Amarendranath Chatterjee
Jatin's elderly revolutionary associate Preonath Karar (Sri Yukteswar Giri) of Serampore – friend of Hrishikesh Kanjilal and of the restless Vedic Pandit Mokshada Samadhyayi – had founded an Ashram at Puri in 1900; it had been in connection with Lokamanya Tilak's initiative to turn Benares and other Hindu shrines into seats of Extremist politics."[3] A few months before the Surat Congress, Suranath Bhaduri of Benares, on reaching Calcutta after travelling all over Bengal, "formed a central committee at the Sandhya office, with the help of Jatin Banerji (alias Niralamba Swami) and with Kartik Dutta; Mukhada Samadhyayi, Shyamsundar Chakravarti, Arabindo Ghose, Tarakhepa, Annada Charan Kaviraj and others as members(...) Measures are being devised for freeing India and for proclaiming the divine commands which have been received in the matter (...) After this Suranath went to Puri with Preo Nath Karar alias Sri Yukteswar Giri (...) Attempts are being made to get hold of such of the ruling Chiefs as are patrons of the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal.The most illustrious of Aghore Nath's children was Virendranath Chattopadhyay ("Chatto", the revolutionary of international reputation); among the others was the patriotic Mrinalini Chatterjee who formed a trio with Kumudini Mitra and Sarojini Ghose (respectively cousin and sister of Sri Aurobindo).Another member of this circle was the pleader Bishwanath Kar of Cuttack who enjoyed a close friendship with eminent national leaders such as Dr Sundari Mohan Das, Surendranath Banerjee and Bipin Chandra Pal.According to Sealy's Report, in 1910, the latter made a determined effort to establish an Ashram at Puri, in a building near the Jagannath Temple, called Srikshetra Sevashram, ostensibly for philanthropic purposes but, in reality, for the education and training of political missionaries.In addition to Basanta Biswas, Amarendra was helped by Sushil and Sushen, brothers of Satish Mukherjee (who had been sentenced in 1908 in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case, and came to be known as Swami Muktananda) : all of them served as links with the Benares unit.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 "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."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.[14] At the top of a period of hectic preparations from the revolutionaries' side, when on 7 August 1915, Denham searched the Harry & Sons and the Shramajibi Samabaya, he had no warrant for arresting Amarendra, but warned the latter: "You are a fish of the deep water!"[16] While absconding in Chandernagore after Jatin Mukherjee's heroic self-undoing in 1915, Amarendra narrowly escaped in the teeth of an armed Police cordon, travelled through Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, received initiation as a Sikh monk, tirelessly visiting pilgrimages all over India, under the identity of the Punjabi Sadhu ("Hermit").