A forgotten legend?
Dhirendranath Datta
DHIRENDRANATH Datta was a reputed lawyer of the Comilla District Bar, a patriotic political leader, a pioneer of the language movement, and a courageous and eloquent speaker. He was born on November 2, 1886 at village Ramrail, three miles north of Brahmanbaria, and was killed by the Pakistan occupation army on March 29, 1971. His father Jagabandhu Datta was a Sherestader in the Munsiff Court of the Qasba Thana Sadar, and later on in the Nabinagar Thana Sadar of Brahmmanbaria Sub-Division of the then Tippera district. His mother was the daughter of Bhubanmohan Rakshit of village Chapitala under Muradnagar police station of Comilla district. He passed the F.A. Examination from Comilla Victoria College in 1906 and obtained his B.A. and B.L. Degrees from Calcutta Ripon College in 1908 and 1910 respectively. After taking the Law degree he served as Assistant Headmaster of Bangura Uma Lochan High English school in Comilla district from the March 1, 1910 to February 2, 1911. He joined the then Tippera (now Comilla) District Bar on the February 8, 1911. He was in this profession up to 1920. Dhrendranath Datta was married to Sreemati Surabala Debi, 14 year old daughter of Krishnakamal Das Munshi of Comilla district, who was a man of immense wealth and a well-known Bengali lawyer. Dhirendra Nath Datta had two sons and seven daughters. His eldest son, Sanjib Kumar Datta, was a veteran journalist and businessman in Dhaka and Calcutta. One of his grand children, Aroma Dutta, is now the Executive Director of PRIPTRUST in Dhaka. Being inspired by his teacher Sir Surendranath Banerjee and Barrister Abdul Rasul, he started his political career by joining the Annulment of the Partition of Bengal Movement (1905-1911) in 1905. Barrister Abdur Rasul was the "political guru" of Dhirendranath Datta. He was elected the secretary of the "Tripura Hitasadhani Sabha" in 1907, while Barrister Abdul Rasul was its president. He participated in the Provincial Congress Conference held at Baharampur in 1908 or 1909. He was one of the workers of the Relief Committee formed at Comilla for helping the suffering people during the devastating flood of 1915. In 1919 participated in the conference of the Provincial Congress Party held at Mymensingh. At the clarion call of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das in a mammoth meeting at the Comilla on March 6, 1921, Dhirendranath Datta gave up his legal profession for three months and participated in the Non-Violent-Non-Cooperation Movement (1918-1922) for preaching the message of All India National Congress. In pursuance of the ideals of M.K. Gandhi, he established a social welfare organisation called "Mukti-Sangha." He was associated with the activities of the Abhoy Asram (1923) of Comilla. He was once the secretary of the Comilla District Bar Association. Being a representative of the Comilla district, he participated in the conference of the Provincial Congress held at Rajshahi. In 1936, he was elected a member of the Comilla District Board from the Brahmmanbaria and Qasba constiituency. He was elected a member of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1937. As a member of the Council he was associated with the amendment of the Bengal Tenancy Act, passing of the Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act and Bengal Money Lenders' Act. During the 2nd World War, according to the decision of the All-India National Congress Party and under the direction of M.K. Gandhi, Dhirendranath Datta publicly raised the anti-war demand in front of the Brahmanbaria Post Office on December 14, 1940. He participated in the "Quit India Movement" of 1942. At the time of the great famine of Bengal in 1943 Dhirendranath Datta actively cooperated with the All-India National Congress Party, the Marwari Samity and the Aryan Samity, who came to Tippera for distributing relief goods among the famine-stricken people. In the general election of India held in 1946, he was elected a member of the Bengal Legislative Council from the Congress Party. In the month of December the same year, a Constituent Assembly was formed by the central government of British-India, where he was elected a member from East Bengal for drafting the constitution of Pakistan. For his active participation in the anti-British political movements and activities during his political career, he was arrested by the government seven times -- in 1930, 1932, 1933, 1940, 1942 and 1943. After the partition of British-India in 1947, Dhirendranath Datta actively participated in the politics of Pakistan. He established a non-communal political party called "The Gana-Samity." In the Session of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly held on August 25, 1948, Dhirendranath Datta demanded the use of Bengali along with English and Urdu for conducting the activities of the Constituent Assembly. In the Session of the Assembly held in June, 1954, Dhirendranath Datta moved an adjournment motion against the promulgation of Governor's Rule in East Pakistan. In that Session he delivered a speech for two and a half hours in support of his motion, in spite of strong opposition by the government party. That was the longest speech ever delivered by him in his Parliamentary life. Dhirendranath Datta was the minister of the medical, health and social welfare departments of the provincial government of East Pakistan from September 19, 1956 to October 7, 1958 under Chief Minister Ataur Rahman Khan. During the Martial Law Administration in Pakistan, Dhirendranath Datta was served with an Elective Body Disqualification Order (EBDO) notice in 1960. He was made the president of the Comilla District Lawyers Association in the early part of December, 1964. He was arrested in the early part of 1965 and suffered imprisonment for a very short time. During the Indo-Pakistan war in September, 1965, he was again served with a notice of house-arrest in his own residence at Comilla. Besides this, he had to give to the government a security bond of Tk.1,000. After that, though he was not associated with active politics, he performed the responsibilities as a supporter and patron of all the progressive movements of the non-communal and Bengali nationalistic politics. He had intimate connection with the prominent leaders of Awami League. On the night of March 29, 1971, when Dhirendranath Datta and his younger son Dilip Kumar Datta were asleep in their residence, the barbarous Pakistani Army arrested both of them. After that there was no news of them for some time. Later on it was learnt from a British journalist and a barber named Ramani Sil that Dhirendranath Datta and his son were brutally killed after untold torture upon them at the Mainamati Cantonment of Comilla. After emergence of Bangladesh, the road that passes by the side of his house at Comilla was named Dhirendranath Datta Sarak in his memory. Muhammad Abdus Salam is a former Deputy Director (Research), University Grants Commission.
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