Pritilata the Revolutionary
ছবি: সংগৃহীত
The great young lady from Chattogram is synonymous with courage, patriotism and selfless service to the motherland. Pritilata Waddedar was one of the first ladies of the British Indian colony who threw away their image as soft hearted, behind the curtain, homemaker and fought hand in hand with their male comrades in arms. This part of the anti-British colonial struggle was named Agnijug (time of fiery struggle). Being frustrated about the outcome of peaceful movements by the political parties, a section of the British Indian youth resorted to armed struggle to drive the colonial British administration out of their motherland. Bengal and Punjab were the two parts of the subcontinent that saw highest concentration of such revolutionary youth though chivalrous youth from other provinces of the British colony also joined such activities.
British ships hit the Indian shores during the Mughal era. They came as traders under the banner of British East India Company and achieved the first nod to do business from Emperor Jahangir. The Europeans knew India as a wealthy place and all the colonisers have set their feet on the Indian soil to have a slice of the cake. Apart from the British, the French, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese were also interested in India. During the zenith of the Mughal Empire, India used to be home to 25% of the world's wealth. Arabs and even some Africans were also frequent visitors to India. They came as real business people.
The European powers realised that they would be able to drain the Indian wealth and resources to their homes better and unhindered if they could gain the administrative power of the region. By the beginning of the 1700s the mighty Mughal Empire became weak and the Maratha Empire rose. Together with that smaller sovereigns also sprang up. They fought against each other to gain supremacy. Attacks from Persia, Central Asia and Afghanistan weakened India. Mughal governors of different areas started defying the Delhi throne and started ruling the area under their jurisdiction as sovereigns. The Europeans having better armaments took the chance of gaining strength by supporting this side or the other in their fight for supremacy. By then, the British had outsmarted the other Europeans and were the sole European power mongers in the subcontinent. Slowly they started taking over control of the lands where they won against the incumbent rulers. It started in the middle of the eighteenth century and within a century, they took control over the whole Indian subcontinent. Burma and Ceylone followed.
Thence started the massive exploitation of the wealthy land. When the British had to leave the subcontinent, the Indo-Pak subcontinent was left with only 3℅ of the world's wealth. Estimates show that the British colonisers have siphoned USD 45 trillion in present currency out of the Indian subcontinent during two centuries of their colonial subjugation. The Indians were no fools. They knew exactly what was happening and tried to raise their voice against all exploitation. In1886 Indian National Congress was formed and it started political campaign against colonial exploitation. The British administration used carrot and stick policy and played all tricks to subdue all movements against them. Whenever necessary they even played the religious card of divide and rule policy. In 1905 the Muslim League was formed as a political party to safeguard the interests of the Muslim population of the subcontinent.
Both Congress and Muslim League were conventional political parties and they kept trying to safeguard the interest of the Indian population by usual ways of raising demands, organising political agitations, engaging in negotiations with the administration, resorting to strikes, etc. The British rulers were in no mood to budge in. It seemed that there was no end to the colonial savage exploitation. Towards the beginning of the 1900s the youth of the subcontinent became restless. The aforesaid Agnijug started. We see examples of their armed activities in the Khudiram/Prafulla Chaki heroism in Mujaffarpur, Alipore Bomb case, Rodda Company episode, Kakori train attack, Bhagat Singh’s bravery, Calcutta Writer's Building attack by Binoy, Badal, Dinesh and finally the Chittagong Youth Rebellion.
The planners and executors of these revolutionary activities knew very well that by such actions the huge British colonial administration could not be uprooted. They risked their lives to execute such chivalrous feats to show to their compatriots that the British raj is not invincible. They can be unsettled. The patriots hoped that their actions would act as sparks to the existing fuel of anger of their countrymen on the inhuman oppressive regime. If such small fires can be ignited by armed actions in different parts of the country, gradually the fire will spread all over and drive the colonisers out.
The mastermind, planner and leading executor of the Chittagong Youth Rebellion was the great Masterda Surya Sen, one time secretary of Chittagong district Congress party. He had interactions with leaders of Agnijug, who worked under the banners of underground organisations Anushilan Samity and Jugantor, while Masterda was a degree student in Bahrampur College. Young Surjo Sen was greatly influenced by the thoughts of Agnijug stalwarts and took a vow to act accordingly. For that he needed time to prepare himself and build up a group of dedicated, determined and patriotic young people. He came back to his native Chittagong and took up teaching as his profession. His profession provided him the opportunity to come into close contact with youth. Together with Mathematics he taught them Patriotism too.
