Freedom Fighters of Indian Independence – 4
At the outset, my apologies for missing the
birth anniversaries of 3 important freedom fighters of Indian Independence due
to my personal work - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri and
Shyamji Krishan Varma.
Therefore, Today, let me share details of all
the three great freedom fighters – Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi and Lal Bahadur
Shashtri who were born of 2nd October, Shyamji Krishan Verma, who
was born on 4th October.
In fact, October month is one of the most
important months as far as Motherland India is concerned, as there are as many
as eleven great personalities who were born during the month of October who
fought for the Independence of our country.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2nd
October 1869 -30th January 1948)
Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of Nation was born
in Porbandar in Gujarat in 1869. He was
trained in law at the Inner Temple, London and called to the bar at the age of
22. He moved to South Africa in 1892 and stayed there for 21 years.
It was here that Gandhi ji first employed
nonviolent resistance in a campaign for Civil Rights.
In 1915 at the age of 45 he returned to India
and took part in various movements and protests in the cause of Farmers,
labourers, women rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability
and above all achieving Swaraj by nonviolent movement after assuming the
leadership of Indian National Congress in 1921.
Gandhi ji led
the country in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with a Pada Yatra of
400 km (250 mi) popularly known as Dandi Salt March, in 1930, and later led the Quit India movement in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years,
upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India
On 30th January 1948, a few months
after attaining Independence on 15th August 1947, he was
assassinated by Nathu Ram Godse, who was opposed to the ways of Gandhi ji’s
dealings during the partition of India in the aftermath of Independence in
1947.
I am not going in to the details of this great
Leader as he is very well know and he is not forgotten by his countrymen even
after 150 years of his birth.
Lal Bhadur Shahstri (2nd October
1904 – 11th January 1966)
Lal Bahadur Shastri was born in Mughal Sarai
in Uttar Pradesh on 2nd October 1904 in a Hindu Kayasth family. When he was hardly a year and 6 months old, his father
died in an epidemic of bubonic plague. His mother, Ramdulari Devi was then
only 23 and pregnant with her third child, took her two children and moved from
Ramnnagar to her father's house in Mughalsarai and settled there for
good. Thus, Shastriji and his sisters grew up in the household of his
maternal grandfather.
As was the custom of many
Kayastha families in that era for their children to receive education in Urdu language and culture, Lal Bahadur had his education in Urdu and Culture from the age of four under the tutelage of a maulvi
at the East Central Railway Inter college in Mughalsarai. He studied in Mughalsarai until his maternal
uncle was transferred to Varanasi, after which the entire family moved to
Varanasi.
In Varanasi, Shastri joined the
seventh standard at Harish Chandra High School. At this time, he decided to
drop his caste-derived surname of "Srivastava".
Till he came to Varanasi, he had
no exposure to the Independence movement taking shape at that time. However, Shastri
ji was deeply inspired by his teacher Nishkameshwar Prasad Mishra and his
patriotism. Nishkameshwar Mishra also gave the much-needed financial support to
the young Lal Bahadur by allowing his to tutor his pupil.
Inspired by his teacher he
started taking keen interest in freedom struggle and started reading about its
history and works of many of its noted personalities viz. Swami Vivekananda,
Gandhi ji and Annie Besant.
In 1921, when he was in class 10th,
he attended a public meeting hosted by Madan Mohan Malaviya. Inspired by the
call of Mahatma Gandhi to withdraw from Government schools and join the
non-cooperation movement, he withdrew from the school and joined the movement
as a volunteer of local Congress party, actively participating in
demonstrations.
He was arrested during the
demonstrations and jailed. However, was
let out as he was still a minor.
Acharya J B Kriplani, a former
lecturer of BHU, recognizing the need of education of the young volunteers,
along with another likeminded friend V.N. Sharma and Shiv Prasad Gupta, a
wealthy philanthropist and ardent Congress supporter, founded an Informal
school centered around “Nationalist Education, to educate about national
heritage to the young volunteers.
It is here that Lal Bahadur
graduated with a first-class degree in philosophy and ethics. He was given the
title Shashtri, which struck to his name.
Shastri
enrolled himself as a life member of the Servants of the People Society (Lok
Sevak Mandal), founded by Lala Lajpat Rai, and began to work for the betterment
of the Harijans under Gandhi's direction
at Muzaffarpur. Later he became the President of the Society.
In 1928
Shastri became an active member of the Indian National Congress at
the call of Mahatma Gandhi. He was imprisoned for two and a half years. Later,
he worked as the Organizing Secretary of the Parliamentary Board of U.P. in
1937. In 1940, he was sent to prison for one year, for offering
individual Satyagraha support to the independence movement.
On
8 August 1942, Gandhi ji issued the Quit India call at Gowalia Tank in Mumbai.
demanding the British to leave India. Shastri, who had just then come out after
a year in prison, travelled to Allahabad to propagate about the Quit India
Movement. For a week, he sent
instructions to the independence activists from Jawaharlal Nehru's home, Anand
Bhawan.
Post-independence, Lal Bahadur
Shastri had served in various positions before being elected the Prime Minister
of India.
