Chittaranjan Das

'Deshbandhu', Chittaranjan Das, was born on November 5, 1870 in an upper middle class Vaidya family of Telirbagh in the Dacca district of Bengal. His father, Bhuban Moban Das, was a famous solicitor of the Calcutta (Kolkata) High Court and a keen member of the Brahmo Samaj. Chittaranjan's patriotic ideas were greatly influenced by his father's.

Chittaranjan was educated at the London Missionary Society's Institution at Bhowanipore and passed the entrance examination in 1885, as a private candidate. In 1890, he graduated from Presidency College and went to England to compete for the I.C.S. examinations. However, as he was "the last man out" in his year, he joined the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1894.

As a student, Chittaranjan Das was influenced by the political ideals of Bankim Chandra Chaterjee.While he was at the Presidency College, Chittaranjan was a leading figure of the Student's Association; and took his first lessons in Public service and elocution from Surendranath Banerjea. In 1894, Chittaranjan Das came back to India and enrolled himself as a Barrister of the Calcutta High Court.

In 1907, he appeared as the defence lawyer of Brahma (Bhadhav) Upadhyaya and Bhupendranath Dutta who were prosecuted for revolutionary activities. Though Chittaranjan Das did not succeed in saving the duo, his abilities as an advocate evoked admirable attention. The turning point in his career was the Alipore Bomb Case in 1908, where he single handedly saved Aurobindo Ghosh from prosecution. The case won him a lot of laurels and announced his arrival to the scene. Chittaranjan Das was also the defence counsel in the Dacca Conspiracy Case (1910-11).

However, it was only in 1917 that Das came to the forefront of Indian politics. In that year he was invited to preside over the Bengal Provincial Conference held at Bhowanipore. It was in this Conference that Chittaranjan gave his memorable presidential speech in Bengali. Chittranjan's political career was brief but spectacular. In the course of only eight years (from 1917 to 1925), he gained an all-India prominence by virtue of his zealous patriotism, indisputable sincerity and oratorical authority. He played an important part in the controversy over the election of Mrs. Annie Besant as the President of the Indian National Congress for its Calcutta Session.

During this period (1917-18) he also took part in the agitation against the Government policy of internment and deportation under the Defence of India Act. Chittaranjan Das was against the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms and at the Amritsar Congress of 1919 he opposed the idea of collaboration with the Government in the execution of the 1919 Reforms.

In 1920, following Gandhi's call for the Non Cooperation Movement, Chittaranjan Das gave up his practice at the Bar. The whole nation was deeply overwhelmed to see this superlative act of altruism. Besides the Non-Cooperation Movement, the chief migration of the Coolies from the Assam tea garden and the strike of the Assam-Bengal railway employees engaged his attention in 1921.

In 1921, Chittaranjan Das defied the repressive measures of the British government which had declared the Congress Volunteers' organisation as illegal and was arrested and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. After his release in 1922, Chittaranjan was elected President for the Congress Session at Gaya. In this session Das tried to push his idea of "Non-Cooperation from within the Councils". However, Chittaranjan Das had to meet with intense opposition from the Mahatma and C. Rajagopalachari. His idea was vetoed and he resigned from the presidentship.

Thereafter he organised the Swarajya Party within the Congress in collaboration with Motilal Nehru, the Ali brothers, Ajmal Khan, V. J. Patel, Pratap Guha Roy and others. It was initially known as the Congress-Swaraj-Khilafat Party. In spite of the bitter criticism launched by the "No-changers" like Shyam Sundar Chakraborty and J. L. Banerjee, the Jalpaiguri Conference was organised by the Swarajists in 1923. Through the efforts of the Swarajists, Maulana Azad was elected President of the Congress Special Session at Delhi, where the programme of Council-Entry was approved. The programme was later confirmed at the Cocanada Session.

Chittaranjan Das championed for "Swaraj for the masses, not for the classes." He believed in non-violent and constitutional methods for the realisation of national independence. In the economic field, Das stressed the need of constructive work in villages. Chittaranjan was also a prolific poet and an essayist. His religious and social outlook was liberal and he was a staunch supporter of female education and widow re-marriage. An advocate of intercaste marriage, he gave his own daughters in marriage to Brahmin and Kayastha families.

Chittaranjan Das passed away on June 16, 1925, at Darjeeling at the age of 55. In the words of Tagore,"the best gift that Chittaranjan left for his countrymen is not any particular political or social programme but the creative force of a great aspiration that has taken a deathless form in the sacrifice which his life represented."