Martyr Khudiram Bose and his Comrade Abhiram

 

Lataji has made the lyrics by Pitambar Das immortal. Very few Bangalees can be found who do not know this song and can hold tears on listening to the number. One's heart writhes with pain and emotion with this music and every Bangalee feels what a tremendous sacrifice this great hero made for the freedom of our Motherland from the British colonizers. Khudiram has identified himself with all the households of Bengal. As if he belongs to all of our families. By now, readers must have understood which song I am referring to. "Ekbar biday de Ma, ghurey aashi" is the first line of the song. But very few of us have ever noticed the name of another revolutionary youth mentioned in the song. The wording goes like "holo Abhiram er dwip chalan Ma, Khudiram er fanshi." This hero of Agnijug, Abhiram is a son of our soil. It was his code name in his revolutionary origination.

He is none other than Ullaskar Dutta who hailed from Kalikachchha village of Sarail in the present-day district of Brahmanbaria (then it was Tipperah). Ullaskar was born in a wealthy and socially established family in the village. His father Mr. Dwijadas Dutta earned a degree in Agriculture from London and wanted his son to pursue his studies well. Young Ullaskar was not against studies but he was interested in something more. Patriotism, Freedom, and Nationalism was in his blood. He wanted his country to become independent of colonial rule. After completing his secondary education with high grades he got admitted to Calcutta Presidency College for higher studies which he could not pursue till completion. He was rusticated from Presidency halfway through his studies charged with physically assaulting an Englishman Professor Russel.

Why do you think he did it? Mr. Russel passed some derogatory remarks insulting natives that Ullaskar could not tolerate and did what he did risking his studies and future life. Now he was free to devote all his time to his revolutionary political activities. He was drawn into Jugantor subsection of Anushilan Samity by Barindra Nath Ghosh, brother of famous civil servant cum revolutionary cum sage Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (founder of Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry). This radical faction of Bengal politics was of the belief that British rule of the Indian Subcontinent will have to be uprooted by force. The British administrators should be annihilated, attacked, and scared as they were sucking our wealth and were in no mood to abstain from that.

So, by negotiations and persuasions of regular politics, it would not be possible to achieve Swaraj or self-rule. Anushilan Samity and Jugantor identified those British administrators, police officials, and judges who were associated with inhuman torture, illogical harsh application, and bending of laws against freedom fighters and attacked them physically to take revenge for their wrongdoings. It is understood that their activities had to be carried out secretly and they had to remain underground taking help from common people. It was a form of guerilla activity. A successful guerilla is one who can live in a society like a fish in a water body. The water itself hides the fish. Jugantor leadership entrusted the quadrant of Barin Ghosh, Ullaskar Dutta, Khudiram Bose, and Prafulla Chaki (also from our part of Bengal, Bogura) with the execution of Judge Kingsford who was transferred to Muzaffarpur after passing very stringent and illogical judgments against revolutionary youth in Calcutta.

Khudiram and Prafulla were given the responsibility of executing the plan whereas the back office job was assigned to Ullaskar and Barin Ghosh. Ullaskar, being a good student of Chemistry was an expert in making bombs. They had their arsenal in Manicktola. Bomb made by Ullaskar was carried from Manicktola by Prafulla to Muzaffarpur. Khudiram was already there in waiting. It was in the year 1908. Young heroes Khudiram and Prafulla threw the bombs alright and killed to Britishers. Unfortunately, they missed their target, because Kingsford switched vehicles their plan failed and two English ladies were killed instead. Both the youth could escape from the spot but unfortunately, both were apprehended soon. Prafulla was challenged during transit to Calcutta on the platform of an intermediate station by a Bengali police officer who was a British crony. Prafulla emptied his revolver on his own head so as not to surrender. The cop Tarini Mukherjee was killed soon in revenge.

Khudiram was arrested and sent to Calcutta. The British Government was visibly shaken and took various steps to round up all those who were associated with the action. Both Barin and Ullaskar were arrested from their hideout in Muraripukur. The British administration wanted to get rid of the youth they now dreaded. They carried on with the criminal procedures of investigation and judicial process of trial with lightning speed and awarded capital punishment to all three.

Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das, the famous patriotic Congress and Swaraj Dal leader who was Friend, Philosopher, and Guide to Netaji Subhash had been the most prominent lawyer of the time. He took their brief to fight in the appeals. Despite all his endeavors, the Pleader could not save adolescent Khudiram from the gallows. The British were adamant to hang him to death and thus he went to meet the Creator. With courage, he met the ultimate as the song says "Hashi hashi porbo fanshi dekhbey jagotbashi."He was the first Bangalee revolutionary to be hanged for his anti-British armed activities. His sacrifice did not go in vain. Scores of patriotic youth came forward to join the ranks of Agnijug revolutionaries to snatch sleep and comfort away from the colonial administration. Many such armed actions followed that loosened the foundation of the British administration.

Saluting the braveheart we proceed further. In the appeals, Deshabandhu could save the other two convicts Barin Ghosh and Ullaskar Dutta from capital punishment and achieved remission of their death sentence. They now got deported to the Andamans for life. Khudiram was executed in 1908 itself and off went his comrades to Kaalapani in 1909. Before we proceed further, let's discuss a little about the punishment in the Andamans. Towards the end of the nineteenth century of the previous millennium, the British Parliament enacted laws banning the deportation of British convicts to Australia as a punishment.

