Chittaranjan Das


Chittaranjan Das , popularly called Deshbandhu,, was an Indian freedom fighter, political activist and lawyer during the Indian independence movement and founder-leader of the Swaraj Party in Bengal during British occupation in India.

Early life

Chittaranjan Das also known as deshbandu was born in Kolkata on 5 November 1870 in a well-known Das family, Bikrampur, Dhaka in Bengal, now part of Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. Bikrampur has a long historical and cultural trail since many centuries. In 12th Century it was the capital of Ballal Sena and Lakshmana Sena, Kings of Sena dynasty and since then considered as an important seat of learning and culture of Eastern India.
Das family were members of Brahmo Samaj. Chittaranjan was the son of Bhuban Mohan Das, and nephew of the Brahmo social reformer Durga Mohan Das. His father was a solicitor and a journalist who edited the English church weekly, The Brahmo Public Opinion. Some of his cousins were Atul Prasad Sen, Satya Ranjan Das, Satish Ranjan Das, Sudhi Ranjan Das, Sarala Roy and Lady Abala Bose. His eldest grandson was Siddhartha Shankar Ray and his granddaughter is Justice Manjula Bose.
He is generally referred to by the honorific Desh Bandhu meaning "Friend of the nation". He was closely associated with a number of literary societies and wrote poems, apart from numerous articles and essays. He married Basanti Devi and had three children, Aparna Devi, Chiraranjan Das and Kalyani Devi. Basanti Devi also plunged into the freedom movement and was the first woman to court arrest with her sister-in-law Urmila Devi in Non Cooperation movement in 1921. Her warmth and affection for everyone was legendary and she held the position of a matriarch in the freedom fighters fraternity. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose used to regard her as 'Ma'.

Education

Das family of Durga Mohan was a family of lawyers. Durga Mohan's eldest son Satya Ranjan passed matriculation from Emmanuel College and was at Middle Temple during 1883–1886, followed by Chitta Ranjan Das, Durga Mohan's brother's son, during 1890–1894. Satish Ranjan Das, Jyotish Ranjan Das and Atul Prasad Sen followed their suit.
In London he had befriended with Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Atul Prasad Sen and Sarojini Naidu among others, and together they promoted Dadabhai Naoroji in the British Parliament.

Career

law career

In 1894 in a stunning move Chittaranjan Das gave up his lucrative practice, and plunged headlong into politics during the non-cooperation movement against the British. Chittaranjan Das again took the brief and successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh on charges of involvement in the Alipore bomb case in 1909. In his Uttarpara speech, Sri Aurobindo gratefully acknowledged that Chittaranjan Das broke his health to save him.
In the historic trial of the Alipore bomb case in 1908, Chittaranjan Das, the defense counsel of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, made this last statement after an eight day long deliberation:

Political career

Chittaranjan Das was actively involved in the activities of Anushilan Samiti. When Pramatha Mitter organised the Samiti as its president to produce hundreds of young firebrands who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause of the Nation, Chittaranjan became his associate. Anusilan Samiti was maintained by P. Mitter with the assistance of Chittaranjan Das, Haridas Bose, Suren Haldar and Jnanendra Nath Roy.
He was a leading figure in Bengal during the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1919–1922, and initiated the ban on British clothes, setting an example by burning his own European clothes and wearing Khadi clothes. At one time, his clothes were tailored and washed in Paris and he maintained a permanent laundry in Paris to ship his clothes to Calcutta. He sacrificed all this luxury when he became attached to the Freedom Movement.
He brought out a newspaper called Forward and later changed its name to Liberty to fight the British Raj. When the Calcutta Municipal Corporation was formed, he became its first mayor. He was a believer in non-violence and constitutional methods for the realisation of national independence, and advocated Hindu-Muslim unity, cooperation and communal harmony and championed the cause of national education. He resigned his presidency of the Indian National Congress at the Gaya session after losing a motion on "No Council Entry" to Gandhi's faction. He then founded the Swaraj Party, with veteran Motilal Nehru and young Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, in 1923, to express his uncompromising opinion and position.
His legacy was carried forward by his obedient disciple and follower Subhas Chandra Bose.

Poet

Chittaranjan Das emerged as a distinguished Bengali poet, when, during the troubled days of National movement, he published the first two volumes of his collection of poems titled "Malancha" and "Mala". In 1913 he published "Sagar Sangeet". Sri Aurobindo was in Pondichery and when he was in dire need of financial support. Chittaranjan offered him one thousand rupees as a token of his support for an English translation of the poem, a few verses of which are given below:
Chittaranjan started a monthly journal named Narayana, and many eminent writers such as Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bipin Chandra Pal and Hariprasad Shastri contributed their writings in the journal.

Death

In 1925 Chittaranjan's health began to fail due to overwork. Chittaranjan went to Darjeeling to recuperate his health staying at Sir N. N. Sircar's house "Step Aside" in May 1925. Mahatma Gandhi visited him and stayed with him for some days. Gandhiji wrote,
The funeral procession in Calcutta was led by Gandhi, who said:

Legacy