Schoolgirl Shanti Ghosh’s fearless feat was recalled by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Singapore while referring to the courage of Indian women to the Rani Jhansi cadets of the INA. Born in Calcutta, she was brought up in the Comilla district of undivided Bengal, where her father, Debendranath, taught philosophy at Victoria College. A staunch nationalist, he inspired his children with the ideals of nationalism. Shanti could thus read Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar’s Desher Katha (Tales of Motherland), a prescribed book, from her elder brother’s desk.
Inspired by her senior Prafullanalini Bramha, Shanti became an active member of the revolutionary group, Yugantar, when she was a student of class eighth standard in Comilla’s Faizunnisa School. In 1931, Subhash Chandra Bose visited Comilla for All-Bengal Students’ Conference; when pressed by Shanti for his autograph, he scribbled, ‘Mother, to save your dignity, hold the sword on your own’. Thus inspired, she organized the Chhatri Samgha (Girls’ Group) in Comilla with Prafullanalini as the president and her classmate Suniti as the captain and as secretary. They took part clandestinely in revolver shooting and martial arts training from revolutionary Barun Bhattacharyya.
On the 14th of December 1931, Shanti and Suniti, aged 14 and 15 years respectively, innocently entered the bungalow of Magistrate Mr. Stevens with a pistol and shot him dead at point-blank range. Spared of capital punishment due to her age; she was sentenced to life imprisonment and made to suffer all sorts of physical torture but did not yield. Released in 1939 at Gandhi’s intervention, she resumed her studies. She was a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly (1962-67); later also of the Legislative Council.