The headline of the Newspaper reads “Nine Valiant warriors marched to the gallows. Left right…..Left right…..Left right”

The ones who worshiped the Mother of the country with its own blood instead of giving red hibiscus had their name written in the history of the nation in blood- Sahid Mankumar Basu Thakur. He was recruited in the British Army of the colonial India.

He was in the 4th Artillery Regiment of the British army and was one of the nine soldiers who sacrificed their lives for mother India and her freedom. However, their story of sacrifice was not published for all to see, it was only documented in secret. Only history is the witness to their bravery and sacrifice for the people of this country. He was only twenty three years old when he was the leader of this brave group and is not known to the common people of this country.

Strong and determined young soldier joined the 4th Indian Artillery Regiment and soon appeared and came on top of thirteen departmental examinations. He also obtained first division in the Urdu examination. In 1942 Mankumar was posted in British Cochin at the Anti-Aircraft regiment of the British army. He was under medical supervision for a few days after a freak accident. After that he was posted in Kolaba near Mumbai for training in the Artillery warfare. The soldiers of this regiment were recruited among different regiment of British and Indian soldiers on the basis of merit. After the end of his training in Kolaba he came first in the departmental examination among the Indian soldiers. He was promoted for the post of a ‘Jomadar’. He and a few other Bengali recruits of the 4th Indian Sea coast Artillery regiment gained praise for their bravery from Gen. Akinlek. The English recruits slowly started getting jealous with them.

Sri Mankumar was born in undivided Bengal’s Dhaka district in the village Malkhanagarh. He was the fourth son of Sri Bhupatimohan Basu Thakur of Nayabadi and was born on 28th June 1920 (14th Ashar 1327 Bongabdo). He was known for his intellects, he was always within the first four in his class during his school days. He used to exercise dedicatedly during this time. He passed his matriculation in first division from St. Gregory School of Dhaka District in 1937. The alumni of that school include Dr. Amartya Sen, Tajuddin Ahmed, First Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Dr Kamal Hossain, Former Law minister of Bangladesh etc. He then went to Jagannath Intermediate College for I.S.C. He was everyone’s favorite in his college. He was selected as the editor of culture department in his college election. This is the time when he was initiated to politics. He came in touch with some youth of a political institution in Dhaka called ‘Srisangha’ and they preached him to put his life towards the freedom of this country. Later he joined the British regiment in spite of strong opposition from his family members. The college used to nominate three second year students to join the army. This is when his great plan for the future starts taking shape. His walk towards the selected goal started.

In 1942 ‘Quit India Movement’ started and created quite a stir within the young population of this country. The fire of patriotism started burning strong within their hearts. On one hand there was ‘Karenge yah Marenge’ revolution headed by Sri Mahatma Gandhi and on the other hand ‘Delhi Cholo’ revolution by Netaji made the patriot within the common people of Bengal wanting freedom of the country. ‘Ami Subhas Bolchi’ even appealed the Indian contingent within the British army to take up arms against the rulers. The Indian soldiers started listening to Netaji Subhas’s speech in radio secretly; the army canteen became the place where the people started listening to these speeches. The young people started getting restless to fight for the country and promised to fight for independence till their last breath. Apart from this they started meeting with the Urdu teacher in Roman Dialect Sri Munshi (he was 35 years old at that time) from Trivancaur and listened to stories of Second World War, Revolution of forty two and stories of freedom fighters who got arrested and spent time in jail. They listened to these stories day after day. Other than Sri Munshi there were few other people like Charles Xavier from Kerala and K.G Harsh who used give these soldiers secret news. They organized meeting with the secret service departments of Azad Hind Fauj. Off course every meeting was a secret. The regiment consisted of four hundred soldiers. The regiment was permanently stationed at Diamond Harbour, Madras, Vishakhapatnam and Cochin coast. Under the leadership of the Sri Mankumar Basu Thakur who was the bet soldier of the regiment, the Indian soldiers started a revolt in secret. He slowly threw away all the stored ammunition slowly into the sea. He also burnt down the army barracks. They also started revolting against the discrimination that was present against the local soldiers in favour of the English soldiers. The soldiers started protesting regarding the disorder that was prevalent in the army for the soldiers of Indian origin.

The fire of August revolution has slowed down by that time. Sri Mankumar returned home during the time of Deepavali which comes after Durga puja. Another big occasion of the Bengalis was ‘Bhai Phonta’ and Mankumar used to take a leave of four weeks at that time and returned home at Malkhanagarh. All his family was happy when he returns home. He used to tell different war stories to the little kids of the village. At the end of the night he used to play army bands in his ‘Mouth organ’ and the kids used to wake up to these songs. These kids are all elderly people now. One day while speaking with his younger sister he said-“you know, they say that Bengalis are cowards, poor spirited. They are not meant to go to war. The canons are all targeted to the West- to kill the enemies; we will change the directions of the canons to the East one day and then they will come to know what Bengalis can do?”….but nobody understood his words at that time.

After the end of his holidays Mankumar returned to join his regiment. He went from Malkhanagarh Village to Dhaka, Dhaka to Narayangunj by train, took a steamer to Gowalando and took a train to Sealdah from there- Then from Howrah to his long journey to Cochin. He reached Cochin with all his friends during travels. He then again started getting busy with his work. The fire of revolt again started burning secretly within them. They were very cautious about their approach and their meetings about the revolt. Unfortunately, one of his fellow Bengali soldier backstabbed them and they lost the plot. Mankumar along with ten other fellow soldiers got arrested on 18th April 1943. Another colleague of him Sri Nirendra Mohan Mukhopadhyay was arrested from Coco Island. They were tried in military court because of conspiracy to revolt within the British army.

The third brother of Mankumar, Sri Priyakumar Basu Thakur was at that time an officer of British Army in Firozpur. He got the news of his brother’s arrest from a British officer named Brigadier French. He immediately took ten days leave and travelled to Cochin. He followed the orders of the superiors and met Mankumar in his isolation room. The room was in an island surrounded by waterbodies. The British soldiers were guarding his room while Mankumar was writing something in a piece of paper when his brother reached there. He was warned as to not to speak in their mother tongue. An English military personnel was always present while they were in conversation. His brother noticed his heightened sense of belonging and great conviction. His older brother who used to call him Sonadada tried to convince him of the upcoming danger in reply to which he pointed the said English Military personnel and said-‘Look, Sonada! These Britishers must have to quit India…these bloody Britishers are the greatest criminals…they came as traders, they became king and now they have become Emperor…They have killed thousands and thousands of Indians…they must have to run away from our Motherland like dogs….the English soldiers picked up their Bayonet by looking at his bloodshot eyes. Helpless Priyakumar had to leave him that day but he got a second chance to meet him again later.

The history then is a farce. The twelve prisoners were then taken from Cochin to Bangalore with full protection. It came to be known that an anonymous person in the next carriage car was mysteriously stabbed and killed. It was said that this was his prize to rat out the revolutionaries to the British rulers. But the mystery killer is still unknown to all.

Mankumar and his coconspirators got arrested, charged and tried in the military court at St. Andrews Church, Bangalore. Quite a few people with inferior character spoke against them. Around twenty four people spoke against them and around eight people spoke for them. The people who spoke up for the accused were also tortured. Brave Mankumar was kept in the church under constant armed surveillance. He was also tortured during his time there. They were tried on 6th of July and 5th of August 1943 and the whole process was a complete farce. The judge for this case was Major CMD Barnett and the member of prosecution was Captain Solomon. The defense counsel for the accused was Major N.S.Bhatt. In the court room the prisoners were made to wear cardboard placard in their necks with numbers in them. Mankumar was Number one. The prisoners didn’t get any chance to defend for themselves. The older brother of Mankumar, Sri Debkumar Basu Thakur who was a police inspector himself employed famous Barrister Mr. Barwell and the barrister later agreed to take up the case.

Mr. Barwell reached Bangalore and waited there for seven days. He also said that he will not take any fees while acting as a defense lawyer in this case. The military told him that they will let him know when to appear in due time. But that was also a lie.

At that time a lot of big names in the freedom movement of India were in the British jail. Sri Debkumar then approached Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee regarding the trial. After listening to the whole story he travelled to Mysore the next day. It was said that he asked help from the chief secretary of the king of Mysore. He tried a lot to save the soldiers in trial. He then approached a political leader of national repute. The son of that politician was at that time a high ranking officer of the British army. They asked him to put in a recommendation through his son to the British government. However, the politician did let them know that he will be unable to help Mankumar in this matter.

Even the chief secretary of Maharaja of Mysore with a request from Sri Mukherjee tried a lot to save Sri Mankumar Basu Thakur but was unable to do so. The chief secretary was indirectly involved with Hindu Mahashava. The most he did was to but eleven Gita from Bombay and sent it to the Hindu prisoners.

Then the uncle of Sri Chittaranjan Mukherjee who was himself an advocate went to Bangalore but was denied entry. The prisoners didn’t get any chance to present or defend their side of the story. It was also come to be known that the mother of Sahid Chittaranjan wanted to donate three lakh rupees to employ the best lawyers in the country. She not only tried to save her own son she tried to save all of the prisoners. The trial ended very sneakily without the knowledge of anyone. There were in total twelve prisoners and they were- Sri Mankumar Basu Thakur (23); Sri Nandakumar De (25); Sri Niranjan Barua (23); Sri Chittaranjan Mukhopadhyay (24); Sri Fanibhusan Chakraborty (23); Sri Sunil Kumar Mukhopadhyay (21); Sri Kalipada Aich (23); Sri Nirendra Mohan Mukhopadhyay (21) and Sri Abdul Rahman, Sri Rabindranath Ghosh and Sri Amal Chandra de.

The verdict of the trial was declared on 5th of August. The first nine was given death penalty. Abdul Rahman and Rabindranath Ghosh were sent to ‘Dipantar’ and Amar Chandra de was given strict life imprisonment. Among them Sri de is still going strong at the age of 87.

The brave soldiers are brought from Bangalore to Mysore jail. The date for the death penalty was set up on Friday 24th of September. The jail housed around two hundred political and convicted prisoners. So when the prisoners dressed in black suit were brought into the prison the other political prisoners became curious about the identity of the incoming prisoners. The eyewitness account (July 1946) by Srikumaran who was editor of the Bangalore congress central committee said that the new incoming prisoners put their handkerchief around their neck symbolically to show choking or the hangman’s sign. This created a stir within the august revolutionaries as they came to know that the new prisoners will have death by hanging. They agitated against this as Mysore was a native state and put applications to stop the hanging with the state government. This resulted in moving of the prisoners at night without the knowhow of anyone else.

At last after one month and twenty four days of verdict delivery the brave soldiers were put in gallows. They were hanged in Madras Fort and the convicts hugged each other and chanted ‘Vandemataram’ as their last wish before going into gallows. They also sang our National Anthem while going up the stairs of the gallows. That is why Srikumar wrote ‘Nine valiant warriors marched to the gallows,…..left right…..left right…..left right’.

Their teacher Munshiji was also convicted in a false trial and then was given death penalty.

After the prisoners were transferred from Mysore to Madras (Penitentiary Prison) in the next day a letter was discovered in the cell of Sahid Durgadas (Former student of Vidyasagar College). This letter was written for the August revolutionaries and the janitor of the cell discovered the letter and handed it over to the revolutionaries. The letter had ‘Vandemataram’ written in blood. The keynote of the letter is as follows :

Dear Friends,
I know you all are very curious as to what we did. We revolted against the emperor. That is the accusation. Nine of us were given a verdict of death by hanging. Two are given life imprisonment and one is given seven years of strict imprisonment. We were Bengali soldiers. We are thankful that you have decided to answer the call of mother India and dedicated your life in prison. Your service and sacrifice will give us great comfort.

Nine of us are giving our life to the freedom of this country. Our names are…(already mentioned before). He has decided to sacrifice our life. Time has come for both Hindus and Muslims to try for freedom. Friends, lift up your head. Fight for the freedom of our nation. Deal a blow to the British rulers. I am blessing you and urging you as a friend to fight for freedom of our country. Brothers and sisters, I really hope you succeed and become ideal sons and daughters of this country. This is my last word for you. From next Friday onwards we will be going to leave you forever two at a time. Kindly accept my unconditional love for you.

Sri Durgadas (Written in blood)

In order to know their conspiracy the British regime tried their best to turn Sri Mankumar Basu Thakur into a government witness. They tried to bribe him with wealth and wonderful life outside this country but failed miserably. Mankumar knew that if he didn’t accept their orders he will die. So the only way out for him was to turn into government witness and help them unlock the conspiracy, but he didn’t go against his friends and fellow revolutionaries and gave them up to the British rulers. He was very close to his mother and was also a God-fearing individual. After he was convicted he wrote a letter to his mother (Hemaprava Devi). “Whatever I do first I ask permission from you, mother and also Sanyasi Baba and that is why I’m sure that I’m doing no wrong”. In another letter he wrote – “Mother! I’m in grave danger. Why did this happen? Anything I do I first ask permission from my Sanyasi Baba and by thinking about your face. Anything I do I do it for you all. Did I do anything wrong till now?”

Before the death of brave Mankumar Basu Thakur in a separate letter to his younger sister (Srimati Manasi Ghosh) he wrote in English and Bengali- “September is the correct date of my passing away. In the dawn when the flowers fall from the trees at the same time my life will also fall for my nation like a flower. I shall see you in the next world...” He also asked his mother to look at the North Star at a particular time in the evening as he will also look at the same star, at the same time from the west coast of the nation. This is how his soul will meet his mother soul. This side of his character which is quite emotional can be found in his letters to his mother.

