Early life

His father's name was Ramaniranjan. A resident of Noapara

in Chittagong, he was a teacher by profession. He was
initiated into revolutionary ideas in 1916 by one of his
teachers while he was a student of Intermediate Class in
the Chittagong College and joined the renowned anarchist
group Anushilan. But when he went to Behrampur College
for BA course, came to know about Jugantar and became
more inspired with their ideas. On his return to Chittagong
in 1918, he organized Jugantar there. Every revolutionary
groups were using Indian National Congress as umbrella to
work. Consequently in 1929, Surya Sen became the
president of the Chittagong district committee of the
Indian National Congress. He continued to organize the
hard-line patriotic organizations and first became a teacher
of the National school in Nandankanan and then joined the
Umatara school at Chandanpura. Hence, he was known as
Mastarda (teacher brother).

By 1923 Surya Sen spread the anarchist organization in

different parts of Chittagong district. Aware of the limited
equipment and other resources of the freedom fighters, he
was convinced of the need for secret guerrilla warfare
against the colonial Government. One of his early
successful undertakings was a broad day robbery at the
treasury office of the Assam-Bengal Railway at Chittagong
on December 23, 1923.

Chittagong armory raid

His major success in the anti-British revolutionary violence

was the Chittagong Armoury Raid on April 18, 1930. 18th
April, the memorial day of Irish revolution. it was at about
10’o clock at night in Chittagong , according to the plan
made previously first came two revolutionary Ananta Singh
and Gonesh Ghosh.Behind there were another 4
revolutionaries .All were dresses in military uniform. At
first they shoot the patrolling guard. Since the attack was
made suddenly, the other guard without knowing anything
escaped from that place. They were all total 30-
35.Masterda Surya Sen was the leader of the action group.
Since there was no guard, the revolutionary group first took
all the arms from the Armoury.

In the same way, on the same very date, another

revolutionary team under Nirmal Sen’s leadership went to
auxiliary force Armoury; there they killed all total 6 British
guard. Since they believed in violence, they needed
develop arms to fight against the British, when they went
to the armoury; they took over all the arms. In the mean
time, jeneral Bol and Ambica chakroborty came to head
quarter with their team members.Ambica and hias mates
were sent to attack European club to take the revenge of
Jaliolanwala Bag(1919) .They British people were not able
communicate to the other part of country because the
whole communication system was destroyed by the
revolutionary peoples earlier before attacking the town.
After that all the teams met and declared that the
Chittagong became free from the rules of British. They
formed their temporary Government there; Masterda Surya
sen was selected as the chief-in- commander of that Govt.
and guard of honour was also given to his honour.

Their next target was the local police stations, imperial

bank of the town. Suddenly they heard the sound of firing.
They thought that the town police somehow attacked them
with developed weapons. Some people of the revolutionary
team got separated from the main team. Remaining people
moved to the hill (viz. sulukbohor).Actually there were only
a few police men who was also in puzzle whether to
surrender or to fight against the revolutionary team.
Whatever may be the team along with Masterda tried to
capture the town again and for that they want to reach the
town before the awaking of sun, but unfortunately they
failed and at last took shelter on the jalalbad hill.

22nd April, the revolutionary team taking shelter on the hill,

suddenly found a great numbers of militaries were coming
towards them. It was impossible to fight against them. But
the revolutionaries along Masterda never loosed their
confidence. They were ready to face any enemy. they
realized that the time of ultimate war had came,Masterda
selected Loknathbol as the commander-in-chief of the
action. there was a great fight took place between British
army equipped with modern arms and the Indian
revolutionaries, who had nothing in compare to the brutish
but a great spirit which made them unconquered. At the
end of the day, the British soldiers left the place; they
were not able fought against the great sons of mother
India. Many revolutionaries accepted the death of bravery.
Masterda used to tell them “cowards die many times before
their death. The voluntaries never taste of death but
ones”. After the war they decided to leave the place
because they knew that the very next day the British army
will again attack them with more arms. Since they already
loosed many of their friends, brothers.it will not be
possible to fight against the British rented soldiers. They
decided to leave the place. Later it was found that in war
total 11 revolutionaries were died.

Incidents took place after Chittagong armory raid

After the great movement in Chittagong, many

revolutionaries were arrested by the police. The
revolutionaries were treated as dog in the hands of British
police. They were taken to court for trial. It was known
that all of them were given the verdict of death. Now,
Masterda made a great plan, he want to make the
revolutionaries free from the hands of British Govt. He
made a great plan for this, but unfortunately it came into
the notice of police and as a result the plan was not
implemented.

He was a teacher; he knew that success and failure

are the only two part of life. Through many of his friends
were arrested and were hang, but he did not loose his
spirit. He decided to spread their movements in all the
districts of Bengol.He wanted that people should be
conscious about the all injustice done by the British
Government. He wanted that people should stand against
the British Government. In his vision, he was quite
successful. Many people joined the revolutionaries
including 12 year boy to 60 year old lady. They tolerated
pain, they tolerated poverty but not more, the teacher
teach them the way of living with pride, with glory.
 Through British Government declared 10000Rs on
Surya Sen. But was not able to arrest him or killed him.
They tried in many ways, sometime showing the prize on
his head declared, sometime arresting people unnecessarily
and giving horrible punishments.3 years passed, people
loved and respected Masterda very much. For them he was
more than their own relative. They were ready to do
everything to save the revolutionary teacher from the cruel
hands of the British police.

But bhivison of Ramayana lives everywhere. For them

their duty of motherland is nothing but the loyalty of king
is everything. Here the name of Bhivison was Netra sen.
either because of money, or out of jealousy, or because of
both, Netra Sen told the British Government that Surya Sen
was at his house. As a result, the police came and captured
him on February 16, 1933. This is how India's supreme hero
was arrested. But before Netra Sen was able to get his
10,000-rupee reward he was killed by the revolutionaries.

This is how it happened. Netra Sen's wife was all for Surya
Sen, and she was horrified by her husband's deed. She felt
mortified by her husband's betrayal of Surya Sen. She
couldn't believe her eyes; she couldn't believe her ears.

One evening she was serving her husband food when a

great admirer of Surya Sen came into the house. He was
carrying a very big knife, which is called a dal. With one
stroke of the dal he chopped off the head of Netra Sen in
the presence of his wife. Then slowly and stealthily he
went away.

When the police arrived to investigate, they asked Netra

Sen's wife if she had seen who the murderer was. She said,
"I saw with my own eyes, but my heart will not permit me
to tell you his name. I am sorry. I feel miserable that I was
the wife of such a treacherous man, such an undivine man
as Netra Sen. My husband betrayed the greatest hero of
Chittagong. My husband betrayed a great son of Mother
India. My husband cast a slur on the face of India.
Therefore, I cannot tell the name of the person who took
his life. He has definitely done the right thing. You can do
anything with me. You can punish me, you can even kill me,
but I shall never tell the name of the person who killed my
husband. Our Master-da will be hanged, I know, but his
name will forever be synonymous with India's immortal
freedom-cry. Everybody loves him. Everybody adores him. I,
too, love him and adore him, for he is the brightest sun in
the firmament of Chittagong. Surya means sun and he is
truly our sun."

Tarakeswar Dastidar, the new president of the Chittagong

Branch Jugantar Party, made a preparation to rescue Surya
Sen from the Chittagong Jail. But the plot was unearthed
and consequently frustrated. Tarakeswar and Kalpana along
with others were arrested. Special tribunals tried Surya
Sen, Tarakeswar Dastidar, and Kalpana Datta in 1933.

Surya Sen along with his comrade Tarakeswar Dastidar was

hanged by the British rulers on January 12, 1934. Before
the death sentence Surya Sen was brutally tortured. It was
reported that the British executioners broke all his teeth
with hammer and plucked all nails and broke all limbs and
joints. He was dragged to the rope unconscious. After his
death his death body wasn’t given any funeral. The prison
authority, it was found later, put his dead body in a
metallic cage and dumped into the Bay of Bengal.

His last letter to his comrades, written on 11 January, will

remain enshrined in history as the most eloquent testimony
of the excellence of his manhood... "Death is knocking at
my door. My mind is flying away towards infinity ... this is
the moment to myself to embrace death as the dearest of
friends. In this happy, sacred and crucial moment, what am
I leaving for you all? Only one thing, my dream, a golden
dream, the dream of a Free India. Dear comrades, march
ahead; never retrace your step. Days of servitude are
receding. Freedom's illuminating ray is visible over there.
Arise and never give way to despair. Success is sure to
come."

He was a mathematics teacher; he knew the

mathematic of life also. He knew if only some people stood
against the prevailing system or government they should be
treated as terrorist. That’s why he wanted the spontaneous
support, spontaneous contribution of mass people in
freedom movement. He knew that freedom cannot be
gifted, because every gift bears some liabilities. it is to be
taken. With keeping in mind the fact, he took arms in
hand. He gave his whole life to teach the people the actual
way of living with honesty, with self-respect. He was not a
mare teacher of a particular subject of a particular school;
he was the teacher of all exploited people, ‘Masterda’ of
revolutionaries, his identity is not a mare teacher of
mathematics but a teacher of patriotism.