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Gandhi buri, is this what you took notice of? Thankfully you did and you should actually as we Indians tend to call ourselves the “know it all”, while a lot of the nation’s freedom movement activists are yet to see the light of the day!
Gandhi buri (Bengali word depicting old lady Gandhi) is no other than Matangini Hazra, an Indian revolutionary who was an active participant in the Indian Freedom Movement and yes also a martyr to the bullets shot by the Britishers in her times.
Amazed? There are more surprises awaiting for you here from a woman who can indeed be called one of her kind with the kind of courage and determination she showcased in the face of terror the Britishers imposed onto the Indian people in those times.
Ever happened to have noticed the tableaux showing the freedom struggle where there’s is often the representation of an old woman with white hairs, carrying the national flag and leading a crowd of thousands of Indians? Yes that indeed is the great freedom fighter of the nation, a hero in her own rights, Matangini Hazra!
The early life of Matangini Hazra, the Gandhi buri, as she was called!
While not much is known to us about her early life, but evidences say that this brave lady and daughter of India was born to a poor peasant family in a small village in Hogla, Tumluk in the then Midnapore district of West Bengal, India. Without having any kind of formal education, given her background, she was married off pretty early at a very petty age to a rich and old widowed man of 62! As destiny had it, Matangini was widowed at an age of just eighteen when she went back to her father’s house and later moved in outside.
While after she was widowed, she was known to be a kind lady who used to help people in distress but something changed in her life way later, and yes maybe that is why we are here talking about her today!
The rise of Matangini as a hero of Indian Freedom Movement
It was in the year 1905 that the spirit and the trigger of interest rose in the lady about the Indian independence movement as a Gandhian, but the final spark was yet to be!
It was on the 26th of January, 1932 that a procession was passing by her village mostly consisting of men shouting out slogans about the Indian freedom movement. When the procession was passing by her hut, she came out of the confines of her home and joined the same promising herself that she would serve the nation till her death, and she did it with élan if not less! Do you have any idea when she joined the freedom movement what her age was? It was SIXTY TWO! It was a strong yet momentous decision for sure but she stuck to it with total fortitude and extreme faith till her end.
A woman in her times, from a small village of West Bengal, her determination and courage were unparallel.
In the same year, 1932, Matangini Hazra took an active part in the Non Cooperation Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and was arrested among many others for breaking the Salt Act made by the Britishers, but thankfully was released pretty soon. However, Matangini’s spirit to get a free India was not sufficed until she did everything she could and thus she started her protest against the abolition of the taxes levied by the Britishers on the common Indians. Yes, she was arrested yet again and was confined behind the bars in Baharampur district in West Bengal for a period of six full months before she was released. She is also known to be the woman who managed to slip through a heavy police cover and hoist the Indian National flag over the Tamluk court before she could be caught and beaten up by the authorities.
After her release, Matangini Hazra actively joined the Indian National congress and took to Khadi spinning on her own, even when her eyesight was not that great and wore it too and was also a part of the sub divisional Congress conference at Sreerampore in the year 1933 where she was gravely injured in a baton charge by the British policemen as well!
But, the unknown hero Matangini did not learn to give up and continued her struggle for the freedom of our nation! Incredible, isn’t it? In the times when widow marriage and the freedom of speech for women in India were something unheard of, she was a stall worth in the freedom fight in her own rights!
The Quit India Movement & Matangini Hazra!
As a part of the strategy the members of the Congress planned was to take over the various police stations in the Midnapore district along with the other government offices in the vicinity. This according to them was a step to overthrowing the Britishers from the region and establishing an independent district of their own.
Matangini Hazra, the powerhouse that she was rose into action, at the age of 73, and led a crowd of six thousand freedom fighters from the front, but while they were about to reach the outskirts of the region, they were stopped by the police officials under the Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code of the times. As Matangini took stand and came to the fore, the first bullet entered her body as she was trying to request the police not to fire on the crowd. After that, she was repeatedly shot while her last words were- “Vande Mataram” which means “hail to the Motherland”. While she was dying, this old lady made sure that the Indian National Flag was held high and still flying with élan as she breathed her last on the street…
That was, the great freedom fighter of India, Matangini Hazra, whom you conveniently choose to ignore!
Apologies will be demeaning the sacrifice that she made for the nation and whatever we do… Just remember her in your memories women of today and men of the generation…if one can fight and die at the old age of 73, what did you do at 37?
Think about it….
Till then..SALTUTE TO THE GANDHI BURI# REPECT# EXAMPLE OF GRIT AND DETERMINATION! LEAD ON!
Salute this hero by sharing with your friends
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