Top Revolutionary Bagha Jatin-Sculpture Vandalized in Kushtia:4 held for negligence- By Sumi Khan

Within 13 days of vandalizing the sculpture of Bangabondhu, on Thursday mid night, 2 radicals by motorcycle came and vandalized the sculpture of the revolutionary freedom fighter against British rule in India, Jatindranath Mukherjee, popularly known as ‘Bagha Jatin’ in Kumarkhali upazila of Kushtia of Bangladesh,said the witness Mojibur Rahman, night gurd of Kaya College.

Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Jatin expressed his ideals in simple words: "Amra morbo, jaat jagbe" — "We shall die to awaken the nation". It is corroborated in the tribute paid to Jatin by Charles Tegart, the Intelligence Chief and Police Commissioner of Bengal, "Though I had to do my duty, I have a great admiration for him. He died in an open fight."

Later in life, Tegart admitted: "Their driving power (...) immense: if the army could be raised or the arms could reach an Indian port, the British would lose the War". Professor Tripathi analysed the added dimensions revealed by the Howrah Case proceedings: acquire arms locally and abroad; raise a guerrilla; create a rising with Indian soldiers; Jatin Mukherjee's action helped improve (especially economically) the people's status. "He had indeed an ambitious dream."

Informed about his death, M.N. Roy wrote: "I could not forget the injunction of the only man I ever obeyed almost blindly[...] JatinDa's heroic death [...] must be avenged. Only a year had passed since then. But in the meantime, I had come to realise that I admired Jatin Da because he personified, perhaps without himself knowing it, the best of mankind. The corollary to that realisation was that Jatinda's death would be avenged if I worked for the ideal of establishing a social order in which the best in man could be manifest."

Earlier on 4 December the radical forces vandalized the Statue of Madhu Das martyr of 1971, owner of ‘Madhu’s Canteen of Dhaka University. No one arrested yet for this.

Advocate Nizamul Huq Chunnu, president of Kaya College Governing body, Harun ur Rashid, principal of the college, Anisur Rahman, member of the college governing body and Khalilur Rahman, night guard of the college are arrested to interrogate by police.

Earlier,2 Madrasa students Abu Bakkar and Sabuj confessed before the court on 12 December,they’re influenced by the radical anti-liberation hefazat leaders Mamunul and Babunagari to vandalize Bangabandhu’s sculpture in Kushtia around 8:30am on December 5.Two madrasa teachers Al Amin, 27, and Yusuf Ali, 26 were arrested on 6 December who helped them to escape and accused in the case filed over the vandalization of Bangabandhu’s sculpture.They confessed before the court of Kushtia Senior Judicial Magistrate Delwar Hossain.

Kushtia Superintendent of Police SM Tanvir Arafath on Friday evening said to IANS, the college authorities have shown extreme negligence as they failed to protect the sculpture of Jatin.

"They have clearly violated the instructions of the government," he said, adding that the decision whether they will be detained or released will be taken after the interrogation ends.

Bagha Jatin Stamp published by Indian Government on 1971

Biography of a Top Revolutionary Bagha Jatin

Jatin was born to Sharatshashi and Umeshchandra Mukherjee in Kayagram, a village in the Kushtia, subdivision of Nadia district of undivided Bengal in what is now Bangladesh, on 7 December 1879.

Bagha Jatin was the principal leader of the Jugantar party that was the central association of revolutionary freedom fighters in undivided Bengal.

Bagha Jatin died in 10 September, 1915 at the age of 35 after being wounded during 75 minutes’ gunfight ensued, lasting seventy-five minutes, between the five revolutionaries armed with Mauser pistols and large number of police and British army armed with modern rifles and captured, then died in Balasore Hospital.

Jatin had a natural respect for the human creature, heedless of class or caste or religions. He carried for an aged Muslim villager a heavy bundle of fodder and, on reaching her hut, he shared with her the only platter of rice she had, and sent her some money every month.

In 1925, Gandhi told Charles Tegart that Jatin, generally referred to as "Bagha Jatin" (translated as Tiger Jatin), was "a divine personality". Tegart himself is purported to have told his colleagues that if Jatin were an Englishman, then the English people would have built his statue next to Nelson's at Trafalgar Square. In a 1926 note to J.E. Francis of the India Office, he described Bengali revolutionaries as "the most selfless political workers in India".

The locality of Baghajatin in Kolkata has been named after him. Barbati Girls High School situated near the banks of the river Budha Balanga in Balasore town has a statue of Bagha Jatin as it was here the erstwhile Balasore district government hospital was housed and he breathed his last. Chashakhand a place near Phulari just about 15 km east of Balasore has a park in his memorium as it was here he fought the British forces after crossing the Budha Balanga river which flows nearby.

Bagha Jatin had also attempts to organise expatriate Indian revolutionaries in Europe and the United States. Jatin's influence was international. The Bengali bestseller Dhan Gopal Mukerji, settled in New York and, at the summit of his glory, was to write,"Before 1914 we succeeded in disturbing the equilibrium of the government. Then extraordinary powers were given to the police, who called us anarchists to prejudice us forever in the eyes of the world... Dost thou remember Jyotin, our cousin – he that once killed a leopard with a dagger, putting his left elbow in the leopard's mouth and with his right hand thrusting the knife through the brute's eye deep into its brain? He was a very great man and our first leader. He could think of God ten days at a stretch, but he was doomed when the Government found out that he was our head."

