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.
Ashwini Kumar Dutta
The Partition of Bengal drew him to the Swadeshi movement. He founded the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti to promote the consumption of indigenous products and boycott foreign goods. When the moderates and the extremists parted ways in the Surat session, he attempted a reconciliation between the two groups. In 1908, the government of the newly formed Eastern Bengal and Assam banned the Swadesh Bandhab Samiti in 1908 and deported him to the United Provinces where he was interred at the Lucknow jail. After his release in 1910, he concentrated on sustaining the Brojomohun School and Brojomohun College. He had no other way that to accept government aid. In 1912, he was forced to hand over the management of the school and the college to two different trustee councils. In 1918 he attended the Bombay session of the Indian National Congress. He actively undertook relief work after the Barisal cyclone of 1919. In 1921 at the Kolkata session of the Indian National Congress, he lend the non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement. Mohandas Gandhi arrived in Barisal that year to show respect to the great leader. In 1922, he joined the striking workers of Assam Bengal Railway and Steamer Company in protest against the atrocities on the workers of tea plantations of Assam.