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LONG OVERDUE HONOUR FOR ODISHA’S FREEDOM HEROES

In a significant development, Union Minister of Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Minister of Communications, Railways and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw recently released special covers on six unsung heroes of Odisha as part of the Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav and Philately Day celebrations.

The personalities who were thus honoured for their contribution to the India’s freedom struggle are Buxi Jagabandhu, Sahid Baji Rout, Sahid Jai Rajguru, Sahid Chakhi Khuntia, Sahid Chakra Bisoi and Parbati Giri. After releasing the special covers at the Dak Bhawan in New Delhi, the two ministers who represent Odisha at the Centre, also interacted with the descendants and family members of these heroes in virtual mode. While Pradhan highlighted the struggle of our freedom fighters and reminded the present generation of their duty to uphold the values cherished by these heroes, Vaishnaw lauded the efforts made by the Department of Posts to bring out the special covers.

The gesture of the Department of Posts will, undoubtedly, go a long way in putting these Odisha heroes’ roles in the nation’s freedom struggle in the right perspective. It is significant to note that the mainstream political history of India has hardly ever recognized the contributions of freedom fighters from Odisha. While students are taught in history books about the uprising of 1857 as the first freedom struggle of the country, there is hardly any mention of Paika rebellion of 1817 which, in fact, was the first time that an armed rebellion took place against the rule of the East India Company. It was led by Bakshi Jagabandhu, who remains an unsung hero.

The younger generation in our country is now beginning to learn about freedom fighters like Bakshi Jagabandhu following BJP-led NDA government’s efforts to give them their due. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself paid tribute to the heroes of the freedom struggle from Odisha, including the leader of Paika rebellion during his visit to the state in 2017. He had also met and felicitated the descendants of these heroes.

With the Prime Minister himself taking the initiative of giving people like Bakshi Jagabandhu their rightful place in the pantheon of India’s legendary freedom fighters, the attitude of the younger generation towards them also seems to be changing. One of the indicators of this change is the making of serials such as Vidrohi which tells the story of Paika rebellion with Jagabandhu as its central character.

The truth is that the political history of India remains largely north-centric because of the obvious reason that this belt, which is both fertile and densely populated, bore the brunt of a series of invasions over centuries. Some of the biggest battles in history took place for the control of northern India, which became politically more important than other parts of the country. But the excessive focus of historians on this region appears to have given Indian history a slant that does injustice to other parts of the country. States such as Odisha, for example, figure prominently in the country’s socio-cultural history but its political history remains largely neglected. This bias must be removed.

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