Surya Sen

After Sen was arrested, fellow revolutionary Tarakeshwar Dastidar made a plan to rescue Surya Sen from the Chittagong Jail. However the police learned of the plan and thwarted it, arresting all those involved.

Surya Sen along with Tarekeshwar Dastidar was hanged by the British on 12 January 1934. He was brutally tortured before his execution.

Many movies on the life of this brave revolutionary have been made. These include Bengali movie ‘Chattagram Astragar Lunthan’ (1949), ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey’ (2010) and ‘Chittagong’ (2012).

Suryakumar Sen was born on 22 March 1894, in Chittagong, Bengal Presidency, British India, to Ramaniranjan Sen and Shashibala. His father was a teacher, and their family was a lower middle class one.

He grew up to be an idealistic and independent minded young man. He completed his B.A. from Behrampore College. While he was a student there, he was exposed to the ideals of the Indian freedom movement by one of his teachers. He instantly connected with the revolutionary ideals and joined a revolutionary organization Anushilan Samity.

After completing his studies, Surya Sen became a teacher at National school, Nandankanan. During this time he also intensified his involvement in the Indian independence struggle and became associated with the Indian National Congress, the most prominent political party there. In 1918, he was selected as president of Indian National Congress, Chittagong branch.

He quickly gained respect as a teacher. In addition to his regular duties as a teacher, he also used to discuss the relevance of the freedom struggle with his students. He formed a revolutionary group along with other like-minded individuals such as Nirmal Sen and Ambika Chakraborty.

By the early 1920s he was successful in spreading revolutionary ideals to different parts of the Chittagong district. He was convinced that a secret Guerilla was the need of the moment given the many challenges they faced, including the lack of equipment and other resources.

He believed violent action was needed to revolutionize the independence struggle and planned to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong armoury in Bengal province of British India. He teamed up with other revolutionaries like Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal, Naresh Roy, Sasanka Datta, Ardhendu Dastidar, and others to plan this raid.

He proposed that the team capture the two main armouries in Chittagong and then destroy the telegraph and telephone office before assassinating members of the "European Club"—the government or military officials involved in maintaining the British Raj in India. The elaborate plan also included cutting off rail and communication lines in order to sever Chittagong from Calcutta.

Surya Sen was the leader of the Chittagong Armoury Raid, also known as Chittagong uprising in 1930. He led a group of armed revolutionaries for Indian independence and was successful in capturing police armoury and the Auxiliary Forces armory. The group also managed to capture the European club's headquarters. This incident served as an inspiration to several other revolutionaries all over the country.