FREEDOM STRUGLE AND MY GRANDFATHER

While my maternal grandfather was an Army officer, my paternal grandfather was a civil servant


My paternal grandfather was a freedom fighter incarcerated in the famous Hijli detention facility (now IIT Kharagpur). His cellmate was Sarat Chandra Bose—a prominent barrister, nationalist leader, and elder brother (Mejda) of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Though Sarat Bose was released in 1945 just prior to the INA trials, my grandfather was finally released after 1947 independence when the government of India announced general amnesty for all freedom fighters incarcerated in various jails.

My grandfather's Tamra Patra (copper plaque), official commemorative honor presented by the Government of India to recognize and record the contributions of individual freedom fighters during the Indian independence movement, has its pride of place in the family. I cant produce it here since it is with my uncles and I dont have a photo of it. (Attached photo is representative)



The relationship of my grandfather with Sarat Bose had been cemented in those days in Hijli Detention Center cell. After release, my grandfather was called by Sarat Bose and inducted into Bengal Government Civil Services.

It was a boon for a young man just released from jail and realising that his family are now refugees from East Bengal. The family moved from Rajshahi to Calcutta, lived in various Muslim evacuee properties, frequently shifting from Park Circus, Tala, Karaya Road, Gariahat and govt service posting to Behrampore, Balurghat, Chinsurah, Barrackpore etc.

The struggles paid off, the family finally well settled.

HIJLI DENTENTION CENTER

The Hijli Detention Camp, located in Midnapore West, West Bengal, is one of the most historically significant colonial carceral institutions in India.

The British colonial government set up the detention camp in 1930 to warehouse political prisoners and revolutionaries involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement without trial under Bengal Emergency Regulations.

The camp became infamous for the Hijli Firing (16 September 1931)—the only instance of British armed police opening fire on unarmed political detainees inside a detention facility. Two freedom fighters, Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sengupta, were killed on the spot, and several others were critically injured.

The incident sparked immense outrage across Bengal. Subhas Chandra Bose personally arrived at the camp to claim the martyrs' bodies, while Rabindranath Tagore publicly condemned the atrocity during a massive protest gathering in Calcutta.

The camp was closed in 1937, reopened in 1940 to hold political prisoners, and officially closed again in 1942. During World War II, the grounds were repurposed by the Allied forces as a U.S. Army Air Forces base.

After WW II, the US Army vacated the grounds and it was once again turned into a detention center for incarcerating freedom fighters and political prisoners.

In 1951, the Government of India established the country's first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Kharagpur) on the grounds of the former camp.



Today, the main administrative building of the former detention camp stands inside the IIT Kharagpur campus. It has been preserved and renamed Shaheed Bhavan, housing the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology to honor the martyrs of the 1931 firing.

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