Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan and Jugantar each were organised on different lines, reflecting their divergence. "Anushilan Samiti" was centrally organised, with a rigid discipline and vertical hierarchy. Jugantar, was more loosely organised as an alliance of groups, acting under local leaders that occasionally coordinated their actions together. The prototype of Jugantar's organisation was Barin Ghosh's organisation set up in 1907, in the run-up to the Manicktolla conspiracy. It sought to emulate the model of Russian revolutionaries that was described by Frost. The regulations of the central Dhaka organization of the "Anushilan Samiti" were written down, and reproduced and summarised in government reports. According to one estimate, the Dacca Anushilan Samiti had at one point 500 branches, mostly in the eastern districts of Bengal, with 20,000 members. Branches were opened later in the western districts, Bihar, and the United Provinces. Shelters for absconders were established in Assam and in two farms in Tripura. Organisational documents shows a primary division between, on the one hand the two active leadersBarin Ghosh and Upendranath Bannerjee, and the rank-and-file on the other. Higher leaders including Aurobindo were supposed to be known only to the active leaders. Erstwhile members of "Anushilan", particularly those of the Maniktala group, had suggested that the each group were interconnected with a vast web of secret societies throughout British India. However historian Peter Heehs concludes the links between provinces were limited to contacts between a few individuals like Aurobindo who was familiar with leaders and movements in Western India. He concludes the Maniktala society had links between the other groups and the Manicktalla society, such as the Anushilan and Atmannati Samitis, were more often competitive than co-operative. An internal circular of circa 1908 written by Pulin Behari Das, describes the division of the organisation in Bengal, which largely followed British administrative divisions, with central "Samitis" linked with a few small Samitis.
Anushilan Samiti
The "Samiti" was influenced by the writings of the Bengalee nationalist author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. The name of the organisation, "Anushilan", itself is derived from Bankim's works espousing hardwork and spartan life. Bankim's cultural and martial nationalism exemplified in "Anandamath", along with his interpretations of the "Bhagavat Gita", are noted to be strong influences on the strain of nationalism that guided the early societies that merged into "Anushilan Samiti". To this was later added the philosophies and teachings of Swami Vivekananda. A search of the "Dacca Anushilan Samiti" library in 1908 showed that the"Gita" was the most widely read book in the library. Among the "rules of membership" books by Vivekananda were strongly recommended for reading, A recurring theme in these were emphasis on "Strong muscles and nerves of steel", which some historian identify as strongly influenced by Shakta Philosophy of Hinduism. The writings of the group's own leader Aurobindo Ghosh popularised "Shakti", specifically the concept of "Adya Shakti" that is exemplified in his work "Bhawani Mandir". This marked the beginnings of interest in physical improvement and proto-national spirit among young Bengalees, and was driven by an effort to break away from the colonial stereotype of effeminacy imposed on the Bengalee. Physical fitness was symbolic of the recovery of masculinity, and part of a larger moral and spiritual training to cultivate control over the body, and develop national pride and a sense of social responsibility and service. Peter Heehs, writing in 2010, notes the "Samiti" had three pillars in their ideologies: "cultural independence", "political independence", and "economic independence". In the latter, the "Samiti" differed from those engaging in the "Swadeshi" movement, which they decried solely as a "trader's movement".