Veer Kunwar Singh

Kunwar Singh was born in Jagdispur of the Shahabad (now Bhojpur) District of Bihar to a landed family. Remarkably, he led the armed uprising of 1857 at the age of 80, not caring for his failing health. Oral history maintains that he said he had been waiting for the uprising, and was sorry only that it had come when he was so old. He was an expert in guerilla warfare, baffling the British forces with his military tactics and expelling them from Shahabad on 23 April 1858.

On the 10th of May, 1857, the soldiers of the British East India Company at Meerut began the historic uprising against colonial rule. The Company Raj called it the “sepoy mutiny”, but history remembers it as India’s first war of Independence. Indeed, it was the first dawn of an Indian national consciousness: where people in the Indian subcontinent united for the very first time across the divides of religion, caste, community, and language against a common enemy – the colonial Company Raj.

Concluding part of the article by the late Dr Gail Omvedt serialised by Liberation as part of its Freedom 75 series.

Class Meaning of the Prati Sarkar

Liberation is serialising this seminal article by the late Dr Gail Omvedt as part of its Freedom 75 series.

Liberation is serialising this seminal article by the late Dr Gail Omvedt as part of its Freedom 75 series.

A ‘Serious Biography’?[2]

(The late Gail Omvedt’s article on the Parallel Government of Satara, continued from Liberation January 2022).

The Press Information Bureau of Government of India in its official magazine New India Samachar observed that "The freedom movement is not limited only to British rule, even before that India has gone through a period of servitude. The Bhakti movement acted as the foundation of the freedom struggle. As the Bhakti movement gave strength to the freedom movement, in the same way, the inspiration for the AatmaNirbhar Bharat is derived from those great personalities associated with it. Once again in the Amrit Kaal, the spiritual consciousness is awakening in the country.

Seventy Six years ago, on February 18, 1946 around more 1000 sailors or “ratings” of the then Royal Indian Navy in Bombay declared a strike against the inhuman conditions. Next day morning, the rebellion spread to shore establishments and ships in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands, soon taking the shape of a mutiny against the British Empire. During the event, seventy eight out of a total of 88 ships mutinied.

Seventy Six years ago, on February 18, 1946 around more 1000 sailors or “ratings” of the then Royal Indian Navy in Bombay declared a strike against the inhuman conditions. Next day morning, the rebellion spread to shore establishments and ships in Karachi, Madras, Calcutta, Mandapam, Visakhapatnam, and the Andaman Islands, soon taking the shape of a mutiny against the British Empire. During the event, seventy eight out of a total of 88 ships mutinied.