Independence-62

One more Independence day passes by. I hate this year’s independence day because it fell on a weekend. I lost a holiday (break from job), which is my birthright. As years passes
I-day becomes more and more irrelevant for us. Ever since getting into a US based company, I have started following the independence day of USA because it is also kind of another holiday I don’t know if I-day makes any difference to me be it in US or India.
After 62 years has the relevance of our I-day reduced to that of any other holiday.

Basheer came into contact with Gandhi when he was doing his high school. At that time Kerala had a very unusual law by which low caste were prevented from entering any temple. Against this inhumane act some prominent people started an agitation. Gandhi came down to Kerala in support of this agitation.
Basheer was not in to politics then. He went to the lake side out of curiosity. Thousands and thousands lined up on the shores to get a glimpse of this great man. When the boat carrying Gandhi came near the shore atmosphere was filled with ‘Bharath Matha ki jai’ and ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki jai’. Basheer in his boyish desperation wanted to touch Gandhi. As the car carrying Gandhi passed by he desperately jumped to the side he lost balance and so he caught on to Gandhi in order not to fall down. Gandhi smiled at him.

Gandhi called Indians to break the salt law peacefully. By salt Satyagraha Gandhi meant the beginning of end of all the injustice meted out at Indians.
Gandhi declared ‘Either I will achieve what I demanded or my dead body will float in the sea.’
This statement was enough to shock the ordinary Indians in to actions. Thousands of people from different parts of country including men, women and children marched in to the seashore on the auspicious day. Irrespective of the caste and creed people from all over the country participated in the Satyagraha. But similar to places all over India police was waiting with boots, lathis and bayonets. Peaceful protesters were mercilessly beaten. Small children lay on the beaches with heads broken by the horse hooves and ribs by the lathis.
This incident provoked the consciousness of the ordinary people.


Basheer was an ordinary boy. He came from an ordinary Muslim family and at that time Muslims had not been drawn much into the struggle. Basheer saw the charisma and passion around. He was pretty sure that his country was about to be set free and he wanted to play a role in that. But he was just a boy.
One afternoon as his mother was cooking his lunch, he asked her for a glass of water. After glancing at his mother, he left the house to sacrifice his life for the cause of freedom. He reached a town from where he wrote a letter to a friend who was a known freedom fighter..
He got a reply soon ‘I am in the jail now. You stay there and don’t do anything or go anywhere until I am released’.
Meanwhile Basheer’s parents had started searching for him.


Basheer didn’t want to wait for his friend. So in a hurry he went to the Congress office and asked for a membership. He was met with some apprehension because Muslims rarely joined the Congress.
He was standing in the office of congress secretary while the scrutiny was being made. He went out to take a piss when the secretary saw his diary. On seeing the scribbling in Arabic the doubts doubled. Basheer could probably turn out to be an informer.
‘Are you really a Muslim?’
‘Yes’
‘Are you ready to come with us tomorrow for breaking the salt law?’
The next day morning Basheer along with others got ready to march at the sea. But he never got a chance to do so. The early morning he was surprised to see a bunch of police officers barge in to their room and arrest them.


On reaching the station, Basheer for the first time saw the bayonets and lathis lined up on the wall. He felt like his courage being drained away. One by one the arrested men were taken up into a room and beaten. Basheer stopped counting after it reached twenty. The next day he couldn’t get up or walk. A fellow fighter massaged him with oil.
He was sentenced to 3 years into prison. The prison was a small room with a small jug full of urine in one corner. As lunch they got worm infested broth. They had to remove the worms before eating it.


Gandhi Irvin pact was signed months later. All the political prisoners were released. Basheer didn’t know where to go or what to do. He had one purpose in life now. To kill the officer who beat him up brutally in the lock up. But he had no option of obtaining a weapon. He stole a pen knife from the motel he was staying.
That was when he met Achuthan. Achuthan was surprised Basheer hadn’t gone back home after being released. Achuthan talked with Basheer. Basheer revealed his secret desire for vengeance.
‘Then why do you claim to be a satyagrahi.’
Achuthan told him sufferings the freedom fighters had to go through. He narrated the story of how the Mahatma lost a tooth. Achuthan explained to Basheer that police was another helpless tool in the hands of this corrupt and oppressive regime. He persuaded Basheer to go home and paid him the bus fare.
But Basheer was still unwilling to do so. He was too ashamed to face his parents. One night he finally made his decision. He walked to his home in the midnight.
He saw light in his home
‘Who is that?’ his mother called out.
When she saw Basheer asked him as if nothing had happened ‘Have you eaten anything son?’
She set out the table for him.
‘Ma how did you know I will be coming today?’
‘No son I was waiting every night for you’. She waited every night for him, for months.

Our present life of abundance is embedded with past full of sacrifice and deprivation and loss by innumerable ordinary men and their families.

So when skinny NRI babes in USA celebrates our I day wearing bikinis spotting our tri colors, I believe that would be the best way to remember our freedom fighters who had to spent the lion’s share of their youth in lock up with no much food and clothes. Anyways these girls also have made us proud of our tri colors and identified themselves with the freedom struggle.

Bharath Matha ki Jai!!!!!







Basheer later became one of the greatest writers in Malayalam- Vaikkom Mohammad Basheer

This post is a rough translation of the short story of the great writer ‘Mother’