Emperor v. Aurobindo Ghosh and others

The case saw the trial of a number of Indian nationalists of the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta, under charges of "Waging war against the Government" of the British Raj.

[1] Aurobindo Ghosh retired from active nationalist politics after serving a prison sentence awarded in the trial, beginning his journey into spirituality and philosophy that he described as having started with revelations that occurred to him during his incarceration.

[3][4] Having forsaken a potential career in the Indian Civil Service, Ghosh had returned to India and taken up an academic post under the patronage of the Maharaja of Baroda.

Inspired by the histories of Italian and Irish nationalism, Aurobindo began preparing the grounds and network for an Indian nationalist revolution, in which he found support in Tilak.

[5] Aurobindo returned to Bengal in 1906, and with the assistance of Subodh Mallik and Bipin Chandra Pal, founded in 1907 the radical Bengali nationalist publication of Jugantar and its English counterpart Bande Mataram.

After a slow start, the journal gradually grew to acquire a mass appeal in Bengal through its radicalist approach and message of revolutionary programmes.

Nationalist writings and publications by Aurobindo and his brother Barin included Bande Mataram, Jugantar had a widespread impact among the youth of Bengal.

A close group of approximately a dozen young men gathered around Barin, some of whom lived in his garden house in 36 Muraripukur lane, in the Manicktolla suburb of Calcutta.

Kingsford was the Chief Magistrate of the Presidency court of Alipore, and had overseen the trials of Bhupendranath Dutta and other editors of Jugantar, sentencing them to rigorous imprisonment.

Shukla Sanyal notes in 2014 that revolutionary terrorism as an ideology began to win support amongst a significant populace in Bengal, tacitly even if not overt.

[10] Kingsford also earned notoriety among nationalists when he ordered the whipping of a young Bengali boy by the name of Sushil Sen for participating in the protests that followed the Jugantar trial.

This was packed into a hollowed section of Herbert Broom's Commentaries on the Common Law and delivered wrapped in brown paper to Kingsford's house by a young revolutionary named Paresh Mallick.

Fraser, the Governor of Bengal, contemplated arrest and deportation of the Samiti leadership of the Ghosh brothers, Abhinash Bhattacharya, Hemchandra Kanungo and Satyendranath Bosu.

Barin and his group, warned by Aurobindo, began hiding away arms, ammunition, and bombs in various stages of preparation at the house in Muraripukur lane that served as the headquarters.

Aurobindo, Sailen Bose and Abhinash Bhattacharya were arrested from Ghosh's Grey Street office where the trio were staying and his writings and letters were confiscated by the police.

Meanwhile, seven additional police teams raided properties linked to the Ghosh brothers in North Calcutta, including the residences in Scott Street and in Harrison Road.

Fearing that the entire Samiti organisation stood at jeopardy, Barin offered to make a confessional statement taking responsibility for the conspiracy and the materiel.

These included letters Barin had written in 1907, initialled "A.G." proclaiming the time for distributing "sweets" across India, a euphemism for bombs of which the technology Hem Chandra had learnt in Paris.

On 29 August, Kanailal Dutt feigned abdominal colic and gained admission to the Jail hospital, from where he sent word to Naren of wishing to turn approver, along with Satyendranath Bosu.

On 19 October 1908, the hearing for the trial began at the court of Charles Porten Beachroft who served as the additional sessions judge of the District 24 Paraganas.

With assassination of Naren Goswami, precious little remained to link Aurobindo to the works of Barin's group other than his published views in Bande Mataram and Jugantar.

A noted rise in militant actions and assassinations linked to Anushilan Samiti in wider Bengal began to be reported, reaching the premises of the Alipore court as the hearings drew to a close.

A shaken Bengal government arrested and deported a number of Anushilan leaders, including Raja Subodh Mallik, Aurobindo's uncle Krishna Kumar Mitra, and Bande Mataram editor Shyamsunder Chakravarty to Rangoon.

In response, in March 1909, Anushilan assassinated public prosecutor Ashutosh Biswas when he was gunned down by Charu Chandra Bose in the very steps of the Alipore High court where the hearings were beginning to draw to a close.

Additional security measures were put in place, with a reserve force of European officers held ready in case of an outbreak of violence and disorder in the streets of Calcutta.

Thirteen others, Upendra Nath Banerjee, Bibhuti Bhusan Sarkar, Hrishikesh Kanjilal, Birendra Sen, Sudhir Sarkar, Indra Nundy, Abinash Bhattacharjee, Soilendra Bose, Hemchandra Kanungo, Indu Bhusan Roy, Poresh Mullick, Sishir Ghosh, Nirapado Roy were sentenced to transportation for life and forfeiture of all property.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who had close ties with Aurobindo, was arrested and charged with sedition, subsequently found guilty despite publicly dissociating himself from the Muzzafarpur bombings.

In the aftermath of these events, moderates in the Indian National Congress came to be a more prominent force within the organisation, and developed a closer working relationship with the Raj.

Jatin revitalised links between the central organisation in Calcutta and its branches in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, establishing hideouts in the Sunderbans for members who had gone underground.

In 1910, Shamsul Alam, Deputy Superintendent of Bengal Police responsible for investigating the Alipore Bomb case, was shot dead on the steps of Calcutta High Court.