Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/147

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135: LIFE OF BABU SUBENDRA NATH BAKE BJ EE. Babu Kristo Das Pal, Maharaja Narendra Krishna Bahadur and others were present Eminent men who had made their marks in learned professions of law, medicine and literature readily flocked to its standard, and enlisted themselves as members of this political Association. Men like Mr. M. M. Ghose, Barrister-at- Law, Mr. Anunda Mohun Bose, m.a., Barrister-at-Law, and a Cambridge Wrangler, Babu Mohesh Chundra Chowdry, a distinguished pleader of the Calcutta High Court, Babu Kally Churn Banerjee, the orator, Babu Akhoy Chunder Sirkar, the great Bengali and Sans- krit Scholar and writer, and a host of other men too numerous to be mentioned, became its staunch suppor- ters and Members. And Mr. Anunda Mohun Bose than whom it is difficult to find a better, cool-head- ed and modest scholar among the enrolled Members, was unanimously elected its Secretary. But in this country where apathy and indifference soon set in after the first flush of success is over, an energetic, indefatigable and enthusiastic worker is essentially necessary to set the political engine in per- petual motion. And that man was Babu Surendra Nath Banerjee. He is not only the chief-driver of this poli- tical machine, but he is its fireman too. He brings coal and firewood, kindles them into a flame with unabated "breath, looks minutely into all the minutest parts of it, keeps it in workable order with the skilfulness of an expert political mechanic, and sets the machine in mo-» tion whenever the best interests of the country re- quires it. The vast net work of Branch Political Associations established in every nook and corner of Bengal and Northern India is the immediate result of his unceasing effort for the last 14 years. And for this splendid and glorious work, he is called the^peo-i ples'man" by his countrymen, and by his enemies as "the agitator." The task of infusing political activity? into the dormant state of Mofusil life is not his only title to our admiration. , The sine quorum of a political