Bipin Chandra Pal – The Father of Revolutionary Thoughts

Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian Nationalist, journalist, writer, orator, social reformer, and freedom fighter of India. Bipin Chandra Pal with Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak played an important role in the Independence of India. These three people are called the “Lal Bal Pal” triumvirate.

Personal Life

Bipin Chandra Pal was born on 7 November 1858 in the village of Poil, Habiganj, Sylhet District, Bengal Presidency of British India(now in Bangladesh). He was born in a Hindu Bengali Kayastha family. His father Ramchandra Pal was a Persian scholar and small landowner. He passed away on 20 May 1932 in Kolkata at the age of 73.

Family

Pal’s son Niranjan Pal was one of the founders of Bombay Talkies. His son-in-law S.K. Dey was the ICS officer and later became the Union Minister. His other son-in-law Ullaskar Dutta was a freedom fighter. Ullaskar Dutta married his childhood love Lila, Bipin’s daughter at their last age. After the death of his wife, he married a widow and joined the Brahmo Samaj. 

Education 

He studied at the Church Mission Society College (now the St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College), an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta. He joined the Presidency College, Calcutta but could not complete his education there.

He started working as a headmaster. Later he worked as a librarian in a public library. In this public library, he met various political leaders of the day like Surendra Nath Banerjee, Shivnath Shastri, and B K Goswami. This interaction drove him to leave his profession and enter active politics.

He went to England to study comparative theology in 1998. In one year, he returned to India and jumped into the freedom struggle.

Bipin Chandra Pal as a Politician

Bipin Chandra Pal is known as the Father of Revolutionary Thoughts in India. He was a major leader of the Indian National Congress. In 1887 at the Madras session of the Indian National Congress, he requested for the repeal of the Arms Act which was discriminatory in nature.

Bipin Chandra Pal, along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, belonged to the trio called Lal-Bal-Pal. This trio was associated with revolutionary activity.

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal were seen as the chief representatives of a new national movement, revolving around the ideals of Purna Swaraj, Boycott, Swadeshi, and National Education.

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh referred to him as one of the mightiest prophets of nationalism. Pal went to jail for six months for not giving evidence against Aurobindo Ghosh in the Bande Mataram sedition case.

Pal was not in support of mild protests. He criticized Gandhi’s ways for being rooted in “magic” instead of “logic”. During the last six years of his life, he left Congress and led a secluded life. 

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Bipin Chandra Pal as a Socialist

Pal made his efforts in the removal of social evils and economic ills. He opposed the caste system and strongly supported widow remarriage.

Pal advocated 48 hours of the workweek and demanded a hike in the wages of workers. He encouraged the boycott of foreign goods and the use of Swadeshi goods with the view to eradicating poverty and unemployment.

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Bipin Chandra Pal as a Journalist and Writer

Bipin Chandra Pal worked for Bengal Public Opinion, The Tribune, and New India, where he scattered nationalism to the people. He edited the journals The Democrat and The Independent. 

He started the weekly ‘Paridarshak’ at the age of 22. He used journalism as a platform to propagate the concept of Swaraj and Swadeshi. He also started many newspapers and magazines such as Bande Mataram, New India, and Swaraj.

One of his writings titled “Our Real Danger”, described where the future danger for India will come from. He wrote some articles warning India of the changes occurring in China and other geopolitical situations. 

He authored some books Indian Nationalism, Swaraj and the Present Situation, Nationality and Empire, The Basis of Social Reform, The New Spirit, Studies in Hinduism, and The Soul of India.

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