Freedom Diaries

Changezi has a photographic memory and if he fumbles,his son Sikandar is there to prompt him. Besides,Changezi has hundreds of books,old documents and rare paintings as reference material.

Having joined the freedom movement while he was a student at the Anglo-Arabic School near Ajmeri Gate,Changezi was involved with both the revolutionaries and the Swaraj movement.

“ I became a member of the Congress in 1925. But my story starts with my great grandfather Mirza Shahbaz Beg,the deputy collector of Hisar,who sided with the sepoys in 1857. He was arrested,sentenced for life,and his assets confiscated. With great difficulty I have managed to get a copy of the order that awarded him life imprisonment,” he says.

“ My father,Mirza Afrasiab Beg,was an associate of revolutionary leader Rash Behari Bose,one of the founders of the Indian National Army (INA). On December 23,1912,father was holding the ladder as revolutionaries climbed up to hurl a bomb at Lord Hardinge’s convoy from one of the buildings here. Hardinge escaped unhurt. In the confusion that followed,father mingled with the crowd with no one suspecting him,” he continues.

Changezi’s own participation in the freedom movement is no less interesting. “In 1925,Bhagat Singh was staying here in disguise and would sit at the piao near Kucha Dakhni Rai in Daryaganj. Chaudhary Brahm Prakash,who later became Delhi’s first chief minister,had entrusted me with taking food for him twice a day. During the course of our interaction,Bhagat Singh would often talk about his plans of throwing bombs and his Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Four years later,when the organisation planned a bomb attack on Lord Irwin’s train,near what is now ITO,I was part of the group. We were led by Hansraj ‘Wireless’,an expert in making explosives,” he recalls.

This incident was followed by the group destroying railway records at Peeli Kothi,using phosphorous. Changezi was also asked to disconnect electric lines near Kauriya Pul. The police spotted him cutting the wires from a distance and started firing. “I hid behind the street poles and then ran towards one of the lanes where they could not have chased me. I was a hockey-player,and could run really fast,” says Changezi.

Mentioning hockey,he recalls the various tournaments he participated in,including one at Afghanistan at a time when the Pathans were fighting the British on the Khyber Pass.

Despite being a freedom fighter,Changezi has never applied for any of the government-sponsored benefits. “Many individuals who had never participated in the freedom movement forged documents to get ‘freedom fighter’ certificates. Partition could have been avoided had some top Congressmen not been over ambitious. One half of my family migrated,but me and my father never wanted to leave our homeland,” says Changezi.

“ As our name suggests,we are direct descendants of Changez Khan and the Mughals,” he says,showing century-old document on his family tree. “We were once the rulers. It’s below our dignity to beg for anything,even recognition.”