BINA (DAS) BHOWMICK, DISHONOURED IN LIFE, NEGLECTED IN DEATH

BINA (DAS) BHOWMICK, DISHONOURED IN LIFE, NEGLECTED IN DEATH

The Nehru government conferred on Bina (Das) Bhowmick the Padma Shree in 1960 for her rendering of social service. Had I been Prime Minister of India then, I would have celebrated this great heroine of the revolutionary struggle for freedom with the Bharat Ratna for her shooting five rounds at the then Governor of the Bengal Presidency, Sir Stanley Jackson. The occasion was the Convocation Ceremony of the Calcutta University on 6 February, 1932 which was to be adorned by the Governor's visit. Bina Das, daughter of Beni Madhav Das, mentor, teacher and Headmaster of Subhas Chandra Bose at Ravenshaw Collegiate School at Cuttack, groomed and inspired by her idealistic parents and the revolutionary fervour of the times, went ahead with her daring attempt on the life of the British Governor. She failed in the attempt, was apprehended and incarcerated for nine years but had stirred up the whole world by her singular act of exemplary patriotism as opposed to the emasculate passivity of the Mohandas Karamchand Gandhian non-violent submission to colonial depredation, to imperial barbarism of the British Crown. The Government of free India failed to recognise this exceptional act of valour and, in perpetuation of its servitude to the cult of effeminacy initiated by the barrister from Porbandar, went ahead in all its gusto to dampen revolutionary hearts with the show of national honour by bestowing Bina (Das) Bhowmick with the Padma Shree for the wrong cause. But it was right in the eyes of the Government of India that social service be deemed superior to revolutionary aggression for freedom which was after all not in keeping with the Karamchand brand of passive alliance with the colonial masters in perpetuation of the motherland's misery at their hideous hands. Bina (Das) Bhowmick was dishonoured in life and neglected in death by her own people, We, the People of India. 

Written by Sugata Bose