Chittaranjan Das (5 November 1870 – 16 June 1925), popularly called ''Deshbandhu'' (Friend of the Nation), was an
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
freedom fighter, political activist and lawyer during the
Indian independence movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
and founder-leader of the
Swaraj Party
The Swaraj Party, established as the ''Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'', was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and ...
in undivided
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
during the period of
British colonial rule
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. His name is abbreviated as C. R. Das.
He was closely associated with a number of literary societies and wrote poems, apart from numerous articles and essays.
Early life
Chittaranjan Das was born in
Bikrampur
Bikrampur ("City of Courage") was a pargana situated south of Dhaka, the modern capital city of Bangladesh. In the present day, it is known as Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. It is a historic region in Bengal and was a part of the Bhawal Est ...
in a well known Baidya"Das"family in the village named "Telirbagh" which is situated in present-day Tongibari upozila of Munshiganj (Bikrampur) district of Bangladesh on 5 November 1870
Family
Das family were members of
Brahmo Samaj
Brahmo Samaj ( bn, ব্রহ্ম সমাজ, Brahmô Sômaj, ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance.
It was one of th ...
. Chittaranjan was the son of Bhuban Mohan Das, and nephew of the Brahmo social reformer
Durga Mohan Das
Durga Mohan Das ( bn, দুর্গামোহন দাশ ''Durga Mohon Das''; 1841–1897) was a Brahmo Samaj leader and a social reformer.
Early life
Durga Mohan was born in a well-known Baidya family at Telirbagh, Bikrampur, Dhaka in ...
. 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
Atul Prasad Sen ( bn, অতুল প্রসাদ সেন; 20 October 1871 – 26 August 1934) was a Bengali composer, lyricist and singer, and also a lawyer, philanthropist, social worker, educationist and writer.
Early life
Atul Prasad ...
, Satya Ranjan Das,
Satish Ranjan Das
Satish Ranjan Das (1870–1928) was the Advocate-General of Bengal and later the Law Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy; he was sometime treasurer of the Boy Scouts of Bengal and the Lodge of Good Fellowship, and a prominent memb ...
,
Sudhi Ranjan Das
Sudhi Ranjan Das (1 October 1894 – 18 September 1977) was the 5th Chief Justice of India, serving from 1 February 1956 to 30 September 1959. Das also served as chairman of ''The Statesman''.
Background and education
S.R. Das was born in ...
,
Sarala Roy
Sarala Roy (1861-1946) was an Indian educator, feminist, and social activist. She was one of the first women to matriculate from Calcutta University, and was the first woman to be a member of the University Senate. She founded a school for girls an ...
and
Lady Abala Bose. His eldest grandson was
Siddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray (20 October 1920 – 6 November 2010) was an Indian lawyer, diplomat and Indian National Congress politician from West Bengal. In his political career he held a number of offices, including Union Minister of Education (1 ...
and his grand daughter is
Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
Manjula Bose.
He married
Basanti Devi
Basanti Devi (23 March 1880 – 7 May 1974) was an Indian independence activist during the British rule in India. She was the wife of activist Chittaranjan Das. After Das' arrest in 1921 and death in 1925, she took an active part in various po ...
(1880–1974) and had three children, Aparna Devi (1898–1972), Chiraranjan Das (1899–1928) and Kalyani Devi (1902–1983).
Education
![Middle_Temple_by_Thomas_Shepherd_c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Middle_Temple_by_Thomas_Shepherd_c.1830.jpg)
The Das family of Durga Mohan was a family of lawyers. Durga Mohan's eldest son Satya Ranjan matriculated at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
and was at
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
during 1883–1886, followed by Chitta Ranjan Das, Durga Mohan's brother's son, during 1890–1894. Satish Ranjan Das (1891–1894), Jyotish Ranjan Das and Atul Prasad Sen (1892–1895) followed suit.
In London Das befriended with
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh,
Atul Prasad Sen
Atul Prasad Sen ( bn, অতুল প্রসাদ সেন; 20 October 1871 – 26 August 1934) was a Bengali composer, lyricist and singer, and also a lawyer, philanthropist, social worker, educationist and writer.
Early life
Atul Prasad ...
and
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu (''née'' Chattopadhyay; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949) was an Indian political activist, feminist and poet. A proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas, she was an important person in Indi ...
among others, and together they promoted
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man of India" and "Unofficial Ambassador of India", was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar and writer who served as 2nd, 9th, and 22nd President of t ...
in the
British Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
.