Fed up with the colonial system of education, Jatin left for Muzaffarpore in 1899, as secretary of barrister Pringle Kennedy, founder and editor of the Trihoot Courrier. He was impressed by this historian: through his editorials and from the Congress platform, he showed how urgent it was to have an Indian National Army and to react against the British squandering of Indian budget to safeguard their interests in China and elsewhere.

a few Englishmen thrashed single-handed by an Indian, Wheeler advised the officers to withdraw the case. Warned by the Magistrate to behave properly in the future, Jatin regretted that he would not refrain from taking similar action in self-defense or in the vindication of the rights of his countrymen. One day, in a pleasant mood, Wheeler asked Jatin,"With how many can you fight all alone?" The prompt reply was,"Not a single one, if it is a question of honest people; otherwise, as many as you can imagine!"

 In 1908 Jatin was not one of over thirty revolutionaries accused in the Alipore Bomb Case following the incident at Muzaffarpur. Hence, during the Alipore trial, Jatin took over the leadership of the secret society to be known as the Jugantar Party, and revitalises the links between the central organisation in Calcutta and its several branches spread all over Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and several places in U.P.

 Through Justice Sarada Charan Mitra, Jatin leases from Sir Daniel Hamilton lands in the Sundarbans to shelter revolutionaries not yet arrested. Atul Krishna Ghosh & Jatindranath Mukherjee founded PATHURIAGHATA BYAM SAMITY which was an important centre of armed revolution of Indian national movement.They are engaged in night schools for adults, homeopathic dispensaries, workshops to encourage small scale cottage industries, experiments in agriculture. Since 1906, with the help of Sir Daniel, Jatin had been sending meritorious students abroad for higher studies as well as for learning military craft.

Upon returning to his native village Koya in March 1906, Jatin learned about the disturbing presence of a leopard in the vicinity; while scouting in the nearby jungle, he came across a Royal Bengal tiger and fought hand-to-hand with it. Wounded, he managed to strike with a Gorkha dagger (Khukuri) on the tiger's neck, killing it instantly. The famous surgeon of Calcutta, Lt-Colonel Suresh Prasad Sarbadhikari, "took upon himself the responsibility for curing the wounded patient whose whole body had been poisoned by the tiger's nails."

 Impressed by Jatin's exemplary heroism, Dr. Sarbadhikari published an article about Jatin in the English press. The Government of Bengal awarded him a ‘silver shield’ with the scene of him killing the tiger engraved on it. The title 'Bagha', meaning 'Tiger' in Bengali, became associated with him since then.Then the Indian police had announced a reward for the capture of five fleeing "bandits", so the local villagers were also in pursuit. With occasional skirmishes, the revolutionaries, running through jungles and marshy land in torrential rain, finally took up position on 9 September 1915 in an improvised trench in the undergrowth on a hillock at Chashakhand in Balasore. Before the gun fight with British Army, Chittapriya and his companions asked Jatin to leave and go to safety while they guarded the rear. Jatin, however, refused to leave them.

Jatin grew up in his ancestral home at Sadhuhati, P.S. Rishkhali Jhenaidah until his father's death when Jatin was five years old. Well versed in Brahmanic studies, his father liked horses and was respected for the strength of his character. Sharatshashi settled in her parents' home in Kayagram with her son and his elder sister Benodebala (or Vinodebala).

The contingent of Government forces approached them in a pincers movement. It ended with an unrecorded number of casualties on the Government side; on the revolutionary side, Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri died, Jatin and Jatish were seriously wounded, and Manoranjan, Sengupta and Niren were captured after their ammunition ran out. Jatindranath Mukherjee died in Balasore hospital on 10 September 1915.

J. E. Armstrong, Superintendent of the colonial Police, Jatin "owed his preeminent position in revolutionary circles, not only to his qualities of leadership, but in great measure to his reputation of being a Brahmachari with no thought beyond the revolutionary cause."Noticing his ardent desire to die for a cause, Swami Vivekananda sent Jatin to the Gymnasium of Ambu Guha where he himself had practised wrestling. Jatin met here, among others, Sachin Banerjee, son of Yogendra Vidyabhushan (a popular author of biographies like Mazzini and Garibaldi), who turned into Jatin's mentor. In 1900, his uncle Lalit Kumar married Vidyabhushan's daughter.A gifted poet, she was affectionate and stern in her method of raising her children. Familiar with the essays by contemporary thought leaders like Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Yogendra Vidyabhushan, she was aware of the social and political transformations of her times. Her brother Basanta Kumar Chattopadhyay (father of Indian revolutionary and politician Haripada Chattopadhyay) taught and practised law, and counted among his clients the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Since the age of 14, Tagore had claimed in meetings organised by his family members’ equal rights for Indian citizens inside railway carriages and in public places.

As Jatin grew older, he gained a reputation for physical bravery and great strength; charitable and cheerful by nature, he was fond of caricature and enacting mythological plays, himself playing the roles of god-loving characters like Prahlad, Dhruva, Hanuman, Râja Harish Chandra. He not only encouraged several playwrights to produce patriotic pieces for the urban stage, but also engaged village bards to spread nationalist fervour in the countryside.

Anglo-vernacular School, Krishnanagar, Nadia

After passing the Entrance examination in 1895 from Krishnanagar Anglo-vernacular School (A.V. School), Jatin joined the Calcutta Central College (now Khudiram Bose College), to study Fine Arts. At the same time, he took lessons in steno typing with Mr. Atkinson: this was a new qualification opening the possibilities of a coveted career. Soon he started visiting Swami Vivekananda, whose social thought, and especially his vision of a politically independent India – indispensable for the spiritual progress of humanity – had a great influence on Jatin. The Master taught him the art of conquering libido before raising a batch of young volunteers "with iron muscles and nerves of steel", to serve miserable compatriots during famines, epidemics and floods and running clubs for "man-making" in the context of a nation under foreign domination. They soon assisted Sister Nivedita, the Swami's Irish disciple, in this venture.

