Background
He was born in a Brahmo family of Calcutta. His parents were Basanta Kumar De, esq., the Chief of Traffics of the Bengal Nagpur Railway and an army major and Pramila Dé (née Gupta). As a hostel student in the Brahmo Girls School, Calcutta, and then in Bethune College, Calcutta, his mother was involved with the Bengal Volunteers Movement led by Lila Ray and others, which under Subhas Chandra Bose's guidance formed a procession in military uniforms, that Bose led on horseback ahead of the procession of the Congress President, Motilal Nehru to the pandal of the Calcutta Congress Session in Park Circus in 1928. This march has been seen as one of the origins of Bose's later formation of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment in the Indian National Army.
His paternal grandfather was Brajendranath De, esq. ICS, a long serving Magistrate and Collector of Hooghly and Commissioner (offtg) of Burdwan Division in Bengal. A granduncle was Rai Bahadur Siddheshwar Mitter, the Dewan of Chattarpur. Another cousin of his grandfather was Sir Nripendranath Sircar, Law Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. Another relative, by marriage, of his grandfather was K.C. De, esq., ICS, the Commissioner of Chittagong. Some of his paternal uncles were Sir Sarat Kumar Ghosh, ICS, a former Chief Justice of Rajasthan, Jaipur and Jammu and Kashmir, Gurusaday Dutt, esq., ICS, a former Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health, Government of Bengal, and the founder of the Bratachari movement of Bengal, Col. Jyotish Chandra De, IMS, an eminent physician who became the 2nd Indian Principal of Calcutta Medical College and Dr. Pares Chandra Datta, an eminent doctor, who was a former Director, Health Services, Government of West Bengal. The well-known vocalist, Uma Bose, and the eminent cameraman, Subrata Mitra, Padma Shri were his niece and nephew. His maternal granduncle was Amrita Lal Gupta, a well known Brahmo preacher and writer from Dacca. Also, on his mother's side, he is a nephew of the eminent Bengali poet, Jibanananda Das.
Read more about this topic: Barun De
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