Chittagong Summer of 1930

by Manoshi Bhattacharya

  Lokenath leant across to Nirmal-da. ‘Did Mahendra not go home?’ he whispered. Nirmal-da shook his head. ‘He stole all that he could on that last day and has sworn never to go back again. In any case, there is a price on his head.’ He laughed. ‘The boy is a moron-paagol – bent on giving his life for the country. Biren De and two others are helping him. We have given him the code name Zamindar.’

  Binoy-da came up to Lokenath. With him was another fresh-faced youngster, one he had got a little familiar with during the sojourn in the hills. ‘Go home with him and stay indoors during the day … while that white skin of yours serves you on many occasions, in villages like these, it is your enemy.’

  Lokenath left with the quiet young lad. They walked through the village streets, sticking to the shadows. They were home a little before dawn.

  ‘Please sit.’ The boy left him in a room on the ground floor and ran upstairs. Lokenath waited, feeling a little uncomfortable. He was a little desperate to wash and freshen up. An hour went by and then another fifteen minutes. It would be light soon. What if someone walked in? He went to the bottom of the stairs and called. There was no response. Had something gone wrong? He yelled out at the top of his voice and waited. Footsteps came pattering down the stairs but he could tell it was not the boy’s. A grown man appeared. He held the boy’s revolvers in his hands.

  ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Take them. My nephew no longer wishes to speak with you. Forgive us; we are a simple family that needs no trouble. You know that the police are out to get you. We most respectfully request that you don’t stay in this house. You may come now.’

  Stunned, Lokenath stammered, ‘I would like to talk to him before I go.’ What had happened to that confident youth that had fought by his side? One hour with his uncle had confused him.

  ‘That is not possible.’

  ‘Well then, you will simply have to put up with me until it is dark and safe for me to leave … or else if they see me leaving from your house …’ The unspoken words had their desired effect. The uncle got up and left.

  It was not that he was neglected the rest of the day, for he managed a bath and was served a full meal but it became a great learning experience: family elders held great power over the minds of the youth. That night he slipped out after dark and made his way to Nirmal-da’s mamar-bari.

  ANANTA LAL SINGH, 27 APRIL

  The farmer, Suren, led Ananta through a little-used route that wound its way through the hills. A police barricade stood before them. It was time to put on the mute act. He was proud of his dexterity with dialects but this was not the time to put it to test. The police went through their questions and Suren fielded them adroitly. They were let into Choddo Gram. Kumilla was another twenty miles away and buses ran every hour.

  As luck would have it, three of the buses that plied the route had broken down that day and the fourth, though headed towards Kumilla, was not accepting passengers, for it was on its way to have a broken spring repaired. After much pleading and bargaining, a deal was struck for a generous payment. The driver would take the two of them along. But the bus was not scheduled to leave until another two hours. Ananta would have to remain out of sight. Suren’s cousin kept shop in Choddo Gram and it was there that the pair headed.

  He waited by himself in a room while the cousins caught up with each other. The minutes ticked by. Suren emerged after a while and they made their way back to the bus station. The driver was waiting, revving his engine impatiently. Ananta swung himself up. His companion did not board the bus. He remained where he was.

  A defiant shake of the head was all that was forthcoming. Why had he changed his mind so suddenly?

  The bus had begun to roll.

  ‘Give me some money,’ signalled Ananta, the pleading in his eyes turning to panic.

  The farmer upturned both his hands in a gesture that said there was none left. The bus was speeding now. It was embarrassing, to say the least. How would he now pay the driver? And what had happened at the cousin’s house? The man he had trusted so completely during the last three days … could he have turned against him in a matter of hours? Had the cousins tipped the police off? It was too late now. Ananta sat staring at the countryside that was flashing by. He should be ready to jump if the bus was stopped en route.

  Kumilla was now no more than a couple of miles away. At last Ananta ventured to make conversation as best as he could in the local dialect. Did the driver know the advocate Kamini Dutt? Everybody, it seemed, knew Kamini Babu. Ananta’s heart was at peace. If he could make it to the Dutt household all his worries would be taken care of.

  KALPANA DUTT

  Dinner was over and the lights put out at last. May had arrived, bringing with it two months of summer vacations. Tired out with the end-of-term revelry, the girls had turned in for the night and the last of the restless movements had come to an end. The dormitory echoed the soft regular sounds of breathing. But Kalpana lay wide awake. ‘Perhaps he does not want me … he doesn’t think me to be good enough.’ She turned on her side and shut her eyes.

