Unsung Heroes of India’s

Freedom Movement
INTRODUCTION –
Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav means the festival
of completing 75 Years of Independence of the
country. As you know that 15th August 1947
was the historic day when our country got
freedom from the rule of Britishers. For this
freedom, many Brave freedom Fighters and
leaders had sacrificed themselves. So this year,
India is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its
independence which is being celebrated as
Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Lady Gandhi
Matangini Hazra
Matangini Hazra was an Indian
revolutionary who participated in the Indian
independence movement until she was shot
dead by the British Indian police in front of
the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September
1942. She was affectionately known as
Gandhi buri, Bengali for old lady Gandhi.
West Bengal, India – 29 Sept 2019: Matangini Hazra was born in

a poor household in the Tamluk district, who died in 1942. Fondly

remembered as ‘Gandhi Buri’ or old lady of Gandhi, Hazra was

shot dead by the British police as she stepped forward to appeal

against open firing by the policemen.

❖ Born to a poor household, she was married early to a

60-year-old widower Trilochon Hazra, only to be a widow at 18.
Her affair with the freedom fight began at 35 years of age when
she joined the independence movement and became a Gandhi
follower.
Hazra’s political debut:
❖ Matangini’s active interest in the freedom struggle spiralled in 1905, drawing

inspiration from none other than Gandhi. As per the documents, the freedom struggle

in Medinapore was characterized by the huge women participation.However, the

turning point in her life came on January 26, 1932, known as Indian Independence

❖ Day in those days. The village men marched into an awareness procession about the

then political scenario, and Hazra joined the group at 62. Since then, there has been no

looking back for her.

Strong and gritty like Gandhi:
❖ Like Mahatma Gandhi, Hazra’s fragile body could not deter her from participating in the freedom
struggle. She was also a local voice against the British atrocities. Soon after her arrest, Matangini Hazra
participated in the abolition of the Chowkidari tax- a tax enforced on villagers by the British to fund a
small local group of policemen to be used as spies against the villagers. Following her release, Hazra
started to spin Khadi as a sign of protest despite failing eyesight.
❖ During the outbreak of the smallpox epidemic, she had tirelessly nursed the victims, including the
children. Matangini was also grievously injured in the police baton charge in 1933 while attending the
sub-divisional conference of the Indian National Congress. She received severe blows and was hurt in the
process.
❖ Her protest style was similar to Gandhi and his motto of non-violence freedom struggle to attain real
freedom. Later in 1933, during the visit of the then Governor of Bengal Sir John Anderson, she managed
to breach the security and reach the dais to raise the black flag as a symbol of protest. The British
government rewarded her with six months imprisonment.
Matangini Hazra’s Supreme Sacrifice:
❖ In 1942 August, the local Congress workers planned to protest near various police stations and

government offices in the Medinapore district under the leadership of 73-year-old Matangini Hazra.

❖ On September 29, she led around six thousand protesters, mostly women, to besiege the Tamluk police

station. The police tried to stop the procession, citing Sec. 144 of IPC. But the defiant Hazra stepped

forward, appealing to the policemen not to open fire. In return, she was shot at arm but kept moving

forward with the flag held high.

❖ The next bullet was fired, and it hit her in the forehead taking her life. Later her body was found

lying in the pool of blood, holding the flag high, unsoiled

Kittur Chennamma
Chennamma was born in a small village
on October 23, 1778. She was trained in
archery, sword fighting and horse riding
and quickly became known for her
bravery and skills. At the age of 15
years, she was married to Mallasarja
Desai, the ruler of Kittur.
❖ 23 years later, in 1816, her husband passed away leaving her with a young son. Her
son too died a few years later in 1824. After her son’s death, Chennamma adopted a
boy named Shivalingappa and named him the heir to the throne.

❖ Chennamma’s adopted son was not accepted by

the British East India Company on the grounds
of the Doctrine of Lapse introduced by Lord
Dalhousie. According to this doctrine, if the ruler
of a state dies without a natural heir, the state
would be ruled by the sovereign. Thus, the state
of Kittur would be brought under British rule.

❖ When notified of this, she wrote a letter to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Bombay
Presidency, Mountstuart Elphinstone pleading her cause. However, the request was
turned down and the British attacked Kittur with over 20,000 men mainly from the
Madras Native Horse Artillery in order to confiscate the jewels of Kittur.
❖ The queen was victorious in the first round of the war in
October 1824. St John Thackeray, the collector and
political agent in Kittur was killed while two British
officers, Mr. Stevenson and Sir Walter Elliot were taken
as hostages. They were later released with the
understanding that the war would be terminated.
❖ However, the British forces continued to attack with
more force. She and her lieutenant Sangolli Rayanna
fought bravely but they were betrayed by traitors in
their army who mixed cow dung with the cannon
gunpowder. As a result, during this second assault, the
queen was captured by the British.
• She was imprisoned in the Bailhongal Fort
where she spent her time reading holy books.
With time her health began to deteriorate and
she finally breathed her last on February
21st, 1829. Her struggle inspired her
lieutenant who continued to fight against the
British on her behalf. He too was
subsequently caught and hanged by the
British
Deshbandhu or
friend of the
nation
Chitta Ranjan Das
Indian political leader

