Noida: A rendezvous of popular Hindi and Urdu
poets was organised here to commemorate the martyrdom of
freedom fighters hailing from the present national capital
region during the 1857 movement.
The 'kavi sammelan' which had patriotic recitals and
proses from historic verses, was held at the Ramlila ground
last night here and was attended by the young and old from the
villages and cities around Delhi.
"A freedom struggle was launched by the freedom fighters
from Meerut, Bulandshahar, Ghaziabad and the adjoining areas
of the present national capital area on May 10, 1857. They
took control of the area around the Hindon river on May 30.
Since then, this struggle is called the May mutiny," organiser
of the event and President of Shaheed Smriti Sansthan Rao
Sanjay Bhati said.
The 'kavi sammelan' was attended by popular poets like
Ashok Chakradhar, Nawaz Deobandi, Sarita Sharma, Masoom
Ghaziabadi, TV show Laughter Challenge icon Pratap Fauzdar,
among others.
"The initiative is to bring back the glory and keep alive
the memories of all those who were either hanged or brutally
tortured by the Britishers during the 1857 independence
struggle. Almost 35 such freedom strugglers were hanged by the
Britishers at Bulandshahar when they caught them," Bhati said.
A number of villagers and common people also took part
in the struggle and were either hanged by the Britishers or
were simply killed in cold blood, he said.
A British officer in his report had said that they faced
major reverses in the Dadri area during the struggle.
"The event reminds us of the sacrifices these people made
so that we can see an independent India," he said.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, May 02, 2010, 17:56