Disclaimer- We are expecting a question in this year mains as the government has honored 10 freedom fighters from North-East India this year.
- Kanaklata Baruah
- Bhogeswari Phulkarni
- Rani Gaidinliu
- Kushal Konwar
- Moje Riba
- Gopinath Bordoloi
- Tirot Sing
- Shoorvir Pasaltha Khuangchera
- Matmur Jamoh
- Sambhudan Phonglo
“Martyrdom does not end anything, it only a beginning”. The axiomatic truth in the words of late Mrs. Indira Gandhi finds full reflection in the roles played by people of North-east in Indian freedom struggle.
Deep buried in oblivion, the tales of fortitude and indomitable spirit come alive only in the teachings of classrooms but fail to mesmerize posterity with inspiration. The teeming millions in the rest parts in India are not even aware about the sacrifice of these noble people from north-east, who laid down their lives for their motherland fighting against the British imperialism. Unfortunately, the brave daughters and sons from the soil of north-eastern states are yet to get recognition from the people of India for the courageous leadership in the battle of freedom against the British.
Let’s know about some of the legends who fought valiantly against British imperialism till their last drop of blood.
Bhogeswari Phukanani-
It was the year 1942 and her eyes were spewing venom as she marched along with other revolutionary during the turbulent time of ‘quit India movement’. Despite being a housewife and mother of eight children, she dared to attack and set free the office of Congress in Berhampur town of Assam. As the British police had laid a siege of the building, it was her exemplary courageous act with other revolutionaries that freed the building. On the auspicious occasion of “panchveer divas”, literally she and the revolutionaries added a golden leaf to the history of Indian freedom struggle. Born on 20th September 1885, this fifty-seven year old brave lost her life to the bullets of British Police while struggling for her life in the hospital for 20 days.
U. Tirot Singh:-
Anyone has heard about a war being fought between two groups of people, where the first group has guns, canons, and other sophisticated arms and ammunitions to strike the enemies quite from a distance, whereas the other group of people has only sticks, stones, spears, and swords. Yet, the people of the second group do not step back in trepidation but engage the fierce enemy in guerrilla warfare. This is the truth about a war, where the heavily armed British forces had an encounter with the tribal people of Khasi Hills.
The incident took place, when the British gained control of Brahmaputra valley but were in search of ways to connect Guwahati with Sylhet in Assam. Realizing Khasi hill would come in-between the two places, when the construction of the road gets started, they made a pact with the chief of the tribes in Khasi hills- U. Tirot Singh to get help in the completion of roadwork. But as it was customary with the British diplomacy, Tirot Singh was deceived in the end. Furious, he waged a war against the British that lasted for four years. Fighting bravely, Tirot Singh was ultimately captured as his followers died one-by-one. He was deported to Dhaka and jailed there till death.
Shoorvir Pasaltha Khuangchera
Every Indian is aware about great freedom fighters like Khudiram Bose, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Saheed Bhagat Singh but no one has heard about Shoorvir Pasaltha Khuangchera of Mizoram. Being the first Mizo leader, he fought with British forces in the year 1890, when they invaded Lushai Hills. As the British captured the hills, Pasaltha Khuangchera died, fighting to the last drop of his blood. Regarded as a deserving character for receiving Bharat Ratna posthumously, his bravery, strength, and righteousness find few parallels in the contemporary history of India.
Rani Gaidinliu
This fiery female leader in Indian freedom struggle gets often compared with Rani Laxmibai for her courageous acts during the days of freedom fighting. At a tender age of 16, she began a movement against the British imperialism demanding end of colonial rule and resurgence of Zeliangrong religion and Naga self-rule. The British administration captured her and she was sentenced to life imprisonment. The first Indian prime-minister and freedom fighter, Jawaharlal Nehru was amazed at her courage and will-power and gave her the title “Rani”. After independence, she was released from jail and continued her works for the poor and down-trodden in the same spirit and determination. She was awarded Padma Bhushan for her tireless efforts for the cause of Manipur people in North-east.
Kanaklata Baruah, 17, was shot dead by the Britishers in Assam’s present-day Biswanath district while going to hoist the natinal flag at a local police station. On the same day, about 150 km away at Barhampur in state’s Nagaon district, Bhogeswari Phukanani, a 57-year-old mother of eight, was killed for the same reason by the British Police.
Arunachal Pradesh’s freedom fighter Moje Riba will be honoured as he was the first person to hoist the tricolour at Dipa village in Arunachal Pradesh on August 15, 1947.Riba was arrested by British Police for participating in the Independence struggle and distributing pamphlets during the Quit India Movement.
The news related to it :-
Ten freedom fighters from the Northeast that include three women, who are largely unfamiliar to the rest of the country, will be honoured by the central government as part of the 70th Independence Day celebrations.
It is part of NDA government’s plans for visits by Union ministers to the birth places of ‘forgotten heroes’ and sites of freedom struggle to honour the bravehearts.
Kanaklata Baruah, 17, was shot dead by the Britishers at Gohpur in Assam’s present-day Biswanath district while going to hoist the national flag at a local police station. On the same day, about 150 km away at Barhampur in state’s Nagaon district, Bhogeswari Phukanani, a 57-year-old mother of eight, was killed for the same reason by the British Police.
Kanaklata was leading her group of unarmed villagers following Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India Movement when she was shot dead at Borangabari near Gohpur.
Bhogeswari and her colleague Ratnamala were leading a procession at Barhampur when they came face-to-face with police officer Captain Finish, who snatched the flag from Ratnamala.
When Bhogeswari saw it, she hit Captain Finish with the pole of the flag. A furious Captain Finish pulled out his revolver and fired at Bhogeswari, who succumbed to injuries.
Naga spiritual and political leader from Manipur Rani Gaidinliu will also be honoured as part of the “forgotten heroes” programme.
Ranima, as she was popularly and affectionately called, led a movement against the British colonialism in 1930s and the struggle soon turned into a battle to uproot British from Manipur and Nagaland.
She was in jail for 14 years and was released from jail only when India got independence in 1947.
Another freedom struggle hero of Assam, who will be honoured, is Kushal Konwar. He was hanged by the Britishers for derailment of a military train at Sarupathar in Golghat district in 1942.
Arunachal Pradesh’s freedom fighter Moje Riba will be honoured as he was the first person to hoist the tricolour at Dipa village in Arunachal Pradesh on August 15, 1947.
Riba was arrested by British Police for participating in the Independence struggle and distributing pamphlets during the Quit India Movement.
Assam’s first Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi will be honoured as it was due to his continuous fight that Assam remained with India after he foiled the design of Muslim League to include the Hindu-dominated state into East Pakistan during “grouping” scheme.
Tirot Sing, one of the chiefs of the Khasi people in the early 18th century will also be honoured.
Sing fought against British attempts to take over control of the Khasi hills.
He died on July 17, 1835 under house arrest in Dhaka.
Shoorvir Pasaltha Khuangchera, the first Mizo leader to fight Britishers in 1890, will also be honoured.
As the British invaded Lushai hills (Mizoram), Shoorvir died fighting them.
Matmur Jamoh was a freedom fighter from Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh who will be honoured.
Jamoh had killed a British assistant political officer Noel Williamson in 1911 as he did not like the British interference of people’s day-to-day life while his followers killed another British officer Gregeorson.
Jamoh was soon arrested and sent to Cellular jail in Andaman where he died in obscurity.
Freedom fighter from Assam’s Dimasa tribals Sambhudan Phonglo will also be honoured for his contribution during country’s freedom struggle.
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- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
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- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
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- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)