Seventy one long years ago, on this very day, Uttarakhand’s great martyr, Sridev Suman, gave up his life while fighting for civil rights in the princely Tehri state. He died on July 25, 1944 after he had undertaken a fast unto death to protest against the ghastly conditions in the Tehri prison where he was an inmate.
In 1942 at the height of tax protests, Suman and many other activists were jailed. late in 1943, he was tried for treason and jailed again. The terrible conditions of Tehri’s prisons made him lead a fast unto death in protest. After 84 days, he died a martyr’s death, inspiring a generation of activists to take up the banner of liberation that eventually toppled the princely State.
He put up a brave fight against the King of Tehri who was called “Bolanda Badri” (speaking Badrinath) and demanded complete freedom for Tehri. Besides being a great freedom fighter and revolutionary, Suman was also a teacher, writer and social reformer of the highest order.
Suman had also participated in the Quit India Movement and was sent to Agra jail.
On 30 December 1943, he was declared a rebel and arrested. In Tehri jail, Suman was tortured. After being in prison for 209 days, and on hunger strike for 84 days, Suman died. His body was thrown into the Bhilangana river without a funeral.
Born in 1916, Suman was largely self-taught. He became a key organiser and agitator for civil rights in Tehri while serving as an editor and writer for several underground presses. He was instrumental in the formation of several organisations, from the Himalaya Seva Sangh, to the Himalayan States People’s Federation and Garhdesh Seva Sangh.
Famous environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna vividly remembers his first encounter with Suman. Says Bahuguna, “I could know about Gandhi when I was a High School student at the age of 13. My inquisitiveness to know about a strangely dressed young man, who was dressed neither like the officers of the state nor like the poor subjects with loin cloth, but was putting on white Khadi cap, Kurta, Jacket, dhoti and chappal, inspired me to chase him….He had a small box in one hand and a bag in another hand. I guessed he must be somebody like an archer, who had demonstrated his feats in archery and we were so much impressed that we left going to the school for some days and followed him. The idea came to my mind that his small box must contain something of our interest. I along with a few friends asked, what are you carrying in your small boxIJ’ He very gently replied, ‘come I will show you’. He sat under a banyan tree, opened the box and demonstrated his feat. He was spinning yarn. looking at this new wonder, we said, ‘It may take you a year to produce yarn sufficient for a shirt’, He promptly replied, “whether I get enough yarn for my shirt or not, Gandhi says that we can end the British rule and become
independent, if every Indian starts spinning.”
Asked the young Sunderlal, ‘What else does Gandhi sayIJ How can a spinning wheel bring freedom’. Suman said, “if you want to know more, you can buy these small booklets.” Bahuguna spent the whole amount of six annas, which his mother had given me for a week’s breakfast on three small booklets. One was by Gandhi – How to achieve SwarajIJ Other was of national songs and the A Word to Young Men by Prince Kroptkin.
Suman was 25 then. He had become Gandhi’s follower at the age of 15. Bahuguna was inspired by him to become a Gandhian. “Our small group could manage to get a spinning wheel, Gandhi’s autobiography and some other books. We were cautious not to be detected, so we practised spinning and study of Gandhi’s autobiography in the cemetery,” remembers Bahuguna.
Sridev Suman’s life is a saga of suffering in the cause of freedom, fighting against the tyranny of the rulers. After his early education in Chamba and Tehri, he started teaching at Hindu National School in Dehradun.
In 1930 when he was only 14 he participated in the Salt Satyagraha. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment. In 1938, he came in contact with Zakir Hussain and Kaka Kalelkar.
The bravery displayed by thousands of people of the region during the Uttarakhand movement was definitely inspired by the life of Sridev Suman who is always remembered by people of the Devbhumi as “Amar Shaheed”.