Need to celebrate unsung foot soldiers of Indian freedom struggle: Prof P Sainath at IIT Gandhinagar
India Today
Journalist and author Professor P Sainath gave a talk at IIT Gandhinagar where he spoke on the need to recognise and celebrate the last few unsung foot soldiers of the Indian freedom struggle while they were still alive.
The Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) discipline of IIT Gandhinagar, as a part of its Dialogues Seminar Series, organised a talk by noted journalist, author, and founder editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), Prof P Sainath, on September 14, 2022, on the topic “Who brought India its independence?”.
In this talk, Prof P Sainath, currently a Scholar-in-Residence at IIT Gandhinagar, gave a vivid account of some of the last surviving freedom fighters, whom he described as “foot soldiers” of the Indian independence struggle.
The people who are ordinary Indians, who fought without thought of reward, and who were quite unsure of whether they would live to see the freedom they fought for or not.
During the talk, Sainath introduced the participants to incredible stories of these freedom fighters, including Late Mallu Swarajyam, a lady freedom fighter from Telangana, armed only with slingshots and led the freedom struggle against the Nizam rule; Late Ramchandra Sripati Lad, popularly known as Captain Bhau, who founded ‘Toofan Sena’ and led an armed revolution against the British in Maharashtra’s Satara and also raided a train carrying British treasury to help the poor; and Hausabai Patil, another strong-willed woman from Maharashtra who became an underground freedom fighter at an early age and attacked the British establishments in the Satara region.
Unsung heroism and stories of 15 such freedom fighters from all strata of Indian society, including five women freedom fighters, have been documented in Prof Sainath’s soon-to-be-published book by Penguin - ‘The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of the Indian Independence Movement’.
Sharing his thoughts about recognising and celebrating these ordinary Indians, most of the last surviving generation of whom are above 95 years of age, and their extraordinary contributions to the Indian freedom struggle, Professor Sainath said, “In 5-7 years from now, no single person would be alive who fought in the Indian freedom struggle with no hope for personal reward.”
“It is disappointing to know that none of them have been involved or interviewed in celebrating 75 years of India’s independence,” he said.
