Jatindra Mohan Sengupta (22 February 1885 – 23 July 1933) was an Indian revolutionary against the
British rule
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
. He was arrested several times by the British police. In 1933, he died in a prison located in
Ranchi
Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...
, India.
Sengupta studied at Hare School, Calcutta and Presidency College, Calcutta. After that he travelled to England, where he studied law at Downing College, Cambridge. During his stay there, he met and married Edith Ellen Gray, later known as Nellie Sengupta. He was elected president of the Cambridge Majlis in 1908. After returning to India, he started a legal practice. He also joined in Indian politics, becoming a member of the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...
and participating in the
Non-Cooperation Movement
The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.
Jatindra Mohan Sengupta was born on 22 February 1885 to a prominent land-owning (''
zamindar
A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...
'') family of Barama, in Chittagong district of
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(now in
Chittagong
Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...
). His father,
Jatra Mohan Sengupta
Jatra Mohan Sengupta or Jatramohan Sen (1850-1919) was a Bengali lawyer and politician.
Early life
Sengupta was on 30 July 1850 in Barama, Chandanaish Upazila, Chittagong District, Bengal Presidency, British Raj. His father, Trahiram Sen, was an ...
, was an advocate and a member of the
Bengal Legislative Council
The Bengal Legislative Council ( was the legislative council of Bengal Presidency, British Bengal (now Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal).
It was the legislature of the Bengal Presidency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ...
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
. After completing his university studies, he went to England in 1904 to acquire a bachelor's degree in law. While in England, he met his future wife, Edith Ellen Gray, who is now better known as Nellie Sengupta.
Career
After being awarded his degree in law, Sengupta was called to the Bar in England then returned with his wife to India, where he began practicing law as a barrister. In 1911, he represented Chittagong in the
Bengal Provincial Conference
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
at Faridpur. This was the beginning of his political career. Later, he joined the Indian National Congress. He also organised the employees of the Burmah Oil Company to form a union.
In 1921, Sengupta became the chairman of the Bengal Reception Committees of the Indian National Congress. That same year, during a strike at the Burmah Oil Company, he was also serving as the secretary of the employees' union. He abandoned his legal practise due to his commitment to political work, particularly related to the Non-Cooperation Movement led by
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
. In 1923, he was selected as a member of the Bengal Legislative Council.
In 1925, after the death of
Chitta Ranjan Das
Chittaranjan Das (5 November 1870 – 16 June 1925), popularly called ''Deshbandhu'' (Friend of the Nation), was an Indian freedom fighter, political activist and lawyer during the Indian independence movement and founder-leader of the Swa ...
, Sengupta was elected president of the Bengal
Swaraj Party
The Swaraj Party, established as the ''Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'', was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and ...
. He also became president of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. He was mayor of Calcutta from 10 April 1929 to 29 April 1930. In March 1930, at a public meeting in
Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military governme ...
, he was arrested on charges of provoking people against the Government and opposing the India–Burma separation.
In 1931, Sengupta went to England to attend the
Round Table Conference
The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...
, supporting the position of the Indian National Congress. He submitted pictures of police atrocities committed by the British to control the Chittagong rebellion, which shook the British Government.
Death
Sengupta was repeatedly arrested due to his political activities. In January 1932, he was arrested and detained in
Poona
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...
and then in
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Ne ...
. Later, he was transferred to prison in Ranchi. There, his health started to decline and he died on 23 July 1933.
Influence
Because of his popularity and contribution to the Indian freedom movement, Jatindra Mohan Sengupta is affectionately remembered by people of Bengal with the honorific ''Deshpriya'' or ''Deshapriya'', meaning "beloved of the country". In many criminal cases he defended the nationalist revolutionaries in the court and saved them from the
gallows
A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...
. He pled for
Surya Sen
Surya Sen, also called Surya Kumar Sen (22 March 189412 January 1934), was an Indian revolutionary who was influential in the Indian independence movement against British rule in India and is best known for leading the 1930 Chittagong armour ...
,
Ananta Singh
Ananta Lal Singh (1 December 1903 - 25 January 1979) was an Indian revolutionary, who participated in the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930.Sengupta, Subodh Chandra (ed.) (1988) ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (in Bengali), Kolkata: Sahit ...
,
Ambika Chakrabarty
Ambika Chakrabarty (January 1892 – 6 March 1962) was an Indian independence movement activist and revolutionary. Later, he was a leader of the Communist Party of India and a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Revolutionary acti ...
in the Pahartali trial and also saved a young revolutionary,
Premananda Dutta
Premananda Dutta was a Bengalis, Bengali revolutionary and activist of Indian freedom struggle attached with Chittagong armoury raid, Chittagong Rebellion against the British Government in India.
Early life
Dutta was born in Chittagong (Chattag ...
, who had been accused in the case relating to the murder of Inspector Prafulla Chakraborty. In 1985, a postal stamp was issued by the Indian Government in memory of Sengupta and his wife, Nellie
Gallery
File:Jatindra Mohan Sengupta Memorial 3.jpg, Bust of Jatindra Mohan Sengupta at his Memorial in Kolkata