Chittagong uprising :18 April 1930

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Last among the Chittagong armoury raid revolutionaries

 Kolkata, Fri Apr 12 2013

Left leaders Biman Bose and Sujan Chakraborty pay tribute to Chowdury in Kolkata Thursday.
AN associate of revolutionary Mastarda Surya Sen, Binod Behari Chowdhury, the last survivor of the group which carried out the daring Chittagong Armoury raid in 1930 in their fight against British colonialism, died in a Kolkata hospital on Wednesday night.

Born on January 10, 1911 at Boalkhali's Uttarvurshi village in Chittagong, now in Bangladesh, 102 -year-old Chowdhury was undergoing treatment at Fortis Hospital.

One of the firebrand leaders of his time, Chowdhury had started wearing handloom clothes during his early teens, protesting against the British Raj and had come in contact with revolutionaries like Surya Sen, Preetilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Kalipada Chakrabarty and Ambika Chakrabarty.

These are the ones who were responsible for simultaneously raiding the armoury, the police station and the telegraph office at Chittagong in 1930.



The Chittagong Armoury Raid (Bengali: চট্টগ্রাম অস্ত্রাগার লুন্ঠন) also known as Chittagong uprising, was an attempt on 18 April 1930 to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong armoury in Bengal province of British India by armed revolutionaries for Indian independence led by Surya Sen popularly known as Master-da. Chittagong now is in Bangladesh.

The raiders were members of revolutionary groups believing in armed uprisings for Indian independence to India's independence from British colonial rule. The group was led by Masterda (Surya Sen), and included Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal, Nirmal Sen, Ambika Chakrobarty, Naresh Roy, Sasanka Datta, Ardhendu Dastidar, Harigopal Bal (Tegra), Tarakeshwar Dastidar, Ananta Singh, Jiban Ghoshal, Anand Gupta, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Binod Bihari Chowdhury, Subodh Roy and many others.

Surya Sen led a group of revolutionaries on 18 April 1930 to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong armoury.[3] The plan was elaborate and included seizing of arms from the armoury as well as destruction of communication system of the city (including telephone, telegraph and railway), thereby isolating Chittagong from the rest of British India.[3] However, although the group could loot the arms, they failed to get the ammunition. They hoisted the national flag on the premises of the armoury, and then escaped. A few days later, a large fraction of the revolutionary group was cornered in the nearby Jalalabad hills by the British troops. In the ensuing fight, twelve revolutionaries died, many were arrested, while some managed to flee, including Surya Sen.

Film adaptations

A Bengali movie Chattagram Astragar Lunthan was made on the Chittagong armoury raid in 1949. It was directed by Nirmal Chowdhury.
A Hindi movie, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey was made on the Chittagong armoury raid in 2010. It was directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar starring Abhishek Bachchan and supported by Deepika Padukone. It was based on the book Do and Die: The Chittagong Uprising 1930-34 by Manini Chatterjee.
Another film, Chittagong was made in 2010 and released in October 2012. It was directed by Dr. Bedabrata Pain, a former scientist in NASA who resigned from NASA to make this film. Manoj Bajpai was the lead actor and played the role of Surya Sen.