Bipin Chandra Pal The Forgotten Hero

Introduction

India, under the colonial rule of British suffered a lot. The oppression, discrimination and exploitation faced by the Indians was one of the worst incidents ever to happen in the human history.

If not for the ‘Heroes’ who took a stand and fought against the colonial rule of the British, Indians would still not have escaped from their slavery.

Every Indian would have lost their identity, their culture, their religion, their language and their pride. If not for these ‘Heroes’ India would not be the country it is now.

These ‘Heroes’ are the ‘Freedom Fighters’ of the country. Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Tantia Tope, Nana Sahib, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Subhash Chandra Bose… are just a few famous names of freedom fighters\Heroes of the country.

There are countless other people whose name has been forgotten with the tide of time. Their contribution for India’s freedom is just as crucial as any other person.

One of the forgotten ‘Hero’, who worked hard and provided his service for the country’s betterment in his own way was Bipin Chandra Pal.

His contribution towards the country’s independence was just as important as any other freedom fighter and should not go un-noticed.

Early Life & Education

Unlike the typical poor birth conditions of a revolutionary which is usually depicted in movies, Bipin Chandra Pal was born in a wealthy family on 7 th November 1858 in the village of Poil, Habiganj, Sylhet District, Bengal Presidency of British India, in a Hindu Bengali Kayastha family.

People from this Kayastha community throughout India have the occupation of scribes and administrators. Along with Brahmins and Baidyas, Kayastha are among the three traditional higher casts that comprise the upper layer of Hindu society. His father’s name is Ramchandra Pal.

He was educated in Persian and was a good Persian scholar during that time. Persian being the professional language in Bengal and his father being a scholar in it secured him a job of a clerk and after that bench-clerk in the court of Sadar-Ala or Subordinate Judge of Dacca.

Bipin Chandra Pal’s mother’s name is Narayanee. She was from the village of Shatiajuri. She was his father’s second wife.

His father married his mother when she was only around the age of 10 or 11 while his first wife was still alive. In fact, it was his first wife who wanted to get her husband a second wife because she was not able to conceive his child.

Even though his father did not want to go against the Will of The Divine. But she wanted to preserve the
family line hence she was persistent in her wish. She herself selected her husband’s second wife Narayanee.

Bipin Chandra Pal was brought to Dacca when he was just 2 years old. They lived there for quite a
while.

According to some old Sanskrit verse greatly followed by the Chanakya, till 5 years of age, a
child should be greeted with great tenderness, till 10 years the child should be handled with strict
discipline, and when the child reaches the age of 16, he should be treated as a friend by his father.

And this is exactly how Bipin Chandra Pal’s father treated him. Bipin Chandra Pal completed his early education from a Maulvi in Sylet town. His high school studies were done from Sylhet Government High School.

He even passed his entrance examination from here after which he was admitted in Presidency College. But he did not complete his graduation there.

Even though he was a dropout, he was astounding in literacy. He extensively read the ‘Bhagwat Gita’
and ‘Upanishads’. In 1898 he even went to England to study Comparative Theology for a year.

Bipin Chandra Pal’s Role in Indian freedom movement

Bipin Chandra Pal after dropping out from his Presidency College started his career in early 1879 as
the headmaster of the high school, he studied in.

During the years 1890-1891 he even worked as the librarian and secretary of the Calcutta National Library. During his time as a student, he met some prominent people like Keshab Chandra Sen, Shibnath Shastri, and Bijoy Krishna Goswami.

Bijoy Krishna Goswami greatly influenced and guided his spiritual ideas. These people started the spark of
patriotism and social revolt.

Joining The Indian National Congress.

Since 1885, Pal got connected with the progressive force of the Congress and eventually became a major leader of the Indian National Congress.

In the third Annual session of the Congress held in Madras, Pal strongly plead for diminishing the Arms Act, because of this act Assam Tea-Garden labourers were very poorly treated by the planters.

After studying Comparative Theology from England, he came back to India in 1899 with the motivation to preach about the ideals of Swaraj (Complete Independence).

He did this via his weekly journal the New India. In 1882 he worked as Assistant Editor of the Bengali Public Opinion and in 1887 he served at the Lahore Tribune for some time.

He was also the editor of The Democrat and The Independent. With full determination and patriotic zeal, he worked towards the India’s Independence.

He took over the session of 1904 of the Indian National Congress. He also started his own daily
Bande Mataram and headed it as its chief editor.

He was able to reach and move a lot of people through his daily. He wrote several articles, informing the people of India about the various dangers, current situations and future enemies etc.

He was even able to organise propagandas in various parts of Bengal, Assam, UP and Madras. He wanted more people to pursue journalism.

One of the main Architects of the Swadeshi Movement which spread over India like a wildfire during the partition of Bengal was Bipin Chandra Pal.

He had to suffer through 6 months of imprisonment in 1907 due to his refusal to give evidence against Aurovinda Ghosh in his daily.

He had a very important role in a lot of movements except the Non-Cooperation Movement. He did not involve himself with this movement because it was in alliance with the Khilafat and it criticised the Bengal
Pact of Chitta Ranjan Das.

His ideals did not match with the views of Mohammad Ali on communal problems in India. Bipin Chandra Pal belonged to the Lal-Bal-Pal trio along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar.

They were the revolutionary activists. Shri Aurobindo Ghosh and Pal were the chiefs who led new national movements regarding the ideals of Purna Swaraj, Swadeshi, boycott of foreign goods and national education.

He wanted to remove the discrimination, social evils from the society and arouse a feeling of nationalism among the Indians.

For this he motivated the people to wear and use Indian clothes and goods, boycott foreign goods and clothes.

This will not only remove poverty from the country but also create employment opportunities for Indians. Once his views clashed with Mahatma Gandhi on the issue of Non-Violent protests.

He believed that just mild protests won’t be enough to drive out the British colonial government from the country. He was known as one of the mightiest prophets of nationalism.

He gave his best efforts to improve the economic conditions of the people and to remove the social evils like the caste system from the country.

His books were very helpful in enlightening people. Few of his prominent works are Indian Nationalism, Nationality and Empire, Swaraj and the Present Situation, The Basis of Social Reform, The New Spirit, Studies in Hinduism and The Soul of India.

A man of unflinching ideals and spirit, Bipin Chandra Pal is indeed worthy of the title ‘Father of Revolutionary thought in India’. He ignited the idea of revolution amongst the Indians.

He always put his ideals and believes first before anything else, even politics. He advocated the policy of Gender Equality.

He sets himself as an example by marrying Nrityakali Devi, a Brahmin widow and after her death, he gets married to another Brahmin widow, Birajmohini Devi, a distant relation of Surendranath Banerjea.

Around 6 years before his death, he retires himself from politics in 1925 and lives a secluded life.

Bipin Chandra Pal encouraged many people to come forward and be a part of the revolution. It was due to his contributions that so many people were motivated to participate in various movements.

Death

He died on 20th May 1932 in Calcutta. He is an inspiration to all and his sacrifices for the nation should never ever be forgotten .

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