  Never in their wildest dreams would her father, a loyal government servant, or her grandfather, who held the British title of Rai Bahadur, have guessed what it was that was tormenting her. Their pampered darling lived independently in Kolkata as a second-year BSc Chemistry student at Bethune College. Never would they have imagined that a daughter of Chattogram’s famous Duttagupta household could have stolen out of the security of the girl’s hostel, made her way in the dark through the streets of Kolkata to the shadier parts of the town, seeking an audience with two wanted terrorists, reiterating that she was trustworthy and she was determined. And what would the terrorists in that pokey little underground have made of a tall, willowy, unusually pretty girl at their doorstep? Hers was too known a face and she came from too well known a family … a family of wealthy British loyalists.

  It had been days since Kalpana had met with Purnendu Dastidar and Kebla-da. Why had she not heard from them? Was Master-da not to be traced since the revolution or was he still hell-bent on having nothing to do with women and girls?

  ‘Who will give me the revolutionary’s dikkha?’ she sighed, brushing the flimsy veil of the mosquito netting aside. Her fingers moved reassuringly against the metal trunk that safeguarded her most precious possessions. She got out of bed as gently as possible, taking care not to make the slightest sound.

  It was 1 a.m. She lit a small kerosene lamp, turning down the wick to keep the flame as low as possible. Opening the trunk, she removed the framed picture and set it upon the study table. The flickering glow lit up the serene face of the dark skinned goddess, making her tongue look redder than ever. A glance around the room assured her that the girls were sound asleep. The metal blade of the dagger caught the light as she fumbled with the buttons of her blouse. Kalpana held her breath as the wicked tip sliced through the tender skin. The ruby droplet trembled on the pale skin of the breast.

  ‘Ma-go,’ the words came softly. ‘I will give my life for independence … this I promise. With you as witness I give myself the dikkha.’6

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This is a true story crafted from personal memoirs, diaries, personal letters, secret police files, official speeches, newspapers, etc. The narrative style has been employed for the sake of easy reading and to preserve the style in which the revolutionaries first told their stories. A minimal amount of fiction has been used to create settings that enable the telling of side stories which cannot be accommodated in the normal flow. These fictitious settings have been meticulously researched and counterchecked with the families. This story belongs to the revolutionaries and the British officers and their wives. I have merely facilitated them and helped provide flow and continuity. Research material and songs that could not be accommodated in the text have been shared in https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Summer-of-1930/181204375236724.

  NOTES

  CHAPTER 1

  1. Now within the Indian state of Jharkhand.

 
2. Lord Lytton I served as viceroy from 1876 to 1880. On 1 January 1877, the Delhi Durbar was held and Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India.

  3. Lord Lytton II served as governor of Bengal from 1922 to 1927 and was succeeded by Sir Stanley Jackson.

  4. Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act.

  5. Chittagong Armoury Raiders – Reminiscences, Kalpana Dutt

  6. Ashahjog Aandolan.

  7. The Bengal Technical College is now a part of Jadavpur University.

  8. The incident is dated to 10 April 1906. Joteen Mookerjee had by then wed Indubala. Their firstborn, a son, had recently passed away after an epidemic of cholera.

  CHAPTER 2

  1. The Dum Dum Aerodrome at Kolkata had been completed under the supervision of the assistant magistrate and SDO of Barrackpore and Dum Dum, John Younie, in November 1920. It became one of the most important aerial junctions in the route to the East with two Handley Page machines, holding twenty passengers, flying daily.

  2. Outram Institute within Fort William was formerly Fort House which housed the governor general until Government House, also known as Governor’s House or Raj Bhavan, was completed in 1803.

  3. Adapted from http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1929/1929%20-%200480.html

  4. Sir Charles Augustus Tegart, known as Gus to the family, earned a number of nicknames while in India, the most popular one being Mike.

  5. Sir Stanley Jackson served in the Royal Lancaster Regiment of Militia in the Second Boer War and was transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1914. In 1915, he was elected member of parliament representing Howdenshire (Yorkshire) until he resigned in 1926. He served as financial secretary to the War Office during the years 1922–1923. In 1927, he was appointed governor of Bengal.

