Hemchandra Kanungo

Hemchandra Das Kanungo (4 August 1871 – 8 April 1951) was an Indian nationalist and a member of the Anushilan Samiti. Kanungo travelled to Paris in 1907, where he learnt the technique of assembling picric acid bombs from exiled Russian revolutionaries. Kanungo's knowledge was disseminated throughout Indian nationalist organisations in the British Raj and abroad. In 1908, Kanungo was one of the principal co-accused with Aurobindo Ghosh in the Alipore Bomb Case (1908–09). He was sentenced to transportation for life in the Andamans, but was released in 1921. He was given the honorific sobriquet of, "Biplabi Dronacharya" (Dronacharya for the revolutionaries) by Kazi Nazrul Islam himself. For the crucial mentorship that he had provided to many fledging revolutionaries of the time. He has been widely regarded as the most prominent figure in the early phase of the revolutionary movement.

He was probably the first revolutionary from India who went abroad to obtain military and political training. He obtained training from the Russian emigre in Paris. He returned to India in January 1908. He opened a secret bomb factory for the Anushilon Samiti at Maniktala near Kolkata, founder members of which were Hemchandra Kanungo, Aurobindo Ghosh (Sri Aurobindo) and his brother, Barindra Kumar Ghosh. He was also one of the founders of the Jugantar party which was the central association of revolutionary independence activists in Bengal. He also contributed his writings on the revolutionary movement to the Jugantar Patrika in order to inspire more youths. He was one of the creators of the Calcutta flag, based on which the first flag of independent India was raised by Bhikaiji Cama on 22 August 1907 at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany.