Wednesday, March 15, 2006

blast of the past

shot this at the gallery of the Cellular Jail. And like they say, a picture's worth a thousand words... especially if it includes a wordy description.
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1 comment:

Shenoy said...

Here’s the wordy description in the pic that I was referring to. And I reproduce it word for word. “A historic moment in India’s freedom struggle. Subhas Chandra Bose came to meet Veer Savarkar on June 22 1940. Bose wanted Savarkar to tell Mahatma Gandhi that he (Gandhi) should not give undue importance to Bar. Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Indian politics. But Savarkar urged Bose that a courageous person like should not waste his time in politics because his leadership was required somewhere also. Savarkar told Bose, “Britain is in deep trouble due to second world war. You leave the country and visit those nations which are Britain’s enemies. Remember, England’s foes are our friends. Rash Bihari Bose has launched Azad Hind Sena. You should take up its leadership.” This historic visit gave a decisive turn to India’s freedom struggle.

The Bekku picks up: There is another connection of this pic (or rather the people in the pic) with the Cellular Jail other than the fact that I found this picture in the gallery there. While Savarkar’s tryst with the Cellular Jail is legendary and well-known, not many people know that the Andamans was occupied by the Japanese for two years between 1943 & ’45. And Netaji visited the Andamans and on 30 December 1943, he unfurled the Indian Tricolour for the first time (almost a year before than a similar unfurling at Manipur), declaring that the very first bastion to be relieved of the British yolk was Andamans. There you go. Just some more of our history that has been swept under the carpet of ignorance, apathy and state-sanctioned history.

March 16, 2006

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