The history of the Anushilan Samiti stretches from its beginning in 1902 to 1930. The Samiti began in the first decade of the 20th century in Calcutta as conglomeration of local youth groups and gyms(Akhra). However, its focus was both physical education and proposed moral development of its members. From its inception it sought to promote what it perceived as Indian values and to focus on Indian sports e.g. Lathi and Sword play. It also encouraged its members to study Indian history as well as those of European liberalism including the French Revolution, Russian Nihilism and Italian unification. Soon after its inception it became a radical organisation that sought to end British Raj in India through revolutionary violence. After World War I, it declined steadily as its members identified closely with leftist ideologies and with the Indian National Congress. It briefly rose to prominence in the late second and third decade, being involved in some notable incidents in Calcutta, Chittagong and in the United Provinces. The samiti dissolved into the Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1930.
Background The void arising from the precipitous decline of the Mughal Empire from the early decades of the 18th century allowed emerging powers to grow in the Indian subcontinent. These included the Sikh Confederacy, the Maratha Confederacy, Nizamiyat, the local nawabs of Oudh and Bengal and other smaller powers. Each was a strong regional power influenced by its religious and ethnic identity. However, the East India Company ultimately emerged as the predominant power. Amongst the results of the social, economic and political changes instituted in the country throughout the greater part of the 18th century was the growth of the Indian middle class. Although from different backgrounds and different parts of India, this middle class and its varied political leaderships contributed to a growing "Indian identity". The realisation and refinement of this concept of national identity fed a rising tide of nationalism in India in the last decades of the 1800s.
Bengal itself was relatively quiet during the 1857 uprising, although minor uprisings broke out in Chittagong, Dhaka and a number of other places. However, by the last quarter of the century, the Raj was firmly established in the Bengal Presidency and educated Bengali Babu, the middle-class Bhadralok community were amongst the largest numbers who filled civil and administrative offices throughout British India. In traditional British stereotype, the Bengali race was considered "feeble even to effeminacy" and the least martial of all Indian races. However, the Bengalee propensity to form public bodies and organised protests were noted from early on, which piqued the British observers. 1876 saw the foundation of The Indian Association in Calcutta under the leadership of Surendranath Banerjea. This organisation successfully drew into its folds students and the urban middle–class, for which it served as a mouthpiece. The Association became the mouthpiece of an informal constituency of students and middle-class gentlemen. The Association sponsored the Indian National Conference in 1883 and 1885, which later merged with the Indian National Congress. Calcutta was at the time the capital of British India, and the most prominent centre for organised politics, and some of the same students who attended the political meetings began at the time to organise "secret societies" which cultivated a cultural of physical strength and nationalist feelings. In Bengal at large, through the decades 1860s and 1870s, there arose large numbers of akhras, or gymnasiums consciously designed along the lines of the Italian Carbonari which drew the youth. "[Around 1881] a number of self-styled 'secret societies' were set up in Calcutta that were consciously modelled on the Carbonari and Mazzini's Young Italy Society ... They were in fact simply undergraduate clubs, long on nebulous ideals but short on action." These were influenced by the writings of the Bengalee nationalist author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and by the works of Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini and his Young Italy movement. To this was later added the philosophies and teachings of Swami Vivekananda, which emphasised a "Strong muscles and nerves of steel". This marked the beginnings of interest in physical improvement and proto-national spirit among young Bengalees, and was driven by an effort to break away from the colonial stereotype of effeminacy imposed on the Bengalee. Physical fitness was symbolic of the recovery of masculinity, and part of a larger moral and spiritual training to cultivate control over the body, and develop national pride and a sense of social responsibility and service. The physical culture movement became a craze ... to develop what Swami Vivekananda had described as strong muscles and nerves of steel ... this was a psychological attempt to break away from the colonial stereotype of effeminacy imposed on the Bengalees. Their symbolic recovery of masculinity ... remained parts of a larger moral and spiritual training to achieve mastery over body, develop a national pride and a sense of social service ... founding of a gymnasium by Sarala Ghosal in Ballygunge Circular Road in Calcutta, the Atmonnoti Samiti by some central Calcutta youths and the Anushilan Samiti by Satischandra Basu.
