The Alipore Bomb Trial

Preface

As one who appeared for the accused from the very beginning to the end of the Trial in all the Courts and was possessed of all the materials for bringing out in a book from a narrative of the trial which would interest the public I long desired to sit down and edit the book – but want of the requisite line, always stood in the way for many a long year. To Mr. H. de B. Goldsmidt, the late Manager of Messrs Butterworth & Co., belongs the credit of inducing me to edit this book, which I beg to place before the public now in the hope that they will derive some pleasure and instruction from its perusal as all accounts of notable trials always afford to the reading public. The Alipur Bomb Trial was the first State Trial of any magnitude in India ― because it was held at a time when discontent reached its highest point in Bengal and it concerned people who were gentlemen belonging to the best society, cultured, educated and highly intelligent. The novelty of the cult of bomb and shooting and assassination of men of high position lent an additional interest to the trial which reached its highest pitch when articles from the Sandhya and the Jugantar, couched in rich and powerful language and breathing intense hatred for foreigners and impassioned love of freedom from bondage, were put in and read in Court as evidence of proving conspiracy to wage war against the King, If all these are brought out in book form , ten volumes will not afford sufficient space for a complete history of the trial. Besides, considering the present character of contemporary events, when gigantic world problems are awaiting solution, when we hear the tread of centuries in the march of a single year, when India of

1922 and her problems are very different from the India of 1908, people will not have the time and the patience to go through volume after volume to read the history of a trial however remarkable it might be. I have, therefore, been forced to crowd into one volume and compress within these few pages all that is necessary, all that is interesting and all that one needs to learn about this memorable Trial. Verbatim reports of evidence in chief and cross-examination of witnesses were impossible, so a summary of their evidence has been given. In a few cases where the evidence was considered important, detailed reports of the same have been incorporated.

My thanks are due to the publishers for the great interest shown in seeing the book through the Press.