by Pradip Kumar Dutta
We are going to discuss about three personalities from the Sen clan. Though all three have the same surname Sen,they are not directly or closely related to each other. Many books and most of the hearsay stories coin them as relatives. But thorough study by me could not establish any direct kinship. The three are Surya(Surjyo) Sen, Netro Sen and Kiranmoy Sen.
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| Kiranmoy Sen |
Well, the first name is very very well-known as the leader of the Chittagong youth,who were engaged in revolutionary armed struggle against the British Colonisers. He was and still is known as Masterda, respectfully and lovingly,since he started his career as a school teacher in Chittagong. He led the Chittagong Branch of Indian Republican Army,styled and christined in line with the Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein that fought against the British for Ireland's freedom. In April of 1930 the Youth Rebellion was staged in Chittagong which successfully kept Chittagong free of British rule for four days. As a leader and one time Secretary of the Chittagong unit of Indian National Congress,he came in touch with many of the all India leaders who were waging movement after movement to dislodge the Colonising British authorities and achieve freedom of the subcontinent. This was one face of his politics. But he came in contact with revolutionary ideas since the time when he was a student of Degree class in Baharampur(twin city of Murshidabad, erstwhile capital of Sirajuddowlah the last Nawab of Bengal) College and after his return to Chittagong,when he started his career as a teacher,he slowly built up the base of his underground armed group of youth who he dreamt of as Vanguards of freedom of India.
At the core of his heart he knew that their meagre physical force was not sufficient to throw the British colonial administration out of South Asia. But he was confident that their armed actions would act as a spark to ignite the wild fire which will encourage their countrymen to rise against the oppressors. The agitated people's anger and demonstration of their solidarity to the movement for freedom will drive the British colonial forces away and usher in long dreamt of Freedom. Masterda planned the Chittagong Youth Revolt very meticulously. 18April of 1930 was fixed by him as the D Day. His secret plan called for multi pronged armed attacks to take control of Chittagong. All his armed young followers selected for the day's actions,numbering to 64 were divided into several groups. One group was sent to capture the Telephone and Telegraph office and severe the communication between Chittagong and the rest of India. Another group was sent towards Feni to cut of the rail connection between the port city and the rest of the country. Yet another group was supposed to attack the European Club and kill as many Brits as possible.A smaller group was to capture the armoury of the Auxiliary Forces.
The biggest and main group was supposed to take over the control of the British armoury which was located in the present day Police line hills. On capturing the Police lines and the main armoury,the Indian Republican Army Chittagong Branch was to proclaim Independence from the clutches of the British power. The groups went ahead with zeal and enthusiasm. The Telegraph office was taken over,some equipment were destroyed and wireless communication with rest of India was cut off. The train line was severed near Dhoom station and train communication was stopped. The day being Easter holiday,the Club was closed early and the attack was called off. The Auxiliary Forces armoury was taken over and finally,the main attack was also crowned with success. The police lines was taken over with it's armoury. At that hour of night slogans of Inquilab Zindabad reverberated in the air. Masterda Surya Sen,the Supreme leader was given a Guard of Honour by his comrades and was declared as the President of the Revolutionary Council. He addressed his disciples and issued the proclamation of Independence and called the Nation to unite to fight against the British tyrants. His proclamation and orders/instructions to the people were sent for circulation as leaflets.A small group of revolutionaries was entrusted with the task. All the groups were to assemble after their successes and wait for instructions on how to proceed next.
Unfortunately one of the youth received bad burn injuries during the main operation at the police lines. To solve this unforeseen problem some of the leading fighters went back to the town to get him treated. Contact could not be established with them thereafter. Some others were sent to find and help them. One of them got into a fight with the police, received bullet injuries and succumbed to the same. His companions dispersed. Due to these and other factors, full force of the revolutionary youth could not assemble in time and in full strength. Meantime the British officers and their families abandoned the city and took refuge in steamers in the Bay of Bengal. Chittagong thus became free of British rule. But that was not to last long. Masterda knew that soon, reinforcement will come in support of the British administration from beyond Chittagong. So,he decided to take defense in the hills to the north of the city. The young boys under him marched into the nearby jungles and took up defensive positions in the Jalalabad Hills, inside the boundary of the present day Chittagong Cantonment. They were not many in number,under-equipped and without supplies. Their only strength was their chivalrous youth and love and respect for their own Motherland. Their motto was," We will die but India will rise."
