Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
Encyclopedia
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya alias Chatto
(1880 — September 2, 1937, Moscow) was a prominent Hindu
India
n revolutionary who aimed to overthrow the British Raj
in India by using violence as a tool. He was portrayed as "Chandralal" by Somerset Maugham in his short story "Giulia Lazzari" (the character Ashenden
was based upon Maugham himself), and as "Ananda" in Daughter of Earth, a novel by Agnes Smedley
.
, in Hyderabad. Aghorenath’s other children Sarojini Naidu
and Harindranath Chattopadhyay
were famous poets. Viren received a secular and liberal education. He was a polyglot and was fluent in the Indian languages Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, as well as English; later he was to learn French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian and the Scandinavian languages as well. He matriculated in the University of Madras
and received an undergraduate degree in Arts from the University of Calcutta
. In Kolkata
(Calcutta), through his other sister Gannu or Mrinalini, who was already known to be an advanced Nationalist, Viren was introduced to Bejoy Chandra Chatterjee, a barrister
who was also known as an extremist. He was also introduced to Sri Aurobindo
’s family, especially his cousins, Kumudini and Sukumar Mitra; the former was editor of the seditious magazine, Suprabhat. For years afterwards, Viren maintained contact with all of them.
, while preparing for the Indian Civil Service. Later, he became a law student of the Middle Temple
. While frequenting Shyamji Krishnavarma’s India House
at 65 Cromwell Avenue in London, Viren became closely acquainted with V.D. Savarkar
(since 1906). In 1907, Viren was on the editorial board of Shyamji’s Indian Sociologist and in August, along with Madame Cama and S.R. Rana, he attended the Stuttgart Conference
of the Second International
where they met delegates like Hyndman
, Karl Liebknecht
, Jean Jaurès
, Rosa Luxemburg
and Ramsay Macdonald
among others. In spite of the presence of Vladimir Lenin
, it is not certain if Viren met him on this occasion.
In 1908, at “India House” he came in contact with a number of important “agitators” from India: G.S. Khaparde, Lajpat Rai, Har Dayal
, Rambhuj Dutt and Bipin Chandra Pal
. In June 1909, at an India House meeting, V.D.Savarkar violently advocated assassinations of the Englishmen in India. On 1 July, at the Imperial Institute in London, Sir William Curzon-Wyllie, political aide-de-camp at the India Office, was assassinated by Madanlal Dhingra
, who was deeply influenced by Savarkar. Viren published a letter in The Times
on 6 July in support of Savarkar, and was promptly expelled by the Bencher
s of the Middle Temple. In November 1909, he edited the short-lived but virulent nationalist periodical Talvar (‘The Sword’). In May 1910, seizing the opportunity of a tension between England and Japan over the Korean peninsula, Viren discussed the possibility of Japanese help to Indian revolutionary efforts. On June 9, 1910, along with D.S. Madhavrao, he followed V.V.S. Aiyar to Paris
, for avoiding a warrant issued for his arrest. Upon reaching France, he joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO).
: its April 1911 issue “was one of the most violent that ever appeared” praising outrages in Nasik and Kolkata, claiming that:
"With gentlemen we can be gentlemen, but not with rogues and scoundrels. (…) Our friends the Bengalis have also begun to understand. Blessed be their efforts. Long be their arms."
In connection with the Tirunelveli
Conspiracy Case in February 1912, Madame Cama published an article showing that these political assassinations were in accordance with the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Earlier in the year, Viren married Miss Reynolds. Demoralised by the Great War, they separated and his wife returned to England while Viren reached Berlin
in April 1914 for furthering the revolutionary activities. He also sent fellow revolutionary Herambalal Gupta
to Japan
via the USA.
at the University of Saxe-Anhalt in April 1914, Viren met Dr. Abinash Bhattacharya alias Bhatta and some other nationalist Indian students. The former was well-known to the influential members as belonging to the Kaiser
’s immediate circle. Early in September 1914, they formed a “German Friends of India” Association, and were received by the brother of Wilhelm II, wherein they signed a treaty in favour of German help in order to oust the British from India. With the help of Baron Max von Oppenheim
, who was an expert in Middle Eastern affairs in the German Foreign Office, Viren informed Indian students in thirty-one German universities about the Association’s future plans.
