Chittagong Summer of 1930

by Manoshi Bhattacharya

  7. Krishna Choudhury’s kaka, Manindra Lal Choudhury, was a lawyer at court. The rifle had been taken from his almirah. Nothing in the almirah had been disturbed, not even the box. The rifle was not found missing until 22 April. On 23 April, Manindra Babu reported the loss to the Kotwali and also the fact that his nephew was missing. Krishna went into hiding after the Battle of Jalalabad and lived with the Chakma tribe. He returned to take part in the cricket ground encounter and was hanged along with Himangshu Chakraborty.

  8. Deposition of Abdul Rashid, who was employed as driver of taxi number 20469 by its owner Fajlur Rehman of Agrabad. On the evening of 18 April he and his assistant Sultan Ahmed were waiting at the taxi stand near Lal Dighi when at about 8.30 or 9 p.m., a Hindu youth whom he did not know before came up and, engaging the taxi, asked him to drive on. He was about to take his assistant with him but the passenger objected saying there would be no room for him as there would be others coming. Under the direction of his passenger, Abdul drove to Sadarghat Road and was ordered to stop opposite a house on the left-hand side of the road about 200 paces from Ezekiel’s shop. The passenger entered this house and after a little while came out and asked the driver to come inside. He went in. A man dressed in khaki uniform (shorts, tunic and topee) levelled a pistol at him and ordered him to keep quiet. They took him to a small room inside the house and binding his hands and feet, left him lying on the floor. Then they pointed their pistols at his chest and asked if he recognized any of them. Terror-stricken, he shook his head. As they went off they warned him that they were leaving a guard to watch him and shoot him if he made the slightest sound. He next heard them starting up his car.

  Janab Abdul Mia had not given out Ananta Lal Singh’s name despite the fact that he had identified himself. The next morning he had got up and instead of making a report to the police had gone quietly home. How many sympathizers we have … how many support us silently … we have no count.

  In fact there is more in the judgment report:

  … At the AFI headquarters Mr Lewis went inside leaving Abdul Rashid to wait in the car but as Mr Lewis was long in returning he got tired of waiting and went home.

  It was something that was just not done those days. One could not even think of behaving like this with an Englishman … let alone Mr Lewis who was Chattogram’s assistant police superintendent at the time. He later became the battalion commander of the Eastern Frontier Rifles. And a poor ordinary taxi driver left the sahib high and dry! Yuva-Vidroha, part I, Ananta Lal Singh.

  CHAPTER 10

  1. Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta

  2. During the trial, the police had taken the operator to meet Ananda Gupta to facilitate identification in court. But the operator stuck to his story. ‘He became unconscious and did not see what happened. He shouted, he says but nobody came, so he went to the basha of the telegraph lineman Janab Ali.’ Judgment of the Chittagong Armoury Raid case.

  3. Police report: The photographs Ex XXXV taken by the SDO Telegraphs (PW 48) and the enlargement (Ex CLXX) by PW 4 show more fully and forcibly than any witness can describe the extent of the damage that was done. The telephone switchboard and all the connected apparatus were reduced to a smouldering wreck. Curiously enough, the fire-blackened dial of the clock, which hung on the wall behind the switchboard, with its hands arrested at 9.50 p.m. offers its own silent testimony to the time at which the outrage was committed.

  4. Shaheed Surya Sen Bhavan publication: Biplobi Neta Ambika Chakraborty, author Dwijen Dastidar.

  5. Mr Horn had fired Mr Scott’s rifle… Ananta Lal Singh.

  W.D. Horn’s deposition: ‘Soon after 10 p.m., on the way back from the deputy superintendent’s quarters I heard the commotion in the telephone department. Through the windows on the eastern side I could see five to six men that seemed to be Bengalis, hammering away at the boards. It looked as if they were intent on destroying everything. I called out, “Who is there?” But there was no reply. I thought I saw one of them look at me. A shot was fired. I ran back to the deputy superintendent and reported the matter. He ran out with his rifle immediately but by then a huge fire had broken out at the telephone exchange.’ Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  6. Amongst those in the guardroom, one injured man ran all the way home while several others went off to the city and did not return before three or four days. Constable Jaykaran had a similar story to tell during the trial: ‘Roused by the report of guns, he got up and was stretching out his hand for his rifle when he was shot in the left buttock, whereupon he leapt from the verandah and ran for cover to the jungle, west of the doctor’s quarters.’

