Surya Sen
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Indian Postage stamp on Surya Sen |
Surya Sen (
Bangla: সূর্য সেন) (1894-1934) a teacher by profession, he was a prominent
Bengali Indian freedom fighter and was the chief architect of anti-British freedom movement in
Chittagong,
Bengal (now in
Bangladesh). A resident of Noapara under
Chittagong, he was initiated into revolutionary ideas in
1916 by one of his teachers while he was a student of BA Class in the Behrampore College. On his return to
Chittagong in
1918, he became the president of the Chittagong branch of the
Indian National Congress, revived the hardline patriotic organisation and became a teacher of the local national school. Hence, he was known as Mastarda (teacher brother).
By
1923 Surya Sen established a number of hardline patriotic organisations (including
Jugantar) in different parts of
Chittagong district. Aware of the limited equipment and other resources of the freedom fighters, he was convinced of the need for secret
guerrilla warfare against the colonial Government. One of his early successful undertakings was a broad day robbery at the treasury office of the
Assam-Bengal Railway at
Chittagong. His subsequent major success in the anti-British revolutionary violence was the
Chittagong Armoury Raid in
1930.
Surya Sen, being constantly followed up by the police, had to hide at the house of Sabitri Devi, a widow, near
Patiya. A police and military force under Captain Cameron surrounded the house on
13 June 1932. Cameron was shot dead while ascending the staircase and Surya Sen along with
Pritilata Waddedar and
Kalpana Dutta escaped to safety.
Ultimately a villager revealed the hiding place of Surya Sen at
Gahira village in Chittagong and in the early hours of
17th February 1933, a
Gurkha contingent surrounded the hideout and a soldier seized Surya Sen while he was trying to break the cordon.
Tarakeswar Dastidar, the new president of the Chittagong Branch Jugantar Party, made a preparation to rescue Surya Sen from the Chittagong Jail. But the plot was unearthed and consequently frustrated. Tarakeswar and Kalpana along with others were arrested. Special tribunals tried Surya Sen, Tarakeswar Dastidar, and Kalpana Datta in
1933.
Sentenced to death in August
1933, Surya Sen was hanged in the Chittagong Jail on the
8th January,
1934. At the time of his execution, the detainees kept up a continuous chorus of revolutionary songs. The villager who had revealed the hiding place of Surya Sen to the police was murdered in broad daylight on the
8th January,
1934.
*
Pritilata Waddedar*
Indian independence movement*
Banglapedia article on Surya Sen