Among its first members were Viren alias Chatto, Bhatta, Dr. Moreshwar Govindrao Prabhakar (Cologne), Dr Abdul Hafiz (Leipzig), C. Padmanabhan Pillai (Zurich), Dr. Jnanendra Dasgupta (Zurich), Dhiren Sarkar, Narain S. Marathé, Vishnu Suktankar, Gopal Paranjapé, Karandikar, Shrish Chandra Sen, Satish Chandra Ray, Sambhashiva Rao, Dadachanji Kersasp, Mansur Ahmad, Siddiq. Other prominent revolutionaries who soon found their way to Berlin were Har Dayal
, Taraknath Das, Mohammad Barakatullah, Bhupendranath Datta, A. Raman Pilla(A.R.Pillai),Chandrakanta Chakravarti, M.P. Tirumal Acharya, Herambalal Gupta
, Jodh Singh Mahajan, Jiten Lahiri, Satyen Sen
, and Vishnu Ganesh Pingley <
On September 22, 1914, Sarkar and Marathé left for Washington, D.C.
with a message for then German ambassador, Von Bernstorf. The latter got Von Papen, his Military Attaché, to arrange for steamers, purchase arms and ammunition, to be delivered on the eastern coast of India. On November 20, 1914, Viren sent Satyen Sen, V.G. Pingley and Kartâr Singh to Kolkata with a report for Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin
. Bagha Jatin conveyed a note through Pingley and Kartar Singh to Rash Behari Bose
asking him to expedite preparations for the proposed armed uprising. In 1915, when Viren went to meet Raja Mahendra Pratap
in Switzerland
and convey him the Kaiser’s personal invitation, there was an attempt to murder Viren, while he was dogged by British agent, Donald Gullick.
Plan, in 1917 Viren shifted the Berlin Committee to Stockholm
. In 1918, he contacted the Russian leaders Troinovski and Angelica Balabanova, the First General Secretary
of the Communist International. In December, he dissolved the Berlin Committee. In May 1919, he arranged for a secret meeting of Indian revolutionaries in Berlin. In November 1920, in his search of financial and political support exclusively for the revolutionary nationalist movement in India, he was encouraged by M.N. Roy (with Borodin
’s approval).
Viren went to Moscow
with Agnes Smedley
. The latter shared her life with him till 1928. Under her influence, Viren coveted the influential position M.N. Roy enjoyed in Moscow. The next year, he was received by Lenin, along with Bhupendra Nath Datta and Panduranga Khankoje. From May to September, he attended the Indian Committee of the Third Congress of Communist International in Moscow. In December 1921, he founded in Berlin, an Indian News and Information Bureau with his correspondent Rash Behari Bose
in Japan. According to Sibnarayan Ray, in spite of a climate of rivalry created between Roy and Viren by Agnes:
"Roy would have liked to work with him since he admired the latter’s intelligence and energy. (…) By early 1926 Chatto had got into good terms with Roy."
At Roy’s instance, Willi Muenzenberg “took Chatto under his wings” in organising an international conference in Europe to inaugurate the League against Imperialism. On the eve of Roy’s mission to China
, in January 1927, Viren wrote to Roy asking “if there is anything further you wish me to do…” On 26 August 1927, he wrote to M.N. Roy, after the latter’s return to Moscow from China, asking to help him “directly” to gain admission to the Communist Parties of India and Germany and, after being advised by Roy, he joined the Communist Party of Germany
(KPD).
In 1927, while working as the head of the Indian Languages Section of the KPD, he accompanied Jawaharlal Nehru
to the Brussels
Conference of the League against Imperialism
. Viren served as its General Secretary. His younger brother Harin went to Berlin that year to meet him and Agnes. On learning of Nehru’s becoming president of the Indian National Congress
, Viren asked him – in vain - to split the party for a more revolutionary programme for full independence from British imperialism. Inprecor
, the Comintern
organ, published 28 articles by Viren (27/20/1930-3/12/1932) about an ultra-leftist sectarian turn of the Communist Party of India
. Between 1931 and 1933, Viren went on advocating anti-Hitler activities, Asian emancipation from Western powers, independence of India, and Japanese intervention into Chinese revolution. Among his Korean, Japanese and Chinese friends was Zhou Enlai
, the future Prime Minister
of the People's Republic of China
.
Agnes saw him for the last time in 1933 and remembered later:
"…He embodied the tragedy of a whole race. Had he been born in England or America, I thought, his ability would have placed him among the great leaders of his age… He was at last growing old, his body thin and frail, his hair rapidly turning white. The desire to return to India obsessed him, but the British would trust him only if he were dust on a funeral pyre."
