Rural Indians were both the foot soldiers of freedom and the leaders of some of the greatest anti-colonial uprisings ever seen. Countless thousands of them sacrificed their lives to rid India of British rule. And many who lived through great suffering to see a free India were mostly forgotten soon after. From the 1990s, I recorded the lives of several of the last living freedom fighters. Here you’ll find the stories of five of them:
When Salihan took on the Raj
Demathi Dei Sabar and her friends took on gun-toting British officers with lathis in Nuapada, Odisha
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
Panimara's foot soldiers of freedom – 1
When poor Odiya villagers took over and tried to run the Sambalpur court
July 22, 2014 | P. Sainath
Panimara's foot soldiers of freedom – 2
The little settlement in Odisha that earned the name ‘Freedom Village’
July 22, 2014 | P. Sainath
The last battle of Laxmi Panda
The impoverished INA freedom fighter whose only demand of her nation was recognition. And so the ageing soldier's fight continued even six years after Independence
August 5, 2015 | P. Sainath
Nine decades of non-violence
Baji Mohammed, the man whose non-violent struggles continued 60 years after Independence
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
Together with these is a set of five stories first published in the
Times of India
and reproduced here with far more photographs. That ‘Forgotten
Freedoms’ series was woven around the villages that were the cradles of
great revolts. Indian Independence was not about a bunch of urban
elites. Rural Indians fought in far greater numbers and for more than
one kind of freedom. The many battles of 1857, for instance, unfolded in
the villages at the same time the elites of Mumbai and Kolkata were
holding meetings to pray for the success of the British. In 1997, 50
years into freedom, I returned to some of those villages for these stories:
Sherpur: big sacrifice, short memory
The Uttar Pradesh village that raised the flag in 1942 and paid the price for it
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
Godavari: and the police still await an attack
From Rampa in Andhra, Alluri Sitaramaraju led one of the greatest anti-colonial revolts
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
Sonakhan: when Veer Narayan Singh died twice
In Chhattisgarh, Veer Narayan Singh sought no charity, but gave his life fighting for justice
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
Kalliasseri: in search of Sumukan
The village that battled on all fronts, fighting the British, local landlords, and caste
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
Kalliasseri: still fighting at 50
When the God of the Hunters sheltered the communists in Kerala from the Raj
August 14, 2015 | P. Sainath
PARI continues to trace and document the lives of the very last freedom fighters, now in their 90s.