Martyred at the height of his youth, Dineshchandra Majumdar(1907 – 1934), son of Purnachandra Majumdar of Basirhat in the South 24-Parganas district of West Bengal, was a revolutionary known for his integrity, honesty, and fearlessness. In 1928, after having passed the BA examination, he enrolled for his law degree in Calcutta. Inspired by the life of Pulinbehari Das, he joined the Shimla Byayam Samiti and trained himself in the martial art of playing with the traditional defensive tools like the lathi and knife. Later, he became a member of the Yugantar revolutionary group.
During the First World War, he along with Anujacharan was sent to nurse Shaileshwar Bose, a tuberculosis patient, who harbored the activists working for Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay (alias Bagha Jatin) at Balasore. He was then given the charge of revolutionary organizations in South 24 Parganas and Bagura; with a focus on training Chhatri Samgha units (Girls’ Group) in self defense with lathi and knife, as their teacher.
Entrusted with the responsibility of eliminating the notorious police commissioner of Calcutta, Charles Tegart, Dineshchandra, and his three associates (Anujacharan, Atul Sen, and Shailen Neogy) attacked him on 25 August 1930 at the Dalhousie Square. He first threw the bomb on him followed by Anujacharan from the other side of the road, which misfired and Anujacharan died on the spot, while he was arrested a little away; and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Midnapore jail.
Dineshchandra along with two other inmates escaped from the jail in which one of his legs was broken. Living in the underground, he had to work as a porter to sustain himself till he was given a safe shelter at Chandannagore by Srish Ghosh. Meanwhile, he was joined by Nalini and Phani Das, who escaped the Hijli jail. In 1932, twice they tried to eliminate Mr. Watson, followed by reprisal by the Chandannagore police commissioner. In the exchange of fire, Dineshchandra shot the commission dead and escaped with Nalini.
While living underground in different locations of Calcutta, his followers collected 27000 rupees from the Grindlays Bank by forging signatures. He left the money with lady members for its safe custody. Suffering from tuberculosis, he strictly asked everybody not to spend a single rupee from that money for his treatment. On 22 May 1933, his Cornwallis Street hideout was attacked by the police, Dinesh and two of his fellows fought to their last bullet and were arrested. In the trial, Dinesh was sentenced to capital punishment, which was executed on 9 June 1934 in the Presidency Jail.
Source: Saheed Surya Sen Bhawan, Museum, Calcutta; Shailesh Dey, Agniyug, 1958, in Bengali; Nalini Das, Dwipantarer Bandi, 1974, in Bengali; Subodhchandra Sengupta, Ed. Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan, 1976, in Bengali; Muktir Sangrame Bharat, Information and Culture Dept, Govt. of West Bengal; 1986, in Bengali.