. He wrote to Georgi Dimitrov
, Comintern’s Secretary-General, on September 9, 1935: “For three years I have been kept away from active work in the Comintern.” In a letter to Muzaffar Ahmad, Clemens Palme Dutt (who was the brother of Rajani Palme Dutt
), mentioned having seen him for the last time in 1936/37 at the department of ethnography
of the Academy of Science in Leningrad
. Viren was arrested on July 15, 1937. Death list with his name among 184 other persons was signed by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Zhdanov and Kaganovich on August 31, 1937. Death sentence was pronounced by Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
on September 2, 1937 and the same day he was shot.
On 10 July 1938, Nambiar
, Viren’s brother-in-law, wrote to Nehru about this arrest and the latter replied on July 21, agreeing to find out about Viren’s fate.
"A very able and a very delightful person… His humour and light heartedness never left him… A fit of homesickness came to him when he longed to be back… No exile can escape the malady of his tribe, that consumption of the soul, as Mazzini called it… Of the few I met, the only persons who impressed me intellectually were Virendranath Chattopadhyay and M.N. Roy."
Virendranath's family line survives today in Kolkata
.
Chatto
Chatto may refer to:* Chatto , Chiricahua Apache chief* Beth Chatto , plantswoman, garden designer and author* Virendranath Chattopadhyaya , prominent Bengali Indian revolutionary...
(1880 — September 2, 1937, Moscow) was a prominent Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n revolutionary who aimed to overthrow the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
in India by using violence as a tool. He was portrayed as "Chandralal" by Somerset Maugham in his short story "Giulia Lazzari" (the character Ashenden
Ashenden: Or the British Agent
Ashenden: Or the British Agent is a 1928 collection of loosely linked stories by W. Somerset Maugham. It is partly based on the author's experience as a member of British Intelligence in Europe during the First World War.-Plot summary:...
was based upon Maugham himself), and as "Ananda" in Daughter of Earth, a novel by Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley was an American journalist and writer best known for her semi-autobiographical novelDaughter of Earth. She was also known for her sympathetic chronicling of the Chinese revolution...
.
Early life
His childhood nickname was Binnie or Biren. Virendranath was the eldest son of Dr. Aghorenath Chattopadhyaya (Chatterjee), who was an ex-principal and professor of science at the Nizam CollegeNizam College
Nizam College was established in 1887 during the reign of Nawab Mir Mahaboob Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VI, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. It is located at Basheerbagh.-History:...
, in Hyderabad. Aghorenath’s other children Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu , also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet...
and Harindranath Chattopadhyay
Harindranath Chattopadhyay
Harindranath Chattopadhyay was an Indian English poet, an actor, and a member of the 1st Lok Sabha from Vijayawada constituency. He was the younger brother of Sarojini Naidu.-Life:...
were famous poets. Viren received a secular and liberal education. He was a polyglot and was fluent in the Indian languages Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, as well as English; later he was to learn French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian and the Scandinavian languages as well. He matriculated in the University of Madras
University of Madras
The University of Madras is a public research university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the three oldest universities in India...
and received an undergraduate degree in Arts from the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
. In Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(Calcutta), through his other sister Gannu or Mrinalini, who was already known to be an advanced Nationalist, Viren was introduced to Bejoy Chandra Chatterjee, a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
who was also known as an extremist. He was also introduced to Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
’s family, especially his cousins, Kumudini and Sukumar Mitra; the former was editor of the seditious magazine, Suprabhat. For years afterwards, Viren maintained contact with all of them.
In England
In 1902, Viren joined the University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, while preparing for the Indian Civil Service. Later, he became a law student of the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
. While frequenting Shyamji Krishnavarma’s India House
India House
India House was an informal Indian nationalist organisation based in London between 1905 and 1910. With the patronage of Shyamji Krishna Varma, its home in a student residence in Highgate, North London was launched to promote nationalist views among Indian students in Britain...
at 65 Cromwell Avenue in London, Viren became closely acquainted with V.D. Savarkar
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian freedom fighter, revolutionary and politician. He was the proponent of liberty as the ultimate ideal. Savarkar was a poet, writer and playwright...
