On September 14th Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a trip to Aligarh to lay the foundation stone of a university named after Raja Mahendra Pratap, a Jat icon and yet another freedom fighter who did not get his due during earlier regimes. Whether it was the quest for the 17 percent Jat vote in the state that is set to go to polls early next year, or part of the BJP’s larger game plan to rediscover and honour leaders other than those belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty; it was a recognition that was long overdue. As Mahendra Pratap’s great-grandson Charat Pratap Singh told the media, when he first heard about the project, “Der Aaye Durusth Aaye” (better late than never). Although Charat added that for the family it was not about politics, but giving respect where it is due, one cannot ignore the fact that all this is happening against the backdrop of a largely Jat lead farmers’ agitation in Western Uttar Pradesh; and that too a few months before the UP polls.
But back to the larger point. Without going into the current debate of cancel culture and rewriting history textbooks, there has been a glaring omission as to how some of our greatest freedom fighters have not been given their due honour. Take Raja Mahendra Pratap’s case for instance— he was an alumnus of the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental Collegiate School which now has been renamed as the Aligarh Muslim University. Influenced by the speeches of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Dadabhai Naoroji, he became entrenched in the Swadeshi movement and declared a jihad against the British rule, leading to the British declaring a bounty on his head. In 1915, he set up the first Provisional Government of India in Afghanistan as its President. This served as the Indian Government in exile during World War I from Kabul in 1915. In fact, as PM Modi told us at the event, it was after consultation with other revolutionaries and freedom fighters, Lala Hardiyal and Shyamji Krishna Varma that he went to Afghanistan. Later he also established the Executive Board of India in Japan in 1940.
Back in India, he contested the Lok Sabha elections in 1957 from Mathura defeating the Jan Sangh’s Atal Behari Vajpayee. Known for his social reform and his work for the downtrodden, he was also deeply influenced by Gandhiji and a firm believer in non-violence. Raja Mahendra Pratap was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1932. He also donated a sizeable chunk of land to his alumni the AMU in 1929. (Later in 2019 the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had asked that the university be renamed after the late Jat leader).
There is a reason for this digression into his bio data, because as I mentioned earlier, not much is known about the Jat King and freedom fighter. It is only now, after the Modi government decided to honour him that the media reached out to his family, and of course the internet, to find out what they could about this legendary personality. I have to confess, I have a personal reason for doing the same. Mahendra Pratap’s great grand-daughter, Meeta Pratap studied with me at the Welhams Girls’ School in Dehradun. For seven years we shared a dorm, discussed Doscos & Daphne Du Maurier, fudged our maths books, and mugged our history books. But, we were never told about the role that one of our classmate’s great grandfather played in our freedom struggle; and I am sure many like him are left languishing on the sidelines of history. Many more that we need to remember, honour and thank.
As readers of this column know I have often disagreed with the Prime Minister, but he has a point when he says there are so many who have struggled and sacrifised for our country but it is unfortunate that the ‘Gen Next’ is not told about their struggle and their stories. He has also promised that his government will make an `imaandar’ (honest) attempt to give these leaders their due. As he added, it is important for any youth who dreams big to know about Raja Mahendra Pratap for he spent every moment of his life in service of our country, first during the freedom struggle and later on through his philanthropy. Given that this is the 75th year of our independance, one hopes that many other such iconic stalwarts would be given their long overdue prominence and rescued from the dust of history.