7th August 2020

-

 Musings.......


Freedom Fighters- Part 7 


Chandrasekhar Azad 


Born Chandrasekhar Tiwari in Alirajpur District of present day Madhya Pradesh in 1906, Azad was sent to study by his parents at the Kashi Vidyapeeth. 


It was here in Benaras that Azad joined the non- cooperation movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi against the Briitish government. 


He was subsequently arrested because of his participation in the movement. When produced in court he proudly proclaimed his name as ‘Azad’, his fathers name as ‘Swatantrata’ and his place of dwelling as ‘Jail’.  


From then on he was known as Chandrasekhar Azad. 


After the suspension of non- cooperation movement by Gandhiji, Azad became restless and more revolutionary. 


He met with Ram Prasad Bismil who had formed the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), a revolutionary organisation. 


HRA was established in 1924 in East Bengal by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Narendra Mohan Sen and Pratul Ganguly as a offshoot of Anushilan Samiti.  


It’s members included Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri. 


Being an active member of HRA Chandrasekhar Azad started to collect funds for the organisation which was mainly through robberies of Government property. 


He was involved in the Kakori Train Robbery of 1925, in the attempt to blow up Viceroy of India’s train in 1926 and at last the shooting of Saunders at Lahore in 1928 to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai.  


Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan were captured by the British and hanged, however Azad evaded capture. 


After Bismil’s death, Azad and Bhagat Singh secretly re- organised the HRA as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.  Their primary aim was an independent India based on socialist principles. 


The HSRA members included Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee. 


Due to his revolutionary activities, he was a wanted subject for the British. 


Azad was at the Alfred Park, Allahabad to meet two of his colleagues in the fateful day of February 27, 1931 when he was betrayed by an informer. 


Azad was surrounded by the British police and fought valiantly till his end which came from his own pistol and only after killing three policemen and wounding others. 


Azad died at the young age of 24 years, making it possible for his associate who was with him to escape. He shot himself as he had pledged not to be caught by the British. 


Alfred Park in Allahabad is now renamed as Chandrasekhar Azad Park. 


Chandrasekhar Azad will be known in history as a great freedom fighter. His fierce patriotism and courage inspired many youngsters of his generation to enter freedom struggle. He was a mentor of Bhagat Singh and along with Bhagat Singh is considered as one of the greatest revolutionaries that India has produced. 


Azad lived only for 24 years but inspired millions even to date which makes his contribution to the freedom struggle even more special and revered.  


Food for Thought.......


RC

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

16th January 2021

-
 Musings....... NYAY- Universal Basic Income (UBI)  Universal Basic Income is a government programme in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money on a regular basis. The goals of the basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need based social programmes that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement. ( Investopedia )  This concept of a basic income for all has gained traction recently in Western countries as automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to replace workers across most sectors of the economy.  The idea of providing a basic income goes back centuries. This finds mention in thr writings of one of the proponents of the American Revolution Thomas Paine, who proposed a tax plan in which revenues would provide government income to “ every person, rich or poor”.  Martin Luther King Jr. proposed “ guaranteed income” in his book “ Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?” published in 1967.  The workers in fields such as ma
Read more

6th March 2021

-
 Musings....... The world woke up on February 1st 2021 with the news that the democratically elected government of Myanmar led by the National League of Democracy (NLD) was deposed by the Tatmadaw ( Myanmar Military ).  The Tatmadaw has declared a state of emergency for a year and all power has been vested in the Commander in Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlang.  The military coup d’état occurred the day before Myanmar Parliament was due to swear its members elected in the elections held in November 2020.  Subsequently as we know, President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained.  The coup was announced on the military owned Myawaddy TV station when a news presenter cited the 2008 constitution which allows the military to declare a national emergency.  As a result, Twenty four ministers and deputies were deposed, the 2020 General election results annulled and swearing in of members to the assembly was annulled.  NLD in the November elections won 83% of the a
Read more

3rd April 2022

-
  3rd April 2022 Musings……. SriLanka Burning  What can gross mismanagement of the economy give you ? Well the answer is Sri Lanka.  Once upon a time, this island nation was considered a budding tourist destination with a vibrant democracy. All this seems to have changed for the worse within a few years.   Sri Lanka’s history as we all know has been a chequered one.    There was long years of civil war between the Singhalese speaking Government and the Tamil speaking LTTE in broadly speaking terms.  The centre and southern part of Sri Lanka is predominantly Singhalese speaking natives who form the majority and hold power in every government. The Tamil speaking minority is restricted to the North of Sri Lanka including in the district of Jaffna, and form the minority.  This internal strife lasted for years and there seemed no respite. We Indians can never forget this as we lost one of our most    dynamic Prime Ministers Shri. Rajiv Gandhi to a terrorist attack by the LTTE, for trying to
Read more