Tarak Nath Das
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Taraknath Das | |
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British India | |
Died | 22 December 1958 New York City, United States | (aged 74)
Nationality | Indian |
Occupation | Revolutionary |
Organization | Jugantar |
Spouse | Mary Keatinge Morse |
Anushilan Samiti |
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Influence |
Anushilan Samiti |
Notable events |
Related topics |
Taraknath Das (or Tarak Nath Das; 15 June 1884 – 22 December 1958) was an Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. He was a pioneering immigrant in the west coast of North America and discussed his plans with
Early life
Tarak was born at Majupara, near
Genesis of a mission
To stir Bengali enthusiasm, commemoration of the achievements of
Life in North America
Disguised as a monk under the name of Tarak Brahmachari, he left for
With
Fully conversant with existing laws, Tarak served the needs of his compatriots, most of whom were illiterate migrants from the Punjab region. In Millside, near
Being a suspect of extracting bribes from the Asian Indian immigrants, Hopkinson used his influence to make Tarak a scapegoat and eventually got him expelled from Canada by the middle of 1908. Leaving Bose, Kumar and Chagan Khairaj Varma (also known as Husain Rahim) in charge of the compatriots' fate, Tarak left Vancouver to better concentrate on the areas from Seattle to San Francisco. On reaching Seattle, since its July 1908 issue, Free Hindustan became a more overtly anti-British organ, with a motto from Tarak: "To protest against all tyranny is a service to humanity and the duty of civilization." The Irish revolutionary
Founding the Ghadar Party
"A direct appeal to the Sikhs" appeared in the September–October 1909 issue of the Free Hindustan, reproduced by the Swadesh Sevak; the article ended with : "Coming in contact with free people and institutions of free nations, some of the Sikhs, though laborers in the North American Continent, have assimilated the idea of liberty and trampled the medals of slavery…"
From Berlin to Kabul
In 1914, he was admitted as a Research Fellow at the
In April 1916 the Shiraz-ul-Akhbar of
Tarak returned to California in July 1916. After that he set out for Japan with the project of a vast study on Japanese Expansion and its Significance in World Politics. This study appeared as a book in 1917 with the title, Is Japan a menace to Asia ?. The foreword of this book was written by the former Chinese Prime Minister
Academic career
After his release in 1920, Tarak married his long-time friend and benefactress
The Tarak Nath Das Foundation
Currently, this foundation awards grant money to Indian graduate students studying in the United States, who have completed or are about to complete one year of graduate work, and are working towards a degree. There are Tarak Nath Das funds at about a dozen universities in the States. Only the fund at Columbia University, called the Mary Keatinge Das Fund, has a fairly significant amount of money in it and the income is used to fund lectures and conferences on India. Other participatory universities are the
Later life
Tarak was among those who suffered emotionally from the Partition of India in 1947 and vehemently opposed the process of balkanisation of South Asia till his last day. After forty-six years in exile, he revisited his motherland in 1952, as a visiting professor of the Watumull Foundation. He founded the Vivekananda Society in Calcutta. On 9 September 1952, he presided over the public meeting to celebrate the 37th anniversary of Bagha Jatin's heroic martyrdom, urging the youth to revive the values upheld by his mentor, Jatindâ.[11] He died upon return to the United States on 22 December 1958, aged 74.
References
- ^ Sadhak biplabi jatindranath, [abbrev. jatindranath], by Prithwindra Mukherjee, West Bengal State Book Board, 1990, pp. 442–443
- ^ Das, Taraknath (June 1931). "New Italy and Greater India". The Modern Review: 644–650.
- ISBN 9780520271692.
- ^ James Campbell Ker, Political Trouble in India,[abbrev. Political], 1917, 1973, pp. 247, 251
- ^ Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America
- ^ The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, by Constance Brissenden, Harbour Publishing
- ^ Political, pp. 119–120, 221–222
- ^ Political, pp229-231
- ^ Illustrated Weekly of India, 26 February 1961; Ghadar Movement:Ideology, Organisation and Strategy by Harich K. Puri, Guru Nanak Dev University Press, 1983
- ^ "Article clipped from The San Francisco Examiner". The San Francisco Examiner. 1 May 1918. p. 13. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
- ^ Anandabazar Patrika, Kolkata, 10 September 1952
Sources
- "Das, Taraknath (Dr.)" in Dictionary of National Biography, (ed.) S.P. Sen, 1972, Vol I, pp363–4
- Political Trouble in India: A Confidential Report, by James Campbell Ker, 1917, reprinted 1973
- Sadhak biplabi jatindranath, by Prithwindra Mukherjee, West Bengal State Book Board, 1990, pp441–469
- San Francisco Trial Report, 75 Volumes; Record Groups 49, 60, 85 & 118 (US National Archives, Washington D.C. & Federal Archives, San Bruno)
- M.N. Roy Library & Gadhar Collection (South/Southeast Library, University of California, Berkeley)
- "Taraknath Das" by William A. Ellis, in Norwich University 1819–1911, Vol. III, 1911
- "Deportation of Hindu Politics" by Sailendra Nath Ghose, in The Dial, 23 August 1919, pp145–7
- "The Vermont Education of Taraknath Das: An Episode In British-American-Indian Relations" by Ronald Spector, in Vermont History, Vol.48, No.2, 1980 (illustrated), pp88–95
- "Taraknath in Madras" by Akoor Anantachari, in Sunday Standard, Chennai, 31 May 1964
- Taraknath Das: Life and Letters of a Revolutionary in Exile, by Tapan K. Mukherjee, National Council of Education, Kolkata, 1998, 304pp
- Op. cit.: a review by Santosh Saha, in Journal of 3rd World Studies, Spring, 2000