Bibhuti Bhushan Sarkar

Bibhuti Bhusan Sarkar, born and raised in Shantipur, studied in Calcutta at the Bengal National College. In mid 1907, at about the age of twenty, he joined the Maniktola secret society; he was one of the first to stay regularly at Maniktola Garden. In December he and Prafulla Chaki laid the dynamite mine that almost derailed the train carrying Sir Andrew Fraser. Bibhuti Bhusan was arrested with other revolutionaries in May 1908 and found guilty of conspiracy; his sentence of transportation for life was reduced upon appeal to ten years. Shipped to the Andamans in December 1909, he was imprisoned there for eight years and served the remainder of his term in jails on the mainland. He was released in February 1920.

REMINISCENCES OF BIBHUTI BHUSAN SARKAR

One day while coming home from school, I was attracted by a small group of men whispering among themselves. A few words caught my ears as I passed by: "Some workers of the tea-garden have died due to injuries of the spleen!' Startled, I went nearer and enquired, "How did it hap-pen?" One of the men replied sarcastically, "If you get kicked in the stomach with those heavy boots, what else can happen?" All flushed with anger, I asked him, "But who kicked them so brutally?" "Who else but the sahibs of the tea-garden," came the prompt reply. Back home I could not speak to anyone nor eat any food, so deep was my concern for those workers. As a young boy at that time I wished with all my heart, "If only I could have Alladin's lamp, I would call the genie and order him to drown those cruel sahibs in the waters of the river Karnafuli."

A few days later at school, during the tiffin interval, I noticed a few students of the higher standard gathered under a tree in the courtyard. Curious, I elbowed my way to the centre. A lean boy, his hair all in disorder, was whispering something to a strong, fat boy, who seemed to be scared. Finally the fat boy ran away and the others cried, "Coward, coward, you are a coward!" I felt a challenge and went and stood in front of the thin boy, who looked me over from head to foot. Then handing me a copy of the Gita and a piece of paper, he said, "Hold this book and read aloud what is written on the paper." I did as I was told and began reading. "This is my vow. From today I have become a freedom fighter for my Mother-land. The freedom of India is my dream during sleep, it is my meditation when I am awake, it is my only aim in life. As long as India is not free, I shall live like a Swadeshi using nothing but Indian goods, boycotting all that is foreign." For me this was the beginning and the end. It was no more a wishful fairy tale, I myself was now turning into a genie. The Swadeshi vow became the mantra of my life. I wished with all my heart to join the revolutionary movement to liberate my Motherland.

Then in July 1907, I came to Calcutta, joined Barin's group at Maniktola Garden and became fully involved in their activities.

*

I remember so well the night that Sri Aurobindo and Barin-da came to visit our place in Midnapur, where we had gone for some work. There for the first time I had Sri Aurobindo's darshan. He looked at me with his profound, peaceful eyes and asked me how far I had studied. "Only till the Entrance", I replied. He then arranged for me to study further. But the urge to serve my Motherland was so strong that I was unable to concentrate on studies any longer. Thus I went back to Barin-da in Calcutta and was given the task of distributing the pamphlet "Bartaman Rananiti"

*

In the course of the months that followed, I was chosen for various missions. One of them was to plant a bomb on the railway line to blow up the train carrying Sir Andrew Fraser, Governor General of Bengal. Our first attempt failed. Our second attempt was on 6 December 1907. An explosion took place but only a part of the train blew up, leaving the Governor unharmed.

I continued to work with Barin's group under his supervision. Then in May 1908, after the Muzaffarpur bombing, we were all arrested along with Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore Bomb Case. I was among those who confessed to the Government in order to save the innocent. The trial dragged on for a year. Finally, for some of us the judgment was transportation for life to the Andamans. We were the first batch of political prisoners to be sent to that Devil's Island.

*

I stayed in the Andamans for eight long years, from 1909 to 1917. Like the others I had my share of coir-pounding, working at the oil-mill, and other jobs. Then after a couple of years I was shifted to a salt farm. The work there was even more torturous than the previous ones. Every day, working alone, I had to pour hundreds of buckets of sea water into a large shallow urn in just three hours. Then for the rest of the day, I had to burn wood under the urn in order to evaporate the water, stirring it with a large wooden ladle. It took the whole day to boil off the water and get the needed salt. I had to feed the oven constantly with fuel to keep it burning. Every day I would prepare a huge quantity of salt with my own hands. As I gathered the chunks of heated salt with the help of the ladle, the vapour rising up from the salt would almost suffocate me. And that was not all. I had to carry twelve cartloads of wood for the fire, after chopping up the wood with a hammer and chisel and then loading it into the cart. By the end of the day there was absolutely no energy left in me.