The Intellectual Roots of India’s Freedom Struggle (1893-1918)

Prithwindra Mukherjee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351363624
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia dell'India e dell'Asia meridionale

Most people believe India's struggle for independence to have begun with Mahatma Gandhi. Little credit goes to the proof that this call for a mass movement did not arise out of a void. For the past century and more, historians have overlooked the phase of twenty-five years of intense creative endeavour preceding and preparing for the Mahatma's advent. The reason for this systematic omission has been the fundamentally radical nature of the revolutionary programme put to practice by Indian leaders of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jugantar was diametrically distinct from the dream of non-violence floated by the Mahatma and the Congress.

Very well documented with inputs from Indian, European and American archives, the present study carefully straightenes out the origins – philosophical, historical and religious and intellectual, so to say – of Indian nationalism. From Rammohun to Sri Aurobindo, passing through Marx and Tagore, the full set of ideological views has been analysed here.

Unknown up to this day, the sustained focus in this volume on the outlook and the activities of these revolutionaries inside India and abroad brings home the 'very sophisticated understanding of the contemporary political reality' that made their leader Jatindranath Mukherjee, the 'right hand man' of Sri Aurobindo, the very emblem of an epoch and its aspirations.

Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

CHAPTER II

The Thinker in Action

II.1. Jatin Mukherjee (1879–1915) and the Bengali Society

II.1.1. FROM THE GORAI TO THE GANGA

Ballal Sen, king of Bengal in the twelfth century, is reputed to have exacted of the Brahmana ‘caste’ nine compulsory attributes: (a) fidelity to the rituals revealed by the Vedas; (b) humility; (c) erudition; (d) confirmation of aptitude; (e) devotion to the holy places (tirtha); (f) consecration to vocation; (g) radiating serenity; (h) strength acquired by personal discipline; and (i) generosity. Among nineteen Brahmanas picked up by this king from north India for their excellence Utsaha and Bahurupa were, respectively, the paternal and maternal ancestors of Jatin Mukherjee. All these Brahmanas were especially versed in the Samaveda.

Given to Vedic studies, sufficiently educated in English, Umesh Chandra Mukherjee (1850–84), Jatin’s father, was abreast of the social mutations that India was undergoing. Enjoying a landed property allotted by the council of his native village Sadhuhati Riskhali in the district of Jhenaidah (Jessore, currently in Bangladesh), Umesh Chandra commanded, thanks to his courage, a sense of justice, and his learning, the respect of the local folk as well as European indigo planters of the region, though the latter were notorious as slave drivers in their dealings with local people. An enthusiast of physical training and riding, this father—before his untimely death—had transmitted to Jatin two passions: care for his compatriots and a love of horses.

Jatin’s mother, Sharat-Shashi Devi (1858–99), was the granddaughter of Ramasundar Chatterjee (1794–1890), landowner of Koya in the district of Kushtia (also in Bangladesh now): at the head of about a hundred families belonging to martial classes, fishermen, washers, barbers, potters and peasants, Ramasundar was one of those rare popular zamindars whose subjects were proud of his prosperity. As a friend of Devendranath Tagore, Ramasundar had looked after the latter’s properties in the adjacent village of Silaidah, with the complicity of the powerful Muslim chief Naimuddin of the village Kaloa, during a generalized revolt of the subjects against some tax abuses. Indebted, for some time, Devendranath had appointed Ramasundar manager of his estates at Cuttack in Orissa. Even at the ripe age of seventy-six, informed about the conduct of a handful of drunken English officers from a nearby military camp at the heart of his village, Ramasundar rushed to the spot and, seizing four of them, dragged them up to his courtyard. Tied up, they waited there till their captain came and apologized. His eldest son, Madhusudan Chatterjee, died early, in 1875, leaving behind him two daughters (Sharat-Shashi and Jaya Kaali) and five sons (Basanta Kumar, Hemanta Kumar, Durgaprasanna, Anathbandhu and Lalit Kumar).

