During a recent quiz conducted in Bangalore for school children, the participants identified freedom fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan from a photograph as Amitabh Bachchan! The children probably didn’t recognise him, since he hasn’t yet been portrayed by any Bollywood movie. This isn’t an isolated incident. And 75 per cent of the kids had ‘learnt’ of these freedom fighters from movies! So Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Rajguru have been popularised, thanks to the actors in Rang De Basanti. Similarly for Mangal Pandey and Bhagat Singh.

By and large, the general public have not remembered the ‘blood of the martyred sons’ and the poignant lyric of the patriot Ram Prasad Bismal: Shahidon Ki Chitaon Par Lagenga Har Baras Mela, Vatan Par Marne Walon Ki Yehi Bagi Nishan Hoga (The annual fairs celebrating the patriot’s martyrdom, shall be the symbols of their sacrifice), has not came true. Sixty two years after freedom, we do not find (with the exception of Kolkata) in any city of India a memorial hall devoted solely to the heroes and their deeds.

“Nana Sahib Peshwa’s uniform at a London Museum,” “Emperor Bahadur Shah’s grave in a corner of Rangoon”, “ Netaji Bose’s ashes at a Buddhist temple in Japan”, “Maulvi Ali’s (a hero of the 1857 struggle) head pickled and kept as an exhibit in the Royal College of Surgeons in London”… these news items are symbolic of the scant regard we have paid to those martyrs who gave up their lives for India’s freedom and there is no major nation in the world, which has paid so little attention to its saga of freedom struggle as India. It was only in 1972, 25 years after freedom, that some efforts were made to recognize the sacrifices these brave Indians had made for the nation.

According to the Government of India, as on January 2008, there were 1,24,870 Indians, who are on the rolls, as having qualified for the Tamrapatra (the bronze plate) – the signal honour of having participated in the Independence struggle. Under the rules, to get a Tamrapatra/pension meant for freedom fighters, one has to submit proof that he spent a minimum of six months in jail or was involved in underground activities during the British rule. Pensions to freedom fighters are given under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension (SSSP) scheme, which was introduced in 1972. The original figure in 1972 was 165000 and in 1980 the Government of India issued a list of 32 movements \ mutinies \ articles \ conspiracies recognised  under the SSSP. 

In August 1980, the freedom fighter pension rule was relaxed further, making their dependants eligible for the benefits in the event of the death of the ‘heroes of the freedom struggle’. With the dearness allowance added to the basic monthly pensions, the total monthly pension of former Andaman political prisoners in 2009 would be Rs 11,581 per month; freedom fighters who suffered outside British India (other than INA) would be getting Rs 10,791 and other freedom fighters would receive a pension of Rs 10,001. In addition, all would receive a sum per month, varying from Rs 1000 to Rs 4000 (depending on the particular state) as the nation’s way of expressing gratitude for their sacrifices. Besides pension, the freedom fighters, in recognition of their rich contribution in the freedom struggle, are given free railway travel coupons and telephone facilities at subsidised rates and facilities for free medicare at various government hospitals across the country.

In fact, there is a joint secretary in the Government of India to handle the desk for freedom fighters. The contribution of the Central Government alone in 2006-2008 towards the SSSP was 440 crores. The all-India figure of such beneficiaries stood at 1,24,870 till January 2008, and the number was the highest in Bihar at 24, 870 beneficiaries. After Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh came second and third respectively, in terms of the number of pension beneficiaries list, with 22,484 and 17,990 freedom fighters and their dependants getting financial assistance.

But many historians feel that that this figure of 1,24,870 is a highly inflated one, as in the past 62 years, many political parties, when in power in Centre/States, began to dilute the requirements to suit the needs of their party members. For example, as per the Supreme Court appointed one-man Commission in 2000, headed by Justice AB Palkar, all 298 SSSP pensioners from Beed District of Maharashtra, who were accorded the status of freedom fighers during the rule of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government in the state (1995-99), were declared as bogus, as many of them were not even born in 1947! The one man committee recommended that they will have to return the citations given to them. Besides, all other benefits, such as monthly pension, free rail and bus passes, a job to their next kith and kin and financial assistance of Rs 5,000 in an event of serious ailment, should be terminated.

The year 2009 has been a sad year for the nation as two of the oldest of the great patriots passed away. One was the last known survivor of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, Shingara Singh, who died in June 2009 at the age of 113. He was 23 years old when he was wounded in the massacre in 1919! Another was the last surviving member of the Ghadar party, Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, popularly known as Baba Bilga, who passed away in May 2009 in Britain, while staying with his son. He was 102 .

As such, as on Independence Day 2009, 104-year-old Mata Satyawati Devi is the oldest of the remnants of the heroes/ heroines who sacrificed everything to free India from the British yoke. Satyavatiji is the mother of former vice president late Krishna Kant, who passed away in 2002. Her husband Lala Achint Ram was a prominent nationalist, who had the distinction of being a founder-member of the Servant of People’s Society, along with the Punjab-Kesari Lala Lajpat Rai. Satyavatiji still spins her charkha every day and when her son Krishan Kant was alive, she would present him annually with clothes woven from the cotton spun by her.

Dhananjaya Bhat