My first introducetion to Binoy Krishna Bose was through the book Binoy Badal Dinesh by Shailesh Dey. The immense respect that the author had about the revolutionaries compelled us to develop a similar kind of respect, bordering on adoration. They were the very ideals, epitomes of sacrifice for the country. Many selfless and unsung workers who dedicated their lives in freeing India had suffered silently, even after independence. They and their family members too often underwent terrible misery and agony and had to pay a great price. On the other hand traitors and collaborators some of whose names are still coming to the fore like the Hindi writer Yashpal, who apparently, despite his "revolutionary tag" and background with HSRA, helped the British police as per an intelligent report published by Vikram Sampath, Dr. Kapil Kumar and others. But there are others, whose contribution is etched in the memory of people and will remain so forever. But we owe it to the future generations to position them as the ideals for generations to come so that their stories of sacrifice and self immolation inspire many a future generations to perform similar feat whenever the country is under duress.
The wikipedia article on Binoy Bose is of few lines - which led me to wonder - doesn't our heroes deserve a better treatment? Banglapedia has dedicated a paragraph - well and good. I'll dedicate a webpage to the trio and their contribution, from historical records, but that is a future work. For now, lets focus on Binoy Bose's contribution. He was a lion killer. That can be the only apt description for him. Yes, Binoy Bose killed a lion named Inspector General of Bengal Police Lowman in Dhaka Mitford Medical School and injured the notorious Hodson. Its quite unfortunate that an ungrateful Bangladesh has renamed the medical college after Nawab Salimullah, the notorious two nation theory proponent Muslim League veteran, instead of naming it after Binoy Bose As part of the Bengal Volunteers' prgram of taking revenge on the British bureaucracy torturing and tormenting the revolutionaries, Binoy Bose took up the responsibility to deliver a fatal blow. When he came to know that Lowman was visiting Medical College Hospital on 29th August, 1930, he disguised himself as an ordinary Bengali clad in dhoti, and from the crowd, shot Lowman and and Hodson from close range. Hodson was notorious for creating riots among Hindus and Muslims, by often giving a free reign to the Muslim goons. Now he was immobilized and Lowman was killed. That was indeed a fatal blow, a blow that was very difficult for British to digest. Therefore the Government launched a manhunt but Binoy Bose escaped. His escape story is a fairy tale story that will be recounted in detail. Somebody, subjected to intense torture, divulged Binoy's name and since then he became the prime target of entire police force of Bengal. So his organization had a difficult job in protecting him, but that they pulled it off speaks volumes about the courage, sagacity and the network of the revolutionaries in Bengal and their well wishers among whom were Acharya P.C Roy, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sarat Chandra Bose, Lady Abala Bose and many other noted personalities.
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