Whenever the name of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is mentioned, one cannot help but recall his commander — the long-forgotten revolutionary Shri Ananga Mohan Dam. He was the chief leader behind the first rebellious incident in Subhas Chandra Bose’s life at Presidency College, known as the “Operation Professor Oaten.” Ananga hailed from the village of Sadhuhati at South Sylhet Sub-division in Assam Province during British India (presently Maulvibazar district) in Bangladesh.
There is some disagreement about his year of birth — whether it was 1890 or 1893 — but his date of birth, 10th December, is confirmed. His father, Abhaya Kumar Dam, was a zamindar (landlord) in the Sataro Sati Pargana and Baurbhag regions of South Sylhet (now Maulvibazar). Although the British government had conferred upon him the title of Rai Saheb, Abhaya Kumar never used it, being a man of strong nationalist convictions. Ananga was the eldest son of Abhaya and Nayanbasi Dam.
During the Partition of Bengal in 1905, when the whole of Bengal was in turmoil, the revolutionary wave also reached Sylhet, which was then part of Assam. Around this time, the 13-year-old Ananga came to study at Raja Girish Chandra School in Sylhet. At the Govinda Charan Park (now Hasan Market) and Ratanmani Loknath Town Hall (now part of Sylhet City Corporation’s Transport Division), he listened to the powerful speeches of Bipin Chandra Pal and Dr. Sundarimohan Das, which deeply inspired him. Still in his early teens, Ananga joined the Swadeshi Movement as a volunteer, and from then on, the idea of India’s freedom never left his mind.
Despite his political involvement, Ananga’s brilliance was undeniable in 1909, he passed the entrance examination under Calcutta University with a scholarship.
After his father’s death, Ananga, as the eldest son, was expected to look after the zamindari estate. But when he refused, the responsibility was taken over by his uncle, Shivasundar Dam.
Ananga then went to Calcutta for higher education and was admitted to Presidency College, where his contemporaries included Satyendra Nath Bose, Gyan Chandra Ghosh, Gyanendra Nath Mukherjee, and Pulin Bihari Sarkar. He was a resident student of the Eden Hindu Hostel. During his college years, Ananga came into contact with members of the Jugantar group, a revolutionary organization. He soon came under police surveillance and harassment, yet managed to graduate with honors in Philosophy — though only with a second class due to time spent on revolutionary activities. Later, he began his M.A. studies.
On 10th December 1915, at a farewell ceremony for Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, who was about to leave for Europe, America, and Japan, a song composed by Ananga was performed by the students at Presidency College. He also delivered the welcome address to Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose on behalf of the students. The event was graced by Rabindranath Tagore himself. Later, both Subhas Chandra Bose and Ananga Mohan Dam were expelled from Presidency College.
Ananga’s father had wished for his son to become a barrister, so he enrolled at the University Law College. To support himself financially, in 1914, he opened a bookshop at 1 Cornwallis Street (now Bidhan Sarani’s Lord Cornwallis Building). He hoped the shop’s income would fund his education and living expenses. However, in July 1916, after his expulsion from Presidency College, he was arrested under the Defence of India Act from that very bookshop.
It was said that Ananga used his own money and his bookshop’s earnings to help poor students and revolutionaries, and his shop became a gathering place for young activists. Initially, he was imprisoned in the “Political Cell” of Presidency Jail, and later exiled from Bengal, being interned somewhere in Assam. Eventually, due to his deteriorating health, he was allowed to return to his ancestral home in Sadhuhati, Sylhet, thanks to his father’s cordial relations with the then Governor of Assam.
After the end of World War I, Ananga was released in March 1920.
In September 1920, he attended a special session of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta, presided over by Lala Lajpat Rai, representing Sylhet District. That session passed the resolution for the Non-Cooperation Movement. During the boycott of the visit of the Prince of Wales, Subhas Chandra Bose played a key role in organizing the movement, while Ananga served as the commander of the volunteer corps. After the arrests of C.R. Das, Subhas Bose, and Kiran Shankar Roy, Deshbandhu entrusted Ananga with leadership of the volunteers, which he carried out with great success, earning Mahatma Gandhi’s blessings.
Around that time, during discussions in the Bengal Provincial Congress about a No-Tax Movement, Pandit Shyam Sundar Chakraborty sent Ananga Mohan Dam to meet Gandhiji in Delhi. At Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari’s residence in Daryaganj, Gandhi advised against launching the No-Tax Movement and instead urged Ananga to send Congress workers to villages to focus on rural reconstruction, education, the removal of untouchability, and Hindu-Muslim unity. Following Gandhi’s advice, Ananga dedicated himself to these causes throughout the greater Sylhet region.
In 1943, during the “Quit India” movement, a decision was made for active leaders to join the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi. Ananga Mohan Dam was elected from the Barak-Surma Valley to the Central Legislature, where he worked under Minister Gopal Swami Ayyangar for the development of Sylhet and Assam. However, after the Partition of India in 1947, his membership was revoked.
During the pre-partition chaos, certain Assamese elites and influential Muslims in Assam sought to free themselves from Sylheti dominance. Although Partition was initially planned only for Punjab and Bengal, Sylhet — part of Assam since 1874 — became a target. With Nehru and Mountbatten’s approval, these vested interests orchestrated the Sylhet Referendum.
Under Ananga Mohan Dam’s leadership, Sylheti patriots tried to resist this conspiracy. He advised Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to keep Sylhet temporarily under Central Administration.
Patel replied, “Sylhet being such a far-off place from Delhi, almost in the North-East Frontier, and you are saying that Sylhet should be kept under Central administration? Dam, your idea is nonsense.”
To this, Ananga retorted, “Sardarji, you shall have to revise your opinion.”
When the referendum was announced, Nehru and Mountbatten, in an effort to please Jinnah, decided to exclude tea-garden laborers — who were mostly migrants — from voting. None of the Congress leaders protested. Ananga, along with a delegation of Sylheti tea workers, went to Delhi to appeal against this injustice, but Mountbatten and Nehru refused to listen.
Ananga then met Sardar Patel again, who finally realized the gravity of the issue. Ananga proposed the creation of a new province named “Purvachal” (Eastern Region), comprising Sylhet, Cachar, Tripura plains, and Manipur, supported by the Maharaja of Tripura. Patel admitted his earlier mistake but said the matter was now beyond his control — it was in the hands of the Viceroy. He advised Ananga to meet Gandhiji, saying only he could intervene. However, Gandhi remained silent, implying he would not act. Deeply disillusioned, Ananga’s respect for Nehru and Patel diminished.
Heartbroken, Ananga Mohan Dam returned to his ancestral home in Sadhuhati just two days before 14th August 1947. Warned by well-wishers that the Muslim League government might arrest him, he left at dawn on the 14th, offering prayers to his household deity before departing — never to return. Behind him, Sadhuhati remained frozen in time.
Ananga Mohan Dam lived the rest of his life quietly in Calcutta, avoiding publicity. He resided in Lower Circular Road, Park Circus (Jhautala Road), and later Ashoknagar (Habra), before finally settling in Sodepur, North 24 Parganas, where his eldest son Ashish Kumar Dam, a government officer, bought a flat in 1965. From then on, the Dam family of Sadhuhati, South Sylhet made Sodepur their permanent home.
On 6th January 1978, this great but forgotten revolutionary of Sylhet breathed his last.
