Bina Das (24 August 1911—1986) was an Indian revolutionary and
nationalist from
West Bengal.
Biography
Early life and education
Das was the daughter of a
Brahmo teacher,
Beni Madhab Das
is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI).
She was initially best known fo ...
and a social worker, Sarala Devi. Her elder sister
Kalyani Das
Kalyani Das (1907–1983) was an Indian revolutionary and nationalist from Bengal.
Education
She was a student of Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack. Das finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928.
Participation in India's freedom str ...
was also a freedom fighter.
Das was a student of
St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School and
Bethune College
Bethune College is a women's college located on Bidhan Sarani in Kolkata, India, and affiliated to the University of Calcutta. It is the oldest women's college in India. It was established as a girls' school in 1849, and as a college in 1879.
...
, Calcutta.
Participation in India's freedom struggle
Das was a member of ''
Chhatri Sangha The Chhatri Sangha (Girls' Students' Association) was an Indian women's student organization. It recruited and trained women revolutionaries, organized study circles and gave lessons in cycling, driving and armed warfare. It functioned as the girls' ...
'', a semi-revolutionary organisation for women in
Kolkata. On 6 February 1932, she attempted to assassinate the Bengal Governor
Stanley Jackson
Sir Francis Stanley Jackson Jackson's obituary in the 1948 ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack''. This gives his full name as ''Francis'' Stanley Jackson, whereas Cricinfo and CricketArchive both give his full name as ''Frank'' Stanley Jackson. This ...
, in the Convocation Hall of the
University of Calcutta. The revolver was supplied by another freedom fighter
Kamala Das Gupta
Kamala Das Gupta (11 March 1907 – 19 July 2000) was an Indian freedom fighter.
Early life
Das Gupta was born in 1907, to a Vaidya family of Bikrampur in Dhaka, now in Bangladesh; the family later moved to Calcutta, where she got a Master of ...
. She fired five shots but failed. Her confession, which ran to five pages long and was written in English, was censored by the British colonial administration, but still found itself widely circulated. In it, she wrote that:
"My object was to die, and if to die, to die nobly fighting against this despotic system of Government, which has kept my country in perpetual subjection to its infinite shame and endless suffering – and fighting in a way which cannot but tell... I have been thinking – is life worth living in an India so subjected to wrong, and continually groaning under the tyranny of a foreign Government, or is it not better to make one's supreme protest against it by offering one's life away? Would not the immolation of a daughter of India and of a son of England awaken India to the sin of its acquiescence to its continued state of subjection and England to the iniquities of its proceedings?"
The Special Tribunal convened to judge her sentenced her to nine years of rigorous imprisonment on charges of attempted murder under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code.
After her release from jail, she became active in the Congress, participated in the
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...
and was imprisoned till 1945. After independence, she won the provincial assembly, but the Bina Das left the Congress due to ideological differences.
In 1947, she married Jatish Chandra Bhaumik, an Indian independence movement activist of the
Jugantar group.
Though she didn't join the Communist Party, the revolutionary Bina Das was attracted to socialist and communist ideals. She believed that
Marxism should be re-established according to the needs of the country.
She was a friend of
Suhasini Ganguly, a freedom fighter.
Death
After the death of her husband, Das led a lonely life in
Rishikesh
Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in Dehradun district of the Indian state Uttarakhand. It is situated on the right bank of the Ganges River and is a pilgrimage town for Hindus, with ancient sages and saints meditati ...
and died in anonymity. Her dead body was recovered from the roadside on 26 December 1986 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.
[Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Anjali Basu (ed.) (1988) ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (in Bengali), Kolkata: Sahitya Sansad, p.663] An alternate report by the current relatives of Bina Das says she was found unconscious at a bus stand and was taken to hospital by the police, where she died the next day. This was stated in a documentary on Bina Das broadcast on 26 December 2021 on DD Bangla.
Legacy and awards
Her sister
Kalyani Bhattacharjee
Kalyani Das (1907–1983) was an Indian revolutionary and Indian independence movement, nationalist from Bengal.
Education
She was a student of Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack. Das finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928.
Partici ...
edited a book called ''Bengal Speaks ''(published in 1944), and dedicated it to her.
Das won the
Padma Shri award in 1960 for her "Social Work".
In 2012, Das and
Pritilata Waddedar were conferred the Graduation Certificates posthumously by Calcutta University, nearly 80 years after British government withheld them.
Works
Das wrote two autobiographical works in
Bengali: ''Shrinkhal Jhankar'' and ''Pitridhan''.
[
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References
External links
Biography by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
*
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20141218090806/http://stjohnsdiocesanschool.org/ St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Das, Bina
1911 births
1986 deaths
Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
Brahmos
Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal
Bethune College alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
Recipients of the Padma Shri in social work
Social workers
20th-century Indian women politicians
20th-century Indian politicians
20th-century Indian educators
People from Krishnagar
Women in West Bengal politics
Social workers from West Bengal
20th-century women educators
Prisoners and detainees of British India
Female revolutionaries
Indian independence activists from West Bengal