On 17 November, 1913 the colonial British regime mobilized cannons and machine guns to fire on Bhil tribal freedom fighters gathered at the hill of Mangarh, located in present day Banswara district of South Rajasthan. Over 1500 of those gathered died. The legendary leader of the tribal community, Govind Guru ( or Govindgiri) was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.[Read More…]
In a TV channel debate, BJP spokesperson and anchor shared and served a lie that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s daughter in her letter to the Prime Minister has alleged that the Congress kept devaluing Netaji to further Gandhi’s non-violence; because Netaji had taken the path of liberating the country through violence mode by forming the Azad Hind Fauj (INA). They[Read More…]
The Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is celebrating the spirit of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” in 2022 to mark 75 years of India’s independence. It is well-timed and relevant to know that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has produced many freedom fighters who fought for independence. While we are celebrating the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, present-day India is going through[Read More…]
The British left us 75 years ago, with India now self-governed and politically independent. with a secular and democratic constitution. However it was not a triumph of people’s liberation, with transfer of power not accomplished as a result of an anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution. Even after independence there was inadequate space to democratically organise and imperialist capital continued to penetrate[Read More…]
Indians are going to unfurl the tricolour to celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence on 15th of August 2022. Indian freedom struggle has not only shaped India as a modern constitutional democracy but also shaped the nature of state, society and citizenship. The anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle were the four pillars of Indian freedom struggle that laid[Read More…]
The Independence Day is always a proud day for all citizens of India. This year it is all the more so as this is the 75th Independence Day. However at the same time there is growing concern about the increasing erosion of some essential precepts of the freedom movement during the last eight years or so of the NDA/BJP regime.[Read More…]
(This is the English translation of my article in Hindi written in 2012 to mark the 70th anniversary of Quit India Movement or August Revolution. The article was published in ‘Yuva Samvad’ and ‘Hastakshep.com’. In it an attempt was made to delineate the inspiration and facts behind the movement, and the sentiments of the Indian people and leaders who participated[Read More…]
A Great Upsurge of People Which Warned Colonial Powers that Their Rule Must End It was on August 8 1942, 80 years ago, that Mahatma Gandhi gave his great call to the people of India to ‘do or die’ for independence and thereby served notice to the colonial rulers. Even though all the leading Congress rulers were arrested almost immediately,[Read More…]
In various streams of the freedom movement, we meet Yogendra Shukla ( 1896-1960) in different roles: what is common to all these roles is that he always worked with the highest commitment. If at an early stage of his life we find him living as an inmate of Sabarmati Ashram attracting the admiration of none other than Mahatma Gandhi, at[Read More…]
On the eve of 80th anniversary of the glorious Quit India Movement 1942 [QIM], we must evaluate the anti-national role of the Hindutva flag-bearers (who shamelessly claim to be the original nationalists) in India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle. QIM also known as ‘August Kranti’ (August Revolution) was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience Movement for which a call was given on August 7,[Read More…]
The freedom movement of India is a highly inspiring chapter of world history. With their deeds and not just their words, year after year so many freedom fighters gave highly inspiring examples of facing very tough challenges in highly courageous ways, often making big sacrifices with a smile and freedom movement slogans and songs on their lips. The broad message[Read More…]
Vijay Singh Pathik (1882-1954) was an eminent freedom fighter, peasant leader, journalist, poet, author, educationist and historian who worked tirelessly all his life to fight both imperialism and feudalism at several levels. At one level he was active in the Indian National Congress, fulfilling important responsibilities in Rajasthan in particular but also in other areas. However he had started life[Read More…]
The Hindustan Times has recently released its 1929 clipping on Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Why Bhagat Singh has become such an iconic figure of Indian Freedom struggle? This clipping gives an answer to the question. Almost the whole front page is devoted to Bhagat Singh and Dutt story of conviction in Delhi Assembly bomb case, giving lots of information, like the[Read More…]
In one of the most inspiring examples of highly courageous spontaneous actions based on the unity of people, parallel governments were formed by freedom fighters in several parts of India in the course of the Quit India Movement in 1942. Although generally four such leading efforts have been identified in Satara ( Maharashtra), Talcher ( Odisha), Tamluk ( W.Bengal) and[Read More…]
A fascinating aspect of the freedom movement of India relates to very useful inter-actions among various streams of the movement, and their various meeting points. An interesting chapter of this concerns the family of Lala Gurudas Mal Talwar ( sometimes also written as Gurdasmal) whose various members contributed in very important ways to different streams of the freedom movement. This[Read More…]
May 28 is the 92nd death anniversary of Bhagwati Charan Vohra who sacrificed his life in 1930 at the age of only 25 while making preparations for rescuing Bhagat Singh from jail. As he was preparing for his own martyrdom in jail, Bhagat Singh paid very rich tributes to the great sacrifices of Bhagwati Charan Vohra in the course[Read More…]
A freedom fighter who was killed at the age of 45 in prison in the most cruel way, Sagarmal Gopa was one of those who dared to challenge the might of the cruel royal kingdoms which often operated in even more arbitrary ways than the main colonial government and provided hardly any avenues for dissent. Gopa stood up against such[Read More…]
One disturbing and intriguing aspect of current opposition politics is the persistent illusion that but for a few exceptions it is business as usual in politics.It is not.There is a vast,far-reaching but insidious and unobtrusive plan at work to change the character of the state.The campaign is two-pronged,both from the level of the state and the level of popular mobilization.Every[Read More…]
Contemporary documents of the brutal massacre and people’s heroic resistance remain hidden in boxes of National Archives India has turned into a grazing field for all kinds of religious bigots led by the Hindutva gang. Even PM of the country who took oath to uphold democratic-secular polity is identifying himself as a Hindu nationalist as if he is in office[Read More…]
On March 25 is observed the death anniversary of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, a great editor, a highly dedicated freedom fighter and a lifelong crusader for justice and freedom who sacrificed his life at a young age of 41 in 1931 while trying to stop communal violence and rescue trapped people. His death in Kanpur, the central place of his work[Read More…]
Today ( Feb. 27 ) is 91st death anniversary of Azad While travelling in Uttar Pradesh I have often been struck by the extent to which people still become inspired and excited by the sheer mention of the name of a freedom fighter, legends of whose courage are spread[Read More…]
Veer Narayan Singh (1795-1857) is remembered today as a great freedom fighter of Chattisgarh and India who sacrificed his life fighting colonial rulers. A huge cricket stadium has been named after him in Chattisgarh, and this provides a convenient identity point with him to the youth. However there is more to his valiant life that we need to know and[Read More…]
The 97th death anniversary of Abadi Banu Begum passed subduedly and unobtrusively, much like every other year in the past. Bi-Amma, which was the popular sobriquet bestowed upon her by comrades, was a stand out marvel of astonishing courage and patriotism in India’s independence saga. She broke the religious taboo for feminist activism to inspire thousands of Muslim women to take to[Read More…]
When Surya Sen sacrificed his life at the age of only 40 for the freedom of India in 1934, he had already succeeded in inspiring a very large number of youth to devote their life to the freedom movement. Although he had been subjected to extremely painful torture before being hanged on 12 January, he was completely unwavering in his[Read More…]
Jallianwala Bagh the most iconic symbol of Indian freedom struggle is in news on its reopening in a renovated form, which started a few years ago. There are few internationally known iconic symbols of colonial and imperialist repression on the people during their colonial regime in Asian, African and some other victim countries of the world. The horror saga of[Read More…]
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi calls it an ‘insult to the nation.CPI(M) general secretary describes it as “an attempt to erase all traces of British atrocities in India”.It is both and much,much more.It is a shocking yet dead pan attempt to change the very meaning of India’s freedom movement.As objective observers and analysts of colonialism and imperialism have repeatedly underlined, all[Read More…]
The Statesman, May 2 1908: “The Railway station was crowded to see the boy. A mere boy of 18 or 19 years old, who looked quite determined. He came out of a first class compartment and walked all the way to phaeton, kept for him outside, like a cheerful boy who knows no anxiety… on taking his seat the boy[Read More…]
A Short Profile of A Muslim Freedom Fighter — Maqbool Ahmed Jamaie India attained its independence on 15th of August, 1947 from British colonialism due to the combined and united efforts of all the communities of Indian sub-continent irrespective of their numbers – bigger or smaller — Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others. The known Muslim Poet-philosopher of the sub-continent,[Read More…]
