THE MAN WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT
Mangal Pandey, the one who triggered the revolution of 1857 at Barrackpore Cantonment which then spread to the rest of the country and shook the British Empire to its very foundations.
After initial great losses, the English East India Company hit back and, after brutal repression that included blowing off revolutionaries from the mouth of cannons, suppressed the Revolt in 1858. Thereafter, the reins of governance in India was taken over by the British Crown and, with the Queen's Proclamation of 1858, Lord Canning was sent as the Viceroy to India to begin the reorganisation of British repression along more scientific lines.
The Andamans were selected as the off-shore location to isolate dangerous revolutionaries and, with their exacted labour, was developed into the Bastille of India where our freedom fighters, who the British dreaded as the most dangerous, were incarcerated and tortured till they died or committed suicide or, if they were so destined, lived on to see the sunshine of freedom once again. Shachindranath Sanyal was one such revolutionary who served twice his term in the dreaded Cellular Jail of the Andaman Islands and no one else, incidentally, has this distinction or has had this terrible misfortune while fighting for independence.
The Gandhians never had to undergo such hardship for the British recognised in them their safety-valve to allow mass discontent to dissipate and keep the temperature of the freedom movement well below the boiling point when another Revolt of 1857 could break out.
And that is exactly what nearly happened in 1915 when Bagha Jatin and his comrades almost pulled off a revolution but by betrayal were thwarted into becoming martyrs to the cause that failed for the while.
Similarly, Rash Behari Bose's Ghadar Revolution was aborted at the last moment because of the betrayal by a compatriot by the name of Sardar Kripal Singh and Rash Behari had to flee the motherland to seek dangerous refuge in his to-be second home in distant Japan. For Rash Behari was for years hounded there by the British who were as yet bonded with Imperial Japan through a friendly alliance and spared no means to get Rash Behari apprehended or assassinated. But a cat has nine lives and Rash Behari had ninety. And, so, the Scotland Yard's John Bulls could not trace Rash Behari or touch the hem of his garment and the redoubtable revolutionary lived on to make the British Empire die its catastrophic death by the time he breathed his last breath in 1945. Shortly after, the British Crown crumbled to dust and with it did all that was left of its imperial vanity.
The bugle that Mangal Pandey had sounded had reached the ears of the Indian revolutionaries and, with Netaji their general, they advanced step in step to unfurl the flag of freedom from the ramparts of the Red Fort soon after the British quit post the Red Fort Trials.
Hail Mangal Pandey ! Unto thee was given the charge to fire the first shot that would destroy the dastardly demons who had occupied the motherland for centuries. My prostrations, brave martyr, at thy feet.
Vande Mataram !
Written by Sugata Bose
Mangal Pandey, the one who triggered the revolution of 1857 at Barrackpore Cantonment which then spread to the rest of the country and shook the British Empire to its very foundations.
After initial great losses, the English East India Company hit back and, after brutal repression that included blowing off revolutionaries from the mouth of cannons, suppressed the Revolt in 1858. Thereafter, the reins of governance in India was taken over by the British Crown and, with the Queen's Proclamation of 1858, Lord Canning was sent as the Viceroy to India to begin the reorganisation of British repression along more scientific lines.
The Andamans were selected as the off-shore location to isolate dangerous revolutionaries and, with their exacted labour, was developed into the Bastille of India where our freedom fighters, who the British dreaded as the most dangerous, were incarcerated and tortured till they died or committed suicide or, if they were so destined, lived on to see the sunshine of freedom once again. Shachindranath Sanyal was one such revolutionary who served twice his term in the dreaded Cellular Jail of the Andaman Islands and no one else, incidentally, has this distinction or has had this terrible misfortune while fighting for independence.
The Gandhians never had to undergo such hardship for the British recognised in them their safety-valve to allow mass discontent to dissipate and keep the temperature of the freedom movement well below the boiling point when another Revolt of 1857 could break out.
And that is exactly what nearly happened in 1915 when Bagha Jatin and his comrades almost pulled off a revolution but by betrayal were thwarted into becoming martyrs to the cause that failed for the while.
Similarly, Rash Behari Bose's Ghadar Revolution was aborted at the last moment because of the betrayal by a compatriot by the name of Sardar Kripal Singh and Rash Behari had to flee the motherland to seek dangerous refuge in his to-be second home in distant Japan. For Rash Behari was for years hounded there by the British who were as yet bonded with Imperial Japan through a friendly alliance and spared no means to get Rash Behari apprehended or assassinated. But a cat has nine lives and Rash Behari had ninety. And, so, the Scotland Yard's John Bulls could not trace Rash Behari or touch the hem of his garment and the redoubtable revolutionary lived on to make the British Empire die its catastrophic death by the time he breathed his last breath in 1945. Shortly after, the British Crown crumbled to dust and with it did all that was left of its imperial vanity.
The bugle that Mangal Pandey had sounded had reached the ears of the Indian revolutionaries and, with Netaji their general, they advanced step in step to unfurl the flag of freedom from the ramparts of the Red Fort soon after the British quit post the Red Fort Trials.
Hail Mangal Pandey ! Unto thee was given the charge to fire the first shot that would destroy the dastardly demons who had occupied the motherland for centuries. My prostrations, brave martyr, at thy feet.
Vande Mataram !
Written by Sugata Bose
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