Barindra Kumar Ghosh was an Indian revolutionary freedom fighter and journalist. He was a founding member of ‘Jugantar’, a Bengali weekly which was later transformed into a revolutionary group to fight against British rule in India. Sri Aurobindo was his elder brother who was a great Indian philosopher, yoga guru, Maharishi, poet and Indian nationalist.
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Wiki/Biography
Barindra Kumar Ghosh was born in Upper Norwood, London, England on Sunday, 5 January 1880 (age 79 at the time of death). His zodiac sign was Capricorn. He received his early schooling from a local school in Deoghar city of Jharkhand. In 1901 he took admission in Patna College.
Physical Appearance
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
parents and siblings
His father’s name is Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh and he was a physician and surgeon. His mother’s name is Swarnalata. He had three brothers and one sister. He was the youngest among five siblings. In all, his parents had five sons and one daughter. One of his brothers died in childhood.
(Background, from left) Benoybhushan (12 years), Dr. KD Ghosh (35 years), Manmohan (10 years) Foreground (from left) Sarojini (3 years), Swarnalatha (27 years), Aurobindo (7 years) Years old )
His eldest brother’s name is Benoy Bhushan. His second elder brother is Manmohan Ghosh and he was an Indian poet.
Manmohan Ghosh, brother of Barindra Kumar Ghosh
His third elder brother was Sri Aurobindo, and he was a great Indian philosopher, yoga guru, Maharishi, poet and nationalist.
Sri Aurobindo, brother of Barindra Kumar Ghosh
He had a sister named Sarojini Ghosh.
wife and children
In 1933, he married Shailja Dutta (a widow from a respectable family).
early life
Barindra Kumar Ghosh’s ancestors were from Konnagar village in Hooghly district of West Bengal. He was the maternal grandfather of Indian social reformer ‘Rajnarayan Basu’. Basu was a follower of Brahmo religion. His mother had been suffering from mental illness since 1873. His father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, decided to move with his family to England in late 1878 to provide his children with a European upbringing and his pregnant wife to receive psychiatric treatment. Soon, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh left with his pregnant wife, three sons and a daughter and they reached England in January 1879. According to some media sources,
He brought his sons to England because he wanted them to have a “thoroughly European upbringing.” He left his sons in the care of an English clergyman and his wife, Mr and Mrs Drewett, in Manchester and then left his wife in the care of a London physician, Dr Matthews.’
In 1880, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh left his wife and children in England and returned to India to join his service again. But, in the same year, Barindra Kumar Ghosh’s mother, Swarnalata, returned to India with her daughter Sarojini and newborn Barindra Kumar Ghosh. Swarnalata was not mentally stable and Dr. Ghosh decided to no longer live with her. He left her and started living alone in Khulna city of Bangladesh. By 1880, Swarnalata had become completely insane, and by that time, she was living with Barindra Kumar and his daughter Sarojini in the village of Rohini in Bengal. Barindra Kumar lived with his insane mother for ten years. His childhood was not easy. His haunted mother would tie him to the bed at night. During visits, she also beat his sister Sarojini. Dr. Ghosh took possession of Sarojini from her mother, but Swarnalata refused Barindra Kumar Ghosh’s possession. Later, their father managed to steal them from Swarnalata and took the children to Calcutta, and he placed both children in the care of a woman whom he called Ranga Maa. Dr. Ghosh alone started drinking heavily. In 1893, Dr. Ghosh died, and his two children were taken to Deoghar by their maternal uncle ‘Jogindranath’ Ranga Maa. Barindra Nath received his school education in Deoghar. One of his school teachers ‘Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar’ was a great patriot, who influenced him towards patriotism. Later, Barindra Nath was introduced to his brothers Sri Aurobindo and Manmohan Ghosh by his maternal uncle. His brothers then returned from England. Sri Aurobindo often visited Deoghar during puja holidays. Aurobindo was educated at Cambridge, and growing up Barindra Kumar, who loved to interact with his brother, was attracted to Aurobindo’s revolutionary ideas against British rule in India. Barindra Kumar Ghosh got admission in Patna College in 1901, where his other elder brother Manmohan Ghosh was working as a professor of English. Manmohan Ghosh was also a great poet and English litterateur. He also taught at Dhaka University. Barindra Kumar Ghosh lived with his three brothers for some time. Once, he opened a tea shop in front of Patna College to earn some income and named it,
B. Ghosh’s Tea Shop – Half anna cup, full of cream.”
Barindra Ghosh was earning good income from his tea shop, but due to the sudden spread of plague he had to close his business in Patna. Soon, he started living with his brother Sri Aurobindo in South India. There, he read and wrote poetry books and enjoyed playing esraj. In his spare time he also enjoyed gardening and bird hunting. Instead of Sri Aurobindo, the history books Barindra Kumt enjoyed reading were Burke’s French Revolution, Ranade’s The Rise of Maratha Power, and William Digby’s ‘Prosperous’ British India. During his stay in Bombay, he would sit and interact with his Maharashtrian friends, who were involved in covert revolutionary freedom struggle activities against British rule in India.
