January 12 is the death anniversary of Masterda Surya Sen,the legendary revolutionary leader of our soil. We will solemnly observe the 90th anniversary of his brutal execution this year. His whole life,spanning 40 years was dedicated to the altar of freedom of his motherland from British colonial occupation.
He is an icon of revolutionary struggle. He was one of the historical inspirational figures whose heroism gave constant courage and enthusiasm to our Muktijoddhas during our great war of Liberation.
British East India Company, which had a mandate from the British crown,of doing business of all sorts including slave trade and at the same time to maintain a private army, were the virtual colonial rulers of Indian subcontinent from 1757.The Company,by royal charter, maintained their army and law enforcers,collected revenue,administered judiciary functions and could penalise subjects upto the limit of capital punishment. This unlimited power,the european supremacy of armament over native Indian ones and the enormous wealth of the colonised Indian territories eluded the British company to thrust all their might in exploiting their Indian subjects economically and physically. The unbearable tyranny did not go unchallenged.
In 1857 the Indian sepoys of the Company revolted. Though,freedom from colonial struggle was not the primary aim of 1857 Sepoy mutiny,it spread like wildfire and swept the entire Indian population barring British boot lickers. Some enthusiastic rebels even persuaded the aging name sake Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Jafar to claim sovereignty. The unable,old and unwilling descendant of once mighty House of Mughals complied and consequently met a tragic end. Economist,philosopher and thinker Karl Marx has termed this Sepoy mutiny as the first Freedom Struggle of India.
One of the greatest Bengali Historians Prof RC Majumder,who taught and headed our prestigious Dhaka University was firmly of the opinion that the real impetus to the Freedom Movement from British colonial rule was given by the youth revolutionaries who were disillusioned by the too slow action of Indian politicians which prompted them to take up arms to fight the colonisers.
After the sepoy mutiny, India saw the power of the Company replaced by the British crown. Colonial powers suck too much and that could not be tolerated by it’s subjects. Political activities and resentment grew.Brute power and booty to boot lickers were the answers of the masters. The revolutionary youth of the subcontinent were not happy with their mainstream politicians and they started forming their secret organisations which they thought will be the tools to drive the oppressors away by force. Examples: Alipore Bomb case(Khudiram and Prafulla Chaki),Kakori case(Ashfaqullah and Ramprasad Bismil),Udham Singh and so on and so forth. They thought,their actions will activate the nation and ignite within them the flame of freedom from injustice and will unite them to a fierce anti colonial struggle which will grow like waves to drown the British colonisers.These circumstances led to the great revolutionary action by the Chittagong youth led by legendary Masterda Surya Sen.This valiant action could keep Chittagong free of British occupation for four days from 18April to 22nd April 1930. In history the heroic action goes by the name Chittagong Youth Revolution or Chittagong Armoury Raid. It was a severe blow to the British powers and they dealt with the action as brutally as they could. By their terms,it was looting of Chittagong Armoury. Some Bengali writers and publishers also had made this historical mistake.
We consider the colonialists including the Britishers as exploiters and looters of our wealth. Even those arms taken possession of, by the revolutionary youth were bought with our wealth.So,we consider that the brave boys took over our own wealth by force from the British.To us,the Bengalis and the people of the subcontinent they were and will always remain Heroes of the highest order.Our deepest respect to them will remain for all time to come. If not for their exemplary self-sacrificing all out armed attacks,Netaji’s desperate attack with his Azad Hind Fauz, the British Indian Naval forces mutiny and such other vital incidents the Independence of the subcontinent may not have happened in successive order. We know what level of mass agitation swept the subcontinent when Netaji’s comrades,the leading figures of Azad Hind Fauz were put under trial for sedation against the British crown. The British rulers could read the public sentiment and called off all further proceedings as well as the few judgements pronounced by their war trial court which was set up in Delhi’s Lal Quillah. The rulers could not project the Delhi trials as Nuremberg trial or Tokyo trials. Rather it backfired on them and they had to take a hurried decision of leaving the subcontinent soonest possible. Thus the freedom at midnight of 14th August,1947 came rather quicker. In fact,it was preponed because the British colonialists preferred to leave early to avoid further embarassment. But before they left,they successfully implemented their divide and rule policy to leave their former colony divided and weak and consequently a fertile ground for their further neo colonial exploitation.
However,lets discuss the 1930 Chittagong Armoury Raid or the Chittagong Youth Revolution,as named by the revolutionary leader Masterda himself,in a little more detail.
