The Trial Of The Poet Of Patriotism

THE ALIPORE BOMB CASE [1908 A.D]

After the Indian War of Independence in 1857 [the so called Sepoy Mutiny], even though there was simmering discontent among Indian subjects about the harsh treatment meted out by the British Government to some political leaders and patriots, it was only in 1885 that an organized movement to fight a relentless battle against foreign rule was started with the birth of the Indian National Congress. For the first 20- 25 years after the birth of the Congress, the leaders took a conciliatory attitude towards the British Government which was not to the liking of a significant section of the party who advocated a more aggressive attitude to be followed. It was at this time when the Congress was in cross-roads that patriots like Aurobindo Ghosh and Lokamanya Tilak vocally became critical of the top leadership of the Congress.

The partition of Bengal in 1905, when Lord Curzon was the British Viceroy, drove a wedge between the Hindus and Muslims, in keeping with the well-known policy of the British “Divide and Rule”. This confirmed the worst fears of the critical group. The Bengal partition spread unrest all over the country and people resorted to all sorts of violence to register their protests. On 30th April 1908, there was an attempt at Muzzafarpur to kill the District Judge, an Englishman by name Mr.Kingsford Two bombs were hurled at him but unfortunately the bombs missed the target but killed two innocent ladies, the Kennedys, by mistake. Kudiram Bose, a young man of 18, was arrested for the crime, tried and sentenced. When the young man was given a long sentence, his mother expressed joy at the service rendered by her son to Mother India and more than 500 Bengali ladies went to her place to congratulate her

Even though Aurobindo had absolutely no hand in the Bomb incident, he was falsely implicated, arrested on May 4th 1908 on a charge of sedition and put in the Alipore jail. The trial known as the Alipore Bomb Case is one of the most famous trials in the political history of India. This memorable and long-drawn-out political trial with 36 accused, 206 witnesses and nearly 4,000 documents and about 5,000 exhibits and hair-splitting legal arguments roused a country-wide public interest. A remarkable feature of this sensational trial was the magnificent defence of Aurobindo by Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das [C.R.Das], poet, patriot and Aurobindo’s close friend and collaborator.
The able and prophetic advocacy of C.R.Das raised the trial to an epic level. He was at the peak of his eloquence when he made a fervent appeal to Judge Beachcroft in the following memorable words

“My appeal to you, sir, is this: Long after the controversy will be hushed in silence, long after this turmoil and agitation will have ceased, long after he [Aurobindo] is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will have echoed and re-echoed, not only in India but across distant seas and lands. Therefore I say that the man in his position is standing not only before the bar of this court, but before the bar of the High Court of History”.

The trial ran for exactly one year and on 5th May 1009 Aurobindo was acquitted as innocent and released from the Alipore Jail.

After release from the jail, Aurobindo made his first public appearance at Uttarapara on 30th May 1909 and delivered a memorable speech which became popular as ‘Uttarapra Speech’. The Uttarapara speech is openly a description of Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual experience while in jail. Here are some of his own words:

“I looked at the bars of the cell, the very grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vaasudeva. It was Narayana who was guarding and standing sentry over me. I lay on the coarse blankets that were given to me for a couch and felt the arms of Sri Krishna around me, the arms of my Friend and Lover. This was the first use of the deeper Vision the Lord gave me. I looked at the prisoners in the jail, the thieves, the murderers, the swindlers and as I looked at them I saw Vaasudeva. It was Narayana whom I found in these darkened souls and misused bodies”.

Sri Aurobindo emerged from the jail with a sense of widened horizons which profoundly influenced his future life.

In the meanwhile, Balagangadhara Tilak, who was in the forefront of the freedom struggle along with Aurobindo with his line of thinking, had started a newspaper in 1881 in Marathi called “Kesari” and published from Poona. This was started with the specific purpose of using it as a weapon against foreign rule. In this paper he published a few articles pertaining to the outbreak of violence in the country as a result of the Bengal partition and also about the Alipore Bomb Case in which he defended the freedom fighters of the country. These were written in chaste Marathi. Some of the articles were not to the liking of the Government who initiated action on Tilak on charges of sedition. Tilak was arrested on 13th July 1906 and was tried which lasted just for five days.

During the trial Tilak, being himself a great legal luminary, defended the case himself. He examined the translator who had translated his Marathi article in English for the benefit of the court. Under severe examination the translator broke down and confessed that he was not the translator of the impugned articles for which Tilak was being tried. Tilak had no difficulty in proving that the English translations deliberately omitted some important sentences in Marathi and in short, it was a garbled version that was presented to the court. The articles written in high-flown Marathi in ‘Kesari’ could have been beyond the understanding capacity of Justice Davar who tried the case. The Jury of 9 [7 Europeans and 2 Parsis], after being closeted for one and half hours came out with a divided verdict—the Europeans pronouncing him guilty and the Parsis not guilty. It appears that the Court and Justice Davar had made up their mind to prosecute Tilak, as was confirmed by some revelations later. Tilak was given six years’ transportation and was deported to a jail in Mandalay, Burma.

How the Court and the Judge had made up their mind to sentence Tilak is evident from the fact that while the Judge pronounced his judgment towards midnight, the exact punishment was talked about by about 5.30 in the evening among members of the Bar who, it was said, had received this information from a highly placed officer attending the case. It also appears that in the evening a few people had heard that a carriage was kept waiting in the premises of the High Court in which Tilak was to be taken out. This was how the British showed justice to Indians in their patriotic struggle for independence.

Soon after the pronouncement of the judgment, Tilak, addressing Justice Davar, observed:

“In spite of the verdict of the Jury, I maintain that I am innocent. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of man and nations and it may be the will of Providence that the cause I represent may prosper more by my suffering than my remaining free”



B.M.N.Murthy


Article No.467--The ALIPORE BOMB CASE
Created: Friday, October 10, 2008 11:22 AM