no light Shah
How many centenary memories of Swarajladat are brought by these nectar years of this Zaadi! Some of the Dudhmal soldiers who were martyred in 1942 will be those whose centenary celebrations are coming or going soon, I don't know. Sample entry, as the centenary of the Kakori rail robbery case began in August. Chandrasekhar Azad was involved in its planning but was not caught. Among those caught and punished were Ramprasad Bismil and others. The Kakori case has been well written and printed these days, so it does not naturally go into discussion. A careless coincidence of course. That revolutionary incident of rail looting took place on 9th August 1942 – exactly the same date that was to be honored in history as Quit India Day in 1942, eighteen years later. Gujarat had just commemorated Vinod Kinariwala's martyrdom: on August 9, a 'British Quit India' proposal was made at Mumbai's Gowalia Tank Ground, and Kinariwala was martyred while leading a procession in Ahmedabad the following day. Later, unveiling the pillar of this martyr, Veeranayak Jayaprakash of the August revolution said that during war, those who run away are shot in the back, but the martyr who bears his name wears a heroic death with the same chest. It is to be seen that the public life of the country from the point of view of the freedom struggle was largely governed by the Swaraj triumvirate of Gandhi-Nehru-Patel. Even if there was a fringe, it would be the same, but the pull of sacrifice in the thoughts of Bhagat Singh and Azad did not attract them any less. A different chapter began with Gandhi's satyagrahi entry on the stage of India's swaraj struggle, but the youths who were on that path were attracted by the need for sacrifice and sacrifice of independent personality and watered their spiritual life. Second pass, unlike the Congress, which chose another path instead of the path taken by the revolutionaries, especially the Congress Socialist movement did not hesitate to warm to these revolutionaries. Sources of financial support to Chandrasekhar Azad ranged from Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi to Motilal Nehru Sudhan. Virajta, Govind Vallabh Pant and Ajit Prasad Jain were freedom fighters of the same Congress clan in the Nehru cabinet in the later Swaraj government, working for the legal defense of the revolutionaries in the Kakori case. You see, it may seem surprising, but between the two leaders who attracted the youth, Jawahar and Subhash, Bhagat Singh chose Jawaharlal in a debate. He was also a fan of Subhash. But his main point was that as much passion and guile as there is in Subhash, there is not as much clarity about the program of equality and economic-social justice that defined the revolution as there is in Jawahar. This subtle observation of Bhagat Singh is also helpful in understanding Bhagat Singh himself. Bhagat Singh did not have the revolutionary sense of indiscriminate murder, but what Lenin likes to call an 'infantile disorder', committed to childish acts of violence. Both the fact that he blew up a trifling (non-lethal) motion in the House, and then chose to get caught, so that his ideological role could be widely disseminated through the court, are fundamentally indicative of this sense. Bipin Chandra, who is known as a Marxist historian, was working on the life of Bhagat Singh in the last phase of his life. One of the important points he wanted to make was that if Bhagat Singh had had more years, it would have been Gandhimargi. Of course, Bhagat Singh, who was not a non-violent person in Gandhiji's sense, would have preferred the strategy of mass movement based on peaceful resistance which could be effective. If we go back in history, Shyamji Krishnavarma, known as Krantiguru, not only appreciated revolutionary ways but also advocated them. But the same Shyamji was not happy if an effective non-violent resistance – a massive people's movement – took place. Commemorating the martyrdom of Sun Bayala and Kinariwala, let me take a moment to recall that this year is the centenary year of Kinariwala, who was born on 20th September 1924. However, his centenary year is to be celebrated in a slightly different way. In the Gandhi-Nehru-Patel Mandit environment and inspired by the sacrifices of the revolutionaries, a unique youth movement took place in Ahmedabad and through Gujarat as a national student body. Emerging from the shadows of the ambivalent communist movement about the freedom struggle, this group and its advisors offered a different take on Gujarat. Prof. Dantwala, B.K. Be it seniors like Mazumdar, Utsav Parikh, Jayanti or Brahmakumar Bhatt, Harihar Khambholja, Prabodh Rawal etc., Neeru Desai's catalytic presence was there for all. All that and sometimes, the status quo…
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
