898. Hemchandra Ghosh (1884-1980), 899. Hemchandra Kanungo (1871-1951)

1n 1901, Swami Vivekananda went to Dhaka and there he met and inspired a number of youths. Among them was Hemchandra Ghosh, an 18 years old boy who talked with Vivekananda on 3rd and 4th April. On 4th April, Hemchandra and his friends ( Srish Pal, Rajen Guha, Jogesh Dutta etc ) decided to join the Biplabi Andolon. Hemchandra was a disciple of Soham Swami ( Baghmara Shyamakanta ) or Shyamakanta Bandopadhyay. The latter inspired him with the words-"THERE IS TRUTH IN BRAHMAN. THERE IS ALSO TRUTH IN BULLET." Born on 24th October, 1884, in Dhaka, his father was a lawyer named Mathuranath Ghosh, and mother Monomohini Devi. They had four sons and one daughter, among whom "bhona" or Hemchandra was most famous. When Hemchandra was a student of Dhaka Jubilee School, he started to read Bankimchandra's works. It was a time of revolutionary movement and he soon got involved in it. Hemchandra wrote later-" Bankim's Anandamath inspired me to form a secret society. Physical culture and lathi-khela became my hobbies. Then came the Russo-Japanese War, in which Russia was defeated. The nations of Asia had become restless. This also made me restless." From 1901 to 1905, he had links with Pulin Behari Das, Ullaskar Dutta, Pramathanath Mitra and Barin Ghose. Pulin Das taught him the techniques of lathi chalana. In 1905, he started his own group named Dhaka Mukti Sangha or later Mukti Sangha in short. Its early members were Srish Pal, Rajen Guha, Makhan Chakraborty, Haridas Dutta, khagen Das, Bibhuti Basu, Nikunja Sen, Suren Bardhan etc. In 1906, Hemchandra came to kolkata to meet famous revolutionaries and leaders of that time like Sri Aurobinda, Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, Bipin Pal etc. A brach of Mukti Sangha was started in kolkata by Srish Pal. The first achievement of this branch was the killing of Nandalal Banerjee on 9th November, 1908, near Serpentine Lane. This police officer was responsible for hanging Khudiram Basu. In this, Srish Pal played the leading role with Ronen Ganguli of Atmonnoti Samiti. The second attemt of Mukti Sangha was on the life of a British Engineer of Alexander Jute Mill, which failed. The 3rd achievement was the Rhoda Conspiracy, in which Srish Mitra of Atmonnati Samiti played the leading role. In 1814, Hemchandra was arrested on Rhoda Conspiracy Case and in 1818, was sent to Hazaribag Central Jail as a state prisoner. He was released in 1920 after 6 years imprisonment in different jails. From 1920 to 1923, the members of Mukti Sangha formed several platforms like Sri Sangha, Shanti Sangha, Dhruva Sangha etc for social welfare. In reality, these were the platforms for secret recruitment of boys. Hemchandra motto was-"QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY." In 1926, Mukti Sangha members started Benu, a monthly magazine. Its first editor was famous Biplabi Bhupendra kishore Rakshit Ray. Hemchandra had close links with Sarat Chandra and Subhash Bose. In 1928, Hemchandra played an important role in Calcutta Congress. In this congress, Bengal Volunteers was formed by Hemchandra and commanded by Subhash Chandra Bose. The Mukti Sangha was transformed into BV

Hemchandra Kanungo Das (1871-1951) was one of the pioneer leaders of the secret revolutionary organization, and a principal co-accused with Aurobindo Ghosh in theAlipore Bomb Case (1908-09). He was sentenced to transportation for life in the Andamans, but was released in 1921.

He was probably the first revolutionary from India who went abroad to obtain military and political training. He obtained training from the Russian emigre in Paris. He returned to India in January 1908. He opened a secret bomb factory "Anusilonee Somitee" at Maniktala near Kolkata, founder members of which were Hemchandra Kanungo, Aurobindo Ghosh (Sri Aurobindo) and his brother, Barindra Kumar Ghosh.

Biography

Hemachandra decided that what was needed was technical know-how, and he went to Europe to get it. To get money for the trip he sold his house in Calcutta. Arriving in Marseille toward the end of 1906, he spent a few months trying to get in contact with revolutionaries, or people who knew revolutionaries, in Switzerland, France, and England. Finally he found a backer to support him while he studied chemistry in Paris. Someone introduced Joseph Albert, known as Libertad, to Hem and his friend Pandurang Bapat in July 1907. With the help of a female anarchist, apparently Emma Goldman, they were admitted to a party headed by a mysterious Russian known as Ph.D. During the latter part of 1907, the two Indians studied history, geography, economics, socialism, communism, and finally, the subjects they had come to learn: explosive chemistry and revolutionary organization. Hemchandra Das returned from Europe with a trunk full of up-to-date technical literature, the most important item of which was a seventy-page manual on bomb-making, translated from the Russian. Hem had not intended to join forces with Barin, but after a talk with Sri Aurobindo, agreed to cooperate.

A suicide squad of two members was sent to kill Kingsford (British Officer) at Mujjaffarpur, after bombing at wrong target, Shaheed Prafulla Chaki committed suicide before the British Indian Police detain him alive but Shaheed Kshudiram Bose failed commit suicide in time and the Police arrested him. As a result of this incident, the covert bomb factory established by Hemchandra Kanungo was raided by the British Police and shut down. Almost all of the members were arrested in a short period of time.

Religious beliefs

Hemchandra Kanungo had turned atheist during his stay abroad. He returned with Marxian inclination. He believed that the religious symbols, which were being used by revolutionary groups in Bengal during the first decade of the twentieth century, had kept the Muslim participants aloof from the revolutionary activities of the Indian freedom struggle