Shanti Gopal Sen ( 25 December 1913 – 16 September 1996 ) was an Indian revolutionary and member of the

Bengal Volunteers Bengal Volunteers Corps was an underground revolutionary group against the British rule of India. The group was functional from its inception in 1928 to the Indian independence. The beginning Subhas Chandra Bose organised a group of voluntee ...

who carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence.As he was a sharp shooter the British named him as Shanti Gopal Crackshoot Sen.

Early life and education

Santi Gopal Sen was born in Malda in the year 1913. After passing the matriculation examination from

Malda Zilla School Malda Zilla School is the oldest school at Malda district, West Bengal, India. At present, the morning section of the school runs from Class – I to Class – V while the day section runs from Class – VI to Class – XII. In the higher second ...

he went to Midnapur with his father who was transferred from Malda to Midnapur and later he admitted to Midnapur College for further studies. Later he joined the Bengal Volunteers, a revolutionary organisation of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Shanti Gopal Sen's name in Andaman Cellular Jail list, Port Blair 2009

Revolutionary activities

After the murders of two previous

District Magistrate The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...

s James Peddy and Robert Douglas, no British officer was ready to take charge of

Midnapore district Midnapore (Pron: mad̪aːniːpur), or sometimes Medinipur, is a former district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Midnapore. On 1 January 2002, the district was bifurcated into two separate districts namely Purba Medinipur ...

. Former soldier Bernard E. J. Burge was then posted to

. Members of the Bengal Volunteers:

Ramkrishna Roy Ram Krishna Roy (9 January 1912 – 15 October 1934) was an Indian revolutionary and member of the Bengal Volunteers who carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence. He was hanged on ...

, Brajakishore Chakraborty, Prabhanshu Sekhar Pal, Kamakhya Charan Ghosh, Sonatan Roy, Nanda Dulal Singh, Sukumar Sen Gupta, Bijoy Krishna Ghose, Purnananda Sanyal, Manindra Nath Choudhury, Saroj Ranjan Das Kanungo, Santi Gopal Sen, Sailesh Chandra Ghose,

Anath Bondhu Panja Anathbandhu Panja (29 October 1911 – 2 September 1933) was an Indian revolutionary and member of the Bengal Volunteers who carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence. Early life ...

and Mrigendra Dutta decided to assassinate him. Roy, Chakraborty,

Nirmal Jibon Ghosh Nirmal Jiban Ghosh (5 January 1916 – 26 October 1934) was an Indian revolutionary and member of the Bengal Volunteers. He was hanged on 26 October 1934 for the charge of assassination of Magistrate Burge. Family Ghosh was born in Dhamasin vi ...

and Dutta planned to shoot Burge dead while he was playing in a football match between Midnapore Mohammedan sporting Club (a fan club of

Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) Mohammedan Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as Mohammedan, is an Indian sports club, multi-sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The club is best known for their professional men's association football, football section which compete ...

) and Midnapore Town Club( Bradley-Birt football tournament) at the police grounds of

Midnapore Medinipur or Midnapore is a city known for its history in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the West Medinipur district. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River (variously known as ''Kasai'' and ''Cossye''). ...

. On 2nd September 1933 during the half time of the football match on the police parade ground, Burge was shot and killed by Panja and Dutta. Panja was killed instantly by one of Burges' bodyguards. Dutta was also shot and died in hospital on the next day. Anath Bondhu Panja and Mrigendra Dutta were acquitted of the murder of Magistrate Burge. After the shootout he took a cycle and fled to the Salbani Jungle. There he boarded train from the railway station of Godapiasal. A revolutionary named Binod Sen aks Binod Bihari Sen from village Godapiasal helps him for this matter. After one year he was arrested from Kolkata. British Government made a separate trial for him.

Later life

After the

Independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

, Sen won several elections, which included the English Bazar seat of West Bengal Assembly in 1957, 1962, and 1967. Each time he won the Assembly poll as an

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

candidate. For the rest of his life Sen worked as a social worker. He was honoured with a

Tamrapatra Indian copper plate inscriptions are legal records engraved on copper plates. The practice was widespread and long-running in the Indian subcontinent; it may date back to as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, however the vast majority of recovered ...

by the Indian Government in 1972. He donated in various way for the establishment of Malda Women's College and Malda Girls School (Shanti Sen Girls School). A road named Shanti Sen Sarani was named after him.Sen died on 16 September 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Shanti Gopal 1913 births 1996 deaths Revolutionary movement for Indian independence Indian nationalism Indian people convicted of murder Indian revolutionaries People from Malda district Revolutionaries from West Bengal Bengali politicians West Bengal MLAs 1957–1962 West Bengal MLAs 1962–1967 West Bengal MLAs 1967–1969 Indian independence activists from Bengal Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal