Today marks the 117th birth anniversary of Ashfaqullah Khan, one among the many forgotten heroes of India’s freedom fighters. Born to Shafiqur Rahman and Mazharunissa in the year 1900, in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Ashfaqullah showed a keenness to join the freedom movement of India right from his school days. He was in school when Gandhi made a public call for people to join the Non-Co-operation Movement and many youths with a fire for independence in their bellies wanted to join this movement to free India.

During this time, the unexpected firings and death of civilians at the Chauri Chaura incident, resulted in Gandhi calling off the Non-Cooperation action disappointing many among whom was Ashfaqullah. His dismay at events transpiring around him, and his dwindling faith in non-violent strategies, led to his affiliation with the revolutionary group, Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), led by Ram Prasad Bismil.

Such revolutionaries all over India who were banded together in small groups united after the Non-Cooperation movement was called off. They believed that Independence from British Imperialism especially from a large and powerful worldwide empire, could not just be won through non-violence and that it had to incorporate more radical methods, that included armed struggles. For these efforts, they needed money and decided to mobilize money by looting the train bound to Kakori carrying state treasury currency.

The robbery was carried out on 9th August 1925 by Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and 9 other members of HRA. This Kakori train robbery was a real blow to the British Empire who immediately labelled Ashfaqullah and others as ‘Terrorists’  and began a hunt to capture them.

Soon, all except Ashfaqullah Khan were caught.  Ashfaqullah went into hiding and was finding ways to move out of the country to further the cause of Independence struggle. But he was betrayed by one of his friends who wanted the bounty money announced by the British on Ashfaqullah’s head.

Ashfaqullah was imprisoned. The prison superintendent, a Muslim, tried to intervene by asking Ashfaqullah to testify against Bismil warning that Bismil, a staunch Hindu, wanted nothing but to establish Hindu rule in the country. The superintendent assured Ashfaqullah Khan, that he would help secure his release if he testified against Bismil. But at the time, Ashfaqullah Khan considered Ram Prasad Bismil to be more than a brother and he explicitly refused to testify against Bismil.

The British sentenced 4 of those involved in the Kakori Train robbery to death by hanging and others to life imprisonment. Thus on 19th December 1927, Ashfaqullah Khan, at only 27 years, was hanged to death at a jail in Faizabad.

Ashfaqullah’s participation in the freedom struggle has been depicted in a Hindi movie titled Rang de Basanti (Paint me with the colours of the spring).

Today, Ashfaqullah is remembered as an Indian Muslim patriot and freedom fighter whose contributions and radicalism was part of the larger efforts to oust white colonials.

In his time, Ashfaqullah Khan was also an Urdu poet – a shayar who wrote under the pen name Hasrat.

Some of his writings and poetry are recalled even today.  Phoot daalkar shaasan karne ki chaal ka ham par koi asar nahi hoga aur Hindustan azad hokar rahega. (Your conspiracy to divide and rule India will not work; We will make Hindustan ours)

Courtesy: Two Cirles
 

The post Remembering Ashfaqullah Khan – Muslim Assertion Against British Imperialism appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Hindustan Times

The advertisement listed freedom fighters like Rani Lakshmibai, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ramprasad Bismil, Bheema Nayak, Shankar Shah, Raghunath Shah and many others. But the government has not mentioned any Muslim freedom fighter in their advertisement.

Condemning this act, the MP unit of Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims, an umbrella organisation for various Muslim organisations, issued a press statement, asking the Chouhan government why it was not able to find a single Muslim freedom fighter?

What makes this advertisement interesting is that all the freedom fighters listed are either related to MP or born there.

The statement said, “People know that followers of every religion took part in freedom struggle. They did not do it to make their name, but to give us a free country.”

It further said, “PRO of MP government published names and photos of 12 freedom fighters. But there is not any single Muslim name among them.”

“PRO limits freedom fighters to a specific religion. We condemn this act, and ask a public apology from PRO of the government,” said the statement.

Masud Ahmad Khan, the secretary of the committee, told TwoCircles.net, “Any Chief Minister does not want to taint his image. The PRO and government should clear the confusing situation.”

Khan noted that freedom fighters were related to Madhya Pradesh. He said, “Rani Lakshmibai was from Uttar Pradesh, but Bundelkhand was a part of MP during her times. But it is strange that government forgets Muslim freedom fighters of the state.”

Khan counted a couple of freedom fighters from Madhya Pradesh. He counted Mohammad Risaldar, who belonged to Sehore district. British army captured Risaldar and shot him for burning the British flag. Khan also counted Barkatullah Bhopali, a freedom fighter who belonged to Bhopal itself.

He concluded, “If this is an attempt to rewrite the history with a different colour, this is disappointing. And people should not let this happen.”

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Image credit: Syed Khalid Saifullah

The application available on the Google Play Store documents history of 155 Muslim freedom fighters, and can be installed on android smartphones. It was launched on August 15 this year, on the occasion of Indian independence day.

The developer of the mobile application Syed Khalid Saifullah, who also has conceptualised the app, told SabrangIndia, “We love our nation as much as our forefathers loved (it). They actively participated in the freedom struggle and made a lot of sacrifices for our country. People seem to have forgotten their contribution. Apart from a couple of names like Abul Kalam Azad, names of the several freedom fighters from the Muslim community have been eliminated from history. Our brothers from other communities tend to think that Muslims are not enough patriotic. That is why the concept of such an application came to my mind.”

However, collating the information was a difficult task for Saifullah. “There’s hardly any information or literature on Muslim freedom fighters. After a lot of struggle, I came across a Telugu book by Syed Naseer Ahamed, which had in-depth information on the lives of 155 Muslim freedom fighters. It was out of publication at that time. I had to track the author and have used information from this book for my app,” he said.

Saifullah has divided the list of freedom fighters into different categories and the information has been put into a more concise and succinct format – suitable for a mobile application. To make the experience of using the app fun, he has introduced a quiz-like format, in which users will have to clear 155 levels to win the game. 

“You can see other people playing from your area and their scores in the app. It generates the fun element of competition, making the app more youth-friendly,” said Saifullah.

 The application has been downloaded by 5000 users, and has close to 300 positive reviews making for a very good rating of 4.8 out of 5.

“Fifteen to 20 per cent of our users are Hindus. So, information is not remaining limited to just a few Muslims. To increase the base of our users, we’re going to bring in a Hindi version of the same app,” he said. The Hindi version is scheduled to be launched on coming Republic day. 

When asked if he foresees attempts of saffronisation and resultant adulteration of history, he said, “They’re going to achieve it (saffronisation). We don’t have the capacity and power to influence the government, so I’d rather look at what I can do. I like to focus on the positive side. I have the platform, and the technology to at my disposal; so using that, I have managed to put together an app.”

“Let them remove the history from the textbooks, technology can help us preserve it,” he added.
 

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