arranged for the boy's safe return to Kolkata in a night train. But halfway on such a smooth road to safety, fate played a cruel trick on Prafulla, after such an initial smile, by a drastic turn-away and abandonment. After boarding a train From Samastipur, Prafulla was to get down at Mokamaghat, from where he intended to get on a train to Howrah. In the same compartment sat Nandalal Banerjee, a sub-inspector in the British police. He at once began to suspect the young Bengali student. He came up and started a conversation with the boy. After a few words from the unsuspecting, young boy, he realized that he was involved in the Muzaffarpur incident. When Prafulla, still unaware that his fellow traveller was a sub-inspector who has just trapped him, got down at the Shimuraighat station to drink water, the sub-inspector immediately telegrammed the Muzaffarpur police station about his encounter, suspicion and the conversation. The instructions immediately arrived to arrest Prafulla. Prafulla finished the journey up to Mokamaghat, and disembarked to get on the scheduled train to Howrah. Suddenly, he saw his fellow-traveller coming at him purposefully, with several policemen. Prafulla attempted to kill Nandalal Banerjee by firing on him, but was not successful. Determined not to end up in the hands of the British, Prafulla attempted to escape from the platform fighting his way through with his revolver and, down to his last bullet, shot himself in the mouth[13].
On 1 May, the handcuffed Khudiram was brought from that station to Muzaffarpur. The entire town descended at the police station to take a look at the teenage boy surrounded by a team of armed policemen. Khudiram was taken to the house of the district magistrate Mr. Woodman. The English daily, The Statesman, wrote on the following day, May 2, 1908:[15]
The Railway station was crowded to see the boy. A mere boy of 18 or 19 years old, who looked quite determined. He came out of a first-class compartment and walked all the way to the phaeton, kept for him outside, like a cheerful boy who knows no anxiety.....on taking his seat the boy lustily cried 'Vandemataram'.
Back in Muzaffarpur, Khudiram was made to give a statement or declaration to the magistrate Mr. Woodman. He was yet to know that Prafulla was dead. To save his partner, and to protect his revolutionary mentors and their entire group, Khudiram took up the full responsibility of the entire operation and the loss of lives solely upon himself. Only after Khudiram finished giving his statement that the body of Prafulla was brought to Muzaffarpur for identification. Khudiram realized too late that trying to save Prafulla was in vain. Even after he confirmed the identity of his partner, and even after they had previously received details of the encounter of Nandalal Banerjee with Prafulla aka "Dinesh's", the British, instead of believing Khudiram, thought it more proper to cut off the head from the body and send it to Kolkata for better confirmation[12].