Champaklal's Treasures - Edition-II

Barindra Kumar Ghose

LIFE SKETCH

Barindra Kumar Ghose (1880-1959), head of the Maniktola secret society, was born in Croydon, England. He was eight years younger than his brother Sri Aurobindo. At the age of one his mother brought him to India where he was raised and educated in Deoghar, Bihar. He attend Patna College for about six months, but did not complete his studies Towards the end of 1902 Barin went to stay with Sri Aurobindo in Baroo during this visit his brother initiated him with the revolutionary oath. Early in 1903 he left for Calcutta to join Jatin Banerji, Sri Aurobindo's first emissary to Bengal, in revolutionary recruitment and organization, At this time he met Abinash Bhattacharya, who became his companion and assistant in the following years. The two spread their militant ideas especially among college students and the youth who belonged to the akharasor physical culture clubs in which wrestling, jiujitsu and lathi-fightin were taught.

In October 1904 Barin returned to Baroda for a year long stay with hi brother. During this period, probably inspired by Bankim Chandr Chatterjee's Ananda Math, he conceived the idea of an Ashram for the training of revolutionary Sannyasins, to be situated in some remote spot away from the cities. (An outline of this institution, written by Sri Aurobindo, was published in a pamphlet entitled "Bhawani Mandir" early in 1905.) Barin searched in the Vindhya mountains for a suitable place tc set up an Ashram, but could not find one. The scheme eventually took shape in a modified form in the centre at Maniktola.

Barin returned to Calcutta in the spring of 1906. Sri Aurobindo, having resigned his position in Baroda, also moved there at this time. The Partition of Bengal had awakened the people from their political slumber, and the two brothers realised that the moment had come for public work. Sri Aurobindo joined the staff of the Bande Mataram and put forth the call for national independence through self-help and passive resistance. Barin and his friends, with Sri Aurobindo's approval, started the vernacular daily, Yugantar, which openly urged the deliverance of the country through revolutionary means. Its leading writers were superb polemicists.

1) This life-sketch, and the reminiscences that follow it, are excerpted from Sri Aurobindo and the Freedom of India, compiled and edited by Chanda Poddar, Mona Sarkar and Bob Zwicker, 1995 ed., pp. 199-206.

The fiery newspaper soon became immensely popular, with a readership at times in the tens of thousands. Aware of its influence, the Government prosecuted Yugantar six times for sedition during its brief lifespan.

Eager to do more than just talk about revolution, Barin formed his own revolutionary group in mid 1907,establishing his headquarters and training centre at Maniktola. The property, owned by the Ghose brothers, was a secluded two-acre piece of land overgrown with vegetation. Here at "the Garden", as it was called, Barin began systematic instruction of the young men he had recruited; there were almost twenty of them, most in their late teens or early twenties. The Garden's curriculum included meditation twice a day, the study of the Gita and the Upanishads, classes in Indian history and the history of revolutionary movements in other countries, physical exercises such as wrestling, lathi-fighting and jiu-jitsu, and instruction in military strategy and the use of firearms. For a few there was also training in the manufacture and use of explosives. Barin was in overall charge of the Garden, its training programme and external work. The recruits carried out their activities according to his orders and were directly accountable to him. One of the chief instructors, he was also responsible for the raising of funds and the collection of arms, ammunition and material for making explosives.

By the end of 1907 the society's self-taught chemist, Ullaskar Dutt, was producing powerful bombs. Barin decided to use them for the assassination of certain unpopular Government officials. This, h£ thought, was the "voice of the People". Later when asked why he had turned to "political murder" Barin replied simply, "we believed the people wanted it." During the next six months, attempts were made upon the lives of three officials, but they were unsuccessful. The Maniktola society members and others were rounded up in May 1908 and charged with conspiracy. Soon after his arrest, Barin made a detailed confession, taking full responsibility for the secret society and its work; he did this in the hope of saving other revolutionaries, his brother Sri Aurobindo, and the innocent persons who had been arrested along with them.

For his role as leader, Barin was awarded the death penalty; the sentence was later commuted to transportation for life. In December 1909 he was shipped to the British penal colony on South Andaman Island. Physically weak and constitutionally slender, he endured ten years of drudgery, deprivation and suffering before his release. He returned to mainland India in January 1920, following the amnesty granted to political prisoners after the armistice of the First World War.

In 1920 Barin visited Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry and stayed for a brief time. He returned in 1923 and lived for six years in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In 1929 Barin settled in Bengal, where he remained for thirty years of his life. He left several memories of his experience revolutionary and a prisoner. Extracts from these reminiscences are given below.