In 1900, Jatin married Indubala Banerjee of Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia; they had four children: Atindra (1903–1906), Ashalata (1907–1976), Tejendra (1909–1989), and Birendra (1913–1991). Struck by Atindra’s death, Jatin, with his wife and sister, set out on a pilgrimage and recovered their inner peace by receiving initiation from the saint Bholanand Giri of Hardwar. Aware of his disciple’s revolutionary commitments, the holy man extended to him his full support.

Revolutionary activities of Bagha Jatin

Several sources mention Jatin as being among the founders of the Anushilan Samiti in 1900, and as a pioneer in creating its branches in the districts. According to Daly's Report: "A secret meeting was held in Calcutta about the year 1900.

 The meeting resolved to start secret societies with the object of assassinating officials and supporters of Government.

 One of the first to flourish was at Kushtea, in the Nadia district of undivided Bengal. This was organised by one Jatindra Nath Mukherjee.

 Nixon reports further,"The earliest known attempts in Bengal to promote societies for political or semi-political ends are associated with the names of the late P. Mitter, Barrister-at-Law, Miss Saralabala Ghosal and a Japanese named Okakura. These activities commenced in Calcutta somewhere about the year 1900, and are said to have spread to many of the districts of Bengal and to have flourished particularly at Kushtia, where Jatindra Nath Mukharjiwas leader." Bhavabhushan Mitra's written notes precise his presence along with Jatindra Nath during the first meeting. A branch of this organisation (Anushilan Samiti), was to be inaugurated in Dacca. In 1903, on meeting Sri Aurobindo at Yogendra Vidyabhushan's place, Jatin decides to collaborate with him and is said to have added to his programme the clause of winning over the Indian soldiers of the British regiments in favour of an insurrection. W. Sealy in his report on "Connections with Bihar and Orissa" notes that Jatin Mukherjee "a close confederate of Nani Gopal Sen Gupta of the Howrah Gang worked directly under the orders of Aurobindo Ghosh.”

In 1905, during a procession to celebrate the visit of the Prince of Wales at Calcutta, Jatin decides to draw the attention of the future Emperor on the behaviour of HM's English officers. Not far from the royal coach, he singles out a cabriolet on a side-lane, with a group of English military men sitting on its roof, their booted legs dangling against the windows, seriously disturbing the livid faces of a few native ladies. Stopping beside the cab, Jatin asks the fellows to leave the ladies alone. In response to their cheeky provocation, Jatin rushes up to the roof and fells them with pure Bengali slaps till they drop on the ground. The show is not innocent. Jatin is well aware that John Morley, the Secretary of State, receives regularly complaints about the English attitude towards Indian citizens, "The use of rough language and pretty free use of whips and sticks, and brutalities of that sort..." He will be further intimated that the Prince of Wales, "on his return from the Indian tour had a long conversation with Morley [10/5/1906] (...) He spoke of the ungracious bearing of Europeans to Indians."

Organising relentless relief missions with a paramedical body of volunteers following almost a military discipline, during natural calamities such as floods, epidemics, or religious congregations like the Ardhodaya and the Kumbha Mela, or the annual celebration of Ramakrishna's birth, Jatin was suspected of utilising these as pretexts for group discussions with regional leaders and recruiting new freedom fighters to fight the supporters of the Britain.

Duly appreciated for his professional competence, in 1907 Jatin was "sent to Darjeeling on some special work," for a period of three years. "From early youth he had the reputation of a local Sandow and he soon attracted attention in Darjeeling in cases in which (...) he tried to measure the strength with Europeans. In 1908 he was leader of one of several gangs that had sprung up in Darjeeling, whose object was the spreading of dissatisfaction, and with his associates he started a branch of the Anushilon Samiti,called the Bandhab Samiti. In April 1908, in Siliguri railway station, Jatin got involved in a fight with a group of English military officers headed by Captain Murphy and Lt Somerville, leading to legal proceedings, widely covered by the press. On observing the gleeful animosity created by the news.

The Jatin Mukherjee spirit

After the Alipore Case, Jatin organized a series of what author Arun Chandra Guha describes as "daring" actions in Calcutta and in the districts, "to revive the confidence of the people in the movement ... These brought him into the limelight of revolutionary leadership although hardly anybody outside the innermost circle ever suspected his connection with those acts. Secrecy was absolute in those days – particularly with Jatin".Almost contemporaneous with the anarchist gang of Bonnot well known in France, Jatin invented and introduced in India bank robbery on automobile taxi-cabs, " a new feature in revolutionary crime. "

Several outrages were committed,for instance, in 1908, on 2 June and 29 November; an attempt to assassinate the Lt Governor of Bengal on 7 November 1908; in 1909, on 27 February 23 April 16 August 24 September and 28 October; two assassinations – of the Prosecutor Ashutosh Biswas (on 10 February 1909) and the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Samsul Alam (on 24 January 1910): both these officers had been determined to get all the accused condemned. Arrested, outwitted by the Police, Biren Datta-Gupta, the latter's assassin, disclosed Jatin's name as his leader.

