The 107th birth anniversary of Bangalee revolutionary nationalist Pritilata Waddedar is being celebrated today.
To mark the day, Pritilata Trust and Bengali daily Bhorer Kagoj will jointly organize a discussion at Jatiya Press Club VIP lounge at 10.30am today.
Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will join the discussion as the chief guest.
Bangladesh Mahila Parishad President Ayesha Khanam, Bangladesh Jatiya Mahila Sangstha Chairman Professor Mamtaz Begum, Bangladesh Bank Board of Directors former director Professor Hannana Begum, Freedom Fighter Rokeya Kabir and artiste Shampa Reza will attend it, among others.
Pritilata was born in a middle-class Vaidya-Brahmin family on 5 May 1911 in Dhalghat village in Patiya upazila of Chittagong. Her father Jagabandhu Waddedar was a clerk in the Chittagong Municipality. Her mother Pratibhamayi Devi was a housewife.
Pritilata was nicknamed Rani. Waddedar was a title conferred to an ancestor of the family who originally had the surname Dasgupta. Jagabandhu tried to arrange best possible education for their children.
He got Pritilata admitted in Dr. Khastagir Government Girls' School of Chittagong. Pritilata was a meritorious student.
Arts and literature were Pritilata's favourite subjects. She passed out of Dr. Khastagir Government Girls' School in 1928 and in 1929, got admitted to the Eden College, Dhaka.
To pursue higher education, Pritilata went to Calcutta and got admitted to the Bethune College. Two years later, she graduated in Philosophy from the college with a distinction.
However, her degree was withheld by British authorities at Calcutta University. In 2012, she (and Bina Das) were conferred their certificates of merit posthumously.
After completing her education in Calcutta, Pritilata returned to Chittagong. In Chittagong, she took up the job of headmistress at a local English medium secondary school called Nandankanan Aparnacharan School.
In 1930s Pritilata decided to join the Indian independence movement. Surya Sen had heard about her and wanted her to join their revolutionary group.
On 13 June 1932, Pritilata met Surya Sen and Nirmal Sen in their Dhalghat camp. A contemporary revolutionary, Binod Bihari Chowdhury, objected that they did not allow women to join their group.
However, Pritalata was allowed to join the group because the revolutionaries reasoned that women transporting weapons would not attract as much suspicion as men.
Along with the revolutionary group of Surya Sen, Pritilata took part in many raids like attacks on the Telephone and Telegraph offices and the capture of the reserve police line.
In 1932, Surya Sen planned to attack the Pahartali European Club which had a signboard that read "Dogs and Indians not allowed".
In Pahartali European Club attack in 1932, Surya Sen decided to appoint a woman leader for this mission. Kalpana Datta was arrested seven days before the event. Because of this, Pritilata was assigned the leadership of the attack. Pritilata went to Kotowali Sea Side for arms training and made the plan of their attack there.
On the day of the attack, Pritilata dressed herself as a Punjabi male. Her associates Kalishankar Dey, Bireshwar Roy, Prafulla Das, Shanti Chakraborty wore dhoti and shirt. Mahendra Chowdhury, Sushil Dey and Panna Sen wore lungi and shirt.
They reached the club at around 10:45 PM and launched their attack. There were around 40 people inside the club then. The revolutionaries divided themselves into three separate groups for the attack.
In the club, a few police officers who had revolvers started shooting. Pritilata incurred a single bullet wound. According to the police report, in this attack, one woman with a surname of Sullivan died and four men and seven women were injured.
An injured Pritilata was trapped by the British police. She swallowed cyanide to avoid getting arrested.
The next day, the police found her body and identified her.
Source: BSS