Pritilata Waddedar
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Pritilata Waddedar, Bengali Revolutionary |
Pritilata Waddedar (
Bangla: প্রীতিলতা "য়াদ্দেদার) was an anti-
British pro-
India revolutionary in
East Bengal, (then part of Province of
Bengal in pre-independence
India), now in
Bangladesh.
Born in
Chittagong in
1911, she was a meritorious student at the
Dr. Khastagir Government Girls' School of
Chittagong and passed the matriculation examination in the first division in
1927. She continued her education in
Eden College,
Dhaka and in
1929, she passed the Intermediate examinations securing the first place among all the candidates from Dhaka Board. Two years later, Pritilata graduated in Philosophy with distinction from
Bethune College of
Kolkata.
In early
1930s, Pritilata joined Mastarda
Surya Sen's armed resistance movement. In
1932,
Surya Sen planned an attack on the Pahartali European Club, which bore the notorious sign 'Dogs and Indians not allowed'. He assigned Pritilata to lead a team that would attack the Club on
September 23,
1932. Members of the team were instructed to carry potassium cyanide with them so that in case they were caught by police they could swallow it before the arrest. The raid was successful but Pritilata, dressed as a man was trapped without a way of escape on that fateful night. She committed suicide by swallowing the cyanide, thus ending her short endeavor in fighting for freedom of her country.
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Surya Sen