The actions were planned on 18 April with 64 revolutionary youth,amongst whom the tasks of destroying the British control over Chittagong as enumerated above,were distributed. When they assembled in the Jalalabad Hills to chalk out their next plan of action,they were 54 in number. The leadership spearheaded by Masterda,the Supreme leader was planning the next course of action. On 22 April the Brits could master enough strength to assemble a fairly large group of soldiers equipped with rifles and heavier arms including machine guns to attack the revolutionary gang of Chittagong Youth. Different numbers of attacking British force is quoted by different sources. But one thing can be taken for sure that Suryo Sen's men were heavily outnumbered. Analyzing materials that I could lay my hands upon,I consider 800 soldiers as a realistic figure of the attackers. Early afternoon,the first attack was carried out. A platoon of the British army charged up the hills with bayonetted rifles. Masterda appointed Loknath Bal as the Commander to face the challenges of the attackers.Under his command the first volley of fires took care of the attackers. Waves of attacks followed. All were repulsed one after the other inflicting heavy casualties. When the Brits started machine gun fire,the Revolutionary Army was tightly pressed. Their casualties began. The first to fall was Tegra,a mere school child,Commander Lokenath's own youngest brother.The battle continued till late evening. Though the young revolutionaries were a handful in numbers,they took advantage of their position at the hill top,changed their locations rapidly and continued firing as long as their guns and ammunition supported. Meantime,one after another of them started falling to the enemy fire. When the barrel of a revolutionary youth's rifle would heat up,he took the rifle of his Shaheed comrade to continue the firing. At dusk, suddenly the enemy fire stopped. Silence prevailed andit was evident that the British Regiment had retreated being unsuccessful in taking over the Jalalabad Hill. The battle was won but at a valuable cost of 12 young lives. Two others were grievously injured one of whom later succumbed to his injuries. Binod Behari Chowdhury was the other injured with bullet injuries in the throat. He survived and led an active progressive political life in Chittagong. He was the longest surviving of the Jalalabad Heroes and lived a 103 years eventful life.
After the British soldiers left, Masterda could fathom that the next morning they would come back with stronger force and the revolutionary youth could not get any reinforcement or replenishment of the arms and ammunition that was exhausted,not to speak of food and other supplies. So,they gave a full military Guard of Honour to the Shaheeds and disappeared in the darkness of night in different directions to continue their armed struggle in the form of Guerilla warfare. Surya Sen,the Supremo ordered his followers to dissolve into the masses of their countrymen and carry on attacks on the British officials,their cronies. This continued for few more years and there had been many skirmishes between the colonisers and the revolutionary youth. A few of the noteworthy are: Kalar pol battle,European Club attach,Dhalghat battle,etc. Casualties were on both sides but Chittagong became a nightmare for the British colonials. Chittagong to the Fore: was a comment by all India leader G K Gokhle under these circumstances. During these attacks Masterda directed and coordinated everything from different hideouts. They had many such coded shelters in the countryside of Chattogram and many sympathetic families to assist them. The numbers in their ranks kept increasing. The British administration declared a 10000 rupees bounty on Masterda's head. They initially recieved no response. But there was no dearth of Mirzafars in Bengal. One such, we find in the person of Netro Sen. He was a well to do person in a village Goirola where Masterda was holding a meeting with some of his followers on 16th February,1933. Netro Sen's brother Brojen Sen,a revolutionary and member of Surya Sen's outfit was also a participant. Netro was allured by the administrative declaration of the 10000 rupees prize and tipped off the Police about the presence of the leader in Mrs Kshirode Prova Biswas' house,in the vicinity of his own. In the darkness of night,the police forces cordoned off the house and again a battle ensued. Four of the revolutionaries including Kalpana Dutta(later Kalpana Joshi,a famed Communist leader) managed to escape. Unfortunately Masterda and Netro's own brother Brojen Sen were apprehended. Next senior most in their party line Tarakeswar Dastidar continued with the leadership of the revolutionary activities. He too was arrested soon with Kalpana Dutta. The three leaders were put into trial for plotting and leading the Chittagong Armoury Raid supplementary case. Two cases were already filed and summarily judged in the meantime on the same matter against other revolutionary youth who were arrested earlier from different hideouts and places. In those two cases the Boys were handed different punishments including Kalapaani(deportation for life in the Andaman islands). In August 1933 the trial in the 3rd case was over. Masterda and Tarakeswar Dastidar were given capital punishment by hanging till death and Kalpana was to be sent to Kalapaani. After persuasion by many the Kalapaani sentence was reviewed to a lesser punishment but the appeal at the High court against the death sentence of the two prominent leaders proved futile. They were severely tortured in Chittagong jail and on 12 January 1934 their close to unconscious bodies were hanged. The brutal British authorities dreaded the dead Masterda more than his living being. The dead bodies were not handed over to relatives and friends as is the protocol. Fearing mass agitation on recieving of the bodies,they took the bodies in a ship and sunk them in the deep sea with heavy weights tied to the corpses.
