By the time one reaches the last chapter of ‘Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won its Freedom,’ it is difficult to explain the myriad emotions Sanjeev Sanyal’s storytelling evinces from the reader. While these are lesser-known tales of how our country emerged free from the clutches of the British imperialists, the amount of lies we have been subjected to so that we do not know these embedded truths about our history leaves you numb. While you assimilate the detailing of events, incidents and the journeys of our revolutionaries, it is hard to shake away anger or disgust at the abject torture our ancestors and their families faced, the diabolical betrayals of our own and yet feel inspired by the dashing bravado of their deeds or monumental sacrifices they selflessly made.
In a book that hooks you with its thrilling narrative, emotional crests and pacy style, I assure you there will be times when you will pause to think how systematically these chapters were scrubbed off from public conscience and discourse lest we ‘fathom’ how Bharat’s freedom was earned through pitched and passionate battles. We emerged from the cruel shackles of colonialism because of the blood our heroes split. The license to live an unfettered life wasn’t gifted via an amicable resolution. It was earned through decades of armed resistance and fierce pushback by young nationalists, whose sagas got swept amidst the cloud of chapters, carefully crafted, to present a story that is anything but true. As you flip through the pages of Sanyal’s important work, delivered with a rare sensitivity and balance (objectivity in observation has always been a high in Sanyal’s repertoire), you are bound to feel a lump in your throat from that gut-wrenching realisation. Such is the pathos in our tumultuous past.
There are revelations galore in our years of colonial slavery. For instance, who exactly was Sri Aurobindo and what brought him to the path of spirituality. Yet, even while the reader is regaled by the story of his emerging as one of the most prominent personalities to steer the national movement in its early days (to think that the foundation of Jadavpur University, a hotbed of Left-centric student politics now, was laid by Sri Aurobindo, a staunch believer in Sanatan Dharma, a proud Hindu and Bharatiya who decided to re-establish civilisational moorings of the nation later), it was perhaps the few lines on Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki that will leave a lasting imprint on the mind. “Khudiram walked all night to reach the railway station in Wani.
Two local police constables noticed something suspicious about him and grabbed him before the tired boy even had the chance to take out his revolver. He was later sentenced to death by hanging… Prafulla pulled out his revolver and fired wildly at the pursuers, but realising that he was trapped, he turned the gun around and killed himself with the last bullet.” No movie or book has rubbed this fact so blatantly as Revolutionaries has. That the British were being driven up the wall by daring acts of men as young as 18-19 years of age (the list of names is endless). More importantly, they gave up their lives to secure azaadi for the nation without batting their eyelids!
Instead of dwelling much on the duplicitous decisions and unhinged temperament of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (and the loyalists) related to the Moplah Hindu Genocide, the Chauri Chaura incident and various other political and sociological happenings of those years, Sanyal has invested more on bringing lesser known, rather circulated names, to the forefront, armed with exhaustive research and an extensive canvas that establishes how our Indian revolutionaries operated not in just some pockets of undivided India but their network was strong globally. This is proved citing several global affairs and significant international characters that brushes away the suggestion that the armed struggle was not just some mere freak incidents taking place but were results of strategic planning and execution. That doesn’t discount the flaws in fine print, the follies, or the impulsiveness of those who had best interests in their hearts but were misguided at times. Neither are the backstabbers spared, who grovelled before the colonisers, either out of fear or for personal gains.
Reigning in the melodrama, or should we say, knowing just where to stop, Sanyal’s dwelling on Kalapani is a hard-hitting reminder of the psychological, mental and sexual depravities the British unleashed on our freedom fighters. Similarly, the author carefully debunks the tag of ‘terrorists’ which the revolutionaries were stamped with on purpose. The sinister agenda to divide and destroy the nation based on religious differences is reflected on, too, through various citations. And then of course you have the portions on the racial abuse by hypocritical fiends such as Winston Churchill and the deconstruction of the many man-made famines, including the horrible one in Bengal, that showcases the outright discrimination and abject cruelty (read about how prostitution was sanctioned) of the imperialists against Indians. These are difficult chapters to navigate through, albeit extremely important ones.
However, despite the extremely unnerving nature of the subject, Sanyal’s objective is never to let the depressive air hover around. Interspersing the torrid truth of turmoil with tales of honour, bravery and relentless desire to free India, the initiative was after all to get the nation to know what exactly happened. “These are thrilling stories of our heroes, some of whom have never been spoken about. The idea was to familiarise them with the India of today,” says Sanyal. No wonder, he has included love stories as well, which will make you shed silent tears as you feel poignancy in them. What the author has so beautifully achieved through his labour of love is the recognition of personalities who instil in us yet again a profound pride for our country.
The book hits the raw nerve in every conscious Bharatiya so that they persistently imbibe what the nationalists fought for and why must their indefatigable valour and heroic sacrifice never ever be forgotten. And their unmitigated love for the Motherland.
