422. Basanta Kumar Das (1883-1965), 423. Basant Biswas (1895-1915)

Basanta kumar Das was born in Sylhet in 1883. He was welknown as a lawyer through  out India. He started his political life in 1906 at the time of Congress Session. He was imprisoned for 1932-34 for participating in Freedom Struggle.He became an M.P.He was vice-President in Bengal Provincial Congress and Speaker of Assam Assembly in 1937. In 1946 he became Home Minister in 1946. He ws Finance Minister and Lasbour Minister of East Pakistan. He presided over the conference of International Labour Federation in Geneva in 1958. He was one of the founder of Sylhet Mahila Sangha.

Basanta  Biswas was born in Nadia in 1895.

File photo of Basanta Kumar Biswas
Born	6 February 1895 Poragachha, Nadia, West Bengal, British India
Died	11 May 1915 (aged 20) Ambala, Punjab, British India
Organization	Jugantar
Independence movement

Basanta Kumar Biswas (6 February 1895 – 11 May 1915) was an Indian pro-independence activist involved in the Jugantar group who, in December 1912, is believed to have bombed the Viceroy's Parade in what came to be known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy. He was initiated into revolutionary movement by Jugantar leaders Amarendranath Chattopadhyaya and Rash Behari Bose. His forefathers participated in Indigo Farmers rebellion. 

Revolutionary activities

While reading in High School he was influenced by his teacher Kshirod Chandra Gangulee and joined in revolutionary organisation.On 23 December 1912, Biswas, disguised as a woman, threw a bomb at Lord Charles Hardinge, who was riding with his wife on an elephant during a procession in Delhi. Hardinge escaped with flesh wounds, but his Mahoutwas killed in the attack. Biswas was arrested on 26 February 1914 in Poragachha, Nadia while he went to perform the last rites for his father. The trial, which came to be called the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy Case, began on 23 May 1914 in Delhi, and Basanta was found guilty on 5 October and sentenced to life imprisonment.

However, the Government was eager to have the death penalty imposed so an appeal was formulated at Lahore High Court and the records held at Ambala Central Jail were tampered with to show that Biswas was two years older than he really was to impute legal responsibility for his offence. The Crown won its appeal and Biswas was sentenced to be hanged.

Basanta Kumar Biswas was hanged on 11 May 1915 at Ambala Central Jail in Punjab aged twenty and became one of the youngest people to be executed during the Indian revolutionary struggles during the 20th century.