Jugantar

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the political party. For the newspaper, see Jugantar Patrika.
Anushilan Samiti
Influence
List
Anushilan Samiti
List
Notable events
List
Related topics
List

Jugantar or Yugantar (Bengali: যুগান্তর Jugantor; lit. New Era or Transition of an Epoch) was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence. This association, like Anushilan Samiti, started in the guise of a suburban health and fitness club while secretly nurturing revolutionaries. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman and many of them joined the Communist Consolidation in the Cellular Jail.

Notable members

The beginning

The Jugantar party was established in April 1906 by leaders like

Barin Ghosh, Hemchandra Kanungo, and Upen Banerjee.[2] Along with 21 revolutionaries, they started to collect arms, explosives and manufactured bombs. The headquarters of Jugantar were located at 27 Kanai Dhar Lane then 41 Champatola 1st Lane in Kolkata.[3]

Activities

The Jugantar party possessed cast iron bombshells those manufactured in 1930 by themselves.

Some senior members of the group were sent abroad. One of the first batches included

Alipore bomb conspiracy case in which several activists were deported for life to the Cellular Jail
in Andaman.

In 1908, as a next step, Jugantar chose to censure persons connected with the arrest and trial of revolutionaries involved in the Alipore Bomb Case. On 10 February 1909, Ashutosh Biswas, who conducted the prosecution of Kanai and Satyen for the murder of Naren Gosain (a revolutionary turned approver), was shot dead by Charu Basu in the Calcutta High Court premises. Samsul Alam, Deputy Superintendent of Police, who conducted the Alipore Case was shot and killed by Biren Dutta Gupta on the stairs of Calcutta High Court building on 24 January 1910. Charu Basu and Biren Dutta Gupta were later hanged.[6]

Several including

Calcutta and other charges. Thus started the Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case that tried the prisoners for treason, waging war against the Crown and tampering with the loyalty of Indian soldiers, such as those belonging to the Jat Regiment posted in Fort William, and soldiers in Upper Indian Cantonments.[7]

The German plot

Main article:
Hindu German Conspiracy

Nixon's Report corroborates that Jugantar under

Virendranath Chattopadhyay alias Chatto and other revolutionaries residing in Germany. They had contacted Indian revolutionaries active in the United States, as well as Jugantar leaders in Kolkata. Jatindra Nath Mukherjee informed Rash Behari Bose
to take charge of Upper India, aiming at an All-Indian Insurrection with the collaboration of native soldiers in different cantonments. History refers to it as the Hindu German Conspiracy. To raise fund, the Jugantar party organized a series of dacoities which came to be known as Taxicab dacoities and Boat dacoities, in order to procure funds to prepare the ground for working out the Indo-German Conspiracy.

The first of the Taxicab dacoities took place at Garden Reach, Kolkata on 12 February 1915, by a group of armed revolutionaries under the leadership of Narendra Bhattacharya under the direct supervision of Jatindranath Mukherjee. Similar dacoities were organized on different occasions and in various parts of Calcutta. Dacoities were accompanied by political murders in which the victims were mostly zealous police officers investigating into the cases, or approvers who helped the police.

Failure of the German plot

On receiving instructions from Berlin, Jatindra Nath Mukherjee selected Naren Bhattacharya (alias

guerrilla
force to start an uprising in the country, backed by a mutiny among the Indian Armed Force. The whole plot leaked out locally owing to a native traitor and,[
Amarendra Chatterjee and Harikumar Chakrabarti
which were taking an active part in the Indo-German Conspiracy were searched. The police learned that Bagha Jatin was in Balasore awaiting a German arms delivery. Police went on to find out the hiding places of Bagha Jatin and associates and after a gun-fight, the revolutionaries were either killed or arrested.[citation needed] The German plot thus failed.

Unification and failure

Following these major setbacks, and in the new circumstances of the colonial powers practising their divide and rule policy, there was an attempt to unify the revolutionary factions in Bengal. Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were brought close by the joint leadership of Narendra Mohan Sen of Anushilan, and Jadugopal Mukherjee of Jugantar. However, this merger failed to revive the revolutionary activities up to the expected level.[12]

References

  1. OCLC 58642818
    .
  2. ^ Shah, Mohammad (2012). "Jugantar Party". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  3. ^ Mukhopadhyay Haridas & Mukhopadhyay Uma. (1972) Bharater svadhinata andolané 'jugantar' patrikar dan, p15.
  4. OCLC 1129475950
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-19-563350-4
    .
  6. ^ Rowlatt Report; Samanta, op. cit.
  7. ^ The major charge... 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) (cf: Sedition Committee Report, 1918)
  8. ^ Samanta, op. cit. Vol II, p 591
  9. ^ Rowlatt Report (§109-110)
  10. ^ Voska, Emanual Victor; Irwin, Will (1940). Spy and Counterspy. Doubleday, Doran & Co. p. 141.
  11. ^ Masaryk, Thomas Garrigue (1969) [First published 1927]. The Making of a State. Howard Fertig. p. 242.
  12. ^ Islam, Sirajul (2012). "Revolutionary Terrorism". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jugantar&oldid=1219335663"