The subcontinent was already a fertile ground of revolution because of the colonial blood sucking policies of the British imperialist administration. It was a heap of gunpowder awaiting a spark. Masterda provided that spark. Patriotic youth were eager, to say the least, to jump into the band wagon of revolution. Masterda recruited the most reliable ones as he had to keep the whole activity secret. His formation of Chittagong Republican Army was of more than two hundred dedicated patriots. Besides, there were hundreds of sympathisers and aspirants to join the core group.
He, being the supreme commander, was inspired by the Irish Easter Rebellion. The D day was decided to be on 18 April 1930. A filtered group of 64 youth was selected from amongst the members of IRA. They were divided into sub groups to achieve the following tasks: To occupy the telegraph station and destroy all means of communication with Chittagong;
To damage a portion of the train line near Feni, so that Chittagong remains isolated from the rest of India; To occupy and take control of armoury of the Auxiliary Force; To attack Chittagong Club and kill and scare the whites assembled there and to occupy the Police Armoury and declare Independence.
Out of the five targets,the Chittagong Club attack was not executed as it was empty for Easter.
The plan was successfully implemented. Masterda, as the Supremo, was given a Guard of Honour by members of the IRA at the Police Hills in Dampara as Head of the Provisional government. All the British officers reportedly left their positions and took shelter in ships anchored in the Karnaphuli River. Chittagong remained free of British rule for four days. It was no mean achievement. It was proven that if struck with courage, the mighty colonisers can be taught a lesson. Of course the leader of the revolution knew that by this action alone they could not defeat the British and drive them away. He wanted to set an example.
After the initial victory, the IRA group retreated to the Jalalabad hills and on the third day the British armed forces attacked their position.Though they were hugely outnumbered by the enemy, the boys put up a gallant fight with their primitive (in comparison to the British) arms. When it was getting dark the enemy retreated carrying back their casualties. It is mentioned in some documents that they incurred a loss of 80 soldiers. The British side never revealed any true figure. 12 of the brave revolutionary youth laid down their lives fighting gallantly. When the enemy soldiers left, the martyrs were given a Guard of Honour before a makeshift arrangement of cremation. Then by order of Commander Masterda, the revolutionary team left Jalalabad hills to spread in the villages for the next phase of the struggle. It was a guerrilla operation of hit and run policy. Masterda and all the members of the IRA went underground to carry on with their patriotic deeds.
The story of Pritilata comes in here. She comes from a middle class family having homestead at Dengapara, Patiya. Her father shifted to Dhalghat for family convenience where Preetilata got her primary education. She was a meritorious student. Her father Jagabandhu Waddedar was working in the Chittagong municipality. He rented a house in Askerdighi area of Chittagong and shifted his family from Dhalghat.
Pritilata now was a student of Chittagong's famous Dr Khastagir's Girl's High School. Another renowned revolutionary Kalpana Dutta was also a student of this school. They learnt about the bravery and patriotism of Laxmi Bai, the queen of Jhansi, Begum Hazratmahal, Queen Padmini, Queen Karunavati, Joan of Arc and others from their teachers and from history books and publications. They were also aware of the anti-British colonialism movements and revolutionary activities in the subcontinent, Chittagong being one of the hotbeds. Both the girls drew inspiration from the historical figures like the Queen of Jhansi and wanted to participate in the armed struggle for independence. Till then, they were too young and the Chittagong revolutionary movement was not prepared to accept females in their ranks. The two spirited girls carried on with their studies keeping the desire of joining the movement sooner or later.
Pritilata passed matriculation, intermediate and degree examinations from Dr Khastagir's School, Dhaka Eden College and Calcutta Bethune College respectively with flying colours and returned to Chittagong only after the 1930 Armoury mutiny. All these years she was occupied with the idea of joining the revolutionary party of Masterda. While in Dhaka Eden College, she worked with Deepali Sangha which was an outfit of revolutionary Leela Nag, the first female graduate of Dhaka University and an associate of Netaji Subhash. While in Calcutta Preetilata, Kalpana and another revolutionary young lady of Chittagong origin Bina Das were associated in different degrees with Chattri Sangha, a girl's organisation to spread anti British revolutionary ideas.
