Chittaranjan Das

Chittaranjan Das
দেশবন্ধু চিত্তরঞ্জন দাস
Born	5 November 1870(1870-11-05)
Died	16 June 1925(1925-06-16) (aged 55)
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Bengali
Occupation	Lawyer
Known for	Major figure in the Indian independence movement
Title	Deshbandhu ("Friend of the nation")
Political party	Indian National Congress
Religion	Hinduism
Parents	Bhuban Mohan Das Durga Mohan Das

Chittaranjan Das (C.R.Das) (Bengali: চিত্তরঞ্জন দাস Chittorônjon Dash) (popularly called Deshbandhu "Friend of the country") (5 November 1870 – 16 June 1925) was an eminent Bengali lawyer and a major figure in the Indian independence movement.

Personal life

He belonged to the famous Das family of Telirbagh, in Bikrampur, Dhaka (now in Bangladesh). He was the son of Bhuban Mohan Das, and nephew of the Brahmo social reformer Durga Mohan Das. Some of his cousins were Satish Ranjan Das, Sudhi Ranjan Das, Sarala Roy and Lady Abala Bose. His eldest grandson was Siddhartha Shankar Ray and his granddaughter is Justice Manjula Bose.

Career

Educated in England, where he became a Barrister, his public career began in 1909 when he successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh on charges of involvement in the previous year's Alipore bomb case.

He was a leading figure in Bengal during the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1919-1922, and initiated the ban on British clothes, setting an example by burning his own European clothes and wearing Khadi clothes.

He brought out a newspaper called Forward and later changed its name to Liberty to fight the British Raj. When the Calcutta Corporation was formed, he became its first Mayor. He resigned his presidency of the Indian National Congress at the Gaya session after losing a motion on "No Council Entry" to Gandhi's faction. He then founded the Swaraj Party, with veteran Motilal Nehru and young Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, to express his immoderate opinions .

He was a believer of non-violence and constitutional methods for the realisation of national independence, and advocated Hindu-Musim unity, cooperation and communal harmony and championed the cause of national education. His legacy was carried forward by his disciples, and notably by Subhash Chandra Bose.

He is generally referred to by the honorific Desh Bandhu meaning "friend of the nation."

In 1925, Das's health began to fail and in May he withdrew to a mountain home in Darjeeling, where Mahatma Gandhi visited him. On 16 June 1925, with a severe fever, he died.

The funeral procession in Calcutta was led by Gandhi, who said:

Deshbandhu was one of the greatest of men... He dreamed... and talked of freedom of India and of nothing else... His heart knew no difference between Hindus and Mussalmans and I should like to tell Englishmen, too, that he bore no ill-will to them.^[1]

Legacy

A few years before his death Das gifted his house and the adjoining lands to the Nation to be used for the betterment of the lives of women. Today it is a huge hospital called Chittaranjan Seva Sadan and has gone from being a women's hospital to one where all specialties are present including the treatment of cancer. Chittaranjan Park is a locality adjoining Greater Kailash II in South Delhi, which houses many Bengalis who fled to India during partition

See also

References

1. ^ Gandhi, Collected Works 27, 250

Persondata
Name	Das, Chittaranjan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	5 November 1870
Place of birth
Date of death	16 June 1925
Place of death