| Basu, Kshudiram (1889-1908) a
revolutionary and martyr. Born at Habibpur village of Midnapur district,
he was brought up by his eldest sister as he lost his mother Lakshmipriya
Devi at the age of six and his father Trailokyanath Basu a year later.
Having his primary education at the village school he joined Hamilton
School at Tamluk and later Midnapur Collegiate School in 1903, where he
read upto class VIII. Though meritorious, he took less interest in studies
and was drawn more towards juvenile pranks and adventures.
The great agitation against
the partition
of bengal, 1905 and its off-shoot, the swadeshi
movement affected even small school children like Kshudiram
(Ksudiram) and he left school to join a secret society under Satyen
Basu. There, along with a few others, he was given physical, moral
and political education and also trained how to shoot a revolver.
Kshudiram found, as a part of anti-partition agitation, adventure
in burning cloth of British manufacture and sinking boats carrying
salt imported from Britain. |
|
Kshudiram
Basu |
A policeman caught Kshudiram in an agricultural-cum-industrial
exhibition at Midnapur in 1906, while the latter was distributing a seditious
leaflet. Kshudiram, however, managed to escape but was re-arrested in
April 1906, prosecuted and let off considering his tender age. He took
part in the looting of mailbags at Hatgachha in 1907 and participated
in the bomb attack on the Bengal Governor's special train near Narayangarh
railway station on 6 December 1907. He demonstrated against the moderate
politics of surendranath
banerjea in a political conference at Midnapur.
In 1908, the jugantar
party selected prafulla
chaki and Kshudiram Basu to kill Kingsford, the Chief Presidency
Magistrate of Calcutta, rendered odious to the people of Bengal for his
unusually harsh and vindictive judgements against the Swadeshi activists
and anti-Partition agitators. Kingsford was transferred to Muzaffarpur
as Sessions Judge.
On 30 April they lay ambushed under the shade of a tree, before the European Club gate, mistook an identical looking carriage, hurled a bomb at it and killed an European lady and her daughter. Nightlong search traced Kshudiram at the Waini railway station next morning. A scuffle with policemen resulted in Kshudiram's revolver slipping off his person. Kshudiram took upon himself the entire responsibility for having thrown the bomb, but refused to disclose the identity of his associate or any other secret.
Sentenced to death, he faced the gallows in the Muzaffarpur
Jail on 11 August 1908 with fortitude and conviction, as per the testimony
of the eyewitnesses.
[Sailesh Kumar Bandyopadhyay] |