(since 1906). In 1907, Viren was on the editorial board of Shyamji’s Indian Sociologist and in August, along with Madame Cama and S.R. Rana, he attended the Stuttgart Conference
International Socialist Congress, Stuttgart 1907
The International Socialist Congress, Stuttgart 1907 was the Seventh Congress of the Second International. It was held from 18 to 24 August, 1907.-Debates:# Militarism and international conflicts...
of the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
where they met delegates like Hyndman
Hyndman
Hyndman is a surname and may refer to:* Chris Hyndman* Clint Hyndman* George Crawford Hyndman* Henry Mayers Hyndman , socialist theoretician* Rob J. Hyndman , statistician* Robert Stewart Hyndman , painter...
, Karl Liebknecht
Karl Liebknecht
was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
, Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
, Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
and Ramsay Macdonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
among others. In spite of the presence of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, it is not certain if Viren met him on this occasion.
In 1908, at “India House” he came in contact with a number of important “agitators” from India: G.S. Khaparde, Lajpat Rai, Har Dayal
Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service...
, Rambhuj Dutt and Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
. In June 1909, at an India House meeting, V.D.Savarkar violently advocated assassinations of the Englishmen in India. On 1 July, at the Imperial Institute in London, Sir William Curzon-Wyllie, political aide-de-camp at the India Office, was assassinated by Madanlal Dhingra
Madan Lal Dhingra
Madan Lal Dhingra was an Indian revolutionary freedom fighter. While studying in England, he assassinated Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a British official, hailed as one of the first acts of revolution in the Indian independence movement in the 20th century.-Early life:Madan Lal Dhingra was born...
, who was deeply influenced by Savarkar. Viren published a letter in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on 6 July in support of Savarkar, and was promptly expelled by the Bencher
Bencher
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister , in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law...
s of the Middle Temple. In November 1909, he edited the short-lived but virulent nationalist periodical Talvar (‘The Sword’). In May 1910, seizing the opportunity of a tension between England and Japan over the Korean peninsula, Viren discussed the possibility of Japanese help to Indian revolutionary efforts. On June 9, 1910, along with D.S. Madhavrao, he followed V.V.S. Aiyar to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, for avoiding a warrant issued for his arrest. Upon reaching France, he joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO).
In Paris
Aiyar left for Pondicherry, publishing the Dharma newspaper and a number of stirring pamphlets in Tamil, while maintaining a regular contact with Madame Cama. Chatto and some other revolutionaries stayed with her at 25 rue de Ponthieu and helped her to edit the Bande MataramBande Mataram (Paris publication)
For other uses of the term Bande Mataram, see Bande Mataram .The Bande Mataram was a nationalist publication from Paris begun in September 1909 by the Paris Indian Society...
: its April 1911 issue “was one of the most violent that ever appeared” praising outrages in Nasik and Kolkata, claiming that:
"With gentlemen we can be gentlemen, but not with rogues and scoundrels. (…) Our friends the Bengalis have also begun to understand. Blessed be their efforts. Long be their arms."
In connection with the Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...
Conspiracy Case in February 1912, Madame Cama published an article showing that these political assassinations were in accordance with the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Earlier in the year, Viren married Miss Reynolds. Demoralised by the Great War, they separated and his wife returned to England while Viren reached Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in April 1914 for furthering the revolutionary activities. He also sent fellow revolutionary Herambalal Gupta
Herambalal Gupta
Heramba Lal Gupta was an Indian Nationalist linked to the Berlin Committee and the Ghadar Party extensively involved in the Hindu-German Conspiracy, who later turned a British agent and passed in intelligence on Mahendra Pratap's Kabul Government....
to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
via the USA.
In Germany
In Germany, to avoid suspicion he enrolled in a university as a student. As a student in comparative linguisticsComparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
at the University of Saxe-Anhalt in April 1914, Viren met Dr. Abinash Bhattacharya alias Bhatta and some other nationalist Indian students. The former was well-known to the influential members as belonging to the Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
’s immediate circle. Early in September 1914, they formed a “German Friends of India” Association, and were received by the brother of Wilhelm II, wherein they signed a treaty in favour of German help in order to oust the British from India. With the help of Baron Max von Oppenheim
Max von Oppenheim
Max Freiherr von Oppenheim was a German ancient historian, and archaeologist, "the last of the great amateur archaeological explorers of the Near East."....
, who was an expert in Middle Eastern affairs in the German Foreign Office, Viren informed Indian students in thirty-one German universities about the Association’s future plans.