  6. Most probably a 1927 model 519 B or a series two 510 Fiat Tourer, this car was later damaged in a bomb blast; refer photograph.

  7. Kyd Street has been renamed Dr M.D. Ishaque Road. The property Number 2 Kyd Street, is today a condominium complex housing the MLA Hostel.

  8. David Petrie was then director of criminal intelligence in India. He was appointed head of MI5 by Churchill just before World War II.

  9. Bengal Youth Assembly or yuva sammelan.

  10. A discussion as to whether Damodar Chapekar is the first martyr is inevitable. One must however keep in mind that Mangal Pande and others, who lost their lives during the first uprising of 1857 were sentenced to death for mutiny under the army law.

  11. Member of the Royal Victorian Order.

  12. Document marked secret and signed by Sir Charles Tegart. Source: University of Cambridge.

  13. C.R. Das (b. 5 Nov 1870, d. 16 June 1925): Started his career with the successful defence of Aurobindo Ghose in the 1909 Alipore Bomb Case. In December 1922, a faction of the Indian National Congress unhappy with Gandhi-ji’s suspension of all civil resistance after the Chauri Chaura incident formed the Congress Khilafat Swaraj Party with Das as the president and Motilal Nehru as one of the secretaries. Other prominent members were Huseyn Shaheed Suhravardi, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vithalbhai Patel, whose younger brother – Vallabhbhai – remained with the No Changers who had accepted Gandhiji’s proposal. With C.R. Das’s death and Nehru’s return to the mainstream Congress, the Swaraj Party lost its steam. Before his death C.R. Das gifted his house and lands to the nation on which Chittaranjan Seva Sadan – a women’s hospital was built.

  CHAPTER 3

  1. British Midnapore.

  2. From 17 November 1921 to 17 March 1922 Edward, the Prince of Wales, toured India. During the visit he inaugurated the Victoria Memorial Hall. But protests erupted all over India culminating in the Chauri Chaura incident when Gandhi withdrew the call for agitation.

  3. Field Marshal, Ganesh Ghosh, Chattogram Yuva-Vidroha 1930– 34 Aalokmela, p. 82.

  4. Shaheed Nirmal Sen, 29 July 1925. See Chattogram Yuva-Vidroha 1930–34 Aalokmela, p. 77.

  5. 10 November 1925.

  CHAPTER 4

  1. Kuldip Nayar, Without Fear, page 96. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt continued the hunger strike even after Jatin’s death maintaining it for 116 days. On 5 October 1929, Bhagat Singh’s father had his way and convinced them to give up the fast. They had surpassed the ninety-seven-day world record set by an Irish revolutionary.

  CHAPTER 5

  1. Chittopriya had been found dead and Jyotish Pal wounded.

  2. He remained director until 1931 and was succeeded by H. Williamson. Petrie served with Tegart later in Palestine.

  3. Dr Ganguli, who was among the treating physicians, records that Magistrate Kilby along with Tegart and Denham had Joteen Mookerjee admitted at about 11 p.m. on 9 September.

  Joteen thanked the magistrate and said: ‘Remember, I alone am responsible for all that has been done in Bengal till now… they are mere boys (speaking of his companions) … see that they are acquitted.’ Then he vomited and exclaimed: ‘Strange; still so much blood left? …Fortunately, every drop of it has been shed in the worship of the Mother. It can never end in failure.’

  The operation was a success and the next morning he greeted the British officers cheerfully. Tegart asked whether he could do anything else. After the officers left, Joteen Mookerjee tore off his bandages and stitches while in full possession of his lucidity… He passed away with a smile.

  On receiving Lord Hardinge’s cable announcing the death of Joteen Mookerjee, Lord Chamberlain had cabled back saying: I PRESUME THAT EVERY PRECAUTION HAS BEEN TAKEN TO PREVENT DISCLOSURE THROUGH THE PRESS.

  Taken from Bagha Jatin – Life and Times of Jatindranath Mukherjee by Prithwindra Mukherjee.

  4. ‘My father – Tejendranath – was six when he saw, at Benares, in January 1915, on getting off the carriage, JNM my grandfather – make a sign and a sahib (probably disguised as an Indian) come forward and carry their luggage upstairs. JNM told him: Now you know exactly where I am.

