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April 2022

CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE KHUDIRAM BOSE

By C. N. Vaje | Chartered Accountant
Reading Time 4 mins
In India’s glorious history of freedom struggle, the landmark case was of the Muzaffarpur bomb blast. The hero was Khudiram Bose, who, at the tender age of 19 years, climbed the gallows with a smiling face, chanting the mantra of Vande Mataram. The first-ever bomb attack on the British empire in India goes to the credit of this young man.

He was born on the 3rd of December, 1889, in the Medinipur district of Bengal. His father, Trailokyanath Basu, was a tehsildar at Nandzol village in Medinipur. Mother Lakshmipriyadevi was a pious housewife. Unfortunately, Khudiram lost both his parents at the age of just six. He was then brought up by his sister Anurupadevi and her husband, Amritlalji. Although Khudiram was very bright in his studies, he never enjoyed school education. His sole obsession was the independence of our country. He believed that the most severe disease of all Indians was slavery under British rule.

In February 1906, the Britishers had organised an exhibition for glorifying the ‘success’ of British rule. Khudiram was then just 17. He distributed circulars in protest of the tyrannical Government and shouted the slogan of Vande Mataram. A policeman beat him, but he retaliated, hit back at the policeman and ran away. He was arrested but let out on the grounds of his age.

Khudiram was highly influenced by the novel Anandmath by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. This novel contained t