The Three Musketeers who shot two British Police Officers and were martyred

Anupama Nair

www.mediaeyenews.com

Our great Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Amrit Mahotsav or celebration of  India’s 75^th year of Independence. We will be celebrating this event till 2022. I am going to write a feature on all those great men and women who fought against foreign invasion not just against the British. Today I am going to write about the great, but unknown men — Binoy, Badal and Dinesh who gave up their life for their motherland, when they were only teenagers. It is said every battle has to be planned, especially if it was between unequals – on one side the mighty British and the other three young college students who dreamt of a free India.

To understand the story of  Binoy, Badal and Dinesh, I need to take you back many centuries before. India was ruled by the cruel Mughals. It is a credit to the British, how the merchants who came to do trade with India, within 300 years became the masters of the entire land from Khyber to Chittagong and from Kashmir to Comorin (now Kanya Kumari), i.e., entire Sub-Continent. The English East India Company was formed by merchants of England to trade with Asia and India the “golden bird” in particular and America. It was formed by Royal Charter on New Year’s Eve on 1600. They landed in the Indian subcontinent on August 24, 1608, in Surat (Gujarat).

The Battle of Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar (1764) , smoothened their path to conquer the sub-continent. Robert Clive became the first Governor General of British India. By spinning a web of deceit, and many laws like Subsidiary Alliance (Lord Wellesley) and Doctrine of Lapse (Lord Dalhousie), they succeeded in ruling the entire sub-continent by 19^th century. Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India quoted “British rule in India had an unsavory beginning and something of that bitter taste has clung to it ever since”.

There are stories which “never become a part of daily folklore”. I often heard such stories from my grandparents. I remembered many of these stories and attempted to write about them every day. At least, they would be brought in the limelight. These are the stories of heroes who could never made it big, and who were buried in the sands of time. Benoy Krishna Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta were merely teenagers when they attained martyrdom for their motherland.

All of us grew up listening to the tales of our ‘brave-heart’ men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our country. These great freedom fighters influenced us and our generation throughout our history. “But the tragic part is that our history books do not include all the tales from the freedom fighters, and therefore, some fascinating stories are buried in the annals of history. The story of three young freedom fighters, Badal, Binoy, and Dinesh is one of the forgotten stories in history.

The Bengal Volunteers, was organization founded by Subhash Chandra Bose, and was led by Major Satya Gupta, who encouraged young revolutionaries to fight for the freedom of our country. Benoy Basu was born on 11 September 1908, in Munshiganj District, in Bengal (now in Bangladesh). His father, Rebati Mohan Basu was an engineer. After passing the Matriculation Examination in Dacca, he enrolled in Mitford Medical School. Hema Chandra Basu, a famous revolutionary from Dacca, influenced him to join the ‘Mukti Sangha’, that was a secret society closely connected with the Jugantar Party. He could not complete his medical studies due to his association with revolutionary activities.

Dinesh Gupta was born on 6th December 1911, in Munshiganj district (now in Bangladesh). While studying at the Dacca College, he joined the Bengal Volunteers. Badal Gupta was born in the village of Purba Shimulia (now in Bangladesh) and was inspired by Nikunja Sen, who taught at the Banaripara School of Bikrampur. He joined the Bengal Volunteers as a member, and became a revolutionary. Badal was influenced by the revolutionary activities of his two paternal uncles, Late Dharani Nath Gupta, and Nagendra Nath Gupta, who were involved in the Alipore Bomb Case, and was imprisoned along with Aurobindo Ghosh.

The Bengal Volunteers marched on in their mission to teach the ill-reputed British officers a lesson. Gupta spent time in Midnapore, training local revolutionaries in the usage of firearms. ‘Operation Freedom’ was launched in 1930 and protested against police repression in the different Jails of Bengal. Eventually, when Badal, Binoy, and Dinesh met at the Bengal Volunteers, their purpose was just to shake the entire British empire. They fulfilled that wish, when they got an opportunity in the conflict of Writer's Building in Calcutta.

In 1930, they made a plan to kill Lowman, the Inspector General of Police, who was infamous for murdering innocent Indians. Lowman had gone to Dacca Medical College (where Benoy was studying) to visit an ailing officer. On 29th August 1930, Benoy, who was casually dressed in traditional Bengali attire, managed to breach the security and fired at close range. Lowman died on the spot and thus the lives of many innocent Indians were finally avenged!

In the next part you will read about their escape

(Dedicated to my source of inspiration Late Rajendar Singh, who was born in Lyallpur, Lahore and later lived in Mumbai, who told me such wonderful stories. Dadu I hope you are in a wonderful place today and see the articles I have written and bless me to write more such articles in future).

(to be continued….)

Then the police began a witch hunt. His photo was posted everywhere, and a reward of Rs. 10,000 was announced. However, Benoy and his friend Supati Roy managed to escape to Calcutta. What I am going to narrate now, might seem like a scene from a good Hollywood or Bollywood blockbuster – the only difference was, it was an incident from the life of two young men, who wanted to fight for the freedom of their country.

In the next part, you will read about their escape.

(to be continued….)