Tuesday 28 October 2014

JATINDRA NATH DAS

A post from on 13th september 2011 read like this:
"In this season of fasts,does any one remember Jatin Das?"




Balbir K. Punj wrote "On September 13, 1929, a youth from Bengal gave up his life in a prison of Lahore fasting for 63 days. He literally fasted unto death in Gandhian fashion though Mahatma Gandhi himself never touched that apogee despite undertaking 17 fasts unto death in his lifetime.
…does any Congressman remember Jatindra Nath Das (1904-1929), who adopted the Gandhian instrument of fast unto death and adhered to it steadfastly unto his last? Of millions in the country who swore by Gandhism, Jatin Das alone walked till the end of path."
                                        



He is the only person in INDIA to fast unto death before the INDIAN Independence.

In November 1925, while studying for a B.A. at Vidyasagar College in Calcutta, Jatindra Nath was arrested for his political activities and was imprisoned at the Mymensingh Central Jail. While being interned there, he went on a hunger strike to protest the ill-treatment meted out to the political prisoners. After fasting for 20 days, the Jail Superintendent apologised and he gave up the fast. He was contacted by revolutionaries in other parts of India and agreed to participate in bomb-making for Bhagat Singh and comrades.


On 14 June 1929 he was arrested for revolutionary activities and was imprisoned in Lahore jail to be tried under the supplementary Lahore Conspiracy Case. In the Lahore jail, Jatin Das started a hunger strike along with other revolutionary fighters, demanding equality for Indian prisoners and undertrials. The conditions of Indian inhabitants of the jails was deplorable-the jail uniforms that they were provided with were not washed since several days, the kitchen area and the food was covered with rats and cockroaches, they were not provided with any reading material-no newspapers, no paper, while the condition of the English prisoners in the same jail was strikingly different. The memorable hunger strike started on 13 July 1929 and lasted 63 days.The jail authority took many measures to forcibly feed Jatin Das and the other freedom fighters, beat them and did not even provide them with drinking water. However, Jatindra did not eat. The jail committee recommended his unconditional release, but the government rejected the suggestion and offered to release him on bail. Jatin died on September 13, 1929, after his unbroken hunger strike for 63 days. Durga Bhabhi led the funeral procession of Jatin Das from Lahore to Kolkata. As his body was carried from Lahore to Kolkata by train, thousands of people rushed to every station to pay their homage to the martyr. A two-mile long procession in Kolkata carried the coffin to the cremation ground. The hunger strike of Jatin Das in prison was one crucial moment in the resistance against illegal detentions. After his death, the Viceroy informed London: ‘Jatin Das of the Conspiracy Case, who was on hunger strike, died this afternoon at 1 p.m. Last night, five of the hunger strikers gave up their hunger strike. So there are only Bhagat Singh and Dutt who are on strike .’


SUBASH CHANDRA BOSE chronicled, "As the days rolled by, one by one the hunger-strikers dropped off, but young Jatin was invincible. He never hesitated, never faltered for one small second but marched straight on towards death and freedom. Every heart in the country melted but the heart of the bureaucracy did not. So Jatin died on September 13th. But he died a martyr's death. After his supreme sacrifice, the whole country gave him an ovation which few men in our recent history have received. As his body was removed from Lahore to Calcutta for cremation, people assembled in their thousands and tens of thousands at every station to pay their homage".


The highest tributes were paid by almost every leader in the country. Mohammad Alam and Gopi Chand Bhargava resigned from the Punjab Legislative Council in protest. Motilal Nehru proposed the adjournment of the Central Assembly as a censure against the inhumanity of the Lahore prisoners. The censure motion was carried by 55 votes against 47.

 "Another name has been added to the long and splendid roll of INDIAN martyrs.Let us bow our heads and pray for strength to act to carry on the struggle, however long it may be and whatever consequences , till the victory is ours."This is what Jawahar Lal Nehru said while commenting on death of Jatin Das. 






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