The Alipore Bomb Trial

TWENTY-SIXTH DAY'S PROCEEDINGS 

     Mr. Norton continuing his address on behalf of the Crown said—One of the main instruments so far as the literary portion of the conspiracy was concerned was the “Yugantar." Counsel proposed to read passages from every issue of the "Yugantar" which was put in by the prosecution. these passages would show what was really the object at which these people aimed.

     These articles might shortly be summarised as follows :—It was impossible to read the columns of the "Yugantar" without coming to the conclusion that it was a call to arms and a call to preparation, and that in both cases it was an ultimate call to achieve the complete independence of the country.

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     That call was based partly upon the financial ruin which, it was suited, English rule body brought to India. It contemplated the apparent drain of money which the English were taking away Home from this country either by way of pension or compensation. That money, according to the articles ought to be kept in this country and the taking away of it was causing economic ruin to India.

     It was also based partly on famine and its terrible results which were attributable to the reforms and wicked action of the Government of this country, whether the persons who gave vent to these articles believed them to be true mattered little. The effect upon those who read these articles was what Counsel wished to touch upon.

     It was also based partly upon the alleged oppression of the Judicial and Executive Departments, officered by the English. It was a pure matter of chance that Mr. Kingsford was the particular embodiment in their view of judicial and magisterial transgression. The attempt made upon Mr. Kingsford’s life was a pure accident as he happened to be the magistrate who had to deal with the long list of prosecutions for sedition which occurred in the latter half of the year 1907. It might be, the fact that Mr. Kingsford felt it his duty to do what he did invested the conspirators with a particular reason for selecting him as the first person to be attack . Counsel’s suggestion after he had read these articles would be that had it not been Mr. Kingsford, it would have been somebody else. He wished as strongly as he could to controvert the suggestion made for the defence——and which apparently found some your with Mr. Beachcroft—that the attempt upon Mr. Kingsford’s life might be reduced from an attempt in the nature o war to mere private grievances against one particular individual. Throughout, them articles were clothed and garbed in the language of fervent poetry, the language used being extremely line. It came from an educated man and was written with considerable force and vigour and, he was bound to say, in certain instances with a considerable amount of logic.

     Counsel then went on to say that connected with the Yugantar in a way but not in the sense of direct instruments in the hands of the conspirators, were two other newspapers.

     The first was the "Sandhya” an older newspaper, which came into existence in 1905, but which Counsel did not say was brought into existence—because there was no evidence to that effect—to serve the ends of the conspirators. But whether or not it was the outcome of some of the early teachings of Barindra Kumar Ghose during his perambulations in the province of Bengal, this was quite clear t it enunciated its doctrines in language far inferior to the "Yugantar" but appealed more brutally than the "Yugantar” to the more uncultured portion of its readers. That it was read

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by many people and was regarded with a certain amount of affection and esteem was apparent from the correspondence which Counsel would read later.

     Connected with the “Yugantar" itself was the "Mukti Kone Pathe" which Mr. Norton charged with being part and parcel of the conspiracy. It consisted in the main of articles translated bodily from the columns of the “Yugantar " and its popularity is shown from the several editions to which it ran.

     Then there was the "Navaasakti" newspaper whose principal home was at 4-8 Grey Street. It had been there anterior to the 30^th April on which date by common consent Arobinda, Abinash and Sailendra removed there from 23, Scott's Lane. It was much more guarded in its language than the ‘Sandhya’. Counsel referred to it for two reasons, first by reason of its contents, and second, that bad as it was it was not considered sufficiently had by Abinash. In April 1908 Abinash issued a prospectus in which he disclosed his intention of converting "Navasakti" into a weekly paper and with it coupled the promise-which no doubt was the bait to those he was dressing -that it would henceforth be run by the same staff which had formerly run the "Yugantar”.

     Counsel then read the articles in question commenting as he went along.

     After reading the whole of the articles which appeared in the Yugantar Counsel said that taking as a whole those articles were undoubtedly impassioned and their language was magnificent. From these articles it appeared that from the very start Barin intended to preach doctrines, which had the ultimate aim of achieving a complete and unfettered independence and for the attainment of that purpose two things were necessary, viz. (1) a band of young men and (2) a band of young men to be instilled with deep religious sentiments. The "Yugantar" was used as an instrument to preach those doctrines to the young men.

     The Court then rose for the day.

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