Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others
Anushilan Samiti |
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Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others, colloquially referred to as the Alipore Bomb Case, the Muraripukur conspiracy, or the Manicktolla bomb conspiracy, was a
Among the famous accused were
Aurobindo Ghosh retired from active nationalist politics after serving a prison sentence awarded in the trial, beginning his journey into spirituality and philosophy that he described as having started with revelations that occurred to him during his incarceration. He later moved to Pondicherry, establishing an Ashram. For Anushilan Samiti, the incarceration of many of its prominent leaders led to a decline in the influence and activity of the Manicktolla branch, and its activities were overtaken by what emerged to be called the Jugantar branch under the leadership of Bagha Jatin.[2]
Background
Anushilan samiti
Political consciousness and opposition to
Aurobindo returned to Bengal in 1906, and with the assistance of
32 Muraripukur Garden House
By 1907, Barin Ghosh had begun gathering around groups of young men attracted to the Jugantar message. This was at a time that the
Muzaffarpur bombings and aftermath
The plot of killing Kingsford
In 1907, Barin Ghosh arranged to send
The attempt and the failure
Anushilan, under Barin, persisted in their attempts to kill Kingsford. In April, a two-man reconnaissance team visited Muzaffarpur, which included
Arrest
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Aurobindo on the day of his arrest on May 1, 1908
News of the bombings reached Calcutta on 1 May 1908, and suspicion was immediately on Aurobindo and Barin. Fraser, the Governor of Bengal, contemplated arrest and deportation of the Samiti leadership of the Ghosh brothers, Abhinash Bhattacharya,
Statement by Barin Ghosh
Fearing that the entire Samiti organisation stood at jeopardy, Barin offered to make a confessional statement taking responsibility for the conspiracy and the materiel. Convinced that they would be awarded the death penalty in any case, Barin was joined in written statements by Ullashkar Dutt, Indubhushan Roy and Bibhutibhushan Sarkar who implicated themselves taking entire responsibility with written statements, later confirmed orally in front of a magistrate.
Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others
The Maniktala gardens under the jurisdiction of the Alipore suburb of Calcutta. On 5 May 1908, Aurobindo and others were produced in front of the chief presidency magistrate's court, where they were allowed access to lawyers for the first time. From here the case was transferred to the Alipore chief magistrate's court, and the accused were held at Alipore jail, with Aurobindo held in solitary confinement.
Initial hearings
On 18 May, the accused were formally charged in the first hearing of Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others. The charges included "organising to wage war against the government" and charging each individual accused with "waging war against the King". The prosecution was headed by Eardley Norton, a leading barrister of the then presidency of
The hearings against the accused had continued through May with intermittent recesses. However, despite a considerable body of evidence against most of the accused, very little evidence existed against Aurobindo himself. The structure of Anushilan Samiti prevented the higher echelons of the organisation from becoming familiar to the junior ranks, and Aurobindo's involvement in the organisation and its activities were hard to pinpoint, except for a few letters and correspondences confiscated at Barin's Manicktolla garden house. These included letters Barin had written in 1907, initialled "A.G." proclaiming the time for distributing "sweets" across India, a euphemism for bombs of which the technology Hem Chandra had learnt in Paris. On the other hand, much of the aim of the prosecution was to gain conviction against Aurobindo, who was seen as the most dangerous individual driving the Samiti against the Raj.
Murder of Naren Goswami
Unable to identify stronger material evidence, the prosecution began an effort to obtain witnesses who may be able to implicate Aurobindo. Their target became a young Anushilanite by the name of Naren Goswami. Goswami belonged to the family of a landowner in Bengal, of a wealthy background and social standing. He had been arrested at Maniktala with Barin and others on the initial raid. On 22 June, Prosecutor Norton announced to the court that Narendranath Goswami had turned "King's witness", or prosecution witness, in return for a pardon. By the middle of August, Birley had heard evidence against the accused. He twice rejected the defence's requests to cross-examine Goswami, using discretionary powers granted to him by the government of Bengal. On 19, 31 August, prisoners were committed to stand trial at Alipore Sessions Court for waging war against the King. On the evidence against Aurobindo, Birley concluded that letters and correspondences from members of the group --- particularly one letter from Barin where he had referred to "distributing sweets" across India --- indicated prima facie involvement on Aurobindo's part.
