Bagha Jatin - Legacy of Jatin Mukherjee

Legacy of Jatin Mukherjee

Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Jatin expressed his ideals in simple words: "Amra morbo, jagat jagbe" — "We shall die to awaken the nation". It is corroborated in the tribute paid to Jatin by Charles Tegart, the Intelligence Chief and Police Commissioner of Bengal : "Though I had to do my duty, I have a great admiration for him. He died in an open fight." Later in life, Tegart admitted : "Their driving power (...) immense: if the army could be raised or the arms could reach an Indian port, the British would lose the War". Professor Tripathi analysed the added dimensions revealed by the Howrah Case proceedings: acquire arms locally and abroad; raise a guerrilla; create a rising with Indian soldiers; Jatin Mukherjee's action helped improve (especially economically) the people's status. "He had indeed an ambitious dream."

Informed about his JatinDa's death, M.N. Roy wrote: "I could not forget the injunction of the only man I ever obeyed almost blindly JatinDa's heroic death must be avenged. Only a year had passed since then. But in the meantime I had come to realise that I admired JatinDa because he personified, perhaps without himself knowing it, the best of mankind. The corollary to that realisation was that Jatinda's death would be avenged if I worked for the ideal of establishing a social order in which the best in man could be manifest."