The progressive and liberal ambiance of this family helped all the five brothers—firmly rooted in their soil—to participate, each in his way, in the social and political life of the country. The eldest, Basanta Kumar (1857–1908), pleader and law professor at Krishnagar College, represented Nadia district at sessions of the National Congress; legal adviser to the Maharaja of Nadia, he counted among his clients and friends Rabindranath Tagore and Ramgopal Chetlangia, a well-to-do trader. Having heard about the debts of a few local municipal scavengers to a businessman of Krishnagar, Basanta Kumar reimbursed not only their debt (the sum of Rs. 500, fabulous in those days) but also, before the approaching winter, distributed shawls among their families. Hemanta Kumar (1861–1937), practitising physician in Calcutta, had for friends and colleagues celebrities such as Suresh Prasad Sarbadhikari and Sir Nilratan Sarkar. Durgaprasanna (1865–1950) and Anathbandhu (1869–1954) held different posts of responsibility at the princely estates of Cossimbazar and Lalbagh in Murshidabad. Lalit Kumar (1874–1949), son-in-law of the nationalist writer Yogendra Vidyabhushan (1845–1904), was lawyer at Calcutta High Court. He would have for son-in-law Justice Ramaprasad Mookerji (son of Sir Ashutosh). Personally known to friend of Suren Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, and other revolutionary leaders, Lalit Kumar left ample written accounts of his family (including a biography of Jatin, his nephew and revolutionary comrade-in-arms, in collaboration with his niece Vinodebala). Member of the Academy of the Letters of Bengal and permanent secretary of its Nadia branch, Lalit Kumar loved music and was himself a gifted poet and novelist.

As for Sharat-Shashi, their mother, she had picked up the message from the builders of the future nation: especially and above all, she was influenced by the writings of Bankim Chandra, Bhudev Mukherjee, Madhusudan Dutt, Hemachandra, Yogendra Vidyabhushan (disciple of Vidyasagar, the pioneer among emancipator of the Indian Woman). Two voices of promising contemporary thought—Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, both her contemporaries—also impressed her. She admired the way Tagore, since the age of fourteen, had in meetings organized by his family members and friends started claiming equal rights for Indian citizens in railway carriages or in public places.

As Jatin grew older, he gained a reputation for physical bravery and great strength; charitable and cheerful by nature, he was fond of caricature and acting in mythological plays, himself playing the roles of god-loving characters. In his later life, he encouraged several playwrights to produce patriotic pieces for the urban stage and also engaged village bards to spread nationalist fervour in the countryside.¹ Jatin had a natural respect for the human creature, heedless of class or caste or religions. Having carried the burden of an aged Muslim villager on his head, he is known to have shared with her the only platter of rice she had, and sent her some money every month.²

Poet and chronicler of her family and of great events of national importance, Sharat-Shashi was an inspiration to people around her. After Umesh Chandra’s death in 1884, she went live with her paternal grandfather, with her daughter Vinodebala (1874–1943), and son Jatin. Hardly come out of mourning, she was struck again, in 1886, by the death of Vinodebala’s husband. In keeping with their pioneering social commitments, the Chatterjees of Koya were in favour of the remarriage of widows: Basanta Kumar himself had married a widow. But Sharat-Shashi considered herself happy and fulfilled in her life of daring ideology as a widow, having to bring up her children in conformity with Umesh Chandra’s wishes, keeping herself busy with the vast household of the Chatterjees. In addition to her daily chores, she assembled women of the district in a shed for handicrafts and arts to encourage ritual floor decorations, embroideries, hosiery, and study of Bengali magazines and journals of Calcutta. Spontaneously charitable, Sharat Shashi was seen nursing patients night after night, not only members of her family, but also neighbours and people of the village. Without thinking about her own pleasure, she at times gave away her own clothes and jewellery. The last of the household to eat her lunch, if any beggar happened to turn up in the afternoon, she served him with whatever remained; if Vinode or Jatin protested, seeing that she had kept nothing for herself, she answered with a serene smile that she was not hungry. She even held that he who had come disguised as a beggar, could have been God in person; their God who was hungry and would remain hungry as long as there were thousands starving in the country.