Born Nov. 5, 1870, Calcutta [now

Kolkata], India—died June 16, 1925,

Darjeeling [now Darjiling]. politician

and leader of the Swaraj

(Independence) Party in Bengal under

British rule.
❖ Das completed his education in England, where he became a Barrister, his public
career began in 1909 when he successfully defended Aurobindo Ghosh on charges
of involvement in the Alipore bomb case.

❖ Das maintained close contact with Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh and
helped them in publishing the Bande Mataram, an English weekly for
propagating the ideals of swaraj.

❖ Das was politically most active between 1917 and 1925. In 1917, he presided over
the Bengal Provincial Conference and put forward a plan for village
reconstruction through the establishment of local self-government, cooperative
credit societies, and the regeneration of cottage industry.
❖ Das denounced the Montagu-Chelmsford Reform, which established a diarchy for
India, and joined Gandhi's non-cooperation movement in 1920 and sacrificed all this
luxury when he became attached to the Freedom Movement.
❖ He initiated a ban on British clothes in Bengal during the Non-Cooperation
Movement of 1919 to 1922.
❖ Das was arrested in the year 1921 with his wife and son and was sentenced to six
months' imprisonment. He was elected as the president of the Ahmedabad Congress
in the same year .
❖ Das also brought out a newspaper called 'Forward' and later changed its name to
Liberty to fight the British Raj. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was the editor of this
newspaper. Bose considered Das as his mentor..
❖ Das, a few years before his death, gifted
his house and the adjoining lands to the
nation to be used for the betterment of
the lives of women. At present, it is a big
hospital called Chittaranjan Seva Sadan
and has gone from being a women's
hospital to one where all specialties are
present.
‘Father of
Revolutionary
Thoughts’
Bepin Chandra Pal
• On 7 November 1858, Bipin Chandra Pal
also known as the ‘Father of Revolutionary
Thoughts in India’ was born in Poil, a
village in Habiganj District, present-day
Bangladesh.
• He was born in a wealthy Hindu
Vaishnavite family. His father,
Ramchandra Pal was a Persian scholar and
a small landowner.
● He joined the Presidency College, Calcutta but could not complete his education there. He then started
work as a headmaster. Later he became a librarian in a public library. It was here that he met several
political leaders of the day like Surendra Nath Banerjee, Shivnath Shastri and B K Goswami.
● This interaction propelled him to quit his profession and join active politics.
● Pal was also inspired by the ideas of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh.
● In 1898, he went to England to study comparative theology. He returned to India in one year and
plunged into the freedom struggle.
● He started popularising the idea of ‘swaraj’ to Indians.
● Along with Lajpat Rai and Tilak, he preached an extremist form of nationalism which espoused
revolutionary methods like boycotting British goods and shops, burning western clothes and advocating
strikes and lockouts of British factories. This trio was called ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’.
● Pal was sent to jail for six months for refusing to give evidence against Arobindo Ghosh in the Bande
Mataram sedition case.
● He was a brilliant orator and writer. He was also a journalist who used this platform to spread his
message of patriotism and nationalism. He edited the journals ‘The Democrat’ and ‘The Independent’. He
also started many newspapers and magazines such as ‘Paridarsak’, ‘Bande Mataram’, ‘New India’ and
‘Swaraj’.
● Some of the books he authored are ‘Indian Nationalism’, ‘Swaraj and the Present Situation’,
‘Nationality and Empire’, ‘The Basis of Social Reform’, ‘The New Spirit and Studies in Hinduism’, and
‘The Soul of India’.
● He joined the Congress Party in 1886. He also participated in the Swadeshi movement and the
non-cooperation movement. He agitated against the partition of Bengal of 1905.
● Pal was a fierce critic of Mahatma Gandhi and his pacifist ways. He was against the ‘Gandhi cult’ in the
Congress party.
● He retired from active politics in 1920. He continued to contribute to magazines till his death on May 20,
1932. He was 73 years old.
● Aurobindo Ghosh called Pal ‘one of the mightiest prophets of nationalism
Books by Bipin Chandra pal
--Nationality and Empire
-Indian Nationalism
-The Basis of Social Reform
-Swaraj and the Present Situation
-The Soul of India
-The New Spirit and Studies in Hinduism
-Bipin Chandra Pal also edited several national books and journals. Two such books
are:
-The Independent
-The Democrat