A distant relative of freedom fighter Khudiram Bose expressed ‘sorrow’ over the stand of previous governments in ‘intentionally’ ignoring the contribution of several unsung freedom fighters who failed to secure their place in the history books.
Speaking to News18.com, Khudiram Bose’s distant relative, Colonel (Retd) Siddharatha Bose said, “My earnest request to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct the education ministry to highlight the contribution of freedom fighters like Khudiram, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Baba Kala Singh, Mohan Kishore Namadas in school curriculum.”
“You show the iconic picture of Khudiram in custody of British soldiers, I am sure no children or even the youths will be able to recognise him. On contrary to this, they will instantly recognise the pictures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi. This is not their fault. This was intentionally done (post independence) to highlight only a few politicians in school textbooks. This is unfortunate. I think now it’s time that our Prime Minister should pay some attention in this regard,” he said.
He further said, “Don’t you think it’s unfortunate that still most of the school textbooks are referring to the Mughals as ‘Great’. What kind of education we are giving to our students. Mughals were never great. It is shameful that we are still maintaining ‘Akbar the Great’ in school curriculum. They were invaders. I think the present government should rethink on its new education policy to include chapters on forgotten heroes.”
Siddhartha Bose, served the Indian Army for more than three decades, revealed that Khudiram Bose’s belongings were kept in a steel box in a house in Konnagar in Hooghly district in Bengal but it went missing long years back.
“It is my personal request to all. If anyone has any knowledge about that box please let it be known to the ministry concerned so that it can be displayed in the museum,” he added.
He also expressed dismay over how grandniece of freedom fighter Prafulla Chandra Chaki (Khudiram’s friend and freedom fighter), Madhabi Talukdar was forced to live in a roadside shanty made of tin and plastic sheets after she lost her husband at Gangarampur in West Bengal’s South Dinajpur district .
Even PM Modi believed several important aspects of the country’s history were overlooked by historians who wrote about it after Independence without delving deeply into the subject.
During his visit to Kolkata on January 11, 2020, PM Modi had said, “It is unfortunate that during the British rule and even after independence, the history that was written while overlooking several important chapters.
On the contribution of many freedom fighters which were not highlighted as much as it should be, he had said, “To honour the Bengali freedom fighters, a museum should be established. I think it should be called ‘Biplobi Bharat’ museum in which Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rash Bihari Bose, Khudiram Bose, Deshbandhu (Chittaranjan Das), Bagha Jatin (Jatindranath Mukherjee), Binoy (Binoy Krishna Basu), Badal (Badal Gupta), Dinesh (Dinesh Gupta), every great freedom fighters like them should be given a place.”
Earlier, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) corrected the 8th class history textbook which has referred to freedom fighters Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki as ‘revolutionary terrorists’.
Then, the matter was raised by CPI(M) MLA Pradip Saha in the Assembly who expressed his shock over the text of the History book which says that Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki were part of ‘revolutionary terrorism’.
A review committee, headed by TMC legislator Jiban Mukhopadhyay, was formed in July last year after Saha’s complaint to undertake the necessary changes in the textbook. The committee said the word ‘terrorism’ might send a wrong message to the students.
State board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly had said that the changes have been made and books have been republished after the suggestions of the review committee.
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