On 25 January 1910, "with the gloom of his assassination hanging over everyone", the Viceroy Minto declared openly,"A spirit hitherto unknown to India has come into existence (...), a spirit of anarchy and lawlessness which seeks to subvert not only British rule but the Governments of Indian chiefs..."On 27 January 1910, Jatin was arrested in connection with this murder, but was released, to be immediately re-arrested along with forty-six others in connection with the Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case, popularly known as the Howrah Gang Case. The major charge against Jatin Mukherjee and his party during the trial (1910–1911) was "conspiracy to wage war against the King-Emperor" and "tampering with the loyalty of the Indian soldiers" (mainly with the 10th Jats Regiment) posted in Fort William, and soldiers in Upper Indian Cantonments.While held in Howrah jail, awaiting trial, Jatin made contact with a few fellow prisoners, prominent revolutionaries belonging to various groups operating in different parts of Bengal, who were all accused in this case. He was also informed by his emissaries abroad that very soon Germany was to declare war against England. Jatin counted heavily on this war to organise an armed uprising along with Indian soldiers in various regiments.

 

The Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case

The case failed because of lack of proper evidence thanks to Jatin's policy of a loose decentralised organisation federating scores of regional units, as observed by F.C. Daly more than once,"The gang is a heterogeneous one, with several advisers and petty chiefs... From the information we have on record we may divide the gang into four parts: (1) Gurus, (2) Influential supporters, (3) Leaders, (4) Members."J.C.

Nixon's report is more explicit: "Although a separate name and a separate individuality have been given to these various parties in this account of them, and although such a distinction was probably observed amongst the minor members, it is very clear that the bigger figures were in close communication with one another and were frequently accepted members of two or more of these samitis. It may be taken that at some time these various parties were engaged in anarchical crime independently, although in their revolutionary aims and usually in their origins they were all very closely related."

Several observers pinpointed Jatin so accurately that the newly appointed Viceroy Lord Hardinge wrote more explicitly to Earl Crewe (H.M.'s Secretary of State for India): "As regards prosecution, I (...) deprecate the net being thrown so wide; as for example in the Howrah Gang Case, where 47 persons are being prosecuted, of whom only one is, I believe, the real criminal. If a concentrated effort had been made to convict this one criminal, I think it would have had a better effect than the prosecution of 46 misguided youths."

On 28 May 1911, Hardinge recognized: "The 10th Jats case was part and parcel of the Howrah Gang Case; and with the failure in the latter, the Government of Bengal realised the futility of proceeding with the former... In fact, nothing could be worse, in my opinion, than the condition of Bengal and Eastern Bengal. There is practically no Government in either province..."

Jatin Mukherjee was not involved in the Alipore Bomb case. Jatin was acquitted in February 1911 and released.

Immediately, he suspended armed revolution. This lull proved Jatin's full command of violence as an antidote, contrary to the Chauri Chaura fiasco after him. During the German Crown Prince's visit to Calcutta, Jatin met him and received a promise about arms supply.Having lost his government job – and home interned, he managed to leave Calcutta, to start a contract business constructing the Jessore–Jhenaidah railway line. This provided him with a valid pretext and an ample scope to move about on horse-back or on the bicycle to consolidate not only the district units in Bengal, but also to revitalise those in other provinces. Jatin with his family set out on a pilgrimage, and at Haridwar visited his Guru, Bholananda Giri. Jatin went on to Brindavan where he met Swami Niralamba (who had been Jatindra Nath Banerjee, the renowned revolutionary, before leading a sanyasi's life); he had continued preaching in North India Sri Aurobindo's doctrine of a revolution.

Niralamba gave Jatin complementary information about, and links to, the units set up by him in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab. An important part of revolutionary activities in these regions were led by Rasbehari Bose and his associate Lala Hardayal. On returning from his pilgrimage, Jatin started reorganising Jugantar accordingly. During the Damodar flood in 1913, mainly in the districts of Burdwan and Midnapore, relief work brought together leaders of various groups Jatin "never asserted his leadership, but the party members in the different districts acclaimed him as their leader."

Drawn by Jatin's relief work during the flood, Rasbehari Bose left Benares to join him, the contact with Jatin added a new impulse to Bose's revolutionary zeal,in Jatin, he discovered "a real leader of men" At the close of 1913, Bose met Jatin to discuss the possibilities of an All-India armed rising of 1857 type. Impressed by Jatin's "fiery energy and personality", Bose renewed negotiation with the native officers posted at the Fort William of Calcutta, the nerve centre of the various regiments of the colonial Army, before returning to Benares "to organise the scattered forces."

Right since 1907, Jatin's emissary, Taraknath Das had been organising, with Guran Ditt Kumar and Surendramohan Bose, evening schools for Indian immigrants (a majority of them Hindus and Sikhs) between Vancouver and San Francisco, through Seattle and Portland: in addition to learning how to read and write simple English, they were informed about their rights in the USA and their duty towards Mother India, two periodicals – Free Hindustan (In English, sponsored by local Irish revolutionaries) and Swadesh Sevak ('Servants of the Motherland', in Gurumukhi) – became increasingly popular. In regular contact with Calcutta and London (where the organisation was managed by Shyamji Krishnavarma), Das wrote regularly to personalities throughout the world (like Leo Tolstoy and Éamon de Valera). In May 1913, Kumar left for Manilla to create a satellite linking Asia with the American West Coast. Familiar with the doctrine of Sri Aurobindo and an erstwhile follower of Rasbehari Bose, in 1913, invited by Das, Har Dayal resigned from his teaching job at the University of Berkeley, coaxed by Jiten Lahiri (one of Jatin's emissaries) of wasting his time in daydreaming, Har Dayal set out on a lecture tour covering the major centres of Indian immigrants; enlivened by their ardent patriotism, he preached open revolt against the English rulers of India. Welcomed by the Indian militants of San Francisco, in November, he founded his journal Ghadar ('Revolt') and the Yugantar Ashram, as a tribute to Sri Aurobindo. The Sikh community also became involved in the movement.

