Binod Bihari Chowdhury was in Dhaka on 21 February 1952 when students marched in the streets violating section 144 demanding Bangla to be a state language.
Binod Bihari Chowdhury – a revolutionary activist of the anti-British movement and later a member of the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly – played a vital role to protest in the assembly against the police firing on students on 21 February 1952 in Dhaka.
He raised the demands of the students at the assembly and urged the Muslim League leaders for a judicial investigation on the killing.
Binod Bihari Chowdhury was in Dhaka on 21 February 1952 when students marched in the streets violating section 144 demanding Bangla to be a state language.
The session of the Legislative Assembly was to be held at 3 pm. He got out in a rickshaw at 2.30 pm to join the session. However, several students who were participating in the protest rally stopped his rickshaw after crossing the medical college and forced him to go with them.
They said, “We are dying in the police firing. Why are you going to the legislative assembly? Come and see what the police have done to us.”
The students took him inside the medical college hostel to show Language Movement martyred Barkat’s body.
However, Binod Bihari explained to the angry and agitated students that it is necessary for him to join the assembly session to protest the police brutality as a member of the opposition. He also said that the news of this atrocity should be highlighted to the international arena by raising voice in the assembly. The students understood, and let him go.
Binod Bihari later joined the assembly session and along with Congress members Manoranjan Dhar, Govinda Banerjee, Nely Sen Gupta, Dhrendra Nath Dutt, Basanta Kumar Das, and Khayrat Hossain from Rangpur, Anwara Khatun from Mymensingh, Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish of Muslim League requested the assembly to halt the procedure on point of order. They protested against the police brutality and killing of students who were participating in the Language Movement.
They also gave details of the events to the other members of the assembly and asked the prime minister to visit the spot and see the dead bodies.
The Muslim League members and ministers failed to give any relevant explanation of the government actions against the protesting students. However, due to the indomitable stance of opposition members led by Binod Bihari, the ruling party promised a judicial inquiry of the event.
Binod Bihari Chowdhury was born on 10 January 1911 in Boalkhali, Chattogram.
He started his primary education at Rangamatia Board School in Fatikchhari. Later, he went to Fatikchhari Coronation Adarsha High School, PC Sen Sarwartali High School, Chattogram College and Kolkata University.
He was awarded a scholarship for successfully passing the matriculation (now the Secondary School Certificate or SSC) examination in 1929 before getting admission at Kolkata University.
He passed with first class in both Intermediate Arts (IA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) examinations from the university in 1934 and 1938. However, during that time he was detained at Rajputana Duty Detention Camp due to his involvement in revolutionary politics against British colonial rule.
Binod Bihari Chowdhury was the assistant-secretary of the Congress District Committee, Chattogram in 1930. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Bengal Provincial Congress in 1940-1946. He was also the general secretary of the Chattogram District Committee of Congress in 1946. In 1947, at the age of 37, he became a member of the West Pakistan Congress.
He retired from politics in 1958 after Ayub Khan declared martial law and banned all political parties.
He started his journalistic career in 1939 as an assistant editor of a daily newspaper. Then in 1940, he started practicing as a lawyer in Chattogram court. But in the end, he took up teaching as a profession.
Binodi Bihari Chowdhury was a comrade of revolutionary Master Da Surya Sen in the anti-colonial movement in India. He died on 10 April 2013.
