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Lord Hardinge : Charles (1858-1944), 1st Baron of Penthurst, was Viceroy (1910-16). His grandfather Henry Hardinge (1785-1856)…as Gov.-Gen of India (1884-88); provoked the 1st Anglo-Sikh War in 1845, extracted from descendants of Ranjit Singh the Treaty of Lahore to swallow Punjab & Kashmir (part of which he shared with his Kashmiri ally): made 1st Viscount of Lahore; reshaped Govt.’s internal administration, established Christian schools, prohibited Sunday work in Govt. offices so native employees could practise Christian ritual of that day, determined military questions in native & European armies. [Buckland] ― Towards the end of 1911, revolutionaries of Chandernagore group decided to kill Charles Hardinge when he made a ceremonial entry into Delhi, the new capital. The mission was organised by Rash Behari Bose, a relative & colleague of Srish Ghose (q.v.); a picric-acid bomb made by the Anushilan Samiti; Rash Behari trained Basanta Biswas for the mission. On 23 December 1912, the procession for the Viceroy’s State entry into the new capital of British India, the Delhi of the Moghuls, started from the railway station, amidst thousands of troops & hundreds of thousands of spectators. At the head were a number of elephants carrying the Viceroy & the Vicerine, the Ruling Princes, & senior officials. Basanta already on a rooftop in Chāndani Chowk, when the procession entered the Chowk, hurled the bomb at the Viceroy & disappeared into the crowds. Hardinge fainted from loss of blood; the servant holding the umbrella behind him was killed & another wounded. In spite of offers of huge rewards – 100,000 rupees, was offered for information leading to the arrest of the culprit or culprits – & unprecedented police activity the culprits remained undetected. In 1913, under the new Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act, a number of revolutionaries were arrested & convicted. Of them, Basanta, Amir Chand, Awadh Behari & Bālamukund, arrested for a different bomb attack, received capital punishment & two others sentenced to 7 years Rigorous Imprisonment. ― Early in August 1914, Viceroy Hardinge offered to take 2000 volunteers as stretcher-bearers. When almost 50,000 volunteered, Hardinge whittled down the offer to enlist to the Ambulance Corps. In a private letter that year, Sri Aurobindo: “We know Lord Hardinge’s policy: sweet words; quiet systematic coercion; concession where obstinacy would mean too great a row & too much creation of deep-seated hostility.” Spineless INC thanked Hardinge for the prompt despatch of an expeditionary force & a free gift of 100 million pounds sterling (of India’s money) “affording Indians an opportunity of showing that, as equal (sic) subjects of His Majesty, they are prepared to fight in defence of right & justice (sic) & the cause of the Empire.” By All Fools Day 1918, Govt. spent 128 million pounds sterling in addition to the 2.1 million extorted from Princes & public, not counting what the country paid for war equipment. Viceroy Hardinge declared in the British Parliament that India had been “bled white”. In April 1918, Lord Hardinge called a War Conference inviting the ruling Princes & “delegates representing all shades of political opinion”. There G.S. Khaparde proposed that “in order to invoke whole-hearted & real enthusiasm... to mobilise the man-power & material & money, the Parliament should introduce a Bill to establish responsible Govt. in India within a reasonable period which would be specified in the Statute.” The Viceroy ruled it out of order. Immediately after this conference Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy, “But it is the simple truth that our response is due to the expectation that our goal will be reached all the more speedily... it is this faith which has enabled many...to tender to the Govt. their full-hearted co-operation.”... In a similar Conference in Bombay, Tilak’s reply to the Governor’s attack on Home Rulers was twice ruled out of order & he walked out. Kelkar too, ruled out of order because he raised the question of India’s political status, walked out with Horniman & others. Jinnah entered an emphatic protest on the same issue & demanded Govt. raise “a national army to fight the German menace, not a purely mercenary army”.... Though sweet reasonableness & a sympathetic attitude marked the words of Britishers, official & unofficial, during the course of the War, all these were forgotten as soon as the Armistice was signed. Govt. became as reactionary in regard to political reforms & as oppressive as before. [Vide R.C. Majumdar’s History of Freedom Movement; P. Heehs, Bomb in Bengal, 1993; Lajpat Rai, Young India, 1927; Fatehsingh Rao’s Sayājirao of Baroda..., 1989; CWSA vol.36.]