Remembering Kalpana Datta a revolutionaries.
Nearly nine years back , I
had watched Hindi feature film Khelein Hum Jee
Jan Se directed by Ashutosh Gowariker in which Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Sikander Kher had
played the lead roles. This film is based on a historical book " Do and Die"
written by Manini Chatterjee and film depicts the
events of the Chittagong Amory Raid took place on 18th
April 1930. After seeing this classic film, I started collecting the materials
based on these events and found that there were also contributions of females
as revolutionaries who had joined the group of Surya Sen a school teacher and
an activist for Indian freedom. His group was having revolutionaries like Ganesh Ghosh
, Lokenath Bal,
Nirmal Sen, Ambika
Chakraborty, Ananta Singh, Pritilata
Waddedar and above all, Kalpana
Datta. In the film, Deepika
Padukone has played role of Kalpana Datta.
*From Yogesh Gogwekar.*
Kalpana Datta Joshi was an activist in Indian freedom
Movement born on 27th July 1913 Sripur village of Chittagong
District in East Bengal (Today in Bangladesh). She completed her matriculation
examination in 1929 and went to Kolkata and joined Bethune College
to get Bachelor degree in Science. During her graduation, she joined one Women
Students Association Chhatri Sangha, a semi revolutionary
organization where she met Bina Das and Pritilata Waddedar who were active members of
revolutionary group of Surya Sen. Kalpana
too had a desire to fight for independence and joined this group in 1931.
The Chittagong Armory
raid carried on 18th April 1930 and all main leaders like
Ganesh Ghosh , Lokenath Bal, Nirmal Sen, and Ananta Singh were arrested and waiting for trail.
Meanwhile, Surya Sen planned to liberate the revolutionaries and asked Kalpana Datta to prepare gun-cotton and to place a
dynamic fuse under the court building and inside the prison. He also planned to
attak on European Club in Chittagong in September, 1931 along
with Kalpana
and Pritilata;
but arrested by police before one week of attack at the time of carrying out
inspection of area and released on the bail. On 17th
February 1933, Police raided places of revolutionaries and arrested all
revolutionaries including their leader Surya Sen. Kalpana Datta managed to escape and
detained again on 19th
May 1933. She was sentenced to transportation for life and released in 1939.
After the release in
1939, Kalpana Datta completed her graduation from Kolkata University. In jail, she was attracted Marxism and
joined to Communist party in 1939 where she met a communist leader Puran Chand Joshi and married with him in 1943. She served as relief worker during the
famine of 1943 in Bengal and also during the Partition of Bengal. She has
written her autobiography in Bengali which was translated in English by Arun Bose & Nikhil Chakraborty as "Chittagong
Armory Raiders: Reminiscences". In 1946 , She contested the election for
Bengal Legislative Assembly but could not win.
After 15th
August 1947 , she migrated to India and submissive from Active politics. She
Joined to Indian statistical institute due to her for mathematics and work there till her retirement. On 8th
February 1995 , She died in Kolkata. She survived with two sons Suraj and Chand. Chand Joshi worked
as journalist in Hindustan Times and written a book myth and reality about Bhindranwale
in 1985. Manini
Chatterjee
who penned the book Do and Die is wife of Chand Joshi.
Salute to such great lady who always used to
say,” Be patriotic my children, not nationalistic.”.
Mumbai
13/08/2019
Comments
Post a Comment