A Tribute to a Martyr Family beyond Gandhian Path

BY: Ms. PARAMITA DAS, Lecturer in History, TDB College, Raniganj, University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India, She has also worked as a Senior Research Scholar at the Southeast Asian & South -West Pacific Studies Division, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

(This article is dedicated to my father, late Mr. Subimal Kumar Das who passed away suddenly when the article was in progress and who inspired me to write about this martyr family: Ms. Paramita Das)

Three brothers and one sister, from the Das family of Dhaka of undivided Bengal of British India witnessed memories of gallantry and sacrifice like thousands revolutionaries whose motto was to free the motherland from the British rule. The means they had taken was to adopt a violent strategy instead of non-violence methodology of Mahatma Gandhi against unpopular British officers at the cost of their lives and destroy British public offices.

Anil Das, Sunil Das, Parimal Das and Latika Das were children of proud parents of Nibaron Chandra Das and Kiranbala Devi. Nibaran Chandra Das was a government registrar and Kiranbala Devi was a housewife with strong personality. All these three children were courageous with iron determination to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of India. The British atrocities during colonial days on the people of India and the work of their precursor revolutionaries made a deep impact upon them to end their rule beyond Gandhian philosophy of non-violence against imperialism.

The eldest brother Anil Kumar Das was a meritorious student of Mathematics of M.Sc from Dhaka University, and wrote three text books on Mathematics. He was a member of “Sri Sangha”, a famous revolutionary organization of Dhaka. He gave the leadership in train dacoity in 1932, May 1 in Dhaka. Three weeks after the incident he was arrested on June 06 at Taltala Steamer Station, Vikrampur. The police failed to get any information or confession by torturing brutally on the iron built body of Sri Anil Das. Thus the revolutionaries of Sri Sangha lost one of the valuable, dedicated leaders. His sacrifice inspired his younger brother Sri Sunil Das to dedicate his career for the cause of this motherland.

The commonality of this revolutionary the Das family was that their active devotion to motherland against the colonial rule could not deviate them from their study. Sunil Das was another brilliant student of Chemistry in Dhaka University and a man of impeccable character. He engaged himself in research on ‘Raman Effects in Inorganic Compounds’ under Dr. Gyan Chandra Ghosh. After the death of the elder brother Anil Kumar Das, one day Parimal Das was running away to avoid police’s eyes but got crushed under the train. He was then a teenager of 17 or 18 years only.

Their sister Latika Sen (Das) was a teacher of Beltala School in South Calcutta. After her marriage she had to shoulder all the responsibility of her family but not at the cost of her political career. She was the first female member of the Communist Party of India in undivided Bengal. She was succumbed to death while giving leadership to a movement for the release of the political prisoners in 1949. After her death a famous Urdu writer Kishan Chander wrote a story name ‘Brahmaputra’ where he had depicted the character of Latika Sen in a perfect manner.

After his two brothers became martyrs at their early age. Sunil Das then decided to dedicate his life for the cause of revolutionary movement. After the death of Parimal Das, Sunil Das could not live in Dhaka for long because the police had been intensely combing Dhaka to arrest him. He came to Calcutta and got a job with the help of Dr. Prafulla Chandra Roy at Analytical Laboratory as a chemist. At the same time he restarted editing and publishing his newspaper ‘Biplobi’ (‘A Revolutionary’).

But he was arrested for his alleged involvement for the murder of Mr. Burge, a judge of Medinipur. After years of imprisonment he was released from Presidency jail on 1938, August 08. Thereafter he dedicated his life in the popular revolutionary movement leaving behind the secret path of revolutionary movement. Thereafter Sunil Das and other members of “Sri Sangha” were influenced by Netaji Bose’s philosophy and ideals, who then came back from England and became a President of the Haripura Congress. Close on the heel Sunil Das and other members of Sri Sangha, like Anil Roy, Lila Roy etc. joined Forward Block in 1939. Sunil Das was then appointed as the first Secretary of the South Calcutta branch of Forward Block. After the sudden disappearance of Netaji in 1941, “Sri Sangha” continued their struggle to implement his ideals. Then until independence Sunil Das had to go through a great struggle and adventure, sometime in disguise, to continue his fight against the British colonial rule.

The year 2008 was the birth centenary year of Sunil Das. Today our motherland is under new threat. Now this is the time to pay our tribute to the revolutionaries whose history of courage and sacrifice would inspire Indians of today to wake up and fight against terrorism sometimes beyond Gandhian path if circumstances warrant to save our motherland and her innocent lives.

(Important Note: The opinion expressed in the article is of Ms. Paramita Das and Burma Review strongly believes in the philosophy of ‘non-violence’ of Mahatma Gandhi to defeat terrorism and for the restoration of democracy in Burma. Ms. Paramita Das is a young scholar of Modern Asian Studies, opinion expressed by her in the article doesn’t mean that she hasn’t got respect to the effectiveness of Gandhi jee’s philosophy of non-violence against mistakes of colonial misrule. Moreover, she also believes in fostering greater cooperation in India-UK relationship in contemporary international politics as a natural confluence of Indian and British democratic institutions and ethos: Rajshekhar, Burma Review)

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