Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member and historian Sanjeev Sanyal recounted the life of his grand uncle Sachindranath Sanyal, an armed revolutionary who fought for Independence against the British, at a Delhi University event that took place in mid-January this year. A video of the session from the Delhi University Literature Festival 2024 in which Sanyal discusses Sachindranath’s book ‘Bandi Jeevan: A Life in Captivity’ was posted earlier this week on a YouTube channel. The book originally written by the freedom fighter in early 20th century has now been translated to English.
During the session, the economist narrates a fascinating tale of Sachindranath’s revolutionary activities, including an attempt on Viceroy Lord Charles Hardinge’s life in 1912.
“So, what happens is Sachin Sanyal is doing his own thing. He has this branch of the Anushilan Samiti set up and of course the Anushilan Samiti is under investigation. So, he quietly changes the name of his organization to something - young men's something. But anyway, at this time he comes in touch with a Bose, called Rash Behari Bose who was working as a clerk in Dehradun in the Forestry Research Institute. And, they decide to try and assassinate Viceroy Hardinge in 1912,” Sanyal said. The Anushilan Samiti was an Indian revolutionary organisation active in the early 20th century. They trained members in physical fitness, bomb-making and weaponry. They were prominent in the first three decades of the 1900s, though activity dwindled in 1930s.
Sanyal shed more light on the day of the incident when the attack took place.
“This event happens very very close to here (Delhi University), in Chandni Chowk. So in Chandni Chowk, in 1912, what is happening? Delhi has just been made the capital of the country. Been shifted from Kolkata to Delhi. And, a grand entry is organised in which Viceroy Hardinge on an elephant will go through Chandni Chowk in a ceremonial march and declare Delhi as the capital.”
Sachindranath and Rash Behari along with another young revolutionary team up to spoil Viceroy’s celebrations.
“So, Rash Behari Bose, who was the elder of the two decides they are going to do something disruptive. So, they train a young boy who was also 16-17 years old, Basanta Biswas. And the three of them basically go somewhere near Paranthe Wali Gali."
"I can imagine them standing there. This is December. So, December 1912, I can imagine them sitting there having their parathas in Paranthe Wali Gali. Then what they do is they go to the top of a wholesaler market, which is also still there. And from there they throw a bomb on top of Hardinge. It's unclear whether Sachin Sanyal himself was there. He was a part of the plot, but he may or may not have been there. But Rash Behari was there and Basanta Biswas was there. And they throw a bomb and they nearly managed to kill Lord Harding. His mahout dies but Lord Hardinge is very badly hurt. Takes him six months to recover but he survives.”
“He's the guy who by the way builds North Block, South Block, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Lutyen’s Delhi and so on. And so it turned out somewhat ironically that almost 100 years later I ended up working in North Block and I did check out some of the underground tunnels that they are there. By the way North Block and South Block have various escape routes designed specifically to escape revolutionaries.”
Sanyal added that Sachindranath went on to build the Hindustan Republican Army to fight the British and recruited many popular revolutionaries.
“Non-cooperation movement ends with Chauri Chaura. Gandhi suddenly arbitrarily withdraws the whole movement just about at the time that it was about to become successful. There are a large number of young people who are disillusioned with this. So, Sachin Sanyal now goes back in and begins to recruit.”
“So, he recruits all these people whose names you may have heard. This is the time when he recruits Ram Prasad Bismil, Rajendra Lahiri, Ashfaqulla Khan, Bhagat Singh, who was a college student. Sukhdev, Raj Guru, Chandrashekhar Azad, who was a young kid in Varanasi in Sanskrit College. These people all of whose names you know are actually recruits of Sachindra Sanyal. And as a part of that he then set up something called the Hindustan Republican Association and under it he created the Hindustan Republican Army.”