Saroj Dutta (March 13, 1914 – August 5, 1971) popularly known comrade SD, was an Indian communist intellectual and poet, active in the Naxalite movement in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

in the 1960s. He was the first West Bengal state secretary of

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. His ...

(CPI(ML)). He also remained editor-in-chief of the ''

Amrita Bazar Patrika ''Amrita Bazar Patrika'' was one of the oldest daily newspapers in India. Originally published in Bengali script, it evolved into an English format published from Kolkata and other locations such as Cuttack, Ranchi and Allahabad. The paper di ...

'' during the 1940s.Appendix B It is commonly thought that he was killed in a police encounter on August 5, 1971, but till now he was missing in police and state records.

Early life and education

He was born in a land-owning family in

Jessore Jessore ( bn, যশোর, jôshor, ), officially Jashore, is a city of Jessore District situated in Khulna Division. It is situated in the south-western part of Bangladesh. It is the administrative centre (headquarter) of the eponymous district ...

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

, (now in Bangladesh) on 13 March 1914. He studied at the Victoria Collegiate School in Narail, and later graduated from the

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in A ...

in Calcutta in 1936. He subsequently earned his MA In

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

1938 from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

.Tribute to Saroj Dutta
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Career

Dutta joined the ''Amrit Bazar Patrika'' in early 1940s, after completing his studies, however he was fired in 1949 for joining violent activities as a member of the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

. In 1962, after the Sino-Indian War he was briefly arrested for having pro-China (

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

) sympathies. In 1964 he joined the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

, CPI(M), and was an editor of their paper, ''Swadhinata'', along with Sushital Ray Chowdhary. He was among the many radicals who were disillusioned when the CPI(M) decided to join electoral politics in the run-up to the

1967 elections Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...

. Attracted to a more radical form of revolutionary

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, he along with Sushital Ray Chowdhury and some other Calcutta intellectuals, supported the

Charu Majumdar Charu Majumdar (Bengali: চারু মজুমদার; 15 May 1918 – 28 July 1972), popularly known as CM, was a Communist leader from India, and founder and General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Born in ...

-led

Naxalbari uprising Naxalbari uprising was an armed peasant revolt in 1967 in the Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India. It was mainly led by tribals and the radical communists leaders of Bengal and further developed in ...

in May 1967. In April 1969, he was also one of the founder members of

Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (CPI (ML)) was an Indian communist party formed by the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) at a congress in Calcutta in 1969. The foundation of the party wa ...

, CPI (ML), an organisation which was outlawed a year later for conducting armed

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...

targeted at the landlords and the police.

Death

Police Arrested Dutta from his friend Debiprasad Chattapadhyaya's home on the night of August 4–5, 1971. It is stated that he was killed by the

Kolkata Police The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannag ...

on the Aryan Club ground in the Kolkata Maidan that very morning. It is also said that the movie star Uttam Kumar witnessed the shooting while on a morning walk, but talked about it much later when drunk; this is the storyline of the 1994 Bengali-language movie ''

Sopan Sant Sopandeo was a sant of the Varkari and also the younger brother of Dnyaneshwar. Sopan(19 November 1277 A.D- 29 December 1296 A.D), attained samadhi at Saswad near Pune. He wrote a book, the ''Sopandevi'' based on the Marathi translation of ...

''. Bengali writer Dibyendu Palit also portrayed the incident in his novel ''Sahajoddha''. In 1977, after the CPI(M) returned to power with a Left-front majority, many Naxalite sympathisers signed on a petition seeking an investigation of Saroj Dutta's death. The petition was given to the chief minister Jyoti Basu. However, no investigation has ever been held. His comrade, Charu Majumdar died in police custody a year later.

Film

A feature-length documentary film, ''S.D. :Saroj Dutta and His Times'', directed by Kasturi Basu and Mitali Biswas in 2018, featured Dutta's journey as a poet, journalist, translator, ideologue and revolutionary. The film contains the only on-camera interviews of two eyewitnesses - Debiprasad Chattopadhyay and Manjusha Chattopadhyay - of Saroj Dutta's abduction and disappearance by the Kolkata Police.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutta, Saroj Indian communists Maoist theorists 1914 births 1971 deaths Bengali Hindus Bengali-language writers Bengali poets 20th-century Bengalis 20th-century Bengali poets Indian male writers Indian male poets Indian poets Indian journalists Indian male journalists Indian Marxist writers Indian Marxist journalists 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian journalists Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Indian newspaper editors People from Jessore District Extrajudicial killings People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India Scottish Church College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) politicians West Bengal politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Indian politicians Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from West Bengal Politicians from Kolkata Indian Marxist poets Poets from West Bengal