My grandfather Prabhash Chandra Gupta was a freedom fighter in his youth. He was born in 1910 in Dhaka, the younger son of Advocate Prafulla Chandra Gupta, who practiced in the Dhaka High Court.
My grandfather had a colorful youth and we have heard amusing stories of this era. For instance, he and his elder brother once sold a gold ring in lieu of a glass of lemonade in a fair. The juice seller presumably returned the ring later to my great grand father. Little do we know about the humiliation that followed next.
Young Prabhash Chandra Gupta was a brilliant student. He stood first in Dhaka in the IA Examination and founded the Dhaka Ayurvedic Pharmacy with his elder brother. The pharmacy sold various medicines and cosmetics among which Mrita Sanjibani Sura was a well known product.
During the late 1920 and early 1930s, the struggle for Independence became imminent in India. Sporadic incidences of violence were organised by the revolutionaries who chose to fight the British Raj back and spread terror within the British goverment. My grandfather, in his late teens or early 20s, joined Bengal Volunteers led by Major Satya Gupta. Bengal Volunteers was formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in the 1928 Kolkata session of the Indian National Congress. They were an active revolutionary organisation who launched 'Operation Freedom' in the early 1930s, primarily to protest against the police repression in different jails in Bengal.
I often asked my grandfather to narrate me tales of his stint as a freedom fighter. I was about 9 or 10 then, when he told me how he was involved in a political assassination. He had got orders to kill an important English man and had to carry on this act along with another famous revolutionary. This revolutionary came from outside Dhaka and joined him in the preparation for the attack. They chose a spot to carry out the job and regularly surveyed the place riding on bicycles. Their revolvers arrived on the evening before the D-Day. On that day, they open fired to kill the English man and fled the scene.
When I turn the pages of history today, I find that in August 1930, Benoy Basu, the revolutionary belonging to the coveted trio of Benoy - Badal - Dinesh had shot Lowman, the Inspector General of Police to his death on the premises of Medical School Hospital in Dhaka. The Superintendent of Police, Hodson, was also fatally injured in the attack. Benoy Basu managed to escape from Dhaka to Calcutta after this incident. So, was it my grandfather who accompanied Benoy Basu during this attack? I am not sure, but I know that he along with many of his revolutionary friends chose to remain unnamed and secretly carried on with their mission.
Soon, my grandfather became a prime suspect of police due to his activities, though they could not collect any proof against him. He was jailed and tortured a couple of times, but the police could not extract any information from him. Eventually they had put him under a long duration of house arrest. Signs of torture by the police were evident even in his old age. Sometimes he got an attack to his spine. He would get locked and bent on his right side and took quite some time to recover. Though he never told us the reason behind this illness, but my family suspects that it was caused by the injuries he sustained while he was tortured in jail.
About 1945, our family moved into Kolkata from Dhaka. The pharmacy operations were started near Anwar Shah Road in South Kolkata. The pharmacy eventually declined in the 1970s due to economic reasons and labor unrest and my grandfather retired from his work life.
He started getting pension under the Freedom Fighters' Pension scheme introduced by the Central Government of India. That allowed him to sustain his living. In the late 1980s, he was handed over the Tamra Falak (Copper Plaque) signed by the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, to commemorate his contributions as a freedom fighter. He, along with many other freedom fighters, were handed over this token by West bengal's Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. My father and I accompanied my grandfather to this august event. It was a really proud moment for us, when he received the token on stage. I was very happy that he got the recognition of his efforts from the government of our nation; the nation for which he fought.
I am fortunate to have grown up in his company in my childhood. He was my first friend. He taught me English and Maths, read me story books, and played Cricket and Football with me. He enjoyed watching Cricket matches and the Kolkata Derby Football match on television. He heard the evening news bulletin religiously everyday and played the card game Solitaire each evening. Though he was a man of few words, he often narrated me stories of his younger days in Dhaka. He also loved to celebrate his own birthday on 1st February and decided the lunch menu for that day.
My grandfather died on 10th August, 1999 at the age of 89. He was an active man till his last day. This year marks his 14th death Anniversary. Today, on the occasion of India's Independence Day, I fondly remember his tryst as a freedom fighter, his sacrifice, and his role in bringing Indians the much coveted freedom.
