Prithwindra Mukherjee Dear Sugata Babu,/ Some twenty years ago, late Milan Sen (JahajbaDi) had the kind idea of introducing me to your father, on the occasion of the centenary of Banaphul's birth.I had brought with me a clipping of a Chinese newspaper containing a report on Netaji. He was glad to include it in the archives at Netaji Bhavan./ Congratulations for the poem. In this same FB site, I have published an old poem strangely enough close to the spirit of your poem.. Greetings for this new Bengali year.Sugata Bose Dear Prithwindra Babu, I am not the one you are supposing me to be. I am not the Harvard historian, Netaji's grandnephew, Dr. Sisir Bose's son, Parliamentarian Prof. Sugata Bose but am quite another Sugata Bose of humbler attainments, a ardent follower and devotee of seminal souls like your grandfather, Bagha Jatin, and of the premier patriot, Netaji, both of whom were immensely influenced by the prophet of our times, Swami Vivekananda, in whose aura I have also spent the sunshine years of my life. It is so heartening to receive a response from you and an appreciation of a few lines scribbled in repose and I look forward to interacting with you better through future facebook friendship, for I have sent you a request thereof for your consideration. Thanking you and wishing you well in health and happiness and in ardent love for humanity, I remain your humble friend in homeland India and in the spirit of the seminal ones who gave their all for our dear motherland, Sugata Bose, a humble Indian.Prithwindra Mukherjee Great things happen by accident. So is our meeting. It will be a pleasure to remain in contact with birds of the same gharana.Sugata Bose Thank you so much for understanding and, sure enough, we are fraternal spirits linked by the common love of our patriots and prophets.Prithwindra Mukherjee Sugata Babu, I accepted your request. Regards.Sugata Bose Please check once, Prithwindra Babu. Your timeline still shows as myself having sent you friend request but your not having accepted it as yet. Kindly check it once in case there is any mistake. P.S. : Yes, we are friends now across continents but so very close in Bagha Jatin to whom you belong in blood and I do so in heart.Prithwindra Mukherjee Sincere thanks, Sugata Babu, for the link and for your deep interest in a would-be India!Sugata Bose Netaji's guiding light and patriotic inspiration, over and above his innate love for the motherland, was this, the Swadesh Mantra composed by Swami Vivekananda. Your grandfather, Prithwindra Babu, our heroic Bagha Jatin, was similarly inspired by Swamiji --- you know very much better than me --- who he had personally met, I gather at Balaram Mandir (correct me if am wrong) in Kolkata upon the Swami's triumphal return to India from the West. Swamiji, apparently, had given him specific directions to prepare him for the ensuing revolutionary activity that was to dawn on his life soon. Do write something on your illustrious grandsire for all to profit by.Prithwindra Mukherjee Step by step, since 1955, I have been exploring the life and times of Bagha Jatin. (1) Meeting and corresponding with people who knew him; (2) consulting the States and National Archives in India, in Europe an in the United Statess. This leaves ample material for futue historians. Quite humbly I submit a few clues leading in the direction of your request:Prithwindra Mukherjee Here are the clues:/ (1) Sadhak biplabi Jatindranath (West Bengal State Book Board); (2) Bagha Jatin (National Book Trust); (3) Bagha Jatin, the Revolutionary Legacy (Indus Source Books); (4) The Intellectual Roots of India's Freedom Struggle, 1893-1918 (Manohar Books); (5) "The Soul-Quest of Bagha Jatin" in Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, October 2015, I have published a lot more, but these will be helpful enough for the orientation you suggest./All the best. I did accept your offer. I sense, however, that true action has to be controlled from behind the limelight and debate. Prithwindra Mukherjee In the bibliography, you can add another important publication: FIRST SPARK OF REVOLUTION, by Arun Chandra Guha, Orient Longman, 1971
Sugata Bose Thanks a lot, Prithwindra Babu, for providing me the list of study material. It will go a great way in helping me find a footing, at least at the introductory level --- for my knowledge in the subject is but rudimentary --- , in the life and works of Bagha Jatin and his contemporaries, and in the revolutionary movement pertinent to their times. I hope you will continue to guide me in pursing this study from your distant abode as and when the need arises and your opportunity affords. A request, further, from my side. Is it possible for you, that is, do you have the spare time at your disposal to write on the evolution of the revolutionary movement for freedom right from its earliest seeds to its climactic development in the armed assault led by Netaji? I hope I am not taxing you in any way or intruding into your private space. My understanding is that your words are going to remain as historical truth from one born of the very line of one of the greatest revolutionaries of the times which, in my opinion, will be of significant moment for the future generations we cannot, yet, in our limited imagination even dream of. My reverential regards to you and constant prayers for your health and well-being.Prithwindra Mukherjee Sugata Babu, The proposed study is a great temptation, but running 82, I speed up to complete a few other projects in hand. I am glad to note your confidence that, guided by a Jugantar leader like Bhupendrakumar Datta known for his integrity I have tried to serve History in utter honesty and, as such, avoided all compromise. I have surrendered most of my archives to the Jatin Mukherjee collection preserved at Nehru Museum, New Delhi./ The list I sent you can be completed with a 6th item: "Objective History in Four Lessons" in Deliberate Distortions of Sri Aurobindo's Life & Yoga, edited by Raman Reddy, Shiksha Mandir Trust, Gurugram, pp.129-151Sugata Bose Prithwindra Babu, thank you again for this additional bit of significant input. You have triggered in me a fresh interest in the period and I must now carry it forward to the general public to keep the memory of the martyrs to the cause ever fresh in their minds. My ailing mother, 86, was deeply concerned about your health when I apprised her that you are 82, and I had to assure her that in France you would have at your disposal the best medical facilities for your physical well-being. My mother had seen Netaji when she was 4 and clearly recollects to this day how spotlessly white-clad he was that day at Baharampur in, possibly, 1936. She sends her prayers for you, too. So, stay well please, Prithwindra Babu, and serve the historical cause for years to come yet. May Thakur-Ma-Swamiji be your constant guide and protector in this uncertain world of ours! Regards and reverence, Sugata Bose.Prithwindra Mukherjee We must keep in mind the three strides of the same Revolutionary Time-Spirit that deeply shook the 20th century India: 1915 (Balasore)-->1930 (Chittagong)-->1945 (Azad Hind Fauz). It is like a musical tehai putting an end to the Colonial Era. I would be happy if the three could be accepted in your venture as a single move of the Supreme "bhagya-vidhata".Sugata Bose Dear Prithwindra Babu, We will try and bring about your idea to fruition soon by starting a parallel campaign but I am right now not too sure whether we should attempt it right away in the wake of the Rash Behari Bose Bharat Ratna Petition that is doing quite well. But I agree with you that it would been better and a stronger campaign to have begun the way you have suggested here. We will bear this in mind and soon make amends for our earlier lapse. Thanking you and ever seeking your guidance and inspiration, Yours sincerely, Sugata Bose.Sugata Bose Prithwindra Babu, you are Nobel Prize material. What ease of linguistic flow, what rhythmic balance, ah, what lovely resonance of word to emotion, a song, I say, felt and spelt out like fragrance of flora in awakening spring!Prithwindra Mukherjee Congratulated by a lover of flowers for its fragrance, a tiny wild flower replied: "Credit goes to the rose, my neighbour, which helped me grow up under its beauty and perfume."
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