Many people paid tribute to Sri Dev Suman at his memorial in Jaul Gaon, the martyr’s ancestral village, in Tehri Garhwal on his birth anniversary on Monday. A havan was also held in his remembrance. later, a symposium was held on the life of the legend. The chief guest Sushil Bahuguna said that his relentless struggle and supreme sacrifice had emancipated the people of Garhwal from the tyrannical rule of the royals before Independence.
Mast Ram Badoni, the martyr’s nephew, said that his uncle was dignity incarnate. “We are now aware of our rights and are ready to fight for them courtesy the struggle Sri Dev Suman personified,” he added.
Eminent environmentalist Sunder lal Bahuguna appealed to the people to pledge to make the hills lush green again by way of remembering the legendary Sri Dev Suman. He said that the hills are being denuded at most places, resulting in landslides and land erosion, going on apace.
In a statement issued here, Bahuguna expressed concern over the rivers washing away large chunks of fertile top soil from the bare hills. This trend must be curbed on time, he said. This is possible only through covering the river catchment area with dense blanket of trees.
He exhorted the farmers based in the hills to go for tree cultivation instead of the cultivation of the traditional crops. He has also coined a slogan to save the hills — “Dhar Ench Paani, Dhal Par Dala, Bijli Banawa Khala Khala’’ (the water on the hills be harnessed at the slopes to produce electricity at every nullah).
The legendary environmentalist asked the youth to be inspired by Sri Dev Suman who used to ask them to join him for the sake of motherland instead of selling themselves out for a few pieces of silver.
Sri Dev Suman was born on 25 May, 1916 in the village Jaul of Tehri Garhwal. After his early education in Chamba and Tehri, he started teaching at Hindu National School in Dehradun in 1932. He plunged himself headlong into civil rights movement in Tehri while serving as an editor and writer for several underground presses. When he was only 14 he participated in the Salt Satyagraha in Dehradun. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment.
He was one of the few who championed the cause of the emotional and territorial unity of Uttarakhand.
At a convention, he drew the attention of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Vijay laxmi Pandit to the plight of the people under the oppressive rule of the royal family of Tehri. He was invited as a representative of the hill states to a conference held in February 1939, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, in ludhiana.
In 1942, Suman met Mahatma Gandhi in Wardha to seek his blessing for the Praja Mandal movement. On his return to Tehri, he was arrested by police. He was stopped from entering the State of Tehri and was arrested every time he tried to do so. But Suman was not one to cower before such pressure. He vowed to fight the autocratic regime in Tehri even if that threatened his life.
On 27 December 1943, when he was on his way to enter Tehri he was stopped at Chamba and was arrested. He was locked up in Tehri jail on 30 December. He was asked to confess his crimes and apologise. But he refused. On 21 February 1944, Suman was tried for treason against the State. No one came to defend him with the rulers having unleashed terror. Undaunted, he defended himself spiritedly and rebutted all the charges levelled against him.
After he was mistreated in the prison he launched his historic indefinite fast unto death on May 3 1944. His condition kept on deteriorating. It turned critical on July 11. He was asked to secure his
freedom by ending the fast. But he refused to submit to coercion. He died a martyr’s death after continuing hunger strike for 87 days.