During World War I- Main article: Hindu–German Conspiracy

Shortly after when World War I broke out, in September 1914, an International Pro-India Committee was formed at Zürich. Very soon it merges into a bigger body, to form the Berlin Committee, or the Indian Independence Committee, led by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya alias Chatto: it gained the support of the German government and had as members prominent Indian revolutionaries abroad, including leaders of the Ghadar Party. Militants of the Ghadar Party started leaving for India, to join the proposed uprising inside India during World War I, with the help of arms, ammunition, and funds promised by the German government. Advised by Berlin, Ambassador Bernstorff in Washington arranged with Von Papen, his military attaché, to send cargo consignments from California to the coast of the Bay of Bengal, via Far East.

These efforts were directly connected with the Jugantar, under Jatin's leadership, in its planning and organising an armed revolt. Rash Behari Bose assumed the task of carrying out the plan in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. This international chain work conceived by Jatin came to be known as the German Plot, the Hindu–German Conspiracy, or the Zimmermann Plan. Jugantar started to collect funds by organising a series of dacoities (armed robberies) known as "Taxicab dacoities" and "Boat dacoities". Charles Tegart, in his "Report No. V" on the seditious organisations mentions the "certain amount of success" in the contact that exists between the revolutionaries and the Sikh soldiers posted at Dakshineshwar gunpowder magazine; Jatin Mukherjee in company of Satyendra Sen was seen interviewing these Sikhs. Sen "is the man who came to India with Pingle. Their mission was specially to tamper with the troops. Pingle was captured in Punjab with bombs and was hanged, while Satyen was interned under Regulation III in the Presidency Jail."With Jatin's written instructions, Pingle and Kartar Singh Sarabha met Rasbehari in North India.

Preoccupied by the increasing police activities to prevent any uprising, eminent Jugantar members suggested that Jatin should move to a safer place. Balasore on the Odisha coast was selected as a suitable place, being very near the spot where German arms are to be landed for the Indian rising. To facilitate transmission of information to Jatin, a business house under the name "Universal Emporium" was set up, as a branch of Harry & Sons in Calcutta, which had been created for keeping contacts with revolutionaries abroad. Jatin, therefore, moved to a hideout outside Kaptipada village in the native state of Mayurbhanj, more than thirty miles away from Balasore.

On reaching Odisha, in April 1915, Jatin sent one of his close associates, Naren Bhattacharya (future M. N. Roy) to Batavia, following instructions from Chatto, to make a deal with the German authorities concerning financial aid and the supply of arms. Through the German Consul, Naren met Theodore, brother of Karl Helfferich, who assured him that a cargo of arms and ammunition was already on its way, "to assist the Indians in a revolution."

The network of Czechoslovak revolutionaries and emigrants also had a role in the uncovering of Jatin's plans and some of the earlier plots. Its members in the United States, headed by E. V. Voska, were, as Habsburg subjects, presumed to be German supporters, but were actually involved in spying on German and Austrian diplomats. Voska had begun working with Guy Gaunt, who headed Courtenay Bennett's intelligence network, at the outbreak of the war and on learning of the plot from the members of the network in Europe, passed on the information to Gaunt and to Tomáš Masaryk who further passed on the information the Americans.

As soon as the information reached the British authorities, they alerted the police, particularly in the delta region of the Ganges, and sealed off all the sea approaches on the eastern coast from the Noakhali–Chittagong side to Odisha. Harry & Sons was raided and searched, and the police found a clue which led them to Kaptipada village, where Jatin was staying with Manoranjan Sengupta and Chittapriya Ray Chaudhuri; a unit of the Police Intelligence Department was dispatched to Balasore.

Jatin was kept informed and was requested to leave his hiding place, but his insistence on taking Niren and Jatish with him delayed his departure by a few hours, by which time a large force of police, headed by top European officers from Calcutta and Balasore, reinforced by the army unit from Chandbali in Bhadrak State, had reached the neighbourhood. Jatin and his companions walked through the forests and hills of Mayurbhanj, and after two days reached Balasore Railway Station.

 

 

While burning itself......Walk Alone...

Darkness Overpowers the Truth
When The World Bows to the Fear
Be the fire that lights up the darkened world
While burning itself......Walk Alone.....

যদি সবাই ফিরে যায়, ও রে ও অভাগা,/যদি গহন পথে যাবার কালে কেউ ফিরে না চায়-তবে পথের কাঁটা/ও তুই রক্তমাখা চরণতলে একলা দ'লো রে ।।
যদি আলো না ধরে, ওরে ও অভাগা,/যদি ঝড়-বাদলে আঁধার রাতে দুয়ার দেয় ঘরে-
তবে বজ্রানলে/আমার বুকের পাঁজর জ্বালিয়ে নিয়ে একলা জ্বলোরে ।

While burning itself......Walk Alone...

Darkness Overpowers the Truth
When The World Bows to the Fear
Be the fire that lights up the darkened world
While burning itself......Walk Alone.....

যদি সবাই ফিরে যায়, ও রে ও অভাগা,/যদি গহন পথে যাবার কালে কেউ ফিরে না চায়-তবে পথের কাঁটা/ও তুই রক্তমাখা চরণতলে একলা দ'লো রে ।।
যদি আলো না ধরে, ওরে ও অভাগা,/যদি ঝড়-বাদলে আঁধার রাতে দুয়ার দেয় ঘরে-
তবে বজ্রানলে/আমার বুকের পাঁজর জ্বালিয়ে নিয়ে একলা জ্বলোরে ।

Bangladeshi avant-garde artist S M Sultan close to the soil

Sheikh Mohammed Sultan (10 August 1923 - 10 October 1994), better known as SM Sultan, was a Bangladeshi avant-garde artist who worked in painting and drawing. His fame rests on his striking depictions of exaggeratedly muscular Bangladeshi peasants engaged in the activities of their everyday lives.

