On the occasion of 75th Independence Day, the Modi government plans to honor the ‘unsung’ heroes of freedom i.e. ‘unknown’ heroes (freedom fighters). On the occasion of the celebration of independence, the Modi government will honor such heroes who have been lost somewhere in the pages of history. Officials said on Friday that the central government is planning to display unsung heroes and lesser-known groups and incidents of freedom struggle to mark 75 years of India’s independence. Several programs and lectures will be organized to highlight the contribution of unsung heroes to India’s freedom struggle, officials said.
The government has compiled a list of 146 such unsung heroes and groups. The government has planned 75 regional, six national and two international seminars under the banner ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to commemorate 75 years of independence. These names have been compiled by individual government departments and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Education.
However, some historians have criticized the presence of eminent personalities like Subhash Chandra Bose, Birsa Munda and Tatya Tope in this list and called for reforms from the government. Jan Sangh ideologue Nanaji Deshmukh and Hindu Mahasabha are also included in the list compiled by government departments.
ICHR Director Om G Upadhyay said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 75-week long program ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to commemorate 75 years of India’s independence in March this year, he called upon the Yajurveda. Mentioned a verse. Through this he (Prime Minister Modi) gave the message that in the last seven decades, we have lost some opportunities to celebrate those people who have not yet received any acknowledgment (respect) for their role in India’s freedom struggle. Hence ICHR has planned a three-tier event to celebrate the lives and contributions of our unsung heroes.
It is being told that 146 names have been selected and sent by their native state and this list also includes heroes of small tribes and castes. Ghelubhai Naik, agricultural economist Mohanlal Lallubhai Dantwala, former Jan Sangh ideologue Nanaji Deshmukh and communist leader Ravi Narayan Reddy are in the list of unsung heroes. Not only this, many tribal leaders like Laxman Nayak of Odisha, Telanga Kharia of Jharkhand and Komaram Bheem of Telangana are also included in this list.
The list of little-known groups (groups about which people know little about) includes Hindu Mahasabha, Andhra Pradesh Library Association, Karnataka Sahitya Parishad and Anushilan Samiti of Bengal. The government also compiled a list of lesser known events and literature. The first list includes the Surat Salt Movement (1840), the war against the Company Raj, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, (1857–58), the Bundelkhand Resistance (1808), and the Rangpur Peasant Rebellion (1783). At the same time, its second list includes Aksloka Gita (Marathi book, 1910), Jhanda of Hinduism (Hindi pamphlet 1927), Gadar di Ganj (Gurmukhi, 1910), Chauri Chaura Judgment (English, 1923), and Inquilab (Urdu, 1927). Are included. However, some experts criticized some of the names in the list.
Historian Mridula Mukherjee said that we cannot call Subhash Chandra Bose, Chandrashekhar Azad and Birsa Munda ‘unsung heroes’ (unknown heroes). He has also included Tatya Tope, Nanaji Deshmukh and Ravi Narayan Reddy in the list. Actually, the list also includes some names of people who were born in the 1930s and were called freedom fighters. This is a very uneven list. He said that there is no uniformity in the selection of names, it is a random list.
However, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Member of Parliament of the Bharatiya Janata Party and head of the Standing Committee on Education, disagreed. The MP said that if you have not done justice to him, then there should be a time to do justice. Be it Subhas Chandra Bose or any other, he did not get the credit he deserves.