Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-06
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
IN. ANARCHY AND ASSASSINATION
By Frederic j. Haskin

e,ates Then the whole case went to
the high court, where 1t is penulns.
One of the accused promptly "turneo
approver" as they say IN Inala, OF
turned states evidence. Upon ms .es.
timony the crown relied to convict the
whole lot. But Gossain, the approVer,
was afraid of assassination, ana ne
asked the crown authorities to Keep
him in jail until the trial was over. lie
was permitted to stay in the same
prison where his fellow conspirators
were confined. One morning two OF the
accused came to him in a corridor. me
first, Kanai Lall Data, had a pistol In
each hand The other man had one
pistol. Data called out, "Gossaln,
hate to kill you, but must You ule
because you are traitor to the Motn-
erland." With that he shot Gossain
twice and killed him.
Both Data and the other man VINO
carried a pistol were Immediately tried,
convicted ana hanged for murder But
no one has been able to find out now
they got the pistols. An arms act Is IN
force in India, and every tirearm IN
the country is supposed to be numbered
and registered with the police sale
or transfer of possession must be re-
ported to the police. There is only one
explanation for the murder IN Alipore
Jail, and that Is that the anarchists
have their friends among the police.
Data, who shot Gossain, went to the
gallows with his head in the air and
smiling He shouted "Bandemateraml''
with his last breath and boasted that
he gave his life for his country.
Chief among the accused in this case
is Arabindo Ghosh. He is man
about S5 years DID, who is universally
accorded the rank of genius. He was
educated at oxford and has the degree
of master of arts from that premier
British institution of learning. He Is
the author OF several books. in Eng
lish, Bengali and Sanskrit. The crown
sought to prove that he was the edi-
torial chief of several journals which
were suppressed for seditfon-the
Bapdemataram, which was printed in
English, and the Yugantur, the Nava
Sakti and the Sandhya, all printed in
the Bengali vernacular. But these Jour-
nails had carefully protected them
selves, and vicarious editors, who could
hardly write their names, confessed
and claimed the authorship of the Of
Tending articles
In the famous garden the police found
formal opinion of a prominent native
lawyer explaining the laws on sedition
and advising editors how far they
might go without danger of arrest or
deportation. But the crown was un-
able to fix any one overt act of treason
upon the head OF Arabindo Ghosh. All
of the other accused seemed to be
willing to sacrifice themselves in his
| behalf.
The long trial of these men wore on
the nerves of the public of Calcutta,
both native and British. The trial was
held in a dingy little room in the
court compound at Alipore, a suburb
of Calcutta. The thirty-odd prisoners
were forced to stand up during all the
l2S days of the procedure-prisoners
| never being given a seat In this coun-
| try. They were huddled together In a
little dock made of chicken-coop woven
wire. and entirely surrounded by line
of soldiers. The courthouse was also
surrounded by Gordon OF troops with
fixed bayonets, their rifles loaded with
ball cartridges.
But the prisoners laughed and
chatted among themselves, seemingly
careless of the future. Outside the
coop their counsel fought valiantly,
pointing out the insufficiency of the
testimony, appealing on the score of the
youth of their clients, most of the pris-
oners being under 81, and, finally
breaking over the rules of discretion,
boldly excusing the crimes Of revolu-
| ton. Counsel for the defense quoted
Burke, paraphrased Mirabeau, imitat-
ed Patrick Henry, and all the time the
| two native assessors smiled approval
and the British judge scowled. The
case was political through and through,
and. although there are many natives
of high standing who regret the vio-
| lence Of the extremists, the sympathy
of the entire people was with those
thirty-odd conspirators from the be-
| ginning and will follow them to prison
or the gallows when the long trial Is
finally ended.
1t was hard for a foreigner to realize
the station in life of the miserable
prisoners standing in the high chicken
| coop dock. Unshaven and long-haired,
wearing little clothing and wholly at
ease, 1t was impossible to recognize In
Arabindo Ghosh a man who had won
high honors at oxford, who was a.
master of dozen languages and the
author of several serious books. His
bare arms and legs, his naked chest,
his unkempt hair suggested only the
savage. But that is the mistake that
one must not make in India Arab
indo Ghosh knows how to wear the
| clothes, eat the food and ape the fash
Ions OF the west. He has competed
with European young men in college
and has won honors. He has chal-
lenged attention and admiration from
the wits of London and Paris, He
knows the world, both east and west.
And 1t is such as he who will awaken
the east from it's long slumber.
| Copyright, 1903, by Frederic ]. Haskin)
TomorrOw-The Empire Of India. III.
The Stern Repression of Disorder.
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