Maandalay Jail (contd-1)

The Bengali political prisoners in Mandalay learned that there was a financial contribution made by the Govt. for religiously incurred expenses. In 1925, they approached the officials seeking financial assistance for all the expenses involved in celebrating Durga Puja. To protest against this decision the prisoners including Subhas chandra Bose started hunger strike from 20th February, 1926. Calcutta Corporation in its meeting held on  24th February also protested vehemently against this attitude of the Govt. and observed Hartal  (strike) in Calcutta on 26th February. Hartal was also observed in bengal for this on 28th February.. When their demands were fulfilled, they called off their strike on 4th March.
Subhas wrote to Calcutta friend explainingbthe gains they had made.
".....our hunger strike was not altogether meaningless or Fruitless. Government have been forced to concede our demands relating religious matters and henceforward a Bengal state Prisoner will get an annual allowance of thirty thirty rupees on accaount of Puja expences. ......our principal gain is that the Government have now accepted the principle which they refused to do so long....Govt. has also met many of our demands...."
  In 1925, Das's health began to fail due to overwork and in May he withdrew to "Step Aside", a mountain home in Darjeeling, where Mahatma Gandhi visited him. On 16 June 1925, with a severe fever, he breathed his last. A special arrangement was made to bring his cortege by train to Calcutta.

The funeral procession in Calcutta was led by Gandhi, who said:

Deshbandhu was one of the greatest of men... He dreamed... and talked of freedom of India and of nothing else... His heart knew no difference between Hindus and Mussalmans and I should like to tell Englishmen, too, that he bore no ill-will to them.

Thousands and thousands of people accompanied Deshbandhu's funeral cortege to the burning ground at Keoratala Mahasamsan in Calcutta. The mass gathering and the manner in which people paid their last respects to this beloved leader, whom many described as "the uncrowned king of Bengal", evoked a feeling in Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) who penned a couplet that has immortalised the person to whom these words were offered : "Enechhile sathe kore mrityuheen praan/ Marane tahai tumi kore gele daan.." [You had brought with yourself a life-without-an-end/As you depart, you donate the same.."].