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.