Ten days before a bomb was hurled at a carriage outside the residence of Kingsford, the judge of Muzaffarpur, killing two ladies, he had received a parcel. Thinking it to be a book that was being returned to him the judge did not open it. If he had opened it, history might have been different. This is because it had indeed contained a book but with its pages scooped out and the hollow contained a bomb with a spring which would have caused it to explode.

On one hand there was the imperial power with vast contingents of police and army armed to the teeth along with intelligence officials and a network of native spies at its disposal on the other hand there was a band of young men with Bande Mataram on their lips and a heart full of courage. It was an uneven match but right from the turn of 20th century these men wreaked such havoc with their indigenously made bombs and arms that the British government was forced to set up a Sedition Committee in 1917 to look into ways of tackling the revolutionary movement. Almost 99 years later we look at the report of the Sedition Committee which records in its pages the terror that the British bureaucracy felt along with its native officers as the revolutionaries drew up  “elaborate, persistent and ingenious” propaganda, threw bombs and killed key witnesses and investigating officers ignoring the torture and the gallows that awaited them. 

  Concerned over the rising number of “criminal conspiracies” connected with the revolutionary movement the British government had set up the committee under Justice SAT Rowlatt with 4 other members to investigate the nature of the crimes and recommend a legislation to deal with such crimes. The committee met mostly in Calcutta and made an in depth study of the ways of the revolutionaries who even sought German assistance to overthrow the British.

 The report first made a fine distinction between the revolutionaries of Poona and Calcutta. While in Western India it was the Chitpavan Brahmins, the community to which the Peshwas belonged and who lost political power because of British rule, led the revolutionary movement, in Bengal it was the young Bengali boys belonging to  'bhadralok' middle class with Western education who turned towards the revolutionary movement. Again, revolutionary movement in Bengal “began earlier, was more fully organised and worked in soil better prepared than Punjab,” stated the report. These educated young men were guided by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and according to the members of Sedition Committee this influence was “perverted” in order to create an atmosphere suitable for the execution of the 'projects' of the militant groups. The revolutionaries raised the song Bande Mataram to the “rank of national anthem”, the committee said. Apart from seditious literature  such as Mukti Kon Pathe (reprints of articles published in Jugantar Patrika), Bhawani Mandir by Aurobindo Ghosh, Bartaman Rananiti, they read bomb manuals, books on field and rifle exercises, manuals of military engineering, infantry training, cavalry drill, machine gun training and other military works.

 The revolutionaries had little resources, yet, Ullaskar Dutta, a key accused in Alipore bomb case had learnt the preparation of explosives at a small laboratory at his house where he experimented without his father's knowledge. Hem Chandra Das sold a part of his property, went to Paris to learn mechanics and explosives and joined Dutta in making bombs. The bomb hurled by Khudiram Basu and Prafulla Chaki which killed two English ladies instead of Kingsford was made by Das. In 1912, a raid in a house at the heart of Calcutta revealed revolutionary literature and cigarette tins, iron clamps and discs which were being used to manufacture bombs. A bomb expert told the court during the trial that he had never come across such a bomb. Similar bombs found their way to Midnapore, Lahore, Delhi (thrown at Viceroy Hardinge) Mymensingh and Sylhet.  The Sedition Committee's report read: “... the revolutionaries were secretly manufacturing bombs of dangerous type from simple materials and without the aid of elaborate apparatus,” a back-handed compliment for the ingenuity of native brains. The revolutionaries made three kinds of bombs- the harmless coconut bombs, the spherical bombs made using copper globes of ball cocks or brass globes of bedstead with picric acid as explosive; and finally, they made bombs with a cylindrical case and  high explosive like picric acid and jute, needles and iron pieces to inflict injuries. Rashbehari Basu involved in the assassination attempt of the Viceroy in Delhi was introduced to the revolutionaries of Punjab as a “Bengali bomb expert”.  

They could make bombs but what about arms? In a sensational case, the revolutionaries stole 50 Mauser pistols and 46,000 rounds of ammunition from Messrs Rodda, noted gun makers. The stolen pistols eventually made way to other parts of Bengal and other groups as well. But the other pistols were often not good and ammunition was a perennial problem. So often unsuitable ammunition had to be employed resulting in misfires and most attempts to assassinate high British officials failed because of this reason.

Resources were a major problem and the revolutionaries belonging to all groups resorted to dacoities to raise money. Jatin Mukherjee was particularly ingenious and in 1915, the report recorded that he introduced  a new feature in “revolutionary crime” - four dacoities were committed in the city with the help of automobile taxi cabs by revolutionaries.

  A typical letter  from the “Bengal Branch of Independent Kingdom of United India” following a dacoity in a house in Calcutta stated that its “officers from Calcutta Finance Department” had actually taken a loan of Rs 9,891 and deposited against his name with 5 per cent interest per annum. If they (revolutionaries) were successful they would pay him the whole amount with one time interest. It was signed by the “finance secretary” with the threatening that he would be killed if he sought help from police. The assassinations were carried out by the “Violence Department” of the group.

The Sedition Committee admitted the armed struggle succeeded in somewhat demoralising the police force. The revolutionaries often targeted the native police officials and even killed key witnesses to prevent them from helping the police in nabbing their compatriots. For instance, Narendra Gosain who turned approver against Aurobindo Ghosh and other comrades was killed inside the jail with a pistol that was smuggled in despite the enhanced security. Shamsul Alam, a deputy superintendent was killed on the steps of High Court.

The Sedition Committee's Report resulted into the enactment of Rowlatt Act, allowing preventive indefinite detention or confinement without trial. Protest against this unpopular legislation led to massacre of Jallianwala Bagh and hence instead of curbing revolutionary activities it actually led to steeling of the grit and determination of the nation to throw off the yoke of  foreign rule.