Vivekananda reinforced this notion of social service and further advanced the idea that Hinduism and Indian culture was superior to anything the Western world could offer. With his cousin and childhood friend Hari Kumar Chakravarti (1882–1963), he formed a group of free-thinkers including Satcowri Banerjee and the brothers, Saileshvar and Shyamsundar Bose. Two other cousins of Bhattacharya and Chakravarti, Phani and Narendra Chakravarti, often came from Deoghar, where they went to school with Barin Ghosh. A mysterious Vedic scholar, Mokshadacharan Samadhyayi, who was an active organiser of secret branches of the Anushilan Samiti in Chinsura, started joining this Bhattacharya group. In July 1905 a partition of Bengal was announced, scheduled to start in October. A spontaneous mass movement aimed at annulment of the partition emerged, giving radical nationalists like Naren Bhattacharya and his co-thinkers an opportunity to build broader support for their ideas. Following his expulsion from high school for organising a meeting and a march against the partition, Bhattacharya and Chakravarti moved to Kolkata and joined in the active work of the Anushilan. Under Mokshada's leadership, on 6 December 1907 Bhattacharya successfully committed the first act of political theft to raise money for the secret society. When arrested, he was carrying two seditious books by Barin Ghosh. Defended by the Barrister J. N. Roy (close friend of Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin) and the pleader Promothonath Mukherjee, he got released on bail, thanks to his reputation as a student and social worker. Unhappy with Barin's highly centralised and authoritative way of leadership, Bhattacharya and his group had been looking for something more constructive than making bombs at the Maniktala garden. Two incidents sharpened their interest in an alternative leadership. Barin had sent Prafulla Chaki with Charuchandra Datta to see Bagha Jatin at Darjeeling who was posted there on official duty, and do away with the Lt. Governor; on explaining to Prafulla that it wasn't the right time, Jatin promised to contact him later. Though Prafulla was much impressed by this hero, Barin cynically commented that it would be too much of an effort for a Government officer to serve a patriotic cause. Phani returned from Darjeeling, after a short holiday: fascinated by Jatin's charisma, he informed his friends about the unusual man. On hearing Barin censuring Phani for disloyalty, Bhattacharya decided to see that exceptional Dada and got caught for good. The Howrah-Shibpur Trial (1910–11) brought Bhattacharya closer to