Kamala Bhattacharjee

Kamala Bhattacharjee was an Indian student who was martyred in the Bengali Language Movement in Silchar in 1961. She is the first female language martyr in the history of the world for her mother tongue.

Early life Kamala was born to Ramraman Bhattacharjee and Suprabasini Devi, the fifth of seven children in the year 1945 in the erstwhile Sylhet district in Assam. In their family they were three sons and four daughters. She was the third of the four daughters, having a younger sister and a younger brother. Their family had to struggle through many hardships after she lost her father early in her childhood. During the Partition of India, the district of Sylhet was acceded to Pakistan on the basis of Sylhet referendum. In the 1950 East Pakistan genocide, hundreds of Hindus were killed in Sylhet and they migrated to India in large numbers. Kamala's mother too migrated to Silchar in the Cachar district in the year 1950.

Kamala's family used to stay in a rented accommodation in Silchar Public School Road. Her eldest sister Benu took up a nursing job and went to Simaluguri for training. Kamala's elder sister Pratibha was a school teacher. Her family was economically dependent on her earning for their livelihood. In her childhood, Kamala attended the Chhotelal Seth Institute in Silchar. She did not have the financial stability to buy the school text books. She had once asked her eldest sister Benu to buy her a dictionary for her, which her sister could not afford. She used to borrow books from her classmates and copy the text and read them. In 1961, Kamala appeared for the matriculation exams. She was determined to complete her graduation and had planned to learn typewriting before the matriculation results were declared.