Highlight the contribution of Barindra Kumar Ghosh in the Indian Freedom Struggle. (HPAS Mains Question Paper 2022 – GS 1, Q.2)
Barindra Kumar Ghosh (Barindra Ghose), also known as Barin Ghosh, was an Indian journalist and revolutionary. He was a founding member of Jugantar, a Bengali revolutionary movement. He was Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother. Barindra Kumar Ghosh was born in London. He was born into a family of thinkers. He went to Deoghar school and then to Patna College after passing the entrance exam in 1901.
Contribution of Barindra Kumar Ghosh in the Indian Freedom Struggle:
- In Baroda, he received military training. Barin was inspired by Aurobindo and drawn to the revolutionary movement during this era (late 19th century – early 20th century).
- With the support of Jatindranath Mukherjee, Barin returned to Kolkata in 1902 and began organising many revolutionary groups in Bengal. He began publishing Jugantar, a Bengali weekly in 1906, and soon after founded Jugantar, a revolutionary organisation.
ALIPORE BOMBING CASE
- The ‘Alipore Bomb Case’ was “India’s first large-scale state trial.”
- In 1908, a revolutionary plan was made to assassinate the Chief Presidency Magistrate, D.H. Kingford of Muzaffarpur. The task was given to Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki. They threw the bombs on a vehicle coming out of the Magistrate’s home on April 30, 1908. The Magistrate could not be killed as he was not in the car, but two British ladies were killed in the attack. Prafulla Chaki committed suicide after being cornered by the Police, and Khudi Ram Bose was arrested.
- The British government imprisoned Sri Aurobindo, Barindra Kumar Ghose, and many young revolutionaries. They were convicted of “conspiracy” or “waging war against the King,” which was the equivalent of high treason and carried a death sentence of hanging.
- Preliminary trials in the Magistrate’s court included 1000 artifacts as evidence and 222 witnesses, followed by a trial in Sessions Court with 1438 exhibits and 206 witnesses. During this time, the under-trial detainees were detained in the Presidency Jail unlawfully and inhumanely (including solitary confinement).
- After a one-year hearing, Judge Beachcroft delivered the verdict on May 6, 1909. The Judge acquitted Sri Aurobindo of all charges, citing the flimsy nature of the evidence against him.
- Barindra Ghose, the head of the Secret Society of Revolutionaries, and Ullaskar Dutt, as a bomb maker, were sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment). In contrast, seventeen others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment or transportation, and the rest were acquitted.
- In 1920, Barin was released. He moved back to Calcutta and began working as a journalist.
- “The tale of my exile – twelve years in the Andamans,” he wrote in his memoirs.
- He took a break from journalism in 1923 to visit his brother, Aurobindo Ghosh, at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.
- In 1929, he returned to journalism, and in 1933, he founded ‘The Dawn of India’, an English weekly. He worked for the newspaper ‘The Statesman’ before becoming the Bengali daily ‘Dainik Basumati’ editor in 1950.
