Khudiram Bose Death Day: On this day, a brave young man sacrificed his life for the cause of India’s independence from the British colonial rule. Khudiram Bose, who was only 18 years old at the time of his execution, was one of the most daring and inspiring revolutionaries of the Indian freedom movement. He was involved in several acts of resistance against the British authorities, including the attempted assassination of a British judge, Magistrate Douglas Kingsford, in Muzaffarpur.
Khudiram Bose was born on December 3, 1889, in a small village named Habibpur in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. He was influenced by the patriotic writings of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Swami Vivekananda, and joined the revolutionary organization Jugantar at a young age. He participated in protests during the Bengal partition period in 1905, and learned to prepare and plant bombs from his mentors.
In 1908, he teamed up with another revolutionary named Prafulla Chaki to carry out a daring mission to kill Magistrate Kingsford, who was notorious for his harsh sentences against Indian nationalists. The duo threw bombs on the carriage they suspected the judge was in, but missed their target and killed two British women instead. Chaki fatally shot himself before being arrested, while Khudiram was captured by the police after a long chase.
Khudiram was tried for the murder of the two women and sentenced to death by hanging. He showed remarkable courage and composure during his trial and imprisonment, and refused to plead for mercy. He greeted death with a smile and a chant of “Vande Mataram” (Hail Motherland) on August 11, 1908, at the Muzaffarpur jail. He was holding a Bhagavad Gita in his hand when he was hanged.
Khudiram Bose’s martyrdom sparked widespread outrage and admiration among the Indian masses, and inspired many other young revolutionaries to join the freedom struggle. He is remembered as one of the youngest and bravest martyrs of India’s independence movement, and his legacy lives on in the hearts of millions of Indians.