The inherent bond of revolutionary freedom fighters was evident in the Ghadar party’s formation. Advised by Lala Lajpat Rai, Lala Har Dayal went abroad to continue his work for the country’s freedom and, with other revolutionaries, founded the Ghadar party in the USA. Ghadar meant revolt. The Ghadar party sought to start an insurrection against British rule inside India. The headquarter of the party in San Francisco was named ‘’Jugantar Ashram’’ after Barin Ghose’s paper, Jugantar. Thus, beneath the surface level of separation, there were always links between the revolutionaries.

As part of the Ghadar conspiracy, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, closely working with Rash Behari Bose, went to Punjab and planned a nation-wide mutiny in 1915. This was to be done by organising a revolt of Indian soldiers of the British Indian army. It failed primarily because the plan was leaked to the British by an informant and weapons bought from Germany never reached India. Before this, various fitness clubs or “Akharas” had come up as underground centres for revolutionary activities. The most influential among them was Anushilan Samiti, formed in Calcutta in 1902.

Advertisement

Sister Nivedita lent active support to this organisation. Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barin Ghosh were deeply involved with its activities. In a solemn oath-taking ceremony, Barin was initiated by Aurobindo into Anushilan Samiti by holding a sword in one hand and the Bhagwat Gita in the other. This was a rite common to the initiation of all revolutionaries. An explicit call for waging war was found in Aurobindo’s pamphlet of 1905, ‘’Bhawani Mandir’’.

Advertisement

Here, he propagated the idea of building a temple-school for training warrior monks who would spread across India to begin an armed rebellion against the Raj. In 1906, the Jugantar group emerged as an offshoot of Anushilan Samiti. In 1882, Bankimchandra also sought to send a message of revolt, fictionalising the Sanyasi rebellion. However, the patriotic hymn ‘Vande Mataram’ appearing in “Anandamath”, came in for criticism for being anti-Muslim. Nevertheless, Vande Mataram became the rallying slogan of all Indian freedom fighters after Rabindranath Tagore sang it in the Calcutta Session of Congress in 1896.........

© The Statesman