THE ARMED REVOLUTION FOR FREEDOM ... 1
I have a notion and it is entirely a personal feeling that the armed revolutionaries for the motherland's freedom were far greater patriots than the votaries of Gandhian non-violence including Gandhi himself. Gandhi's patriotism pales into insignificance before that of Bagha Jatin, Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surjya Sen and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, not to mention a host of other heroes in Rajendranath Lahiri, Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Chandrsekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sachindranath Sanyal, Basanta Kumar Biswas, Khudiram Bose, Prafulla Chaki, Kanailal, Satyen, Madanlal Dhingra, Udham Singh, Kartar Singh Sarabha and so many more. The matchless, uncompromising devotion to the motherland's freedom of these armed revolutionaries exhibited the manhood of a subject nation in equal resistance to the worst type of colonial tyranny that the barbaric British Raj unleashed on us. Compared to it, Gandhian passive resistance seems a historical necessity, perhaps, but a terrible compromise with the powers that perverted the national life for centuries.
Charles Tegart, the notorious Police Commissioner of Calcutta, who had dealt with the early revolutionaries with the utmost severity and was in open combat with Bagha Jatin and his compatriots in the death-defying Battle of Balasore, has paid a glowing tribute to the Bengal revolutionaries of the day and said that nowhere in recent history had been seen such sublime, selfless fighters for freedom across the wide world. Such an epithet coming from such a brutal adversary whose sole function was to destroy the revolutionary movement must indeed be construed as the truest assessment of these daring heroes. Never again did the British pay such homage to the revolutionaries in India. Even Gandhi was moved to call Bagha Jatin 'a divine personality', such was his (Bagha Jatin's) aura as a continent carrier of the fire of freedom.
Written by Sugata Bose
No comments:
Post a Comment