Unsung Heroes | History Corner | Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Ministry of Culture, Government of India

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Paying tribute to India’s freedom fighters

Satishchandra Pakrashi

Dacca, West Bengal

July 31, 2022

A great revolutionary, who spent thirty-two years’ in British prison and eleven years in the underground, Satishchandra (1893-1973), son of Jagadishchandra Pakrashi, was born in Madhavdihi village of Dhaka. He was a student of class seven when his senior Trailokyanath Chakrabarty of the same school took him to Anushilan Samiti established in the nearby Satirpara village, where they began to assemble regularly for physical exercise with lathi, knife and drills. P. Mitra told the youth that picketing against foreign goods cannot get you freedom, which can be achieved only by violent revolt; hence organize yourself into groups.

In 1911, he passed the matriculation examination and in the same year suffered a rigorous imprisonment for one year under the arms act. Released in 1912, he left his home and settled in Dhaka; and in 1917 shifted to Gauhati center with Nalini Bagchi and other associates. On 12 January 1918, when the police attacked the center, Satish and Nalinikanta in a daredevil attack and escaped to Nabagraha hill; valiantly defended their position; and in the night left for Calcutta on foot.

A couple of months later, Satish along with twenty-four other revolutionaries from different parts of Bengal was arrested from Mechhuabazar slum (18 December 1929), with a huge cache of bombs and bomb-making ingredients. Lodged in the Alipore Jail, their trial by a special tribunal started the next month. Satish was transmigrated for seven years term. In the Cellular Jail, he subscribed to the communist ideology.

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