FREEDOM
FIGHTERS OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE – 6
ASHFQULLAH KHAN (
22ND OCTOBER 1900 – 19TH DECEMBER 1927)
Ashfaqullah Khan was born
on the 22nd October 1900 in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh – another
great freedom fighter who laid his life for the motherland at the young age of
27. He was the sixth son of Sahfiq
Ullah Khan who was working in the police department and mother, Mazoor Un
Nisa.
Like many youngsters of
those days he was also inspired and drawn towards Mahatma Gandhi’s non
co-operation movement when he called for Non co-operation movement in
1922.
However, after the
withdrawal of the movement by Gandhi ji after the incidence of Chouri Choura he
was depressed like many youngsters like Bhagat Singh and others.
For the benefit of
reader, though most of us know about the Chouri Chora incident, let me just
brief on the same.
The incident occurred at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh on 5 February 1922, when a large group of
protesters, participating in the Non-cooperation movement, clashed with police, which opened fire. In
retaliation, the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station,
killing all its occupants.
The incident led to the deaths of three civilians and 22 policemen due
to which Mahatma Gandhi called of protest and non-co-operation movement on 12th
February 1922.
A total of 228 people were brought to trial on charges of "rioting
and arson" in conjunction with the Chauri Chaura affair. Of these 6
died while in police custody, while 172 were sentenced to death by hanging
following conviction in a trial which lasted eight months.
In fact Jawaharlal Nehru and many Congress workers were in the prison when Gandhi Ji took
the decision to call off the non-co-operation movement on 12th
February 1922. This was a setback for these workers and were extremely
demoralized. Many felt that the decision was hasty and incorrect at a time when
the entire nation was finally uniting and rising against the might of the
British. Bhagat Singh protested at the taking back of the
non-cooperation movement.
Many feels that this was the turning point in the struggle for
independence in India.
Some, including Ashfaqulla Khan became extremists and turned to
organisations like Hindustan Socialist Republican Association which was founded in 1924 to organize
armed revolutions to achieve a free India.
A meeting was organized by the group on 8th August 1925 in
Shahjahanpur to rob Government’s treasure carried in the train, to buy arms.
The group comprising of Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah, Rajindra Lahiri, Thakur
Roshan Singh, Scahindra Bakshi, Chandrashekar Azad, Keshab Chakravarthy,
Banwari Lal, Mukundi Lal and Manmathnath Gupta robbed the train in “Kakori”
near Lucknow.
Except Ashfakullah Khan, who went in to hiding and moved to Benaras,
Rampasad Bismil and others were captured after month from the incident, Ashfaqullah worked in an Engineering firm in
Benaras from where he planning to go abroad and pursue his goal of
Independence. He moved to Delhi to for
this purpose and sought the help of one of his so called friend, who betrayed
him and Ashfaqullah was arrested.
He was confined in Faizabad Jail. The case for the “Kakori” dacoity
was concluded by awarding death sentence to Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan,
Rajendra Lahiri and Thankur Roshan Singh and the others were given life
sentences.
Finally, Ashfaqullah Khan was hanged to death on 19th
December 1927 at the age of 27.
Let us remember this hero to-day, the 22nd October on his
birth anniversary day.
For the benefit of the readers, Kunal Kapoor played the part of
Ashfaqulllah in the movie Rang De Bsanti.
Source:
Kittur
Rani Chennamma (23rd October 1778 – 2 February 1829)
Kittur
Rani Chennamma was born on 23 October 1778, in Kakati, a small village in the
present Belagavi District of Karnataka, India. She belonged to the
Lingayat community and received training in horse riding, sword fighting and
archery from a young age.
She was an
Indian freedom fighter and Rani of the Kittur, a former princely
state in Karnataka. She led an armed force against the British East
India Company in 1824 in defiance of the “doctrine of lapse” in
an attempt to maintain Indian control over the region, but was defeated in the
third war and died imprisoned.
Chennamma was
born 56 years before the 1857 rebel Rani of Jhansi, and was thus amongst one of
the first woman to fight female rebels against the British rule like Queen Velu
Nachiyar of Madurai.
She
married Raja Mallasaraja of the Desai family at the age of 15 and became queen the of her native kingdom of Kitur.
Chennamma’s
husband died in 1824, leaving her with a son and a state full of volatility.
This was followed by her son’s death in 1824. Rani Chennamma was left with the
state of Kittur and an uphill task to save it from the British.
Following the death of her husband and son,
Rani Chennamma adopted Shivalingappa in the year 1824 and made him the heir to
the throne. This irked the East India Company, who ordered Shivalingappa’s
expulsion, on the pretext of the “Doctrine of Lapse”.
This
doctrine was based on the idea that in case the ruler of an independent state
died childless, the right of ruling the State reverted or ‘lapsed’ to the
sovereign. The state of Kittur came under the administration of Dharwad
collectorate in charge of St John Thackeray of which Mr. Chaplin was
the commissioner, both of whom did not recognize the new ruler and regent and
notified Kittur to accept the British regime.
