Anushilan Samiti
By 1902, Calcutta had three secret societies working toward the violent overthrow of British rule in India. One was founded by Calcutta student Satish Chandra Basu with the patronage of Calcutta barrister Pramatha Mitra, another was led by Bengali woman Sarala Devi and the third was founded by Aurobindo Ghosh. Ghosh was one of the strongest proponents of militant Indian nationalism at the time. By 1905 the work of Aurobindo and his brother, Barin, enabled Anushilan Samity to spread throughout Bengal. Nationalist writings and publications by Aurobindo and Barin, including "Bande Mataram" and "Jugantar", had a widespread influence on Bengal youth. The 1905 partition of Bengal stimulated radical nationalist sentiments in Bengal's Bhadralok community, helping Anushilan acquire a support base of educated, politically-conscious and disaffected members of local youth societies. Its program emphasized physical training, training its recruits with daggers and "lathis" (bamboo staffs used as weapons). The Dhaka branch of Anushilan was led by Pulin Behari Das, and branches spread throughout East Bengal and Assam. More than 500 branches were opened in eastern Bengal and Assam, linked by "close and detailed organization" to Pulin's headquarters at Dhaka. It absorbed smaller groups in the province, soon overshadowing its parent organisation in Calcutta. Branches of Dhaka Anushilan emerged in Jessore, Khulna, Faridpur, Rajnagar, Rajendrapur, Mohanpur, Barvali and Bakarganj. Estimates of Dhaka Anushilan Samiti's reach indicate a membership of 15,000 to 20,000. Within two years, Dhaka Anushilan devolved its aims from the Swadeshi to that of political terrorism.
Prafulla Chandra Ghosh
Prafulla Ghosh got interested in Swadeshi movement and by inspired by armed revolution of Dhaka Anushilan Samiti and joined then in 1909. However, he did not like the activities of raising money by theft and cycle of theft defend in the court and finally quit Anishilan Samity in 1913 and focused on academics. During the same time, while working on Damodar flood relief met Surendranath Banerjee and other moderate leaders. Yogendra Nath Saha introduced Prafulla Ghosh to non-violent principles of Gandhi. At the beginning, Gadhian principles did not impress him but he was moved by Gandhi's speech at Dhaka in December 1920 and soon afterward met with Gandhi in Calcutta. In Jan, 1921 Prafulla Ghosh resigned from his job at Calcutta mint and along with other members of Anami Sangha joined freedom struggle movement led by Gandhi.