After Independence, he became
the Minister of police in the Ministry of Govind Vallabh Panth in Uttar
Pradesh.
His recommendations included the
directions for using "water-jets" instead of lathis to disperse the
unruly mob.
As the
Transport Minister, he was the first to appoint women conductors.
Impressed with his efforts in
reforming the state police department, Jawaharlal Nehru, invited Shastri to
join the Union cabinet as Minister for Railways.
He was widely known for his
ethics and morality. In 1956, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned from his post,
following a train accident that killed around 150 passengers near Ariyalur in
Tamil Nadu.
Nehru, had once said, "No
one could wish for a better comrade than Lal Bahadur, a man of the highest
integrity and devoted to ideas".
Lal Bahadur Shastri returned to
the Cabinet in 1957, first as the Minister for Transport and Communications,
and then as the Minister of Commerce and Industry. In 1961, he became the
Minister for Home and formed the "Committee on Prevention of Corruption"
headed by of K. Santhanam.
Based on the recommendations of
the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption, CBI was established
by a resolution of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Later, it was transferred
to the Ministry of Personnel and now it enjoys the status of an attached
office.
After the demise of Jawaharlal Nehru, a
mild-mannered and soft-spoken Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded on 9 June, 1964 as
the consensus candidate even though there were more influential leaders within
the ranks of Congress.
Shastri though a follower of
Nehruvian socialism and displayed exceptional cool under dire situations. He is
on record stating that India cannot have a regimented type of economy.
He tackled many elementary
problems like food shortage, unemployment and poverty. When the country was
facing acute food shortage, he appealed to the people to skip one meal a week
to save food. This had full support of the mass and even Hotels and restaurants
used to close on every Monday evenings.
However, to overcome the acute
food shortage, Shastri asked the experts to devise a long-term strategy. This
was the beginning of famous "Green Revolution".
The Food
Corporation of India was set up under the Food Corporation's Act 1964 during
his period as also The National Agricultural Products Board Act.
Apart from the Green Revolution,
he was also instrumental in promoting the White Revolution. The National
Dairy Development Board was formed in 1965 during Shastri’s stint as Prime
Minister.
After the Chinese aggression of
1962, India faced another aggression from Pakistan in 1965 during Shastri’s
tenure. Shastri showing his mettle, made it very clear that India would not sit
and watch. While granting liberty to the Security Forces to retaliate, he said,
"Force will be met with force".
He coined the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” which reverberates even
today.
The Indo-Pak war ended on 23
September 1965 after the United Nations passed a resolution demanding a
ceasefire. The Russian Prime Minister, Kosygin, offered to mediate and on 10
January 1966, Lal Bahadur Shastri and his Pakistan counterpart Ayub Khan signed
the Tashkent Declaration.
Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had
earlier suffered two heart attacks, died of a third cardiac arrest on 11
January, 1966.
He was awarded the Bharat Ratna,
India's highest civilian award posthumously in 1966.
The former
Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was one of those great Indians who has left
an indelible impression on our collective life. His contribution to our public
life were unique in that they were made in the closest proximity to the life of
the common man in India.
Source
Shyamji Krishna Varma (4 October 1857
– 30 March 1930)
Shyamji
Krishna Varma, also known as Shyamji Krishna Nakhua, was born on 4th
October 1857 at Mandvi in Kutch, Gujarat.
His parents passed away when he was about 11 years old and was taken
care of by his grandmother. After studying in local school in the elementary
years he shifted to Mumbai to complete his education after where he developed
interest in Sanskrit and other Indian languages.Shyamji Krishna Varma was
deeply moved by the reformist teachings of the guru of the Vedas, Swami
Dayananda Saraswati and adopted his principles and teachings to nurture his own
nationalistic dreams for the country.
In
the year 1877 Shyamji Krishna Varma gave a public speech on Vedic philosophy
and religion on the lines of his guru Swami Dayananda Saraswati which was so powerful
that the Pandits of Kashi bestowed upon him the title of Pandit in 1877 - a
rare feat for someone who was not a Brahmin.
His deep knowledge of the Sanskrit
language caught the attention of Monier Williams, a professor of the subject in
Oxford University. Williams offered Shyamji Krishna Varma the post of his
assistant in Oxford and this marked Shyamji Krishna's first trip abroad.
In England, Shyamji Krishna enrolled himself in the
Balliol College under the University of Oxford in 1879. He also became the
Indian representative at the Berlin Congress of Orientalists after his arrival
in Britain in the year 1881. After completing his graduation in the year 1883,
Varma delivered a lecture on 'The origin of writing in India' in front of a
large audience in the Royal Asiatic Society of England. This impressed everyone so much that he became
a non-resident member of Royal AsiaticSociety.
However, it is his revolutionary spirit that Shyamji Krishna Varma is best remembered for.
After returning to India he pursued a brief legal career in
India and served as the Divan of a number of Indian princely states in India. He had,
however, differences with Crown authority and was dismissed following a
supposed conspiracy of local British officials at Junagadh and chose to
return to England.
