MillenniumPost
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Sir Chhotu Ram: A crusader against injustices and tyrannies

Perhaps there is hardly any other leader in our recent history who did so much for the marginalized people living in real India - 'villages' – and got so scant a space in our historical disc-course as Sir Chhotu Ram. He had not only seen but lived poverty, dearth, disease, exploitation and oppression caused by the powerful vested interests. A born rebel and fighter, he took a vow very early in life – 1912, to be precise, - to challenge them right in their dens.

The result was a fierce battle on his hands almost every day throughout his life. He was, surprisingly, always successful. Reason? The following words from a confidential report, dated 10 July 1944, from the Punjab Governor, Sir B.J. Glancy to the Viceroy, Lord Wavell on the Punjab Ministers tell the secret of his success: "Sir Chhotu Ram", he says, "is a stalwart and determined…. He is a fair-minded man but a bad enemy. He is a man of marked ability and unwavering resolution".

He was not only a demolisher of the houses of injustices and tyrannies, but was also a builder par-excellence of mansions for the 'daridranarayanan'. He focused all his attention on the villages, in Gandhiji's words, 'real India'. The peasant was the socio-economic pivot there around which the entire life revolved. Agriculture was the only means of subsistence there in those times. But the peasant was, despite back-breaking toil, always poor, weak and in debt of the usurer (Sahukar) who fleeced him heartlessly. More often, when unable to pay his debt, even his land, in other words his and his family's bread, was snatched by the wily usurer. When he went to the Government, the court in appeal against his robbery, he was given a deaf ear. They backed his robber.

Chhotu Ram had seen all this with keen eye and weaping heart happening around him day in day out for long. His first attack was, understandably, on this problem. He exhorted the sufferers to stand up against injustice. He asked them to recognize his enemies. "O Peasant", he said, "be alert, careful and watchful". This world is the dwelling place of rogues and hoodwinkers, and your gullibility is proverbial. The people whom you protect and nourish are your sworn enemies. They, in the disguise of priests and saints, plunder you. The usurer deceives you by charging exorbitant rates of interest, and the officers rob you by taking bribe. Some persons become your customers to befool you, the others become traders to fleece you (`Bechara Zamindar').

How will you fight this army of cheats and robbers, he asked them? Who will help you? "Not the wretchedness and dumbness but speech will help you. The movement not sluggishness will assist you. The action, not contemplation will save you. The agitation,

not inaction will rescue you. Awake from your slumber of ignorance, be active, and get going.

These were not empty words of a politician. These were the exhortations from a peasant activist. After the words, he gave them the instruments to fight their exploiters. He opened schools and boarding houses with his associates, for them. He started their weekly mouthpiece from Rohtak, `Jat Gazette'. He formed a peasant based Party, the Unionist Party, with Sir Fazl-i-Husain, in 1923 with the aim of empowering the peasants politically. He took to electrical politics, and helped other deserving people to contest elections. In no time, he turned a `confused kisan' into a `confident Zamindar', no matter whether he held two bighas or 200 bighas. Moong mauth mein kaun bara, kaun chhota, he always said.

In the `Provincial Autonomy' era in the 1937 elections, the Unionist Party, thanks to the tireless efforts of that organizer-par-excellence – Sir Chhotu Ram - won the election and became the ruler of Punjab and continued to be there till 1945. He got passed `Golded Laws' for the empowerment of the peasants and workers against usuary, exploitation and so forth. The `Peasant' became the `King'.

In 1940s, the communal forces wanted to divide India on communal lines. Chhotu Ram stood like the rock of Gibraltar against the spear-header of that nefarious movement, Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and forced him to leave Punjab. The relentless struggle that he waged for the unity of India and upliftment of the weak and the fallen told upon his health. On 10 January, 1945, the `Hero of a hundred battles' fell to a fire-letter word – death'. An era came to an end.

K. C. Yadav Professor, Historian, Author, based in Gurgaon

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