Khudiram Bose: India’s Youngest Executed Martyr

Khudiram Bose was 18 when the British hanged him for the Muzaffarpur bombing.

His bomb missed its target and killed two women. Even so, he became one of the best-loved martyrs of Bengal. This lesson covers his life, the bombing, his arrest, the trial and the exam traps.

1Who was Khudiram Bose?

He was an orphan from Medinipur who joined the revolutionaries as a boy.

• He was born on 3 December 1889 at Habibpur in Medinipur district.
• His father, Trailokyanath Bose, was a tehsildar.
• His two older brothers had died as babies.
• By local custom, his sister symbolically bought him for three handfuls of grain.
• The grain is called khud. That is how he got the name Khudiram.
• His mother, Lakshmipriya Devi, died when he was five.
• His father died a year later.
• His elder sister, Aparupa Roy, then raised him.
• He went to Hamilton High School in Tamluk.
• In 1902 and 1903, Sri Aurobindo and Sister Nivedita visited Medinipur.
• Their talks stirred young men like him.
• He joined the Anushilan Samiti and became a volunteer at 15.
• He was once arrested for handing out anti-British pamphlets.
• The barrister Birendranath Sasmal defended him, and he was acquitted.

2How did the plan begin?

The target was a judge the revolutionaries hated.

• The target was Douglas Kingsford.
• He was known for harsh sentences on young nationalists.
• The revolutionaries first sent him a book hollowed out to hold a bomb.
• Kingsford left the parcel unopened on a shelf.
• By March 1908, fearing for his safety, the government moved him to Muzaffarpur.
• Hemchandra Kanungo, a Medinipur leader, is said to have recruited Khudiram.
• Kanungo is also said to have supplied the bomb.
• Prafulla Chaki returned to Muzaffarpur with Khudiram. See Prafulla Chaki.
• Khudiram used the name Haren Sarkar.
• Chaki used the name Dinesh Chandra Roy.
• They stayed at an inn and watched Kingsford’s daily routine.

3What happened on 30 April 1908?

The bomb hit the wrong carriage, and he was caught the next morning.

• On the evening of 30 April 1908, Kingsford left the European Club.
• He and his wife rode in a carriage.
• An identical carriage carried the wife and daughter of the barrister Pringle Kennedy.
• Khudiram and Chaki threw a bomb into the Kennedy carriage.
• Miss Kennedy died within the hour.
• Mrs Kennedy died of her injuries on 2 May.
• The two bombers fled in different directions.
• Khudiram walked about 25 miles through the night.
• At Waini station he asked for water at a tea stall.
• Two constables grew suspicious of his dusty feet and tired look.
• They seized him. Police found 37 rounds and a railway map on him.
• Waini station is now named Khudiram Bose Pusa.
• Chaki shot himself at Mokama.

4What happened at his trial?

The case went from trial to appeal in about two months.

• Police took him to Muzaffarpur on 1 May.
• Crowds gathered to see the teenage prisoner.
• He is reported to have cried Vande Mataram as he arrived.
• He first took the blame himself. Chaki’s body then arrived, and he identified it.
• The trial began on 21 May 1908.
• Six lawyers defended him without taking any fee.
• On 13 June the judge sentenced him to death.
• He is reported to have smiled as the sentence was read.
• He appealed to the Calcutta High Court. The hearing was on 8 July.
• The lawyer Narendrakumar Basu argued that his statement was recorded wrongly.
• The court still dismissed the appeal.
• He was hanged at about 6 a.m. on 11 August 1908.
• Newspapers reported that he walked to the gallows firmly and cheerfully.

5Why is he remembered?

His youth made him a symbol across Bengal.

• He was only 18 when he died.
• Huge crowds followed his funeral procession.
• Bengali songs and poems remembered him as a symbol of youthful sacrifice.
• Waini station now carries his name.
• Kolkata has a metro station named after him.
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak defended the young men in Kesari. See Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
• The police raid that followed led to the Alipore Bomb Case. See Barindra Kumar Ghosh.

6What are the exam traps?

Exams swap the fates of the two bombers.

• Khudiram was captured, tried and hanged.
• Chaki shot himself at Mokama before any trial.
• The target was Kingsford. He survived.
• The victims were Mrs Kennedy and her daughter.
• Khudiram was arrested at Waini. Chaki died at Mokama.
• He was hanged in August 1908, not in May.
• Muzaffarpur is in Bihar, not Bengal.
• Do not mix him up with the Alipore Bomb Case accused. That trial came after.
• Do not confuse the 1908 case with the 1925 Kakori case. See Ashfaqulla Khan.