Martyred just at the age of seventeen years, Nirmaljiban Ghosh(1917-1934), son of the pleader Jaminijiban Ghosh, was born in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. As an Intermediate Arts student of the Midnapore College, he joined the Bengal Volunteers of Hemchandra Ghosh. His role model was Dinesh Gupta, the hero of many revolutionary encounters including the Writers’ Buildings.
Midnapore in the early 1930s was at the height of revolutionary activities vis-à-vis the repressive policy followed by the district administration, leading to the murder of three successive British District Magistrates in 1931-32, a unique revolutionary feat in the whole of India.
Most ruthless of the trio was Bernard E J Burge, who often boasted of his dealing with the Irish revolutionaries back home and attachment to football. On the occasion of a similar match on the police ground on the 2 September 1932, Mr. Burge was shot dead by Anathbandhu Panja and Mrigen Datta when he got down from his car; while the duo succumbed to retaliatory police firing.
Nirmaljiban and his friends Brajokishore Chakraborty and Ramkrishna Roy were not directly involved in the case, but they were arrested the next day. In a mockery of trial under the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1930, all of them were given death sentences. On 26 October 1934, Nirmaljiban Ghosh was hanged to death at the Midnapore Central Jail.
Source: Saheed Surya Sen Bhawan, Museum, Calcutta; Shailesh Dey, Agniyug, 1958, in Bengali; Tarashankar Bhattacharyya, Swadhinata Sangrame Medinipur, 1973, in Bengali; Subodhchandra Sengupta, Ed. Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan, I, 1976, in Bengali.