While the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Sri Dev Suman was celebrated on Sunday, many people especially those living in the urban areas of Uttarakhand are not well aware of the struggle undertaken by Suman against oppression of the people.
Born on May 25, 1916 in the village Jaul of Tehri Garhwal, Sri Dev Suman was the best known of a group of freedom fighters active in Tehri. He had his early education in Chamba and Tehri. In 1930 Suman was only 14 when he participated in the Salt Satyagraha in Dehradun. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 days imprisonment. Early in his life, he became a key organiser and agitator for civil rights in Tehri while serving as an editor and writer for several underground publications. He was one of the first proponents of the unity of the entire Uttarakhand. He was invited as a representative of the hills, to a conference held in February 1939 presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru in ludhiana. At this meet, he brought to the notice of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Vijay laxmi Pandit the tyrannies inflicted by the rulers of Tehri on the common people.
In 1942 Suman went to see Mahatma Gandhi in Wardha to seek his blessings for the Praja Mandal movement. On returning to Tehri he was arrested by the police who had been trailing him. He was barred from entering the state of Tehri and was arrested every time he tried to do so. But Suman had vowed to fight the autocratic monarchy in Tehri even at the cost of his life. On December 27 1943, when he was trying to enter the kingdom of Tehri he was stopped at Chamba, arrested and locked up in the Tehri jail. There he was subjected to inhuman tortures aimed at making him confess to his ‘crimes’ and apologise but he refused.
On February 21, 1944 Suman was tried for treason against the State and such was the terror of the ruler that no one came forward to defend him. He was his own defense and refuted all the charges levelled against him. In the prison he was mistreated in various manners and on May 3, 1944 Suman launched his historic indefinite fast in protest against the misbehaviour of the jail authorities. His condition started deteriorating and by July 11 he was critical. He was asked to end his fast and secure his freedom but he refused to do so. After more than two months on hunger strike Suman could no longer bear it and breathed his last, a martyr in the cause of freedom.