Jugantar

Jugantar or Yugantar (Bangla: যুগান্তর) (nearest English meaning change of an era) was one of the secret revolutionary organisations operating in Bengal for Indian independence.The association,like Anushilan Samiti operated in the guise of suburban fitness club.Jugantar carried out many terrorist activities like attempt to murder, murder and looting against the ruling British government.Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman.

Notable members

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Aurobindo Ghosh

• Aurobindo Ghosh
• Barin Ghosh
• Raja Subodh Mallik
• Khudiram Bose
• Prafulla Chaki

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Bagha Jatin

• Bagha Jatin
• Amarendra Chatterjee (1880-1957)
• Ambika Chakrobarty (1891-1962)
• Arun Chandra Guha (b.1892)
• Basanta Kumar Biswas (1895-1915)
• Bipin Behari Ganguli (1887-1954)
• Bhupendra Kumar Datta (b. 1894)
• Dinesh Chandra Majumdar (1907-1934)
• Ganesh Ghosh (b. 1900 )
• Jadu Gopal Mukherjee (b.1866)
• Jiban Lal Chattopadhyay (1889-1970)
• Jyotish Chandra Ghose (1887-1970)
• Kalpana Datta Joshi (b.1913)

Prilata Waddedar

• Manoranjan Gupta (b.1890)
• Pritilata Waddedar (1911-1932)
• Tarakeswar Dastidar
• Purna Chandra Das (1889-1956)
• Santosh Kumar Mitra (1901-1931)
• Santi Ghose Das ( b.1916)
• Suniti Chaudhuri Ghosh (b.1917)
• Surendra Mohan Ghosh alias Madhu Ghosh(1893 b)
• Upendra Nath Bandopadhyay (1879-1950)
• Binod Bihari Chaudhury

The beginning

This extremist outfit was established by Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta, Raja Subodh Mallik etc in Aptil 1906 .Barin Ghosh was the main extremist leader.Alongwith 21 revolutionaries including Bagha Jatin, he started to collect arms and explosives and manufactured bombs.The head quarters of Jugantar was located at 93/a Baubazar Street, Kolkata.

Activities

Some senior members of the group were sent abroad for political and military training. One of them, Hemchandra Qanungo obtained the training in Paris. After returning to Kolkata, he set up a combined religious school and bomb factory at a garden house in Maniktala suburb of Calcutta.However, the attempted murder of Kingsford, the-then district Judge of Muzaffarpur by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki (30 April 1908) initiated police investigation that led to the arrest of many of the revolutioaries.The prisoners were tried in the famous Alipore bomb conspiracy case in which several activists were deprted for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman.

In 1908, as a next step, Jugantar organized attacks on the persons connected with the arrest and trial of revolutionaries involved in the Alipore Bomb Case. On February 10, 1909, Ashutosh Biswas, who conducted the prosecution of Kanai and Satyen for the murder of Naren Gosain (a revolutionary who acted as an informer to police), 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 January 24, 1910. Charu Basu and Biren Dutta Gupta were later hanged.

Several were arrested in connection with the Samsul Alam murder case other charges.Thus started the Howrah 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 .

The German Plot

Nixon's Report corroborates that Jugantar counted a good deal on the ensuing World War to organise an armed uprising with the Indian soldiers in various regiments .During the World War 1 the Jugantar Party arranged importation of German arms and ammunitions (notably the 32 bore German automatic pistols) via Manabendra Nath Roy -a Bolshevik revolutionary who was residing in Berlin.This was nicknamed as the German Plot.To raise fund,the Jugantar party organized a series of dacoities which came to be known as Taxicab dacoities and Boat dacoities, in order to procure funds to prepare the ground for working out the Indo-German Conspiracy.

The first of the Taxicab dacoities took place at Garden Reach,Kolkata on February 12, 1915, by a group of armed revolutionaries under the leadership of Narendra Bhattacharya under the direct supervision of Jatinindranath Mukherjee. Similar dacoities were organized on different occasions and in various parts of Calcutta. Dacoities were followed by political murders in which the victims were mostly zealous police officers investigating into the cases, and persons who helped the police.

Failure of the German plot

Naren Bhattacharya (alias M.N. Roy) and Phani Chakravarti (alias Pyne) had gone abroad as emissaries of Jugantar. The Berlin committee had decided that the German arms were to be landed at two or three places like Hatia on Chittagong coast, Raimangal in the Sunderbans and Balasore in Orissa. The plan was to organize a guerrilla force to start an uprising in the country which would have to be backed by a mutiny among the Indian Armed Force. Unfortunately the whole plot leaked out through the Czech revolutionaries who were in touch with their counterparts in U.S.A. , and as soon as the information reached the British authorities, they alerted the police, particularly in the delta region of the Ganges, and sealed all the sea approaches on the eastern coast from Noakhali-Chittagong side to Orissa.Sramajibi Samabaya and Harry & Sons of Calcutta, the two business concerns which were taking active part in the Indo-German Conspiracy were searched. Police came to knew that Bagha Jatin was in Balasore waiting for German arms to land.Police went on to find our the hiding places of Bagha Jatin and associates and after a gun-fight the revolutionaries were either killed or arrested.The German plot thus failed.

After the First World War

The Anushilan Samiti suffered grievous blows with the arrest of some of the leaders.In effect, the revolutinary activities were divided into 2 groups.The Dhaka Anushilan Samiti in Eastern Bengal and the Jugantar in Western Bengal.

In the 1920s,Jugantar Party started raiding post offices,railway cash offices etc. in Kolkata and neighbourhood area to build up funds.They started propaganda with leaflets known as the Red Bengal leaflets in 1923.

Cooperation with Congress

The Jugantar group supported Gandhi during the Non-Cooperation Movement. In the 1920s, many members of Jugantar party also took high positions in Bengal's district and Provincial Congress Committees, and even in the national committees.Bhupati Majumder and Monoranjan Gupta held the offices of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee, respectively. Amarendra Chatterjee, Upendranath Banerjee, Bipin Behari Ganguli and Satyendra Chandra Mitra were elected to the All India Congress Committee from Bengal.

Unification and failure

Following these major setbacks,there was an attempt to unify the revolutionary activities 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 upto the expected level.

Neo-violence

The younger generation of the revolutionaries were frustrated by the failure of the attempted merger.This led to the formation of a new confedearation in 1929, called the neo-violence party.On the forefront were Niranjan Sen Gupta of the Barisal Anushilan, Satish Chandra Pakrashi of Dhaka Anushilan, Jatin Das of the South Calcutta Anushilan and Surya Sen and Ganesh Ghosh of the Chittagong Jugantar party.

Later activities

In 1930s, Jugantar group prepared programmes for further terrorism.The plans included murder of Europeans in hotels, clubs, and cinemas; burning of the Dum-Dum aerodrome; destroying the electricity ,gas and petrol supplies of Kolkata ; disorganisation of tram services in Kolkata by cutting overhead wires; destruction of the communication system by destroying telegraph lines, railway tracks etc. The outcome of such programmes culminated in several terrorist attacks.The Chittagong armoury raid bu Surya Sen and his followers deserves special mention in this regard.

The scenario changed with years.The British were thinking to quit India and the religious politics came into play.The basic political background on which revolutionary ideas were based seemed to evolve towards a new direction.The Revolutionary Terrorism can thus be said to come to an end by 1936.

External links

• Article on Jugantar, Banglapedia