(This comment was written last year to mark 78th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. The same is re-issued for your reading on the 79th anniversary of that great movement of the Indian people inspired by the will to freedom) The 78th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, famously known as the August Revolution in the history of India’s freedom[Read More…]
My ancestors were directly affected by the momentous turn history took. Though not in the eye of the storm, living far from the center of action, and being academics rather than men of action, yet they lost a great deal because they would not collaborate with the ghasib (usurper), the term my nana used for the British till[Read More…]
Facilitator: – The decision of Lord Curzon to partition Bengal on 16 October 1905 provoked a great deal of public discontent and in 1908, it generated wave of public outrage. Lokmanya Tilak wrote two articles against the government on 12 May 1908, ‘The country’s misfortune’ and on 9 June 1908, ‘These measures are not sustainable’. Incidentally on April 30, 1908,[Read More…]
Criminal betrayal of the martyrs of India’s First War of Independence 1857 by the Indian rulers Now it is almost 170 years that people of this country; men, women, children belonging to all religions, regions and strata rose in revolt from Kashmir to Madras and Sylhet to the borders of Afghanistan. Today if Indians have forgotten about this glorious saga[Read More…]
An annual vigil was held on Tuesday evening at Surrey’s Holland Park in commemoration of those killed by the troops in British India 102 years ago. Close to 1,000 peaceful demonstrators died in the indiscriminate firing at Jallianwala Bagh, a public park in Amritsar, on April 13, 1919. The agitators had gathered to oppose draconian laws passed by the British[Read More…]
The RSS-BJP rulers of India declare India to be a battle-ground between Hinduism and Islam. Muslims have been declared as ‘Internal Threat’ number ONE [RSS ideologue, MS Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thought chapter xvi]. Many of their leading cadres including those who hold high constitutional posts have been conspiring over-time to ignite a civil war between the two communities (they believe[Read More…]
It is generally observed that the RSS did not participate in the freedom movement. RSS does not answer the question or is not known to the people. There is answer to it if one fathoms deeper. The founder of the RSS, Hedgewar did participate in the freedom movement but that was the small stint. His association with Tilak and Savarkar[Read More…]
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi (1890—1931) had a unique position in the freedom movement of India. He was also a very great editor whose newspaper Pratap was a flag-bearer of freedom fighters as well as worker and peasant struggles. A prominent leader of the Congress Party and its head in United Provinces (roughly the Uttar Pradesh of today) , he also had[Read More…]
23rd March 2021marks the completion of 90 years of execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, who by now have got the status of supreme martyrs of Indian freedom struggle and every shade of political opinion, even when not sharing their vision of India, eulogies them for advancing their political interests, as they have, by now, become supreme symbol of[Read More…]
One of the most persistent messages being conveyed to youth is to contribute in meaningful and useful ways to the larger welfare and progress of the nation and society. However in order to be truly effective these messages need to be supported by what has been said by those persons for whom they have very high respect. When we search[Read More…]
March 25 is the 90th death anniversary of a great freedom fighter, editor, worker and peasant leader, also deeply committed social reformer who sacrificed his life at the age of 40 while trying to stop communal violence and rescue persons from both communities trapped in it. The reference here is of course to Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, the famous editor of[Read More…]
The freedom movement of India is one of the most inspiring phases of history. In this phase a very large number of people of India lived up to the highest ideals of humanity, willingly and often happily accepting the greatest hardships and making the biggest sacrifices for the sake of justice and freedom, undergoing huge sufferings to provide a better[Read More…]
Written by Bharat Dogra and Jagmohan Singh In the days to come we will be remembering the ideals and aims of Bhagat Singh and his close colleagues and fellow-maryrs a lot. Many people and leaders will be gathering to pay their homage to him and fellow-martyrs Rajguru, Sukhdev, Chandra Shekhar Azad , Jatindranath Das, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and others whose[Read More…]
The Indian Farm Reforms Laws of 2020 were rushed through the Parliament of India on 27 September 2020. The RSS-BJP government seemed to be in hurry to impose these laws as the same were promulgated by the President of India as ordinances on June 5, 2020 as part ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ (self-reliant India campaign); a favourite aphorism of PM Modi[Read More…]
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Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
