Dhirendranath Datta: Glimpses of a life
manik
EKUSHEY), The Daily Star, February 21, 2007]
Dhirendranath Datta: Glimpses of a life
M. Waheeduzzaman Manik
Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta (1886-1971) was the harbinger of the
formative phase of the Bengali language movement, and he had made
history on February 25, 1948 by demanding that Bengali to be
recognized as one of the State languages of the new nation of Pakistan
even though his proposal was meant to be an amendment permitting the
use of Bengali along with Urdu and English in the Constituent Assembly
of Pakistan. During the early years of Pakistan, he had remained an
ardent defender of the Bengali language both in the CAP and the East
Bengal Legislative Assembly. He became a martyr of the liberation war
of Bangladesh in April 1971. Despite his pivotal role in jumpstarting
the formative phase of the Bengali language movement during the most
defining moment of Bangladesh's quest for freedom and self-
determination, his name has thus far remained essentially forgotten
and neglected. It is also ironic that there exists a serious paucity
of literature on the formative phase of his life and political
struggle.
Dhirendranath Datta was born on November 2, 1886 in a village named
Ramrail, approximately three miles away from Brahmanbaria, a sub-
divisional town of the then Tripura (then spelled as Tipperah)
district (later renamed as Comilla district). Dhirendranath Datta was
very intimate with his father, who was a very kind man, and he was
very inspired by his father's idealism. He inadvertently did not
mention his mother's name in his memoirs. However, he mentioned that
his father got married with a daughter of Bhubanmohan Rakhhit of
Chapitala village under Sadar subdivision of Tripura district. He lost
his mother when he was only 9 years old
After finishing his education at Ripon College, Dhirendranath Datta
decided to go back to his home district to live and work, and he made
this determination instead of seeking a job or pursuing a legal career
in Calcutta, a city where he lived and studied for almost six years.
He left Calcutta on February 27, 1910 to start a teaching job in a
high school that was located in a remote village named Bangra under
the jurisdiction of Muradnagar Thana of the then Tripura district. He
worked there as Assistant Headmaster of Bangra Umalochan High
(English) School from March 1, 1910 through February 2, 1911. Although
he enjoyed his teaching job in that rural high school, he decided to
quit this job to pursue a law practice at Comilla town. He formally
started his law practice on February 8, 1911 in Comilla town, and he
continued to be a distinguished lawyer there till his brutal murder in
April 1971 at the hands of the murderous Pakistani army.
Dhirendranath Datta's debut in Bengal politics dates back to his
student days at Ripon College. His subsequent political life was
enormously conditioned by the life experiences and insights that he
had gained during his student days in Calcutta from 1904 to 1910. He
was a first year F.A. student in 1905 when he got involved in the anti-
British movement to annul the partition of Bengal. In those turbulent
years, both the Indian National Congress and the Bengal provincial
Congress were dominated by two groups of leaders. While Bal Gangadhar
Tilak (1856-1920), Bipin Chandra Pal (1870-1932), and Aurobindo Ghosh
(1872-1950) led the extremist group, Surendranath Banerjee was the
leader of the moderates. Dhirendranath Datta was the supporter of the
moderate group in the Congress. However, he was also deeply inspired
by the dedication and oratory of Bipin Chandra Pal, the leader of the
extremists.
Dhirendranath Datta worked as a volunteer at the annual meeting of the
Indian National Congress which was held in Calcutta in December 1906,
and he was deeply inspired by Dadabhai Naoroji's demand for Swaraj
(self-rule) for India. In 1908, he also attended the annual conference
of the Bengal provincial Congress at Boharampur. Although he was
deeply inspired by the Congress demand for boycotting foreign goods,
he had protested when some delegates to the Congress conference at
Boharampur proposed the creation of the so-called 'Bentwood Chair'.
Dhirendranath Datta also participated in the social conference that
was held in Comilla during the 1914 provincial Congress meeting, and
he opposed a proposal for 'widow marriage'. He regretfully
recapitulated that incident in the following words: "I am saying this
with a sense of shame that I had opposed the question of widow
marriage even though I completely changed my view later about widow
marriage." In fact, he became a champion of various social reforms
even within his own religion throughout his political career,
especially during the years between the two World Wars. As a delegate
from Tripura district, he attended the Bengal provincial Congress in
April 1919 in Mymensingh, and on his return to Comilla he was
devastated at hearing the news of the barbaric massacre of innocent
civilians by the British on April 13, 1919 at Jalianwalabagh.
