22 February 1885
Birth of freedom fighter Jatindra Mohan Sengupta.
What happened?
Jatindra Mohan Sengupta, freedom fighter who died in prison, was born on 22 February 1885 at Chittagong, Bangladesh.
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Jatindra Mohan Sengupta
- Jatindra Mohan Sengupta was born into a distinguished landlord family in Barama, Chittagong in present-day Bangladesh. His father was a member of the Bengal Legislative Council.
- He studied in Calcutta’s Presidency College. After that, he went to England to study law. While in England, he met and married his English wife Nellie Sengupta, who was later to play an active role in the Indian freedom movement.
- Sengupta acquired his law degree from Downing College, Cambridge University and returned to India to establish a successful law practice.
- He took part in the Bengal Provincial Conference in 1911 representing Chittagong.
- He then joined the Indian National Congress.
- He was appointed the Chairman of the Bengal Reception Committees of the INC in 1921. He was also instrumental in forming a union of the employees of the Burma Oil Company.
- He participated in the non-cooperation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and at that time, quit his legal career owing to his political commitments.
- Sengupta was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council in 1923.
- He served in various posts like the President of the Swaraj Party, President of the Bengal Provincial Congress Committee and also the Mayor of Calcutta from 1929 to 1930.
- He was arrested in 1930 at a public meeting in Rangoon for charges of inciting people against the government. Also for opposing the separation of India and Burma.
- He took part in the Round Table Conference in 1931 and submitted pictures of police atrocities against the people.
- As a lawyer, he fought the case of several revolutionaries like Surya Sen, Premananda Dutta, Ananta Singh and Ambika Chakrabarty.
- He was arrested several times because of his political activities. In 1932, he was detained in Poona and later shifted to Darjeeling and then to Ranchi.
- His health suffered due to the frequent arrests and he died in prison at Ranchi on 23 July 1933 aged 48. His wife continued her political struggle in India. She died in 1973.
- He was given the honorific title ‘Deshapriya’.
Also on this day
1732: Birth of one of the founding fathers and the first president of the USA, George Washington. 1944: Death of Kasturba Gandhi, political activist and wife of Mahatma Gandhi. 1958: Death of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, first Minister of Education.
See previous ‘This Day in History’ here.
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