Pritilata, while in Calcutta kept liaison with the Chittagong revolutionaries through her cousins Purnendu and Sukhendu Dastidar. Another cousin of hers Ardhendu Dastidar was one of the Martyrs of Jalalabad battle. She expressed her strong desire to join Masterda's group through this channel. But the time was not yet ripe. Instead she was given some responsibilities like carrying ammunition and revolutionary literature, meeting arrested revolutionaries in jail in disguise of their relatives and so on. Thus she had the opportunity to meet Ramkrishna Biswas in Alipore jail several times. Ramkrishna, belonging to the Chittagong revolutionary group, was awaiting execution by hanging for killing British police officers. She learnt many nuances of revolutionary struggle from Ramkrishna.
Finally in early 1932 Pritilata completed her BA degree with distinction from Calcutta University and returned to Chittagong. She took up the responsibility of Head Mistress of Chittagong Aparna Charan Girls' High School. Back in Chittagong, she started pursuing her case of entering the Revolutionary activities more vigorously. The guerrilla struggle phase of the movement was going on. Masterda, his deputies and all comrades were operating from underground. This time, the nod came. Masterda met her in a secret hideout and ushered her into the fold of the group. She became a proud member of Masterda's revolutionary group in June 1932. Their activities went on unabated.
Meanwhile, Masterda chalked out a plan to attack the Pahartali European Club to bring down this symbol of white supremacy. The club is said to have a board having the inscription " Natives and Dogs are prohibited" in those days.The day was fixed to be 23 September 1932. Pritilata was given the charge of a group of 15 young revolutionaries to carry out the attack. The group under the leadership of Pritilata made a lonely house in the Kattali area as their camp. They carried out firing practice in the sea shore near their Kattali camp and carried out a reconnaissance survey of the targeted club which was a few miles away.
On 23rd evening Pritilata selected eight male co-fighters for the attack. They dressed up suitably, carried their weapons and explosives and proceeded towards Pahartali. Preetilata herself was dressed as a Sikh youngman. By 10:30 in the night, they took up positions around the club, unnoticed so far. By 10:45pm a signal came from an associate, who was an employee of the club. The signal meant that it was the right time for the attack. The assembled British officers, all of whom were representing some or the other department of the administration, were tools of colonial exploitation and oppression, hence targets of the revolutionary activists. Pritilata blew her whistle urging her boys to attack. Explosives were hurled into the club premises driving the inmates into a stage of shock. Fire, smoke, explosions and gunfire turned the relaxing mood inside the club into horror. The British occupiers were panicked but understandably recovered after the initial shock. There were police officers and others too with training in guns. They started firing back. A gunfire ensued and there were many casualties amongst the British. Officially though, they have acknowledged one dead and eight injured. On the side of the revolutionaries, only their leader Preetilata was injured by a gunshot, albeit not fatal. All others were unhurt.
Pritilata ordered her boys to retreat after the successful operation. She decided to commit suicide with pottasium cyanide that she was carrying. She anticipated that she will be captured by the enemy since she was injured and can't escape the police chase that will begin. Her comrades would not leave her and wanted to carry her back. She gave strict orders to them to fall back which they had to comply with. She chose a quiet place nearby and consumed the cyanide. The firing from both sides ceased. The British did not venture out of the club premises in the darkness of night for fear of being attacked by hiding revolutionaries. As dawn broke, they found the dead body of a Sikh youngman lying nearby. On close observation, to their utter surprise, they discovered that it was a young lady. She had a suicide note which explained their objectives, a plan of the attack and some photographs. The post mortem report revealed that her bullet injury was minor. Cause of death was cyanide. The news of this attack struck the headlines all over India and beyond.
Pritilata became a beacon of bravery and patriotism amongst Indian women. She is still revered as an idol in Bangladesh and India. She was the Joan of Arc in British India. Her name is remembered by many organisations and still, the young ladies in Bangladesh and India draw inspiration from her brave acts.
We have halls after her name in universities, colleges, and schools both in India and Bangladesh. There are also roads, streets, squares named after her. There even are schools and colleges bearing her name. Her birthplace Dhalghat has raised a Trust in her name which carries out nation building activities throughout the year. A road in her birthplace has been named after her.
Pritilata Waddedar was born on 5 May 1911. We remember her with due respect on this day.
Long live Pritilata!
Long live her ideals!
