Hijli Detention Camp (now called Shaheed Bhavan, IIT Kharagpur), [1] is a former detention camp operated during the period of British colonial rule in India. [2] Located in Hijli, beside Kharagpur, (a part of former Hijli Kingdom) in the district of Midnapore West, West Bengal, India, it played a significant role in the Indian independence movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The large numbers of those who participated in armed struggles or the non-cooperation movement against the British could not be accommodated in ordinary jails. The British colonial government decided to establish a few detention camps; the first one was located in Buxa Fort followed by the creation of Hijli Detention Camp in 1930. A significant moment in the Indian independence movement occurred at here in 1931 when two unarmed detainees, Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sengupta, were shot dead by the Indian Imperial Police. [3] Subhas Chandra Bose came to Hijli to collect their bodies for interment. Many Indian nationalists, including Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, voiced strong protests against the British Raj over this incident. [4] The firing which later known as "Hijli firing" is the only incident of police firing inside a detention camp. [5]
The detention camp was closed in 1937 and was reopened in 1940. In 1942 it was closed for the final time and the detainees were transferred elsewhere. During the Second World War it was occupied by the US Air Force. [3]
Today, the camp is also known for being the birthplace of Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur, which started in 1951. [6] In 1990, a part of the former detention camp buildings were converted to house the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology.
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as the country's prime minister for 17 years. Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. A well-regarded author, his books written in prison, such as Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929), An Autobiography (1936) and The Discovery of India (1946), have been read around the world.
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is a public technical university established by the government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance. In 2019 it was awarded the status of Institute of Eminence by the Government of India.
The non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched in 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of inducing the British to grant self-governance.
Kharagpurpronunciation (help·info) is an industrial city in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Kharagpur subdivision. It is the most populated, multicultural and cosmopolitan city of the district. The first Indian Institute of Technology, one of the Institutes of National Importance, was founded in Kharagpur in May 1950. It has one of the largest railway workshops in India, and the third longest railway platform in the world.
Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, popularly known by his pen name Ghanshyam Vyas, was an Indian independence movement activist, politician, writer and educationist from Gujarat state. A lawyer by profession, he later turned to author and politician. He is a well-known name in Gujarati literature. He founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an educational trust, in 1938.
Hijli is a neighborhood of Kharagpur in the Kharagpur subdivision of the Paschim Medinipur district in the state of West Bengal, India.
Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya, was a British-Indian engineer, educator and government advisor. In 1980, he became Professor of Manufacturing Systems at the University of Warwick and founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group. In 2004 he was made a Life Peer and became a member of the House of Lords.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are the premier autonomous public technical and research universities located across India.
The Hijli Kingdom existed between 1687 and 1886 in the eastern part of India. Initially Hijli was a small island village on the banks of the Rasulpur River as it flows to the Bay of Bengal. It developed into a port town in 1687. Slowly, it converted into a province or kingdom covering parts of Bengal and Orissa. The Contai basin also belonged to this kingdom. Mansingh is believed to be the founder King of Hijli. It had important towns like Tamluk or Tamralipta, Panskura, along with Keleghai and Haldi rivers on the north, the south and east sides bounded by the Bay of Bengal and Kharagpur, Keshiary, Dantan and Jaleswar on the west. The capital of Hijli was in Bahiri up to 1628 and afterwards it was shifted to Hijli. This kingdom was ruled for some years by Taj Khan, a disciple of Guru Peer Mackdram Sha Chisti. It was also ruled sequentially by Kushan, Gupta and Pal dynasties and also by Mughals. It is known that Hijli had excellent business and trade centers during the reign of Hindu Kings and continued during the Mughal dynasty.
The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology is a museum in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. It was founded in 1990 at the Hijli Detention camp building, later the IIT-Kharagpur Heritage Building, which is now named as Hijli Saheed Bhavan. The imposing building, bearing resemblance to the Byzantine style of architecture, was used by the British rulers of India to detain the freedom fighters during the 1930s.
The School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST) is an educational and research institute affiliated to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Founded in 2001 the School of Medical Science and Technology brings together doctors, scientists and engineers to work collaboratively on projects for better healthcare.
Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar is a public technical university established by the government of India in 2008, located at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public technical and research institutes located across India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, which has declared them as Institutes of National Importance and lays down their powers, duties, and framework for governance. The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 lists twenty-three institutes. Each IIT is autonomous, linked to the others through a common council, which oversees their administration. The Minister of Education is the ex officio Chairperson of the IIT Council. As of 2021, the total number of seats for undergraduate programs in all IITs is 16,234.
Kharagpur Junction railway station is a railway station in Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is also the fourth longest railway station by platform length after Hubli Junction railway station, Gorakhpur Junction railway station and Kollam Junction railway station.
The Chauri Chaura incident took place on 4 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of the United Provinces in British India, when a large group of protesters participating in the non-cooperation movement, were fired upon by the police. In retaliation the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, killing all of its occupants. The incident led to the death of three civilians and 22 policemen. Mahatma Gandhi, who was strictly against violence, halted the non-cooperation movement on the national level on 12 February 1922, as a direct result of this incident. In spite of Gandhi's decision, 19 arrested demonstrators were sentenced to death and 14 to imprisonment for life by the British colonial authorities.
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Kalyani is an Indian Institute of Information Technology located at Kalyani, West Bengal. The institute was set up by the Government of India Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of West Bengal and industry partners using the not-for-profit Public Private Partnership (N-PPP) model, at a ratio of 50:35:15 respectively between three parties. Admission to IIIT Kalyani is done on the basis of the marks obtained in JEE Main.IIIT Kalyani has been attributed the status of Institute of National Importance (INI) by the cabinet in March 2017 under the IIIT Act. The institute is run by the Board of Governors of IIIT Kalyani whose members include the representatives of Government of India (MHRD), Government of West Bengal, industry partners and eminent people from academia, industry and civil society. Virendra Kumar Tewari is the Mentor-Director for IIIT, Kalyani and IIT Kharagpur is the mentor institute. Prof. Santanu Chattopadhyay has taken charge as the Director of the Institute on December 16, 2020.
Bhrigu Nath Singh, also known as B.N. Singh, is an Indian engineering scientist. He is a distinguished professor and Institute's first Dean of Human Resources, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Chair of the ICTACEM and former Head of Department Aerospace Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.
Santosh kumar Mitra or Santosh Mitra was an activist of the Indian independence movement and a martyr.
Tarakeshwar Sengupta was an Indian independence activist who took part in the Chittagong Armoury Raid. He was a member of revolutionary group of Masterda Surya Sen.
Pradyut Kumar Bhattacharya was a Bengali revolutionary and activist of the Indian freedom movement. He was hanged in Midnapore Central jail.