Mangal Pandey

 

Mangal Pandey

Born - 19 July 1827
Died - 8 April 1857
Achievements - A sepoy working under the British East India Company, Mangal Pandey's name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today remembered as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India's First War of Independence. The reason behind this was the rumor that the cartridges used by Indian sepoys were greased with the fat of cow and pig.

Mangal Pandey, whose name is often preceded by Shaheed meaning a martyr in Hindi, was an Indian soldier during the pre-independence era. A member of the 34th Regiment of the Bengal native infantry of the East India Company, Mangal Pandey is counted among the most popular figures associated with India's freedom struggle in present times. He was born on 19 July 1827 in the Nagwa village in the Ballia district of the Uttar Pradesh state. There still exist families in this village who claim to the descendents of Mangal Pandey.

However, some disputes exist over the exact place where Mangal Pandey was born. So read on to know more about the biography of Mangal Pandey, who joined the sepoy force of the British East India Company in the year 1849 at the age of 22. His name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today called the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India's First War of Independence. Due to this, he was later captured and hung till death on 8 April in 1857.

Here's more about the life history of Mangal Pandey, who was a devout Hindu and practiced his religion strictly. It was rumored that the cartridge used in the Enfield P-53 rifle which was being used by the Indian sepoys was greased with the fat of pig and cow fat. These cartridges had to be bitten off in order to remove the cover prior use and this went against the religious beliefs of the Muslims and Hindus. The general opinion was that the Britishers had deliberately done this to hurt the sentiments of Indians. And this was the main reason behind the outburst of Pandey's anger. 

 


 

 

Lal Bahadur Shastri

 


Lai Bahadur Shastri was India’s second Prime Minister. He was born in 1904, in a humble family. He was very laborious since his childhood. His honesty and simplicity was appreciated by people. He actively took part in the freedom struggle. He was a down-to-earth leader.

After the Independence of India, Shastri became the Finance Minister in Nehru’s Ministry. In 1964, Shastri succeeded Nehru as the Prime Minister of lndia. 


 


He had not been in power long when Pakistan sent armed raiders into Jammu and Kashmir. Shastri promised to meet force with force and soon the second Indo-Pakistan war commenced. He gave the slogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’. The Indian army reached the outskirts of Lahore.

The United Nations intervened and a cease-fire was declared. In 1966, the Russian Prime Minister, Alek Sei Kosygin, invited Shastri and Agha Khan for a summit in Tashkent where Shastri suffered a fatal heart attack. 


 


He devoted his life for the pride and honor of the country. Shastri was regarded as man of principles. Lal Bahadur Shastri offered his resignation as Union Railway Minister; hours after he was made aware of a train accident that killed around 150 people. He laid the foundation stones of the well-productive schemes like Green Revolutions and White Revolutions. He was the first person to be posthumously awarded the "Bharat Ratna". 


 


His Role In The Freedom Struggle
At the age of 17, he was very impressed with Gandhiji's call for freedom through non - violence and so took part in the Non - co-operation Movement of 1921. He courted arrest but was let off because of his age. But he was not so lucky when he followed Gandhiji in the Satyagraha Movement and spent approximately 8 years in jail over a period of time. Even though he was made to undergo tremendous hardships, he survived with the help of his prayers and physical exercises. He spent this time reading different authors like Hegel, Kant, Marx, Russell and Lenin. He also did some translations and wrote about the Quit India Movement. 


Post Independence
He served the Congress in various positions before becoming Prime Minister. He was First General Secretary, and then Home-Minister. In U.P. he made some progressive reforms in the police department, and in 1962, Pandit Nehru invited him to join the Union cabinet as a Minister for railways. A post from which he resigned after taking responsibility for a railway mishap, that happened during his tenure.
Lal Bahadur Shastri showed remarkable abilities of oratorship and courage during the Indo - Pakistan War. He inspired his people through his leadership and offered them a slogan that has been passed down the ages - 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'. The Indo - Pak war would have continued, but fortunately, the Russian Government intervened and both India and Pakistan were forced to sign the 'Tashkent Agreement' on January 11, 1966. A day that saw the passing away of this great leader, just a few hours after signing this historic agreement.
He was awarded the 'Bharat Ratna' posthumously, in light of the services rendered to the country. His memorial 'Vijayghat' in delhi is a constant reminder of a great administrator and a fantastic human being. 



