Surya Sen Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More » LyricsAndBio

Some Lesser Known Facts About Surya Sen

Surya Sen was a Bengali Indian freedom fighter who attempted the Chittagong armoury raid on 18 April 1930 against British Raj in Bengal and the Indian subcontinent. During India’s struggle for independence, in 1918, Surya Sen also served as the president of the Indian National Congress of the Chittagong city.
The parents of Surya Sen died at an early age, therefore, Surya and his siblings were brought up by their uncle ‘Gouromoni.’
In 1916, Surya Sen got inspired to join the Indian freedom movement through one of his teachers when he was studying bachelor in arts degree from Berhampore College (now Krishnath College) in Murshidabad, West Bengal. Soon, this inspiration led him to join the ‘Anushilan Samity’ revolutionary organisation. In 1918, he joined a National school at Nandan Kanan in Chittagong and started teaching Mathematics. He was a great teacher and was popular with the name Master Da at school. Later, he left his teaching job at the school that he joined after completing his higher education and joined as the president of the Indian National Congress in 1918.
The Non-cooperation movement started by Mahatma Gandhi was actively joined by Surya Sen. While leading the anti-British rallies, he was arrested by British police who imprisoned him for two years from 1926 to 1928. The phrase that Surya Sen fond to chant while participating in the freedom fighting activities was,

Humanism is a special virtue of the revolutionary.”

Surya Sen began participating the anti-British activities in Chittagong soon after his release from jail in 1918. Surya Sen, along with his comrades Nirmal Sen and Ambika Chakraborty formed an organisation titled Indian Republican Army (IRA) in 1930 where a number of revolutionaries joined them in this uprising movement. In the same year, on 18 April, the members of this organisation plotted a raid on the British police armoury and forces at Chittagong under the leadership of Surya Sen. In this plan, they divided themselves into five groups that aimed to seize the armoury. To execute the plan, the communication systems of the whole Chittagong city such as telephone, telegraph, and railway were dismantled by them. The dismantling isolated the Britishers from the happenings in the city. After the execution of the plan, the arms were robbed by the rebels; but, they did not succeed in capturing the ammunition. Before escaping the crime scene, the revolutionaries hoisted the Indian flag at the spot. Soon, the raids conducted by the British government lead to the arrest of several revolutionaries at Jalalabad Hills only a few days after the Chittagong armoury raid.

During the arrest, a severe clash between the police troops and revolutionaries led to the death of 12 revolutionaries and 80 police personnel. Several missionaries managed to escape the scene and Surya Sen was one of them. After the escape, Surya Sen and his group members divided themselves into small groups and hide in the nearby villages where they continue to rob the government treasury and public properties.

The young revolutionaries of the Chittagong armoury raid were recruited by Surya Sen in 1930. Ananta Singh, Ganesh Ghosh, and Lokenath Bal were the prominent revolutionaries who joined Surya Sen in his movement to fight against the British Raj in India.
After the Chittagong armoury raid, Surya Sen and his companions were declared absconders by the British government. During this time, Surya Sen kept hiding his identity and worked as a workman, a farmer, a priest, a house worker for some time. He also managed to hide at his friend’s place; but, a relative of Surya Sen named Netra Sen who lived near to his friend’s house leaked the information about his whereabouts to the British police. The police arrested him in February 1933 soon after getting the information about Surya Sen. Later, Netra Sen was beheaded in a fit of rage with a sharp knife by the revolutionary companion of Surya Sen. The wife of Netra Sen did not reveal the name of that revolutionary as she was the defender of Surya Sen.