The Barisal incident had a great emotional impact on Sri Aurobindo

V. SUNDARAM

In spite of ruthless public opposition to the move, Lord Curzon declared the Partition of Bengal, on 20 July 1905. This day is one red-letter day in the history of the fight for freedom of our country. The Swadeshi and Boycott Movements which were to assume in future nation-stirring proportions were really the products of the Partition of Bengal. Bengal in 1905-06 indeed became a cauldron of wild conflagration. The public frenzy rose to unprecedented heights. The VANDE MATARAM song of the Sanyasis in the immortal novel, Ananda Math of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was heard everywhere in streets and houses, in squares and the river bunds, in the towns and villages, not only in Bengal but in all parts of India. The sentiments expressed in this song and the national spirit which it aroused, threw a challenge to the British rule.

Provoked by these anti-slogans, the British government became so ruthless as to proclaim the sentence of public whipping to all those who even uttered VANDE MATARAM. The government banned service-people from participating in the public singing of VANDE MATARAM. Secret circulars were issued by the government warning government servants that they would be dismissed from service if they chose to sing VANDE MATARAM. Despite this warning, hundreds of government servants came forward to sing the VANDE MATARAM song on the streets and all of them were demoted or dismissed. Thus by the beginning of 1906, VANDE MATARAM acquired the unrivalled status of the national song.

In March 1906, the BARISAL PARISHAD was created and a Provincial Conference of Bengal was fixed at Barisal. The rising star of the new age, Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo) was to adorn this conference. The government banned the singing of VANDE MATARAM song at that conference. The delegates were furious at the ban and they decided to defy it. A massive public procession chanting VANDE MATARAM went through the city of Barisal. Surendra Nath Banerjee was in the vanguard of this huge procession. The police let loose violence through a lathi- charge against all who participated in this procession. There was a disastrous melee. The procession was broken. Thousands were injured. With blood dripping from their wounds, all the mouths were loudly singing VANDE MATARAM. Even when the conference was on, a police officer came on the scene to read out the government ban and the conference was closed.

The Barisal incident had a great emotional impact on Sri Aurobindo. As a mark of protest, he resigned from his public service in Baroda in order to start a new revolution in Bengal and indeed India. On 7 August, 1906, Sri Aurobindo started his paper BANDE MATARAM which later turned to be an immortal and unforgettable newspaper in the history of Indian journalism. He wrote in a fiery and spirited style. His thoughts were noble and penetrating. His writings had the effect of conquering the soul of India and thousands upon thousands were inspired to offer their lives upon the altar of freedom with the song of VANDE MATARAM on their lips.

Om Shri Hem Chandra Das was an adventurous revolutionary who sold all his immovable property in Bengal and went to Paris in 1906. He became a member of the 'ABHINAV BHARAT' of Veer Savarkar. Under the guidance of Veer Savarkar's colleagues, he established his contact with Russian Nihilists. From them he got the formula and practical lessons in the manufacture of bombs. Hem Chandra Das returned to India with the formula and the art. He came to Poona and demonstrated the formula and the manufacture of bombs to Lok Manya Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh. Under his inspiration, Khudiram Bosh and Prafulla Chandra Chaki threw bombs in a carriage at Muzaffarpur in December 1907. It was directed against the notorious Chief Presidency Magistrate, an Englishman called Kingsford. But unfortunately he was not travelling in that carriage on that fateful day and two innocent English ladies got killed.

This was the first bomb explosion in India as a weapon to frighten the alien English rulers. This was the first political murder with the help of a bomb. The whole of Bharat was shocked by this explosion of the bomb. Prufulla Chandra Chaki killed himself with his own revolver. Khudiram Bosh was arrested on 1 May, 1908. When he was being taken to the Muzaffarpur Police Station, milling crowds greeted him with VANDE MATARAM. He also joined the chorus singing of VANDE MATARAM with great frenzy and fervour. Khudiram Bosh confessed courageously in the court that he had thrown the bomb. This tender youth of 16 years climbed the platform to be hanged on the gallows on 11 August, 1908, with the sacred book of Bhagavat Gita in his hands, the sacred song of VANDE MATARAM on his lips and a smile of cool satisfaction on his face. It was indeed just another reminder of the deathless courage of that heroic Abhimanyu of Mahabharatha fame...

The traditions established by Surendranath Bannerjee, Bala Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh, Subhash Chandra Bose are viewed as sacrilegious disposable communal wastes...Great revolutionaries like Khudiram Bosh, Prafulla Chandra Chaki, Jatindranath Das, Chandra Shekar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Raj Guru and many others who shouted VANDE MATARAM before they were hanged in prison are being viewed as inconsequential derelicts... (The writer is a retired IAS officer) e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com