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.
Bhavabhushan Mitra
In 1900, invited by Suren at his Kolkata residence, Jatin and Bhavabhushan attended a meeting where Kakuzo Okakura, the Japanese dreamer of the movement "Asia is One," was presented to dignitaries like Sister Nivedita, the barrister P. Mitter, Shashibhushan Raychaudhury including members of the Tagore family (Sarala Devi Tagore, Rabindranath, Abanindranath Tagore). Like other patriots, too, Bhavabhushan was to be impressed by the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905, and admired Japan as an Asiatic power. Even in 1937, as a tribute to the Japanese admiral, he christened one of Jatin's grandsons as Togo. At Kolkata, Bhavabhushan noticed young Jatin's popularity among the seasoned personalities. Especially he found Mitter encouraging Jatin in his mission of preparing youths for an extremist uprising against the colonial rulers. As soon as the Kolkata Anushilan Samiti was inaugurated in 1902, with the help of Bhavabhushan and other associates, Jatin opened its branches in Kushtia and neighbouring towns. As Jatin's messengers, on several occasions Bhavabhushan and Chandi Majumdar used to meet Sarala Devi, Nivedita, P. Mitter, Bipin Chandra Pal, Krishnakumar Mitra.