Revolutionary Activities in Bengal

The revolutionary movement in Bengal developed during the anti-partition agitation of 1905. The failure of Moderate methods and the colonial government’s harsh repression of open protests pushed young political activists toward secret societies and armed action. Nationalists drew inspiration from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Anandamath, Swami Vivekananda’s call for youth strength, and international liberation struggles in Ireland, Russia, and Japan. Revolutionaries organized underground cells, conducted physical culture training, manufactured explosives, and carried out targeted political assassinations and political dacoities (swadeshi dacoities) to raise funds for arms procurement.

Major Secret Societies and Revolutionary Groups

Two prominent revolutionary organizations directed underground operations across Bengal and neighbouring regions.

Anushilan Samiti

• Promathanath Mitra, Satish Chandra Basu, and Sarala Devi founded the Calcutta Anushilan Samiti in March 1902.
• Pulin Behari Das established the Dacca Anushilan Samiti in 1906, creating a network of over 500 rural branches across Eastern Bengal.
• The society functioned under the guise of physical culture clubs (akhadas), providing instruction in swordplay, gymnastics, martial arts, and nationalist literature.

Jugantar Group

• Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta, and Ullaskar Dutt formed an inner revolutionary wing within Anushilan Samiti in 1906.
• They started the weekly newspaper Yugantar in April 1906 to preach open defiance and armed resistance against British authority.
• The group established a secret bomb factory at Manicktolla garden house in Calcutta, supervised by Hemchandra Kanungo, who learned bomb-making techniques from Russian revolutionaries in Paris.

Major Cases and Revolutionary Incidents

Secret societies executed direct actions targeting colonial administrators, police officials, and Indian informers.

Muzaffarpur Bomb Case (1908)

• Kudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki attempted to assassinate DH Kingsford, the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta known for imposing harsh sentences on Swadeshi activists.
• On April 30, 1908, in Muzaffarpur (Bihar), they threw a bomb at Kingsford’s carriage, accidentally killing two Englishwomen, Mrs. Pringle Kennedy and her daughter.
• Prafulla Chaki shot himself at Samastipur railway station to evade arrest, while Khudiram Bose was captured and hanged on August 11, 1908.

Alipore Conspiracy Case (1908–1909)

• Police raided the Manicktolla garden house in May 1908, arresting 34 revolutionaries, including Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, and Ullaskar Dutt.
• Chittaranjan Das defended Aurobindo Ghosh in court, securing his complete acquittal in May 1909.
• Narendra Goswami, an approver in the case, was shot dead inside Alipore Jail by fellow prisoners Satyendranath Bose and Kanailal Dutt before he could testify.

Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy Case (1910)

• Following the assassination of Deputy Superintendent of Police Shamsul Alam on the steps of the Calcutta High Court by Birendranath Datta Gupta, police arrested 47 revolutionaries linked to Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin).
• The trial targeted the decentralized network of the Jugantar Party in Bengal.

German Plot and the Battle of Buribalam (1915)

• During World War I, Bagha Jatin and Rash Behari Bose planned an armed insurrection with German aid, known as the Hindu-German Conspiracy or Zimmerman Plan.
• Revolutionary Naren Bhattacharjee (later M.N. Roy) traveled abroad to secure arms shipments on the vessel SS Annie Larsen.
• British intelligence intercepted the communications, leading to a police siege near Balasore, Odisha. Bagha Jatin and his companions fought an armed battle at Buribalam on September 9, 1915, where Jatin sustained fatal injuries.

Prominent Revolutionary Groups in Bengal

Essential Facts on Bengal Revolutionary Activities

Bhupendranath Datta, brother of Swami Vivekananda, edited the journal Yugantar before his arrest in 1907. Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose used bombs manufactured by Ullaskar Dutt at the Manicktolla laboratory for the Muzaffarpur attack. Aurobindo Ghosh retired from active politics after his acquittal in the Alipore Conspiracy Case and moved to Pondicherry in 1910 to focus on spiritual work. Bagha Jatin earned his nickname after killing a Royal Bengal tiger with a dagger in his native Nadia district in 1906. Hemchandra Kanungo traveled to Paris in 1906, where he joined the Russian emigré network to learn chemical formulas for explosive compounds, returning to set up the Manicktolla bomb factory. In August 1914, members of the Atmonnati Samiti under Bipin Behari Ganguly intercepted a shipment belonging to Rodda & Company in Calcutta, stealing 50 Mauser pistols and 46,000 rounds of ammunition for revolutionary groups across Bengal.