The British police intelligence kept tabs on Rabindranath Tagore suspecting him to be a spy of freedom fighters.
Documents reveal that British intelligence kept tabs on writers and actors KOLKATA: The British police intelligence kept tabs on Rabindranath Tagore suspecting him to be a spy of freedom fighters. A close watch was also kept on writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay after the publication of his book, Pather Dabi, which is based on the life of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
Actor Bhanu Bandopadhayay, known for his comic timing, was kept under house arrest for 30 days when he was a teenager as the police suspected him to be involved in seditious activities!
Many such untold stories on the Indian freedom movement will now be made public in a joint initiative of the intelligence branch (IB) of West Bengal police and the state archives department.
The IB will make a compilation of confidential files maintained by the British police and hand it over to the state archives department, which, apart from preserving these historical documents, will put them on display.
Former additional director-general (IB) Shyamal Dutta and former inspector general (IB) Sandhi Mukherjee first came up with the idea of preserving the documents.
Mukherjee completed a major portion of the compilation before his retirement last year. Under the supervision of IG (IB) GC Dutt, it has now been completed and the IB is ready to hand over all the documents to the state archives department.
In an informal discussion with DNA, a senior IB official said: “The life of most freedom fighters such as Surya Sen and Khudiram Bose and the British efforts to control them are well known. What is unknown is how people from the literary world were also under British surveillance,” he said.
According to him, the documents will also help people understand how artists and writers directly or indirectly contributed to the freedom movement. “Take for example, the comedy king of Bengali cinema, Bhanu Bandopadhyay. Much before he joined films, he was actively associated with revolutionary groups. The police kept him under house arrest for quite some time in that period,” the IB official said.
r_sumanta@dnaindia.net 
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