Struggle for Swaraj is Bharat’s Struggle for Selfhood

We have entered the 75th year of Independence now. In Hindi ‘Independence’ is ‘swa-tantra’. Most Indian languages have words with similar meaning. Swa-self or selfhood and tantra – our own system. Swaraj is the word used and stressed by Gandhiji – that is Swa – self-rule. Independence is not just being free from foreigners but having governance with pride. Swa is my selfhood, my pride. Without pride in self, we may have new government but not swa-raj, it is not swa-tantra.

To paraphrase the then RSS Sarsanghchaalak, Shri Golwalkar Guruji, we cannot copy any other country’s system or ‘tantra’. Then it is not Bharatiya ‘tantra’ – it is either a British tantra or Russian tantra etc. Swa-tantra means developing our own systems, building on our own knowledge bank to create our own systems based on our sense of ‘selfhood’. Deendayal Upadhyay called it ‘chiti’ of a nation – its innate spirit, its innate nature and that this ‘chiti’ of every nation defines their systems. Were our systems built on the ‘chiti’ of our ancient traditions and knowledge? We need to retrospect as we enter the 75th year of our freedom.

Did we truly have swa-tantra on 15th August that we were struggling for? Or was it just change of rulers who copied the same ‘tantra’ that British had left behind? Did this struggle for ‘selfhood’ begin with formation of Congress in 1885 or with First War of Independence in 1857?

J Nandakumar brings together this history of struggle for discovery of selfhood in his monograph – “Swaraj @75 – Bharat’s Stuggle for Selfhood”. According to him, we have only recently begun this struggle for selfhood that got suspended in 1947 after independence. A struggle that began the very day the invaders began attacking Bharat.

We are made to believe that Bharat’s fight for independence was relatively short, a north based, upper class elite non-violent political phenomenon. This book breaks this myth and tells us that the fight was a long one, even pre-dated 1857, it was nation-wide, across all sections of the society and it was not just political but multi-dimensional that covered education and all the aspects of culture too. It was a manifestation of fight for ‘Swa’ (national soul or collective selfhood).

For the present we will not talk about Islamic invasions that the leftist historians don’t consider as outsiders and not discuss the Hindu resistance to them that is covered in this book. If we take only western Christian powers’ colonialism as the starting point, we know that the major colonial invasions were from Portugal, Dutch, French followed by the British; with a few minor attempts by other European countries too; we find that the counter to them was immediate.

In the Battle of Colachel led by Marthand Varma Dutch were defeated comprehensively in 1741. The blow was so terrible and disastrous that Dutch never recovered; and finally left Bharat in early 19th century, selling their territory to the British. This battle is shown as a minor skirmish by colonial historians and their faithful copycat historians of India.

Thus, the battle against colonial powers began right back in 1741 followed by many such wars, minor and major, against the Portuguese, French and the British. The writer takes us through the first Anglo-Maratha war of 1775-82 to the third war in 1817-19 followed by two Anglo-Sikh wars of 1845-46 and 1848-49. He then reminds of Sanyasi revolution of 1763 to 1800, a sustained battle that was the basis of the immortal novel ‘Anand Math’ that gave us the immortal national song ‘Vande Mataram’. He tells us that Kumbh Mela of 1856 was the site where the plans of 1857 War of Independence were made.

Then, the writer takes us back to sustained resistance in South – beginning with Raja of Vizianagaram (1794), Dhundia in Bednur, (1799-1800), Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (1797, 1800-1805) and the great march of Velu Tambi Dalawa in 1809. There were more incidents like Poligars revolution, Khasi uprising, Ahom revolution (1828), Sighphos rebellion, Khond uprising, Kuka movement, the Pagal Panthis, Ramoshi uprising, Santhal revolution, Bhil revolution leading up to uprising of the military in 1857 and so on.

Even after crushing of 1857 uprising the urge for swaraj did not die down. From “Society for the promotion of national feelings among educated natives of Bengal promoted by Brahmo Samaj leaders, Hindu Mela of Kolkota, Abhinav Bharat of Veer Savarkar, Anusheelan Samiti and Jugantar, many organizations sprang up – both revolutionary believing in use of force and non-violent ones.

In these series of events, Congress was founded by an English man in 1885. People are well aware of the Congress role in freedom struggle. Infact that is the only struggle most of us have been taught in the schools. That is also covered in this book.

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) was established by Ram Prasad Bismil as a revolutionary party in 1923. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose founded Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) in 1941 and decided to liberate Bharat from the British by taking support from Axis powers.

There were Indians who had settled down outside Bharat or went especially out of Bharat to fight for the freedom of Bharat. Shyamji Krishna Verma became the guardian of all the Indians who came to Britain to plan throwing off the yoke of British. He founded the Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS) was an Indian organization founded in London in 1905. His India House became the hub of all such activities. He took care of students who had actually with freedom as their goal.

J Nandakumar, the writer of this condensed ‘hand-book’ of Bharat’s quest for selfhood and ‘swaraj’ succeeds in highlighting that Bharat never gave up during those dark centuries. It was not just a struggle for gaining political independence, but also a struggle for rediscovering ‘swa’ – the selfhood, re-establishing the pride of the ancient nation that covered education, culture and spiritual aspect of our nation’s personality.

This book is an excellent resource for people who wish to research and rebuild the entire narrative of our quest for swaraj.