Maniktala Secret Society

One of the chief leaders of the revolutionary movement in Bengal was Sri Aurobindo's younger brother, Barindra Kumar Ghose. In the middle of 1907 he formed his own revolutionary group of about twenty young men. Their training centre was located in Maniktola, on the outskirts of Calcutta. This centre was spiritual-political in its character, a kind of Ashram for the creation of a band of revolutionary Sannyasins. Its diverse curriculum ranged from meditation and scriptural study to martial arts and the manufacture of bombs.

Barin's original intention was to develop a small military unit which would later join with other such units in organising and leading an open armed revolt against the British government in India. Within a few months, however, the emphasis shifted from long-term military training to immediate terrorist activity. The reason for this shift lies in the passionate temper of the times. The Partition of Bengal in 1905 had inflamed the Bengali people, resulting in widespread and prolonged political agitation. In its effort to curb the growing Nationalist movement the government resorted to increasing repression. In 1907, the year in which the Maniktola secret society was formed, several Calcutta newspaper editors were imprisoned for sedition, protest meetings were banned or broken up, women and children were beaten for daring to shout "Bande Mataram". A cry for retribution naturally arose. The mood of Barin's men was summed up by one of his recruits, Nolini Kanta Gupta, in this way:

There had awakened in the country a keen demand and aspiration: Must we bear in silence and give no answer to this tyranny and oppression that seemed to go on increasing day by day? So we started getting ready for a fitting reply. It brought in the first place a greater courage to the general public, though it remained doubtful if it helped to relieve the oppression. And secondly it gave some satisfaction to men. Thus we directed our efforts to shooting at the Lieutenant Governor, derailing his train, and assassinating tyrants in the official ranks.

Even in 1906 Barin had unsuccessfully attempted to kill Sir Bampfylde Fuller, Lieutenant-Governor of the newly formed province of Eastern Bengal. Now, between November 1907 and April 1908, the brief period of his society's terrorist activity, he and his men tried to kill three more Government officials: Sir Andrew Fraser, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal; L. Tardivel, Mayor of Chandernagore in French India; and Douglas Kingsford, the Calcutta magistrate who presided over the trials of several Nationalists. All of these attempts failed, and unfortunately in trying to take Kingsford's life two Englishwomen were accidentally killed. The Government responded immediately by arresting the inmates of the Maniktola centre, whose activities they had been watching, and many others including Sri Aurobindo. Of the thirty-eight persons who stood trial, about half were acquitted and set free; the others were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and ten were transported to a penal colony on the Andaman Islands.

Although outwardly unsuccessful, Barin and his fellow-revolutionaries added a new note of passion, courage and urgency to the Nationalist movement. The timid voice of petition for limited reforms was replaced by a full-hearted cry for national independence. A wave of young warriors had arisen who were committed to securing India's freedom by whatever means necessary; tired of British rule, they were ready to fight and die for the liberation of their country.

It may be noted that Sri Aurobindo was aware of Barin's revolutionary activities and gave at least his tacit approval to them. His own strategy for the revolutionary movement, however, called not for sporadic acts of violence by a few, but for the development of a network of revolutionary centres throughout the country with the object of preparing the people for a general armed insurrection.