Political history of Sri Aurobindo
Anushilan Samiti was founded as an attempt to organize Bengali youth through a program of physical fitness and spiritual training for a nationalist program. By 1902, Calcutta had three societies working under the umbrella of Anushilan Samity, a society earlier founded by a Calcutta barrister by the name of Pramatha Mitra. These included Mitra's own group, another led by a Bengali lady by the name of Sarala Devi, and a third one led by Aurobindo Ghosh. The Anushilan Samiti had Aurobindo and Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das as the vice-presidents, Suren Tagore the treasurer. Jatindra Nath Banerjee (Niralamba Swami), Bagha Jatin, Bhupendra Nath Datta (Swami Vivekananda's brother), Barindra Ghosh were among other initial leaders.
By 1905, the work of Aurobindo and his brother Barin Ghosh allowed Anushilan Samity to spread through Bengal.
Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others
Significantly, as the hearings proceeded through 1908 into 1909, the government of Bengal came to fear that "Aushilan samiti" would mount a rescue mission to breakout the undertrials. A noted rise in militant actions and assassinations linked to "Anushilan samiti" in wider Bengal began to be reported, reaching the premises of the Alipore court as the hearings drew to a close. In November 1908, two assassinations were attempted in Calcutta two days apart, one targeting Chief of Police Andrew Fraser and the second where Nandalal Bannerjee- the police officer who had arrested Prafulla Chaki- was gunned down, both in public. That same month, a police informant was killed and mutilated in Dacca. A shaken Bengal government arrested and deported a number of "Anushilan" leaders, including Raja Subodh Mallik, Aurobindo's uncle Krishna Kumar Mitra, and "Bande mataram" editor Shyamsunder Chakravarty to Rangoon. In response, in March 1909, "Anushilan" assassinated public prosecutor Ashutosh Biswas when he was gunned down by Charu Bose in the very steps of the Alipore High court where the hearings were beginning to draw to a close. The final arguments for prosecution and defense began amidst tight security at the end of March, 1909. Das, closing his argument for defense, famously stated: