Saroj Dutta

2021-08-17T06:09:47Z

2409:4060:2E1F:DE69:0:0:B649:2813:

{{Use Indian English|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Saroj Dutta<br /><big>{{lang|bn|সরোজ দত্ত}}</big>
| image = Image:Kolkata Saroj Dutta statue.jpg
| caption = Bust of Saroj Dutta at [[Esplanade, Kolkata]].
| birth_date = 13 March 1914
|birth_place = [[Jessore (city)|Jessore]], [[East Bengal]]
| death_date = 5 August 1971 (aged 57)
|death_place = [[South Calcutta]], [[West Bengal]]
| nationality = Indian
| spouse = Bela Dutta
| children = Siraj Dutta(elder son)
Kunal Dutta(younger son)
| party = [[Communist Party of India]] (1949-1964)
[[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]] (1964-1967)
[[Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)]] (1969-1971)
| residence =
| alma_mater = [[University of Calcutta]]
[[Scottish Church College]]
| profession = Politician, [[Poet]], [[Journalist]]
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
'''Saroj Dutta''' (March 13, 1914 – August 5, 1971) (Comrade SD) was an Indian communist intellectual and poet, active in the extremist [[Naxalite]] movement in [[West Bengal]] in the 1960s. He also remained editor-in-chief of the ''[[Amrita Bazar Patrika]]'' during the 1940s.<ref name=prakash>{{cite book | title = The Naxalite Movement in India | author = Prakash Singh | publisher = Rupa Publications | year = 2006 | isbn = 8171672949}}Appendix B</ref>

It is commonly thought that he was killed in a police encounter on August 5, 1971 but till now he was missing in police and state records<ref name=mint>{{cite web|title = The remains of Naxalbari|publisher=Livemint | url = http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/qILQtLkiUnpvkRP9v3aV3O/The-remains-of-Naxalbari.html |author=Shamanth Rao|date=March 10, 2011| access-date = 2014-02-26 }}</ref><ref name="Ghosh1993"/>

==Early life and education==
He was born in a land-owning family in [[Jessore (city)|Jessore]] in [[East Bengal]], (now in Bangladesh) on 13 March 1914. He studied at the Victoria Collegiate School in Narail, and later graduated from the [[Scottish Church College]] in Calcutta in 1936. He subsequently earned his MA In [[English Literature]] 1938 from the [[University of Calcutta]].<ref name=Saroj_Dutta>[http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2014/mar_2014/saroj_dutta.html Tribute to Saroj Dutta]</ref>

==Career==
Dutta joined the ''Amrit Bazar Patrika'' in early 1940s, after completing his studies, however he was fired in 1949 for joining violent activities as a member of the [[Communist Party of India]]. In 1962, after the [[Sino-Indian War]] he was briefly arrested for having pro-China ([[Maoist]]) sympathies. In 1964 he joined the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]], CPI(M), and was an editor of their paper, ''Swadhinata'', along with [[Sushital Ray Chowdhary]]. He was among the many radicals who were disillusioned when the CPI(M) decided to join electoral politics in the run-up to the [[1967 Indian general election|1967 elections]].<ref>{{cite book|title=State and politics in India|last=Kohli|first=Atul|publisher=OUP India|year=1998|isbn=0195647653|editor=Chatterjee|editor-first=Partha|editor-link=Partha Chatterjee (scholar)|page=348|chapter=From breakdown to order: West Bengal|author-link=Atul Kohli}}</ref>

Attracted to a more radical form of revolutionary [[Marxism]], he along with Sushital Ray Chowdhury and some other Calcutta intellectuals, supported the [[Charu Majumdar]]-led [[Naxalbari uprising]] in May 1967. In April 1969, he was also one of the founder members of [[Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)]], CPI (ML), an organisation which was outlawed a year later<ref>
{{cite news | title= History of Naxalism | agency= [[Press Trust of India|PTI]] | work= [[Hindustan Times]] | url= http://www.hindustantimes.com/news-feed/nm2/history-of-naxalism/article1-6545.aspx | date= December 15, 2005 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130722091758/http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/NM2/History-of-Naxalism/Article1-6545.aspx | archive-date= 22 July 2013 | df= dmy-all }}</ref> for conducting armed [[guerrilla warfare]] targeted at the landlords and the police.

Saroj Datta, along with [[Charu Majumdar]], became one of the most wanted men in Bengal.

==Death==
Police Arrested Dutta from his friend Debiprasad Chattapadhyaya's home on the night of August 4–5, 1971. It is stated that he was killed by the [[Kolkata Police]] on the [[Aryan Club]] grounds in the [[Maidan (Kolkata)]] that very morning.<ref name="dnaindia">{{cite web|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/main-article-countering-the-maoists-1408542|title=Countering the Maoists|work=DNA|date=12 July 2010|location=India|access-date=2014-02-24}}</ref> It is also said that the movie star [[Uttam Kumar]] witnessed the shooting while on a morning walk, but talked about it much later when drunk; this is the storyline of the 1994 Bengali-language movie ''[[Sopan (film)|Sopan]]''.<ref name="Ghosh1993">{{cite book|author=Suniti Kumar Ghosh|title=The Historic Turning-point: A Liberation Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6l3lAAAAMAAJ|year=1993|page=135|publisher=S.K. Ghosh}}</ref><ref name="indiancine">{{cite web|url=https://wiki.indiancine.ma/wiki/Sopan|title=Sopan – Indiancine.ma Wiki|publisher=wiki.indiancine.ma|access-date=2014-02-24}}</ref> Bengali writer Dibyandu Palit also portrayed the incident in his novel 'Sahajoddha'.

In 1977, after the CPI(M) returned to power with a Left-front majority, many Naxalite sympathisers<ref name="marxists">{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mishra/1996/04/x01.htm|title=Come, let us take the country along a new road!|publisher=marxists.org|access-date=2014-02-24}}</ref> signed on a petition seeking an investigation of Saroj Dutta's death. The petition was given to the chief minister [[Jyoti Basu]]. However, no investigation has ever been held.<ref name="frontierweekly">{{cite web|url=http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-45/45-14-17/45-14-17-State%20Violence,%20Civil%20Liberties%20and%20Politics.html|title=Frontier articles on Society & Politics|publisher=frontierweekly.com|access-date=2014-02-24}}</ref>

His comrade, Charu Majumdar died in police custody a year later.<ref name=mint/>

== Film ==
A feature-length documentary film, S.D. : Saroj Dutta and His Times, directed by Kasturi Basu and Mitali Biswas in 2018, featured Saroj Dutta's journey as a poet, journalist, translator, ideologue and revolutionary. The film contains the only on-camera interviews of two eyewitnesses - Debiprasad Chattopadhyay and Manjusha Chattopadhyay - of Saroj Dutta's abduction and disappearance by the Kolkata Police.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutta, Saroj}}
[[Category:Indian communists]]
[[Category:Maoist theorists]]
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]]
[[Category:Indian newspaper editors]]
[[Category:People from Jessore District]]
[[Category:History of Kolkata]]
[[Category:Extrajudicial killings]]
[[Category:People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India]]
[[Category:Scottish Church College alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]

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Saroj Dutta