Meantime,the youth did not sit idle. They continued with armed Revolutionary activities. But the movement could not progress much due to increased British oppression on their families and dearth of matured leadership. But the sensation created through their actions raised the spirits of the youth and freedom fighters all over the subcontinent. This,along with Netaji Subhas' Azad Hind movement,British Indian Naval forces rebellion and Indian Congress/ Muslim League's political struggle has brought Independence to the subcontinent.
Before we conclude,we come back to the story of three Sens as we began. Besides the leader and the traitor,there was another Sen,a teen going to the Eighth class in the school. He was Kiranmoy Sen of Habilashdwip,a village not far from Goirola. Like most of the youth those days,he too was imbibed with the revolutionary ideas of Masterda and his comrades and was interested to join the ranks. But no one was recruited without being tested. The would be recruits were given easier tasks of messengers,guides and such other necessary tasks. Young Kiron was one such boy. After Masterda was betrayed and arrested some of the youth including Kiron decided to take revenge. With blessings from some seniors he chalked out a plan with his friend Rabindra(Khoka) Nandy to annihilate the betrayer. Being from a nearby village,Kiron knew the village Goirola well. They used to play in a field nearby. Rabindra was not from that area. So Kiron took the lead. They were trying to fix exact time of operation and they wanted it to be quick since Masterda's days were numbered. The followers wanted Masterda to know before his glorious death that his desciples took a proper revenge. That they did not let the British ploy of alluring and buying our people go unchallenged. On 9th January 1934 they got the definite information that Netro was at his Goirola home,back from Chittagong. With the nightfall Kiran and Rabindra, proceeded to Netro Sen's place with two Ramdaow(long daggers) in hand. Initially they planned the use of a revolver. But later, so as not to attract attention of people or police with the sound of gun shot they switched over to daggers. They sneaked in without making any noise and found Netro having sat for taking his supper. Netro's wife went into the kitchen to bring more curries after first serving. While he was taking the first mouthful,down came a stroke of Kiran's Ramdaow and the traitors head came down on his food plate. Mission accomplished,the two young boys left but not before Netro's wife came out of the kitchen to find out the fate of her husband. According to some accounts she could recognise Kiran but never divulged the name. She was grilled by the British police interrogators many a times but she was stubborn. She was a supporter of the movement and revered Masterda to the extreme. As such,she could not approve of her husband's action of betrayal. So,she did not want Kiran to suffer. Kiran left the area and later went to Rangoon to escape arrest. Later he was traced,arrested and had to spend a good part of his youth in British prisons in Burma and India. In his later life,he settled in West Bengal after partition of India. He was honoured as a Revolutionary Freedom Fighter by the Indian Government on various occasions. He joined the Communist Party and was active in politics until the division of the Communist Party of India. Later,he joined the Damodar Valley Corporation and has worked in it's Mythan project.
After living a meaningful life,Kiranmoy Sen breathed his last in 1998 at the age of 83 years.
A Grand Salute to Masterda Surya Sen and the hero Kiranmoy Sen and down with Mirzafars like Netro Sen.
The Chittagong Armoury Raid and the Youth Rebellion has been depicted aptly in Bollywood movies Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey and Chittagong. Chittagong still boasts of Masterda (Master is teacher and Da is elder brother in Bengali).
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