by Sunitha
Rao R
BANGALORE:
They have seen India extricate herself from the clutches of the British to turn
into a progressive republic. They have lived the freedom struggle and every
moment of the nation's 65 years of Independence. For GenNext, their struggle
would seem like a fairy tale. On the eve of Independence Day, TOI sought their
views on freedom and India.
Pandit
Sudhakar Chaturvedi, 118
Ask
him who got us freedom, and he answers quizzically: "MK Gandhi, Nehru,
Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh? Veer Savarkar? British themselves?
Extremism or ahimsa? None of them, India got freedom because of Adolf Hitler
and Benito Mussolini, who created fear in the British empire." Pandit Sudhakar Chaturvedi, an enigmatic
freedom fighter and living legend of the city, was known as the 'critical
insider' within the Congress. Despite being associated closely with the
Mahatma, he questioned Gandhi's principle of ahimsa.
On
August 15, 1947, Chaturvedi was in Delhi with Gandhi, Nehru and others.
"It was an eventful and exciting day. However, bad the politics is now, it
is good we got freedom then. It was good for both Indians and British," he
recalls.
At
118, Chaturvedi is glad he is fit. "I can hear, read and walk," he
chuckles. He has not accepted the pension given to freedom fighters, happy in
his Jayanagar residence.
NV
Krishnamachari, 96
"We
might term the British 'firangis' or 'white men', but they ruled us based on
laws. They did their job on the directions of the East India Company. But what
principles do today's politicians have? Hardly any. We fought to get a nation
to be ruled by Indians based on truth, ahimsa, human values. Sometimes, I feel
we should not have got freedom at all. The British did not trouble the public
as much as our elected politicians do now. I cry to myself when I look at our
pathetic world," says NV Krishnamachari.
He
was in Bangalore central jail the day India got independence. "We were
sent out saying we were released. We had no clue we'd got Independence,"
he recalls.
Krishnamachari
has named his sons Jayaprakash Narayan, Babu Rajendra Prasad, Balagangadhar
Tilak, Lokamanya, and his daughters Jhansi Rani and Lakshmi Bai.
He
is fit, he has no BP or diabetes, though his hearing capability is diminishing.
He lives in KG Nagar, South Bangalore.
Annadanaiah
Puranika, 85
When
the entire country rejoiced on August 15, 1947, a 19-year-old freedom fighter
and his friends were in tears at Osmania University in Hyderabad.
"Hyderabad hadn't got freedom and we had no security under the Nizams.
Those who hoisted the Indian flag in Hyderabad were arrested. We fled to Gadag
and Hubli, and fought the Razaks and Nizams from here. I discontinued my
studies. Thanks to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Hyderabad won freedom on September
17, 1948," recollects Annadanaiah Puranika.
"I
had written to the governor two years ago on how the government can make use of
our experience. I have not got any response," he told TOI. Puranika, who
worked as an advocate for 30 years in the Karnataka high court, says corrupt
politicians should be socially boycotted. He lives in Jayanagar with his
daughter. Barring occasional knee pain, he is fit as a fiddle.
HS
Doreswamy, 94
This
veteran freedom fighter is an active participant in social activism even today.
Be it the protest for the appointment of the Lokayukta or implementation of the
Lokpal bill, Doreswamy is at Freedom Park with his firm notions. He has termed
the anti-corruption protests of Anna Hazare as the "second freedom
struggle" of the nation and actively participated in India Against
Corruption movements.
By the
kind courtesy of the Times of India
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