Surya Sen (Bangla: সূর্য সেন) (1894-1934) (also known as Masterda Surya Sen) (Bangla: মাস্টারদা সূর্য সেন) was a prominent Bengali Indian freedom fighter and was the chief architect of anti-British freedom movement in Chittagong, Bengal (now in Bangladesh). A resident of Noapara under Chittagong, he was a teacher by profession. He was initiated into revolutionary ideas in 1916 by one of his teachers while he was a student of BA Class in the Behrampore College. On his return to Chittagong in 1918, he became the president of the Chittagong branch of the Indian National Congress, revived the hardline patriotic organisation and became a teacher of the local national school. Hence, he was known as Mastarda (teacher brother).
By 1923 Surya Sen established a number of hardline patriotic organisations (including Jugantar) in different parts of Chittagong district. Aware of the limited equipment and other resources of the freedom fighters, he was convinced of the need for secret guerrilla warfare against the colonial Government. One of his early successful undertakings was a broad day robbery at the treasury office of the Assam-Bengal Railway at Chittagong. His subsequent major success in the anti-British revolutionary violence was the Chittagong Armoury Raid in 1930.
Surya Sen, being constantly followed up by the police, had to hide at the house of Sabitri Devi, a widow, near Patiya. A police and military force under Captain Cameron surrounded the house on 13 June 1932. Cameron was shot dead while ascending the staircase and Surya Sen along with Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutta escaped to safety.
Surya Sen was always in hiding, moving from one place to another. Sometimes he used to take a job as a workman; sometimes he would take a job as a farmer, or milkman, or priest, or houseworker. This is how he used to avoid being captured.
Either because of money, or out of jealousy, or because of both, Netra Sen told the British Government that Surya Sen was at his house. As a result, the police came and captured him. This is how India's supreme hero was arrested. But before Netra Sen was able to get his 10,000-rupee reward, he was sent to God.
This is how it happened. Netra Sen's wife was all for Surya Sen, and she was horrified by her husband's deed. She felt mortified by her husband's betrayal of Surya Sen. She couldn't believe her eyes; she couldn't believe her ears.
One evening she was serving her husband food when a great admirer of Surya Sen came into the house. He was carrying a very big knife, which is called a dal. With one stroke of the dal he chopped off the head of Netra Sen in the presence of his wife. Then slowly and stealthily he went away.
When the police arrived to investigate, they asked Netra Sen's wife if she had seen who the murderer was. She said, "I saw with my own eyes, but my heart will not permit me to tell you his name. I am sorry. I feel miserable that I was the wife of such a treacherous man, such an undivine man as Netra Sen. My husband betrayed the greatest hero of Chittagong. My husband betrayed a great son of Mother India. My husband cast a slur on the face of India. Therefore, I cannot tell the name of the person who took his life. He has definitely done the right thing. You can do anything with me. You can punish me, you can even kill me, but I shall never tell the name of the person who killed my husband. Our Master-da will be hanged, I know, but his name will forever be synonymous with India's immortal freedom-cry. Everybody loves him. Everybody adores him. I, too, love him and adore him, for he is the brightest sun in the firmament of Chittagong. Surya means sun and he is truly our sun."
Surya Sen along with his comrade Tarekeshwar Dastidar was hanged by the British rulers on 12 January 1934. Before the death sentence Surya Sen was brutally tortured. It was reported that the British executioners broke all his teeth with hammer and plucked all nails and broke all limbs and joints. He was dragged to the rope unconscious. After his death his death body wasn’t given any funeral. The prison authority, it was found later, put his dead body in a metallic cage and dumped into the bay of Bengal.
His last letter to his comrades, written on 11th January, will remain enshrined in history as the most eloquent testimony of the excellence of his manhood... "Death is knocking at my door. My mind is flying away towards infinity ... this is the moment to myself to embrace death as the dearest of friends. In this happy, sacred and crucial moment, what am I leaving for you all? Only one thing, my dream, a golden dream, the dream of a Free India. Dear comrades, march ahead; never retrace your step. Days of servitude are receding. Freedom's illuminating ray is visible over there. Arise and never give way to despair. Success is sure to come." [Arindam Ray, Ami amar bhogoban ke dekhini, kintu tar somporke jotota jani ta likhlam.]
Tarakeswar Dastidar, the new president of the Chittagong Branch Jugantar Party, made a preparation to rescue Surya Sen from the Chittagong Jail. But the plot was unearthed and consequently frustrated. Tarakeswar and Kalpana along with others were arrested. Special tribunals tried Surya Sen, Tarakeswar Dastidar, and Kalpana Datta in 1933.
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