Do & Die

A forgotten chapter of Indian history brought alive.

On 18 April 1930 at around 10 p.m., a clutch of men, most of them still in their teens, challenged the might of the British Empire through a series of raids jn Chittagong. Their actions stunned the colonial rulers and ignited the spark of rebellion throughout Bengal.

In this book, the first of its kind, journalist Manini Chatterjee gives a riveting account of the real life drama without compromising on facts. Drawing upon hitherto unpublished extracts from police records and government files and interviews with revolutionaries, Chatterjee reconstructs the events of that fateful night when six ex-detenus, inspjred by the famous Easter Uprising in Dublin (1916) , attacked the armouries of the police and the Auxiliary Force in Chittagong. What happened in the ensuing three years is vividly narrated. Striking and graphic accounts of the battle of Jalalabad, the encounter at Dhalghat, the attack at Pahartali and the underground resistance form the core of the book. Chatterjee scores in giving a human face to the dry bones of history. The mysterious Masterda, the irrepressible Ka1pana Dutt and the brooding, tragic Pritilata Waddadar all come alive with their zeal and fervour, love and loss.

Meticulously researched and skilfully narrated, the story of the young idealists, heady with patriotism and ready to die, emphasizes the role of the revolutionaries as an important part of the freedom struggle in India.