He sacrificed his life for the freedom of the nation and his fellow soldiers. In spite of severe torture and lucrative offers from the British rulers he didn’t give up. He gave his life for this country. His sacrifice made him immortal. The sacrifice made by these brave soldiers of the country will put them in the books of golden history of this country. The sacrifice of Sahid Durgadas, Nandakumar, Chittaranjan, Niren etc. are untold but history will never forget them.

Three years after his death on 18th March, 1946, in a QA session at a commission by Sri Tej Bahadur Sapru, N. G. Ranga Etc. The Secretary of Defense Department, Mr. P Mason in his 152 page report mentioned about this trial. He also let them know about the accusations put forward by the Defense. He also informed the members of the commission that in order to maintain the secrecy no one was informed till date about the incident.

In the history of Indian freedom movement, Sepoy Mutiny of 1857AD can be considered as the start of Indian freedom movement. Though the movement was controversial in many respects but still in the mind of thousands of Indians this movement is the one that sow the seeds of freedom in the heart of the Indians. The 1943 mutiny by the brave soldiers of Fourth Artillery Regiment of the British Army can also be seen as a freedom movement of this country. This mutiny created fear among the heart of the British, mainly the British armed forces. This mutiny can be named as ‘Cochin mutiny’. It can be said that the Navy Mutiny of 1946 in Bombay is an effect of this Cochin Mutiny. So as a citizen of this great country it is our duty to do further research about this and bring out the facts. If we don’t do that then it will remain in shadows and no one will know about this movement.

The death penalty of the mutineers were also kept a secret at that time by the British government and they took the help of lies which can be proved in a telegram written to the father of Sahid Mankumar Basu Thakur from the British Defense Ministry - ‘your son Mankumar was killed in action – P. mason, war secretary’.

Before he sacrificed his life for the freedom of his country, Shahid Mankumar wrote a letter to his elder brother-in-law, Dr. Pratul Chandra Rakhsit. This letter is given below. Dr. Pratul Chandra Rakhsit was a professor of Chemistry at Presidency College, Kolkata and he was also a member of West Bengal Public Service Commission.

My Dear Jamai Babu,
I received your letters is with added encouragement for which I am much obliged. My shortcomings and any insolence, if I had any, you please forgive; for that moment has come when I require it with blessings for my departing soul. I am going to shake off my mortal coil in the early morning of Friday, 24th of September in the Central Jail of Bangalore. I had undergone suffering beyond measure and at last bathed myself in the sunshine of purity and truth. The earthly reason of my passing away was a charge of mutiny against the crown. Be it as it may, my days are numbered and am now returning whence I came. It goes without saying that I am lucky to go so soon leaving all my near and dear ones alive and happy. I have no hours of regret. I wish you will not grieve my loss because I could go pure in mind and body without any sort of malice of the world. In the last moment of my life I thank you very much for all love and sympathy and material help from you which went a long way in my twenty three years of life for moulding my civil career. I am grateful to your indeed. Before I die I wish you may achieve laurels of success in your life and be happy with my loving sister. My love to you, Beldadi, Alu and Nilu. I want prayers from you all for peace of my soul. Your student- Durgadas Ray Choudhury is also going with me.

Yours Loving
Sreedhar

In a separate letter to his elder sister (Madhuri Rakhsit) he wrote

My Dear Sejdi,
Your last letter in which you mentioned about Saint Father reached me but late. I could not write to you in time which I beg pardon. Sister, it is time for me to bid you goodbye. You will learn everything in Jamaibabu’s letter. Mourne not my loss but pray for my soul to rest in peace. I wish you health and good luck.

My Love to You

Yours Affectionate
Sreedhar

When the mortal remains end, the brave soldiers and their deeds for the country remains immortal. Every human being of this country has an urge to know the unsaid story of these brave soldiers. We all want to know their story because it can be compared to the deeds of Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj for the freedom movement of this country. Why did these Bengali youths joined the British Army is still unknown and it is still mystery to us. This is not some random event. We have earned independence on the back of these sacrifices but still we haven’t known much about these brave souls and their deeds are not properly assessed. We urge future historians of this country to look into this kind of stories.

The mutiny of British Army in India started in 1857 with Sepoy Mutiny. It is controversial event and it was argued as to whether Sepoy mutiny is the first step towards Indian independence. But the Mutiny of 1943 in Cochin is definitely a step towards the freedom movement. As time passes the brave deeds of these sons of the nation will be forgotten but their bravery will be forever etched in the glorious history of our nation.