Sachindra Nath Sanyal was an Indian revolutionary and and a mentor for revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh.
His parents were Bengali but he was born in in Benaras in 1893. He formed Kashi’s first revolutionary party in 1908.
Sanyal was known for his maverick views and revolutionary ideas. In 1912 with Rasbihari Bose, he made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge by throwing a bomb at him in Delhi.
He then founded a branch of the Anushilan Samiti in Patna in 1913. He was extensively involved in the plans for the Ghadar conspiracy, and went underground after it was exposed in February 1915.
Sanyal was sentenced to life for his involvement in the conspiracy and was imprisoned at Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where he wrote his book titled Bandi Jeevan (A Life of Captivity, 1922).
Following the end of the Non-cooperation movement in 1922, Sanyal, Ram Prasad Bismil and some other revolutionaries who wanted an independent India and were prepared to use force to achieve their goal, founded the Hindustan Republican Association in October 1924.
Sanyal was known for his firm Hindu beliefs, although some of his followers were Marxists and thus opposed to religions. Bhagat Singh discusses Sanyal’s beliefs in his tract Why I am an Atheist.
He was jailed for his involvement in the Kakori conspiracy but was among those conspirators released from Naini Central Prison in August 1937.
Sachindra Nath Sanyal was one of the few revolutionaries who had been sent to Cellular jail twice in Port Blair. He contracted tuberculosis in jail and was sent to Gorakhpur Jail for his final months. He died in 1942.
315. Sachindra Nath Sanyal – Founder of Anushilan Samiti Patna branch
