“Between 1857 and 1947, 280 people were hanged under the British rule. Amongst the 280 were Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Ramprasad Bismil and their likes. But how many martyrs remain in the public memory?” asked Shivnath Jha, a senior journalist, who has set out with the task of finding the current generation of these martyrs and do everything possible to rehabilitate those who are living a life of not just anonymity but often, misery.
Mr Jha has spent seven excruciating years to trace the families and has found 30 families to date. He has shaped his research into a book titled, “Forgotten Heroes and Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle: 1857-1947.”
Mr Jha holds the eroding moral education responsible for the sorry state of descendents of these martyrs, which begins at home and through parents and grand parents. “The ever increasing urbanisations has led to a very fragmented family life, parents have no time to tell their children about the freedom struggle. For all you know, they themselves know little or perhaps nothing. With grandparents living separately, imbibing something from them is also a distant option.”
The author’s research makes great revelations. The fourth generation of Damodar Rao, the adopted son of Rani Laxmibai now lives in Mumbai and are into software engineering. Then there is the third generation of Ram Prasad Bismil, living a life of not just anonymity, but also such misery that to marry off a daughter in the family is an uphill task.
“Was it Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel alone who got the freedom to the country? Didn’t these people sacrifice their lives for the same cause? Then why is it that they have been absolutely forgotten and never remembered? With time there remains very little in the history books of ICSE and CBSE schools. And I’m sure in another few years whatever little is left will also disappear,” Mr Jha laments.