She sent a letter to Governor at Bombay to plead the cause of
Kittur, but Lord Elphinstone turned down
the request leading to all-out war. The British tried to confiscate the
treasure and jewels of Kittur (valued around Fifteen Lakhs of rupees) and
attacked with a force of 200 men and four guns, mainly from the third troop of
Madras Native Horse Artillery.
In the first round of
war, during October 1824, British forces lost heavily with St John Thackeray,
Collector and Political agent, killed by the Rani’s forces. Two British
officers, Sir Walter Elliot and Mr. Stevenson[ were also taken
as hostages.
Rani Chennamma released the hostages with an understanding
with Chaplin that the war would be terminated. But Chaplin treacherously
continued the war with even more soldiers. Chennamma fought fiercely with the
aid of her lieutenants, like Amatur Balappa,
who was mainly responsible for his killing and losses to British forces and Sangolli Rayanna.
She was however, ultimately captured and imprisoned at Bailhongal
Fort, where she died on 21 February 1829.
Sangolli Rayanna continued the guerrilla war up to 1829 until his
capture, but it was in vain, and was caught due to treachery and hanged. (We
will cover about this great Freedom fighter in our later write up).
Her legacy and first victory are still commemorated in Kittur,
during the Kittur Utsava of every 22–24 October.
On 11 September 2007 a statue of Rani Chennamma was unveiled at
the Indian Parliament Complex by Pratibha Patil, the first woman President of
India. Her statues are installed at Bangalore and Kittur also. Rani
Chennamma’s samadhi or burial place is in Bailhongal taluk, but
is in neglected state with poor maintenance.
JAIDEV KAPOOR (24th October 1908- 19th September
1994)
Jaidev
Kapoor, an unknown name to most of us was a revolutionary who walked along the
side of Chandra Shekar Azad and was a close comrade of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
He was born
on 24th October 1908 on the occasion of Deepavali at Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Shaligram Kapoor, was a member
of Arya Samaj and Jaidev learned wrestling under the tutelage of Chhote
Maharaj and Thakur Ram Singh.
As a
teenager, he was interested to join the 'Hindustan Socialist Republican Association' formed by Shachindra Nath Sanyal and later he
joined and met Chandra Shekhar Azad and became a good comrade of Bhagat Singh.
A few years later, Jaidev was entrusted
with the task of developing the revolutionary network in Varanasi.
Accordingly, he enrolled for the B.Sc course in the Banaras Hindu University.
It is understood that Bhagat Singh
stayed in the Limbdi hostel with him for several days.
Jaidev was a participant in the now
famous meeting of revolutionaries operating all over India which was held in
the ruins of Feroz Shah Kotla on September 8–9,
1928. In this meeting, it was decided that Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association would have two wings, one administrative and one
military. Jaidev was part of the military wing. He received training in
manufacturing bombs in Agra.
Jaidev played an important role in the
assembly bombing as a protest against the Trade Dispute Bill and the Public Safety Bill. He declared himself to be a student of
economics studying at Delhi College and
got permission to use the assembly library. He soon managed to form an
acquaintance with a vigilance officer who helped him to get sanction letters
for visiting the assembly. He used to take his associates for inspection of the
assembly building.
The famous hat-bearing photograph of
Bhagat Singh was taken a few days prior to the assembly bombing. Jaidev had
made the arrangements in the studios of Ramnath Photographers
at Kashmiri Gate in Delhi.
Kapoor, Shiv Verma and Rajguru had planned to assassinate the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, when he
would attend a dinner and banquet party hosted by the I.C.S officers. Rajguru
was the spotter, Jaidev was supposed to hurl a bomb at Irwin's car and Shiv
Verma was the backup.
However, that night, the Viceroy sent his
car to drop three women somewhere. Noticing this, this group consisting of
Kapoor, Rajguru and Shiv Verma, aborted their plan to avoid the indiscriminate
assassinations of innocents.
After the environment in Delhi heated up
after the assembly bombings, the bomb factory was shifted to Saharanpur by Jaidev, Shiv Verma and Gaya Prasad Katiyar joined by others like Kishori Lal
and Sukhdev.
Their plan was to run the bomb factory in
the guise of a dispensary. Lack of funds and the movements of these people soon
made the locals and the police suspicious. Soon raid was conducted on the
factory and all were arrested.
They were then sent to Lahore and tried under the infamous Lahore Conspiracy
Case. He was sent to the Kala Pani (Andaman ). He
expressed the desire to meet Bhagat Singh and other
associates for last time. Bhagat Singh handed over his brand new shoes to
Jaidev, which he preserved as a
souvenir.
Jaidev was released after 16 years, just
a couple of years before India attained independence.
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