Heritage & People of Chandernagore Team
Chandernagore boasts the work of several great men, one of which was Sri Aurobindo Ghosh. Though he had no connection with Chandernagore but fate brought him there and thus began the history of this place – Prabartak Sangha.
As Sister Nibedita wrote, the night of 19th February 1919 “was a stormy night” when she visited Ghosh to reveal the news of warrant being issued in his name, advising him to leave. Sri aurobindo quite perplexed wrote “ i was wondering what to do” when he finally decided to leave for Chandernagore. Thus on 20th February he ferried from the Ahiritola ghat along with two of his men reaching Chandernagore on 21st of February. At Chandernagore his arrangement of staying at Charu Chandra’s place failed and destiny pulled him to Motilal Roy’s house, who on the request of Sirish Chandra an ardent follower of Rash Bihari Bose decided to shelter Ghosh for some time. It is the 42 days stay at Motilal Roy’s place that made Moti lal not only bond with Ghosh and but also became his fervent adherent thus began the idea of Prabortak Sangha and its social works.
Our visit at the Prabartak Sangha unveiled the history of the sacred place. Men like Rabindra Nath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, Subhas Chandra Bose, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy visited to pay homage to the place and its founder. It is said that Mahatma Gandhi , not only pay a visit but spend a night there. Prabartak Sagha was founded by Motilal Roy with one of its Akshay tritiya mela being chaired by Bipin Chandra pal in the year 1930. The temple may have been created by Motilal Roy but as Aurobindo wrote “all of Moti’s work are mine” He was further quoted saying “if you want to know my ideology , my philosophy, go to Prabartak sangha”. The ‘Prabartak Patrika’, which celebrated its centenary on 15th August, 2015 bore his words. Further the Sangha continued with its social work forming ashrams and schools, serving people and presently completed seventy five years in this process. We were fortunate enough to visit such a place and now we salute the immense work of the great man and his followers.
Heritage & People of Chandernagore 