The Writer's Building in Kolkata, the administrative nerve center of the city under British colonial rule, was buzzing with activity on the 8th of December 1930. As British officers, gentry, Bengali gentlemen, and clerks went about their regular business, three men broke the silence with a deafening roar that would echo for generations. It was Benoy, Badal, and Dinesh Chandra Gupta who decided to act after being influenced by revolutionary activities during the Indian freedom struggle.
In the village of Rohitbhog in Munshiganj district, Benoy Krishna Basu was born on 11th September 1908. He enrolled in the Sir Salimullah Medical College (erstwhile Mitford Medical School) after passing the matriculation exam. Benoy joined the ‘Mukti Sangha’ which was a secret society connected to the revolutionary Jugantar party influenced by Hemchandra Ghosh, a Dhaka-based revolutionary.
For more on Hemchandra Ghosh, read: https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/district-reopsitory-detail.htm?4631
In the tiny village of Josholong in Munshiganj district, Dinesh Gupta was born on 6th December 1911. In 1928, during the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress, he was a member of the Bengal Volunteers, a group mobilized by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
In the village of Purba Shimulia (East Shimulia), in Dhaka’s Bikrampur region, Badal Gupta was born on 8th December 1912. He was inspired by Nikunja Sen, who taught at the Banaripara School of Bikrampur, and joined the Bengal Volunteers as a member.
For more on Nikunja Sen, read: https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/district-reopsitory-detail.htm?4646
During the 1928 Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress, led by Major Satya Gupta, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose organized the Bengal Volunteers. The group continued its activities even after the session of Congress ended. The Bengal Volunteers marched on in their quest to finish the atrocities done by the British officers. Gupta spent time in Midnapore, training local revolutionaries in firearm usage and they were famous for their revolutionary exploits. It was the group’s intention to execute Lowman, the colonial police Inspector General, in August 1930, at the Medical School Hospital in Dhaka. In August 1930, Operation Freedom protested police repression across Bengal jails. Benoy shot Lowman and fled to Kolkata shortly after.
The British managed to overpower the trio, but the men refused to surrender. Badal Gupta immediately ingested Potassium Cyanide, while Benoy and Dinesh shot themselves point blank with their firearms.
Benoy breathed his last in a hospital on 13 December 1930. Dinesh was the only brave of the three who survived, but for anti-government activities and murder, he was hanged. Therefore, the latter was martyred at the young age of 19 years at Alipore Jail on 7th July 1931.
The young trio achieved immortality on the 8th of December 1930. Two of them were 22 years old, and the third was just 19 years old.