At 18 years old, facing death would be the last thing that one would wish for, and to face it with a smile requires not just courage but a strong sense of devotion towards the nation. Khudiram Bose, walked the gallows so that we could have the liberty to debate if we should sit or stand for the national anthem.

Boyhood

Khudiram Bose was born on December 3, 1889, in a village in Medinipur district of West Bengal. He was the youngest of four siblings. He was mainly raised by his elder sister Aparupa Roy, after having lost both his parents at a young age. He did his schooling at the Tamluk Hamilton High School.

At a very tender age, Bose was exposed to revolutionary freedom fighters like Aurobindo Ghosh and Barindra Ghosh, who had instilled in him the ideals of patriotism and nationalism. He had been in his early teens in 1902 when Aurobindo Ghosh had visited Medinipur. Upon listening to his lectures, he was fascinated by the amount of patriotism that drizzled throughout those sessions. Khudiram from then on was an active participant in the discussions about the revolution.

Revolutionary activities

Bose joined the Anushilan Samiti, which was one of the first of the many revolutionary organisations that were founded during the freedom struggle. This was a prominent society in Calcutta, where Bose had gotten in touch with Barindra Kumar Ghosh, one of the leading faces of the leaders of the Anushilan Samiti in eastern India.

He was arrested more than once for having distributed pamphlets against the colonial rule. He had also been actively involved in the bombings of local police stations in the area at the age of 16.

Attempts to assassinate Kingsford

Hemchandra Kanungo, who was one of the associates of Barundra Kumar Ghosh, had returned from Paris in 1907, after learning to make bombs from the revolutionary Russian bomb technologist Nicholas Sanfranski, who had been in exile at the time.  Upon returning to Bengal, the two had plotted to assassinate a high-profile colonial leader and had selected Douglas Kingsford as their target.

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. The Jugantar Patrika was a revolutionary newspaper that had been started as a political weekly in 1906 and had served the agenda of fulfilling the objectives of Anushilan Samiti. 

Following the arrests, the Jugantar responded with defiant editorials, leading to five more prosecutions that left it in financial ruins by 1908. These prosecutions brought the paper more publicity and helped to disseminate the Anushilan Samiti’s ideology of revolutionary nationalism. Revolutionary nationalism as an ideology began to gain support among a significant populace in Bengal, tacitly even if not overt.

Kingsford was also known for his notoriety. He ordered the whipping of a young Bengali boy, Sushil Sen, for participating in the protests that followed the Jugantar trial. As such, during his posting as the Chief Magistrate of the Presidency Court of Alipore, Kingsford became unpopular for passing harsh and cruel sentences on young political workers. He also inflicted corporal punishments on such workers.

Following this widespread contempt over Kingsford, the Samiti had plotted to assassinate Kingsford using a book bomb crafted by Hemchandra, which failed miserably. Following this, Kingsford was promoted to the District Judge position and transferred by the government to Muzaffarpur, Bihar.

The Muzaffarpur Conspiracy

In 1908, there was a second plan hatched to assassinate him, and this time, it would be executed by Khudiram Bose, 18, and Prafulla Chaki, who was then 19-year-old. They had disguised themselves as Haren Sarkar and Dinesh Chandra Roy respectively and went to Muzzafarpur.

On 29th April 1908, Khudiram and Chaki had ambushed the carriage that was carrying Kennedy and his family, who were returning from a game of Bridge with Kingsford’s family. They threw bombs at the carriage, killing Kennedy and his family. Khudiram was later arrested in Wani. He was suspected by two police constables when he asked for a glass of water at a tea stall. His dishevelled look led the constables to suspect that something was amiss, and later they found in his possession 37 rounds of ammunition, ₹30 in cash, a railway map and a copy of the railway timetable. Prafulla Chaki committed suicide before the police could arrest him.

‘Trying’ times

On 1 May, the handcuffed Khudiram was brought to Muzaffarpur. The entire town had descended at the police station to have a look at this firebrand teenage boy. Khudiram was taken to the house of the Mr Woodman, the district magistrate. The English daily The Statesman had on May 2, 1908 wrote:

The Railway station was crowded to see the boy. A mere boy of 18 or 19 years old, who looked quite determined. He came out of a first-class compartment and walked all the way to the phaeton, kept for him outside, like a cheerful boy who knows no anxiety…..on taking his seat the boy lustily cried ‘Vandemataram’.

Khudiram had two hearings, the first of which was in the presence of Prafulla’s corpse who he identified to be his accomplice. Unaware that he was dead, he had taken complete responsibility for the crime. During the first hearing, it was expected that the judge might consider his age and give him a sentence other than death. But the judge pronounced death sentence to Khudiram.

Khudiram smiled. He was asked if he understood what came out of the judge’s mouth. He said yes, with a smile. When asked if he had anything to say, Khudiram said that he be given more time so that he could teach the skill of bomb making. He was dragged away from the court by the policemen.

Later, upon receiving advice from his counsellors, he agreed to be tried again, as he had 7 days to appeal to the High Court.

The trial lasted only five days. He was produced in court on 8 July 1908 and was sentenced to death on 13 July, as Khudiram was the only person alive in the case.

Khudiram walked the gallows on August 11, 1908. He is said to have smiled even as his face was covered moments before hanging.

Legacy

After his martyrdom, Khudiram became a cult icon who inspired several other youngster. Weavers of Bengal started weaving a special type of dhoti, with ‘Khudiram’ written on the edge which was worn by school and college going students. The jail where Khudiram was hanged is now named after him, as is the railway station where he was arrested, which is now called the Khudiram Bose Pusa Station.