Master Da Surjya Sen and the Chattogram Uprising of 1930 Part 1

 Masterda Surjya Sen was the leader of the Chattogram Uprising that for the first time in the history of India dislodged the British Government. For a long period of time, Chattogram revolutionaries under Surjya Sen, the favourite Master da of the students, was planning for a major uprising. The revolutionaries had taken advantage of the Non Cooperation Movement for regrouping. After Non Cooperation movement was halted by Gandhiji, the revolutionaries had  gathered under the umbrella of the Congress for gaining time and energy. The Congress Session of 1928 in Calcutta, which was coordinated by Subhas Chandra Bose as the GoC of the Bengal Volunteers, gave the revolutionaries an opportunity to come together and gather strength. In Chattogram, Surjya Sen prepared a volunteer corps in military style. They gathered arms and ammunition and money to conduct a major uprising. The day for the event was decided - 18th April, 1930. It was a Good Friday. The supreme commander of the operation was Surjya Sen. The War Council included Nirmal Sen, Ambika Chakrabarty, Loknath Bal, Ananta Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and Upen Bhattacharya. The name of the army was Indian Republican Army. The coordinated plan of assault was decided. Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh would lead the Police Armoury Raid, Nirmal and Loknath Bal would lead Railway Armoury Raid, Ambika would attack the Telegraph and Telephone exchange to cut off communication. The Action Squads would cut off Chattagram from the rest of India and thus ensure delay in the arrival of the British Police's reinforcement.

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Surjya Sen passed out BA from Calcutta University in 1918. After passing out he became a teacher in the Chattogram National School. He was a teacher in Mathematics. He did not interact much with people and students but he soon became a very popular teacher, called by all and sundry as Masterda. Surjya Sen was passionate about Indian Independence Movement. He set up a devoted group of youth that included Ambika Chakrabarty, Julu Sen, Nirmal Sen and others. He and his students took advantage of the Non Cooperation movement to secretly organize the revolutionary army, to coordinate with every revolutionary group that was active like Jugantar and Atmonnnati Samity. The revolutionaries joined the Bengal Volunteers group of Hemchandra Ghosh to further strengthen the revolutionary activities in a military way. Surjya Sen started preparing for the final assault and Chattogram was decided to be the place where the assault on the Empire would be launched. The revolutionaries had secretly met Subhas Chandra Bose earlier and got inspiration from him. A war council was prepared whose members included - Supreme Commander Surjya Sen, Nirmal Sen, Loknath Bal, Ananta Singh, Ganesh Ghosh, Ambika Chakrabarty, Uprendranath Bhattacharya. The name of the army was Indian Republican Army.

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On 18th April, 1930, on the day of the Easter Rising of the Irish revolutionaries, the Chattogram revolutionaries decided to launch a coordinated attack on the police armoury, the railway armoury and the other Government establishments like the telegraph and the telephone offices. Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh would attack Police armoury, railway armoury attack would be led by Nirmal Sen and Loknath Bal, Ambika Chakrabarty would attack Telegraph and Telephone Exchange. A thirty member squad would be waiting at the HQ near the police armoury. The coordinated assault would be launched in motor vehicles.

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The attack was successful. The revolutionaries controlled the entire Chattogram for three days. British left the town in hordes. Magistrate Wilkinson survived an attack by feigning death. National Flag was raised in place of Union Jack. There were debacles as well. Himangshu Sen was severely burnt and Ganesh Ghosh and Ananta Singh went to the city for his medical treatment. As Ganesh and Ananta were delayed, Surjya Sen, being unable to get complete information of the situation of the town, thought that they had been encircled and that Ganesh and Ananta had been captured. He therefore ordered the force to move to the jungles and hilly tracts. Ambika Chakrabarty led the team. The British police and army team reached Jalalabad hills with heavy weapons. The freedom fighters were without food and water. They were seen by the villagers, so police had got their trace. They had reached the hill top and started their fight when the army reached near the base. With heavy guns the army fought back from a trench and the revolutionaries began to lose their armymen. First to go was Tegra (Harigopal Bal), the younger brother of Loknath Bal. Then fell Tripura Sengupta, Naresh Roy, Bidhu Bhattacharya, Prbhas Bal, Madhu Dutta, Nirmal Sen, Ardhendu Dastidar, Jiten Dasgupta, Pulin Ghosh, Shashanka Sen, Moti Kanungo. As the evening came the British Army retreated. The dead soldiers of the revolutionary army were given Guard of Honour. Ambika Chakrabarty was injured but was thought to be dead. The rest of the revolutionary army started to go deep into the forest and jungles as morning would bring more forces. Ambika walked alone and took shelter in a village. Nirmal and Ardhendu were injured. Nirmal and Masterda went a separate way while others under Loknath Bal moved in a different direction. They later met in the Koapada village. They were further helped by Binoy Sen who gave shelter even by incurring debt for days, Mahendra Choudhury who assumed the role of a secret service officer, and Satinath Sen who had helped Mahendra in fulfilling his duty.

By morning thousands of Army men had arrived in Chattogram as reinforcement and had started to intimidate and terrorize the citizens. They had combed the entire area and recovered the bodies of those who were killed. Injured Ardhendu was captured and he died in jail.

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(Adapted from Sabar Alakhye by Bhuprendra Kishore Rakshit Roy)