kolkata involved in some of the major historic events that shook stirred and moulded the indian subcontinent nibedita nag at 95 was perhaps the last surviving bhasha sainik in india she was a part of the swadeshi movement in 193040s bhasha andolan of 50s and the war of liberation in 1971 she spent years underground in disguise and on the run yet she had no regrets she passed away at a south kolkata nursing home on sunday after prolonged illness nibedita came from a family of teachers and freedom fighters her father a professor was the legendary surya sens classmate and all her uncles were sens followers for me it began when i saw a ladies wristwatch with my sejokaka uncle i was dying to find out who it belonged to he said can you be like her can you sacrifice like her i was resolute many women had by then joined the armed struggle he said it was pritilata waddedars i was stunned that was 1932 and a few days earlier on september 23 waddedar had sacrificed her life as a member of surya sens group that attacked an european club the same one that bore the notorious dogs and indians not allowed sign nibedita had told toi in what was possibly her last interview a year ago the british evicted my father from chittagong in 1934 we went to nepal first and then to kolkata where i got admitted to bethune college my first brush with politics was when i took part in a hunger strike in solidarity with the political prisoners at andaman jail by 1940 i had organized and was part of several womens selfdefence programmes learning and teaching karate nepal would in future shape her life for the years that followed while the globe bore the brunt of world war ii bengal was torn apart by a series of disasters japanese attack famine riots and partition but love blossomed amid turmoil in 1942 she got married to her communist party colleague sailesh chandra nag nepal between 1943 and 1948 nepal and nibedita moved from place to place kolkata dhaka and some lesser known tourism spots the movement for recognition of bengali language started gathering steam in 1948 februaryend the same year the pakistan government banned the communist party nepal went underground and remained active in disguise in east pakistan till 1971 in 1949 nibedita was locked up for her role in organizing a mass hunger strike to protest against the arrests of her comrades she continued with her strike for 40 days and the authorities were forced to relent somewhat but this success came at a price pakistani police boots broke her back in 1950 she managed to give police the slip and from may to november she hid in the homes of labourers and farmers around dhakeshwari mill then she came to kolkata under cover for medical treatment her son sujoy was just 5 then and then came jinnahs proclamation that urdu