Amarendranath Chatterjee - Indo-German Conspiracy

Indo-German Conspiracy

Since Sri Aurobindo’s retiring to Pondicherry in 1910, Amarendra closely associated with Jatin’s followers such as Atulkrishna Ghose, Naren Bhattacharya alias M.N. Roy and Bepin Ganguli, and served as intermediary between Jatin Mukherjee and Rasbehari Bose, becoming a key-figure in the Indo-German Conspiracy under Jatin during World War I. Two of his faithful lieutenants — Basanta and Manmatha Biswas went to North India to assist Rasbehari in an attempt to murder Lord Hardinge; immediately after Basanta’s capital punishment in this connection, Amarendra was blacklisted by the Police.

Bholanath Chatterjee and Parikhit Mukherjee had been working with Naren Bhattacharya under Jatin Mukherjee’s direct leadership. Since March 1915, they were “sent off to Sambalpur side, to prospect establishing connection along the Bombay line to Nagpur connected up with Nilgiri and Mayurbhanj.” At Chakradharpur they received hospitality from Ashu Kundu of Kumarkhali (Nadia) and stayed in Manoharpur, hired a house at Kalunga in August, went to Banposh, Bisra, Mohanpur and Sonua, where they stayed with Girindra Mukherjee who had visited Shyamji Krishna Varma in Europe and Myron Phelps in the U.S.A., and had been in correspondence with them. Reminding that one of the addresses to which money from the Far East could reach the revolutionaries was Sonua Stone & Lime Co. with its office at 101/1 Clive Street, Calcutta, Sealy points out how its owner, Sudhangshu Mukherjee — one of the directors of the Shramajibi Samabaya — was “a puppet in Amarendra Chatterji’s hands.”

In 1909, Amarendra brought out a Bengali edition of Sri Aurobindo’s Karmayogin; the paper collapsed in 1910 after having published a violent letter. He adopted the guise of a monk. Amarendra’s next enterprise was the above-mentioned “Labour League” (Shramajibi Samabaya), a flourishing Limited Liability Company, with the real object of defraying the expenses of preaching Nationalism. In 1911, at Puri, he became the leader of a “gang of sannyasis” banded together with the object of disseminating sedition. He was found selling a book entitled The Life of Arabindo Ghose. In “A Note on the Ramakrishna Mission”, Charles Tegart recognised that the flood relief in 1913 in the districts of Burdwan, Hooghly and Midnapore “was eagerly seized upon by the revolutionary parties, both of the Eastern and Western Bengal, who (…) doubtless utilised the opportunity thus afforded to map out their future plan of campaign.” Describing Amarendra “to be an exceedingly active and dangerous conspirator at the present time,” Tegart proved how the Mission financed him for these relief operations.

Denham, in 1914, kept under observation for a considerable time Naren Bhattacharya’s mess at 133 Lower Circular Road in Calcutta, which was visited by Amarendra and Makhan Sen to see and confer with Jatin Mukherjee. In the same Report, dated 22 April 1914, Tegart states that even up to date, the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur and its recognised branches were not entirely free from objectionable features: “For instance, on the seventy-ninth birthday anniversary of Ramakrishna, which was celebrated at Belur on the 1st of March last, in the presence of a very large gathering, it is reported that Amarendra Nath Chatterjee and Makhan Sen (…), Jatindra Nath Mukherjee and other prominent members of the revolutionary party, were noticed feeding the poor and generally assisting the authorities of the Math in attending to the welfare of their visitors.”

In April, 1915, Jatin Mukherjee agreed to leave Calcutta for Balasore: having supervised the expedition, Amarendra and Ramchandra Majumdar reminded the escorts: “Never forget that the Soul of Bengal is entrusted to you.” After spending a few days with the regional leader Atul Sen, Headmaster of the local school, the party left with Pandit Hem Mukherjee to his village Kumar-Ada near Mahishadal. Then, via Balasore and Nilgiri, they reached Kaptipoda.

At this juncture, before setting out for the Far East, Naren Bhattacharya — after having brought to his colleagues at Calcutta the good news of Jatin Mukherjee’s convenient settling at Kaptipoda and the exact modes of getting orders from Balasore for the route to Kaptipoda — returned there to receive blessings from his Guru, Jatin. With a passport issued in the name of C.A. Martin, he arrived at Batavia (Djakarta) on 30 April, and was welcomed by Erich Windels, the German Consul, who presented him also to the brothers Helfferich, Theodor and Emil, officially designated by the German Government to deal with the Maverick project. In addition to their family plantations, the Helfferichs looked after a flourishing business there; as manager of the Behn Meyers Company, Theodor took down from Naren detailed instructions sent by Jatin Mukherjee concerning the delivery of the Maverick consignment. He noted also the addresses of Harry & Sons (Harikumar Chakravarti) and of Shramajibi Samabaya (Amarendra Chatterjee) at Calcutta for all urgent communications.

Satisfied with his trip to Batavia, on 15 May 1915, Naren sent a telegram to Harikumar from Weltevreden, Java: "Sugar business helpful. Martin.” Having probably made a detour by China, on 29 May he sent another message to Calcutta: "Back here ; business good; sugar contracted; shipment after 2 weeks; anxious for affairs there. Wire. Martin.” Having received from the Helfferichs a first remittance of 43.000 rupees, Naren worked out with Abdur Salam — a Kashmiri Muslim actively involved in the Extremists’ project — to transfer a great portion of this money to Harry & Sons through the intermediary of the firm Chotirmull & Co, belonging to Indian tradesmen from the Sindh, having its dynamic branch offices in the Far East.