Contrary to the myth that youth are self-absorbed, many young women and men not only fought for Independence but in the decades that followed have given up well paying jobs to work on India's development - which the youth of today carry forward.
Let us begin “long years ago” to see how the youth helped India become independent. Born in 1905 in Assam to the erstwhile Ahom royal family was Kushal Konwar. He got educated, and established a school. An active freedom fighter, he participated in the 1921 Non-Cooperation Movement and then joined the Congress. When Gandhiji announced the Quit India Movement on 8 August 1942, some activists in Kushal’s district derailed a trainload of Allied soldiers, hundreds of whom died as a result. The British arrested Kushal, and even though no evidence was found to prove him guilty, he was hanged to death in November 1943. He was 38 then.
In 1909 was born Aruna Ganguly, to a Bengali Brahmin family living in Punjab. Having been well educated, she met Asaf Ali, a young freedom fighter in Allahabad and married him, much against family opposition. She participated in Gandhiji’s Salt Satyagraha in 1931 and rose to prominence in the Congress. When the British arrested all members of the Congress Working Committee on the night of 8 August 1942, Aruna Asaf Ali presided over the session the next day and hoisted the Congress flag at the Maidan in Mumbai. The police fired upon the gathering, while Aruna continued the proceedings. She was 33.
In 1916 was born Sri Dev Suman in the Tehri state, now in Uttarakhand. Like Kushal and Aruna, Suman became a Gandhian freedom fighter. In addition to seeking India’s Independence, he demanded abolition of monarchy in Tehri. December 1943, he was arrested by the Tehri state police. In jail, Suman was shackled, tortured and given food mixed with sand or stone. He started a hunger strike. After being on a hunger strike for 84 days, Suman died on 25 July 1944. His corpse was thrown into the Bhilangna River. He was 27.
On 15 August 1947, India became independent, through the efforts of thousands of such young people. The Constitution came into force in 1950. The youth began to enjoy the fruits of democracy and a welfare state. This is how they built the nation.
Born in 1941, in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu was Subbaiah Loganathan. While in college, he came in touch with Gandhian Sarvodaya workers. In 1969, during Gandhi centenary, when he was 30, Loganathan began working with landless people who got land under Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan (land-gift) Movement. The land needed levelling before cultivation, wells for irrigation, besides seeds and fertiliser. Using funds mobilised by international Gandhians, Loganathan began the first “Sarva Seva Farm”. This eventually grew into a nationwide program under which lakhs of landless people were settled on Bhoodan lands.
Born in 1943 to a Punjabi family, Gurcharan Das studied in Delhi and Washington DC where his father, a government employee, was posted. Gurcharan was admitted with a scholarship to the Harvard University and studied Philosophy under John Rawls. He also studied Sanskrit. He came back to India and joined Richardson Hindustan Ltd, manufacturers of Vicks, and later became MD, Strategic Planning of Procter & Gamble Worldwide. At 50 Gurcharan left the corporate sector to become a writer. His tetralogy covers the four Purusharthas – Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. The one on Dharma, based on the moral dilemmas of the Mahabharata, is called “The Difficulty of Being Good”.
Born just a year before Independence to a Tamil Brahmin family was another Aruna, who got educated in Delhi and joined the Indian Administrative Service at age 21. She got married to Sanjit “Bunker” Roy who founded the Social Work and Research Centre (renamed later as The Barefoot College) at Tilonia in Ajmer District of Rajasthan. Aruna Roy left the IAS in 1974 to work in Tilonia but later felt she needed to mobilise people for true empowerment. On 1 May 1990, along with Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh, Aruna established the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, identifying totally with landless workers. Eventually, they worked to get the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2006 and the National Food Security Act, 2009 enacted. Aruna Roy was conferred the Magsaysay Award in 2010.
Fast forward to 1992 – by then India had moved from Nehruvian Socialism and its Indira Gandhi led extremes such as bank and coal nationalisation, through the moderate reforms led by the youthful Rajiv Gandhi, to embrace LPG – Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. Growing up in this era, there is a great diversity of how the youth are building the nation.
Usha Vishwakarma is the founder of Red Brigade, an organisation in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Usha escaped a serious molestation bid in 2005 and decided, despite her trauma, that she will not only learn self-defence but also teach others. Since then she has trained thousands of young girls and women in self-defence, besides creating wider self-awareness and confidence building. Starting this 15 August, Usha is organising a 50-day campaign for “peace and justice” for women, involving 10,000 young women across UP.
Ramlal Kale is the leader of the youth of the Korku tribes’ village Payvihir in Amaravati district, Maharashtra. Fifteen years ago, soon after the Forest Rights Act was promulgated, Ramlal and his friends decided to get the neighbouring degraded forest land under the village community’s control. Ten years ago, they succeeded in getting Community Forest Rights on 474 acres of “forest” land. Then they used MGNREGA funds to undertake soil and water conservation and replant the forest. Today, not only has the forest been regenerated but provides livelihoods to the villagers who used to migrate earlier. Just the sale of custard apple (sitaphal) fetched them over Rs 25 lakh a year and the sale of tendu leaves fetched over Rs 3 crore to Payvihir and 12 other villages.
Geetanjali Radhakrishnan, who grew up in Munnar, Kerala, studied bioengineering at the Sastra University, Thanjavur. She worked as a researcher and software developer before setting up Adiuvo Diagnostics in 2015. Adiuvo’s screening device non-invasively detects and classifies pathogens on wounds. Compared to the culture method, which takes up to seven days, Adiuvo’s report is generated in just two minutes, saving suffering, costs, amputations and lives. It has the potential to help seven million burn victims a year in India of whom 7-10% develop infections after surgery.
I turned 18 when India celebrated 25 years of Independence. Having participated in my own way in 50 years of nation building, I have great hopes that people like Usha, Ramlal and Geetanjali will make India@100 live up to the dream that “We, the people,.. gave unto ourselves” in 1950.
Photos courtesy: Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Uttarakhand Meri Janmbhoomi, gurcharandas.org, Brown University, Usha Vishwakarma (Facebook).
Vijay Mahajan is the CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation since 2018. He co-founded PRADAN in 1982 and the Basix Social Enterprise Group in 1996.
