ABC of Nationalism: The Alipore Bomb Conspiracy Case, 1908

From the yellowed pages... Almost a century old now, The Alipore Bomb Conspiracy Case comes alive through an ongoing exhibition at the Supreme Court Museum in New Delhi. SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY takes a look. PHOTOS OF PROSECUTION AND PERSECUTION Fragments of bombs used in Alipore bombing and a typewrtier used at Alipore court The Hindu Metro Plus Delhi Thursday, Jun 29, 2006

In a nation where the bulk of its hundred million are post-independence citizens, where even the proverbial `midnight children' are deemed grey, the freedom struggle doesn't mean as much as it did the generation that lived it. From a pin to a plane turning designer, from a needle to anything else that you need for a modern living on offer on equal monthly instalments, one perhaps might have to blame changing times more than just the generation for shifting focus, for not being able to connect to that bygone era with the expected fervency, for being more interested in our secured personal future than about the struggle of a collective past.

Well, little wonder then that an ongoing exhibition of the Alipore Bomb Conspiracy Case, an important trial of pre-independence India, hasn't attracted much public footfall. Currently on display at the Supreme Court Museum on Mathura Road in New Delhi, the over-three-month long exhibition that opened for public in May, is but more than a mere peek at a piece of history. Simply because the past on show is that of our own, and the exhibits in more ways than one can succeed to evoke this feeling if you pay a visit.

Sifting through a pile of court orders, FIRs, pistols and revolvers, yellowed newspapers, chargesheet written on calf skin, revolutionary letters and stills, typewriters at Alipore court, fragments of bombs used by the attackers on that fateful day of spring in 1908 with little notes qualifying each and every display, you almost feel the veritable silence caused by lack of visitors in the hall. Mutely, the objects demand your gaze. Even after close to a century, they have lived to tell their tale truly.

Surely, this stroll through history ends with education. About one's own past, about being so lucky to have not been born to suffer in foreign hands, about people who braved those odds so that we can think of living life with dignity. And also, it gives you interesting insights into that age. One particularly noticed instance is a story on the page one of a Calcutta-based English daily, Bande Mataram dated June 11, 1908 recommending a home-grown tea brand introduced with well-known people endorsing it, including the owners of Amrita Bazaar Patrika. Cut to today's newspapers selling advertisement spots for huge money and you are left smiling at the irony of time.

For many of us unaware of the details, the Alipore case is an angry offshoot of the division of Bengal in 1905 and traces back to the night of April 30, 1908, at Muzaffarpur near Planters Club when two revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, threw a bomb on a carriage carrying two English ladies. They mistook it for the carriage of D. H. Kingsford, the District Magistrate known for his notoriety as the Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta. Khudiram was arrested and hanged to death while Chaki committed suicide that dawn. But the case was considered one of conspiracy and war against the King of England and so it continued.

Aurobindo Ghosh

After examining 206 witnesses and over 300 material objects, which interestingly included false beards too besides bombs etc, producing over 4000 documents, the judgement was passed by C.P. Beachcroft after 131 days. It acquitted seven of the accused, transported three out of the country for seven years, exiled three more for 10 years and properties seized, and ordered two to be hanged to death. Those acquitted included Aurobindo Ghosh too, known to many as Sri Aurobindo of Aurobindo Ashram legacy. He was, by the way, a classmate of Beachcroft in King's College, Cambridge, and Aurobindo happened to have scored more marks than him in Greek.

Led by the legendary C.R. Das, a battery of barristers fought the case for the accused. Later, the two accused ordered to be hanged, re-appealed and got their punishment softened by life terms. But as fascinating as the case details is the story of the chance finding of these exhibits. Buried inside an almirah kept in the Nazareth of the Alipore Court for decades, all these evidences and documents were retrieved in 1997 by the Chief Judge of City Civil and Sessions Court of Kolkata. He is said to have taken the help of a thief to open the almirah as its keys had long been lost.

The Supreme Court Museum has gathered the exhibits from many sources including the Police Museum of Kolkata and Alipore District Court Museum. A peek at this vagary of time is worth it, perhaps only to be thankful for the times that we are living in. Long live democracy! (The exhibition is on till August 31 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. all days).