Batukeshwar Dutt: Difference between revisions

| birth_place        = [[Khandaghosh]], [[Purba  district|Bardwan district]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]]<ref>{{cite web |title= Batukeshwar Dutta |url= http://www.towardsfreedom.in/site/Batukeshwar_Dutt |access-date= 5 May 2015 |archive-date= 7 March 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190307144553/http://www.towardsfreedom.in/site/Batukeshwar_Dutt |url-status= dead }}</ref>

'''Batukeshwar Dutta'''  {{audio|Batukeshwar Datta.ogg|pronunciation}} (18 November 1910 — 20 July 1965) was an [[Indian people|Indian]] [[socialist]] [[revolutionary]] and independence fighter in the early 1900s.<ref name="Sarala1999">{{cite book|author=Śrīkr̥shṇa Sarala|title=Indian Revolutionaries: A Comprehensive Study, 1757-1961|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_iFS6waXHYIC&pg=PT110|access-date=2012-07-11|year=1999|publisher=Ocean Books|isbn=978-81-87100-18-8|pages=110–}}</ref> He is best known for having exploded two bombs, along with [[Bhagat Singh]], in the [[Central Legislative Assembly]] in New Delhi on 8 April 1929. After they were arrested, tried and imprisoned for life, he and Bhagat Singh initiated a historic [[hunger strike]] protesting against the abusive treatment of Indian political prisoners, and eventually secured some rights for them.Along with that he also played an important role in establishing [[Communist Consolidation]], a Marxist study circle comprising of co-revolutionaries like [[Shiv Verma]], [[Jaidev Kapoor]], [[Bejoy Kumar Sinha]] etc. Dutt also used to write the handwritten magazine titled ‘The Call’, for the study circle which was edited by Jaidev Kapoor. He was also a member of the [[Hindustan Socialist Republican Association]].

Batukeshwar Dutta&nbsp;— also known as B. K. Dutta, Battu, and Mohan&nbsp;— was a son of Goshtha Bihari Dutta. He was born on 18 November 1910 in [[Khandaghosh]] village, [[Purba Bardhaman district]], in what is now [[West Bengal]] in a Bengali [[Kayastha]] family. He graduated from [[Pandit Prithi Nath College|Pandit Prithi Nath High School]] in [[Kanpur|Cawnpore]]. He was a close associate of freedom fighters such as [[Chandrashekhar Azad]] and [[Bhagat Singh]], the latter of whom he met in Cawnpore in 1924. He learned about bomb-making while working for the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) there.

After his release from prison Dutta contracted [[tuberculosis]]. He nonetheless participated in the [[Quit India Movement]] of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and was again jailed for four years. He was lodged in Motihari Jail (in Champaran district of Bihar). After India gained independence, he married Anjali in November 1947. Independent India did not accord him any recognition, and he spent his remaining life in poverty away from the political limelight. The later life of the freedom fighter was painful and tragic. Being released from jail due to tuberculosis, he was not valued in independent India, he grappled with destitution. He was forced into starting a transport business for livelihood. Dutta outlived all his comrades (except Jaydev Kapoor) and died on 20 July 1965 in the [[AIIMS]] hospital in Delhi after a long illness. He was cremated in [[Hussainiwala]] near [[Firozepur]] in [[Punjab (India)|Punjab]] where the bodies of his comrades Bhagat Singh, [[Shivaram Rajguru|Rajguru]] and Sukhdev were also cremated many years before. He was survived by his only daughter, Bharti  Dutta Bagchi,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/Remembering-the-great-Indian-revolutionary/article15320714.ece|title=Remembering the great Indian revolutionary|date=2008-10-12|work=The Hindu|access-date=2018-08-31|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> in [[Patna]] where his house was situated in the Jakkanpur area. He was one of the writers of the film [[Shaheed (1965 film)|Shaheed (1965)]]. During the filming of [[Shaheed (1965 film)|Shaheed]], once the lead actor [[Manoj Kumar]] went to meet [[Bhagat Singh|Bhagat Singh's]] mother, as she was not well at that time and was admitted in a hospital in Chandigarh. Manoj Kumar said that he met Batukeshwar Dutt there.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-03-23|title=When Manoj Kumar met Bhagat Singh's mother: 'She scanned me and said, I do look like her son'|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/shaheed-diwas-manoj-kumar-met-bhagat-singh-mother-old-interview-video-7240998/|access-date=2021-03-30|website=The Indian Express|language=en}}</ref>