Jitendra Nath Lahiri

Who is Jitendra Nath Lahiri?

Jitendra Nath Lahiri was one of the Bengali visionaries of early 20th century. A revolutionary turned industrialist and later into a leading politician, he was instrumental in defining the Indian entity during the British Raj for his hometown, Serampore, a suburban settlement near Calcutta.

He was born into one of the well-off families in Serampore, the Lahiri family. Ever since his childhood he had been an outstanding student. He went on to become the second Indian to complete his education from the University of California, Berkeley. It was during his stay in Berkeley that Jitendra Nath developed a strong interest in nationalism. He went on to actively support the “Ghadar Group”, with the objective to free India from British rule.

Jitendra Nath through his Ghadar connections came in touch with Jatin Mukherjee, better known as “Bagha Jatin”, one of the extremist leaders in the Indian Freedom movement. Jitendra Nath operated out of the underground units in Germany and was one of the key facilitators in connecting the Indian extremist units with the Helferrich brothers in Germany.