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Qualitative Research in Asia

We Owe Our Freedom To Your Sacrifice

Ananda Gupta passed away quietly in a nursing home in London, on 8th December 2005. Perhaps the youngest fighter for freedom in the history of the Indian struggle for independence, he had been sentenced to a term of life imprisonment in 1930, at the tender age of 15 years, by the British rulers.

Freedom Fighter. To current generations, this phrase evokes a hoary and ancient profile, best relegated within the covers of history books. A subject that is seen to have fading relevance in the India of today and tomorrow.

And yet, even in the current consumer focused world, haven’t we noticed idealism and an unshakeable patriotism prevailing among high school students across the length and breadth of the country? How would this segment of young Indians react to the story of Ananda Gupta’s life?

Sixteen years of youth spent behind bars. From 1930 to 1947. Often shunted between the Andaman’s Cellular Jail as well as various prisons on the mainland. For he was considered to be part of the most dangerous and dreaded class of freedom fighters, by the then government! An oft repeated line of the jailors used to be “Mind you, this is Andaman, where even Bengal tigers are tamed”.

Ananda was the youngest member of the Chittagong Revolutionary Party led by the legendary Surya Sen, and as a fourteen year old, participated in the Chittagong Uprising, an event that recently celebrated its seventy fifth anniversary in April 2005 and continues to enthrall all those aware of it – mainly in Bengal. An event that occupies a unique and hallowed place in the annals of the story of liberation from British Rule.

Chittagong had been made free and independent, albeit for a short while, by this idealistic band of youth. In another instance, they raided the armoury. The rattled British establishment, caught off-guard, called the participants ‘robbers’ and ‘marauders’. But what these spectacular feats achieved was that it startled the dormant Indian citizens across board, from Peshawar to Burma, the Himalayas to Kanya Kumari. This was an event that gifted the country the most precious treasure required at that time – fiery self-confidence and the will and courage to face up squarely to the imperialists.

During the Uprising, four of the participants including Ananda got separated from the main group, and it was the presence of mind of this youngest member that helped them to evade the police even after being caught at a railway station. Their whereabouts were discovered within a few months due to the treachery of some Indians, and the home they had taken shelter in, was surrounded. One of the other members, his best friend Jeeban Ghosal was killed in the ensuing action while Ananda sustained bullet injuries, and was apprehended along with the others. His elder brother Debaprasad had already laid down his life at the battle of Kalarpole a few days earlier.

There are numerous recorded instances of the effect of Ananda Gupta – exceptionally magnetic in looks and personality, having an incredible effect on witnesses who backtracked and refused to testify even after having promised to have become the States’ witness against them earlier.

However, in spite of their personal lawyer being the esteemed Sarat Bose, elder brother of Subhas Bose, who left no stone unturned in his efforts, Ananda, along with his seniors Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh were sentenced to life terms of ‘hard labour’.

In later years, Ananda Gupta always maintained that the years in jail were some of the best in his life. For ‘where else’, he asked, would there be such a high level of intellectual companionship and cultural discussions on all subjects under the sun. It is a tribute to his indomitable spirit that he could say this, for the sufferings he endured in jail ranged from rat-droppings peppered food to acute, incurable asthma brought about by the fibers in the atmosphere due to the blanket making and rope making factories that he had to spend all his days and years in.

An excellent and lucid speaker and writer, he could narrate an array of amusing incidents that took place in jail when the A class prisoners, as the revolutionaries were called, interacted with the other ordinary jailed inmates who revered them completely.

When the country was boisterously celebrating its independence in 1947, Ananda Gupta, recently freed, was already at Cox Bazaar fighting for the rights of the landless farmers, as well as taking the local administration head on, to maintain communal harmony.

A truly awesome personality, yet so loving and kind. One who never held any grudges against anybody at all and one who so willingly gave 16 years of his prime for the sake of the nation.

In 1997, the President of India felicitated Ananda Gupta at the Andamans Cellular Jail. A one rupee coin, part of this commemoration ceremony for the few freedom fighters alive then, proclaims: Hamaari Azaadi Aapki Balidaan Hai. We owe our freedom to your sacrifice.

Walking around the cell that he was incarcerated in, as his memories came flooding back - several incidents, hunger strikes, even the tortures, he wondered aloud ‘Had I known what was in store for me at this jail, would I still have come down this path?’.

He answered it unhesitatingly. ‘Without a doubt, I would. If that situation were to arise today, yes, I would do it again’.

Piyul Mukherjee

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