Govinda Chandra Dev

Govinda Chandra Dev Purakayastha (1 February 1907 – 26 March 1971) His father was Ishwar Chandra Dev, a businessman. After his father's death at an early age, Dev was raised by the local Christian missionaries.

Dev was elected the general secretary of the Pakistan Philosophical Congress in the 1960s and held the post till his death in 1971. He also set up a Philosophy House in Dhaka University to promote and practice his life-oriented and humanist philosophy, which became a center for intellectual and cultural activities in the university.

Dev donated the bulk of his belongings to the university in his lifetime. The donation facilitated the establishment of the Center for Philosophical Studies (DCPS) at Dhaka University in 1980.

Dev was a life-long bachelor, although he adopted a son, Jyoti Prakash Dutta, and a daughter, Rokeya Begum Sultana.

Assassination This monument to the intellectuals killed by the Pakistani soldiers in the area of the Central Shahid Minar on the night of 25–26 March 1971, lists Dev's name. Dev was assassinated along with the husband of his adopted daughter by Pakistan army personnel involved in 1971 Dhaka University massacre on the black night of 25 March. At that time, Dev was residing in a university quarter near Jagannath Hall with his adopted daughter Rokeya Sultana and her husband Mohammad Ali. At around 11 p.m., the residents of the house were awakened by the sound of gunfire as the army raided the campus. As Rokeya remarked later, bullets were hitting the house like a hailstorm. The family took shelter in a small room and kept awake the whole night. In the morning of 26 a group of soldiers came to the door. They started banging on the door as they shouted in Urdu, "Kanha Malaun kanha, daravaaja khol" ("You son of an infidel, open the door"). As Dev proceeded to open the door, the door collapsed on him. Upon entering the house, one of the soldiers hit his head with his rifle, and another one shot him in the chest. His adopted daughter Rokeya Begum's husband Mohammad Ali came to rescue him and recited Kalima to calm the soldiers. But it didn't work. Dev feebly asked, "What do you want here, son?" But in response, the soldiers opened fire and shot a few more rounds at him. Two bullets hit him in the head, and the other bullets hit him in the chest. Dev died immediately. The soldiers beat Rokeya mercilessly and also killed her husband. They also plunged a bayonet into the professor's lifeless body. Rokeya Begum survived the sudden attack and was knocked unconscious. They later took the dead bodies to the grounds of Jagannath Hall, where the bodies of the other victims of the massacre were dumped.