CONFISCATION AND DEMOLITION OF UNITED INDIA/BANGLA LEADER J. M. SENGUPTA HOME OF CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH
Sachi G. Dastidar
Martin Luther King Day, January 18, 2021
A prominent leader of Indian Independence Movement during British colonial oppression was a lawyer named Mr. Jatindra Mohon Sengupta, a Hindu, popularly known as J.M. Sengupta or J.M. Sen of Chittagong, Bengal, India, now Bangladesh. During colonial era Bengal took the lead in anti-British independence movement, and within Bengal province there were several centers, among them was Chittagong on southeast corner, bordering Burma, now called Myanmar. Many nationalists, poets, writers, teachers, entrepreneurs and scientists were born in Chittagong, including Mr. Surya Sen, who was the first to fight the British for independence with armed insurrection. Today there exist a famous meeting place in the City of Chittagong known as J.M. Sen Hall. (During this writer’s visit in 1990s Surya Sen home was illegally occupied.)
Chittagong on Lower-Right near Myanmar, Kolkata at Lower-Center, and Ranchi on Lower-Left
Through his shear talent and dedication to Mother India, Mr. J.M. Sengupta became a leading figure of India’s independence struggle becoming the head of the Congress Party, which led Indian independence struggle. He married a British Christian lady, Ellen Gray, also known as Nellie Sengupta, who joined India’s independent struggle becoming the president of Congress Party. She lived with her husband in Chittagong. J.M. Sengupta died in British prison in Ranchi, Bihar of colonial India on July 23, 1933. Earlier Mr. Sengupta became the Mayor of Calcutta five times, the largest city of India which led India’s independence fight. For her activism Calcutta was punished by Britain by moving India’s capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912. Mrs. Sengupta continued living in her husband’s ancestral home in Chittagong. It is said that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru requested Mrs. Sengupta not to flee to India during anti-Hindu pogroms but to live in East Pakistan with persecuted Hindus when Chittagong became a part of East Pakistan after 1947 partition, now Bangladesh after Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.