Interned with his fellow conspirators, Barin Ghosh had carefully planned to stage a jail-break. Careful plans were made to overpower guards with acid, bombs and with arms smuggled into the jail with the help of Samiti members and of family members. By the last week of August, Barin was able to obtain two revolvers, a R.I.C. 0.45 calibre and an Osborne 0.38 calibre revolver. However, the accused soon realised that Goswami knew more than anticipated, and his evidence may implicate many accused including the Ghosh Brothers. A decision was taken by Hem Chandra Das to silence Naren. On 29 August, Kanailal Dutt feigned abdominal colic and gained admission to the Jail hospital, from where he sent word to Naren of wishing to turn approver, along with Satyendranath Bosu. Naren, believing the ruse, walked into the Hospital ward to meet the duo with the jail overseer. Armed with the two revolvers smuggled in at Barin's request, Sen and Dutta chased Goswami down the jail corridors. The overseer accompanying Goswami, Warden Higgins, attempted to overpower Dutt but was shot through the wrist. Another overseer named Lynton tried to overpower Bose, but the latter broke free. Both Bose and Dutt shot Goswami multiple times, hitting his hip and piercing his spine, wounding him fatally. Bose and Dutta, firing nine shots in total into Goswami's lifeless body, gave themselves up once they realised Goswami was dead. Dutta later pleaded guilty, was convicted and hanged. Bose was initially declared not guilty by jury, but the verdict was returned to the high court, which returned a guilty verdict and awarded him the death sentence.
Alipore sessions court
On 19 October 1908, the hearing for the trial began at the court of Charles Porten Beachroft who served as the additional sessions judge of the District 24 Paraganas. Beachcroft and Aurobindo had previously entered the Indian Civil Service Examinations in England in the same year, where Aurobindo had ranked ahead of Beachcroft. The defence team was composed of 15 lawyers, barristers and pleaders. Aurobindo was initially represented by Byomkesh Chakravarty, a leading Calcutta barrister. In addition to the 1500 documents and material evidence, defence team entered further 54 items. However, Chakravarty was successfully able to challenge Norton's attempts to enter Goswami's testimony as evidence, and able to obtain Beachcroft's ruling that Birley broke the law in refusing to allow defence to cross-examine Goswami. The trial continued for a year (1908-1909). In all, 206 witnesses were called, around 400 documents were filed with the court, and more than 5000 exhibits were produced including bombs, revolvers, and acids. However, Chakravarty soon pulled out of Ghosh's defence team, as the funds failed to meet his fees. On the desperate appeal of Ghosh's uncle Krishna Kumar Mitra, the defence was taken over by Chittaranjan Das, then still a junior barrister. Early in the trial, Barin and his fellow detainees from the Manicktolla ashram withdrew their confessions. Despite this, the scope lay to use their evidences against themselves. However, the prosecution's efforts to link Aurobindo to the group and to implicate him as the leader of the conspiracy began to unravel. With assassination of Naren Goswami, precious little remained to link Aurobindo to the works of Barin's group other than his published views in Bande Mataram and Jugantar. Das successfully argued that Aurobindo's thoughts and writings on independence were consistent with philosophical thoughts on liberty and freedom held by the English intelligentsia. On material evidences, Das alleged outright fabrication of documents by the police where these linked Aurobindo to the conspiracy.[13]
Significantly, as the hearings proceeded through 1908 into 1909, the government of Bengal came to fear that Anushilan Samiti would mount a rescue mission to break out the undertrials. A noted rise in militant actions and assassinations linked to
"My appeal to you is this, that long after the controversy will be hushed in silence, long after this turmoil, the agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed, not only in India but across distant seas and lands. Therefore, I say that the man in his position is not only standing before the bar of this Court, but before the bar of the High Court of History.
The time has come for you, sir, to consider your judgment and for you, gentlemen, to consider your verdict..."
The verdict
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Barindra Kumar Ghosh, sentenced to death, later converted to transportation to Cellular Jail, Andamans
Beachcroft delivered his verdicts on 6 May 1909,[1] amidst tight security in Calcutta to prevent outbreak of nationalist violence. Observing the popular supports following the executions of Khudiram Bose, Kanailal Dutta and Satyen Bose, the day of the verdict was kept closely guarded. Additional security measures were put in place, with a reserve force of European officers held ready in case of an outbreak of violence and disorder in the streets of Calcutta. Sessions Judge Charles Porten Beachcroft delivered his verdicts on 6 May 1909, amidst tight security in Calcutta.[1]
Regarding Sri Aurobindo, he said:
"I now come to the case of Arabinda Ghose, the most important accused in the case. He is the accused, whom more than any other the prosecution are anxious to have convicted and but for his presence in the dock there is no doubt that the case would have been finished long ago. It is partly for that reason that I have left his case till last of all and partly because the case against him depends to a very great extent, in fact almost entirely, upon association with other accused persons... The point is whether his writings & speeches, which in themselves seem to advocate nothing more than the regeneration of his country, taken with the facts proved against him in this case are sufficient to show that he was a member of the conspiracy. And taking all the evidence together I am of opinion that it falls short of such proof as would justify me in finding him guilty of so serious a charge."
