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| patriot Shivaram Rajguru /english.newstracklive.com |
Driven by patriotism and intense anger over the misrule of the British Raj many freedom fighters took refuge in violence to deal with racist British officers and their cronies during the heyday of freedom struggle. Such revolutionaries sprang up across the north Indian states. Shivaram Hari Rajguru from Maharashtra, is known mainly for his involvement in the assassination of a British Raj police officer.
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| newsnation.in |
Born near Pune (Khed) on 24 August 1908 into Deshastha Brahman family to Parvati Devi and Harinarain Rajguru, with no parents, the 6 year old boy Rajguru and his brother were to take care of his family. However, he had his early education at Khed and later studied at New English High School at nana ka bara in Pune. He moved over to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures, but the visit brought a change in him. He got attracted toward the ideas of Indian revolutionaries
He became a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) that wanted free India to be ruled by Indians and were resolute to achieve their goal at any cost. Good at handling guns, Rajguru became a good marksman and could handle any guns well. Rajguru, like countless revolutionaries. believed that ''to deal with oppressive colonists, the nonviolent civil disobedience advocated by Mahatma Gandhi was a poor tool to deal with the obdurate British mind''. Violent and dishonest British Raj could be dealt with only by violence and this would make a dent in their morale.
To the young Indian mind Gandhi's Satyagraha that might be self-defeating would never yield desired impact on the foreign rulers. HSRA organization with active members, made their presence felt in many places as the frontline members of this group were inspiring Indians. The group being on the British radar, the Lahore Conspiracy Case (December 18, 1928) and the bombing of the Central Assembly Hall in New Delhi (April 8, 1929) were cases in point to terrorize the British.
Only free India became his watch word and Rajguru joined the group of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Chandeasekara Asad who were mostly operating in Punjab and UP with with Kanpur, Agra and Lahore as their headquarters.
They took part in the assassination of a British police officer, J. P. Saunders (?), at Lahore in 1928 a premeditated attack done to avenge the death of an eminent freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai who died a fortnight later after he had been hit by police while participating in a protest march against the Simon Commission. Their target was a wrong one.
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| Uninvited Simon go back was the main slogan. blogs.bls.uk |
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| Commission headed by Simon 1927. careerindia.com |
Above image: The Commission consisted of a group of seven members of the British Parliament under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon. It landed in the Indian subcontinent in 1928 to study constitutional reform in British India. there was no Indian member in the commission. Freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai who led a protest against the commission in Lahore, Punjab on October 30, 1928 had suffered a brutal police beating ordered by Police officer James Scott during the protest and died of his injuries eighteen days later on 17 November 1928...................
The public opinion was that Rai's death was mainly due to police brutality. Chandrashekhar Azad, Shivram Rajguru, Bhagat Singh and Jai Gopal were to plot the killing of British police officer John Saunders who purportedly ordered the lathi-charge On 17th December 1928, while Saunders came out of his office and started his motor-cycle, he was shot dead in front of the police headquarters at Lahore by Rajguru along with Sukhdev Thapar, who was the accomplice of the legendary Bhagat Singh. Rajguru was at large after the murder to avoid arrest. On his visit to Pune, Shivaram Rajguru ran out of luck and was finally arrested.
Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were then convicted of their crime and sentenced to death. Their real target was senior Police officer James Scott who had ordered his men to lathi-charge the protesting group against the Simon Commission (1928) that visited India to discuss Indian political reforms. That the commission did not include not even a single Indian member had made Indian leaders angry across India. It was yet another insult on the Indians by the Raj.
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| Rajguru, Bhagat Singh and Thapur .jagatgururampalji.org |
The three men and 21 other co-conspirators were tried under the provisions of a regulation that was introduced in 1930 specifically for that purpose. The Tribune in its front pages announced the executions of Rajguru and others were to be sent to the gallows on 24th March, Three activists were to be hanged a day earlier on 23 March 1931. They were cremated at Hussainiwala at the banks of the Sutlej river in the Ferozepur district of Punjab. Shivaram Rajguru was too young to die just only 22 years old at the time of his execution: he became a young martyr like Bhagat Singh.
Legacy: His birthplace of Khed. MH has since been renamed as Rajgurunagar in his honour. Rajguru Market, a shopping complex at Hisar, Haryana, was named in his honour in 1953. Based on an old article, 2018:
Legacy: His birthplace of Khed. MH has since been renamed as Rajgurunagar in his honour. Rajguru Market, a shopping complex at Hisar, Haryana, was named in his honour in 1953. Based on an old article, 2018:
