Shantisudha Ghosh

This article is about Indian politician and teacher (1907 – 1992). For Indian freedom fighter (1893 – 1966), see Santi Sudha Ghosh.

Shantisudha Ghosh (27 June 1907 – 7 May 1992) also written as Shanti Sudha Ghosh was an Indian politician, writer, teacher and communist thinker and an admirer of Aurobindo Ghosh. She was a sister of Debaprasad Ghosh, the founder of Socialist Unity Centre of India.^[1][2] She was the Founder Principal of Hooghly Women's College.^[3]

Early life and education

Ghosh was born to Kshetranath Ghosh, a professor of Brajmohan College, at Alokananda village of Barishal (now in Bangladesh) on 27 June 1907.

She got her early education from Brahmo Balika Bidyalaya and passed the B.A. Examination in 1928 and the M.A. Examination in 1930 from Calcutta University.^[4]An Ishan scholar in the BA Examination (1928) and a First Class MA in Mathematics (1930) from the Calcutta University, Shantisudha Ghosh (1893-1966), daughter of Kshetranath Ghosh, was born in an affluent family of Barishal in undivided Bengal. Sister of the renowned communist thinker and founder of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Debaprasad Ghosh, she did not subscribe to the political ideology of her elder brother.

An admirer of Aurobindo Ghosh’s unique blending of political revolution with yoga; she liked secret society activities. She respected Gandhiji as a leader, but had no faith in the efficacy of his non-violent agitation.

She was primarily a revolutionary collaborator. Following Satin Sen’s Tarun Samgha (Youth Club), she organized a womens club called Shakti Vahini (Force of Strength) (1930) in Barishal to prepare them as a supplementary force for the revolution. Shantisudha had taught in premier colleges: Victoria Institution, Calcutta; Mohammad Mohasin College, Hooghly; and the Barishal Braja Mohan College; but always in association with her role as a revolutionary collaborator.

All these brought her under the police scanner. In 1934, she was arrested in Calcutta and interned in Barishal, but released on health grounds in 1937; when she drifted to Gandhian agitation. In 1942-43, she was imprisoned again; after her release she joined the famine relief work; followed by her escape to West Bengal in 1947, leaving behind her birth and workplace.^[5][6]