India’s Independence Fight: When Bengali gym bros flexed muscles against the British
“Bengalli Hindu élite, who developed in a symbiotic relationship with the British administration from the middle of the nineteenth century to the 1930s, made the cliché himself.” He said: “He tried to overcome the so -called degeneration through the search for physical culture. In this, he reacted like other nationalist élit groups in India, China and Europe, like other nationalist élit groups sought in the regulation of physical culture and martial arts for what they live in as humiliation.”
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Akhadalar (Wrestling Clubs and Sports Hall) began to break in Kalcutta, where young men traditionally educated their bodies by young men (existing gym broos). But that wasn’t their only purpose. It wasn’t just the gym mice that wanted to show Buff bodies. The Akhadalar was actually a network for Young Bengalis to organize themselves against the British for a militant resistance. This movement, called Anushilan Samiti, was one of India’s first violent anti -colonial movements.
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Anushilan Samiti: Armed resistance from Akhadis
The story of India’s struggle for independence is often framed around violence, constitutional reform and mass movements. Nevertheless, under this mainstream narrative, there was insufficient armed resistance defined by small but determined groups who believed that the colonial state could only face direct action. Anushilan Samiti – a group that unites physical education, spiritual nationalism and political violence – was among the oldest and most influential of these revolutionary organizations.
The origins of Anushilan Samiti lies in a nationalist thought that grew up in Bengal at the beginning of the 20th century. At a time when the British colonial discourse stressed the weakness of the Indian man, some Indian thinkers and leaders inspired by Swami Vivekananda defended the opposite side of physical power and discipline. This ideological climate gave birth to the movement of Akhada-Young men domestic wrestling, stick war, sword master, and even later in western style boxing forms of local gym.
These areas were not just about creating physical skills. They have become places where young people can be vaccinated into a new form of nationalist masculinity. In Bengal, this took the form of clubs and hidden societies that began to blur the lines between physical culture and political radicalism. Anushilan (means ‘discipline’ or ‘practice’) reflected this synthesis of the body, mind and the nation.
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Anushilan Samiti was founded in 1902 under the initiative of Pramathanath Mitra, a lawyer who believes that political freedom should be won through preparation, power and sacrifice. It was supported by figures such as Satish Chandra Basu and Sarala giant Chaudhurii, which offered both ideological and logistics support.
These early years saw that Samiti was operating as a network of semi -Clandes, and the new soldiers swore in Bhagavad Gita and promised to serve the country first of all. Hindu philosophical revival and the combination of Western ideas of military discipline created a unique ideological mixture: the revolutionary action was framed both as a sacred duty and a nationalist necessity.
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From physical education to political violence
The division of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905 served as a catalyst. What is a semi -cultural movement became a political and militant. A more radical wing of Samiti appeared under the leadership of Ghaosh (Sri Aurobindo’s brother) and others, and was later known as the Juventar Group. Dakka Anushilan Samiti, a parallel organization, was founded by Pulin Behari Das and rapidly expanded in East Bengal, which gathered thousands of members.
These groups often began to assume political violence actions aimed at the symbols of the British authorities, informants and colonial authority. Philosophy was simple: “terror for terror”, the strategic use of fear to resist the British pressure and to shake the moral legitimacy of the empire. The assassination of the British peace judges, the sewing of bombs and the robberies planned to finance revolutionary activities became the distinctive feature of Samiti’s actions.
The 1908 alipore bomb case, where young revolutionaries like Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki pointed to the first major conflict between the British state and Samiti. Although he failed, the case revealed the scope of the underground revolutionary network and led to arrests, trials and executions.
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Tactics, supervision and British response
Over time, Anushilan Samiti became a sophisticated underground organization with secret communication, arms smuggling and connections to international anti -colonial networks. In 1914, Roda arms robbery in 1914, a successful theft of a great shipment of weapons, emphasized Samiti’s talents. The British intelligence responded by expanding the private branch, tightening the Indian Defense Law (1915) and launching widespread surveillance and printing operations.
But Samiti was difficult. Leaders such as Rash Behari Bose and Jatindranath Mukhibe (Bagha Jatin) kept the revolutionary Alevi alive, especially during World War II, tried to associate with global geopolitical changes, global geopolitical changes.
By the 1920s, the revolutionary movement began to disintegrate under the bilateral pressure of British pressure and the rise of Gandhian violence. Many members of Anushilan participated in the mainstream politics, the National Congress of India, or participated in the leftist and Marxist movements. Others continued in smaller groups and contributed to the revolutionary action departments such as Chittagong Armory Raid (1930), led by Syria Sen, and the Kakori Cession (1925) organized by the Hindustan Republican Association.
Anushilan Samiti officially disintegrated until the end of the 1930s, but his legacy continued. He showed that nationalism could take many forms and that armed resistance is a real part of India’s anti -colonial imagination, although it is controversial and often morally uncertain.
The history of Anushilan Samiti complicates the popular narrative of India’s struggle for independence only as peaceful and non -violent. He filled the gap between the cultural nationalism and militant resistance that emerged from the modest but politically loaded area of Akhadas and gyms. Although he could not give a decisive blow to the British Empire, he played a vital role in shaping the emotional and ideological field of the Indian Freedom Movement by encouraging sacrifice, privacy and the sanctity of nationalist cases.
Inheritance refuses to die
Akhada Calcutta culture, which encourages one of the first militant resistance movements against the British, refuses to die. In 2016, TOI reported that one of Akharas, associated with Anushilan Samiti – Hatkhola byayam Samity, was still operating after it was founded more than a century ago.
Toi, “106 years old, the city’s oldest gym. In 1910, founded by freedom fighters, is still getting stronger.” “Manohar Aich, and many other legends, Lord Hanuman’ın mammoth -sized wall paintings on the feet of vomit and mugur would work regularly. Samity.
“They use wooden macs, iron wall bar, donkaath for classic donbaithak, leg press, bench press and tensile-hepsi Samity, and members are used by Pehelwans or Byambirs while they prefer to search for themselves. Samity has 5,500 members between the ages of 20-70,”
