The fight for Indian Independence from the British has generally been projected as being male dominated, with focus on well known male leaders, mostly from the Congress. However, that has not always been the case, and in some recent studies it has been clearly seen how women once inspired by various revolutionary leaders played active roles on their own, and how many of them were direct participants in the nationalistic revolutionary activities that took place in Bengal, Punjab, and Maharashtra.
Besides being directly involved, women also provided a large support system by helping to hide, and carrying secret messages and weapons for the men fighting the war. Unfortunately for us, we have not known their names or see them in the lists of those who fought for our freedom. More often than not these women came from poor or the middle class segment of the society, and the help they provided arose from their love for the nation and did not wait for any kind of social approval. Unfortunately many of these women remain in oblivion with almost zero acknowledgement.
However, luckily for India many women from Bengal, Punjab, and Maharashtra did not adhere to such logic, and took both direct and indirect part in the fight.
Here let’s look at three such women from Bengal who had taken direct part in India’s fight for freedom.
Bina Das
Bina Das was the daughter of Beni Madhab Das (a teacher), and Sarala Devi (a social worker). After completing school she became a part of the Chattri Sangha, which trained young women revolutionaries in arms and driving. These trainees lived in an ashram run by Bina’s mother Sarala Devi, where weapons and bombs would be hidden to avoid police inspection.
Carrying a gun supplied to her by Kamala Das Gupta, this 21 year old girl on 6th February 1932 walked into the Calcutta University during a convocation program and fired shots at the Governor Stanley Jackson. As Jackson managed to avoid the shots, the VC Hassan Suhrawardy jumped into action and overpowered her, but she kept firing shots as long as her ammunition lasted.
Bina Das was caught, interrogated where she revealed no names of her accomplices, and sentenced to 9 years of rigorous imprisonment. Even after her release she did not lose her resolve and took part in the Quit India movement, and her fight against the British continued until Indian independence.
After independence, unfortunately for India this firebrand revolutionary died an ignominious death through either suicide or of an untreated illness. Her body was found by the roadside, in a partially decomposed state. It was found by the passing crowd. The police were informed, and it took them a month to determine her identity. It was in independent India for which the once-acclaimed firebrand had staked her everything.
Pritilata Waddedar
Born in Dhalghat village (now in Bangladesh), Pritilata was the headmistress of a school at the young age of 18 (very uncommon in those times), when she first got in touch with Surya Sen, the well known freedom fighter from Bengal, also called as Masterda. As she was accepted in the underground force, Pritilata became one of the main conspirators of the famous Chittagong loot, and it was her perfect planning that helped Master Da and his group to successfully loot the Chittagong police armoury and escape as the British looked on helplessly.
However, retaliation by the British forces came soon and there was a heavy backlash against the freedom fighters who were traced to the Jalalabad hills near Chittagong. Several thousand of armed British forces were deployed and 12 of the freedom fighters (mostly teenagers) were killed in the gunfight, while others including Masterda managed to escape.
It was again Pritilata, who was in charge of arming the revolutionaries during this bloody gunfight. In 1932 Masterda and Pritilata decided to avenge this Jalalabad massacre by burning down the Paharatoli European club as it carried the signboard, ‘Dogs and Indians are not allowed.’ The club was torched but the British were quick to retaliate, and after an intense chase Pritilata and her group were surrounded.
Realising that there was no route to escape she thought of a plan that would help her fellow members to escape and she created a diversion for them. Then remaining true to her love for her country she swallowed a cyanide pill and committed suicide, rather than allowing herself to be captured by the British forces. She was only 21.
Kalpana Dutta
A member of the Chattri Sangha and a part of the Pritilata Wadderdar’s Chittagong uprising, Kalpana Dutta was another member of MasterDa’s revolutionary team who decided to carry on the work of Pritilata who had given up her life. She was a part of both the armoury loot, and the first attempt at torching the Pahartoli club, which led to the death of Pritilata.
As she and Masterda made a second attempt, they failed as the British were better prepared this time. Kalpana managed to escape, and even when the British finally managed to capture MasterDa in 1933, Kalpana escaped initially but was arrested three months later, and sentenced to life for taking part in the Chittagong Armoury Loot. She was released six years later, and after independence preferred a quiet existence with her family. She died in 1995.
I found all this info through just simple google searches. I hope a real journalist or a real historian digs deeper and finds more life-stories of such brilliant, brave, firebrand women who were not only capable & effective freedom fighters, but will also be an inspiration for women of today. These stories also enlighten all of us that Indian society in the early-to-mid 1900s was not as patriarchal as we were depicted (mostly by the British and their ‘court historians’) and we had many many women who played extremely critical roles in the biggest war India has ever fought – our fight for freedom.
P.S. These were stories from Bengal. More such stories from Maharashtra & Punjab to follow soon.