Book celebrates footsoldiers of Indian freedom struggle

Sainath says it is important to understand that the official lists of freedom fighters are woefully incomplete. “For one thing, most of the people originally on all these lists are no longer alive.

Many of the names there now are, in fact, those of dependents, where the freedom fighter has long since passed. The families of the fighters are entitled in several cases to half that pension as ‘eligible dependents’,” he writes. Then, names of very large groups of those who fought for freedom did not appear on the official lists of pension schemes, he adds.

“There were thousands whose role in the struggle entailed suffering other than those mandated by the Act. Many took incredible risks and suffered in other ways.

Most victories would have been impossible without them. But their activity, often seen as lowly, did not render them worthy of being ‘freedom fighters’ in official eyes,” the book says.

“There are over 23,000 names on the Union government’s ‘Name-wise and State-wise list of Freedom Fighters and eligible dependents’ as of 31 January 2022. It’s a record of those drawing pensions under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Yojana (SSSY),” it says.

According to Sainath, his book is an effort to tell the stories “we need to know”. Fifteen to sixteen individuals – a few of them still alive – that is a very small number, he says. “But they were and are representative of the many unknown millions who fought for India’s freedom and independence.”

The men, women and children featured in the book, published by Penguin Random House, are Adivasis, Dalits, OBCs, Brahmins, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus and hail from different regions, speak different languages and include atheists and believers, Leftists, Gandhians and Ambedkarites.

Sainath rues that in the next five or six years, there will not be a single person alive who fought for the country’s freedom. “The youngest of those featured in this book is 92, the oldest 104. Newer generations of young Indians will never get to meet, see, speak or listen to India’s freedom fighters. Never be directly told who they were, what they fought for,” he writes. ”

As many as six of those who feature in this book have died since May 2021. But some of the others whose stories appear here are very much alive and around. Sadly, that can’t be for more than a few years,” he adds.

A notable feature of the book is that there is a QR code at the end of each chapter that leads to a collection of photos and videos of the individual in that story located in the freedom fighters’ gallery on PARI.

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