Whenever we consider the fight for freedom of India, we all think about Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, and others. However, history is not only about all those major players whose sacrifices remain remembered.
However, these fearless people mentioned below, who operated in the underbelly most of the time, put everything at stake just to see a free India.
1. Jhalkaribai: The Shadow Warrior of Jhansi
Jhalkaribai was a Dalit female soldier who served as the most trusted assistant of the Rani Lakshmibai in the year 1857 uprising. After the British surrounded Jhansi Fort, she had hidden herself as the queen. By this time, Rani Lakshmibai had time to escape and reorganize. Her hanky-panky frustrated British progress and has now become a mythical deed of bravery.
2. Jatin Das: Martyr in the Cause of Bhagat Singh
Jatin Das was a fellow traveller of Bhagat Singh, who was a revolutionary belonging to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was arrested following the Lahore Conspiracy Case and was hanged to death on 13 September 1929 at the age of 24, after a 63-day hunger strike in prison to protest the inhumane treatment of political prisoners.
3. Peer Ali Khan: The Patna Rebel
Peer Ali Khan was one of the earliest freedom fighters who was executed by the British during the 1857 uprising; he circulated revolutionary literature and arranged armed uprisings in Patna. In 1857, on July 7, he was hanged after he refused to turn traitor to his mates.
4. Matangini Hazra: The Gandhian That Would Not Stop Marching
Matangini Hazra, a 73-year-old widow of Bengal, joined crippled with joining the Quit India Movement and continued even after being shot thrice by the British police in 1942 with shouting Vande Mataram until her died with it.
5. Khudiram Bose: The Youngest Revolutionary In India
Khudiram Bose was an 18-year-old hanged by the British after he bombed the British magistrates in the Muzaffarpur attack. His fearless gallows smile influenced generations of youth.
6. Usha Mehta: Congress Radio reporter
At the Quit India Movement, Usha Mehta managed the so-called secret ‘Congress Radio,’ reporting the unfiltered news to fight the British propaganda. She was only 22, and yet she managed to contribute to the spirit of resistance remaining.
