Day-long Padyatra on 23rd December 2023 from Khardaha to Panihati in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal
Tribute paid to Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Purna Chandra Mukherjee, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Begam Rokeya Hossain, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Nityanand Mahaprabhu
IPTA has floated a Pan India Cultural Jatha named “Dhai Akhar Prem” from 28th September, the birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh, to spread the message of friendship, equality, justice and humanity by paying tributes to the eminent social reformers, poets, writer, artists and saints of our national life. As a part of this National campaign, the West Bengal statewide yatra is going to be held from 28th December to 31st December.
On this context several progressive poets, writers, artists, drama activists and other creative person of Khardaha and Panihati areas under the banner of PWA and IPCA-WB organized an unique day-long padayatra on 23rd December. They paid tributes to the individual and institutions of immense historical importance. The programme was inaugurated by garlanding the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Sodepur Khadi Pratishthan.
Gandhiji considered this institution as his second home. Satish Chandra Dasgupta, an ardent follower of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy founded the Pratishthan in 1924. Gandhiji inaugurated the art division of the institution in January 1927. He stayed here several times. The historical meeting between Gandhiji and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru to cope with the internal political problems happened here in 1939. Gandhiji went to Noakhali to control the riot situation in 1946 and came back from Noakhali to this house. Simanta Gandhi Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Babu Rajendra Prasad, Sarojini Naidu also spend time here.
The yatra then went to the house of Purna Chandra Mukherjee, the first archeologist of India who discovered the birthplace of Gautam Buddha in Kapilavastu. He also supervised the archeological digging at Patliputra, Bundelkhand and Konark.
The yatra paid tribute to the great son of Panihati. The yatra then reached a garden house on the bank of river Ganges which was built by Ramdulal Sarkar, a pioneer in merchandise with America. Rabindra Nath Tagore came to this house with his family at the age of eleven and stayed here for a month. He came here in 1919 with P.C. Mahalobonish after quitting the Knighthood as a protest against the Jalianwalabagh massacre. The participants of the Jatha paid tribute by garlanding the statue of Tagore.
The Jatha then proceeded to the memorial of Begam Rokeya Hossain, torch bearer of women education in Bangladesh who was cremated here on 9th December 1932.
Another great social reformer of Bengal, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu along with his disciple Sri Nityanand Mahaprabhu came to Panihati to preach his message of love. Sri Nityanand Mahaprabhu explored a social revolutionary programme in 1514 when people from different sections irrespective of their caste or religion took Prasad together sitting under a Banyan tree. The festival is called Dando Mahatsav or Dahi-Chura Utsav (Festival of Curd and flattened-rice) observed every year with the participation of thousands of people. Saint Ramakrishna also participated in the festival several times with his disciple. Gandhiji came here in 1946 to pay his tribute to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
The yatra came to an end at the doorsteps of a house with memory of Ravindra Nath Tagore situated by the bank of river Ganges at Khardah. Memories of staying here is found in the writings of Tagore. He came here in 1931 and lived here for eighteen days. He travelled to Persian countries in April 1932 from here and returned from Persian countries in June 1932 here. This edition of Dhai Akhar Prem Jatha ended here with presentation of some songs and recitations . It was really a historic yatra to be remembered by all of us.
The yatra was attended by Amitava Chakraborty vice President of IPTA, Partha Pratim Kundu, joint editor of leading Little Magazine of WB, Parichaya, Sasanka Das Bairagya, president of PWA Khardah, Koushik Ghosh, Secretary of PWA Khardah, Narayan Biswas, General Secretary of PWA North 24 Parganas district, Subir Mukherjee, economist, Liaquat Ali, trade union activist, Sukhendu Goswami, an eighty year old activist and so many other cultural activists. The whole yatra was anchored by Tapas Maitra, Vice President of IPCA, West Bengal.
Report: Debashish Ghosh