Rare documents of freedom struggle showcased in Patna

Various important documents relating to freedom struggle including 90 banned leaflets, pamphlets and handwritten letters written during freedom struggle (1922-1947) has been put on display here on the Bihar State Archives premises till August 30.

The display of these rare archival materials would be a part of the 65th Independence Day celebrations. The pamphlets such as “Desh Mitra , Khatta Mitha Chatni, Azadi ke Nuskhe (all 1930) Vandemataram, mother’s honour at stake, ‘Zalimo Kaa Zaalim’, ‘Angrezo kaa phoda’, ‘Mahatma Gandhi Pratap’ (all 1923) will be on display at the exhibition.

The political special file of 1923 mentions the lodging of a case against Sri Krishna Sinha and others during staging drama “Bharat Dudasha”. Each such banned pamphlets describe a lesser known facts about the freedom movement in Bihar.

Details about arrest of Anand Kumar Chakravorty, Kumud Vikas Rai, Surendra Nath Niyogi — authors of “Tarun Shakti” – are mentioned in the pamphlets.

Several objectionable articles written in various journals and newspapers were banned during freedom struggle in which “Navin Bharat”, “Mahavir”, “Yogi”, and “Purnia Mirror” are important.

Bihar state archives director Vijoy Kumar told TOI that there were many more such rare documents stored in the archives. All these documents can throw fresh light on the writings of the freedom struggle in Bihar. “These documents are not studied and researched. It needs proper documentation to keep our struggle alive”, Kumar said.

Some of the pamphlets are coded with different names in order to hide there contents. Bizarre names of pamphlets like “Kunti Viyog”, “Bihari Bandar Nacho”, “Nilirag Bhumi se”, “Zakhmi Jigar”, “jail ki Chaat”, “Vijay Sundari”, “Azadi kaa Chirag” and “Jago Bharatvaasi’ are a few which will be added to the list.

All these pamphlets contain important information about the plans during the freedom movement, said a source.

The list of such books, newspapers and journals are long. These should be documented for further research, the source added. Bihar’s cabinet secretary Ravi Kant will formally inaugurate exhibition on Friday.