In his verdict, Barin Ghosh and Ullaskar Dutt were found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging (later commuted to life imprisonment). Thirteen others, Upendra Nath Banerjee, Bibhuti Bhusan Sarkar, Hrishikesh Kanjilal, Birendra Sen, Sudhir Sarkar, Indra Nundy, Abinash Bhattacharjee, Soilendra Bose, Hem Chunder Das, Indu Bhusan Roy, Poresh Mullick, Sishir Ghosh, Nirapado Roy were sentenced to transportation for life and forfeiture of all property. Three others, Poresh Mullick, Sishir Ghosh, Nirapado Roy were sentenced to ten years incarceration along with forfeiture of property. A further three Asoke Nundy, Balkrishna Kane, Susil Sen were sentenced to seven years jail terms. Seventeen, including Aurobindo, were found not guilty. One defendant, Krishna Jiban Sanyal, was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment.[1] Two of the 17 acquitted, Dharaninath Gupta & Nagendranath Gupta, were already undergoing a 7-year sentence for conviction in the Harrison Road case, so they were not released.[1] Probash Chunder Dey was re-arrested on a sedition charge under Section 124A, in connection with the publication of the book "Desh Acharjya".[1] The verdict on Aurobindo was passed last. Beachcroft highlighted the lack of concrete evidence linking Aurobindo to the conspiracy in the lack of crown-witness Naren Goswami.[15]
The verdict was disappointing to the Government of India, who had hoped to obtain a conviction against Aurobindo. Further fears were raised that those acquitted may have already received instructions from Hem on constructing the bombs. Aurobindo further was seen as the most dangerous adversary to the Raj whilst he remained free.[16] Consulted on the prospects of a successful appeal against the verdict on Aurobindo, the advocate general of Bombay the chance of obtaining a conviction "fair", but was unable to provide more reassuring prospects. In August 1909, the government took the decision not to launch an appeal.
Of the two sentenced to death by hanging (but released in 1920), Ullaskar Dutt, a young man of 22, described his occupation as a cow keeper.[17] Barindra Kumar Ghosh, younger brother of
Popular perception
The trial was considered sensational at the time, and generated an enormous amount of interest in both the British and Indian press. In India, journals such as The Empire ran editorials calling for harsh punishments for the undertrials. The Times published a number of reports, reflecting on Aurobindo's career, Aurobindo's monologues and essays, published in Karmayogin, Jugantar, and other publications.
Impact
In the aftermath of the trial, the power of native Indian press in promoting nationalist messages were severely curtailed, with the
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the Manicktala conspiracy, the western Anushilan Samiti found a more-prominent leader in
Memoirs and other publications
Several convicts of Maniktala Bomb Case wrote memoirs after their release from British captivity. Following is a brief list:
- Bandyopadhyay, Upendranath (1921). নির্বাসিতের আত্মকথা, Calcutta: Hrishikesh Kanjilal.[15]
- Ghosh, Barindra Kumar (1922). The Tale of My Exile, Pondicherry: Arya Office.[22]
- Ghosh, Barindra Kumar (1922). বারীন্দ্রের আত্মকাহিনী, Calcutta: D.M. Library.[23]
- Datta, Ullaskar (1923). কারাজীবনী, Calcutta: Arya Publishing House.[24]
- Datta, Ullaskar (1924). Twelve Years of Prison Life, Pondicherry: Arya Office.[25]
Commemoration
- The site of Barin Ghosh's country residence – the site of arrest of fourteen nationalists who stood trial – is commemorated by a marble plaque unveiled in 1990 by the West Bengal state government in independent India.
- 48 Grey Street, where Aurobindo was arrested with three others, was also commemorated with a marble plaque from the government in 1993. Grey street was renamed Aurobindo Sarani by West Bengal Government in independent India.
- Pusa road railway station, where Khudiram Bose was arrested, is now named after him.
- Kanailal Dutt is commemorated with a bust at his birth town of Chanderrnagore.