Career
Law career
In 1894 Das gave up his law practice, and went into politics during the non-cooperation movement against the British colonial government. He again took up the brief, and successfully defended
Aurobindo Ghosh
Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...
on charges of involvement in the
Alipore bomb case
''Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others'', colloquially referred to as the Alipore Bomb Case, the Muraripukur conspiracy, or the Manicktolla bomb conspiracy, was a criminal case held in India in 1908. The case saw the trial of a number of Indi ...
, in 1909. In his Uttarpara speech, Sri Aurobindo acknowledged that Das broke his health to save him.
In the Alipore bomb case in 1908, Chittaranjan Das as defence counsel for Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, made this closing statement:
Political career
Chittaranjan Das was actively involved in the activities of
Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti ( bn, অনুশীলন সমিতি, , bodybuilding society) was an Indian fitness club, which was actually used as an underground society for anti-British revolutionaries. In the first quarter of the 20th century it su ...
. 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. Anushilan Samiti was maintained by P. Mitter with the assistance of Chittaranjan Das (1894), Haridas Bose (1895), Suren Haldar (1900) and Manabendra Nath Roy (1901).
He was a leading figure in Bengal during the
Non-Cooperation Movement
The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance. of 1919–1922, and initiated the ban on British-made clothes, setting an example by burning his own European clothes and wearing
Khadi
Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as ''swadeshi'' (self-sufficiency) for the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent, and the term is used throughout India, Pakistan ...
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'' as part of his support for various anti-British movements in India. When the
Calcutta Municipal Corporation
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (abbreviated KMC; also Calcutta Municipal Corporation) is the local government of the Indian city of Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal. This civic administrative body administers an area of . Its motto, '' ...
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
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
at the
Gaya session after losing a motion on "No Council Entry" to
Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's faction. He then founded the Congress-Khilafat
Swaraj Party
The Swaraj Party, established as the ''Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'', was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and ...
, with
Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar
Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar (N. C. Kelkar), popularly known as Sahityasamrat Tatyasaheb Kelkar (24 August 1872 – 14 October 1947), was a lawyer from Miraj as well as a dramatist, novelist, short story writer, poet, biographer, critic, historia ...
and veteran
Motilal Nehru
Motilal Nehru (6 May 1861 – 6 February 1931) was an Indian lawyer, activist and politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He also served as the Congress President twice, 1919–1920 and 1928–1929. He was a patriarch of the Nehr ...
. Other prominent leaders included Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal, Vithalbhai Patel and other Congress leaders who were becoming dissatisfied with the Congress.
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''" (The Songs of the Sea). 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
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, alternatively spelt as Sarat Chandra Chatterjee ( bn, শরৎচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়; 15 September 1876 or ৩১ শে ভাদ্র ১২৮৩ বঙ্গাব্দ ...
,
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “L ...
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
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
visited him and stayed with him for some days. Gandhiji wrote,
The funeral procession in Calcutta was led by Gandhi, who said:
Legacy
* Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute
Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute is a cancer care hospital and research institute and one of the 27 regional cancer centres in India. It is located in Kolkata near Jatin Das Park metro station at Hazra More. It was formally inaugurated b ...
of Kolkata had its humble beginning in the year 1950 when the ''Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital'' was founded in the premises of ''Chittaranjan Seva Sadan''. A few years before his death Chittaranjan gifted this property including his house and the adjoining lands to the nation to be used for the betterment of the lives of women.
*''Chittaranjan Park
Chittaranjan Park (also known as C.R. Park) is an affluent and upscale neighborhood in South East Delhi and home to a large Bengali community. It was established on a rocky terrain in the early 1960s under the name EPDP Colony (East Pakistan Dis ...
'',home to large Bengali community, originally EPDP Colony in South Delhi was named after Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das during 1980's https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chittaranjan_Park
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Das, Chittaranjan
1869 births
1925 deaths
Brahmos
Bengali Hindus
Das family of Telirbagh
Indian barristers
Indian independence activists from Bengal
Politicians from Kolkata
Presidents of the Indian National Congress
People from Bikrampur
Mayors of Kolkata
19th-century Indian lawyers
20th-century Indian lawyers
Indian independence activists from West Bengal