P. Sainath

large_01_sPPHjn1.jpg

medium_01_sPPHjn1.jpg

small_01_sPPHjn1.jpg

thumbnail_01_sPPHjn1.jpg

01_sPPHjn1.jpg

Thelu Mahato, perhaps the oldest of the living freedom fighters who figure in my book The Last Heroes, died at his home in Pirra village of Puruliya district, West Bengal, on the evening of Thursday, April 6, 2023. He is the first of those still living when the book was published, to pass on. He was the last survivor of the historic – though now forgotten – protest march on 12 police stations in Puruliya in 1942. Thelu was somewhere between 103 and 105 years of age. With his passing, we move a step closer to losing our Golden Generation, those who fought for our freedom and helped make India an independent nation. In five or six years there will be not a single person alive who fought for this country’s freedom. Newer generations of Indians will never get to see, speak or listen to India’s freedom fighters. Never be told directly who they were, what they fought for – and why they fought for freedom.And Thelu Mahato and his lifelong comrade Lokkhi Mahato were so keen to tell their stories. Anxious that the young and newer generations should know that they stood up for their country and were proud of having done so. Thelu can tell his own story no more. Neither will, in the next 5-6 years, the remaining survivors of his generation be able to tell theirs. And what a loss that will be to young Indians of the future. What a loss it already is, to our present generations that know so little and are unlikely to learn of the Thelus of our time, their sacrifices, or of why their stories are so important to the shaping of our own.Especially in an era where the history of India’s freedom struggle is not being so much rewritten as fabricated, invented and forcibly imposed. In public discourse, in the content of significant sections of media, and frighteningly, in our school textbooks where key truths like those surrounding the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi are steadily being erased.

Thelu Mahato never called himself a Gandhian but lived like one – for over a century. In simplicity, even austerity. In the freedom struggle, he was one of those who marched on 12 police stations in Puruliya on September 29 and 30, 1942. He saw himself as a leftist and revolutionary, but one pledged to non-violence unless absolutely forced to act otherwise in defence of innocent people and in self-defence. But you did participate in the attack on the police station that saw quite some violence? I asked him at his home in Pirra village in 2022. The violence came from the British, he retorted. “Their police fired recklessly into the crowd…” which had gone there to raise the Indian flag on the stations. “Of course people would retaliate when they saw their friends, family or comrades shot by police before their eyes.” It was our conversations with Thelu Mahato and his lifelong comrade Lokkhi Mahato, that made us understand how open to ideas and influences their generation was, yet how complex were the characters moulded by those multiple influences. Thelu was – Lokkhi still is – unswervingly leftist by passion and politics; Gandhian by moral code and lifestyle. Leftist by commitment and persuasion, Gandhian by personality. Both were for decades members of the Communist Party.Their hero at the level of the region they had always lived in, was – and surely had to be – Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. He meant the world to Thelu and Lokkhi. Gandhi whom they would never set eyes on, was a distant but towering, awe-inspiring figure. Their local heroes included three Robin Hood-type bandits – Bipin, Digambar and Pitambar Sardar. Bandits who could be terrifyingly violent, but also outlaws to whom little people turned to for justice against feudal landlords and other oppressors. Whose banditry was of a kind described by historian Eric Hobsbawm as one which, while brutal, “simultaneously challenges the economic and social political order.”

Thelu and Lokkhi saw no contradiction in these layers. Their attitude towards the bandits was an odd mix of revulsion and reverence. They respected them but did not follow in their violent footsteps. And for decades after Independence, remained politically active in various land and other struggles – as independent Leftists leading Gandhian lives. Thelu Mahato was a Kurmi – a community involved in many struggles in the rebellious region of Jangalmahal. The Kurmis were punished by the British who robbed them of their tribal status in 1931. Restoration of that Adivasi status remains their greatest goal and the very day Thelu died was marked by a new phase of action in the ongoing agitation raising that demand in Jangalmahal.Thelu never received a freedom fighter’s pension, nor recognition of his role in the freedom struggle. He was living on an old-age pension of a thousand rupees when we last met him. In a home that was a dilapidated, tin-roofed single room. Not far from it, stands a well he created with his own hands that he was most proud of and wanted to be photographed beside.The well that Thelu dug remains. The well of memories of those who fought for India’s freedom sinks ever lower.

You can read the full story of Thelu, Lokkhi and those 14 other freedom fighters in P. Sainath’s book: The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom, Penguin November 2022. See their photo albums and videos in the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/albums/freedom-fighters/">Freedom Fighters Gallery</a> on the <a href="http://www.ruralindiaonline.org">People’s Archive of Rural India</a> (PARI)This <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/thelu-mahato-freedom-fighter-tribute">article</a> was first published in The Wire.

The well that Thelu Mahato built

ٹھیلو مہتو نہیں رہے، لیکن ان کا کنواں اب بھی ہے

ఠేలూ మహతో నిర్మించిన బావి

தெலு மஹாதோ உருவாக்கிய கிணறு

ਉਹ ਖ਼ੂਹ ਜੋ ਠੇਲੂ ਮਹਾਤੋ ਨੇ ਪੁੱਟਿਆ

ଠେଲୁ ମହତୋ ଖୋଳିଥିବା କୂଅ

थेलू महातोंची विहीर आणि आठवणींचे आवर्त

തേലു മഹാത്തോ നിർമ്മിച്ച കിണർ

ತೇಲು ಮಹತೋ ತೋಡಿದ ಬಾವಿ

पुरुलिया के बाग़ी ठेलू महतो का कुआं

તેલુ મહાતોનો કૂવો

ठेलू महतो के बनाय चुवां

एगो इनार, जे ठेलू माहातो बनइलें

থেলু মাহাতোৱে খন্দা কুৱাঁটো

হাতে গড়া কুয়ো রেখে গেলেন স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রামী ঠেলু মাহাতো

Kaira

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


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;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

The well that Thelu Mahato built

One of the last fighters from that fast vanishing generation of those who fought for India’s freedom passed away on April 6, 2023 at his home in Puruliya district, West Bengal

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit