Kanaklata who is also called Birbala (the brave), was an Indian independence activist and AISF leader.
She was shot dead at the age of 17 by the Indian Imperial Police of the British Raj while leading a procession bearing the National Flag during the Quit India Movement of 1942. During the Quit India Movement, Kanaklata had joined the Mrityu Bahini, a death squad comprising groups of youth from the Gohpur sub division of Assam. On 20 September 1942, the Bahini decided that she would hoist the national flag at the local police station.
Consequently a procession of unarmed villagers was led by Kanaklata in this dangerous but very altruistic mission. The police under Rebati Mahan Som, the officer in-charge of the police station had warned the procession of dire consequences if they proceeded with their plan. Undeterred by the police, the procession continued marching ahead when the police fired upon the procession. Kanaklata was shot and the flag she was carrying with her was taken up by Mukunda Kakoti who too was shot at. Both of them were killed in the police action that ensued.
Kanaklata was born on 22nd December 1924 in the Borangabari village of the undivided Darrang district of Assam as the daughter of Krishna Kanta and Karneshwari Barua. Her grandfather Ghana Kanta Barua was a famous hunter in Darrang. Her ancestors were from the Dolakasharia Barua kingdom of the erstwhile Ahom state who relinquished the Dolakasharia title and continued retaining the Barua title.
Incidentally her father was a farmer and they were essentially a family of modest means. Her mother died when she was only five and her father, who remarried, died when she reached thirteen. She went to school till class three but then dropped out to take care of her younger sisters. Kanaklata's troubles mounted when their father died and she and her sisters had to be raised along with her three step siblings by her stepmother.
Around this time the Quit India Movement had been gathering steam in the country. The All India Congress Committee had passed the Quit India Resolution on 8th August 1942 at the Bombay session demanding complete Independence for India. It must be mentioned here that the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi in Assam in 1921had already galvanized the people in the state to participate actively in the freedom movement. And on 26th January 1930 when the Purna Swaraj declaration was made by the Congress it encouraged people to hoist the Indian National Flag across Assam. As part of the historic Quit India Movement a large camp of revolutionaries was set up in Tezpur District of Assam about 8kms from Kanaklata's home.
Kanaklata was not a regular teenager. She was serious and very concerned about the state of affairs in the country under the British rule and was eager to play her part in ushering freedom. So when Mahatma Gandhi gave the clarion call- Do or Die (which became the motto of the Quit India Movement that he launched in 1942), Kanaklata went all out and made the ultimate sacrifice.
It must be mentioned that Kanaklata's association with the freedom struggle happened when she started secretly attending meetings at the camp of revolutionaries. In addition to this, her patriotic zeal was fuelled by the speeches of Bishnu Prasad Rabha and the songs of noted Assamese cultural icon Jyoti Prasad Agarwala.
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