Active Nationalist
In 1930, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the secretary of the Congress party and later the president of the Allahabad Congress Committee. He played a crucial role during the "Salt Movement". Lal Bahadur lead a door-to-door campaign, urging people not to pay land revenue and taxes to the British authority. The leader was also sent to jail for the campaign. During the long span of nine years he spent in jails, Lal Bahadur utilized the time in reading the social reformers and western philosophers. He was one of the leading and prominent faces that continued the Quit India movement, called by Mahatma Gandhi. Lal Bahadur, in 1937, was elected to the UP Legislative Assembly. 



Death
Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had earlier suffered two heart attacks, died of the third cardiac arrest on 11 January, 1966. He is the only Indian Prime Minister, to have died in office, overseas. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first person to be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, (India's highest civilian award). 


 

Bhagat Singh

 

 


Bhagat Singh was born in September 27, 1907 in the village Banga of Layalpur to Mata Vidyavati and Sardar Kishan Singh. Bhagat Singh grew up in a patriotic atmosphere as his father and uncle, were great freedom fighters and were put in jail many times by the British.

Bhagat Singh grew up at a time when the Freedom struggle was all around him. Since his young age he wondered why so many Indians could not get freedom from a few British invaders, he dreamed of a free India. The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 drove him to go to Amritsar, where he kissed the earth and brought back home a little of the blood soaked soil, he was just 12 years old then. Kartar Sing Sarabha, hanged at the age of 19 by the British was Bhagat Singh's hero. 

Bhagat Singh, along with the help of Chandrashekhar Azad, formed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA). The aim of this Indian revolutionary movement was defined as not only to make India independent, but also to create "a socialist India." In February 1928, a committee from England visited India. It came to be known as the Simon Commission. The purpose of its visit was to decide how much freedom and responsibility could be given to the people of India. Indian freedom fighters started an agitation called "Simon go back". It was in this agitation that during a police lathicharge, Lala Lajpat Rai was hurt and died. To avenge the death of Lala Lajpat rai, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot and killed the British Officer who had hit Lala Lajpat Rai. 

To crack down on the rising working class movement and the increasing influence of the Communists, the British government brought the repressive Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill in the Central Legislative Assembly at Delhi. Already, on March 20, 1929, the British regime had arrested 31 prominent Communist and labour leaders from different parts of the country in the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case.

The HSRA leadership decided to throw bombs in the Central Assembly to protest against the passage of the above two draconian Bills and also against the arrests of the Communist and labour leaders. On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs in the Assembly, immediately after the passage of the Trade Disputes Bill. No one was seriously injured. They also threw leaflets in the Assembly proclaiming why they had thrown the bombs. They did not try to run away and calmly courted arrest. 

Both the above actions – the assassination of Saunders and the hurling of bombs in the Central Assembly – made Bhagat Singh and his comrades legendary heroes.

The hearing of the Assembly Bomb Case began on May 7, 1929. Entering the court, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt raised slogans of ‘Long Live Revolution’, ‘Long Live the Proletariat’ and ‘Down With Imperialism’. These three slogans were to be repeatedly raised by the HSRA revolutionaries in British courts and jails over the next two years. They were to be repeated by millions across the land and were to become an integral part of the heritage of the freedom movement. Through these three slogans, Bhagat Singh and his comrades succinctly summed up their entire programme.

In their historic statement before the court on June 6, 1929, Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt, while defending their action of throwing bombs in the Central Assembly, also gave a lucid and inspiring account of what they meant by the word ‘Revolution’. It clearly revealed the growing influence of Marxism. 

