Vishaka George

Samyukta Shastri

Sharmila Joshi

Text Editor

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Millions of ordinary people made this country’s
freedom struggle possible – and it was mainly rural Indians who rose in some of
the greatest uprisings against the British Raj.

But many of us know little of these extraordinary freedom
fighters, and even less about the women among them, whose collective efforts eventually
gave India its Independence from colonial rule.

In this episode of PARI Podcasts, P. Sainath,
PARI’s founder editor, talks about one of his most memorable experiences as a
journalist – when he met Demathi Dei Sabar in Purena village of Paikmal block in Odisha’s Bargarh
district, in 2002.

‘Salihan’, as she was
called, was an Adivasi woman from Nuapada district of (the then) Orissa, who
led a fierce revolt in 1930. She chased away the British officers who had shot
her father (targeted for his anti-Raj activities) in front of their home in
Saliha village. Armed with only lathis, Salihan,
then 16, and her friends attacked the raiders and drove them away. “They
destroyed our homes, our crops. And they attacked my father. Of course, I would
have fought them,” she said.

You can read P. Sainath’s account of the
interaction here: <a id="1042" linktype="page">When Salihan took on the Raj</a>

Himanshu Saikia composed the music and edited this
episode.

Once upon a time in Saliha…

Mumbai

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India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

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Once upon a time in Saliha…

Episode 2 of PARI Podcasts is dedicated to the foot-soldiers of India’s Independence. P. Sainath describes his meeting with the feisty ‘Salihan’ – and how, armed with only a lathi, she fought gun-wielding British officers

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