Virendranath Chattopadhyaya
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (Bengali: বীরেন্দ্রনাথ চট্টোপাধ্যায়; 31 October 1880 – 2 September 1937), also known by his pseudonym Chatto, was a prominent Indian revolutionary who worked to overthrow the British Raj in India using armed force. He created alliances with the Germans during World War I, was part of the Berlin Committee organising Indian students in Europe against the British, and explored actions by the Japanese at the time.
Virendranath Chattopadhyay
31 October 1880
2 September 1937 (aged 56) (presumed)
Chatto
Liz Reynolds
Sarojini Naidu (sister)
He went to Moscow in 1920 to develop support by the Communists for the Indian movement, including among Asians in Moscow who were working on revolutionary movements. He joined the German Communist Party (KPD). He lived in Moscow for several years in the 1930s. Arrested in July 1937 in the Great Purge, Chatto was executed on 2 September 1937. He was the brother of prominent political activist and poet Sarojini Naidu.
Early life[edit]
His childhood nickname was Binnie or Biren. Virendranath was the eldest son (the second of eight children) of Dr. Aghorenath Chattopadhyaya (Chatterjee), a scientist-philosopher and educationist who was an ex-principal and professor of science at the Nizam College, and his wife Barada Sundari Devi, a poet and singer in a Bengali Brahmin family settled in Hyderabad. Their children Sarojini Naidu and Harindranath Chattopadhyay became well-known poets and parliamentarians. Their daughter Mrinalini (Gannu) became a Nationalist activist and introduced Virendranath to many of her circle in Kolkata (Calcutta).[1] A younger son Marin became involved with Virendranath in political activism.
Chattopadhyaya received a secular and liberal education. He was a polyglot and was fluent in the Indian languages Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, as well as English; later he was to learn French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian and the Scandinavian languages as well. He matriculated in the University of Madras and received an undergraduate degree in Arts from the University of Calcutta. In Kolkata, through his sister Gannu (Mrinalini), already known as an advanced Nationalist, Virendranath was introduced to Bejoy Chandra Chatterjee, a barrister and extremist. Chatto met Sri Aurobindo's family, especially his cousins, Kumudini and Sukumar Mitra; the former was editor of the seditious magazine Suprabhat. For years afterwards, Chattopadhyaya maintained contact with all of them.[2]
In Paris[edit]
Aiyar returned to India and settled in Pondicherry where he published the Dharma newspaper and a number of political pamphlets in Tamil, while maintaining a regular contact with Madame Bhikaiji Cama in Paris. Chatto and some other revolutionaries stayed with her at 25 rue de Ponthieu and helped her to edit the Bande Mataram: its April 1911 issue "was one of the most violent that ever appeared," praising outrages in Nasik and Kolkata.[3] It said: "With gentlemen we can be gentlemen, but not with rogues and scoundrels. (...) Our friends the Bengalis have also begun to understand. Blessed be their efforts. Long be their arms."[3]
In connection with the Tirunelveli Conspiracy Case in February 1912, Madame Bhikaiji Cama published an article showing that these political assassinations were in accord with the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.
Marriage and family[edit]
In 1912 Chattopadhyaya married Miss Reynolds, an Irish Catholic girl. Because he was pagan who rejected all effort to convert him, she brought a special dispensation from the pope to marry him. After the ceremony she informed him that a condition of the marriage was that any issue (child) was to be brought up Catholic. They quarreled and parted, she becoming a nun in some hidden English convent and he trying for years to have the marriage annulled.[4] Chattopadhyaya went to Berlin in April 1914 to further revolutionary activities. There he entered a union with Agnes Smedley. Although it was not a legal marriage, she bore his name and was known as his wife. The relationship lasted eight years. Agnes wrote her famous novel Daughter of Earth in 1928, the year they got separated.[4] That he loved her is no doubt. Neither she nor others understood why, for he had little interest in women. She shifted to China and had a relationship with the Soviet spy master Richard Sorge. He also sent fellow revolutionary Herambalal Gupta to Japan via the USA.
Last years[edit]
In January–February 1934, Chatto exchanged letters with Krupskaya (Lenin's widow). On 18 March 1934 he gave a talk about his reminiscences of Vladimir Lenin.[13] He wrote to Georgi Dimitrov, Comintern's Secretary-General, on 9 September 1935: "For three years I have been kept away from active work in the Comintern." Clemens Palme Dutt (the brother of Rajani Palme Dutt), mentioned having seen Chatto for the last time in 1936/37 at the department of ethnography of the Academy of Science in Leningrad.[14]
Chattopadhyaya was arrested on 15 July 1937 during the Great Purge of Stalin. His name appeared on a death list among 184 other persons, which was signed on 31 August 1937 by Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Zhdanov and Kaganovich.[15] The death sentence was pronounced by Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on 2 September 1937 and Chatto was executed the same day.
On 10 July 1938, A. C. N. Nambiar, Chattopadhyaya's brother-in-law, wrote to Nehru about the arrest. He replied on 21 July, agreeing to try to find out about Chattopadhyaya's fate.
Representation in other media[edit]
Chatto was well known in Great Britain and India as a revolutionary. He is believed to have inspired Somerset Maugham's character of "Chandralal" in his short story, "Giulia Lazzari;" (its character of Ashenden was based upon Maugham).. The American writer Agnes Smedley, who was involved with Chatto for eight years, used him as a model for the character Ananda in her novel Daughter of Earth.. The Indian revolutionary in Berlin, A C N Nambiar, had married Chatto's sister Suhasini.