Unsung Heroes Detail

The Indian youth were inspired by the encouragement drawn from the personality of Bipin Chandra Pal. One such youth, who actively participated against the colonial rule in his student days, was Ullaskar Dutt. During this time period, Swadeshi Movement was at its zenith. Ullaskar gave up on foreign clothes and adopted the traditional Bengali attire. He joined revolutionary organizations such as Anushilan Samiti. In the year 1908, he was put behind the bars on charges of his involvement in the Alipore Bomb Case. The explosive – devised to cause a blast on the railway track near Midnapur in order to derail the train and thus, kill the Andrew Fraser (Lieutenant Governor of Bengal) – was said to have been devised by him. He was sentenced to death in the year 1909.

With his initial refusal to sign an appeal against the death sentence awarded to him, later he filed the same on the advice of fellow revolutionaries like Barin Ghosh and his own parents. Thereafter, the sentenced was reduced and he was transported to Kala Pani for life, where he had to endure colonial atrocities. Electric shocks were administered to him, that had an adverse effect on his health. For days, he used to remain unconscious. He even went to the extent of acquiring suicidal tendencies. With deteriorating mental condition, Ullaskar Dutt was shifted to a mental asylum and later on, spent his life sentence in Madras. He wrote two books in Bengali (Dvipantarer Katha and Amar Karajiban), which are firsthand accounts of the gruesome colonial atrocities. His life story reveals the relentless struggle that our great freedom fighters had to endure against the oppressive British colonial administration.