By mid-1920s, Dhirendranath Datta had emerged as a champion of various
social reforms even within his own religion. In 1921, he was
instrumental in founding the 'Mukti Sangha' at Comilla, the principal
aim of which was to eradicate untouchability and caste system from the
Hindu society. In 1923, he was also involved in the establishment of
'Abhoy Ashram' at Comilla. He also worked hard to forge a durable
unity between Hindus and Muslims. Although he was a supporter of the
Congress, he was greatly inspired by many admirable efforts of C.R.
Das and his Swarajja party toward forging Hindu-Muslim unity. He was
deeply shocked after he heard the news about the sad and sudden death
of C.R. Das on June 16, 1925.
In its historic Lahore Session in late December 1929, the Indian
National Congress had demanded 'Purna Swaraj' (full independence) for
India, and it was stipulated that if the British Government failed to
grant independence by January 26, 1930 then a Civil Disobedience
movement would be launched throughout all provinces of India.
Dhirendranath Datta made a conscious determination to follow through
the Congress directives at any cost. When the time for real action
against the British came on January 26, 1930, he wholeheartedly
supported and followed all directives of the Congress through his
direct participation in the civil disobedience movement.
Dhirendranath Datta organized a huge mass procession at Comilla town
on July 2, 1930 protesting Motilal Nehru's arrest. In defiance of the
police order, the protestors under his leadership had refused to
disperse the procession. On that day, he was mercilessly lathi-charged
by the then British Superintendent of Police of Tripura district.
Dhirendranath Datta and a host of other protestors were arrested on
July 2, 1930 for defying police orders. After keeping him for several
hours in the police station, the law enforcement authority presented
him and his fellow protestors at the Deputy Magistrate's Court in the
afternoon of the same day. As a gesture of goodwill, the presiding
Magistrate had expressed his desire to release them on bail on the
condition that they have to attend the Court on the scheduled dates
for trial. He firmly replied, "I refuse to recognize you as a Court."
The entire Court was filled with 'Bande Mataram' slogans. He was then
sent to Comilla jail in the evening of July 2, 1930. After 15 days, he
was summarily tried by a Court inside Comilla jail on July 17, 1930 in
which he had again refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Court.
This summary Court, presided over by the then Sub-Divisional Officer
(S.D.O.) of Comilla, Nepalchandra Sen, who was his former roommate and
classmate, sentenced him to three months' rigorous imprisonment.
The dismal failure of the Second Round Table Conference in December
1931 and the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi immediately after his return to
India on January 4, 1932 had given birth to the final phase of the
Civil Disobedience movement. Dhirendranath Datta was arrested from his
Comilla residence on January 9, 1932, and he was kept in jail for one
month without any trial. This was his second internment. He was
released from jail on February 8, 1932.
Aimed at courting arrest and violating the conditions of the notice,
Dhirendranath Datta addressed a meeting in the evening at the Bar
Library on the same day he was released from jail. He did not report
to the police station. He was arrested at 8 p.m. on February 8, 1932.
After he was kept in jail for a couple of days, he was put on trial in
front of a magistrate inside the Comilla jail. He demonstrated his
uncompromising commitment to the cause of the civil disobedience
movement by refusing to take part in that trial but he had issued a
pungent statement in which he stated the following: "The notice that
has been served upon me is intended to kill the man in me and I have
prevented this murder by disobeying the notice." He was sentenced to
rigorous imprisonment for one year. He was released from jail in
February, 1933 after he had served the full term of his sentence. On
his return to Comilla in February 1933, he found out that his family
had to move out of his Comilla residence and started living in his
village home under extreme financial difficulties. By 1933, the Civil
Disobedience movement died out.
Dhirendranath Datta was overwhelmingly elected to the Bengal
Legislative Assembly during the historic provincial legislative
election in 1937. Although Dhirendranath Datta had to spend 18 months
behind bars during his first tenure (1937-1945) as the member of the
Bengal Legislative Assembly, he was one of the most articulate and
committed legislators at a critical juncture of the history of the
Indian subcontinent. Despite the fact that he was in the opposition in
the provincial legislature, he was actively involved in the passage of
the Bengal Tenancy Act, the Bengal Debtors' Act, and the Bengal Money
Lenders' Act. In 1940, he was elected Deputy Leader (Kiran Shankar was
elected as the Leader) of the Congress parliamentary party in the
Bengal Legislative Assembly.