- The Osborne 0.38 calibre revolver used in Naren Goswami's assassination forms a part of collections of Police Museum at Kolkata.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g "Alipore Bomb Case". Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry-605002 India. 2007.
- ^ Ghosh, Deepanjan (9 September 2020). "Alipore Bomb Case: A Landmark in Bengal's Revolutionary Struggle". www.livehistoryindia.com. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
- ^ Sen 2010, p. 244 The militant nationalists thought of more direct and violent ways of ending British rule in India ... The chief apostle of militant nationalism in Bengal was Aurobindo Ghose. In 1902, there were three secret societies in Calcutta - Anushilan Samiti, founded by Pramatha Mitra, a barrister of the High Court of Calcutta; a society sponsored by Aurobindo Ghosh and a society started by Sarala Devi.
- ^ Mohanta, Sambaru Chandra (2012). "Mitra, Pramathanath". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- ^ a b Heehs 2008, p. 133
- ^ Sanyal 2014, pp. 90–91 "[Sanyal translates from Jugantar:] "In a country where the ruling power relies on brute force to oppress its subjects, it is impossible to bring about Revolution or a change in rulers through moral strength. In such a situation, subjects too must rely on brute force." ... The Jugantar challenged the legitimacy of British rule ... [its] position thus amounted to a fundamental critique of the British government ... By 1907 the paper was selling 7000 copies, a figure that went up to 20,000 soon after. The Jugantar ideology was basically addressed to an elite audience that was young, literate and politically radicalized."
- ^ Heehs 2008, p. 153
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 104
- ^ a b Sanyal 2014, pp. 91–92 "Bhupendranath Dutt, the editor, and proprietor of the Jugantar was arrested in July 1907 and charged under section 124 A ... Bhupendranath was sentenced to a year's rigorous imprisonment ... The Jugantar's stance was typically defiant ... The paper did nothing to tone down the rhetoric in its future editions."
- ^ Sanyal 2014, p. 93 "This attitude cost the paper dearly. It suffered five more prosecutions that, by July 1908, brought about its financial ruin … The trials brought the paper a great deal of publicity and helped greatly in the dissemination of the revolutionary ideology ... testimony to the fanatical loyalty that the paper inspired in its readers and the deep impression that the Jugantar writings made on them ... revolutionary terrorism as an ideology began to win if not overt, then at least the tacit, support of Bengalis."
- ^ a b c d Heehs 2008, p. 156
- ^ a b Heehs 2008, p. 157
- ^ Heehs 2008, p. 176
- ^ Heehs 2008, p. 180
- ^ a b Bandyopadhyay 1921
- ^ Heehs 2008, p. 195
- ^ a b Hoda 2008
- ^ Roy 1997, p. 6 Aurobihdo’s retirement from active politics after his acquittal ...
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 111
- ^ Roy 2006, p. 105
- M.N. Roy's Memoirs p3
- ^ Ghosh 1922
- ^ Ghosh_2 1922
- ^ Datta 1923
- ^ Datta 1924
References
- Bandyopadhyay, Upendranath (1921), নির্বাসিতের আত্মকথা, Pondicherry: Arya Publications.
- Datta, Ullaskar (1923), কারাজীবনী (PDF), Calcutta: Arya Publishing House.
- Datta, Ullaskar (1924), Twelve Years of Prison Life, Pondicherry: Arya Publications.
- Ghosh, Barindra Kumar (1922), The tale of my exile - twelve years in Andamans, Pondicherry: Arya Publications.
- Ghosh_2, Barindra Kumar (1922), বারীন্দ্রের আত্মকাহিনী, Calcutta: D.M. Library
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link). - Heehs, Peter (2008), The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-14098-0.
- Hoda, Noorul (2008), The Alipore Bomb Case - A historic Pre-Independence Trial, Kolkata: Niyogi Books.
- Popplewell, Richard James (1995), Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire, 1904-1924, London: Frank Cass, ISBN 0-7146-4580-X.
- Roy, Samren (1997), M. N. Roy: A Political Biography, Orient Longman, ISBN 81-250-0299-5
- Roy, Shantimoy (2006), "India Freedom Struggle and Muslims", in ISBN 9788178710914
- Sanyal, Shukla (2014), Revolutionary Pamphlets, Propaganda and Political Culture in Colonial Bengal, Delhi: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-06546-8.
- Sen, Sailendra Nath (2010), An Advanced History of Modern India, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0230-32885-3