  The barracks had emptied out as well. Constable Sital Prasad Dubey, who was sleeping in the number 1 barrack, was likewise awakened by the firing …as he approached the magazine, the revolutionaries turned their torchlights upon him and fired. The bullet hit him on the left hand, whereupon he ran back to the police hospital where he lurked all night until 8 a.m.

  Two guards that changed their minds and made their way back, probably to collect intelligence, were caught, handcuffed and locked up in one of the barracks. Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  7. Tegra was put in charge of distributing firearms from the armouries. Chittagong Armoury Raiders – Reminiscences, Kalpana Dutt.

  Tegra and Bidhu went to the European club. Biplobi Mahanayak Surjya Sen O Chattogram Yuva-Vidroha 1930–34.

  8. During the trial it was learnt that he was Ramani Chakraborty.

  9. Gholam Jhilani was admitted to the Pahartali Railway Hospital the next day by the chief medical officer of the Assam Bengal Railway, Mr Weldon.

  10. Abdul Sovan slipped out of the back door, ran to the Chittagong Railway Station and reported to a disbelieving assistant stationmaster on duty who informed the sub-inspector in charge of the railway police only when he realized his phone had gone dead. Abdul Sovan was sent with a written message to Major Baker, the traffic manager. By the time Baker reached, the AFI armoury was on fire.

  11. The Auxiliary Force had been created to put down Indian regiments that revolted. The AFI armoury had some 400 magazine rifles and 200–300 muskets. There were five Lewis guns at the AFI armoury as opposed to the two at the police lines. The slow-loading muskets meant for the Indians, fired one bullet at a time, which travelled no more than 200 yards. The magazine rifle meant to be used only by the British could accommodate ten cartridges at a time and fire rapidly. The barrel of the magazine rifle had been so designed that the powerful cartridges would emerge as nickel-coated lead bullets capable of travelling up to 1,000 yards.

  In those days four companies formed a battalion. Each company was drawn from different regiments – three Indian and one British. The British company was meant to keep watch over their Indian mates, making it difficult for them to conspire.

  12. Police Superintendent Johnson and DIG Farmer checking out Sub-inspector Sanjiv Chandra Nag’s news. Do And Die, Manini Chatterjee.

  13. Mr Bliss was the agent of the Assam Bengal Railway and the most prominent of civilians in Chittagong.

  14. Deposition of Sanjiv Chandra Nag: ‘My name is Sanjiv Chandra Nag. I am a sub-inspector of the reserve forces at the police lines. Last night I went to bed at 10 p.m. Around 10.30 p.m. gunshots and cries of Bande Mataram woke me. From my verandah I could see 5 or 6 motorcars standing in front of the armoury. Nearly 30–40 men, torches in hand, had collected. They were firing. I realized that the revolutionaries had attacked the armoury. I ran towards the barracks alerting the others. Each man must try and do his best. With my assistant, Sub-inspector Pratul Chandra Barua, I ran to the police superintendent’s bungalow. The DIG was notified. Then, as instructed, I went to alert the police station at Kotwali. The message was passed to the deputy superintendent and the detective police inspector. At 12.30 a.m. with Abdul Azim Khan, Yogendra Chandra Das and the deputy police superintendent, a few constables, two muskets and cartridges we went towards the lines. The revolutionaries were engaged in heavy
firing. Unable to approach them, we took refuge in a village to the south of the armoury. We kept watch over the anarchists.’ Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  15. There were six people killed that night according to Dr Weldon’s deposition: the AFI sentry; Sergeant Major Farrell; a car with a dead man in the driver’s seat, a dead man in the back and the body of an Anglo-Indian lying on the running board; Jarasandha Barua, the district magistrate’s orderly.

  16. Captain Taitt had escaped without a scratch.

  17. The newly constructed magazine room with the ammunition was a small room at the opposite end of the building from the armoury, at the east end of the south verandah. Do And Die, p. 96, Manini Chatterjee.

  18. ‘In the busti, Azim met Constable Jogendra Ghose who handed him a pair of handcuffs, saying that the raiders had captured him and handcuffed him with them. He was returning to the barracks about 10.30 p.m. …at the wooden bridge in the front of the magazine when he was challenged and on hearing shouts of Bande Mataram threw his tunic and pugree behind him. Fifteen to twenty people variously dressed and armed with pistols and torchlights surrounded him. To the suggestion that he was a policeman he replied with a vehement denial. They seized him, handcuffed him and threatened to kill him if he made the slightest noise. As he sat imprisoned in the magazine room, he heard the sounds of firing and orders to load and reload. Later on when all the noise had ceased, he ventured out and finding the raiders gone, slipped the handcuff off his right wrist and ran… the witness has demonstrated before us the Houdini-like facility with which he can slip his hands out of locked handcuffs.’ From the judgment of the Chittagong Armoury Raid.

