The revolutionaries

Alongside Congress politics ran a revolutionary strand, and it began in print.

Many newspapers questioned colonial policies: Kesari and Bande Mataram, and the more moderate Voice of India and The Bengalee. Far more radical was Yugantar ('New Era'), a Bengali paper calling for open revolt, run by revolutionaries led by Barindra Ghose.

In April 1908, two young members of that group, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, tried to kill a British judge, Douglas Kingsford, who had been giving Swadeshi activists harsh sentences, including flogging.

They threw bombs at a carriage they thought was carrying him. Two British women were killed instead. Prafulla shot himself; Khudiram, just 18, was captured, tried and hanged, calm and smiling at the end according to reports, with crowds throwing flowers on his funeral procession.

Days later Aurobindo Ghose, his brother Barindra and many others were arrested and held at Alipore jail. The authorities thought they had finally silenced Aurobindo, whom they called "the most dangerous man we have to deal with at present".

The Alipore Bomb trial ran for a year, with Aurobindo defended by Chittaranjan Das, and the whole country following the reports. Aurobindo was acquitted (found not guilty); Barindra's death sentence was changed to life in the Cellular Jail.

Then came the crackdown. Bande Mataram was shut down during the trial, and Nationalist leaders were jailed, including Tilak, prosecuted for sedition over his Kesari articles in a trial the chapter calls rushed and unfair. His lawyer was Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Tilak was sent to Mandalay (in Burma) for six years.

Sentenced, Tilak said: "it may be the will of Providence that the cause I represent may be benefited more by my suffering than by my pen and tongue."