Chittaranjan Das

Chittaranjan Das was born on 5 November 1870 to a well-known Bengali Hindu Baidya family in Calcutta but his family originally form the village named Telirbagh, situated in present-day Tongibari Upazila of the Munshiganj (Bikrampur) district of Bangladesh.[4]

Das family were members of Brahmo Samaj. Chittaranjan was the son of Bhuban Mohan Das, and nephew of the Brahmo social reformer Durga Mohan Das. His father was a solicitor and a journalist who edited the English church weekly, The Brahmo Public Opinion. Some of his cousins were Atul Prasad Sen, Satya Ranjan Das, Satish Ranjan Das, Sudhi Ranjan Das, Sarala Roy and Lady Abala Bose. His eldest grandson was Siddhartha Shankar Ray and his grand daughter is Justice Manjula Bose.[6] He married Basanti Devi (1880–1974) and had three children, Aparna Devi (1898–1972), Chiraranjan Das (1899–1928) and Kalyani Devi (1902–1983).

• Illustration — Middle Temple – A sketch by Thomas Shepherd; c.1830 The Das family of Durga Mohan was a family of lawyers. Durga Mohan's eldest son Satya Ranjan matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was at Middle Temple during 1883–1886, followed by Chitta Ranjan Das, Durga Mohan's brother's son, during 1890–1894. Satish Ranjan Das (1891–1894), Jyotish Ranjan Das and Atul Prasad Sen (1892–1895) followed suit.[7][8] In London, Das befriended Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Atul Prasad Sen, and Sarojini Naidu, among others, and together they promoted Dadabhai Naoroji in the British Parliament.[9] He campaigned for Dadabhai Naoroji's election to the House of Commons in 1892, making speeches at several meetings including one presided by W.E. Gladstone(soon to be British Prime Minister for the fourth time).

• Illustration — Barrister Chittaranjan Das in 1909 while defending Sri Aurobindo in Alipore bomb case • Illustration — Alipore Bomb Case 1908–09 Trial Room at Alipore Sessions Court, Kolkata Barrister C.R. Das gradually built a phenomenal legal career, overturning insolvency to become one of the wealthiest lawyers. In 1894 Das gave up his law practice, and went into politics during the non-cooperation movement against the British colonial government.[10] He again took up the brief, and successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh on charges of involvement in the Alipore bomb case, in 1909. In his Uttarpara speech, Sri Aurobindo acknowledged that Das broke his health to save him.He also defended many other extremists including Bhupendra Nath Dutta and Brahma Bandhab Upadhyay, all without remuneration, sacrificing his own financial gains. In the Alipore bomb case in 1908, Chittaranjan Das as defence counsel for Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, made this closing statement:

• Illustration — Chittaranjan Das after his release from prison in 1922. Even as Das struggled to come to his own in the legal practice, Barindra Kumar Ghose, Aurobindo's brother and emissary to Bengal from 1901 for the purpose of setting up a radical and political network, established connection with him. In the same year he also collaborated with the extremist leader Bipin Chandra Pal in the publication of New India. Das's association with Ghose brothers continued, he became a patron of the Anushilan Samiti, and was one of the three financiers of Bande Mataram, the newspaper published by Aurobindo and Pal. * • Chittaranjan Das was actively involved in the activities of Anushilan Samiti.[12] When Pramatha Mitter organised the Samiti as its president to produce hundreds of young firebrands who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause of the Nation, Chittaranjan became his associate. Anushilan Samiti was maintained by P. Mitter with the assistance of Chittaranjan Das (1894), Haridas Bose (1895), Suren Haldar (1900) and Manabendra Nath Roy (1901).[13] He was involved with Suren Banerjee's Student Association during his student days at the Presidency College in the late 1880s. He supported the Swadeshi movement, raised funds for the National Council of Education, and attended the Bengal Provincial Conference of 1906 at Barisal, drafting the main resolution of the conference.In 1906, when Tilak organised Shivaji festival, he along with other Maharashtrian leaders stayed at Das's house. He was a leading figure in Bengal during the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1919–1922, and initiated the ban on British-made clothes, setting an example by burning his own European clothes and wearing Khadi clothes.[14] He brought out a newspaper called Forward and later changed its name to Liberty as part of his support for various anti-British movements in India. When the Calcutta Municipal Corporation was formed, he became its first mayor. He was a believer in non-violence and constitutional methods for the realisation of national independence, and advocated Hindu-Muslim unity, cooperation and communal harmony and championed the cause of national education. He resigned his presidency of the Indian National Congress at the Gaya session after losing a motion on "No Council Entry" to Gandhi's faction. He then founded the Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party, with Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar and veteran Motilal Nehru.[15] Other prominent leaders included Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Birendranath Sasmal, Jatindra Mohan Sengupta and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal,[16] Vithalbhai Patel and other Congress leaders who were becoming dissatisfied with the Congress. In May 1923, at AICC meet in Bombay, Das was able to get majority support for his policy of council entry, with 96 members voting in favour, and 71 against.

Chittaranjan Das emerged as a distinguished Bengali poet, when, during the troubled days of National movement, he published the first two volumes of his collection of poems titled "Malancha" and "Mala". In 1913 he published "Sagar Sangeet" (The Songs of the Sea). Sri Aurobindo was in Pondichery and when he was in dire need of financial support. Chittaranjan offered him one thousand rupees as a token of his support for an English translation of the poem, a few verses of which are given below:[17] Chittaranjan started a monthly journal named Narayana, and many eminent writers such as Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bipin Chandra Pal and Hariprasad Shastri contributed their writings in the journal.

In May 1925, Chittaranjan's health was failing.[18] He went to Darjeeling to recuperate, staying at Sir N. N. Sircar's house "Step Aside". Mahatma Gandhi visited him and stayed with him for some days. Gandhiji wrote, When I left Darjeeling I left much more that I had ever thought before. There was no end of my affection for Deshbandhu and my warm feeling for such a great soul.[19] The funeral procession in Calcutta was led by Gandhi, who said:Deshbandhu was one of the greatest of men... He dreamed... and talked of freedom of India and of nothing else... His heart knew no difference between Hindus and Muslims and I should like to tell Englishmen, too, that he bore no ill-will to them.[20]

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