The Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: তাম্রলিপ্ত জাতীয় সরকার) or Tamluk National Government was an independent parallel government established in the areas of

Tamluk Tamluk () is a town and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Purba Medinipur district. Though there is some controversy, scholars have generally agreed that present-day Tamluk is the site of the an ...

and

Contai Contai is a coastal and subdivisional city and a municipality in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Contai subdivision. It is the second most populated city of the district.According to the geologists, t ...

subdivisions, now in

Purba Medinipur Purba Medinipur (English: ''East Medinipur'', alternative spelling ''Midnapore'') district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the southernmost district of Medinipur division – one of the five administrative d ...

, West Bengal, India, during the Quit India Movement (1942-1944). It was the first people’s government, which was established in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

amidst sloganeering of ‘British, Leave India!’, and ''had the honour of being only parallel government running independently for two years during

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

.'' This national government was formed by

Satish Chandra Samanta Satish Chandra Samanta (15 December 1900 – 4 June 1983) was an Indian independence movement activist and a member of the Lok Sabha from 1952–77. At the age of 15 he was influenced by his guru, Swami Prajnanananda Saraswati and adopted the li ...

, who was the supreme leader till his arrest in June 1943, and he was aided by several ministers and protagonists like Sushil Kumar Dhara,

Ajoy Mukherjee Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee (15 April 1901 – 27 May 1986) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served three short terms as the fourth and sixth Chief Minister of West Bengal. He hailed from Tamluk, Purba Medinipur district, West Be ...

and

Matangini Hazra Matangini Hazra (19 October 1870 – 29 September 1942) was an Indian revolutionary who participated in the Indian independence movement until she was shot dead by the British Indian police in front of the Tamluk Police Station (of erstwhile Mi ...

. The parallel government had set up police stations, military departments, courts and revenue collection system, and had completely overthrown the civil government of the British by dispensing justice, maintaining peace and security, and helping the poor and the distressed. It was dissolved on the explicit directions of

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- ...

, taking note of the end of the Quit India Movement in August, 1944. The rebels of Midnapore were inspired by Gandhi, but they did not confine themselves to the Gandhian practice of non-violence. It was not Gandhi’s ‘ahimsa’ which moved the rebels so much as his precept ‘Do or Die’. A good deal of underground literature (including that of the ‘Biplabi’, the mouthpiece of the Tamralipta jatiya Sarkar) cropped up with that precept as the motto. The Jatiya Sarkar launched an armed militia 'Vidyut Vahini', commanded by Sushil Kumar Dhara, in the hope of helping

Subhas Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...

’s Indian National Army, should it succeed in invading British-held Bengal (it didn’t).

Legacy

In 2002, the Ministry of Communication of India released a ''Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar'' commemorative stamp. The stamp depicts Ajoy Mukherjee, who became the Chief Minister of West Bengal three times, and

who laid down her life during the march.

References

{{reflist 1942 establishments in India 1944 disestablishments in India Quit India Movement