It was Dhirendranath Datta who brought a cut motion during the budget
session in June 1945 that literally led to the downfall of Khwaja
Nazimuddin's provincial Government. Pursuant to the fall of the Khwaja
Nazimuddin Ministry, the then Governor of Bengal had dissolved the
provincial assembly in November 1945 and declared to hold the assembly
elections during early (February-March) 1946. As a Congress candidate,
Dhirendranath Datta was reelected in 1946 to the Bengal Legislative
Assembly. On behalf of the Congress party, Kiranshankar Roy and
Dhirendranath Datta were elected to be the Leader and Deputy Leader
respectively of the opposition party in the assembly. Since the
possibility of partition of India and the province of Bengal was
gaining ground in 1946, he had to take some of the most critical
decisions of his entire political career.
A life-long champion of Hindu-Muslim unity, Dhirendranath Datta was
horrified to see the rise of communalism and the Hindu-Muslim riots in
1946.
On the eve of the division of India, he had several options. As the
Deputy Leader of the Congress parliamentary party in the Bengal
Legislative Assembly, he could choose to opt for India where his
political career would have been protected. He could realize that his
future was at best problematic in a Muslim majority country if he
opted for Pakistan. Yet Dhirendranath Datta made a conscious
determination to opt for the new nation of Pakistan. On a matter of
principle, he was unwilling to abandon his constituents. He became a
member of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (CAP) in December 1946
and continued to be a member of the CAP till this body was arbitrarily
dissolved in October 1954. He attended the first session of the
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (CAP) on August 12, 1947. He also
attended the historic session of the CAP on August 14, 1947 in which
Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, had transferred power to
M.A. Jinnah, the newly appointed Governor General of the new nation of
Pakistan. Dhirendranath Datta had moved an amendment at the CAP on
February 25, 1948 for adopting "Bengali" as one of the official
languages of the CAP. It is clearly evident from his speech that he
also demanded for adopting Bengali as one of the "State" languages of
Pakistan.
Among many others who were in the vanguard of the formative phase of
the Bengali Language Movement, his role was seminal in the process of
jumpstarting our resistance against those forces that were engaged in
repudiating the rudiments of Bengali language and culture through the
imposition of Urdu.
It is evident from whatever scanty literature is available on the
formative phase of his life that his motto of social service was
greatly shaped by his concern for his country and his compassion for
common masses. Doubtless, he was a good lawyer-politician. However,
the most distinctive quality of this extraordinary man of integrity
and honesty was that numerous opportunities could not add luster to
his reputation. He never shunned the code of ethics of his legal
profession. Nor did he ever deviate from his cherished life-long motto
of social service. He was regarded as a person of amiable disposition,
and it is fair to suggest that he was a gentleman par excellence. His
was a graceful and courteous presence both inside and outside of the
courtrooms or legislative chambers. However, on a matter of principle,
he was not willing to demonstrate any kind of timidity even before the
most powerful.
Dhirendranath Datta performed a yeoman's service during the non-
cooperation movement. At a personal level, however, he went through a
social and political transformation during this historic movement. His
direct participation in this volatile movement also gave him a rare
opportunity to practice politics at the grassroots level in the rural
areas even though his extended family had to endure untold financial
difficulties. His life was also impacted by the historic Civil
Disobedience Movement that was launched by the Congress in early
1930s. During different phases of the civil disobedience movement, he
suffered three separate prison terms totaling a period of sixteen
months. As a participant in the Satyagraha and the 'Quit India'
movements that took place in early 1940s, he was put behind bars twice
for a total period of eighteen months. The way he had courted arrests
and jail terms during those tumultuous years of Bengal politics is an
exemplary testimonial to a true freedom fighter and patriot. Since his
direct participation in various anti-British movements involved a
great deal of personal risk and sacrifice, his deep sense of
patriotism and selflessness and his commitment to other people can be
identified as the chief incentive behind his bold decision of staying
back in Pakistan for which he had to endure humiliation and various
forms of hardship. However, his sacrifices did not go in vain.
Dhirendranath Datta's profile in courage that was demonstrated both
before and after the partition of India and his role as a dauntless
defender of the Bengali language and culture will be remembered beyond
the boundaries of time.
[Dr. M. Waheeduzzaman (Manik) is chairman of the Department of Public
Management at Austin Peay State University and writes from
Clarksville, Tennessee, USA. Your comments are welcome].