For his achievement in fine arts he was honored with the Ekushey Padak in 1982; the Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Award in 1986; and the Independence Day Award in 1993.^[2] His works are held in several major collections in Bangladesh, including the Bangladesh National Museum, the National Art Gallery (Bangladesh), the S.M. Sultan Memorial Museum, and the Bengal Foundation.
Sultan was born in Machimdia village, in what was then Jessore District, British India (now Narail District, Bangladesh) on 10 August 1923. After five years of primary education at Victoria Collegiate School in Narail, he went to work for his father, a mason. Even as a child he felt a strong artistic urge. He seized every opportunity to draw with charcoal, and developed his talent depicting the buildings his father worked on.^[3] Sultan wanted to study art in Calcutta (Kolkata), but his family did not have the means to send him. Eventually, he secured financial support from the local zamindar and went to Calcutta in 1938.^[4]
There poet and art critic Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy restyled him S. M. Sultan and offered him accommodation in his home and the use of his library.^[3] Sultan did not meet the admissions requirements of the Government School of Art, but in 1941 managed to get in with the help of Suhrawardy, who was on the school's governing body.^[4][5] Under Principal Mukul Chandra Dey the school deemphasized the copying of Old Masters and moved beyond Indian mythological, allegorical, and historical subjects. Students were encouraged to paint contemporary landscapes and portraits expressing original themes from their own life experience.

Sultan left art school after three years, in 1944, and traveled around India. He earned his living by drawing portraits of Allied soldiers encamped along his route. His first exhibition was a solo one in Shimla, India, in 1946. Next, after Partition, came two individual exhibitions in Pakistan: Lahore in 1948 and Karachi in 1949. None of his artworks from this period survive, mainly due to Sultan's own indifference towards preserving his work.
The Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York ran an International Arts Program that brought exceptionally promising foreign artists between the ages of 25 and 35, selected jointly by their country's ministry of education and the IEE, to the United States for a stay of several weeks. The institute provided round-trip transportation and grants for living expenses. The program included visits to museums, a period of creative work or study at a school, consultations with leading American artists, and exhibition of the visitors' work.
Sultan's official selection by the government in Karachi made it possible for him to visit the United States in the early 1950s, and exhibit his work at the IEE in New York; at the YMCA in Washington, D.C.; in Boston; at the International House of the University of Chicago; and at Michigan University, Ann Arbor. Later he traveled to England, where he participated in the annual open-air group exhibition at Victoria Embankment Gardens, Hampstead, London.
The following year, while teaching art at a school in Karachi, he came into contact with leading Pakistani artists Abdur Rahman Chughtai and Shakir Ali, with whom he developed a lasting friendship. After a period living and painting in Kashmir, Sultan returned to his native Narail in 1953. He settled down in an abandoned building overlooking the Chitra River, where he lived with an eclectic collection of pets.^[4][11] He lived close to the land and far from the outside art world for the next twenty-three years, developing a reputation as a whimsical recluse and a Bohemian.^[3][12]
Sultan's drawings, such as his self-portrait, are characterized by their economy and compactness. The lines are powerful and fully developed. His early paintings were influenced by the Impressionists. In his oils he employed Van Gogh's impasto technique. His watercolors, predominantly landscapes, are bright and lively.^[4][13]
The themes of his paintings are nature and rural life.^[4] S Amjad Ali, writing in 1952 for Pakistan Quarterly, described Sultan as a "landscape artist." Any human figures in his scenes were secondary. In Ali's view Sultan painted from memory in a style that had no definite identity or origins.
Between Sultan's 1969 individual exhibition at the Khulna Club, Khulna, and the first National Art Exhibition (a group exhibition), in Dhaka, in 1975,^[14] a transformation took place in his work.^[6][13]
Agricultural laborers engaged in everyday activities such as ploughing, planting, threshing, and fishing took center stage on his canvases. The landscape - farmland, rivers, villages - was still present, but as a backdrop. What was distinctive about his figures, such as those in Char Dakhal (1976), was their exaggeratedly muscular physique. In this way he made obvious the inner strength of the sturdy, hard working peasants, the backbone of Bangladesh, something that would have remained hidden in a more realistic depiction.^{[1][6][10][12]}
Sultan did some of his best work in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976 the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy put on an individual exhibition of his work. It was his first major exhibition and his first in Dhaka.^[1][11] The Museum of Fine Arts in Fukuoka, Japan, held an exhibition of his work in 1980. The next year he was selected as a member of the panel of judges for the Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka.^[10] The catalog of his solo exhibition at the German Cultural Center, Dhaka, in 1987, described how he saw his subjects:

"These people who lived close to the soil, who bore on their shoulders the burden of civilization did not appear to Sultan to be weak, debilitated, starving creatures who deserved pity and sympathy. Quite the contrary, he saw their bulging muscles, their vigorous torso, their overpowering vitality, their well-rounded buttocks and swelling breasts ready to come to grip with life."^[3]

The peasants were heroes to him. He described their place in his art:

"The matter of my paintings is about the symbol of energy. The muscle is being used for struggling, struggling with the soil. Power of those arms drives the plough into the soil and grows crops. Labor is the basis and because of that labor of our farmers this land has been surviving over thousand of years."^[14]

