Lone Terrorist action in the Brahmaputra Valley

[ 11 ] UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN ASSAM FROM 1921 TO 1947: Lone Terrorist action in the Brahmaputra Valley

Inspired by the First World War, the revolutionary groups of India, planned to achieve independence by arranging Armed National Uprising throughout India with the help of the Indian and German armies.  The plan progressed under the leadership of Rasbihehari Bose of Anusilan Samiti. Some of the members from the ‘center’ who returned from foreign countries also joined him. To materialize his plan a special group was sent to Germany for negotiation and to bring ships full of arms and ammunition from there. In India, all plans and programmes were conducted by grand revolutionary leader Jatindranath Mukhupadhyay. During that period, though revolutionary groups were organized in different places under different leaders, they helped each other plan to fight against the British Raj. The plan of arms uprising in India was almost completed under Rasbehari Bose and the revolutionaries were waiting eagerly for the arrival of the chips which were supposed to bring arms and ammunition from Germany.  21^st February 1915 was fixed for open arms uprising.  The members of all the revolutionary groups were waiting for zero-hour. Unexpectedly two days before the zero-hour,  the British Government came to know about the plan from Kripal Singh. To suppress the uprising, the British Government started brutal exploitation of the Indian Army as well as of the Revolutionaries. After the incident, the British Government passed the Defense of India Act, of 1915. In accordance with this law, British Government arrested hundreds of revolutionaries.  Without a warrant and trail, they were put in jail. Many Indian military men were deported and imprisoned and many of them were hanged. In such a situation it became very hard for the revolutionary groups to survive.  At this juncture, Rashbehari Bose collected a passport in the name of Pramathnath Thakur and went to Japan to organize revolutionaries abroad. The British Government announced 12,000/- rupees for his head, dead or alive.  On the other hand in India, some leaders of AnusilanSamiti went underground and ran the activities secretly.² “Jadu Gopal Mukharjee, a student of Medical College, Calcutta, with a price of Rs.20,000 over his head, he went “underground” and traveled extensively in Bengal, Assam, and Northern India organizing the party. He was in charge of the Jugantar Party’s foreign bureau and was actively associated, in the early years of World War First, with the party’s negotiations with Germany for arms supplies to help the revolutionary movement in India. He was a “two-gun” man who could easily shoot it out with the police holding a revolver in each hand.  He was a man of much daring and a skilled horseman and also an adept at disguise, using the minimum of makeup”.³ In March 1917, Jadu Gopal Mukharjee with the help of “Priya Kanta Mitra”⁴, visited a shelter of the party at Binnakutta, in Assam where KshitishChoudhuri, state prisoner and Nagnendra Chakravartti (interned) were residing. The three discussed the best route to china, and Jadu Gopal asked them to procure a map. A map was procured from a lower primary school at night and made over to Jadu Gopal, who compared it with an atlas that he had brought with him.  He ordered a tracing of the map to be made and then resolved to open out a route to china by establishing gradually shelters in that direction. KshitishChoudhuri was sent out to the prospect. He opened a shelter at Sarbhum, which is on the Bhutan border, and Nagnendra Chakravarti opened another at Churang, which is in Bhutan 20 miles over the border.  At both these places Modi shops were established. Four houses were purchased to enable the members to travel from one shelter to another, and they engaged in trading in rice and smuggling ganja. They made the acquaintance of several persons in the neighborhood of Churang, from whom they secured a revolver, two guns, and some daggers. These shelters were kept open for five months. In July they had to be given up owing to a split in the party and to lack of funds, and so the project of entering china in this way was abandoned.⁵                 

Beside the shelter of Binnakutta , there were other  two revolutionary den in Guwahati, one was  ‘The Eastern side of Guwahati Jail in Athgaon area’⁶ , and the other was in Fancy Bazar. Nalini Ghose , the notorious leader of AnusilanSamiti, escaped from “Dalanda” jail on 23^rd December 1916 and sought refuge in Athgaon. Along with him, Parbhas Lahiri (Later Congress Leader of Rajshahi, member of the executive committee of undivided Bengal, and Finance Minister of divided East Bengal), Mahendra Rai (Later accountant of Purbabharati) Amarendra Babu and  Prabhat Dasgupta(he also escaped from “Dalanda” jail) all took shelter in Athgaon.  Those who lived at Fanci Bazar den were Naren Banarjee alias Kartababu, renown martyr Nalini Bagsi, and Taraprasanna Dey. It is worth mentioning that at that time there was full of co-operation among the various revolutionary groups of India. That was why Amarendra Chantupadhyay (later a prominent Congress leader and Member of the Central Executive Committee) and Satis Chandra Chakravarty  of Ygantar Party ,  were welcomed in Athgaon shelter after the project failure of entering China.⁷

