Barindra Ghosh or Barindranath Ghose, or, popularly, Barin Ghosh (5 January 1880 – 18 April 1959) was an Indian revolutionary and journalist. He was one of the founding members of Jugantar, a revolutionary outfit inBengal. Barindra Ghosh was a younger brother of Sri Aurobindo.
Early life
Barindra Ghosh was born at Croydon, near London on 5 January 1880. His father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, was a physician and district surgeon (Background, from left: Benoybhushan (12 years old), Dr. K.D. Ghose (35 years old), Manmohan (10 years old); foreground, from left: Sarojini (3 years old), Swarnalata (27 years old), Aurobindo (7 years old). Pic-bottom)
(In 1864 Krishnadhan married Srimati Swarnalata Devi. The marriage was performed according to the rites of Adi Brahmo Samaj, towards which Dr. Ghose had leanings. The girl’s wedding was a memorable event in the annals of the Brahmo Samaj. All of the principal members of the society were there, notably its leader, Devendranath Tagore, and its rising star, Keshub Chunder Sen. The bride’s party was swelled by numerous members of the Bose clan. The groom’s party contained few, if any, of the young man’s relatives, for Krishna Dhun Ghose came from an orthodox Hindu family. He had not even told his mother that he was taking a Brahmo bride. “I went to the length of offending a dear mother by marrying as I did,” he later wrote, “to get such a father as Rajnarain Bose.”
K. D. Ghose and Swarnalata had six children, – five sons and a daughter: Benoybhushan, Manmohan, Aurobindo, a son who died in childhood, Sarojini and Barindra Kumar.). His mother Swarnalata was the daughter of the Brahmo religious and social reformer, scholar Rajnarayan Basu. Revolutionary and a spiritualist in later life, Aurobindo Ghosh was Barindranath's third elder brother. His second elder brother, Manmohan Ghose, was a scholar of English literature, a poet and professor of English at Presidency College, Calcutta and at Dhaka University.
(In the end of 1878 the whole family sailed to England — Dr. Ghosh, Mrs. Ghosh, their three sons and daughter Sarojini. For Indian women it was almost unheard of to cross the ocean. Swarnalotta was pregnant. Concerned about her mental state and apprehensive about the effects of another confinement, Dr. Ghose decided to take her to England for examination and treatment. The family arrived at its destination in the early 1879 (perhaps, on 1 January).
He had brought his sons to England because he wanted them to “receive an entirely European upbringing.” He left his sons with an English clergyman and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Drewett in Manchester and then his wife — in the care of a London physician, Dr. Mathew.
In 1880 Dr. Ghose returned alone from England to rejoin his service. He left Swarnalata and the children in England. The same year Swarnalata returned to India with newborn Barin and Sarojini. Dr. Ghose found it impossible to stay with his wife, as her mental condition had deteriorated. So she was given a cottage in Rohini, a village two miles from Deoghar, where she lived with Barin and Sarojini while Dr. Ghose stayed alone at Khulna. At last he managed to persuade his wife to give up Sarojini, but she kept possession of Barin until Dr. Ghose stole him away. He placed the two children in the care of a woman he had set up in a house in Calcutta. Every week or so, Dr. Ghose came into town to see his lady-friend and his children, but he remained a lonely, unhappy man, and tended to drink too much.)Barindranath attended school in Deoghar, and after passing the entrance examination in 1901, joined Patna College. He received military training in Baroda. During this time, (late 19th century – early 20th century) Barin was influenced by Aurobindo and drawn towards the revolutionary movement. Barin was sent to Calcutta in 1902 to organise revolutionary organisation.
Revolutionary activities
Barin came back to Kolkata in 1902 and started organizing several revolutionary groups in Bengal with the help of Jatindranath Bandyopadhyay. In 1906, he started publishing Jugantar, a Bengali weekly and a revolutionary organization named Jugantar soon followed. Jugantar was formed from the inner circle of Anushilan Samiti and it started revolutionary activities.
Barin and Jatindra nath Bandyopadhyay were instrumental in the recruitment of many young revolutionaries from across Bengal. The revolutionaries formed the Maniktala group in Maniktala, Kolkata. It was a secret place where they started manufacturing bombs and collected arms and ammunition.But soon they developed some bitterness within themselves on the point of leadership.At first Aurobindo took the matter and solved it But it was soon revived leading to the expulsion of Jatindranath Banerjee.
Following the attempted killing of Kingsford by 2 revolutionaries Khudiram and Prafulla on April 30, 1908, the police intensified its investigation which led to the arrest of Barin Ghosh on May 2, 1908 along with many of his comrades. The trial (known as the Alipore Bomb Case) initially sentenced Barin Ghosh to death. However, the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, and Barin was deported to the Cellular Jail in Andaman in 1909 (released in 1920).
Release and later activities
Barin was released during a general amnesty in 1920 and returned to Kolkata and started a career in journalism. Soon he left journalism and formed an ashram in Kolkata. In 1923, he left for Pondicherry where his elder brother Aurobindo Ghosh had formed the famous Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He was influenced by Aurobindo towards spirituality and sadhana, but Barin Ghosh was a disciple of Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra. Sri Sri Thakur had guided his followers to help secure release of Barin who was using the code name 'Golghar' (after a monument in Patna) for his revolutionary activities. Barin returned to Kolkata in 1929 and again took up journalism. In 1933 he started an English weekly, The Dawn of India. He was associated with the newspaper The Statesman, and in 1950, he became the editor of the Bengali daily Dainik Basumati. Barin ghosh who once prepared bombs to free his mother land wrote a book " Bharat Kon Pathe" in 1936, where he mentioned that the road of revolution was not correct and said better to get Bharat Britain unity. He married a widow lady in 1933 and joined Statesman where he met the notorious Governor Anderson He died on 18 April 1959.
Works
The following are books by Barindra Ghosh:
- Dvipantarer Banshi
- Pather Ingit
- Amar Atmakatha
- Agnijug
- Rishi Rajnarayan
- The Tale of My Exile
- Sri Aurobindo
great man...
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