REVOLUTIONARY BATTLES IN COURT AND JAIL

On June 12, 1929, the court sentenced Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in the Assembly Bomb Case to transportation for life in the Andamans. But in the meanwhile the police had uncovered the details of Saunders’ assassination. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and several others were tried in the historic second Lahore Conspiracy Case. The trial started on July 10, 1929 and continued for over a year up to October 7, 1930. Bhagat Singh and his comrades turned the court into a forum for revolutionary propaganda, just as the Communist undertrials were doing in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, which was going on simultaneously.

The revolutionaries began a prolonged hunger strike in jail to protest against the terrible jail conditions. The jail authorities did not relent and on September 13, 1929, on the 64th day of the hunger strike, Jatin Das died a martyr. A huge procession with his body was taken through the main roads of Lahore, culminating in a massive public meeting. His body was taken by train by Durga Bhabhi from Lahore to Calcutta and all along the route, thousands gathered at every station to pay him homage. In Calcutta itself, an unprecedented procession of more than six lakhs carried Jatin Das’ coffin to his cremation.

On January 21, 1930, the HSRA undertrials appeared in the court wearing red scarves to celebrate Lenin Day. Bhagat Singh read out a telegram and asked that it be sent to the Third International. The text was: “On Lenin Day we send hearty greetings to all who are doing something for carrying forward the ideas of the great Lenin. We wish success to the great experiment Russia is carrying out. We join our voice to that of the international working class movement. The proletariat will win. Capitalism will be defeated. Death to Imperialism.” 

May 28, 1930 was a tragic day for the HSRA. One of its tallest leaders and ideologues, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, was killed in an accident while testing a highly powerful bomb on the banks of the Ravi river. He was manufacturing these bombs to rescue Bhagat Singh and his comrades from jail. 

On October 7, 1930, the Special Tribunal in the Lahore Conspiracy Case delivered judgement convicting all the accused except three. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death. Seven were sentenced to transportation for life. The nation was stunned. It reverberated with the demand for the commutation of the death sentences on the heroic youth. However, Mahatma Gandhi did not insist upon it during the negotiations that led to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact on March 5, 1931. 

 

‘OUR UNDISPUTED IDEOLOGICAL LEADER’

Before and after the judgement, Bhagat Singh’s reading and writing in jail continued unabated. As he declared before the Lahore Court, “The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetstone of ideas.” Shiv Verma, in an interview given to the present writer in Mumbai on March 5, 1991, replied to a question as to what set Bhagat Singh apart, as follows, “I can tell you that in one sentence: Bhagat Singh was our undisputed ideological leader. I do not remember a single moment when Bhagat Singh did not have a book in his pocket.”

REVOLUTIONARY IMMORTALITY

On February 2, 1931, less than two months before his martyrdom, Bhagat Singh wrote the remarkable appeal To Young Political Workers, which is his last testament. After analyzing the prevailing conditions and the tactics of the Congress, he advised youth to adopt Marxism as their ideology, work among the people, organize workers and peasants and join the Communist Party. In the same appeal he clearly renounced terrorism.

On February 27, 1931, Chandrashekhar Azad, the Commander-in-chief of the HSRA, went to the Alfred Park at Allahabad and was surrounded. A fierce gun-fight with the police ensued in which Chandrashekahar Azad was killed. Azad was one of the most respected figures in the ranks of the revolutionaries. 

Amidst slogans of ‘Down With Imperialism’ and ‘Long Live Revolution’, the three martyrs – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev - attained revolutionary immortality on March 23, 1931. The last book that Bhagat Singh was reading before he mounted the gallows was a biography of the great Lenin. The final song on the lips of the three martyrs was:

Dil se niklegi na markar bhi watan ki ulfat,

Meri mitti se bhi khushbue watan aaegi. 

