Revolutionary Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay, or Bagha Jatin, as he was more popularly known, was born on this day. He came to be known as “Bagha Jatin” after he killed a tiger, single-handedly.
In his early youth, he was greatly influenced by Swami Vivekananda.
To demonstrate to the Prince of Wales, who visited India during 1905, how the British treated common Indian citizens, Mukherjee beat up a group of British soldiers who were misbehaving with Indian women. The news of the incident led the Prince of Wales to take the matter up. Mukherjee’s meeting with Sri Aurobindo was a turning point in his life. Encouraged by Sri Aurobindo, Mukherjee played a leading part in creating Jugantar, an armed revolutionary group. Warned by Sri Aurobindo, Mukherjee kept away from the Maniktala bomb factory, for which he was not arrested in the Alipore bomb case. He was arrested in 1910 in connection with the Howrah-Shibpur conspiracy case, but was released in 1911.
After World War I started, Mukherjee made a plan, with the help of Ghadar party members, to receive arms from Germany from a ship at Balasore. Information was leaked to the British and this eventually led to a long gun flight between a British government force and Mukherjee and the other revolutionaries. Mukherjee, seriously wounded, died of his injuries.