This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Jugantar" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Jugantar or Yugantar (Bengali: যুগান্তর Jugantor; lit. New Era or Transition of an Epoch) was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence. This association, like Anushilan Samiti, started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman and many of them joined the Communist Consolidation in the Cellular Jail.

The beginning

The Jugantar party was established in April 1906 by leaders like Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh, Hemchandra Kanungo, Upen Banerjee .[1][2] Along with 21 revolutionaries, they started to collect arms, explosives and manufactured bombs. The headquarters of Jugantar were located at 27 Kanai Dhar Lane then 41 Champatola 1st Lane in Kolkata.[3]

Activities

The Jugantar party possessed cast iron bombshells those manufactured in 1930 by themselves.

Some senior members of the group were sent abroad for political and military training. One of the first batches included Surendra Mohan Bose, Tarak Nath Das and Guran Ditt Kumar, who, since 1907, were extremely active among the Hindu and Sikh immigrants on the Western coast of North America. These units were to compose the future Ghadar Party.[4] In Paris Hemchandra Kanungo alias Hem Das, along with Pandurang M. Bapat, obtained training in explosives from the Russian anarchist Nicholas Safranski.[5]

In 1908, as a next step, Jugantar chose to censure persons connected with the arrest and trial of revolutionaries involved in the Alipore Bomb Case. On 10 February 1909, Ashutosh Biswas, who conducted the prosecution of Kanai and Satyen for the murder of Naren Gosain (a revolutionary turned approver), was shot dead by Charu Basu in the Calcutta High Court premises. Samsul Alam, Deputy Superintendent of Police, who conducted the Alipore Case was shot and killed by Biren Dutta Gupta on the stairs of Calcutta High Court building on 24 January 1910. Charu Basu and Biren Dutta Gupta were later hanged.[6]

Several including Jatindra Nath Mukherjee were arrested in connection with the murder of Police inspector Samsul Alam on 24 January 1910 in Calcutta and other charges. Thus started the Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case that tried the prisoners for treason, waging war against the Crown and tampering with the loyalty of Indian soldiers, such as those belonging to the Jat Regiment posted in Fort William, and soldiers in Upper Indian Cantonments.[7]

The German plot

Main article: Hindu German Conspiracy

Nixon's Report corroborates that Jugantar under Jatindra Nath Mukherjee counted a good deal on the ensuing World War to organise an armed uprising with the Indian soldiers in various regiments.[8] During World War I the Jugantar Party arranged importation of German arms and ammunitions[9]

Failure of the German plot

The whole plot leaked out locally owing to a native traitor and,[citation needed] internationally, through Czech revolutionaries in the United States.[10][11]

Unification and failure

Following these major setbacks, and in the new circumstances of the colonial powers practising their divide and rule policy, there was an attempt to unify the revolutionary factions in Bengal. Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were brought close by the joint leadership of Narendra Mohan Sen of Anushilan, and Jadugopal Mukherjee of Jugantar. However, this merger failed to revive the revolutionary activities up to the expected level.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Shah, Mohammad (2012). "Jugantar Party". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  2. ^ Heehs, Peter (1993). The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910. Oxford University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-19-563350-4.
  3. ^ Mukhopadhyay Haridas & Mukhopadhyay Uma. (1972) Bharater svadhinata andolané 'jugantar' patrikar dan, p15.
  4. ^ Political Trouble in India , by James Campbell Ker, pp220-260.
  5. ^ Heehs, Peter (1993). The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910. Oxford University Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-19-563350-4.
  6. ^ Rowlatt Report; Samanta, op. cit.
  7. ^ The major charge... during the trial (1910–1911) was "conspiracy to wage war against the King-Emperor" and "tampering with the loyalty of the Indian soldiers" (mainly with the 10th Jats Regiment) (cf: Sedition Committee Report, 1918)
  8. ^ Samanta, op. cit. Vol II, p 591
  9. ^ Rowlatt Report (§109-110)
  10. ^ Voska, Emanual Victor; Irwin, Will (1940). Spy and Counterspy. Doubleday, Doran & Co. p. 141.
  11. ^ Masaryk, Thomas Garrigue (1969) [First published 1927]. The Making of a State. Howard Fertig. p. 242.
  12. ^ Islam, Sirajul (2012). "Revolutionary Terrorism". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  13. ^ Ghosh, Pansy Chhaya (1973). "Ghosh, Surendra Mohan (1893-)". In Sen, S. P. (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. II. Calcutta: Institute of Historical Studies. pp. 63–64. OCLC 58642818.
Categories