Dinesh Chandra Gupta (Bengali: দিনেশ চন্দ্র গুপ্ত)or Dinesh Gupta (1911-1931) was a Bengali Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary.
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Early activities
Dinesh Gupta was born on 6 December, 1911 in the village of Josholong in Munshiganj District, now in Bangladesh.[1] While he was studying in Dhaka College, Dinesh joined Bengal Volunteers - a group organised by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1928 , at the occasion of Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. Soon the Bengal Volunteers transformed itself to a more active revolutionary association and planned to liquidate infamous British police officers. For a short while, Dinesh Gupta was in Midnapore training local revolutionaries in the use of firearms. Revolutionaries trained by him were responsible for the assassination of three District Magistrates in succession, Douglas, Burge, and Peddy.
The battle of Writers' Building
The association targeted Col NS Simpson, the Inspector General of Prisons, who was infamous for the brutal oppression on the prisoners in the jails. The revolutionaries decided not only to murder him, but also to strike a terror in the British official circles by launching an attack on the Secretariat Building - the Writers' Building in the Dalhousie Square in Kolkata. On 8 December 1930, Dinesh along with Benoy Basu and Badal Gupta, dressed in European costume, entered the Writers' Building and shot dead Simpson. British police started firing. What ensued was a brief gunfight between the 3 young revolutionaries and the police.Some other officers like Twynam, Prentice and Nelson suffered injuries during the shooting. Soon police overpowered them. However, the three did not wish to be arrested. Badal Gupta took Potassium cyanide, while Benoy and Dinesh shot themselves with their own revolvers. Benoy was taken to the hospital where he died on 13 December 1930.
The trial and hanging
However, Dinesh survived the near-fatal injury. He was convicted and the verdict of the trial was death by hanging for anti-government activities and murder. While awaiting execution, Dinesh wrote a number of letters from his prison cell on the heroism of the revolutionaries and his belief in the greatness of self-sacrifice. Dinesh Chandra Gupta was 19 when he was hanged on 7 July 1931 at Alipore Jail.
Significance
Benoy, Badal, and Dinesh were treated as martyrs by supporters in Bengal and other parts of India. After independence, Dalhousie Square was named B.B.D. Bagh - after the Benoy-Badal-Dinesh trio.
References
- ^ Biography, from Banglapedia.
Bibliography
- Hemendranath Dasgupta, Bharater Biplab Kahini, II & III, Calcutta, 1948;
- RC Mazumder, History of the Freedom Movement in India, III, Calcutta 1963;
- Ganganarayan Chandra, Abismaraniya, Calcutta, 1966.
