Prafulla Chaki was a revolutionary freedom fighter. He was part of the Jugantar group and its revolutionary activities. The main agenda behind organizing the Jugantar group was the assassination of influential British officials. He, along with his associate Khudiram Bose, is known to have planned the assassination of Magistrate Kingsford by throwing a bomb in his car. However, the plan was accidentally foiled when the vehicle in which they threw the bombs did not contain Mr. Kingsford. Two English women who were traveling in Kingsford’s carriage were killed in this attack. On 1 May 1908, when a British police officer tried to arrest Prafulla Chaki, he committed suicide. Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose were charged with the murder of two British women. Soon after the suicide of Prafulla Chaki and the arrest of Khudiram Bose, in one of the freedom struggle campaigns, Mahatma Gandhi declared that India would never get independence by violent means, and he regretted the suicide of Prafulla Chaki. However, the great Indian revolutionary freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak praised the assassination attempts by Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose in his Marathi newspaper Kesari and raised his voice against British rule in India, demanding India’s independence. Soon after his statement, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was arrested by the British authorities on charges of treason and for publishing news in his newspaper against the British. Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote in his newspaper,
Rulers who always exercise unchecked power must remember that there is always a limit to the patience of humanity.” And so, “violence, no matter how reprehensible, became inevitable.”
An article by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his Marathi newspaper Kesari on 12 May 1908 titled ‘The misfortune of the country’
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Prafulla Chaki was born on Monday, 10 December 1888 (age 19 at time of death) in Bogra district, Bengal Presidency, British India (now in Bangladesh). His zodiac sign was Sagittarius. He received his primary school education from Namuja Janada Prasad English School. After this he studied in Rangpur Zilla School till 9th class. Later he went to Rangpur National School for further studies.
Physical Appearance
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: black
Family
parents and siblings
His father’s name is Rajnarayan Chaki and he was an employee of Nagar Estate. His mother’s name is Swarnamoyee Devi. His elder brother’s name is Pratap Chandra Chaki.
Pratap Chaki, elder brother of Prafulla Chaki
He was the youngest among five siblings. His granddaughter’s name is Madhabi Taludar.
wife and children
He was not married.
Religion
Hindu
Caste
He belonged to Kayastha community.
early life
Prafulla Chaki was born in an affluent family of Bihar. His ancestors belonged to a village in Bogra district of Bangladesh. Initially the real surname of Prafulla Chaki family was Bosu. She earned her secondary school education at her sister-in-law’s house in Rangpur. He started participating in Indian independence movements when he was studying in the ninth grade, after which he was expelled from Rangpur District School when he joined the student protests against the East Bengal Act. Soon after leaving Rangpur Zilla School, he started studying at Rangpur National School. At Rangpur National School, he encountered famous Indian freedom fighters like Jitendra Narayan Roy, Avinash Chakraborty, Ishan Chandra Chakraborty and became inclined towards patriotism.
revolutionary activities
Once Barindra Kumar Ghosh, one of the founding members of the Jugantar organization, came to his village Rangpur. Prafulla Chaki met him and showed interest in participating in the revolutionary activities organized by the Jugantar group to overthrow British rule in India. Soon, Barindra Kumar Ghosh took Prafulla Chaki to Kolkata and registered his name in the Jugantar Group. The assassination of Sir Joseph Bampfield Fuller, the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, was Prafulla Chaki’s first mission soon after joining the Jugantar group. Due to some reasons the work could not be completed by Prafulla.
Attempted assassination of Douglas Kingsford
The second major responsibility given to Prafulla was to assassinate Douglas Kingsford, the magistrate of Muzaffarpur, Bihar. It was believed that Kingsford was a very cruel magistrate of Kolkata who often signed death sentences for political activists of Bengal and was hated by the people of Bengal. Kingsford was very harsh towards the innocent Bengali people due to which the revolutionaries plotted his assassination. The responsibility of carrying out this massacre was given to Prafulla Chaki along with Khudiram Bose. The fake name adopted by Prafulla Chaki during the scheme was Dinesh Chandra Ray. Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose kept a secret watch on Kingsford and his activities for several days before attempting to assassinate him. They noticed that Kingsford often drove to the European Club in his car, and they decided to kill him at its gate. On 30 April 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose were waiting outside the gate of the European Club for their carriage to pass. Soon, as the vehicle passed the gate they threw a bomb into it. However, on the spot they learned that Kingsford was not traveling in the carriage and that the bomb had accidentally fallen, killing two English women traveling in the carriage. Mr. Pringle Kennedy’s wife and daughter were killed in the explosion. Mr. Pringle Kennedy was a prominent lawyer of the Muzaffarpur Bar. Immediately after the accidental death of the two British women, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose fled from the spot. To escape from the police, both of them chose different routes. A railway employee named Trigun Charan Ghosh helped Prafulla Chaki in arranging tickets for Mokama.
Death
Nandlal Banerjee, a British police officer, was traveling in the same compartment of the train in which Prafulla Chaki was going to Mokama. The police officer recognized Prafulla and attempted to arrest him. However, Prafulla Chaki shot himself with his own revolver. In 1971, a book titled ‘The First Spark of Revolution: The Early Phase of India’s Struggle for Independence, 1900-1920’ by Arun Chandra Guha was published, and he mentioned in the book that Prafulla Chaki shot him under the chin Was. It said,
A Bengali police officer, Nandlal Banerjee, was also traveling in the same compartment… Nandlal became suspicious of Prafulla and tried to arrest him. But Prafulla was quite cautious; He placed his revolver under his chin and pulled the trigger… This happened on the Mokama station platform on May 2, 1908.”
Soon after Prafulla Chaki committed suicide, Khudiram Bose was also arrested by the British authorities. Reportedly, Nandlal Banerjee severed Prafulla Chaki’s head from his body. Later, his body was identified by Khudiram Bose, who was arrested and hanged. Two revolutionary freedom fighters Shrish Pal and Ranen Ganguly later killed police officer Nandlal Banerjee to avenge the death of Prafulla Chaki. It was a difficult decision for the British authorities to identify Prafulla Chaki’s body as he had adopted the name Dinesh Ray during his mission in the Jugantar Group. After the suicide of Prafulla Chaki, it became difficult for the British police to identify him. That’s why they cut off his head and buried it in the garden of the Intelligence Bureau office on Lord Sinha Road. Reportedly, his skull was dug up by an IB officer in Lalbazar to maintain it in the criminal record. After so many years, Amalendu Dey, a renowned historian and professor, mentioned in his research that Prafulla Chaki’s head was not in the ground where he was buried. He also requested the DNA of the skull kept in Lalbazar. However, the police authorities always turned down his request.
Facts/General Knowledge
- Prafulla Chaki was a prominent wrestler and stick-fighter during his school days. He was an accomplished athlete. In his free time after school, he enjoyed horse riding and swimming.
- Prafulla Chaki’s granddaughter Madhabi Taludar was found living in a house made of plastic covers and tin during the COVID-19 pandemic in West Bengal in April 2020.
The granddaughter of freedom fighter Prafulla Chandra Chaki lives in a hut made of tin and plastic sheets on the roadside.
See more: Anjali Tendulkar Wiki
Anjali Arora Wiki
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn