Thread by @sheshapatangi1

#TarakanathDasJayanti
A Krantikari International Scholar in Exile.
It so happened that Tolstoy in his essay “A Message to Young India’ quoted Bhagavad Gita and wrote “If the English have enslaved the Hindoos, it is just because Hindoos recognized coercion as the main and

fundamental principle of their social order.” He saw only one answer to this problem, namely Love: “The law of human life is the law of Love cherished by all humanity from the most remote antiquity.”
Taraknath’s elaborate reply was given in four parts, under the title

“Young India’s Reply to Count Tolstoi”.
Taraknath cited statistics from western and Indian sources to prove the point that tyranny under any guise can never be justified. “Non-violence is an absolute Dogma …violence and benevolence are measured by relative value of the actions

and the motives underlying them.” He added in unambiguous terms: “We are believers in universal fellowship but we are intolerant of any action of exploitation of any nation, race, society, family or individuals by others.” Invoking Magna Carta of King John in 1215, he concluded:

“Love is God but at the same time … divinity is best represented in humanity, and resistance to despotism is first of all human duties .” [Emphasis in the original]

Taraknath was born on this day in 1884 at Bengal.
When he was 16, he wrote an essay about Patriotism in a

competition & the judge Barrister Mitter was highly impressed with the quality.
He ensured Taraknath join #AnushilanSamithi for which he was one of the founder.
Similar to celebrating Shivaji Festival, Taraknath started to celebrate festival of #RajaSitaramRay, a Hindu King who

dared the Michaels for years.
In the year 1906, during festival celebrations, #BhaghaJatin #Taraknath #ShirishchandraSen #Satyendrasen met and came to an understanding which was kept as a secret for decades.

What they discussed in 1906 was finally revealed by Taraknth himself

in 1952 when he came back to Bharat & attended a rally in honour of Bhagha Jatin.
Along with specific higher education, they were to acquire military training & knowledge of explosives. They were especially urged to create a climate of sympathy among people of the free Western

countries in favour of India's decision to win freedom.
In 1908, at US, he started a monthly magazine called Free Hindustan as well as a school for the Indian immigrants that taught English and legal rights.
saada.org/item/20110901-…

The first issue of The Free Hindustan,

described as "An Organ of Freedom, and of Political, Social and Religious Reform," published from Vancouver, British Columbia in April 1908.

Urged by his mentor Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin), Taraknath joined the Norwich Military Academy in Vermont, U.S., in 1908 to

train himself for armed insurrection in India. However, his plans were aborted when he was expelled for his anti-British activities.
TaraknathDas established India Independence League & later formed #GadharParty along with Nana Hardayal, Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje.

Once the United States entered the 1st World War on the side of Britain, the freedom fighters of Bharat and Germans were arrested & tried in California in 1917. This came to be called the Hindu Conspiracy Case.
Das was one of those convicted & served about one and a half years

in a federal prison. After release, Taraknath went back to studies. However, he was disenfranchised in 1923, thanks to a new regressive legislation enacted by the Supreme Court. This did not deter him. His book India in World Politics , a brilliant study dedicated to the

‘Cause of World Peace with Justice & Liberty of all Peoples’, was published by B.W. Huebsch, 1923, with an introduction by Robert Morss Lovett.
Two years later, Das received the first Ph.D. from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

With Mary Keating Morse,

founding member of the ‘National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’ who became his wife — Taraknath set up ‘The Mary Keatinge Das Fund’ in 1935 to help promote educational and cultural ties among nations. It still exists today at the Columbia University as

Taraknath Das Foundation, New York.
[sai.columbia.edu/tdas.html].

Dr. Das belonged to both India and to the U.S. and obtained U.S. citizenship around the beginning of the First World War which the U.S. government later tried to take away from him because he was a convicted felon

and suspected because of his great hostility to the British Empire. He fought to retain his American citizenship and succeeded.
Like many of the freedom fighters, even he got fed up with the activities of Gandhi, Nehru and turned spiritual in later life like his Guru Aurobindo

and concentrated on getting support for freedom from people who had settled outside Bharath.
Tarak was among those who suffered emotionally from the Partition of India in 1947 and vehemently opposed the process of balkanisation of South Asia till his last day.
After Bharat got

freedom and after 46 years in exile, he revisited his motherland in 1952.
Disillusioned by what he found, he returned to the U.S. which was now his home.
Taraknath Das passed away at United States on 22 December 1958, aged 74.
#ForgottenHeroes
#VANDEMATARAM