Pritilata Waddedar
Pritilata Waddedar (5 May 1911 – 24 September 1932)[1][2] was an Bengali revolutionary nationalist from the Indian subcontinent who was influential in the Indian independence movement.[3][4] After completing her education in Chattogram and Dhaka, she attended Bethune College in Kolkata. She graduated in philosophy with distinction and became a school teacher. She is praised as "Bengal's first woman martyr".[5][6]
Pritilata Waddedar
5 May 1911
24 September 1932 (aged 21)[1]
Suicide by consuming potassium cyanide
British Indian
Rani (nickname)
School teacher
Pahartali European Club attack (1932)
- Jagabandhu Waddedar (father)
- Pratibha Devi (mother)
Ash Sarkar (great-great-niece)
Pritilata joined a revolutionary group headed by Surya Sen. She is known for leading fifteen revolutionaries in the 1932 armed attack[7] on the Pahartali European Club,[8][9] during which one person was killed and eleven injured. The revolutionaries torched the club and were later caught by the colonial police. Pritilata committed suicide by cyanide. Her suicide was preplanned. She had a suicide note or a letter with her, where she had penned down the objectives of the Indian Republican Army, Chittagong Branch. In the letter, along with the names of Masterda Surya Sen and Nirmal Sen, she had also mentioned about her experience of meeting Ramkrishna Biswas a number of times in the Alipore Central Jail. Ramkrishna Biswas was waiting his execution by hanging by the British and Pritilata used to meet him in the alias of his cousin sister.[10]
Bust of Pritilata
Pritilata Shohid Minar
