'IT IS WITH THESE MEN ALONE THAT THE GATES OF HEAVEN WILL OPEN FOR ME'. Published article
In the northern part of Kolkata - where I grew up - is a park, formally named as the 'azad hind baug', but known by its informal name 'Hedua'. With its swimming clubs, gymnasium, walking place and benches-to-sit-and-relax-and-romance, hedua is quite a popular place.
And, at the south-western entrance is an imposing statue - a bust of 'Bagha' Jatin Mukherjee, with few details of his 'last stand' at Balasore inscribed below. passing up and down that way every day over the years, I had effectively memorized that snippet of information. And then, of course, dad got me the issue of Amar Chitra Katha titled 'bagha jatin'. It was enough to fire the imagination of a kid - a fascinating tale of a man, whose real-life exploits would have put any bollywood-hollywood blokbuster to shame.
But, thatz all i knew - till I read a couple of the scholarly books that focus on India's war against british imperialism - including the heroic efforts of Jatin and co to liberate their motherland.
What surprised me was this was a tale that has remained confined to the works of scholars.....and yet it was certainly something to be respectfully remembered.
I am no professional historian, but certainly I could read up their works and present a sum up the '1915 uprising'. Here it is, published on the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bagha Jatin.
a little tribute to those founding fathers.
do share it , if u like its content. its a tale that needs to be told - certainly to the next-generation.
(thanks to pals who helped to improve the article, and to Siddharatha Varadarajan, the editor, for accepting it with ~zero editions)
No comments:
Post a Comment