Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Sanjeev Sanyal has bemoaned the lack of importance given to the role played by revolutionaries in obtaining freedom from Britishers.

Participating in a lecture on the subject ‘A homage to Indian Revolutionaries,’ organised by the Sri Aurobindo Society here, Mr. Sanyal said much of the earlier 20^th century was dominated by the history of the non-violent phase of Indian freedom struggle.

But there was also an armed struggle which was just as important as the non-violent phase of the freedom struggle, which has a much longer history. In fact, the resistance to British occupation goes back to the beginning of 1770s with the rebellion in Bengal which is now known as the Sanyasi rebellion.

There were continuous revolts against the British in several parts of the country leading to the great rebellion of 1857. Then there was a new cycle of rebellion which essentially started at the turn of last century, which was inspired by many things, including previous rebellions and the writings of nationalists in Europe and other parts of the world, the economist cum historian said. 

“Despite there being documented evidence on the role played by many revolutionaries, we overlooked their contributions. There are evidences of the role played by akhadas, martial art centres in training youth for rebellion against Britishers in many parts of the country. Systematically, efforts were made to erase from our memory the contribution of armed resistance in our freedom struggle,” he said.

Unlike in many parts of the world where revolutionaries got their due respect, in India certain “concepts” were put in our head by certain quarters to question the movements led by our revolutionaries. “Those who led the armed resistance in our country were not a random group of anarchists. Their targets were not ordinary people but those who led the oppression against our people. They were all inspired and connected by the ideals of freedom. Many of the revolutionaries were the first to talk about getting Independence. There is a need to tell the stories about the revolutionaries and the role they played in the freedom movement,” Mr. Sanyal said.

The lecture was organised as part of 150 years of Vande Mataram. Chief Secretary Sharat Chauhan and Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University P. Prakash Babu were present.