  19. To the revolutionaries’ 300 to 400 bullets they had returned some 141 rounds from their machine guns and magazine rifles.

  CHAPTER 11

  1. ‘The sad part was that they had seen us and thinking we were the enemy had lain down in the fields. How could they even think that the British would drive so slowly with headlights on through areas where revolutionaries were known to be moving about?’ Yuva-Vidroha part I, Ananta Lal Singh.

  2. The Simon Commission arrived in India in February 1928, to widespread demonstrations, and visited Calcutta around Christmas of that year.

  3. Viceregal House in Calcutta, today houses the National Library of India. It is said to have been acquired by Warren Hastings. The house was sold to Major Tolly in the 1780s. From 1854 to 1911 it housed a series of lieutenant governors until the capital moved to Delhi. The governor of Bengal then moved to Governor’s House, the modern day Raj Bhavan, while Belvedere was maintained to receive the viceroy during his visits to Calcutta.

  4. Memoirs of an Indian Policeman, p. 198, Kathleen Francis Tegart.

  5. Memoirs of an Indian Policeman by Kathleen Francis Tegart. The conversation ascribed to Donovan and John Younie had taken place between two unnamed friends. But Donovan and Sir Charles Tegart had been close friends and remained so till the end of their lives.

  6. Yuva-Vidroha, part I, by Ananta Lal Singh: Manindra Lal Guha, who had taken part in the Telephone Bhavan action the previous day, did not return and a few months later appeared for his BA finals and passed.

  7. Quoted in Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  8. Pulin and Binod Dutt had introduced their classmate Kali De in 1927. They were all a part of the Sadarghat Club. Youth vs Raj, Sona Roy.

  9. Story related by Kali De to Ananta Lal Singh. Yuva-Vidroha, part I, Ananta Lal Singh.

  10. Muktir Sopon Jalalabad, Suresh De.

  11. Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta: The shopkeeper’s deposition.

  12. Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  CHAPTER 12

  1. Referring to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor.

  2. Defence of India Act.

  3. Without Fear by Kuldip Nayar.

  4. Fakir Chandra Sen had wandered about from one relative’s house to another before he was arrested. The boy had been in hiding in Ananda Prasad Gupta’s house for some days, since the police complaint made by his father, and had no idea of the planned action. On the morning of 18 April Naresh Ray had told him to report to the Congress office after sunset. Sahayram Das had come for him; given him the uniform, and they had both driven down to the Congress office in the Baby Austin. Fakir had worn his shirt and dhuti over the uniform. At the Congress office Ambika Chakraborty informed him that Sahayram was to be his group leader. 110 Youth vs Raj, Sona Roy, p. 108.

  5. Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  6. Chattogram Bidroher Kahini, Ananda Gupta.

  7. Muktir Sopon Jalalabad, Suresh De.

  8. Muktir Sopon Jalalabad, Suresh De.

  9. Muktir Sopon Jalalabad, Suresh De.

  10. Rabindranath Tagore.

  CHAPTER 13

  1. Quoting from Subodh Roy’s unpublished memoir Do And Die, Manini Chatterjee.

  2. Alexander Burnett Papers.

  3. Younie Papers, p. 182.

  4. Quoted from Political trouble in India 1917–1930, H.W. Hale. The rest of Johnson’s words have been taken from Younie Papers.

