447. Benoy Choudhury (1911-2000)

Benoy Choudhury  was a revolutionary, freedom fighter and politician, belonging to the CPI(M), who played a major role in land reforms in the Indian state of West Bengal, during Left Front govt. regime.
He was born in Shihigram, Burdwan on 14.1. 1911. His father was Girindranath. He and Saroj Mukherjee was born on the same day in adjacent villages.  They were claqssmates. In their student life they were influenced by the revolutionary Fakir Chandra Roy. He passed matriculation from Burdwan Municipal High School and Intermediate in Science. from Serampore College, under the University of Calcutta. He joined the Jugantar group in 1928 and was in jail before he could sit for his B.A. examination.
He and Saroj Mukherjee were in charge of collecting volunteers for Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930-31. Harekrishna Konar of Memory came in contact with them at this time. They were jailed for participating Civil Disobedience movement in 1930.  Again in 1938 he was jailed for his involvement in Birbhum conspiracy case. He joined the Communist Party in 1938.He began working underground, after release, in Burdwan,Birbhum, Bnkura and Hooghly. He, HareKrishna konar, and Niranjan Halder were involved in a dacoity for swadeshi movement. After release he worked among the workers of Coal Mines in Rqnigunge, asansol area. He was arrested in 1939 and jailed for three months. He participated in the Tax for Canal in Burdwan and took leadership in 1945. He participated in flood relief work in Damodar and Ajoy river. He went to underground during WWII.He was expelled from his own district in 1940. He came in forefront after lift of prohibitory order in 1842. He participated in Bombay Conference in 1943 as a delegate from Burdwan.He was arrested during participation in Tebhaga Movement from Raina Thana with Bipin Baran Roy.

He filed his nomination for election from Burdwan constituency in 1951 while still in jail. Benoy Choudhury representing undivided CPI secured 11,439 votes, Uday Chand Mahtab, the erstwhile Maharaja of Burdwan, representingCongress secured 9,477 votes. Thereafter, he went on to win the Burdwan seat in 1957, and then the Burdwan South seat in 1969 and 1971. He won from the Bardhaman North seat in 1987 and 1991. He was minister of different departments.

Land reforms

Benoy Choudhury played a leading role in land reforms in West Bengal. Land reforms can be divided into two phases. In the first phase in 1967-1970,Hare Krishna Konar recovered around a million acres (4,000 km²) of land through existing legal means. In the second phase of land reforms in 1978-1982, Benoy Choudhury accomplished two major tasks. The first task was carried out under Operation Barga when around 1.7 million sharecroppers were formally recorded, assuring them of permanency of land holding and a fair share of the crop. The second task was the distribution of about a million acres (4,000 km²) of land earlier vested amongst 2.4 million poor and landless farm labor. Thus about 4 million people were directly benefited, laying the foundation for victory of the Left Front in subsequent years.

Later life

After retirement from active politics, he lived in a small rented flat inBidhannagar, trying to make a living on the spouse’s pension he received from his dead wife’s account. She had been the headmistress of a school. Benoy Choudhury was well known for his frank talking. On December 17, 1995, when he was the second man in the West Bengal government he remarked, "This is a government of contractors, by contractors and for contractors". After his death, one obituary note read, “A poor man he had nothing to bequeath so he gave his eyes to the eye bank and his body to Calcutta Medical College for research”.