 Mahindra Rai was guarding the shelter on the night of 7^th January 1918. At about 2 A.M., he heard sound of heavy boots and then the knocking of the door. It was the police. He hurriedly went back to the shelter to informed his comrade about the arrival of the police. The members of the AnusilanSamiti  with their guns got ready to counter-attack the police. Nalini Ghose ordered his compatriots -  “Fall in”. “Fall in” means to fight till the last breath of one’s life and to present the last bullet for one’s own life, in case of arrest. Nalini Ghose  and Prabhas Lahiri took a position at either side of the door while the other four stood behind them.  Amarbabu asked Nalini if that would be better to surrender to the police, and accept arrest.  But NaliniGhose was adamant.  He refused to surrender and asked his comrade to fight to the death.  Amar Babu readily agreed and took the position to attack the police. The police officer once again knocked at the door and asked the activists to open the door. Nalini Ghose threatened the police that they would all be killed if they try to enter the shelter. And with that threat, he opened fire. The police force was not ready for the sudden attack. They retreated. At that instant, Amarbabu once again suggested that it might be better for them to escape for the time being. The activists agreed with him and changed their plan of attacking the police force.

After their escape, they planned Amarnath Babu’s safe exit from Gauhati. To execute this plan, revolutionary activists, Nalini Ghose, Prabhaslahiri, Manindra Rai, Marendra Banerjee, Prabudh Dasgupta, Nalini Bagsi and Taraprasanna De from both Athgaon and Fancy Bazar shelters met at Nabagraha hill on 9^th June (January?). However, before their plan could be materalised, the activists were surrounded by police from three sides on 9^th January. Nalini Ghose suggested that he would try to stop the police force from advancing while his associates should escape. But his comrades vehemently opposed this decision. However, Ghose insisted that they should all leave while they could and started shooting at the police. Naren Banerjee, Prabudh Dasgupta, Nalini Bagsi and Tara Prsanna De try to escape running along the bank of the lake with the police force close on their heels. Naren Banerjee was caught by the police after chasing him for about a kilometer. Taraprashanna De was arrested as he tried to advance toward the lake. He was shot in the belly. Manindra Rai was also hit by a bullet in the leg but he managed to escape. The next day, however on 10^th January, the police succeeded to arresting him from a cemetery, identifying  him from the bullet mark.  Prabhas Lahiri  was also wounded and  finally he was arrested at Kamaksha temple. Nalini Ghosewho  helped his associates to escape was lying  seriously wounded and unconscious at the foot of the Nabagraha hill.  He was also arrested. A 380-bore revolver was recovered from him. According to eyewitnesses, 30 police personnel were wounded in this whole operation⁸. But it was a grand success for the British Government. Five important revolutionaries were arrested. “They were tried by special commissions under the Defense of India Act in two separate cases. Nalini Ghosh had been sentenced to 7 years, imprisonment for attempted murder, Tara Prasanna De, Narendra Benerji , Manindra Ray and Prabash Lahiri to 3 years imprisonment each under the Arm Act.”⁹ Nabin Chandra Bordoloi was their pleader during the trail¹⁰.

References –

^{1.                  Arunudoi, 17 June, 3 Ra Ashar, 1383 Bangla., During the Freedom Movement of India a glorious national history  was produced at the heart of Gauhati.}

^{2.                  ( Arunudoi, 17 June, 3 Ra Ashar, 1383 Bangla., During the Freedom Movement of India a glorious national history  was produced at the heart of Gauhati. )}

^{3.                  (The Statesman, Friday, September 3, 1976. OBITUARY ,Dr. JadugopalMukharjee.)}

^{4.                  ,( HOME POLITICAL –B NO. 315 – 319 AUGUST 1919 WEEKLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR CENTRL INTELLIGENCE ( NATIONAL ARCHIEVE) P3, Memorandum dated simla, the 19thjuly 1919. )}

^{5.                  ( Page 139 and 140. HOME POLITICAL –B NO. 315 – 319 AUGUST 1919 WEEKLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR CENTRL INTELLIGENCE ( NATIONAL ARCHIEVE) P3; Memorandum dated simla, the 19thjuly 1919. (WEEKLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR CENTRL INTELLIGENCE, dated simla, the 7thjuly 1919 (Revolutionary conspiracy in india :  The following are extracts and summaries of reports received from the intelligence branch CID Bengal, for the weeks ending June 18th and 25th.)}                 

^{6.                  (Goswami, Indreswar, BharatarSwadhinataSangramarPrekshapatatAsamarSamajbadiAndoolanAruKeijanmanAklantaJujaru, Nagaon, 2009, P-40)}

^{7.         ( HOME POLITICAL –B NO. 315 – 319 AUGUST 1919 WEEKLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR CENTRL INTELLIGENCE ( NATIONAL ARCHIEVE) P3. Memorandum dated simla, the 19thjuly 1919. )}

^{8.                  HOME POLITICAL – B: Pro. No. 581 – 84, May 1918 :Weekly Report of Director Criminal Intelligence. (National Archive) P-1}

^{9.                  (HOME POLITICAL – B :NPS . 581 – 84, May 1918, Weekly Report of the Director of Central Intelligence Dated Simla, the 11th May, 1918 .)}

^{(Goswami, Indreswar, Bharatar Swadhinata Sangramar Prekshapatat Asamar  Samajbadi Andoolan Aru Keijanman Aklanta Jujaru, Nagaon, 2009, P-40)}