 

 

 

 

 

Chandrashekhar Azad

 

One of the torchbearers of the revolutionary struggle against the British, Chandrasekhar Azad was born Chandrasekhar Tiwari on July 23, 1906 in the Bhabhra village in Madhya Pradesh. It was during his teenage days that Chandrasekhar adopted the sobriquet of 'Azad' which stands for 'free' in Urdu. Consequent to this, Azad vowed that he would never be taken alive by the British and would instead fight till his last breath.

Like many of his contemporaries, Chandrasekhar Azad too got disenchanted with the non cooperation movement when Gandhi called it off following the Chauri Chaura mob violence in 1922. He was disappointed with the divisions among the political leadership and believed that armed struggle is the only way to realize the dream of a free and socialist India. Azad joined the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) formed by Sachindranath Sanyal in 1923.

Chandrasekhar Azad played a key role in the famous Kakori train robbery of 1925 in which revolutionaries of HRA led by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan looted the Number 8 Down Train carrying cash-bags belonging to the British Government Treasury. In retaliation, police launched an intense man-hunt and all the revolutionaries were rounded up with the sole exception of Chandrasekhar Azad. In such a grim scenario, Azad took upon himself the onerous task of rejuvenating the armed movement. 


 

The revolutionary zeal of Chandrasekhar Azad was a manifestation of his principles and philosophies. At an early age, Chandrasekhar became disenchanted with Gandhian philosophy because of the abrupt end to the non cooperation movement in 1922 and the subsequent split of the Congress Party into two factions. A depressing stagnancy prevailed in the political scenario that made Azad all the more determined to seek freedom through armed rebellion.

Azad believed that armed revolution against the enemies of people was indispensable to kindle patriotism among the masses. He joined hands with other revolutionaries like Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjee, and Sachindranath Sanyal to establish the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) in October 1924 in Kanpur. The organization was founded with the objective of unleashing a mass movement by inflicting blows to the British machinery.

Like his comrades Azad was also drawn towards the philosophy of socialism and he drew inspiration from the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917. After the arrest of most of the HRA leaders in the Kakori robbery, Azad came together with Bhagat Singh to reorganize the HRA as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Attainment of a free and socialist India became the avowed objective of the organization. 


 

Chandrashekhar Azad was deeply troubled by the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar in 1919. In 1921, when Mahatma Gandhi launched Non-Cooperation movement, Chandrasekhar Azad actively participated in revolutionary activities. He received his first punishment at the age of fifteen. Chandra Shekhar was caught while indulging in revolutionary activities. When the magistrate asked him his name, he said "Azad" (meaning free). Chandrashekhar Azad was sentenced to fifteen lashes. With each stroke of the whip the young Chandrasekhar shouted "Bart Mata Kid Jai". From then on Chandrashekhar assumed the title of Azad and came to known as Chandrashekhar Azad. Chandrashekhar Azad vowed that he would never be arrested by the British police and would die as free man.

After the suspension of non-cooperation movement Chandrashekhar Azad was attracted towards more aggressive and revolutionary ideals. He committed himself to complete independence by any means. Chandrashekhar Azad and his compatriots would target British officials known for their oppressive actions against ordinary people and freedom fighters. Chandrashekhar Azad was involved in Kakori Train Robbery (1926), the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train (1926), and the shooting of Saunders at Lahore (1928) to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpatrai.

Along with Bhagat Singh and other compatriots like Sukhdev and Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad formed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HRSA). HRSA was committed to complete Indian independence and socialist principles for India's future progress.

Chandrashekhar Azad was a name of fear for British police. He was on their hit list and the British police badly wanted to capture him dead or alive. On February 27, 1931 Chandrashekhar Azad met two of his comrades at the Alfred Park Allah bad. He was betrayed by an informer who had informed the British police. The police surrounded the park and ordered Chandrashekhar Azad to surrender. Chandrashekhar Azad fought alone valiantly and killed about three thousand policemen. But finding himself surrounded and seeing no route for escape, Chandrashekhar Azad shot himself. Thus he kept his pledge of not being caught alive.