Binod Bihari Chowdhury

April 15, 2013

Legendary anti-British revolutionary and Chittagong Armory raid famed Binod Bihari Chowdhury (102) passed away.

Citizenship: Bangladeshi
Titles: “Biplobi” (Revolutionary), “Agnipurush”

He was a recipient the Independence Day Award, the highest civilian award in Bangladesh. He was our last remaining link to a decisive part of sub-continental history.

Timeline:

Early 1930: Binod Bihari Chowdhury joined the anti-British revolutionary group “Jugantar” and came in close contact with Surya Sen (popularly called as “Master Da”) who was preparing for an armed uprising against the British Raj in Chittagong.

Their plan was to seize the 2 main British armouries in Chittagong, to destroy the telegraph and telephone office, raiding firearms retailers, cutting down rail and communication lines so as isolate Chittagong from rest of British India and finally assassinate the members of the "European Club", the bulk of whom were British officials involved in maintaining the British Raj in India. In the plan leader Surya Sen was accompanied by Binod Bihari and some others.

April 18, 1930: The plan was eventually executed at 10 p.m. Chittagong was freed from British India for 4 days (April 18 – 21, 2013). The Jugantar group attacked the armoury and managed to loot the arms, but they were unable to get the ammunition. On the premises of the armoury, they even hoisted the national flag.

The British Raj then sent a large army of troops in Chittagong.

April 22, 1930: The British troops cornered the revolutionaries in the nearby Jalalabad Hills and then attacked the hills. In the fight 12 revolutionaries and over eighty troops were killed. Binod Bihari Choudhary who was wounded at his neck was captured. Surya Sen managed to flee.

January-March 1932: Trial was held for the revolutionaries and all the captured revolutionaries including Binod Bihari Chowdhury were expatriated to the Duly Detention Camp in Rajputana.

1947: Chittagong became a part of East Pakistan subsequent to the partition of India in 1947 and Binod Bihari Chowdhury preferred to stay in his hometown and then participated actively in the politics of Bangladesh.

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