Nationality Indian Name Gopal Mukhopadhyay Occupation Business | Ethnicity Bengali Hindu Other names Patha Died 2005, Kolkata | |
 | ||
Born 1913 Kolkata, Bengal, British India Known for Retaliating against Muslim League atrocities on Hindus during the Great Calcutta Killings. | ||
Gopal Chandra Mukhopadhyay (Bengali: গোপালচন্দ্র মুখোপাধ্যায়) (1913 – 2005), popularly known as Gopal Patha or Gopal Pantha (Bengali: গোপাল পাঁঠা), was an Indian businessman known for raising Bharat Jatiya Bahini to protect the Hindu people from the Muslim League attacks during the Great Calcutta Killings.
Contents
Early life and career
Gopal was born in a Bengali Hindu family of Malanga Lane in the Bowbazar of Kolkata. His family was originally from Jibannagar Upazila of Chuadanga District of East Bengal and had been settled in Calcutta since the 1890s He was the nephew of revolutionary Anukul Chandra Mukhopadhyaya. In childhood, he earned the nickname 'Patha' (goat, in Bengali), because his family ran a meat shop in College Street. When he grew up, he took responsibility of running the meat shop. As a part of his business, he had to regularly interact with Muslim traders. According to historian Sandip Bandyopadhyay, Gopal did not bear any grudge against the Muslims.
Role during Partition violence
In 1946, the Muslim League gave a call for establishing Pakistan through 'Direct Action' on 16 August. The Muslim League government of Bengal declared a public holiday on that day. The Kolkata District Muslim League published a detailed program for a grand rally at the Kolkata Maidan. An image of Mohammad Ali Jinnah with a sword in hand was published.
Defending the Hindu society
On the morning of 16 August, incidents of stabbing and rioting started in the city. Gopal heard of trouble while he was on his way to shop. He rushed back to his locality where he saw Muslim League volunteers marching with long sticks in their hands. When the news of Hindus being killed reached him, he assembled his men and ordered them to retaliate, answer brutality with brutality. He clearly instructed that for one murder committed, they should commit ten murders. He recruited Basanta, a muscleman from Beadon Street to repulse the Muslim League mobs.
The Bahini volunteers armed themselves with knives, swords, cleavers, sticks and rods. Gopal himself had two American-made 0.45 bore pistols along with some grenades. He had procured the pistols in post-War Kolkata from the American soldiers posted in the city. Some of the weapons used by his men were procured during the Quit India Movement. During the killings, Gopal sheltered many Hindu families and widows.
After a few days of rioting, when the Muslim Leaguers realized that they had incurred heavy casualties, they proposed peace. G.G.Ajmiri, leader of the student's wing of Muslim League along with Mujibur Rahman, a member of the Muslim National Guard and a boxer and strongman himself, requested Gopal to stop the bloodshed. In 2014, Hindu Samhati commemorated the birth centenary of Gopal Patha.