Basanta Kumar De: Difference between revisions

De was recruited into the Commercial Department of the BNR in London in 1921. His first posting was as Assistant Commercial Officer. In that capacity, he played an important role in the building of the BNR Hotel in Puri. As a young officer posted in Kharagpore he witnessed the first railway workshop strike there led by V.V. Giri in 1927.<ref name="districtgazetteers">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156392?loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', Volume 73, 2012, pp. 1553-1555]</ref>

In 1931, he was tasked with the responsibility of carrying out the survey work for laying of the tracks from Raipur to Vizianagram and Sonepur to Bolangir. Through the 1930s he served as District Commercial Officer in Waltair, Kharagpore, Nainpur and Adra. While he was in Adra for a second time between 1939 and 1942, he was given the responsibility of managing the transportation of Congress workers and leaders attending the Ramgarh Session of the Indian National Congress of 1941. In this connection, he had to visit Mahatma Gandhi there.<ref name="oralhistory">[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/atbohp/Barun%2BDe%3Fdesktop%3Dtrue%26macroName%3Dattachments&ved=2ahUKEwiykozQoIH1AhUVxDgGHaIvCykQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw083H797WHC9n5MOfE8i6xG Text of Barun De's interview given to Kris Manjapra for Tufts University Oral History Archive, 2009]</ref>

In the 1940s, he served as Regional Controller of Railway Priorities (RCRP) under the Railway Board and then as Traffic Superintendent General. During the Second World War years, he was commissioned as a Major in the Commercial Department of the BNR under the Defence of India Rules and Act.<ref name="memorandum">Memorandum dated 7th July 1947 and signed by the Commercial Traffic Manager of the BNR granting honorary ranks noted each under the War Department Notification to Ex: Defence of India Commissioned Officers of the same railway company.</ref> In 1950, he was appointed as Commercial Traffic Manager. In the last two years of his career, he attended meetings chaired by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Ray.  

 

De retired from active service at the end of 1952.