Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist leader, writer, speaker, social reformer, and freedom fighter. He was known as the “Father of Revolutionary Thoughts in India” for his revolutionary work. Centered around the Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi Movement of 1905, and through the Surat Split of 1907, the Indian National Congress, established in 1885, split into two parties based on two separate ideologies.
The first-generation leaders of the Indian National Congress were known as ‘Moderates’. Some moderate leaders were Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, R C Dutt, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and William Wedderburn. Although these leaders had greater influence initially, gradually the influence of leaders opposing their petition-prayer policy began to increase. These leaders, who advocated for active movement, were known as ‘Extremists’. Notable among the extremist leaders were Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Aurobindo Ghosh, among others.
Bipin Chandra Pal was of moderate temperament in his early life. Later, he became a believer in extremist ideology. He propagated his ideology through the publication of a weekly English newspaper called New India in 1901. He made a significant contribution to the Bengal Partition and Swadeshi Movement. He advocated for complete non-cooperation with the British. For this purpose, he propagated the program and ideal of ‘Passive Resistance’. Like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, he also adopted the attainment of ‘Swaraj’ as the main goal.
Early Life of Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was born on November 7, 1858, in a wealthy Bengali Kayastha family in a village called Pail in Habiganj, Sylhet district (then part of Bengal Presidency). In 1879, he began his career as the headmaster of a high school in Cuttack. His father, Ramchandra Pal, was initially a Persian scholar and a small landlord, but later joined the Sylhet bar as a lawyer. He both studied and taught at the Church Mission Society College (currently named as St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College), which is an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta.
He also studied Comparative Theology at New Manchester College, Oxford, England for one year (1899-1900), but did not complete the course. Niranjan Pal, one of the founders of Bombay Talkies, was his son. Among Bipin Chandra Pal’s two sons-in-law, one was an ICS officer, S. K. Dey, who later became a central minister, and the other was freedom fighter Ullaskar Dutt.
Contribution of Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal significantly contributed to India’s nationalist movement, from joining the Indian National Congress to opposing the Bengal Partition and participating in the Swadeshi Movement. Alongside, he was also a social reformer. Below is a discussion of his important contributions in various fields:
Bipin Chandra Pal’s Role in Indian National Congress
- Bipin Chandra Pal participated in the second session of the Indian National Congress held in Calcutta in 1886. Initially, he believed in the moderate political ideology that was loyal to British rule for constitutional reforms. Bipin Chandra Pal was a follower of Surendranath Banerjee. In 1897, he had explicitly declared, “I am loyal to the British government because with me loyalty to the British Government is identical with loyalty to my own people and my own country”.
- Later, in 1905, the Bengal Partition movement completely changed his mental outlook. He began to believe in extremist ideology. The petition-prayer politics of the moderate leaders seemed hollow to him. Along with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal became an important leader of the extremist group, which opposed the moderates’ petition-prayer policy and dependence on constitutional reforms by the British government and instead advocated for self-reliance and direct action to secure India’s independence.
- At the third session of the INC in Madras (Dec 1887), Bipin Chandra Pal strongly supported the abolition of the discriminatory Arms Act, which prohibited Indians from keeping arms. At the fourth session of the INC (1888), he urged greater emphasis on Industrial Inquiry and Technical Education in educational institutions to advance the country’s economic and educational framework. Due to ideological differences with Mahatma Gandhi, Bipin Chandra Pal opposed his non-violent approach and non-cooperation movement and instead advocated for more radical and direct actions, including armed resistance, to achieve India’s independence.
- In 1908, he even went to England to propagate the Indian nationalist ideology. When Bal Gangadhar Tilak formed the Home Rule League on April 28, 1916, Bipin Chandra joined it. In 1920, Bipin Chandra had a disagreement with Gandhiji and Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and was alienated from the mainstream nationalist movement.
Bipin Chandra Pal’s Role in the Swadeshi Movement and Bengal Partition
- Bipin Chandra Pal was one of the leaders of the Swadeshi Movement, which aimed to boycott British goods and promote indigenous products. He strongly opposed Lord Curzon’s Bengal Partition in 1905. During the Bengal Partition movement, Bipin Chandra’s “theory of passive resistance” gained immense popularity. He showed the Indian people that Lord Curzon’s decision of Bengal Partition was an attempt to divide the Indian people and weaken the nationalist movement.
- During the Bengal Partition and Swadeshi Movement, Bipin Chandra Pal propagated extremist views through his writings and oratory, which deeply inspired the youth of Bengal at that time. He shaped public opinion through his own newspaper, New India, and Aurobindo Ghosh’s Bande Mataram newspaper. In 1911, he formed the ‘Imperial Federation’. It aimed to give concrete form to self-reliance, unity, self-governance, and nationalism.
- On the other hand, he gave lectures in Bengali and spread awareness among the illiterate people in various parts of rural Bengal. Very few people were able to come into contact with the common people like him. He understood boycott as exclusion and Swaraj as the complete end of British rule. His extremist views brought him into the ire of the British government.
- In 1907, he refused to testify for the government during the sedition charges against Aurobindo Ghosh. As a result, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. In 1908, he went to England with the aim of propagating the Indian nationalist ideology. But there, he gradually became influenced by constitutional methods. The failure of Swadeshi and boycott also disillusioned him about the effectiveness of extremist ideology. As a result, he again leaned somewhat towards moderate ideology.
Social Reforms
- He was a strong critic of social malpractices like the caste system and child marriage. However, he supported widow remarriage. In 1877, inspired by Keshab Chandra Sen’s ideals, Bipin Chandra Pal joined the Brahmo Samaj and even married an inter-caste widow, defying social norms. He also advocated for labour rights, especially for the workers in Assam’s tea gardens, demanding wage increases and a 48-hour workweek.
Bipin Chandra Pal Books
Bipin Chandra Pal was proficient in both Bengali and English. His writings demonstrate his deep knowledge and proficiency in the languages, which reflect the depth of his intellectual knowledge. He explored Indian culture and biographies of important figures in modern Indian history, such as Raja Rammohan Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. Additionally, he wrote Queen Victoria’s biography and his autobiography, Memories of My Life and Times (1932). Among Bipin Chandra Pal’s notable works are: Nationality and Empire, Indian Nationalism, The Basis of Social Reform, Swaraj and the Present Situation, The Soul of India, The New Spirit and Studies in Hinduism. He edited two national books named The Independent and The Democrat.
While working as a social reformer and freedom fighter, Bipin Chandra Pal also worked as a journalist to strengthen and expand the nationalist movement. He began writing in various newspapers and magazines like Bande Mataram, Paridarsak, Swaraj and New India, through which common Indian people became aware of nationalism and their responsibilities, and a desire for independence was created among them.
