Captain Suresh Biswas, first Bengali in Brazil. Photo - Jadavpur University

 

Bengalis tryst with physical strength and exhibition of masculinity was always minimal if we compare with the physical prowess of Punjabis, Rajputs and other natives of north India. As Bengalis were never traditionally a martial or combat race, display of physical strength was never psychologically mandatory. But there have been sturdy examples of Bengalis who broke all imaginations and outdid human expectations required by the society and the time they were born in. One such splendid example was Captain Suresh Biswas though popularly, he is known as Col. Suresh Biswas.

 

Suresh Biswas was born in a wealthy Bengali Hindu Vaishnav family in 1861 in Nadia district of Bengal. At a very young age, he was sent to study English in Calcutta by his family with Jesuit missionaries as learning English was a sure sign of success in those days. But his main prowess and addiction lied in adventure sports which demanded a lot of physical stamina. Suresh spent a wild childhood, fighting feral cats and dogs, joining in hunts, picked up a brawl once with the British soldiers in Calcutta Maidan. But he also came closer to the Jesuits missionaries of London Mission College in Bhowanipore in Calcutta and converted to Protestant Christianity. He left India at the age of 14, by hiding himself in a boat which left the Calcutta docks for Rangoon. Prior to leaving Calcutta, Suresh worked as a tourist guide at the famed Spence Hotel of Calcutta. With Rangoon, his 40 years journey as an exceptionally courageous globetrotter Bengali explorer starts.

 

Courtesy - Wikimedia

 

His stint in Rangoon was short. In Rangoon, he saved a woman from catching fire and she was the first woman to fall in love with him. But as he couldn’t manage to get work in Rangoon, he left for London in a steamship when he was 17 years of age. But after reaching London, life was not easy for Biswas. Initially, he used to stay in the slums of East End, making out a hard living from 2 jobs as a porter and a newspaper vendor by the day and warding off murderous attacks at night. Hur Chunder Dutt, who wrote the English biography on Biswas named ‘Lieut. Suresh Biswas: His Life and Adventures,’ states in pg 14 of the book “On a visit to the county of Kent, Suresh came in contact with a travelling circus troupe in the public room of a village inn. When Suresh entered into a conversation with the circus people at the inn, he realized ‘so much so that if Suresh’s own life had not been altogether free from adventures, theirs were full of romantic incidents, hairbreadth escapes uncomfortable situations etc”.

 

Immediately, next morning after finishing off his breakfast, Suresh came to the circus tent to meet the manager and offered his services as a gymnast and weight lifter. Seeing his lanky body, the manager didn’t believed in his physical prowess and challenged him to take a mock fight with the best wrestler from the same circus. In the mock fight, Biswas over powered the wrestler. This proved his strength and made him a steady member in the circus.

 

The first documented details of his presence in the continent date from the World’s Fair at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, 1881-82. The Fair’s manager, John O’Connor, had put together, as entertainment fare, a series of acts. Some are assured by the Continental Menagerie:

 

A 19th century circus trainer with lions /Wikimedia

 

“Agricultural Hall. […] The grand Continental menagerie, which occupies the center of the Hall, and which is open to all, contains a really good collection of animals, birds and reptiles, including a group of African lions, amongs which a clever Hindoo lion tamer performs at intervals.”

“Among the beasts are three lions, which leap and perform other acts at the bidding of their keeper, Suresh-Biswas, who enters their cage. This exhibition, which takes place frequently, attracts great attention, and the daring young Hindi, master of the king of beasts, is loudly applauded for his display of temerity.” In a Fair flyer, Biswas is depicted at the cage door, facing the public, while the lions wait, calmly, behind him.

 

But destiny had other plans. He fell in love with a 14 year old girl in the same circus who turned out to be a daughter of a German noble. The ill fated love story ended when the girl went back to Germany. Several years later, when his circus company was touring Germany, he ran into her and resumed their love affair but the irate family members of the girl threw him out of Europe and by 1885, he was in United States.

 

Next 20 years of Suresh’s life was relatively unknown. But he was in touch with his uncle Kailash Chundur Biswas through a series of correspondences through letters which were published periodically on Bengali newspaper, Amrita Bazar Patrika. But first instance of Suresh came to Bengali spotlight when a civil war broke out in Brazil in 1894. The civil war was widely covered by the European media. It was a trend in native press in India to borrow global news from European newspaper, translate it and republish it. Amrita Bazar first stated in 1894 that a Bengali soldier was fighting the civil war faraway in Brazil as a soldier in Brazilian army.

 

Brazilian records states that Biswas married a daughter of a physician in 1887, lectured in Portuguese when not training in circus, got a job as a zoo keeper to the royal family of Brazil. But later he joined the Brazilian army too as corporal and rose swiftly. His contributions was playing a major role in the crushing revolt in Brazilian navy and was a hero in Battle of Niteroi which made him an esteemed member of Rio De Jeneiro society.

He died in 1905 but whether he had any kids or not is unknown.