Sultan's paintings never included urban elements or anything produced by modern technology, which he considered imported. They are modern art in the sense that he broke with the artistic conventions of the past, but they remained figurative art with a narrative. He had little interest in abstract art.
Professor Lala Rukh Selim, Chairman of the Department of Sculpture, University of Dhaka, described Sultan as one of the four pioneers of Bangladeshi modernism, along with Zainul Abedin, Safiuddin Ahmed, and Quamrul Hassan.^[1]
Sultan received the Ekushey Padak, Bangladesh's highest civilian award for contribution in the field of arts, in 1982; the Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Award in 1986; and the Independence Day Award, the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh, in 1993 for his contribution to fine arts.^[2][5]
Harvesting (1986) is listed by the Bangladesh National Museum as one of its 100 renowned objects.^[15]
Sultan established the Kurigram Fine Arts Institute at Narail in 1969 and another art school, now named Charupeeth, in Jessore in 1973.^[3][5]
In 1989, Tareque Masud directed a 54 minute documentary film on Sultan's life, called Adam Surat (The Inner Strength). Masud started filming it in 1982 with the help of the painter, and traveled with him all around Bangladesh. According to Masud, Sultan agreed to cooperate only on the condition that "... rather than being the film's subject, he would act as a catalyst to reveal the film's true protagonist, the Bengali peasant."
In 2005, photographer Nasir Ali Mamun published a book Guru with 68 photographs of Sultan. These were selected from thousands of photographs taken by Mamun in the period from 1978, when he first met with Sultan, until his death.

Swami Vivekananda Chicago Speech 1893 Why we disagree

Swami Vivekananda Chicago Speech 1893 Why we disagree

128th Birth Anniversary of Rash Behari Bose- A Veteran Revolutionary

Rash Behari Bose was one of the key organizers of the plan to assassinate Lord Charles Hardinge. Rash Behari Bose played a crucial role in the Ghadar Revolution, a plan to attack British army from the inside. Rash Behari Bose was the founding father of Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauz) that Subhash Chandra Bose capitalized on later. Early Life of Rash Behari Bose.

        Rash Behari Bose was born on May 25, 1886, in Palara-Bighati (Hoogly) village. His mother passed away in 1889 when Rash Behari was still a baby. He was brought up thereafter by his maternal aunt Vama Sundari.

        Rash Behari Bose was initially educated at Subaldaha under the supervision of his grandfather, Kalicharan, and later in Dupleix College at Chandernagore. At the time Chandernagore was under French rule thus, Rash Behari was influenced by both British and French culture. The French Revolution of 1789 had a deep impact on Rash Behari. Rash Behari Bose was not a very attentive student. He was a day-dreamer, his mind preoccupied with revolutionary ideas. He was more interested in his physical prowess than his studies.

Roots of the Patriotism in Rash Behari Bose

        Rash Behari Bose got hold of a well-known revolutionary novel called "Ananda Math (Abbey of Bliss)" written by noted Bengali novelist, poet and thinker, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Rash Behari also read the famous Bengali poet, Navin Sen's, Plasir Yudha, a collection of patriotic poems. In course of time he read other revolutionary books. He read nationalistic speeches by orator and revolutionary, Surendranath Banerjea, and Swami Vivekananda. In Chandernagore, his teacher Charu Chand, a man of radical ideas, inspired Rash Behari along revolutionary lines.

        Rash Behari Bose did not get a chance to complete college because his uncle got him a job at Fort William. From there he transferred to the Government press in Shimla on his father's wish. He was appointed the copy-holder in the press and was able to master English and typewriting. After some time he moved to the Pasteur Institute in Kasauli. Rash Behari was not happy with these jobs.

        On a colleague's advice,Rash Behari Bose went to Dehra Dun as a guardian tutor in the house of Pramantha Nath Tagore. He got a clerical post at the Dehra Dun Forest Research Institute where through hard work, Rash Behari became a head-clerk.

Beginning of Rash Behari Bose's life as a Revolutionary

        The partition of Bengal in 1905 and the events that followed in its wake drew Rash Behari Bose headlong into revolutionary activities. Rash Behari concluded that the Government would not yield without revolutionary action on the part of the patriots. He started gearing up his revolutionary activities under the guidance of Jatin Banerjee, an eminent revolutionary leader.

The famous Bomb attack on Lord Hardinge by Rash Behari Bose

        Rash Behari Bose suddenly came in to prominence after 23rd December 1912 when bombs were thrown at Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of India. The planning for it was ingenious. At a conclave in Chandan Nagar, the suggestion for an attack on Hardinge emanated from Shreesh Ghosh, a dare-devil friend of Rash Behari. But some present thought that it was unpractical. Rash Behari Bose was reflecting and spoke only that he was ready and resolute but laid two conditions - that he should be supplied with powerful bombs and that he should have a young man of unimpeachable revolutionary character. Both were obtained and the first rehearsal was made on Diwali of 1911, amidst sound of crackers all round. The bombs burst to Rash Behari's satisfaction. But he had to wait for more than one year, which, however, was fully utilised in rehearsing for the outstanding action on 23rd December.

        The young man who came from Chandan Nagar was one Basant Biswas, a handsome boy of 16 years. He could easily be dressed up as a girl and get mixed up with other women sitting on the spacious terrace of a building in Chandni Chowk. All were eagerly waiting for the Viceregal procession. The bombs had to be hurled by Basant on the target. He had actually practised it for months in the garden of Raja PN Tagore at Dehradun. Rash Behari was serving with the Forest Research Institute there, and Basant was supposed to be his servant. Cigarette tins were filled with stone pieces and were hurled at the imaginary height of Hardinge, seated on a Howdah. On the previous day Rash Behari took his young 'girl friend' in a Tonga and had a ride through the roads of Chandni Chowk, which was to be the venue the next day.