Being an admirer of Dayanand Saraswati's approach of cultural nationalism, and of Herbert
Spencer, Krishna Varma believed in Spencer's dictum:
"Resistance to aggression is not simply justified, but imperative".
He
was also an admirer of Lokmanya Tilak and
supported him during the Age of Consent bill
controversy of 1890. However, he rejected the moderate policy of the Congress
and considered it best to move out of India to realize his plans to achieve
India’s Independence.
It
was upon Dayanand's inspiration, he set up a base in England at India House
where were produced many revolutionaries like Madam Cama, Veer Savarkar, Lala
Hardyal and Madan Lal Dhingra.
While
I have already shared the details of Madam Cama, We will know about other men in my later blogs during their respective
birth anniversaries.
Ordained
by Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya samaj, Shyamji Krishan Verma
upon his arrival in London stayed at the Inner Temple. In 1900 he bought an expensive house
in Highgate and his home became a base for all political leaders of India
like Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna
Gokhale, Gandhi, Lenin etc.,
All
visited him to discuss the Indian Independence Movement. Avoiding the Indian National Congress,
he kept in contact with rationalists, free thinkers, national
and social democrats, socialists, Irish republicans, etc.
Shyamji
Krishna Varma's revolutionary spirit manifested itself through the
establishment of the Indian Home Rule Society and the India House. The Indian
Home Rule Society was set up on February 18, 1905 with the objective of
achieving Home Rule for India, to prepare an organized propaganda and spread the
same in Britain making everybody aware of the atrocities that India faced at
the hands of the British and to unify the Indians and prepare them for freedom
struggle.
On
July 1, 1905,Varma established the India House, a hostel for Indian students
coming to England for education as he was well aware of the racism that the
Indians had to face in an alien land, and therefore he decided to bring them
together under one roof very close to his own residence in London. The house at
65 Cromwell Avenue in Highgate, London came to be known as the India House.
Shyamji hoped India House would incubate Indian
revolutionaries. Bhikaiji Cama, SR Rana, Veer Savarkar, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, and Lala Hardayal were all associated with it.
Shyamji Krishna Varma also took care of the cause of
education in England for Indians. While he contributed 1000 pounds for the
establishment of a lectureship dedicated to Herbert Spencer in University of
Oxford, Rs 2000 fellowships were given to Indians who wanted to complete their graduation
from England. In addition Shyamji Krishna Varma also started the Swami
Dayananda Saraswati fellowships. In the year 1905, he started spreading his
propaganda for India's freedom struggle. His ideas were brought to India with
the publishing of 'The Indian Sociologist', a monthly magazine which spread the
political, social and religious reforms of Shyamji Krishna Varma.
Though
Shyamji Krishna Varma got the support of the common people of England, the
British government was far from happy with his growing popularity. As a
consequence, Shyamji was dismissed from the list of members of the Inner Temple
in England on April 30, 1909 because he had written anti-British articles in
'The Indian Sociologist'. The British
government used the press as their weapon to curb the nationalistic spirit of
Shyamji Krishna Varma.
By
this time, Shyamji Varma had already arrived in Paris to seek refuge in fear of
his life following the allegations made against him by the British government.
He landed in Paris in the year 1907 and Britain tried to extradite him from the
French territory after Shyamji was gradually gaining popularity among
politicians there. Through his works, Shyamji Krishna Varma was not only able
to gain the confidence of the French politicians, but also that of others across
Europe and even Russia.
However, Shyamji Krishna Varma had to flee to Geneva in the year 1914 because the French government had invited King George V for a political event in Paris. It was gradually becoming impossible for Shyamji Krishna Varma to stay in touch with his old friends and aides. His trusted man named Dr Briess tricked him as he was a British secret agent. In fact, the Swiss government almost always acted on the instructions of the British government.
However, Shyamji Krishna Varma had to flee to Geneva in the year 1914 because the French government had invited King George V for a political event in Paris. It was gradually becoming impossible for Shyamji Krishna Varma to stay in touch with his old friends and aides. His trusted man named Dr Briess tricked him as he was a British secret agent. In fact, the Swiss government almost always acted on the instructions of the British government.
This
came as a shock to Shyamji who gradually grew disillusioned and ill with each
passing day.
Even during days when he had to survive without political support, Shyamji Krishna Varma always expressed his feelings through 'The Indian Sociologist'. His last writing was in the month of September, 1922, after which Shyamji was too sick to continue writing work.
Even during days when he had to survive without political support, Shyamji Krishna Varma always expressed his feelings through 'The Indian Sociologist'. His last writing was in the month of September, 1922, after which Shyamji was too sick to continue writing work.
Shyamji
Krishna Varma died on March 30, 1930 in a hospital. His death was a great loss
to India, as he was one of the greatest revolutionaries that ever lived.
Shyamji Krishna Varma's body was burnt in Britain. Although he had set
directions for his ashes to be carried to India after the country's
independence his ashes along with that of his wife who had also died in Britain
after her husband's death, returned to India on August 22, 2003 after 55 years
since India's independence.
Source
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