In Calcutta, nationalist politics was developing at a rapid pace, allowing the city to develop as the most vocal centre of the young though still benign movement. Key leaders in the Congress-led movement in the province were Surendranath Bannejea and Motilal Ghosh, while figures like Pherozshah Mehta, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and the more radical Bal Gangadhar Tilak were gaining prominence in Maharashtra in the presidencies of Bombay and Poona. Through these last decades of the 1800s, however, the concept of secret societies and the propensity of nationalist violence was stronger in Maharashtra. Tilak himself was associated with such a society in Bombay. "Aurobindo and Jatindranath met in Baroda in 1899. Both became members of a 'secret society' of Bombay with which the Maharashtrian political leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak was associated. Tilak later [made] an effort to get Aurobindo's friend Madhavrao Jadhav admitted to a military school in Russia. This plan fell through, but Madhavrao was eventually ... enrolled (possibly with Russian help) in the Swiss military academy in Bern.'" The most notable amongst the Maharashtrian societies was Mitra Mela (Friends circle) founded by V.D. Savarkar at Nasik in 1900. The organisation reformed as the Abhinav Bharat Society and moved to Poona. The trend towards secret societies in Bengal had in the meantime slowed down, and what existed did not engage in any notable political activities. It was at this time, at the turn of the 20th century, that the revolutionary organisations emerged with considerable potency in Bengal.
Early developments Among the first revolutionary organisations founded with an organised programme in Bengal was that led by Jatindranath Bannerjee and Aurobindo Ghosh. Ghosh was the grandson of leading Bengali reformer, Rajnarayan Bose. Schooled at St. Paul's and a graduate of King's College, Cambridge, Ghosh returned to India in 1893, undertaking a short career in political journalism in Bombay. He criticised the Congress's elitist politics which he argued was confined to the middle-class and effectively ignored the Indian masses of the lower classes. For Ghosh, the discussions engaged by the Congress members were frivolous, he argued for a radical and revolutionary movement for achieve political goals. "Aurobindo Ghose, who with Jatindranath helped to organize the first revolutionary group in Bengal with a well-thought-out programme, read widely in the history of Europe while a scholar at St Paul's School, London, and Kings College, Cambridge. Shortly after his return to India in 1893 he wrote in a Bombay newspaper ... his thesis that when men wanted a radical change of government, revolutionary action counted for much more than the sort of endless discussion that the members of the Indian National Congress engaged in." Under pressure to tone down his criticisms, Ghosh withdrew from his writings altogether, which held for a good decade or so. In 1897, Aurobindo Ghosh took up the position of lecturer in French at Baroda College and was appointed acting Professor of English at the college in 1898. In 1899, Ghosh met Jatindranath Bannerjee. Both Bannerjee and Ghosh were members of a Bombay secret society that B.G. Tilak was associated with. Both Ghosh and Tilak shared thoughts on a program of revolution. Both envisioned an organised and disciplined uprising different from the terrorist tactics favoured by secret societies. Ghosh's thoughts were turned towards a military insurrection through Guerrilla warfare, aided by general revolt and popular resistance to which, if possible, the Indian Army was to be drawn in revolt. The grounding of such a program was to be "revolutionary propaganda and recruiting" and young Bengalees were to be trained in activities that would be helpful when the moment came. Ghosh emphasised activities riding, physical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organized movement. He foresaw the program occupying up to thirty years before India was ready to rise. "Tilak's interest in military weaponry and training was indicative of his and Aurobindo's revolutionary programme. Neither was interested in terrorism of the sort that is usually associated with secret societies, but rather in a disciplined military uprising ... Aurobindo's idea was to prepare for 'an armed insurrection' that would consist of 'guerrilla warfare accompanied by general resistance and revolt' including, if possible, 'a general revolt of the Indian army'. The first step ... would be a work of 'revolutionary propaganda and recruiting'. Young Bengalis would be given instruction 'in activities that might be helpful for ultimate military action, such as riding, physical training, athletics of various kinds, drill and organized movement.' Aurobindo thought that this programme 'might occupy a period of 30 years before fruition'." With the help of Tilak and some two others associates of the names Khasi Rao Jadav and Madhav Rao, Ghosh was, in September 1899, able to arrange for Jatindranath Bannerjee to enrol in the armed forces of the Princely State of Baroda with false papers. Tilak himself tried to arrange for Madhav Rao to obtain admission to a Russian military school, and ultimately was able to get him admitted to the Swiss Military Academy at Bern. Ghosh had worked close to the Gaekwar of Baroda, and in 1902, he establish contacts with men with similar views in Western India.
Anushilan Samiti
Foundation Around 1902, Aurobindo Ghosh arranged for Bannerjee to return to Calcutta to begin organisational work, where he began a gymnasium and a youth society. It was at this time that Bannerjee came in touch with Vibhuti Bhushan Bhattacharya, Sarala Devi Ghoshal and Pramathanath Mitra. In Calcutta, a few clubs and societies were still active at the time. Most notable was a gymnasium in Ballygunge Circular Road run by Sarala Devi herself, a second was an organisation named Anushilan Samiti founded by Satish Chandra Basu with the patronage of Pramathanath Mitra. A third one was a youth club called Attōnnōti Samiti (Self-improvement society) in central Calcutta.