        It was the 23rd December 1912. The Viceroy and the Vicerene were on the elephant back. Ladies were excitedly waiting for the procession to arrive. Basant (dressed as a girl) was one amongst them. The point chosen was the Clock-tower in Chandni Chowk, near the Punjab National Bank. The bomb was to be thrown when the elephant would be just in front. Rash Behari would be at a nearby point and Awadh Bihari would be just opposite, to throw the bombs if Basant somehow failed. 

        The atmosphere was electrifying, when it just occurred to Rash Behari that the practice of bomb throwing in cigarette tins at Dehrudun would be of no avail. It was from the ground to the imaginary height of the target on an elephant back. He just rushed in and asked Basant to enter the bathroom and quickly change his Sari to male clothes which he was carrying. There came out a handsome boy in place of a beautiful girl. In the all round excitement of the moment, none noticed the 'sartorial change of sex' of the boy from Bengal. He came down and got mixed up with the crowd on the foot path. But the bombs were not thrown by him but probably by Awadh Bihari. The Viceroy was seriously injured and was taken to a famous doctor, A.C. Sen, nearby. Awadh Bihari was later hanged but Rash Behari could not be touched. 

        Rash Behari Bose returned to Dehradun 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. Who on earth could imagine that he was the same person who had masterminded and executed the most outstanding revolutionary action. Lord Hardinge in his My Indian Years had described the whole incident in an interesting way.

The Ghadar Revolution by Rash Behari Bose

        Though Hardinge escaped death, Rash Behari's efforts continued unabated. Actually, it was a larger area of operations, a sort of an all India revolution concentrating mainly on the various contonments. As a god-send the leadership for it came from unexpected quarters. By 1914, many 'explosive elements' came to India from America, Canada and the Far East. They were, broadly speaking Ghadar elements. About four thousand of them were already in India. They had brought some arms and money. But all that they lacked was a proper leader. After the attempt on Hardinge, their eyes fell on Rash Behari.

        At this juncture came Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, an American trained Ghadr, who met Bose at Benares and requested him to take up the leadership of the coming revolution. But before accepting the responsibility, he sent Sachin Sanyal to the Punjab to assess the situation. Sachin returned very optimistic.

        In mid January 1915, Rash Behari first announced the news of the impending revolution at a private meeting at Benares. The war in Europe had already started. Most of the Indian army was shifted to other theatres of war. Of the thirty thousand men left at home, most were Indians whose loyalty could be won over easily. In this context Rash Behari was considered the only leader, particularly after the heroic Hardinge episode. Various persons were placed on duty at various places. Men were sent far and wide to propagate the message at the forthcoming revolution. Trusted and tried Ghadrites were sent to some contonments to infiltrate into the army.

 

        Rash Behari Bose was both the brain and brawn of the coming revolution. Not only was he capable of cool and clear thinking, he also had indefatigable energy to organise a revolution of such a magnitude, moving from place to place, always alert to evade the ever alert police in his pursuit. He even organised a few rehearsals at Khairon, Firozpur and Lahore. 

        February 21, 1915, was the date on which the signal of revolution would be given. At the very out-break, British officers would be rounded up and police outposts occupied. When it would spread to the Frontier Province, the tribals would come to the cities and capture the govt. establishments. Rash Behari personally would move from one contonment to another in the dress of an army officer.

        But on February 15, Kripal Singh, a soldier, and also a new recruit to the revolutionary party, was seen suspiciously moving about the Lahore station, contrary to instructions. He was to have been at Mian Mir with a message from Rash Behari to the troops. The revolution planned for the 21st was fizzled out.

Continuing struggle for Indian Freedom by Rash Behari Bose from Japan

        Rash Behari Bose left Calcutta on May 12, 1915. He went to Japan as Raja P.N.T. Tagore, a distant relative of Rabindranath Tagore. Some historians say that Rabindranath Tagore was aware of this impersonation. Rash Behari reached Singapore on May 22, 1915 and Tokyo in June. Between 1915 and 1918, Rash Behari lived almost like a fugitive, changing his residence 17 times. During this period he met Herambalal Gupta and Bhagwan Singh of the Ghadar Party. Japan was an ally of Britain's in the First World War and tried to extradite Rash Behari and Herambalal from Japan. Herambalal escaped to U.S.A. and Rash Behari ended his hide and seek by becoming a Japanese citizen. He married Tosiko, daughter of the Soma family who were sympathetic toward Rash Behari's efforts. The couple had two children, a boy, Masahide, and a girl, Tetaku. Tosiko died in March 1928 at the age of 28.

        Rash Behari Bose learned Japanese and became a journalist and writer. He took part in many cultural activities and wrote many books in Japanese, explaining India's viewpoints. It was due to Rash Behari's efforts that a conference was help in Tokyo from March 28 to 30, 1942, for discussion on political issues.

Formation of Azad Hind Fauj by Rash Behari Bose

        Following a conference held in Tokyo on 28th March 1942, it was decided to establish the Indian Independence League. After a few days it was decided to make Subhash Chandra Bose as its president. The Indian prisoners that were captured by the Japanese in Malaya and Burma were encouraged to join the Indian Independence League and the Indian National Army. It was the efforts of Rash Behari, along with Captain Mohan Singh and Sardar Pritam Singh, due to which Indian National Army came into existence on September 1, 1942. It was also known as Azad Hind Fauz.

Death of Rash Behari Bose and honour by the Japanese Government

        It was on 21st January 1945 that Rash Bihari Bose died in Tokyo before the end of World War II. The Japanese government honoured him with the highest title given to a foreigner - The Second Order of Merit of the Rising Sun. But the honour done by the Emperor of Japan on his demise is more touching. The Imperial coach was sent to carry the dead body of the Indian veteran revolutionary. But  independent India  have failed even to get the ashes of the great patriot back to his motherland. What a shame !