On the fateful day of August 11, 1908, a young boy of 18 Khudiram Bose faced the gallows. This Independence Day, Deep Dive with Abhinav Khare pays tribute to the sacrifice of an 18-year-old, who gave up his life for his motherland.
He was just a boy of 18 years when he was sentenced to death by the tyrannical British. It is over a century now to that incident, yet the name of Khudiram Bose has now vanished away into the oblivion.
Abhinav Khare deep dives into the life and times of the 18-year-old, who sacrificed his life for the mother land. Khudiram was born on the December 3, 1908 in the village of Habibpur in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. His life was difficult when he lost both his parents by the age of seven.
It was a lecture by Sri Aurobindo and Sister Nivedita that he was pushed into revolutionary activities and within a year he was planting bombs in police stations and attacking the Britishers.
The then chief presidency magistrate of Calcutta, Douglas H Kingsford was infamous for his harsh punishment for Indian Freedom Fighters. He had ordered a 15-year-old boy Sushil Sen to be lashed 15 times. The young boy however shouted Vande Mataram with every lash. Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose had then planned to kill him and they arrived at Muzaffarpur. They had been observing Kingsford’s routine for a while and thus decided to attacking him shortly after he left the European Station Club at his usual time of 8:30pm. So, as the carriage left the club, both of them hurled bombs at the carriage and ran away.
However, they mistook the carriage of Mrs Kennedy and her daughter as the carriage of Kingsford. Khudiram Bose was arrested from Waini station and Prafulla decided to kill himself in order to avoid being arrested.
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Khudiram’s trial began on May 21, 1908 and he was awarded a death sentence. It is said that when his verdict was being read out, he was smiling cheekily which made the judge ask him whether he understood the extent of his punishment. To this he replied that not only did he understand the punishment, if he had the time, he would even give the judge some bomb making lessons!
On the fateful day of August 11, 1908, a young boy of 18 faced the gallows. Thousands gathered near the prison with garlands and his funeral procession went through the entire Calcutta (now Kolkata) where people gathered to offer flowers.
Let us not forget the ones who were instrumental in giving us the great nation we know today. This Independence Day, let us remember the sacrifice of an 18-year-old, who gave up his life for his motherland.
About Abhinav Khare
Abhinav Khare is the CEO of AsiaNetNews Network and also the host of a daily show named Deep Dive with AK. AsiaNetNews is a leading media group of south India with highly valuable brands like AsiaNetNews, Suvarna News, Kannada Prabha, IndigoMusic, Indigo Radio, MyNation, NewsFast, IndigoXP Music lounges.
He is a proud father of two beautiful daughters and resides in Bengaluru with his loving family and a lifetime collection of books and gadgets. An avid traveller, he has already pinged more than hundred cities from 5 major continents around the globe.
A tech entrepreneur, who is passionate about policy, technology, economy and philosophy from ancient India. His favourite pastime is to research synergy between these facets of society. He earned his qualifications from the top 10 global universities; an MS Engineering from the ETH Zurich and an MBA Finance from the London Business School.
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