Kalpana Dutta

01 Nov 2017

Born in Chittagong district (now Bangladesh) on 27 July 1913. While studying at Bethune College in Calcutta, she was inspired to join the Chhatri Sangha, and was drawn into the revolutionary circle in Chittagong led by Surya Sen, known as ‘Master-da’. After the Chittagong Armory Raid (April 1930) Kalpana and Pritilata Wadedar persuaded Master-da to train them for direct action. Kalpana planned to plant a dynamite fuse under the court building and inside the jail to free the revolutionary leaders. The plot was discovered, but even while she was in internment she managed to evade police surveillance and to visit regularly the village where Surya Sen was staying. Pritilata attained martyrdom during the attack on the European Club at Chittagong (September 1931). Kalpana had been arrested a week before the action, and heard about Pritilata’s martyrdom while in jail. On obtaining bail, she went underground and managed to escape arrest when the police captured Surya Sen from their hideout. She was eventually arrested a few months later. Surya Sen and Tarakeswar Dastidar were sentenced to death, and Kalpana was sentenced to transportation for life. Released in 1939, she graduated from Calcutta University in 1940. Soon she joined the CPI and married P.C. Joshi in 1943. She went back to Chittagong to organize the Kisans’ and women’s fronts of the party. In 1946 she contested, unsuccessfully, in the elections to the Bengal Legislative Assembly. Kalpana Datta died on 8 February 1995.

freedom fighters

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