“Deshbandhu” Chittaranjan Das… Saluting Kolkata’s Premier ‘First Citizen’

Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das

On April 16, 1924 ‘Deshbandhu’ Chittaranjan Das was elected as the first Mayor of Kolkata. Subsequently with the promulgation of the new Calcutta Municipal Act of 1923, he was reelected on April 1, 1925. Thus began a glorious chapter in the history of Kolkata’s civic administration. A successful lawyer, it was Chittaranjan’s vision that propelled Kolkata’s development — for the first time in an indigenous model.

Chittaranjan Das was born on November 5, 1870. His father, Bhuban Moahan Das who was a Solicitor at the Calcutta High Court, who hailed from a well-known family of Bikrampur in the Dhaka district of the then Bengal Province.

After completing his education from the London Missionary Society’s School, Calcutta, Das joined the hallowed Presidency College and took his Bachelor’s Degree from Calcutta University in 1890. It was during his student days that Chittaranjan became a firm believer in the political ideals of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. At Presidency, he was a leading figure of the Students Association where he was baptised by the fire under Surendranath Banerjee in the first lessons in public service and elocution.

In 1891, Chittaranjan Das went to England and joined the Inner Temple to study Law and was called to the Bar in 1892. During his stay in England he made several political speeches, notably in support of the Parliamentary candidature of Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian to be elected to the House of Commons. 

Das returned to India in 1893 and commenced his practice as a Barrister in the High Court of Calcutta. His career reached a new height in the year 1909 when he successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh in the famous ‘Alipore Bomb Blast Case’. It was this momentous event that made him ‘Deshbandu’, or, ‘Friend of the Nation’ in the eye of millions of his fellow countrymen.

In 1917 Das came to the forefront of nationalist politics when he was invited to preside over the Bengal Provincial Conference held at Bhowanipore. This triggered off Chittaranjan as a major figure in the Non-Cooperation Movement from 1919 to 1922.

As man Das set high morale standards, thus it was not surprising that for someone who maintained a permanent laundry in Paris to ship his clothes to Calcutta — it was he who started the boycott of western dresses — setting an example for others to follow by burning his own western clothes and instead, adopting the handmade desi Khadi garments.

A firm believer of non-violence and constitutional methods for the realisation of national independence, Das advocated Hindu-Muslim unity, cooperation and communal harmony and championed the cause of national education. This led to the formation of the Swaraj Party in 1924 after he resigned his presidency of the Indian National Congress at the Gaya session along with Motilal Nehru and Hussain Suhrawardy. It was around this time that Das also launched a newspaper named Forward to spread his message to the public and fight the British Raj that was later rechristened as Liberty.

As the first Mayor of Kolkata Chittaranjan blueprinted his vision of liberating India from British Rule by means of proper self-governance. For him, Corporation was the ‘Working model of Swaraj’. In order to realise his dream, Chittaranjan appointed Subhas Chandra Bose as the first Chief Executive of the Corporation who ably furthered the former’s goal of serving the country and its people.

In 1925, Das’s health began to fail due to overwork and in May he withdrew to “Step Aside”, his retreat in Darjeeling. On 16 June 1925 Chittaranjan breathed his last with a severe fever. Mahatma Gandhi, who led thousands in Calcutta, during Das’s funeral procession, famously opined, “Deshbandhu was one of the greatest of men... He dreamed... and talked of freedom of India and of nothing else... His heart knew no difference between Hindus and Mussalmans and I should like to tell Englishmen, too, that he bore no ill-will to them.”

A few years before his death Das gifted his house and the adjoining lands to the nation to be used for the betterment of the lives of women. Today it is a major hospital called Chittaranjan Seva Sadan and has gone from being a women’s hospital to one where all specialties are present. The Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital that was established in these premises in 1950 is now the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute. The Corporation and the citizens paid tribute to Chittaranjan Das by erecting a commemorative tower at the Keoratala Mahasmashan where Chittaranjan was cremated.

It is indeed a privilege for us at Corporation to pay our tribute to Deshbandhu every year at this monument.

Step Aside… Das's residence at Darjeeling