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When eminent journalist and author P Sainath met Mallu Swarajyam, the revolutionary from Telangana who was opposing the Nizam of Hyderabad even as the country celebrated its Independence, she demonstrated how she had used slingshots as a weapon in her fight.
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At a previous event for techies, the audience had asked how they should fight for justice in this new and different world. “The slingshot was my weapon. The laptop and mobile are yours, so fight for justice with that,” Swarajyam had said. The story was recounted by Sainath during a lecture at IISER on Wednesday, titled “What was India’s freedom struggle about: Looking back from India@75”.
Sainath, who has written several books, the latest being The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom, shed light on several, almost unknown personalities of the Indian freedom struggle, among them women and tribals. “The Indian freedom struggle was not the handiwork of great men but ordinary masses, including tens of millions of Indian women, who sacrificed as much and more than men. But, after Independence we designed our laws of freedom-fighter definition so that only men would qualify. It became all about going to jail and having a jail certificate,” said Sainath, before telling the story of Bhabani Mahato in Puruliya.
In an interactive session, punctuated with Q and As with students about colonialism and its effects, Sainath brought his wit and vast knowledge to shed light on hidden chapters. He spoke about his organisation, the People’s Archive of Rural India, which has videos of the unknown freedom fighters, some of whom have died in the last few years. By the time the packed hall emptied after the talk, they knew that an earlier generation had fought for two things—freedom and Independence— and that only the latter had been achieved.
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