The Man behind the Myth

Jatindranath Mukherjee

Jatindranath Mukherjee was one of the most valiant revolutionary philosophers and freedom fighters against the British rule in India. His heroic struggle against the colonial rulers earned him the moniker Bagha Jatin (Tiger Jatin). Gandhi respected him as 'a divine personality' and a British officer called Sir Charles Tegart said, “If Jatin were an Englishman, the English people would have built his statue next to Nelson's at Trafalgar Sqaure.” We remember the heroic sacrifice of this brave son of Bangladesh on his 99th death anniversary.

Jatin was born in a village in Kushtia (then a subdivision) district of Bangladesh (then East Bengal) in 1879
After passing the Entrance examination in 1895, Jatin joined the Calcutta Central College (now Khudiram Bose College), to study Fine Arts
Jatin used to visit Swami Vivekananda whose vision of politically independent India influenced him a lot
Fed up with the colonial education, Jatin left for Muzaffarpore in 1899, as secretary of barrister Pringle Kennedy

Jatin was one of the founders of the revolutionary group Anushilan Samiti
Jatin, together with Barindra Ghosh, set up a bomb factory near Deoghar
After the partition of Bengal in 1905 Jatin  issued  several daring raids against British officials
Notable among them were India Bank robbery, an attempt to assassinate the Lt Governor of Bengal, assassinations of the Prosecutor Ashutosh Biswas and the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Samsul Alam and Haorah-Shibpur gang case

Jatin established another revolutionary group called Jugantor to collaborate with the German army during the World War I to liberate India
They planned to organise an armed revolt all over India
This international network conceived by Jatin came to be known as the Hindu- German Conspiracy or Zimmerman Plan
The plot leaked out through Czech revolutionaries who revealed the plan to the US intelligence officers in 1915

As soon as the information reached the British authorities, the police started a combing operation to arrest Jatin
Being surrounded by police during a 75 minute long gunfight, Jatin was captured seriously wounded
Bagha Jatin died in Balasore hospital on September 10 , 1915
Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Jatin expressed his ideals in simple words, “"We shall die to awaken the nation"