India's Independence Fight: When Bengali gym bros flexed muscles against the British

Time of India

5 days ago

During colonialism, the British called some of the communities in India as "martial races" while most others they stereotyped as lazy and effete. "A low-lying people in a low-lying land". So ran a favourite British sneer at Bengalis about the turn of the century; to which a high official added: "with the intellect of a Greek and the grit of a rabbit"," wrote historian John Rosselli. The Bengalis, however, overturned the stereotype of a lazy and weak-bodied oriental at a great cost to the British.
"From the mid-nineteenth century to the 1930s the Bengali Hindu élite, a group which had developed in a symbiotic relation to British rule, made the stereotype its own," Rosselli wrote. "It strove to overcome its supposed degeneracy through the pursuit of physical culture. In this it reacted in some ways like other nationalist élite groups in India, China and Europe, which sought in physical culture and martial arts redress for what they experienced as humiliation."
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In the early twentieth century, akhadas (wrestling clubs and gymnasiums) started cropping up across Kolkata where young boys (gym bros in current idiom) trained their bodies the traditional way. But that was not their only purpose. They were not gym rats who merely wanted buff bodies to show off. The akhadas were actually a network for young Bengalis to organise themselves against the British for a militant resistance. That movement, called
Anushilan Samiti
, was one of India's first violent anti-colonial movements.
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Anushilan Samiti: From akhadas to armed resistance
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The story of India's struggle for independence is often framed around non-violence, constitutional reform and mass movements. Yet, beneath this mainstream narrative existed an undercurrent of armed resistance, defined by small but determined groups who believed that the colonial state could only be confronted with direct action. Anushilan Samiti -- a group that uniquely combined physical training, spiritual nationalism and political violence -- was among the earliest and most influential of these revolutionary organizations.
The origins of Anushilan Samiti lie in a growing nationalist sentiment in Bengal at the turn of the 20th century. At a time when British colonial discourse emphasised the weakness of the Indian male, some Indian thinkers and leaders, particularly inspired by
Swami Vivekananda
, advocated a counter-narrative of physical strength and discipline. This ideological climate gave birth to the akhada movement -- local gymnasiums where young men were trained in indigenous forms of wrestling, stick-fighting, swordsmanship and later even Western-style boxing.
These spaces were not just about building physical prowess. They became places where youth could be indoctrinated into a new form of nationalist masculinity. In Bengal, this took the form of clubs and secret societies that began to blur the lines between physical culture and political radicalism. The term Anushilan (meaning 'discipline' or 'practice') itself reflected this synthesis of body, mind and nation.
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Anushilan Samiti was formally established in 1902 in Calcutta, under the initiative of Pramathanath Mitra, a barrister who believed that political freedom would have to be won through preparation, strength and sacrifice. He was supported by figures like Satish Chandra Basu and Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, who offered both ideological and logistical backing.
These early years saw the Samiti operate as a semi-clandestine network, with new recruits taking oaths on the
Bhagavad Gita
, pledging to serve the nation above all else. The combination of Hindu philosophical revivalism and Western ideas of military discipline created a unique ideological mix: revolutionary action was framed as both a sacred duty and a nationalist necessity.
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From physical training to political violence
The Partition of Bengal in 1905 by Lord Curzon acted as a catalyst. What had been a semi-cultural movement turned increasingly political and militant. A more radical wing of the Samiti emerged under the leadership of Barindra Kumar Ghosh (brother of Sri Aurobindo) and others, later becoming known as the Jugantar group. A parallel organisation, the
Dhaka Anushilan Samiti
, was founded by Pulin Behari Das and quickly expanded across eastern Bengal, amassing thousands of members.
These groups began to undertake acts of political violence, often targeting British officials, informants and symbols of colonial authority. The philosophy was simple: "terror for terror", a strategic use of fear to counter British repression and shake the moral legitimacy of the empire. The assassination of British magistrates, the planting of bombs, and planned robberies to fund revolutionary activity became hallmarks of the Samiti's actions.
The Alipore Bomb Case of 1908, in which young revolutionaries like Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki attempted to kill a British judge, marked the first major confrontation between the British state and the Samiti. Although unsuccessful, the case exposed the extent of the underground revolutionary network and led to arrests, trials and executions.
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Tactics, surveillance and British response
Over time, Anushilan Samiti developed into a sophisticated underground organisation, with covert communication, arms smuggling and connections to international anti-colonial networks. The Rodda arms heist of 1914, a successful theft of a massive arms shipment in Calcutta, highlighted the Samiti's capabilities. British intelligence responded by expanding the Special Branch, tightening the Defence of India Act (1915) and initiating widespread surveillance and suppression operations.
However, the Samiti remained elusive. Leaders like Rash Behari Bose and Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) kept the revolutionary flame alive, attempting to link domestic revolution with global geopolitical shifts, especially during World War I. These efforts included attempts to collaborate with Germany to launch a pan-Indian uprising, although ultimately these plans were foiled.
By the 1920s, the revolutionary movement began to splinter under the dual pressures of British repression and the rise of Gandhian non-violence. Many Anushilan members joined mainstream politics, the Indian National Congress, or took part in leftist and Marxist movements. Others continued in smaller groups, contributing to later episodes of revolutionary action such as the Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930) led by Surya Sen, and the Kakori Conspiracy (1925) organised by the
Hindustan Republican Association
.
The Anushilan Samiti officially disbanded by the late 1930s, but its legacy endured. It demonstrated that nationalism could take many forms, and that armed resistance, despite being controversial and often morally ambiguous, was a genuine part of India's anti-colonial imagination.
The history of Anushilan Samiti complicates the popular narrative of India's independence struggle as solely peaceful and non-violent. Emerging from the humble yet politically charged space of akhadas and gymnasiums, it bridged the gap between cultural nationalism and militant resistance. While it failed to deliver a decisive blow to the British Empire, it played a vital role in shaping the emotional and ideological terrain of the Indian freedom movement by fostering a generation of youth who believed in sacrifice, secrecy and the sanctity of their nationalist cause.
The legacy refuses to die
The akhada culture of Kolkata, which fostered one of the first militant resistance movements against the British, refuses to die. In 2016, TOI reported on how one of the akharas associated with Anushilan Samiti -- Hatkhola Byayam Samity -- was still operating after it was set up more than a century ago.
"At 106, it is the city's oldest gymnasium. Established by freedom fighters in 1910, it is still going strong," TOI reported. "Manohar Aich and many other legends would regularly work out there with kusti and mugur at the feet of mammoth-sized wall paintings of Lord Hanuman, the resident deity of the samity. The Mitra family of Hatkhola -- who owned quite a bit of property here -- donated the piece of land to freedom fighters Upendranath Bandyopadhyay and Pushpalal Chakraborty, who were associated with Anushilan Samity. Bandyopadhyay was also a co-accused with Barin Ghosh and Aurobindo Ghosh in the Alipore Bomb case."
"The wooden maces that they used, the iron wall bar, donkaath for the classic donbaithak, leg press, bench press and pull-over -- all exist to this day at the samity and are used by pehelwans or byambirs as the members prefer to call themselves. The samity has 5,500 members aged between 20 and 70," said the TOI report.