One day, when Jatin was barely three, scared at the sight of a unruly dog, he had taken refuge in the kitchen, under a corner of the maternal sari. Having read on his face traits of a panic, Sharat Shashi armed him with a stick and sent him chasing the dog away. On accomplishing his mission (because the beast had fled before the armed kid), Jatin came back to see his mother; he was welcomed with kisses, congratulations and only one comment that she hated to be the mother of a cowardly son. According to Vinodebala, it was for the first and the last time that she saw her brother afraid.

The Gorai River, daughter of the impetuous Padma, became terrifying during the rainy season. Every evening, at the end of her busy day, Sharat took her children to bathe in the river. Expert in swimming, this widow threw her son into the whirling water, letting him struggle before darting and catching him up at the slightest sign of fatigue. For the rest of his life, Jatin was indebted to his mother for these lessons, because he made use of them quite frequently: returning from Calcutta, instead of waiting for a station jumped into the Gorai while his train crossed the bridge, thus reaching home earlier by swimming. As all mothers of the time, Sharat lulled her children by narrating heroic tales or excerpts from the epics and the vast popular mythology. Jatin was impressed as much by Dhruva and Prahlad (the teenagers who defended their faith against all tribulations till the divine apparition came to rescue them), as Hanuman (the valorous ape, faithful servant of Rama and also virtuous Harish Chandra and courageous Pratapaditya, fascinated Jatin throughout his life; he liked playing these roles.

Jatin’s privileged confidant and adviser Vinodebala Devi was the only person who remained informed about his secret intentions, political and other. Between them, there was a loving, reciprocal tie of consideration, and a noble complicity. In the eyes of Jatin’s young followers, this elder sister was the symbol of the will of the Motherland, a serene source of constant inspiration. In April 1907, on the eve of their departure to douse local community riots in Jamalpur in East Bengal, a delegation of desperate revolutionaries composed of Indra Nandi, Bepin Ganguli, Nikhil Ray Maulik, Harish Sikdar, Prabhas Dey, Naren Bose, Sudhir Sarkar prostrated before Vinodebala for her blessings: she decorated their foreheads with a drop of blood drawn from her bosom.³ She preserved to her death the most authentic testimonies on the life and the projects of her brother. She narrated to her nieces, nephews, and their children, anecdotes of Jatin’s life with a thoroughness and a realistic clarity, protecting them from the abounding popular imagination around this personality, turned into a legend in his own lifetime. Having received an English education at Calcutta, having had for classmates daughters of Keshub Chunder Sen and girls from the Tagore family, Vinodebala was to look after her young sister-in-law and the children—after Jatin’s death in 1915—with her earnings as a teacher in the Carmichael High School of Krishnagar and other educational establishments at Calcutta like Saroj-Nalini Institution for Widows. She was actively associated with the protection and social integration of women, at the side of Sarojini Ghose, sister of Sri Aurobindo, and Sarala Ghoshal (Chaudhuri).

*

Jatin was born in Koya, on 7 December 1879. His father called him Jyoti or ‘Light’. This first name became Jyotindranath or Jatindranath. In addition to lessons at the village primary school, Jatin had regular coaching in self-defence and wrestling from Yadumal, a professional appointed by the Chatterjees. Uncle Anath, who was an accomplished gymnast, also trained Jatin and allowed him to go out riding on his mare, Sundari along the Gorai. Then Feraz Khan, a retired soldier from the North-Western Frontier, came to settle in one of the outbuildings and took on the physical education of the children, introducing wrestling, clubbing, fighting with swords, daggers and lathis (seasoned bamboo sticks). Feraz instilled in Jatin, especially, his love for liberty, which he held to be the greatest virtue that his tribe practised, which could not be subjugated by any domineering foreign power.

A cross-road of progressive thoughts and patriotic passions, the house of the Chatterjees was also the centre of social gatherings: every year, for three festive days that precede the first full moon of Autumn, they celebrated the victory of Durga over the Evil forces. On this occasion, about one thousand guests of all social origin came to eat with the Chatterjees; no less than 400 kg of rice had to be cooked daily and with his band of adolescent friends, Jatin took charge of this task. Fond of working in a cheerful atmosphere, Jatin improvised lilting humorous songs and sketches. There was a refined white rice intended for guests of high society, and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I. The Genesis of Nationalism in India
• II. The Thinker in Action
• III. Conclusion
• IV. Annexe
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index