Every date on this page has been checked against standard accounts. Where accounts differ, the entry says so.
The life · 1911–1932
Larger markers are the turning points. Scroll sideways on a wide screen, or read straight down on a narrow one.
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1911
5 May
Born at Dhalghat
Born in the village of Dhalghat, Patiya, Chittagong district, Bengal Presidency — now in Bangladesh. Daughter of Jagabandhu Waddedar, a clerk in the Chittagong municipality, and Pratibhamayi Devi. Called Rani at home.
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1911
December
The partition of Bengal annulled
Seven months after her birth, the 1905 division of the province is reversed and the imperial capital moves from Calcutta to Delhi.
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1928
Matriculation, first division
Passes the matriculation examination from Dr. Khastagir Government Girls’ School, Chittagong. The same year, the Simon Commission arrives in India without a single Indian member and is boycotted nationwide.
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1929
Eden College, Dhaka
Takes the intermediate arts examination at Eden College; accounts record her placing first among candidates of the Dhaka board. Joins Sreesangha, in the circle of Leela Nag’s Deepali Sangha.
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1930
18 April
The Chittagong armoury raid
Surya Sen’s group seizes the district’s armouries, cuts communications and proclaims a provisional revolutionary government. Pritilata is a student in Calcutta at the time. On 22 April British forces attack the group at Jalalabad; about a dozen revolutionaries are killed.
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1931
14 December
Comilla
Santi Ghose and Suniti Choudhury, both schoolgirls, shoot the district magistrate at Comilla. Kalpana Datta joins the Chittagong organisation this year.
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1932
6 February
Bina Das at the convocation
Her fellow Bethune College student fires at the Governor of Bengal during the Calcutta University convocation, and is sentenced to nine years.
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1932
Graduates in philosophy — degree withheld
Completes her BA in philosophy at Bethune College, Calcutta, with distinction. The colonial authorities withhold her degree, as they do Bina Das’s.
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1932
Headmistress in Chittagong
Returns to Chittagong and takes charge of the Nandankanan Aparna Charan School as headmistress. In the same period she joins Surya Sen’s organisation.
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1932
13 June
The Dhalghat encounter
British forces surround a house at Dhalghat where Surya Sen, Nirmal Sen and Pritilata are present. Nirmal Sen and Apurba Sen are killed, along with Captain Cameron of the British force. She escapes with Surya Sen and goes underground.
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1932
early September
Kalpana Datta arrested
Arrested during preparations for the Pahartali action and released on bail, Kalpana Datta returns underground and does not take part.
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1932
23 September
The Pahartali action
Late at night, a small party led by Pritilata Waddedar attacks the Pahartali European Club. A woman named Mrs. Sullivan is killed and a number of people are injured. Pritilata is wounded as the party withdraws.
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1932
24 September
Death at Pahartali
Rather than be captured she takes poison and dies. Her body is recovered that morning. She is twenty-one. Papers found with her include a written statement arguing for the equal participation of women in the freedom struggle.
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Drag, scroll or use the arrow keys to move through the sequence
A short life, densely dated
Between her matriculation in 1928 and her death in September 1932 there are four years. Inside them: two board examinations, a degree, a professional appointment, membership of two political organisations, an armed encounter she survived and an action she led.
It is worth reading the sequence slowly. The compression is the point.
The afterlife · 1933–2012
What happened to the movement, to the district, and to her reputation.
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1933
16 February
Surya Sen captured
Betrayed by an informer, Surya Sen is taken. Kalpana Datta is captured in May and later sentenced to transportation for life.
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1934
12 January
Surya Sen executed
Surya Sen is hanged at Chittagong, together with Tarakeswar Dastidar. The Chittagong branch of the Indian Republican Army has effectively ceased to exist.
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1947
A border arrives
Chittagong becomes part of East Pakistan at partition, and of Bangladesh in 1971. Her birthplace, her school and the site of her death end up on one side of a new border; her college and much of the scholarship about her on the other.
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2010–2017
On screen
Portrayed in Ashutosh Gowariker’s Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (2010) and in Bedabrata Pain’s Chittagong (2012). The Bangladeshi film Bhalobasa Pritilata (2017) takes her as its subject.
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2012
The degree conferred
Eighty years after she earned it, the University of Calcutta confers her withheld degree posthumously, together with that of Bina Das.
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On dating this life
Dates that are firm
Her birth on 5 May 1911; the armoury raid on 18 April 1930 and the Jalalabad encounter on 22 April; the Comilla shooting on 14 December 1931; Bina Das’s action on 6 February 1932; the Dhalghat encounter on 13 June 1932; the Pahartali action on the night of 23 September 1932 and her death, recorded on 24 September; Surya Sen’s capture in February 1933 and execution on 12 January 1934; the conferral of her degree in 2012.
Dates that are approximate
The precise month in 1932 in which she joined Surya Sen’s organisation, and the precise date of her appointment as headmistress. Accounts place both in 1932 without agreeing on more.
Figures that vary between accounts
The number of revolutionaries killed at Jalalabad (commonly given as about twelve); the size of the party at Pahartali (roughly seven to ten); and the number injured at the club (roughly eleven to fourteen). This archive gives ranges rather than choosing a figure.
Where her death is dated to 23 September
Some accounts date her death to the night of the action, 23 September, and others to the morning her body was recovered, 24 September. Both refer to the same few hours. This archive uses 24 September, the date most commonly given.