  ‘That was Tegart. That was shortly before the 21 February armed rising organized by Rasbehari Bose (Rash Bihari Basu) under JNM’s leadership; the two leaders often met at Benares. Both Tegart and JNM were fond of disguises and kept an eye on each other.’ Prithwindra Mukherjee (grandson of Joteen Mookerjee).

  CHAPTER 6

  1. Rabindranath Tagore.

  2. The Red Sea.

  3. The Mediterranean Sea.

  4. In a telegram to J.M. Sengupta on 7 March 1930, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote: if Chittagong does not elect within the time allotted the AICC elections will take place without them. AICC Papers, G 120/1929, Do And Die, page 43, Manini Chatterjee.

  5. Later Lord Justice Rowlatt.

  6. He received the CIE in 1917 and joined Royal Flying Corps in France. Sir Charles Tegart Collection at the Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford.

  CHAPTER 7

  1. Memoirs of an Indian Policeman: Mechhua Bazaar Bomb Case, Kathleen Francis Tegart.

  2. Police records quoted in Agnigarbha Chattogram by Ananta Lal Singh.

  3. The Rowlatt Act had been repealed in 1922.

  4. Rai Bhupendranath Chatterji Bahadur, special superintendent of police, Intelligence Branch. The death is recorded in the diary of Sir Charles Tegart and quoted in the Memoirs of an Indian Policeman by Kathleen Francis Tegart. Sir Charles Tegart fought for pensions for his officers and men and for their widows. It is unfair, he said, that when an ICS man dies his widow is entitled to a pension but not so a policeman’s widow. In addition, he fought for better pay and housing for all ranks, saying it was the only way to attract the good people to the service.

  Nadia district’s Ananta Hari Mitra, Chattogram’s Sukhendu Dutt, Dhaka’s Birendra Chatterji, Chattogram’s Pramod Ranjan Choudhury and seven others were caught on 28 May1926 in association with the murder. Hari Narayan Chandra or Hari-da, who led that group, used to conduct classes in bomb manufacturing for his group and had permitted the Chittagong lads, including Ananta Lal Singh and Ganesh Ghosh during their days in Calcutta in the 1923–1924 pe
riod, to attend his lecture demonstrations. He taught them to make picric acid, picric powder, guncotton, potassium cyanide, prussic gas and prussic acid; how to light a bomb with carbon disulphuride and yellow phosphorous. While the youngsters were kept busy manufacturing explosives, Hari-da tested his handmade grenade shells. In September 1926, Pramod Ranjan Choudhury and Ananta Hari Mitra were hanged within the precincts of the jail. Dhruv, Ananta Chakraborty and Hari-da were sent to the Burma Jail to serve a life sentence.

  5. Sir Charles Tegart had received his knighthood at the New Years Honours of 1926. In May 1937, he received the KCIE – Knight Commander of the Indian Empire, at the Coronation Honours following the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

  CHAPTER 9

  1. Rabindranath Tagore.

  2. There is some controversy as to whether Lokenath Bal was a member of the core group. However, from Lokenath Bal’s own writings (quoted in Chattogram Yuva-Vidroha 1930–34 Aalokmela) it is evident that he was engaged in scouting for a suitable car at 3 p.m. that day.

  3. Rabindranath Tagore.

  4. Deposition of Ahmadur Rehman. Yuva-Vidroha, part I, Ananta Lal Singh.

  5. Too much had been used, which caused him facial burns. That same night Tazu Mia (PW 29) was returning along the road from his father-in-law’s house when between Faujdarhat and Fakirhat he heard someone groaning in a field by the roadside. He found Ahmadur Rehman lying beside a patch of jungle. He had superficial burns on his face and his taxi was nowhere to be found. Tazu Mia fetched a taxi from Idagaon and took him to the General Hospital. At about 3.45 a.m., the sub-divisional officer came to the hospital and recorded his statement.

  6. Dhirendra Lal Dastidar was from a small zamindar family and though he was very close to Lokenath and fond of the entire group, he had been left out. His wealthy background had gone against him. The family rifle had been frequently borrowed for shikaar and on that day Lokenath and Ganesh had borrowed in addition two swords and one stick gun. Dhiren had no clue as to why they were being taken. The rifle remained behind in Ganesh’s room and Dhiren was arrested. He spent two years in jail quite happily with his friends. Though he was freed, he was held back as a detenue for many years. Eventually, he landed in Rangoon, converted to Sikhism and took on the name Ranjit Singh. He continued to remain in touch with his friends.