Freedom Fighters

 Around 73 years ago, on the historic date of 15th August 1947,  India became free from British domination. It was the culmination of numerous movements and struggles that were rife throughout the time of British rule including the historic revolt of 1857. This independence was achieved through the efforts of many revolutionary freedom fighters, who took the lead in organising the struggle which led to India’s independence. Although they were of varied ideologies ranging from moderates to extremists, their contribution to India’s freedom struggle has been immortalized in the minds of every Indian. This blog brings you the freedom fighters of India who sacrificed their lives to ensure India’s independence.

Born on 2nd October 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is revered as Father of the Nation for his immense sacrifices for India. He not only ushered India towards freedom, but he also became the inspiring figure for many independence struggles and rights movements across the world. Popularly called Bapu, Gandhi introduced the doctrine of non-violence in India. According to him, independence was to be achieved through a combination of non-violent movement and non-co-operation with the British. His credit lies in the fact that he was able to bring the masses into the freedom struggle. The historic Non-Cooperation movement, Dandi March and the Quit India movement were all started under his leadership.

He later joined the Indian National Congress, and being elected as the president of the Youth wing party Netaji was active with the radical wing of Indian National Congress during his young days. His nationalistic personality first came to light after he was drum-out from Presidency College for assaulting Professor Oaten for anti-national comments.

Bose travelled to a number of countries,to make a union with each country and to attack the British government in India. In 1943, he came to Singapore to lead the Indian Independence league and re-built Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army. Under his leadership, thousands of ex-prisoners and civilian volunteers from Malaysia and Burma joined the army, and fought together to push the British imperial rulers out of the country.

Bose stood for self-governance and ideologies were highly contradictory to that of Mahatma Gandhi,he always believed that non-violence would never be sufficient to secure independence and advocated violent resistance.

Mahavir Singh: The Martyr Who Succumbed to British Brutalities in the Cellular Jail of Andaman

“Naa muh chipaake jiye aur naa Sir jhuka ke jiye,
Sitamgaron ki nazar se, nazar milake jiye.
Bus ek raat agar kam jiye toh hairat kyu,
ke hum jahan me, mashaalein jala jala ke jiye.”

“Neither did we hide our face, nor did we bow our head,
We lived, looking at our oppressors in the eye.
So what if we lived one night less,
We ensured that the flame in our torch continued to burn.”

These are some of the lines that one of the great unsung martyrs of our freedom struggle, Mahavir Singh, used to sing during his stay in the Cellular Jail.

The Cellular Jail in Andaman is a heart-wrenching reminder of the most inhuman chapter of India’s freedom struggle. After the First War of Independence which broke out in 1857, the British decided to isolate the freedom fighters to avoid another rebellion. Ruthless and crafty, therefore, they came up with the devilish idea of making a penal colony in the water-locked Andaman. They exiled Indian prisoners to Andaman, made them live in the remote island’s uninhabitable conditions and forced them to construct a jail from their own hands, which not only imprisoned them but many legendary freedom fighters, as well.

The stories of barbaric atrocities of political prisoners in the Cellular Jail are not unknown to us. Each time I think about Kaala Paani and the horrific torture meted out to prisoners there, it pains my heart to know how brutally our political prisoners were treated there. Their only crime-fighting for the freedom of our motherland.

In my Facebook series on the freedom fighters who were incarcerated in the Cellular Jail, today, I would like to share the spine-chilling experience of the great revolutionary, Mahavir Singh, who succumbed to brutalities subjected on him by the cruel British authorities in the jail.

Mahavir Singh was born in the year 1904 to Kunwar Devi Singh and Sharda Devi of Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh. Mahavir was drawn towards the cause of freedom right from his early teens. During his college years, he fully dedicated himself to the freedom movement and became an active Hindustan Socialist Republican Association member. Mahavir Singh was a close associate of Bhagat Singh, and even helped him, Batukeshwar Dutta and Durga Bhabhi escape from Mozang House in Lahore.

Rani Gaidinliu

Gaindinliu is famously known as Rani Gaidinliu. Born on 26th January in 1915, she joined the struggle against the British at the age of only 13. She belonged to the Rongmei Tribe, one of the three Zeliangrong Tribes in Manipur.

In 1927, she began her journey as a revolutionary when she joined the Heraka Movement for the revival of the Naga Tribal religion. At 17, she organised a movement against the British, consequently resulting in her arrest and imprisonment for 14 years. Following this, British authorities, threatened by Gaidinliu’s strong rebellion and burgeoning following, sent a contingent to capture her. After they launched a surprise attack on her village on October 17, 1932, Gaidinliu and her followers were arrested without any resistance. Convicted on charges of murder and abetment of murder, she was sentenced to a life in prison. Thereafter, she spent another 14 years in prison, only to be released in 1947 after India had gained independence on the orders of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

 

2. Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu, born on 13th February in 1879, was an independence activist and poet. She was born to a Bengali Hindu family in Hyderabad and was educated in Chennai, London, and Cambridge. She took part in the National Movement, was the first woman governor of an Indian state (now Uttar Pradesh), and the first Indian woman to be President of the Indian National Congress (INC) party.

In 1905, the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, deeply affected her. It persuaded her to join Indian politics. She met Gopal Krishna Gokhale who encouraged her to join the freedom movement. Following his guidance, she dedicated herself to politics and the freedom struggle.

Upon learning of farmers in Bihar who were forced to grow indigo instead of the crops they needed for their survival in 1916, she fought against the British for the rights of farmers in the region. Naidu also played a major role during the Salt Satyagraha, when she collaborated with many other women protesters at the Dharsana Salt Works in Gujarat. She was also a prominent freedom fighter in the Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements, which ultimately lead to her arrest.

Naidu played an integral part in advancing the rights of Indian women as well; she contributed to the establishment of Women’s Indian Association in 1917 along with Annie Besant and other leaders. A year later, she published a magazine called “Stri Dharma” in partnership with other feminist leaders to discuss global news stories from a feminist approach.