Bepin Chandra Pal

[2]

Other names:

B. C. Pal

Bipin Chandra Pal

Date of birth:

07 Nov 1858

City of birth:

East Bengal

Country of birth:

India

Current name country of birth:

Bangladesh

Date of death:

20 May 1932

Dates of time spent in Britain:

1898-9, 1907-9

Location:

Oxford (1898-9); 140 Sinclair Road (boarding house in London, 1907).

About:

Bepin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist, the 'Pal' in the Lal-Bal-Pal of the Swadeshi triumvirate. A member of the Brahmo Samaj [3], Pal went to England in 1899 to study comparative theology. This was a two year course he took up at New Manchester College, Oxford, but he only stayed for one academic year. During his time at Oxford, he travelled the British Isles preaching from Unitarian pulpits.

Back in India, Pal became involved with nationalist politics. He became a member of the Indian National Congress [4], and opposed the partition of Bengal in 1905. He launched the journal Bande Mataram, which Aurobindo Ghose [5] soon joined as editor. In 1907 he returned to England with his son, Niranjan Pal [6], and become associated with Shyamaji Krishnavarma [7]'s India House [8] organization. However, following the assassination of Curzon-Wyllie [9] (which he condemned), he returned to India. This was because he had to close the journal he had launched in England, Swaraj.

Upon this return to India, Pal was regarded as a more moderate nationalist although he was often critical of M. K. Gandhi [10]. He died in poverty in 1932.

Connections:

Surendranath Banerjea [11] (uncle of wife), David Garnett [12], Aurobindo Ghose [5], Niranjan Pal [6], Shapurji Saklatvala [13] (Pal stayed with him in Manchester in 1910), V. D. Savarkar [14], K. C. Sen [15].

Organizations:

Brahmo Samaj [16]

India House [17]

Indian National Congress [18]

Published works:

Memories of my Life and Times (Calcutta: Bipinchandra Pal Institute, 1973)

The Spirit of Indian Nationalism (London, 1910); reprinted in Elie Kedourie Elie (ed.) Nationalism in Asia and Africa (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971)

Contributions to periodicals:

Contemporary Review

Secondary works:

Bhattacharya, B. K. (ed.), India's Freedom Movement: Legacy of Bipin Chandra Pal (New Delhi: Deep & Deep, 2007)

Chatterjee, Saral Kumar, Bipin Chandra Pal (Delhi: Government of India, 1984)

Garnett, David, The Golden Echo (London: Chatto & Windus, 1953)

Owen, Nicholas, The British Left and India: Metropolitan Anti-Imperialism, 1885-1847 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)

Mukherjee, Haridas and Uma, Bipin Chandra Pal and India's Struggle for Swaraj (Calcutta: K. L. Mukhopadhyaya, 1958)