revolutionary activities
In 1902, he returned to Kolkata and started forming revolutionary groups with his friend Jatindranath Banerjee. He formed his own publishing house and Bengali weekly named ‘Jugantar’ in 1906. Jugantar was a part of the Anushilan Samiti, which was trying to create an army of revolutionaries against the British Empire in India. Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Jatindranath Mukherjee were given the responsibility of recruiting new people into the Jugantar organization. Another group, ‘The Maniktala Group’, was formed under the Anushilan Samiti to make bombs and collect weapons in Maniktala, Kolkata for the new revolutionary freedom fighters. Immediately after the attempt to kill British Magistrate Douglas Kingsford by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki on 30 April 1908, the British government vigorously tried to arrest Indian revolutionaries after which on 2 May 1908 Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Aurobindo Ghosh and many of their The companions were taken into custody by the police. .Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Ullaskar Dutta were given death sentence. But, later this punishment was changed from death to life imprisonment. He was arrested in the Alipore bomb case. In 1909, he was exiled to the Cellular Jail in Andaman along with his fellow deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das.
release
Barindra Kumar Ghosh was released from Cellular Jail in 1920 when the government pardoned some prisoners under amnesty. Soon, he came back to Kolkata.
Barindra Kumar Ghosh posing as an undertrial prisoner in 1908
literary work
After his release he wrote a book titled ‘The Story of My Exile – Twelve Years in the Andamans’ in which he described his prison journey. He started writing books and got involved in journalism. He later left journalism and started a new ashram in Kolkata. In 1923 he visited Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry and immersed himself in spirituality. In 1929 he again returned to Kolkata and started journalism. In 1933 he started an English weekly named The Dawn of India. He was also working with ‘The Statesman’ newspaper at the same time. He was appointed as the editor of Dainik Basumati in 1950. The books written by him are Dwipanterer Banshi, Pather Ingit, Amar Atma Katha, Agnijug, Rishi Rajnarayan, The Tale of My Exile and Sri Aurobindo. Other books are ‘Upendra Nath Bandyopadhyay, Nirbasitar Atmakatha, Calcutta (1945)’ and ‘RC Majumdar, History of the Freedom Movement in India, II, Calcutta (1963).
Cover of Barindra Kumar Ghosh’s book ‘The Tale of My Exile’
Facts/General Knowledge
- In Baroda, during his school days, Barindra Kumar Ghosh received formal military training.
- Reportedly, when Barindra Kumar Ghosh was detained in Alipore jail, he tried to break the iron bars of his jail.
- On page number 7 of his book ‘The Tale of My Exile’, he has told about the physical torture given to Indian revolutionaries in Cellular Jail. He has written,
And yet, despite the descriptions of inhumane treatment, a sense of wit and humor sometimes breaks through, “What a strange spectacle we must have presented then! A wooden ticket hanging from an iron ring around the neck – just like a bell hanging around the neck of a bull – shackles around the legs…”
He continued to write about the ill-treatment meted out to him by the British officers, jailers, supervisors, wardens and security guards, and Barindra Kumar briefly described the food given to the prisoners. He wrote that “rice, lentils and kachu patta” was the only food he ate for twelve years. He also spoke about the mental instability of the prisoners. They said,
Furthermore the lack of human contact, companionship and conversation turned some prisoners into ferocious animals; Some people also indulged in sexual perversion while many became mentally unstable.
He talked about the suicidal tendency of prisoners in jail on page number 131 of the book, which was the last way for prisoners to escape from the cellular jail. He has written,
This would discourage any person, let alone a prisoner, from being hunted and humiliated like this for a full 24 hours even under normal circumstances. It is an absolutely inevitable situation that many people must attempt to find salvation through suicide. Only those whose hearts have become stone can bury their pain and count their days in hope for the future.”
- Barindra Kumar Ghosh was a follower of Sakaria Swami.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn