How Self Serving Politics Killed Valuable History - Death of a Hamlet Called Uttarpara
I do not believe in conjectures. Being an analyst and strategist buy profession I follow data- Deductive reasoning when it comes to history. Sometimes it might look boring, but it's the only way to gag the shape shifters and naysayers playing politics with our history distorting it to fit their narrative. Bengalis, you have a lot to be proud of! While exploring spirituality, I pursue Inductive reasoning though
United States of America is known as the country of the free and land of opportunities. It was built by aspiring migrants from across the world. Did you know Europe looked at Bengal with a similar lens? Find a nation where in 20 square mile radius you have 6 European settlements - Danish, British, Armenians, Portuguese, French & Germans? (See the map below) They all traveled from the West through the mighty Saraswati River (now almost dried up) onto the Ganges. They had the option to settle on the eastern banks of the Ganges i.e., Kolkata side. They didn't, they picked the side where Uttarpara was located. Ask yourselves, why? Politics & economics create ideas but kill the truth too.
What was it about the soil of Uttarpara and the vicinity that it produced the best and the brightest of India?
- Radhanagar : Raja Rammohan Roy
- Hoogly - Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar , Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee, Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee, Rashbehari Mukherjee, Amarendrnath Chatterjee
- Kamarpukur - Sri Ramkrishna Paramanhsa
- Arambagh - Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar
- Cinsurah - Akshay Chandra Sarkar
- Balagarh - Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee father of Syama Prasad Mukherjee
- Haripal - Girishchandra
- Jangipara - Poet Hemchandra Banerjee
- Debanandapur - Sarat Chandra Chatterjee
- Konnagar - K.D. Ghosh, father of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
- Sreerampore - Sri Yukteswar Giri - Guru of Paramahansa Yogananda
Hoogly district was carved out of Burdwan District in 1795. Uttarpara was under Baidyabati Police Station under Hoogly District. In 1814 when Baidyabati Police Station was brought under Hoogly District, Uttarpara automatically came under the Hoogly jurisdiction. Hoogly District had 3 sub divisions - Hoogly, Darhata & Khsirpai. Uttarpara was under Darhata sub division. In the meantime by order of the British government under Order Number 268 on 27th February 1843, Howrah was carved out as a separate district from Hoogly. Subsequently the British bought back Sreerampur from the Danish government in 1845 and Darhata was merged with Sreerampur Sub Division. Uttarpara came under Sreerampur jurisdiction. In July 1875 when Singur Police Station was created, Uttarpara was moved under Sreerampur Police Station.
Bally (see the map) being the oldest inhabited land (mostly by indigenous tribes), was the center point of the region and all attributions were in the context of Bally. "Uttar" is North and as such Uttarpara was named. "Dakshin" is South of Bally and thus assumed the name Dakshineshwar, home to the famous Kali temple & a seat of Hinduismas well of Ramkrishna Mission at Belur Mutt
Did you know that under the Municipal Act XXVI of 1850 only 3 cities were given permission to set up a Municipal Corporation but the decision on Kolkata was put on hold? In 1951 Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee sent a petition to the Joint Magistrate of Sreerampore requesting that Uttarpara be allowed to set up it's own municipality. According to the law, on 24th and 27th December 1851 the British government published the intent through and official gazette requesting for support or opposition thereof from the residents of Uttarpara. Several residents and local small zamindars opposed refusing to pay municipal tax and thus the proposal was rejected. Again on 29th April 1852, another notification was published. Benevolent Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee announced that he will take responsibility of subsidizing the taxes (at which point he was supported by some local residents seeing the bigger picture). While most of the taxes would be borne by Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee, it was agreed that an income tax will be imposed on anyone earning more than Rs 5 to Rs 1000 per month or a higher. Income Tax slab was agreed upon between 1 anna to Rs 10 as the maximum tax payable. Did you know the first ever population census in India was carried out in 1871 and Uttarpara was the pilot program?
With this assurance on 12th July 1852, the Governor General through a public notification permitted setting up of a separate Municipal Corporation. On 29th July the first Committee was formed, with Sreerampore Joint Magistrate M.G. Bright, Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee & Harishchandra Banerjee governing the Board. Actually Sreerampore, under the Danish administration, was only the 3rd city in India to have an independent municipality. It was set up in 1842 under Act X. However Sreerampore lost the status due to a local battle between the Danish administration and the local land owners. Thus technically in Sube Bengal (Bengal+Orissa+Bihar+Assam) the first official municipality was set up in Uttarpara. This is evident from the book published by the renowned judge of Calcutta High Court Mr. P.E. Pargiter where he writes "Only one Municipality in Bengal (Uttarpara in Hoogly District) dates its birth this year". The Imperial Gazzeteer reports "This is the Second time in Bengal in which the Act has thus been voluntarily adopted by the inhabitants. The first town was Sreerampore, but Ooterpara was the first town having purely native population in which the Act was introduced and thus the inhabitants have obviously gained great honour". The first railway line in Bengal was constructed on 15th August 1854 connecting Howrah with Hoogly and distance of ~24 miles. Again, the second in India after the Bombay-Thane railway line shows the importance of Uttarpara in larger lens of nation building.
Transformation of Public Transportation in Bengal
Did you know that until 1891 the only form of transportation within and between the cities across the country were horse carriages? Only the British or the wealthy few could own and operate private vehicles. The vibrancy of Uttarpara was increasing as it was the seat of Bengal renaissance. People from all over the country, including Kolkata were keen to collaborate with the think tanks of Uttarpara. Transportation was a bottleneck given the lack of it. Thanks to the relentless activism by the Mukherjees of Uttarpara, particularly Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee and his able son Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee, The Calcutta Hackney Carriage Act 11 was passed in 1891 that allowed taxis to operate in Kolkata first and then The Calcutta Hackney Carriage Act 11 of 1919 that allowed rental vehicles to operate outside the Kolkata jurisdiction. Mobility and inter state/inter city collaboration jumped manifold.
Bricks from Uttarpara used in the construction of Fort William and Buckingham Palace
I wonder how many Bengalis in Bengal know of Bhadrakali? Uttarpara-Bhadrakal-Kutrong accounted for the largest number of brickfields in the country producing the best bricks in the world. The quality of the soil was key. The Dawn Society publication had given indication that the bricks from Kutrong were used to build a large portion of the Buckingham Palace. Records are available that almost all the bricks used to build Fort William came from the brick fields of Uttarpara.
Indian Revolution Army and it's
working
If you have read "A Nation In the Making" by Sir S.N. Banerjee it will be clear beyond doubt that the Indian National Congress could not have been established without the support of Raja Joykrishna Mukherjee and his relationship with Allan Octavian Hume. Degeneration of human value is evident from how political parties operated pre-independence versus how they operate now. I feel that during pre- independence, despite differing ideologies, they shared a common goal - Freedom at any cost. Now every political party work in cross purposes. It is clear that Amarendranath Chatterjee may have had close affinity with the Indian National Congress purely from his family ties, but, that did not deter him from working with the Communists or being an extremist working with Sri Aurobindo and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in armed rebellion. The founding members of CPI(M) Binoykrishna Choudhury and Bijoykrishna Modak in their memoirs have mentioned that without the support of Amarendranath Chattrjee, it was impossible to build the ground force of the Communist Party of India
Amarendranath Chatterjee formed the "Field Academy" that was meant to train young revolutionaries in urban warfare and aspects of Sanatan Dharma. Chatterjee was instrumental in setting up the Anti Circular Society. His brutal commitment to freedom struggle was evident from his family's involvement in freeing India. Almost his entire family was involved in some way or other (several died as freedom fighters) - son Satyabrata Chatterjee, Barendranath Chatterjee, Bhupendranath Chatterjee, Dhruvesh Chatterjee, Chaitnyadeb Chatterjee, Bankim Chatterjee (not the writer), Nanibala Devi, Atrikumar Chatterjee, Sundarimohan Chatterjee, Hrishikesh Chatterjee and many more. Rather, Amarendranath's borther Bhupendranath was arrested while transporting imported arms and he was tortured to death in police custody.
These sacrifices didn't deter Amarendrnath Chatterjee. He kept recruiting and training the best minds Bengal produced like Kshudiram, Binoy, Badal, Dinesh and pushed the Swadeshi movement in Bengal. He composed a song "Maa er dewa mota kapor mathai tulay de re bhai". Singing the song he rallied hundreds of freedom fighters from village to village admonishing British goods.
On 30th October 1905 when Lord Curzon declared the breakup of Bengal, Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee called for a meeting at Uttarpara Marketplace to decide on a counter action. It was attended by Sir Surendranath Banerjee, Kaliprasanna (Author, playwright, and philanthropist and the first person to translate Mahabharata to Bengali), Bhupendranath Bose (President of the Indian National Congress in 1914) & Krishna Kumar Mitra (Indian freedom fighter, journalist and leader of the Brahmo Samaj. He was also the founder of Sanjibani, the mouthpiece of the Brahmo Samaj). The idea of killing Magistrate Kingsford came from none other than Amarendranath Chatterjee. Kingsford, fearing his life, transferred to Muzaffarpur. It was Amarendranath Chatterjee who identified Prafulla Chaki and Kshudiram to assassinate Kingsford. 1908 was an important year in India's freedom fight. With the over arching guidance provided by Sri Aurobindo and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a secret meeting was held in mid May between Amarendranath Chatterjee, Sirish Chandra Ghosh, Motilal Roy, Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar. The meeting was chaired by Amarendranath Chatterjee. The agenda of the meeting was delegation of duty. Amarendranath took the responsibility of raising funds for freedom struggle, Sirish Chandra would be in charge of recruitment and turning on the revolution heat, Motilal Roy would built the team in Chandannagar and Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar to build the team in Jharkhand.
In case you do not know about Sirish Chandra Ghosh, Motilal Roy, Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar
Sirish Chandra Ghosh- Ghosh was master in manufacturing bombs in and was a key conspirator with Ras Bihari to assassinate Viceroy Lord Charles Harding. He attempted to assassinate Tardival, Mayor of Chandernagore, handed over a revolver to Kanailal Dutta in Alipore Central Jail to kill the approver Naren Gnoswami[3] and also attached with Rodda company arms heist. As per instruction of Ras Bihari Bose he made liaison among the revolutionaries of various state
Motilal Roy - was a Bengali revolutionary, journalist, social reformer. He founded the Prabartak Sangha, a nationalist organisation for social works. Roy established the Prabartak Sangha under the inspiration of Sri Aurobindo. Roy's home as well as the Sangha were the important safe house of Indian freedom fighters. Hundreds of Indian independence activists took shelter in Roy's house. Being a senior member of the revolutionary group he provided money and arms to the revolutionaries.[3] in 21 February, 1910 Aurobindo reached at Chandannagar and stayed in Roy's house for 42 days safely before going Pondicherry. Roy assumed the title of Sangha Guru or the chief spiritual leader of the organization
Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar - Sakharam was a journalist and patriotic.He
was born in Kabogram near Baidyanathdham.He was born in a Marathi family. He
published his book " Desher Katha" in 1905. The British Govt. banded
the book in 1910. During anti-partition movement of and later in National
movement this book caused tremendous inspiration to countrymen.
Role of Uttarpara in Satyagraha Movement
Uttarpara using to be the prime trading port for the British. Since Uttarpara was under the administration of the Mukherjees, under the direction of Sri Aurobindo, Kumar Rajendranath Mukherjee (son of Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee) & Amarendranath Chatterjee lay siege on the port refusing the British government to offload imported salt from Britain. Kumar Rajendranath was summoned by the District Magistrate. Unafraid, he arrived fully prepared to be imprisoned and hanged
In the meantime Amarendranath, the unperturbed unputdownable freedom fighter carried on with his work. He recruited 2 exemplary revolutionaries from Duff College - Manmathnath Biswas (Mota) and his brother Basanta Kumar Biswas. Manmathnath later travelled to Pondicherry with Sri Aurobindo. It was with the help of the Biswas brothers that Amarendranath launched "Karmayogin" magazine for the revolutionaries. The British government banned the publication. Rashbehari Bose arrived in Chandannagar in 1909 and was so impressed with Basanta Biswas, he decided to take him under his wings. They both moved to Uttar Pradesh. It was the same Basanta Biswas who tried to assassinate Magistrate Hardinge in Lahore at Lawrence Garden. He was later hanged. Rashbehari Bose escaped from Uttar Pradesh and returned to Dakshineshwar to meet and plan the next course of action with Amarendranath Chatterjee and Jatindrnath Das (Jatin Das he was member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He died in 1929 at Lahore jail after a 63-day hunger strike). They laid the seeds of the famous Ghadhar Mutiny. There is enough public information on this mutiny in case you are interested. Yes, it was all happening in this little hamlet called Uttarpara Kutrong belt spearheaded by none other than the Mukherjee & Chatterjee family.
Mednipore was the center of Salt Satyagraha, in particular Pichabani village. About 5000 freedom fighters convened at the Chatterjee Mandir Ghat where Amarendranath Chatterjee's mother and wife put garland and chanadan mark on the foreheads of each revolutionary. The idea was to conduct a peaceful demonstration but unfortunately Magistrate Paddy launched a brutal onslaught on the group killing many and arresting about 250 freedom fighters including Amarendranath Chatterjee and his son. Many were made to parade naked. The issue was taken to Mahatma Gandhi, who did nothing. Tell me, wasn't Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee justified to not meet Mahatma Gandhi?
The Gradual entry of Soviet Communist Philosophy in Indian Revolutionary Movement
A complete misalignment between the INC's central working committee under Mahatma Gandhi and the State leadership paved the way for Communism to enter into mainstream politics in India through Bengal.
A significant number non partisan freedom fighters joined the communist party after their release from prison. The transition was natural as they saw their ideologies drifting from Gandhian ideology. In Bengal the freedom struggle was one of armed rebellion and extremism. For example Dhruvesh Chatterjee joined the Andaman Communist Consolidation Camp. The Bengal Congress under the visionary leadership of Sri Aurobindo, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Amarendranath Chatterjee drifted from the Gandhian philosophy particularly after the Chauri Chaura massacre. The Chauri Chaura incident took place on 4 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district. The British opened indiscriminate fire on a large group of protesters participating in the non-cooperation movement Mahatma Gandhi, who was strictly against violence, halted the non-cooperation movement on the national level on 12 February 1922, as a direct result of this incident. In spite of Gandhi's decision, 19 arrested demonstrators were sentenced to death and 14 to imprisonment for life by the British colonial authorities. Mahatma Gandhi did nothing and continued with his civil disobedience movement. The final drift between Bengal freedom fighters and central Congress machinery occurred after the fierce fight that ensued between the Bengal freedom fighters led by Prafulla Sen (3rd Chief Minister of West Bengal) and Amarendranath Chatterjee and the British force lead by the ruthless and corrupt Magistrate Paddy.
Chittgong Armoury Raid was a turning point in the Indian revolutionary movement. The raid was led by none other than Masterda Surya Sen. Two significant shifts were seen
1) The design of the raid and the strategy had more inclination towards the Soviet Communist methodology
2) A many of the Indian revolutionaries from the Indian Republican Army slowly taking up Communist methodologies.
Almost all the key revolutionaries involved both in Chittgong Armoury Raid and Jalalabad Hill encounter- Lokenath Bal, Ganesh Ghosh, Ambika Chakrobarty, Harigopal Bal (Tegra), Ananta Singh, Anand Prasad Gupta, Tripura Sen, Bilash Dey, Bidhubhusan Bhattacharya, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Himangshu Sen, Binod Bihari Chowdhury, Subodh Roy, Monoranjan Bhattacharya eventually took shelter in Uttarpara spread over the several properties owned by the Mukherjees. Masterda Surya Sen & Lokenath Bal took refuge in the house of Amarendranath Chatterjee. This house is still standing tall in Uttarpara now inhabited by the family of Amarendranath Chatterjee.
A particular room where the revolutionaries met is called Ananda Mutt, named by none other than Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.
The drift between the Bengal revolutionaries and the Indian National Congress (local and center) were growing rapidly predominantly on ideology and approach. Since the center of revolution was Uttarpara and vicinity, the shift was steered from there. The drift was exposed on 16th September 1931. 3 top revolutionaries Barendranath Chatterjee (brother of Amarendranath Chatterjee), Panchugopal Bhaduri and Nripen Chakraborty (Chief Minister of Tripura) tried to escape from Hijli Detention Camp. Panchugopal Bhaduri and Nripen Chakraborty managed to escape. The British police opened indiscriminate fire on the prisoners killing many. Santosh Mitra (the famous Santosh Mitra Square Durga Puja is named after him) & Tarakeshwar Sen died in the firing. The Indian National Congress at the center was unmoved. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was in Kolkata and asked Amarendranath Chatterjee and his son Satyabrata Chatterjee to meet him at the camp. Netaji was detained half way at Kharagpur so Amarendranath and Satyabrata took the necessary direction from Netaji and proceeded to meet his brother and take account of the deaths.
This incident triggered a spate of retaliative attacks on the British officers. On 21st October Bimal Daspupta assassinated the Chairman of European Association Mr. Villiers. He was sent to the Andaman Cellular Jail. In 1936, Bimal Dasgupta went on a hunger strike to demand the status of a political prisoner. The fast was called off with the mediation of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Muzaffar Ahmed. Moni Lahiri and Anil Bhaduri attempted to assassinate the Chief Editor of The Statesman. The Statesman was the mouthpiece of the British government. On 3rd February 1932, Bina Das shot Governor Stanley Johnson. She was sent for rigorous imprisonment.
Bina Das was family to me from my mother's side. She was born on 24th August 1911 and was the daughter of Beni Madhab Das. Beni Madhab Das was the mentor of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose while he was the Headmaster at Revenshaw Collegiate School in Cuttack. Her husband (in both the images below) was a contemporary freedom fighter, Jyotish Chandra Bhowmick. On 3rd February 1932, Bina Das, 21 years old student and of English at Calcutta University, fired 5 shots at Governor Stanley Johnson on the day she was being awarded her graduation certificate. Vice Chancellor Surawardy Khan pounced on her, grabbed her gun and pinned her down on the dais. She was sent for 9 years of rigorous imprisonment. This is first account story Bina Das narrated to my mother herself, and it still gives me goose bumps even writing the rest. Before sentencing when the judge asked Bina Das for any last words before sentencing, this is what she said "As a man he (Stanley Jackson) is just as good as my father.....but Governor of Bengal represents a system that has kept enslaved 300 million of my countrymen and women. I promised to free them". The entire court was quiet. Any historian who has done real research on Subhash Chandra Bose would know about Bina Das. I am certain even Anita Bose would know the relationship Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose shared with Bina Das, one no less than that of a father and daughter. Sarala Devi, Bina Das's mother was a very good cook. Whenever Netaji would come to Kolkata, he would never miss a meal at Bina Das's house and would demand Sarala Devi's payasam. One day Sarala Devi communicated to Subhas Chandra Bose her worries about Bina and her involvement in the Indian Freedom struggle as she was very young. Subhas Chandra replied "You must want something madly before you can achieve it. Our nation must want freedom passionately. Thus the question of violence and non violence is not important". My mother asked Bina Das if ever they spoke about Mahatma Gandhi. To that the firm reply she got from Subhas Chandra was "I may not be in agreement with his ways and methods but I must accept that he has mass appeal and is truly the Father of the Nation".
Attaching 2 images of freedom fighter Bina Das in my maternal house. My mother told me that she was the kindest person and was always usually present in most of our family get together. Everyone waited for her arrival impatiently to hear stories of Indian Freedom Movement and about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, all first hand accounts. After much search I have been able to find these two pictures, one at the wedding at maternal uncle's wedding (my mother's own brother) & at my aunt's wedding (mother's first cousin). Sadly our nation forgot about her. For the longest time she lived with her husband at a 2 bedroom house at Poddar Park Government Housing Complex at Jodhpur Park, Kolkata. As with Nanibala Devi, the entire system failed this amazing woman and her husband. Despite several attempts, Calcutta University refused to hand over her graduation certificate. She and her husband taught at government schools for subsistence payout. Both refused government pension for ideological reasons and were barely able to make both ends meet. Many a time neighbors would give them food out of respect. Too little too late, it was only in 2012 that the University displayed her graduation certificate during the celebration of her 100th birth anniversary. Unfortunately she wasn't alive to see it. After her husband died in 1986, she left Kolkata without informing anyone. Her dead body was found a several years back on the streets of Rishikesh. She was cremated without any honor and her reading glasses, slippers and a Khadi bag were simply handed over to her extended family as she didn't have children of her own. Such is the nation we live in where Lata Mangeshwar and Suchitra Sen are given State honors, cremated on sandal wood but the people who brought freedom to us died unnoticed, unappreciated.
Netaji was just not a freedom
fighter, he was social reformer
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is always projected as a freedom fighter. Beyond a freedom fighter he was women's rights activist. I am certain most Bengalis in Bengal would not know about the Tarakeshwar Scandal in 1873. I will divert a bit. Recently there was a hue and cry over Firhad Hakim's appointment as Chairman of Tarakeshwar Temple Board. Muslims being engaged in temple affairs is nothing new. In the Tarakeshwar Scandal case Elokeshi, the wife of a government employee Nobin Chandra Banerjee had an illicit affair with the head priest of Tarakeshwar Temple that initially began with a forced rape. Subsequently Elokeshi was killed by her husband and both Nobion Chandra and the Mahanta sentenced to jail but later released.
A massive local uproar in Sreerampore with this decision forced formation of an investigation committee. The committee included Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Pandit Dharanath Bhattacharya, Sishchandra Chatterjee and Maulana Akram Khan.Nobin Chandra Banerjee was given life imprisonment
Rise of Communism in Bengal
In 1884, Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee was nominated as a member of the Bengal Legislative Council and was a key member of the Tenancy Bill Select Committee. Madan Mohan Malviya, the only person to have served as the President of Indian National Congress (pre-independence) four times, requested Amarendrananth Chatterjee to stand for elections for the Central Legislative Council. Amarendranath Chatterjee stood against the Prince of Narajole Devendra Lal Khan. Amarendrnath Chatterjee won and found his place in the Council. The drift between Bengal Indian National Congress and central leadership increased when Amarendranath Chatterjee decided to support Madan Mohan Malviya against the Khilafat Movement. Amarendranath Chatterjee, like Netaji and others saw the movement as a political agitation based on a pan-Islamist, fundamentalist platform and little to do with cause of Indian independence. The Bengal revolutionaries saw Gandhiji's support for Khilafat Movement as a marriage of convenience. This frustration with the central congress leadership saw either large scale migration revolutionaries to communist parties who or principally supporting them. The CPI put their best candidates in the electoral process resulting in CPI dominating elections between 1952 (first formal elections) to 1971.
Backing up a little bit. Approximately around 1924, Indian Communist Party was formed in Tashkent. Immediately following the formation of the Communist Party, several communist leaders involved in the 1924 Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy were arrested. Again in 1929 following the Kanpur Conspiracy several Communist leaders were either arrested or killed. It led to the formation of Indian Proletarian Revolutionary Party (IPRP). IPRP started recruiting farmers into the Indian revolutionary movement. The party was led by Hrishikesh Chatterjee. The first Chairman of the Indian Communist Party was Fanindra Mohan Banerjee.
Bengal in 1940 received an additional thrust with the formation of Radical Democratic Party under the leadership of Narendra Bhattacharya. Consequently he also formed Indian federation Of Labour and Radical Students Union. A four days conference of the Radical Democratic Party was held in Kolkata between 27th and 30th December 1944. The chief guest was Amarendranath Chatterjee. A large section of Indian revolutionaries followed Chatterjee. The conference was significant because the meeting between Amarendranath Chatterjee and M.N. Roy charted the future course of Bengal history. M.N. Roy was an Indian Communist revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy was a founder of the Mexican Communist Party and the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group). He was also a delegate to congresses of the Communist International and Russia's aide to China. Following the rise of Joseph Stalin, Roy left the mainline communist movement to pursue an independent radical politics. His exemplary speech on fascism on 21st June 1942 at Uttarpara Mandir Ghat has been considered as one of the most remarkable ones in the period.
The central leadership at Indian National Congress realized that the Bengal foothold was slipping away due to conflict in ideologies around how to steer the freedom movement. Immediately following the visit of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 U.N. Dhebar was sent to Uttarpara to fix the relationship where he met Amarendranath Chatterjee & Raja Bhupendranath Mukherjee (Son of Raja Peary Mohan Mukherjee). Immediately after Dhebar left the top communist leadership met Amarendranath Chatterjee to take mentorship and guidance on streamlining tightening the Communist organization. The delegation included Jyoti basu, Panchanan Chakraborty, Subodh Banerjee, Niharendu Dutta mazundar, Soumen Tagore, Hemanta Kumar Basu, Pramod Dasgupta, Amar Basu and Bankim Mukherjee. Amarendranath suggested dissolving all local chapters of Indian National Congress and Communist Parties and forming one single parties with a single ideology. The team of Communist leaders rejected his proposal. Bengal was clearly slipping away from the control of Indian National Congress.
Under the solid guidance and leadership of Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Hindu Mahasabha was able to win the Municipal Elections at Uttarpara in 1941. The chief whip officer of Hindu Mahasabha at Uttarpara was none other than Bhabendranath Mukherjee. The undefeated control of the State Legislative Council betwen 1952 to 1996 remained with the Indian Communist Party with the only exception of 1972. In 1964, Indian Communist Party was split between CPI and CPI (M). CPI(M) was again split due to ideological differences and CPI(ML) was formed. With the formation of CPI (ML) started the Naxal movement. CPI (M) took 2 major steps that their predecessors didn't. They brought the students in the political process with the formation and SFI and brought the labour class under their fold through formation of Trade Unions. The first leaders were Dr. Ranen Sen, Mohammad Ismail, Monoranjan Roy, Dinen Bhattacharya, Ajit Lahiri, Bijoy Modak and Prabir Sengupta. The first trade union C.I.T.U was formed in the Hindustan Motors Factory at Uttarpara. Hindustan Motors was Asia's largest automobile manufacturing plant. This was the second factory for Hindustan Motors with the first one being in Gujrat.
On 16th March 1961, some of the workers decided to hold a peaceful demonstration. To nip this demonstration in the bud, the Birlas requested the local police administration to take extreme measures. The police unleashed a reign of terror on the peaceful demonstrators killing two. Ganesh Banerjee, a stenographer at Hindustan Motors was dragged out of a tea stall and shot dead by the police. The other person who was shot was Manik Das, who was not even a worker at the factory. he was simply visiting his friend Ganesh Banerjee. A massive congregation of local residents supporting the workers of Hindustan Motors as well as the workers was held on 17th March 1951 under the leadership of Birendra Khan. They demanded an independent inquiry, punishment of the perpetrators and compensation for the families of the deceased. The news of the incident at Hindustan Motors spread like wildfire across the nation and triggered a snowball effect across the country - the disruptive Trade Union movement.
Sources, Citations & Acknowledgements
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrish_Chandra_Ghosh
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motilal_Roy
3) http://radhikaranjan.blogspot.com/2014/10/759-sakharam-ganesh-deuskar-1869-1922.html
4) Uttarsakkhar (Commemorative Volume)- Uttarpara Joykrishna Public Library
5) First hand accounts and interviews
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