Did you know?

Suniti Choudhary & Shanti Ghosh were amongst the youngest freedom fighters&revolutionaries India ever had.

Born on 22May1917 in Comilla distt of West Bengal(present Bangladesh)to a middle class family,Suniti was influenced by freedom movement at a very young age.

More specifically she was influenced with the freedom fighters and revolutionaries. She was inspired by the revolutionary activities of Ullaskar Dutta who was also a revolutionary from Comilla. She studied in 'Faizunnissa Balika Vidyalaya' where she met Prafulla Nalini Brahma.

Prafulla had a great influence on her. She also gifted Suniti with the books on revolutionary material which were banned by the British.Prafulla also recruited her to the 'Jugantar Party'. The women wing of the party 'Tripura Zilla Chhatri Sangha' was joined by her later.

Later Suniti became the Major of District Volunteer Corps and led the women parade in honour of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who came to town to address the student organisation. On being asked about the role of women in the revolutionary activities, Netaji immediately said...

...,'I would be pleased to see the women leading from the front'.
In the annual conference of 'Tripura Zilla Chhatri Sangha' held on 6May1931,she was chosen as Captain of Women's Volunteer Corps.She became custodian of firearms&incharge of training female members of organisation.

During this time, the' Chhatri Sangha', affiliated to 'Jugantar Party' continued training young girls. The smartest and courageous girls among the trainees were made informants to the revolutionaries and they also passed arms, ammunition, papers and money to them.

But three of the most brave, nationalist&fierce girls of all Shanti Ghosh,Suniti Choudhary &Prafulla Nalini demanded more effective&significant responsibilities.They wanted to play an equal role to dat of boys. Many questions were raised by senior leaders on this demand of girls.

Suniti countered the opposition by saying,'What good is our dagger &stick play,if we skip the real action?'It was only when Biren Bhattacharjee covertly interviewed the 3 valiant girls that their physical&weapon training began under Akhil Chandra Nandi.

Akhil Chandra was the president of 'Tripura Students Organisation'. The girls used to bunk school to practice fire shots in Forest away from town.After completing the rigorous training, first task that was assigned to them was the assassination of Distt Magistrate Charles Stevens

Stevens was born in December 1880 in Metropolis of London. He came to India on 18 Dec 1914 and joined as Distt Magistrate of Comilla in March 1930. The' Civil Disobedience Movement' was in upsurge and the police was brutal and inhumane as ever.

Shanti & Suniti witnessed the barbarism of Charles Stevens with their own eyes who ordered to butcher the protestors and wanted to stop the freedom movement at any cost.
It was a bright sunny morning on 14 Dec 1931 when a cart stopped in front of the Distt Magistrate's Bungalow.

Two teenager girls stepped down the cart giggling, laughing and filled with confidence. The girls sent a letter to the Magistrate through the guard. The girls Ila Sen & Mira Devi came to appeal for a swimming club. Ila and Mira were, perhaps the aliases used by Suniti and Shanti.

They acted well&flattered the Magistrate with absolute perfection.Stevens agreed&went to his chamber to sign the letter. As soon as he came back the girls were standing in front of him with revolvers pointing towards him, which they had hidden under silk wrapper on their Sarees.

Charles Stevens was staring at a sudden death.Shots echoed the bungalow &Magistrate was lying on the floor,blood all over. Suniti and Shanti were only 14 & 15 yrs old when they completed this task. The girls didn't even ran as they were ready to go to prison.

Symbolic image only

News spread like fire all over. Revolutionaries hailed the brave girls and distributed pamphlets about them. Girls were imprisoned and the trial began. They maintained their composure and cheerfulness throughout their trial as they were certain that they will die Martyr's death.

However, being minors, they were sentenced to 10 years in prison. They were disappointed as they wanted nothing less than the Martyr's garland ( fansi ka fanda).After this began their struggles in the prison and their families' hardships in their lives.

Suniti's father's pension was stopped,her two elder brothers put in prison without trial.Authorities never stopped their efforts to break them down but it was in vain.Prafulla was also thrown in prison accused as key conspirator where she died after 5yrs in lack of medical care.

Shanti&Suniti were kept in inhuman conditions in the prison & tortured on a regular basis but it made them stronger&they never gave up information&their other revolutionary friends.Ordeal ended after 7ys in 1939 when the amnesty negotiations befor World War 2 caused their release

Suniti later became a reputed doctor in Chandanagar, married a good man named Pradyut Ghosh and had a daughter named Bharati Ghosh. She lived a fulfilled life and died peacefully on Jan 12 1988 leaving behind a patriotic,valiant and inspiring legacy.

The assassination of Charles Stevens helped to boost the Civil Disobedience Movement and Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi in a big way as Charles was crumbling the movement tremendously. Many of the revolutionaries sacrificed their lives to help the freedom movement.

But Mahatma Gandhi never gave any credit to these real heroes, instead he has a great hand in terming them as terrorists.

I want to say today that our Freedom Struggle was much more than ,' De di hamein azaadi bina khadag bina dhaal', the least we can do is remember those great revolutionaries and the real heroes of our 'Struggle for Swaraj'.

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