Prafulla Chaki

Prafulla Chandra Chaki  ( Profullo Chaki) (10 December 1888 – 2 May 1908) was a Bengali revolutionary associated with the Jugantar group of revolutionaries who carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence.

Prafulla and Khudiram Bose tried to assassinate the District Judge, Mr. Kingsford by throwing bombs at the carriage in which Kingsford was supposed was travel but he was not in the carriage and two British women were killed. Prafulla committed suicide when he was about to be arrested by the Police. Khudiram was arrested and tried for the murder of the two women and sentenced to death. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did not approve this violence and regretted the deaths of two women. He stated "that the Indian people will not win there freedom through these methods"   However, Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his newspaper Kesari, defended the two young men and called for immediate swaraj. This was followed by the immediate arrest of Tilak by the British colonial government on charges of sedition.

Early life 
Prafulla Chandra Chaki was born on 10 December 1888 in Bihar, a village in Bogra district of current day Bangladesh, then a part of Bengal Presidency. He was expelled from Rangpur Zilla School when studying in Class 9 for taking part in a students' demonstration that violated East Bengal law. He then joined Rangpur National School where he came in contact with revolutionaries and became a believer and practitioner of the revolutionary philosophies.

Revolutionary activities 
Barin Ghosh brought Prafulla to Kolkata and he was enlisted in the Jugantar party. His first assignment was to kill Sir Joseph Bampfylde Fuller (1854-1935), the first Lieutenant Governor of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. However, the plan did not materialize.

Next, Prafulla, along with Khudiram Bose was chosen for the assassination of Kingsford, the magistrate of Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Kingsford, during his previous tenure as the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta, was unpopular for passing harsh and cruel sentences on young political workers of Bengal. He was also noted for inflicting corporal punishments on such workers. This led to the planning of his murder, and Chaki and Bose were selected and sent to Muzaffarpur to execute this task. Prafulla took the fake name of 'Dinesh Chandra Roy' in this operation.

The Muzaffarpur killing 
Khudiram and Prafulla watched the usual movements of Kingsford and prepared a plan to kill him.  In the evening of 30 April 1908, the duo waited in front of the gate of European Club for the carriage of Kingsford to come.  When a vehicle came out of the gate, a bomb was thrown into the carriage. There was a mistake of identification by them, as the vehicle was not carrying Kingsford, but wife and daughter of Mr Pringle Kennedy, a leading pleader of Muzaffarpur Bar. The daughter died soon and his wife succumbed to her injuries. The revolutionaries fled.

The manhunt and suicide 
Prafulla and Khudiram took separate routes to escape. Prafulla reached Samastipur where he was given shelter and clothing by a railway staff member, Triguna Charan Ghosh. Ghosh also provided him an inter-class ticket in the night train for Mokama. Nandalal Banerjee, a police officer in the same compartment, suspected Prafulla and attempted to arrest him on the Mokama station platform, but Prafulla committed suicide with his own revolver. His head was severed from his body and sent to Kolkata for further identification by Khudiram who was captured. Khudiram was later arrested and was hanged to death. The police inspector, Nandalal Banerjee, was assassinated by two young revolutionaries, Srishh Pal and Ranen Ganguly.

References

External links 
 
 Muktadhara article

Category:Anushilan Samiti
Category:Anti-British establishment revolutionaries from East Bengal
Category:Bengali people
Category:1888 births
Category:1908 deaths
Category:Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
Category:Indian revolutionaries
Category:Revolutionaries who committed suicide
Category:Suicides by firearm in India
Category:People from Bogra District