Sachindra Nath Sanyal

Sachindra Nath Sanyal was an Indian revolutionary and the founder of Hindustan Republican Association (HRA, which after 1928 became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association or HSRA) that was created to carry out armed resistance against the British Empire in India. Under this association he set up Hindustan Republic Army in 1924. He was the mentor for revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. Several of his brothers and cousins were also active participants in the country's freedom struggle.

Early life
He was born to father Hari Nath Saniyal and mother Kherod Vasini Devi in Benaras in 1893.

Revolutionary career
Sanyal was extensively involved in the plans for the Ghadar conspiracy, and went underground after it was exposed in February, 1915. He was a close associate of Rash Behari Bose. After Bose escaped to Japan, Sachindranath Sanyal was considered the senior-most leader of India's revolutionary movement. He and Mahatma Gandhi engaged in a famous debate published in Young India between 1920 and 1924. Sanyal argued against Gandhi's gradualist approach. He started a newspaper called "Revolutionary" through which he represented a future picture of republic India.

In 1912, Rasbihari Bose and Sachindra Nath Sanyal made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge by throwing a bomb at him in Delhi.

He was sentenced for the Kakori train robbery and was tried and sentenced to life for the same.He was sent to the dreaded Cellular Jail in the Andamans and in jail he wote the famous book "Bandi Jeevan" (A Life of Captivity). This book would become the bible for a generation of revolutionaries fighting British rule. Sanyal was briefly released from jail but when he continued to engage in anti-British activities, he was sent back to jail and his ancestral family home in Varanasi was confisticated. Thus, Sachindranath Sanyal has the unique distinction of having been sent to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair twice. He contracted TB in jail, probably deliberately infected, and was sent to Gorakhpur Jail for his final months. He died in 1942.

Some of Sanyal's followers were Marxists but Sanyal was well known for his firm Hindu beliefs. Bhagat Singh discusses Sanyal's firm religious beliefs in his tract Why I am an Atheist. Bhagwati Charan Vohra was a close associate of Sanyal. He was also supplied with guns by Maulana Shaukat Ali, who was at that time a supporter of Congress and its non-violent methods but not with the same fervour for non-violence that was expressed by his organisation's leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Another prominent Congressman, Krishna Kant Malaviya, also supplied him with weapons.

Sachindra Nath's brother Jatindra Nath published the first authentic autobiography of Bhagat Singh in 1931 but the book was banned by the colonial government. The renowned economist and environmentalist Sanjeev Sanyal is their grand-nephew. His son, RK Sanyal, retired as chairman UP State Electricity Board. Later, his grandsons Dr Sandeep Sanyal and Saurabh Sanyal served in Indian Army.