At similar times the colonial British selected the Andaman and Nicobar islands as a penal settlement for Indian convicts, mostly political ones. These islands were inhabited by several savage tribes and there was no civil settlement. By that time all over the subcontinent anti-Colonial political movements were gearing up and to suppress the agitations hosts of people were being put behind the bars. The jails could not prevent the patriots from spreading their ideology of freeing the Motherland from the tyranny of the colonial administration. That made the British rulers take a decision to send these captives to any faraway place from where they could not influence their countrymen. Andaman and Nicobar islands was a natural choice. British administrators set a mechanism of terror to keep the captives there on their toes and these unfortunates were kept under constant watch. There was no way to flee since the small islands of the group were far from the civilized world. There was water all around. To whichever way they looked they could only see mass of dark blue water which seemed black to them in despair. Hence the name Kaalapani. There were small jails in Ross and Viper islands to keep very dangerous (to the Britishers) convicts subjugated.

Others, less dangerous ones were allowed to live at different places and allocated different productive activities so that they could earn their meals. In 1872 Lord Mayo, the Viceroy of India went to the Andamans on an inspection. While there, he was attacked by Sher Ali Afridi of NWFP with a manual sharp object and got killed. Sher Ali Khan Afridi was otherwise very gentle and well behaved but was dissatisfied with the British government because of their unjust judicial procedure which put him in such miserable life as Kaalapani. This incident prompted the Administration to build a strong jail in the penal settlement to replace the smaller jails in the Ross and Viper islands. In 1896 the construction of the infamous Cellular Jail began with the captive bonded labor of the convicts.

The construction of a torture center with a central watchtower and 7 radial wings housing 698 cells was completed in 10 years and was commissioned in 1906. The cells were tiny and there was no way for the prisoners to communicate with each other. Only the toughest of the rebellious freedom fighters who raised severe struggle including armed ones were kept in the cells, were made to work inhumanly, and given very little food which was sometimes inedible. The jailor Barry David was a satanic version of a person. He used to say, "While you are here, I am your God." They were subjected to hunger, torture, and isolation to break their morale. This was their punishment for waging war against the Crown.24 year old energetic, patriotic, lively, and romantic Ullaskar Dutta alias Abhiram was put on a boat to the Andamans for the rest of his life. He had to leave behind his love in the person of Lila Pal, the daughter of a famous Brahmo Leader and one of the famous anti-British trio of Nationalist leaders known to the freedom fighters as Lal-Bal-Pal.

The trio is comprised of Lala Lajpat Rai of Punjab, Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra, and Bipin Chandra Pal of Bengal. Bipin Chandra Pal was from Habigonj of Sylhet which was not far from Ullaskar's Kalikachchha. The Pal family was related to Ullaskar's. One of his maternal cousins was married to Bipin Pal's elder daughter and while studying in Calcutta Ullaskar used to frequent the Pal household. That's how he got emotionally involved with the youngest daughter of the Pal family Lila. The pair was deeply in love and seemingly inseparable. But such is the life of a revolutionary. They have to sacrifice anything including their life anytime to pursue their goal. While Ullaskar was caught, tried, and was being deported to Kaalapani for life, there was nothing he could do to stay back in his loving soil of Bengal for being united with his love. The steamer whistled and departed the Calcutta docks and their affair came to an end. But no, we will discover something interesting later on.

Ullaskar was allotted a cell in the infamous Cellular Jail and self-declared God Jailor Barry David's reign began. As mentioned earlier the cells were tiny (13.5×7.5) square feet having a small opening high up at the back wall. The door faced the backside of the next radial section of the seven. There was no way to communicate with fellow inmates of the jail only except day working time when the revolutionary youth were allotted different hard work as theirs was rigorous imprisonment and they were not treated as political prisoners. This was done to break the backbone of the struggle and scare new recruits to the ranks of revolutionaries. The British colonial authorities thought that afraid of the dreaded consequences, the young boys will refrain from anti-British activities. But they proved to be wrong. More and more patriots joined the fight inspired by the tales of the sacrifice of their predecessors.

The inmates of Cellular Jail somehow managed to organize protests, hunger strikes, and other agitations from time to time demanding humane behavior, the right to read books, better living conditions, and stoppage of physical torture. It was easier said than done. But still, their youth made that possible at times. And the news of the torture (which lead to death at times) somehow was smuggled to mainland India and all political parties raised concern and organized country-wise strikes in support of the Andaman prisoners. But it took a long time to loosen the fist of the tyrannic British Jail authorities to get some concessions. At one point in time, the prisoners were allowed beds, allocated better food, and allowed to read books. Interestingly, the books supplied included Das Capital and other progressive literature besides novels and religious books. Intense political activities before the beginning of WW2 compelled the colonizers to please Indian politicians to persuade British Indians to fight for England. As a gesture of that good behavior to Indians, the British government agreed to close the cellular jail forever.

It was in 1938. Our young Ullaskar was not that lucky. He arrived at the penal settlement in a lively mood as he always used to be. He used to cut jokes, sing (mostly Tagore songs), protested all illegal and inhuman activities of the Jailor and his supervisors. In turn, he found himself receiving more punishment than others. All these days he never forgot his love, Lila. In the beginning, he used to get occasional letters from her which gradually stopped. Then he used to get information about Lila through friends and relatives when scanty facilities of letter writing were allowed to them. Little did he know then that Lila would pursue her studies at Calcutta and England and finally get married since he was deported for his whole life and there was no chance of his return. Years after years passed. Despair prevailed at both ends. Since Ullaskar used to protest the activities of the jail authorities he was allotted a lot of difficult physical jobs. (To be continued…)

The writer is a travel enthusiast
and history buff.