Midnapore - Where Freedom Forged its Fire

When India’s independence story is told, Delhi’s political negotiations and Calcutta’s big rallies dominate the script. Yet far from the spotlight, Midnapore, now Purba and Paschim was a place where freedom was not a slogan but a lived dangerous commitment. Here, in dusty village lanes and small-town hideouts, people fought in ways that history books found too raw to celebrate.

Why Midnapore’s Story is Hidden

Midnapore’s struggle was uncompromising. British reports called it “one of the most violent districts” due to political assassinations, sabotage, and underground networks. Colonial accounts painted the rebels as “terrorists,” while post-independence narratives leaned heavily on the Gandhian path, leaving these fighters unmentioned or misrepresented.

The Early Spark: Students, Teachers & Secret Societies

In the late 1800s, local schools like Midnapore Collegiate School and later Tamluk Hamilton High School became intellectual hubs. Teachers quietly introduced nationalist thought, while secret societies recruited promising students.

Figures like Hem Chandra Kanungo, born in Radhanagar, Paschim Medinipur who was trained in Paris in bomb-making and made a bomb making workshop in Muraripukur, Kolkata inspired many. Among those who joined early movements were lesser-known youth such as:

Anath Bondhu Panja & Mrigendra Nath Dutta :  Anath Bandhu Panja, a boy born in a poor  family at Jalabindu Village in Sabang, Paschim Medinipur, joined Bengal Volunteers in his young age and joined with another young revolutionary of Paschim Medinipur Mrigendra Nath Dutta and few other fellow revolutionaries in assassination of Bernard E. J. Burge, the District Magistrate of then Medinipur district. Burge was shot dead by these two while he was playing in a football match (Bradley-Birt football tournament) at the police grounds of Midnapore. Anath Bandhu was killed instantly by one of Burges' bodyguards. Mriganka Dutta was also shot and died in hospital the next day.

Narendra Nath Bhattacharya – The man who would later become “M.N. Roy,” international revolutionary, passed through Midnapore’s radical networks.

 Midnapore: District of Martyrs : Known & Unknown

Midnapore earned the chilling title "the district of martyrs". While Khudiram Bose, Matangini Hazra, and Sushil Kumar Dhara are remembered, many others from Midnapore gave their lives almost anonymously:

Pradyot Kumar Bhattacharya : Hanged for the assassination of Magistrate Peddy in 1933.

Nirmal Jiban Ghosh : Executed alongside Ananta Singh for armed resistance.

Bimal Dasgupta : Involved in multiple assassinations of repressive British officials.

Jyotish Chandra Ghosh : Died in the Hijli Detention Camp due to torture, 1931.

Sudhir Kumar Sarkar : Young revolutionary shot dead during Quit India protests.

Haripada Datta : A peasant leader in the Contai region who resisted British land seizures and was killed in police firing.

Twin Resistance: Non-Violent Mass Action & Armed Rebellion

Unlike many regions where the independence struggle tilted either towards Gandhian non-violence or revolutionary terrorism, Midnapore embraced both.

1. Gandhian Front

The Salt Satyagraha of 1930 saw thousands from Midnapore join under leaders like Satish Chandra Samanta and Ajoy Mukherjee. In Tamluk, the Quit India Movement birthed The Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (1942–44), an underground government led by Satish Samanta, Sushil Kumar Dhara, and Ajoy Mukherjee, successfully ran education, arbitration, and cyclone relief while defying the British.

2. Revolutionary Front

The district became a center for revolutionary activities, with the Bengal Volunteers operating there from its formation in 1928 until India's independence. They targeted British officials for assassination. Magistrates like Bernard E.J. Burge were eliminated for their role in repressive policies. These were not random killings but part of a calculated war against colonial terror. Bengal Volunteers targeted key British officials & made blast at the railway track in Narayangarh.

The Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar: Midnapore’s Forgotten Republic

One of the most astonishing yet buried facts of India’s freedom movement is that two years before 1947, Midnapore had already declared a self-governing republic.

In the Quit India Movement, the Tamluk-Contai region became effectively independent the said period. Led by Satish Samanta, Sushil Kumar Dhara, and others, this parallel government ran in Tamluk and Contai for over two years, organising cyclone relief, maintaining law and order, and resisting British entry. Its existence was proof that Indians could self-govern effectively, long before the British "granted" independence.

 The local leadership included:

Sushil Kumar Dhara: Military and operational head.

Ajoy Mukherjee : Later Chief Minister of Bengal.

Hemanta Kumar Patra, Mrigendra Nath Maity, Sudhir Manna : Unsung workers who kept the parallel administration alive under threat of death.

 Why These Names Matter

The British called Midnapore a “disturbed district” for decades. They feared its people not because they were many, but because they were relentless; Midnapore had a culture of defiance. For every Khudiram Bose, there were dozens like Jyotish Ghosh or Haripada Datta who died without being portrayed in textbooks. From the gallows to underground hideouts, from women leading processions to students learning to make bombs, Midnapore’s story is a reminder that independence was not gifted; it was seized, bit by bit, by ordinary people with extraordinary courage. If Bengal was the mind of India’s freedom struggle, Midnapore was its clenched fist, where the call for independence wasn’t debated but acted upon.

Today, as we walk the streets of Tamluk, Kharagpur, or Ghatal, there are no grand monuments to most of these heroes. Their legacy survives in oral history, family stories, and a stubborn pride that refuses to fade. But to truly honour them, Bengal and India must weave their names back into the national narrative.

Sanchita Roychowdhury

GOPSAI AVINANDAN SANGHA

Editor