Many freedom fighters will get the same treatment as their more celebrated peers in Kolkata this Independence Day, a break from the tradition of turning the focus only on the more famous ones.
The civic authorities of Kolkata will garland statues of all freedom fighters in public places on Monday, 75th anniversary of Independence, following a directive from the state government. Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the public works department (PWD) together will clean and garland over 600 statues across the city.
An official of the PWD said usually the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and CR Das used to be garlanded on Independence Day every year.
Cultural icons and reformers like Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda were also remembered but the statues of others were rarely spruced up and decorated.
Officials said the PWD would garland the statues of freedom fighters in the Maidan area and the KMC will garland the ones in the rest of the city. Besides Bose and Gandhi, the Maidan has statues of BR Ambedkar, Pritilata Waddedar, Matangini Hazra, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Rammohun Roy.
A KMC official said that in previous years councillors used to garland statues in prominent places in their wards. But all 570-odd statues that are in the KMC’s custody — the ones that are outside the Maidan area — were never cleaned and garlanded on any Independence Day.
“Not just freedom fighters. Busts and statues of famous persons such as philosophers, industrialists, literateurs and sportspersons who have earned laurels for the country or contributed to the growth of the country will be garlanded, too,” said the KMC official.
“We will be garlanding all statues and busts since this is the 75th year of Independence.” The list includes Prafulla Chandra Roy, Vidyasagar, Aurobindo Ghosh, Abul Kalam Azad, Kalidas, Sister Nivedita, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Mewalal.
Also to be decorated is a plaque remembering four women revolutionaries — Suniti Chaudhury, Ujjwala Majumdar, Bina Das and Santi Ghosh. The plaque, at Banhikanya Children’s Park on Nandalal Jew Road, displays the names, pictures and short biographies of the four women. It was put up by the KMC in 2019 on request from Suniti Chaudhury’s daughter.
Chaudhury’s short biography mentions she was born in Coomilla, now in Bangladesh. She killed a magistrate in Coomilla in 1931 and had to spend seven years in prison before being released.
A plaque at Banhikanya Children’s Park on Nandalal Jew Road displays picture and biography of Bina Das
A plaque at Banhikanya Children’s Park on Nandalal Jew Road displays pictures and biographies of Ujjwala Majumdar, Suniti Chaudhury
BR Ambedkar’s statue off the western flank of Red Road.
Majumdar was born in Dhaka. In 1934, she reached Darjeeling with firearms hidden in a harmonium to kill a British governor but failed in her mission and was arrested. She was released in 1939.
Bina Das (Bhowmick) shot at Governor Stanley Jackson in 1932 and was arrested for the act. The governor escaped unhurt.
“Santi Ghosh was Suniti Chaudhury’s associate in the plot to assassinate the magistrate in Coomilla. They were sentenced together and released together in 1939, when all political prisoners were released,” said Bharati Sen, Chaudhury’s daughter.
The state government had issued a directive in July asking for a list of statues and busts in the city. “We compiled and found that there were about 570 statues and busts in our charge,” said a KMC official.