Pritilata Waddedar was born in a middle-class
Bengali Baidya Brahmin family on 5 May 1911 in Dhalghat village in
Patiya upazila of
Chittagong (in present day Bangladesh). The family originally held the surname
Dasgupta; Waddedar was a title conferred to an ancestor of the family. Her father Jagabandhu Waddedar was a clerk in the Chittagong municipality, and her mother Pratibhamayi Devi was a housewife. Pritilata was the second of six children, and had an elder brother Madhusduan, and four younger siblings–Kanaklata, Shantilata, Ashalata and Santosh. She was nicknamed Rani. and arts and literature were her favourite subjects. A teacher in the school, whom students affectionately used to call
Usha Di, used stories of
Rani Lakshmibai to inspire nationalism in her students.
Kalpana Datta, a classmate of Pritilata, wrote in the biography
Chittagong Armoury Raiders– "We had no clear idea in our school days about our future. Then the Rani of Jhansi fired our imagination with her example. Sometimes we used to think of ourselves as fearless...". She passed out of school in 1928 and got admitted to the
Eden College in
Dhaka in 1929. In the Intermediate examinations, she stood first among all students who appeared in that year's examination from the Dhaka Board. As a student in Eden College, she participated in various social activities. She joined the group
Sree Sangha, headed by
Leela Nag, under the banner
Deepali Sangha (
Dipali Sangha). Pritilata graduated in philosophy with a distinction from the
Bethune College in
Calcutta. However, her degree was withheld by the administration of the
Calcutta University. In 2012, she (and
Bina Das) were conferred their certificates posthumously. After completing her education in Calcutta, Pritilata returned to Chittagong. In Chittagong, she took up the job of headmistress at a local English medium secondary school called Nandankanan Aparnacharan School. == Revolutionary activities ==