Freedom Fighter or Terrorist
....one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
So I started this post with that quote and my apologies, I am unsure where the quote is originally from. I have heard/read it in many places, but I am unsure of the origin. Also, apologies for the controverisial heading. However, I promise what I am about to write is not really controversial. The thought actually came to me in a strange way. It is by looking at an old leaflet from Wikipedia.
I vaguely member why I was looking up Surya Sen's Wikipedia page. I think it was a bizzare reason. I was talking to someone regarding 'rewards' and then about the fact that I do not have any hair on top of my head. Also the fact, that a group of folks have started calling me 'dada' (which is just a word for 'bro' or elder brother, but quite widely used in the sub-continent, over a variety of situation and age group). Surya Sen, for those who do not know the Indian (and I use the word here in the sense of the sub-continent, pre-independence British Raj undivided India) freedom fighting movement, was a 'revolutionary'. We read about him in school in history classes. He was a school teacher by profession. Therefore 'master' (synonym for teacher in India), and later sort of an universal 'dada'. Together Master da Surya Sen.
Please do not get me wrong. I am not comparing myself with a dead revolutionary who died in 1934. Not at all, just saying, human brain functions in strange ways. For some reason that thought led me to that Wikipedia page. I am glad it did, because, although I read about him before, but I never came across this old pamphlet that is essentially a bounty Rs. 10,000 on his head. Folks, in 1932, that was a substantial amount of money!
What does it say....
For the non-native speakers, let me translate the pamphlet... I am not going to do a word for word translation as that is uncessesary. It basically is an advertisement of Rs. 10,000 bounty on his head. Police was looking for him in relationship to Chittagong armoury raid. That picture was taken in 1924 and the notice was dated 22nd June, 1932. He was balding... and in a way roughly looked like me, only about 100 pounds lighter :) Yeah, yeah, I am trying to loose some weight...
Backgroud
It is difficult for me to give a short summary of the events, as devil is in the details. However, if I at least do not try, I will feel bad. Indian freedom fighting movement had two primary paths: non-violent (led by Gandhi.... and numerous leaders from Indian National Congress.... in general) & violent (led by multiple people, and it is hard to name a single individual). Again apologies for over simplification.... I do not claim to be an authority on the subject. There were overlaps between the two movements, and many leader from one moved to the other movement over the years. Master da was one of the regional leader from the violent revolution. Their vision was to hit the Imperial British Government with force, thereby sending a message of fear and de-stabilize the local infrastructure. To do that there was a need for guns and ammunition. So on 18 April 1930, Master da, led a group of revolutionary to raid the police armoury at Chittagong.
It was a big plan. They wanted to cut off the road, telephone and railway network; and isolate Chattogram (the bengali name) from the rest of the British Raj. You can see, even today from the google map image, Chattogram is fairly isolated. Bay of Bengal to the west, and massive Karnaphuli River to the south and the east. Only two major road, railway system to the north, and two bridges to the south and the east. Even today, if these four main access point can be cut-off, Chattogram can be isolated :) Imagine how it was like in 1930....
Anyways, the plan was good. But the execution was flawed. They did capture the armoury, got the guns, but the failed to capture the ammo....
Without the ammunition, it was an lopsided conflict and the revolutionary group had to escape to the nearby Jallalabad Hills, where they were cornered by the British force and lost the battle. Master da manage to flee, and manage to avoid detection for upward of an year, but evertually got captured and executed.
A Different Angle
Growing up, I was fascinated by the violent sect on the Indian freedom fighting movement. It was glorified of course, and also because of where I am from, and grew up, we are well known in India as a supporter to Subhash Bose, who although was the president of the Indian National Congress at one time, but moved away from the non-violent ways, and was de-facto 'leader' of the revolutionary elements; and of course was extremely popular in un-divided Bengal (perhaps even today).
It was not until much later, when I became an expat myself, and traveled all over the strange war torn parts of the world; I begin to have a different realization. I suddenly remember Khudiram Bose, who essentially lobbed a bomb at an innocent friend of a notorius Chief Magistrate Douglas Kingsford. It was a mistake, as both Chief Magistrate Douglas Kingsford and his friend the daughter and wife of Pringle Kennedy were riding identical horse drawn carraiges. The bomb hit the innocent carriage. Bose was 17.
It was widely glorified when I was in school and possibly still is. Khudiram Bose was widely touted as one of the youngest martyrs of the Indian Independence Movement. When I look back today, from an expat point of view, it feels strikingly different.
I imagine my wife and daughter was taking a ride in a car in some war torn country, and a "child soldier", applies an RPG or an IED by mistake. In stread of hitting the US Marine's family car (which would have been equally devastating for that family), hits my wife's/daughter's car instead. How would I feel then?.... I keep thinking.... it will be a 100% loss for me, even if the statistical possibility of this happening may be much less than 0.001%...
Strange feeling....