Among its first members were Viren alias Chatto, Bhatta, Dr. Moreshwar Govindrao Prabhakar (Cologne), Dr Abdul Hafiz (Leipzig), C. Padmanabhan Pillai (Zurich), Dr. Jnanendra Dasgupta (Zurich), Dhiren Sarkar, Narain S. Marathé, Vishnu Suktankar, Gopal Paranjapé, Karandikar, Shrish Chandra Sen, Satish Chandra Ray, Sambhashiva Rao, Dadachanji Kersasp, Mansur Ahmad, Siddiq. Other prominent revolutionaries who soon found their way to Berlin were Har Dayal
Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service...
, Taraknath Das, Mohammad Barakatullah, Bhupendranath Datta, A. Raman Pilla(A.R.Pillai),Chandrakanta Chakravarti, M.P. Tirumal Acharya, Herambalal Gupta
Herambalal Gupta
Heramba Lal Gupta was an Indian Nationalist linked to the Berlin Committee and the Ghadar Party extensively involved in the Hindu-German Conspiracy, who later turned a British agent and passed in intelligence on Mahendra Pratap's Kabul Government....
, Jodh Singh Mahajan, Jiten Lahiri, Satyen Sen
Satyen Sen
Satyen Sen , , an author of Bengali literature, of Bangladesh, was a famous novelist.-Novels:*Bhorer Bihongi *Obhishopto Nogori *Paper Sontan...
, and Vishnu Ganesh Pingley <
On September 22, 1914, Sarkar and Marathé left for Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
with a message for then German ambassador, Von Bernstorf. The latter got Von Papen, his Military Attaché, to arrange for steamers, purchase arms and ammunition, to be delivered on the eastern coast of India. On November 20, 1914, Viren sent Satyen Sen, V.G. Pingley and Kartâr Singh to Kolkata with a report for Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
. Bagha Jatin conveyed a note through Pingley and Kartar Singh to Rash Behari Bose
Rash Behari Bose
Rashbehari Bose was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy and later, the Indian National Army.-Early life:...
asking him to expedite preparations for the proposed armed uprising. In 1915, when Viren went to meet Raja Mahendra Pratap
Raja Mahendra Pratap
Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was a freedom fighter, journalist, writer and revolutionary social reformist of India. He was popularly known as the Aryan Peshwa. He was born in Thenua gotra Jat Hindu princely family of state of Mursan in Hathras District of Uttar Pradesh on 1 December 1886. He was...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and convey him the Kaiser’s personal invitation, there was an attempt to murder Viren, while he was dogged by British agent, Donald Gullick.
A Revolutionary Vagabond
With the failure of the Indo-German ZimmermannArthur Zimmermann
Arthur Zimmermann was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the German Empire from November 22, 1916, until his resignation on August 6, 1917. His name is associated with the Zimmermann Telegram during World War I...
Plan, in 1917 Viren shifted the Berlin Committee to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. In 1918, he contacted the Russian leaders Troinovski and Angelica Balabanova, the First General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
of the Communist International. In December, he dissolved the Berlin Committee. In May 1919, he arranged for a secret meeting of Indian revolutionaries in Berlin. In November 1920, in his search of financial and political support exclusively for the revolutionary nationalist movement in India, he was encouraged by M.N. Roy (with Borodin
Borodin
Borodin , or Borodina is a Russian last name and may refer to:*Alexander Borodin , Russian composer and chemist*Alexander Parfeniyevich Borodin, Russian scientist in the field of rail transport...
’s approval).
Viren went to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
with Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley was an American journalist and writer best known for her semi-autobiographical novelDaughter of Earth. She was also known for her sympathetic chronicling of the Chinese revolution...
. The latter shared her life with him till 1928. Under her influence, Viren coveted the influential position M.N. Roy enjoyed in Moscow. The next year, he was received by Lenin, along with Bhupendra Nath Datta and Panduranga Khankoje. From May to September, he attended the Indian Committee of the Third Congress of Communist International in Moscow. In December 1921, he founded in Berlin, an Indian News and Information Bureau with his correspondent Rash Behari Bose
Rash Behari Bose
Rashbehari Bose was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy and later, the Indian National Army.-Early life:...
in Japan. According to Sibnarayan Ray, in spite of a climate of rivalry created between Roy and Viren by Agnes:
"Roy would have liked to work with him since he admired the latter’s intelligence and energy. (…) By early 1926 Chatto had got into good terms with Roy."