During the WW1 the tricky British proposed to the Indian political leaders that if the Indians support and fight for the Allied forces in the WW1 the Indian demand for self-rule will be met. Accordingly the mainstream Indian political leaders persuaded thier people to join the British Indian Army. The semi sovereign Indian Kingdoms and Nawab/Sultan ruled entities called as Princely states also fought for the Allied forces. But as soon as the war against Axis forces of Austro -Hungary,Turkey and Germany/Prussia was won,all promises were forgotten. The Indian leaders were left with an empty bowl. The Muslims were particularly frustrated at the disslution of Othman caliphate. In early 20’s of 20th century simultaneously the Noncooperation movement by Gandhiji and the Khilafat movement by Moulana brothers started in tandem. Though the movements could master enough popular support they did not possess the steam to make the necessary outburst of revolutionary movement to compel the rulers being pushed against the wall. The movements slowly started losing steam and slowed down. This infuriated the young guards of freedom and revolution.
The then Secretary of Chittagong district Indian Congress Surya Sen alias Masterda(he actually was an innocent looking mathematics teacher in a school)chalked out his own program. He had innumerable young supporters who were ready to sacrifice their own life in the alter of freedom of the country anytime. They only waited orders from their leader. They were imbibed with patriotism,had physical training and some of them got trained in handling explosives and small fire arms.
Masterda fixed 18april 1930 as the D day. He chalked out a meticulous plan. In his plan we find deep influence of Irish Sinn Fein revolutioneries. Ireland too was fighting against the British crown around that time.A group of 64 selected youth were divided into several groups. By evening of that day the railway link between Chittagong and rest of the British India was severed near Feni. Telephone exchange was attacked and the communication with rest of the country was snapped. The Armoury of the Auxiliary forces was taken over. Chittagong Club attack was abandoned because it was closed due to Easter. The main target,the Police line Armoury was attacked.The British defenders fled and the Armoury and the police HQ was taken over. Masterda was given a full Guard of Honour as the Provisional Head of the Indian Republican Army government of Chittagong. The district was declared free. All Britishers left the city and took refuge in the ships in Karnafully and Bay of Bengal. Masterda knew that they could not hold this Independence for long as whole of India was not prepared. He wanted to create a a sensational example. IRA wanted to kindle the fire of revolution. He withdrew his forces to the Jalalabad Hills where a rugged battle was fought between handful of revolutionary youth and a huge contingent of British soldiers. 12 young freedom fighters embraced martyrdom whereas reportedly 80 of the enemies were killed. The British contingent left in the evening with their casualties. Masterda offered a 21gun salute to the fallen Heroes and decided to withdraw to the villages for the next session of protracted guerilla warfare. It was already the early hours of 22nd April 1930.
The next phase continued for more than 3 years. Finally and gradulally all the top leaders including Masterda was apprehended and the great Chittagong Youth Revolution died down in action but not in spirit. Their Heroism is still acclaimed.
As we know,Masterda Surjyo Sen and his 2nd in command Tarakeswar Dastidar were tried summarily and awarded death penalty. Only a few days was allowed to hear the appeal at the High court. It was mockery of a trial. Before hanging they were beaten and tortured beyond limits and formally hanged almost dead bodies.
The British powers were so afraid of the Supremo’s popularity that the dead bodies were not handed over to the friends and relatives for last rites. They carried the sacred bodies deep into the Bay of Bengal and sunk the bodies with heavy weights. Immortal spirits of Masterda Surya Sen and his second in command Tarakeswar Dastidar is still alive in the hearts of millions of their successors.
Chittagong Youth Revolution will remain as a beacon to all revolutionaries all over the world for all time to come.
While fighting against Pakistani domination and exploitation and the more so during our great war of Liberation our Bengali nation derived inspiration from the revolutionary actions of Masterda.
We have residential halls in universities named after Masterda. There are some other not very significant organisations carrying his name.Unfortunately, we do not have any major Street,Road or Square in any of our Metropolitan cities bearing his name. We demand that our progressive government and city authorities will consider the matter seriously and come up with a positive decision.
The gallows where Masterda and Dastidar were hanged has been preserved with solemn dignity inside Chattogram jail. We expect that some special arrangements will be made for at least a selected few of the city elites including his admirers to visit the site and lay floral wreaths showing due respect to the visionary revolutionary leader.
