Saroj Dutta

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Saroj Dutta
সরোজ দত্ত
Kolkata Saroj Dutta statue.jpg
Personal details
Born 13 March 1914
Jessore, East Bengal
Died 5 August 1971 (aged 57)
South Calcutta, West Bengal
Nationality Indian
Political party Communist Party of India

Communist Party of India (Marxist),

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
Spouse(s) Bela Dutta
Alma mater University of Calcutta Scottish Church College
Profession Politician, Poet, Journalist


Bust of Saroj Dutta at Esplanade, Kolkata.

Saroj Dutta (March 13, 1914 – August 5, 1971) (Comrade SD) was an Indian communist intellectual and poet, active in the extremist Naxalite movement in West Bengal in the 1960s. He also remained editor-in-chief of the Amrita Bazar Patrika during the 1940s.[1]

He was killed in an police encounter on August 5, 1971 in Kolkata, at the height on Naxalite movement.[2][3]

Early life and education

He was born in a land-owning family in Jessore in East Bengal, now in Bangladesh, on 13 March 1914. He studied at the Victoria Collegiate School in Narail, and later graduated from the Scottish Church College in Calcutta in 1936. He subsequently earned his MA In English Literature 1938 from the University of Calcutta.[4]

Career

Dutta joined the Amrit Bazar Patrika in early 1940s, after completing his studies, however he was fired in 1949 for joining violent activities as a member of the Communist Party of India. In 1962, after the Sino-Indian War he was briefly arrested for having pro-China (Maoist) sympathies. In 1964 he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(M), and was an editor of their paper, Swadhinata, along with Sushital Ray Chowdhary. He was among the many radicals who were disillusioned when the CPI(M) decided to join electoral politics in the runup to the 1967 elections.[5]

Attracted to a more radical form of revolutionary Marxism, he along with Sushital Ray Chowdhury and some other Calcutta intellectuals, supported the Charu Majumdar-led Naxalbari uprising in May 1967. In April 1969, he was also one of the founder members of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), CPI (ML), an organization which was outlawed a year later[6] for conducting armed guerrilla warfare targeted at the landlords and the police.

Saroj Datta, along with Charu Majumdar, became one of the most wanted men in Bengal.

Death

Arrested on the night of August 4–5, 1971, he was killed by the Kolkata Police on the Aryan Club grounds in the Maidan (Kolkata) that very morning.[7] It is said that the movie star Uttam Kumar witnessed the shooting while on a morning walk, but talked about it much later when drunk; this is the storyline of the 1994 Bengali-language movie Sopan.[3][8]

In 1977, after the CPI(M) returned to power with a Left-front majority, ten thousand intellectuals[9] signed on a petition seeking an investigation of Saroj Dutta's death. The petition was given to the chief minister Jyoti Basu. However, no investigation has ever been held.[10]

His comrade, Charu Majumdar was killed in police custody a year later.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.Appendix B
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Tribute to Saroj Dutta
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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