At Roy’s instance, Willi Muenzenberg “took Chatto under his wings” in organising an international conference in Europe to inaugurate the League against Imperialism. On the eve of Roy’s mission to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, in January 1927, Viren wrote to Roy asking “if there is anything further you wish me to do…” On 26 August 1927, he wrote to M.N. Roy, after the latter’s return to Moscow from China, asking to help him “directly” to gain admission to the Communist Parties of India and Germany and, after being advised by Roy, he joined the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD).
In 1927, while working as the head of the Indian Languages Section of the KPD, he accompanied Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
to the Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
Conference of the League against Imperialism
League against Imperialism
The League against Imperialism was founded in the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Belgium, on February 10, 1927, in presence of 175 delegates, among which 107 came from 37 countries under colonial rule. The Congress aimed at creating a "mass anti-imperialist movement" at a world scale, and was...
. Viren served as its General Secretary. His younger brother Harin went to Berlin that year to meet him and Agnes. On learning of Nehru’s becoming president of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
, Viren asked him – in vain - to split the party for a more revolutionary programme for full independence from British imperialism. Inprecor
Inprecor
Inprecor is a multilingual monthly Marxist magazine published by the reunified Fourth International. Its name is a contraction of International Press Correspondence and indicates that the magazine translates articles and letters from revolutionaries around the world.Inprecor was established by the...
, the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
organ, published 28 articles by Viren (27/20/1930-3/12/1932) about an ultra-leftist sectarian turn of the Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
. Between 1931 and 1933, Viren went on advocating anti-Hitler activities, Asian emancipation from Western powers, independence of India, and Japanese intervention into Chinese revolution. Among his Korean, Japanese and Chinese friends was Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, the future Prime Minister
Premier of the People's Republic of China
The Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...
of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
.
Agnes saw him for the last time in 1933 and remembered later:
"…He embodied the tragedy of a whole race. Had he been born in England or America, I thought, his ability would have placed him among the great leaders of his age… He was at last growing old, his body thin and frail, his hair rapidly turning white. The desire to return to India obsessed him, but the British would trust him only if he were dust on a funeral pyre."
Death
In January-February 1934, he had a correspondence with Krupskaya (Lenin’s widow) and on March 18, 1934 he gave a talk about his reminiscences of Vladimir LeninVladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
. He wrote to Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
, Comintern’s Secretary-General, on September 9, 1935: “For three years I have been kept away from active work in the Comintern.” In a letter to Muzaffar Ahmad, Clemens Palme Dutt (who was the brother of Rajani Palme Dutt
Rajani Palme Dutt
Rajani Palme Dutt , best known as R. Palme Dutt, was a leading journalist and theoretician in the Communist Party of Great Britain.-Early years:...
), mentioned having seen him for the last time in 1936/37 at the department of ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
of the Academy of Science in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
. Viren was arrested on July 15, 1937. Death list with his name among 184 other persons was signed by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Zhdanov and Kaganovich on August 31, 1937. Death sentence was pronounced by Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was created in 1924 to the Supreme Court of the USSR as a court for the higher military and political personnel of Red Army and Fleet...
on September 2, 1937 and the same day he was shot.
On 10 July 1938, Nambiar
Nambiar
-Communities:The name Nambiar applies to several Hindu communities from South India:-Kerala:*Nambiar - the Royal families and the subdivision within the Nair caste from the North Malabar region of Kerala....
, Viren’s brother-in-law, wrote to Nehru about this arrest and the latter replied on July 21, agreeing to find out about Viren’s fate.
Evaluation
More information is found on Viren alias Chatto in James Campbell Ker’s Political Trouble in India: 1907-1917; but the author’s personal animosity brings out a seamy aspect of a man who was, nevertheless deeply admired by his colleagues (like M.N. Roy and Dr. Abinash Chandra Bhattacharya) for his able leadership, sharp intelligence and sincere emotion. An abridged tribute from Jawaharlal Nehru will better define and defend the unique personality that was Chatto:"A very able and a very delightful person… His humour and light heartedness never left him… A fit of homesickness came to him when he longed to be back… No exile can escape the malady of his tribe, that consumption of the soul, as Mazzini called it… Of the few I met, the only persons who impressed me intellectually were Virendranath Chattopadhyay and M.N. Roy."
Virendranath's family line survives today in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
.