Hem Chandra Das

Hem Chandra Das [Kanungo] (1871-1950), like Ullaskar Dutt an expert in explosives and a natural singer and comedian, was born in the village of Radhanagar in the district of Midnapore. He attended Cambel Medical College in Calcutta for a while, but left it in order to join an art college. Later he worked as an art teacher in a school in Midnapore and as a demonstrator in chemistry at Midnapore College.

One of the pioneers of the revolutionary movement in Bengal, Hem Chandra joined a secret society in Midnapore around 1900. He first met Sri Aurobindo and Barin early in 1903 when the two visited the Midnapore centre. When Bengal was partitioned in 1905, Hem became fully involved in revolutionary work, training young men in the use of firearms. Sometime in mid 1906, under Barin's direction, he attempted to kill Bampfylde Fuller, Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal, but was unsuccessful.

In July 1906 Hem sold part of his property and sailed to France to learn about revolutionary movements. He made contact with a French Socialist group and was instructed in the organisation of secret societies. From the Russian Anarchist Nicolas Safrenski, he learned to make explosives. Returning to India in January 1908, Hem worked in Calcutta with Barin's group [Maniktala Secret Society]. In January he sent a book-bomb - one pound of picric acid embedded in a book of law, primed to go off upon opening - to the chief presidency magistrate, Douglas Kingsford, but the judge never opened it. In April he made another picric acid bomb which was thrown at Mayor Tardivel of Chandernagore; the detonator went off, but failed to ignite the picric acid. Later in the same month he collaborated with Ullaskar Dutt in making the small dynamite bomb which killed the two Kennedy women [Muzaffarpur Bombing].

In May 1908 Hem Chandra was arrested with the other revolutionaries for conspiracy [Alipore Bomb Case]. He refused to make any confession. Considered by the police as one of the most dangerous prisoners, he along with Sri Aurobindo was placed in solitary confinement in Alipore Jail. Sentenced to transportation for life in the Andamans, he was not released until 1920. He then settled in Bengal and worked as an artist and photographer. He passed away in 1950 at the age of seventy-nine.

SRI AUROBINDO ON HEM CHANDRA DAS

My prison-cell was nine feet long and about five or six feet wide. This windowless cage, fronted by a large iron barred-door, was assigned to me as my abode. The cell opened into a very small courtyard, paved with stones and surrounded by a high brick wall. A wooden door led outside. The door had a small peep-hole at eye-level, for sentries to keep a periodic watch on the convicts when the door was closed. The door to the courtyard of my cell was generally kept open. There were six such contiguous cells known as the 'six decrees'. The word 'decree' was a reference to the special punishment prescribed either by the Judge or the Jail Superintendent in the form of solitary confinement within these tiny, cramped cells.

There were varying degrees of severity even in solitary confinement though. The first degree of severity consisted of keeping the courtyard doors shut to deprive the prisoner of all human contact. The tenuous link with the outside world was then preserved through the eyes of the vigilant sentries and the visits of fellow-convicts, who came twice a day to deliver meals. It appears that Hemchandra Das was a notch higher than me on the scale of the CID's (Criminal Investigation Department) affections, as evidenced by him being singled out to undergo this form of punishment.

UPENDRANATH BANNERJEE ON HEM CHANDRA DAS

I found Hemchandra to be of that class of people in whom the child is never dead. Hemchandra had that delightful combination of grey hair, mature intelligence and eternal childhood and so rose much higher than the average. In a short time, he became an object of general love and respect and came to be called "Hemda" or "Big Brother Hem".

BARINDRA KUMAR GHOSE ON HEM CHANDRA DAS

I have never seen his strength of mind diminished even by so little. There was none equal to Hemchandra for bearing pain and suffering with a smiling face, for calmly determining the future in the very thick of terrible struggle and difficulty. When some of us were so much overwhelmed with suffering that they were up to doing anything, it was he who infused into them his calm strength of mind and kept them back.