  5. Agnigarbha Chattogram: Quotes from police records, Ananta Lal Singh.

  6. The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.: 1848–1954), Monday 21 April 1930, p. 9.

  7. This is Suresh De’s version. Ananta Lal Singh says it was Nirmal Sen who had interviewed the villagers.

  8. 1st group: Suresh De (Sadhu), Dwijen Dastidar (went to telephone exchange), Niranjan Rai, Shaileshwar Chakraborty, Jiten Dasgupta, Binod Choudhury; 2nd group: Krishna Choudhury, Binod Bihari Dutt, Saroj Guha, Kali Kinkar De, Madhusudan Dutt, Noni Gopal Deb, Malin Ghose; 3rd group: Khirod Banerjee, Hemendu Dastidar, Kalipada Chakraborty (Pundit), Ardhendu Dastidar, Ranadhir Dasgupta; 4th group: Sahayram Das, Motilal Kanungo (Moti), Bidhu Bhushan Bhattacharya (Bidhu-da), Narayan Sen, Pulin Bikash Ghose, Naresh Ray; 5th group: Mahendra Choudhury, Nirmal Lala, Birendra Kishore De, Vijay Sen, Nitaipada Ghose; 6th group: Shanti Nag, Aswini Choudhury, Bon Bihari Dutt, Sashank Dutt, Subodh Bal; 7th group: Phonindra Nandi (Phoni), Haripada Mahajan, Bhabatosh Bhattacharya, Sudhangshu Bimal Bose, Subodh Choudhury, Subodh Roy (Jhunku), Bidhu Sen; 8th group: Tripura Sen, Monoranjan Sen (Mona), Deboprasad Gupta (Debu), Hari Gopal Bal (Tegra), Rajat Sen, Swadesh Roy, Probhash Bal, Sitaram Biswas.

  9. Do And Die, p. 77, Manini Chatterjee.

  10. Each belt carried 250 bullets.

  11. A Vicker’s gun section had taken position spewing close to 350 bullets per minute.

  12. Interviewed by Sachidananda Mohanty.

  13. From Captain Taitt’s deposition: ‘I sent a team from the Surma Valley Light Horse Vahini to take position on the crest of another hillock, 50 to 60 yards away. The rest were sent to occupy another about 100 yards away, while I maintained my position in between. The firing was resumed and kept up till darkness fell at 6.45 p.m., for the zila magistrate had ordered that the soldiers were to return to Chattogram before evening set in … I met with Col Dallas Smith who had arrived by the armoured train. I gave him a full report. The rebels were still firing at us. The colonel had a division with Lewis guns sent in. Five rounds were fired and that brought an end to the battle. It was nearly 7.15 by then. I remained with Colonel Dallas Smith until 9.30 or 10 o’clock and then returned to Chattogram.’

  Sub-inspector Hem Gupta’s deposition varies slightly: ‘At 4 p.m. we had all left. With us were soldiers from Surma Valley Light Horse and the Eastern Frontier Rifles led by Captain Taitt and Captain Robertson. By 4.30 to 4.45 we had reached Jharjharia Bot-tali. Mr Farmer was waiting. He had with him soldiers from the Eastern Frontier Rifles … We went past a masjid towards Jalalabad. Captain Taitt divided the men into groups. Captain Taitt and I, accompanied by four soldiers from the Surma Valley Light Horse and four from the Eastern Frontier Rifles, formed a group. We had reached the base of a densely wooded hill when a voice cried: “Halt.” Then almost immediately we were fired upon. We ran and took cover in a drain and fired back. We could hear the rebels shout
Bande Mataram. The firing continued for nearly two hours. It was fast and furious during the first hour but petered down in the second. The stray odd round continued to be fired for a while. It was getting dark and we returned the way we had come. The armoured train had arrived. Colonel Dallas Smith, ASP Mr Lewis and a few Gurkhas from the Eastern Frontier Rifles were waiting. They had Lewis guns. They climbed a hill and began firing upon the Jalalabad hill. While we took refuge beside the armoured train, the Surma Valley Light Horse and others returned to Chattogram … After firing a couple of rounds from the Lewis guns there were no more sounds to be heard from the rebels. Colonel Smith and Mr Lewis returned to the armoured train. We waited until 11.30 p.m. before returning to Chattogram.’

  In the Judgment of the Chittagong Armoury Raid, Mr Younie records: ‘… Capt Taitt withdrew his men and sent them back to Chittagong by 7 p.m. While the fire was on, Mr Farmer’s party with their Lewis gun had taken cover behind a hill to the south of that occupied by the raiders but could not open fire as he could see nobody on account of the intervening jungle … Col Dallas Smith sent Mr Lewis with a small party and a Lewis gun to the top of the hill on the left side of the defile leading to Jalalabad hill … It was nearly dark. The raiders’ guns were still flashing. Mr Lewis aimed the rifles and machine guns at those flashes. They then advanced to another hill further on and fired again until the raiders’ fire completely died away …Col Dallas Smith and the whole force went back to Chittagong which they reached about 11p.m. Only sub-inspectors Abdul Gaffur and Siddique Dewan remained overnight at Jharjharia Bot-tali.’

  The various depositions given by the British camp describing the Battle of Jalalabad contradict each other, leading the reader to favour the version given by the revolutionaries.