Rajya Sabha MP chronicles 75 icons of freedom struggle

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’75 Bharat ke Mahan Krantikari’ spotlights India’s freedom fighters

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, August 17: The Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar Bhim Singh has come out with engrossing accounts of 75 icons of freedom fighters who laid their lives in pursuit for independence of India. The book ‘75 Bharat ke Mahan Karntikari’ is backed with research and references to make into a must-read account of the lesser-known freedom fighters.

“During the Amrit Kaal of Independence, our Rajya Sabha’s MP Dr Bhim Singh made a wonderful, unique, creative and inspiring effort. He documented the unsung heroes of Independence — those heroes who are rarely discussed today,” said Harivansh, deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, while releasing the book at the Constitution Club.

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The book has 75 chapters. The book begins with a chapter on Anant Luxman Kanhare (1891-1910). Kanhare was associated with Abhinav Bharti.

“The Nasik collector MMT Jackson was known to have been an easy-going British official with Indians. But the revolutionaries called him ‘Meetha Jahar (sweet poison)’,” writes Singh in his book.

Singh further states that the British termed patriotic poems of Babarao Savarkar as treason. He along with his younger brother Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had founded Abhinav Bharati.

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“Babarao Savarkar’s poems consisted of references to Mahabharata, Gita, Maharana Pratap, and Shivaji. But the British accused Savarkar of treason. He was paraded on the road and sent to jail,” writes Singh.

The Abhinav Bharti revolutionaries decided to take revenge against the insult to Savarkar. Singh details the manner in which Kanhare pumped four bullets to Jackson while he came for a theatre in Nasik.

“Two FIRs were registered after the murder of Jackson. One was against the Nasik conspiracy and the another was Jackson murder,” writes Singh.

The Rajya Sabha MP further explains that the investigation into the Jackson murder had revealed that the “Browning pistol used in the killing of Jackson was part of the consignment of 20 pistols sent by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar from London”.

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Harivansh lauded Singh for his research-backed book. “He studied with great effort for two years continuously and collected facts by visiting many archives and studying rare documents,” added Harivansh.

The Rajya Sabha deputy chairman shared an anecdote about late socialist George Fernandes. “George Sahab had gone to the memorial for 11 youth who had laid their lives for the freedom struggle in Patna. There he read the engraving, which read: ‘We sacrificed our lives for your better tomorrow’. This was the motivation for George Sahab,” added Harivansh.

The book chronicles of 74 other freedom fighters, including many who are not widely known. Vishnu Ganesh Pingle (1888-1915) was among 24 who were given death punishment by the British for their revolutionary acts, including robbing the treasuries, as part of protests against the Rowlatt Act.

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The revolutionary feat of Beena Das was headlined by a British daily as “Five shots fired at Governor, Girl assailant arrested”. The book, thus, details the revolutionary feats of several freedom icons in crisply written chapters.

Singh has brought a valuable addition to the literature of India’s modern history with his painstaking research. Many of his subjects don’t feature in the school text books. Students, thus, will find his book valuable, and researchers may also be ignited to undertake further research on forgotten heroes of India’s freedom struggle.

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