Bagha Jatin - During World War I

During World War I

Shortly after when World War I broke out, in September 1914, an International Pro-India Committee was formed at Zurich. Very soon it merges into a bigger body, to form the Berlin Committee, or the Indian Independence Party, led by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya alias Chatto : it gained the support of the German government and had as members prominent Indian revolutionaries abroad, including leaders of the Ghadar Party. Militants of the Gadhar party started leaving for India, to join the proposed uprising inside India during World War I, with the help of arms, ammunition, and funds promised by the German government. Advised by Berlin, Ambassador Bernstorff in Washington arranged with Von Papen, his Military attaché, to send cargo consignments from California to the coast of the Bay of Bengal, via Far East.

These efforts were directly connected with the Jugantar, under Jatin's leadership, in its planning and organising an armed revolt. Rasbehari Bose assumed the task of carrying out the plan in Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab. This international chain work conceived by Jatin came to be known as the German Plot, the Indo-German Conspiracy, or the Zimmermann Plan. Jugantar started to collect funds by organising a series of dacoities (armed robberies) known as "Taxicab dacoities" and "Boat dacoities". Charles Tegart, in his "Report No. V" on the seditious organisations mentions the "certain amount of success" in the contact that exists between the revolutionaries and the Sikh soldiers posted at Dakshineshwar gunpowder magazine; Jatin Mukherjee in company of Satyendra Sen was seen interviewing these Sikhs. Sen "is the man who came to India with Pingle. Their mission was specially to tamper with the troops. Pingle was captured in the Punjab with bombs and was hanged, while Satyen was interned under Regulation III in the Presidency Jail." With Jatin's written instructions, Pingle and Kartar Singh Sarabha met Rasbehari in North India.

Preoccupied by the increasing police activities to prevent any uprising, eminent Jugantar members suggested that Jatin should move to a safer place. Balasore on the Orissa coast was selected as a suitable place, being very near the spot where German arms are to be landed for the Indian rising. To facilitate transmission of information to Jatin, a business house under the name "Universal Emporium" was set up, as a branch of Harry & Sons in Calcutta, which had been created for keeping contacts with revolutionaries abroad. Jatin therefore moved to a hideout outside Kaptipada village in the native state of Mayurbhanj, more than thirty miles away from Balasore.

On reaching Orissa, in April, 1915, Jatin sent one of his close associates, Naren Bhattacharya (future M.N. Roy) to Batavia, following instructions from Chatto, in order to make a deal with the German authorities concerning financial aid and the supply of arms. Through the German Consul, Naren met Theodore, brother of Karl Helfferich, who assured him that a cargo of arms and ammunition was already on its way, "to assist the Indians in a revolution."