A lesson taught by History
by Mahesh Bhagnari

People who forget history are the one who repeat it. History teaches us the lesson that the mistakes commited by the people in past should be avoided. It also shows us where we have come from because if we don't know from where we have come then how will we know where we have to go.

The establishment of British rule in India was a prolonged process involving peicemeal conquest and consolidation. Needless to say this process produced discontent, resentment and resistance at every stage.

A series of rebellions during the first 100 years of British rule were often led by disposed Rajas, Nawabs or uprooted Zamindars and landlords. The backbone of the rebellion was formed by peasents, ruined artisans, demobilized soldiers and discontent people. These rebellions were generally localised involving armed bands of a few hundreds to several thousands.

The civil rebellions began as British rule was gradually established in Bengal and Bihar and occurred in area after area as it was incarporated into colonial rule. There was hardly an year without an armed rebellion in one part of the country or other. From 1763 to 1856 there were more than forty major and hundreds of minor rebellions.

Disposed peasents and demobilized soldiers of Bengal were the first to rise up in Sanyasi rebellions, made famous by Bankim Chandra Chaterjee in his novel 'Anand Math', that lasted from 1763 to 1800. It was followed by Chura uprising lasting from 1766 to 1772. Other major rebellions in Eastern India were those in Rangpur and Dinjapur in 1783, Bishnupur and Birbhumin in 1799, Orissa in 1804 to 1817, and Sambalpur in 1827 to 1840.

In South India the Raja of Vizanagram revolted in 1794, the 'Poligars' of Tamil Nadu in the 1790's, of Malabar of Andhra Pradesh in 1900's, of Parlekamedi in 1833, Dewan Velu Thampi of Travancore revolted in 1805, the peasents of Mysore revolted in 1830-31, and there were more revolts in Vizagapatnam from 1830 to 1834, Ganjan in 1835, and in Kurnool in 1846.

In Western India the chiefs of Saurashtra rebelled repeatedly between 1816 to 1832, the Kolisof Gujarat between 1824-28. The region covered by Maharashtra was pertually in the state ofrevolt after the fall of Peshwas. Prominent was the Bhil uprising from 1818 to 1831, the Kittur uprising 1824, the Satara uprising in 1841, and the Gadkaris in 1844.

In North India there were revolts as in Bilaspur in 1805, aligarh in 1814-17, Bundelas of Jabalpur in 1842, and the second Punjab war in 1848.

The biggest revolt was the one in 1857 instigated by Mangal Pandey and later led by Bahadur Shah, Rani of Jhansi, Nana Saheb, Kunwar Singh and Tantia Tope amonst others.

Powerful newspapers emerged, after the period of revolt of 1857, under the distinguished and fearless journalists. 'Amrita Bazar Patrika' was started by Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh in 1868, followed by 'Hindu' and 'Sswadesamitran' by G. Subramaniyam Iyer, 'Kesari' and 'Mahratta' by B. G. Tilak, 'Bengalee' by Surendranath Banerjee, 'Sudharak' by G.K. Gokhale, 'Indian Mirror' by N. N. Sen, 'Voice of India' by Dadabhai Naoroji, and many more.

With all the newspapers there was a politicization and unification of opinion of the educated, arousing strong feeling of nationalisation. People began to see themselves as unified, sharing collective identification having a common outlook, prespective, sense of purpose and even common feeling.

In the end it was only the united effort creating a mass movement which ultimately forced the British Government to grant freedom to India.

The lesson to be learnt here is that UNITED EFFORT CAN BRING ABOUT A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE. Any change can be brought about when MEN OF CHARACTER, CALIBER, INTELLECT, KNOWLEDGE, VISION, DEDICATION come together on a common platform and coordinate their voice, effort and action.

At the last count there are about 295 groups having more than 10,000 members at Yahoo! dedicated:
To cleaning up India's politics, government, economy, and social structure and with the purpose of transforming India for better.
DELIBERATE AND TAKE ACTION.
To Judicial and Legal Reforms in INDIA.
FIGHT CORRUPTION in INDIA.
To serve their nation through an objective, independant and pre-sumptionless thinking in an effort to find the practicable solutions to vital issues of the country, which is hampering the socio-economic growth of the country.

and believe that the country needs fundamental changes in polity and that our generation must play its role in bringing about such changes.

This is an appeal to all the people of such groups to unite and come to a common platform to make our voices louder, actions coordinated and effort united.