Unsung Hero of the Indian Freedom Struggle

"ਸੇਵਾ ਦੇਸ਼ ਦੀ ਜਿੰਦੜੀਅੇ ਬੜੀ ਔਖੀ,

ਗੱਲਾਂ ਕਰਨੀਆਂ ਢੇਰ ਸੁਲਖਨਿਆਂ ਨੇ,

ਜਿੰਨੇ ਦੇਸ਼ ਦੀ ਸੇਵਾ ਚ ਪਿਆਰ ਪਾਇਆ,

ਓਹਨਾ ਲੱਖ ਮੁਸੀਬਤਾਂ ਝੱਲੀਆਂ ਨੇ."

Serving ones country is very difficult

It is so easy to talk though

Anyone who walked on that path

has to endure millions of calamities.

These were the lines of 19 year old Kartar Singh Sarabha while he was being executed by British in Lahore for his role in Gadhar conspiracy of 1915. The blatant lack of information about this revolutionary can be seen from the fact that most people do not know his full name. Kartar Singh Sarabha Grewal was 15 when he decided to go to USA for work. However, as soon as he stepped on the ports of San Francisco, his life changed. He could see discrimination against Indians in the foreign land as well, because they were considered slaves of the British. The Ghadar (Revolution) Party was formed by the Indians of California in 1913 and Sarabha played a prime role in it's publicity by printing propaganda papers and distributing them to Indians all over the world. These papers carried inflammatory and provocative ideas which stirred the Indians world wide and a sense of revolt started building up in them. 

On August 5, 1914 "war" was declared against the British Raj by Ghadar Party and Sarabha reached India soon thereafter. As the British sensed the urgency, a large number of party leaders were arrested on different ports of India. A wave of unrest was created among the subservient Indian soldiers and a major mutiny was planned for February 21, 1915. Sarabha was the hero of the struggle which brought many Indians into the fold and another great revolutionary to follow him, Bhagat Singh, was impressed by him at this very time. A mole in the ranks of the party informed the British Government about the planned mutiny 2 days before it was to be effectuated and thus many leaders were arrested and native soldiers disarmed. This led to the failure of an event which could have done a great damage to the British Raj. Many party leaders escaped the arrest and migrated to foreign lands but Sarabha saw it as a cowardly act. He again tried to create an unrest in the army ranks but was arrested and charged for conspiracy. The brave young leader was seen as a martyr and an inspiration for millions of Indians. The Indian freedom struggle got the push it needed from this brave soul at a tender age of 18.

I urge the History Channel to make a documentary on this leader to commemorate his achievements and extra ordinary courage. 

Jass Oberoi

Summary of today's INDIA

Our economy is like a balloon in random air current. I see it booming, I see it falling and the thing I don't see is the consistency. When I somehow see the consistency it's in individual parameters like rich getting richer, middle class getting more solidified (STICKING to the middle) and of course the poor getting poorer. I start doubting the term "developing" used to tag our economy then. If it's right then who's developing in this mess? The rich used to drive Mercedes earlier and now their kids are on to BMW's and other mean machines. The middle class used to drive marutis and fiats and their wards are on swifts and palios. The poor used to be on bicycles and their kids are still on them. So who has developed or is developing? I hear people saying our economy now gives 20,000 pm job to all the graduates. I say that's so good but what all can they do with that much money. Can they build a house for them in 5 years? Why has the inflation overpowered the buying capacity of our society?

And moreover is everyone getting 20,000 pm? I hear news about thousands of engineers, MBAs and lawyers applying for posts of constables and clerks. Is this their place? Punjab (one of the 28 states of INDIA) has 45 engineering colleges ie. around 20,000 engineers graduating every year. Do we have enough jobs for them? Are they all capable of being called engineers? Aren't we just fooling them around by getting lakhs from them for the studies? Aren't we just selling our degrees? Private dental colleges are coming up here and there at the speed of flowers blooming in the garden. We are producing BDS graduates at a faster rate than ever before. But where are the dental hospitals that can employ them to serve the people? Anybody with few acres of land and some wild money can build a college and then a group of colleges and then a university. Is the education field a business now?

Nobody in the cream wants to join the teaching line. The leftovers of the people who get employed in private sector finally select it as a profession though it should be opposite. Such teachers then produce such students and the cycle continues. Why can't academia be made as attractive as any other professional line. Why isn't the industry funding the research in our universities? Why can't they remove the tag of service providers and outsourcing hub from Indian industry and do something in research and development?

When I think of all these problems the most important thing that I zero in on is POPULATION. India doesn't have a potential to feed and serve so many and that should be realized and accepted. We need land to develop infrastructure but such a huge population needs vast tracts of irrigated land to be fed. We need housing for all, jobs for all, facilities for all and peace for all. Fill in 25 more people in the house you are currently living. Feels messy? That's what Indians are feeling now.

Indian administrative system needs to be transparent and bureaucracy has to be reformed for that. It's most of the middle class and the lower middle class which makes it to the top of IAS cadres. I wonder why can't they reform it then? Why do they start acting like dictators and crooked humans once they reach that point? We blame politicians and once we become one we just do the same. I am just one of you who has given bribes to get work done and used influences to fast track the processing of things.India has given a lot to the world in terms of human resources and it's only because those humans were made to believe that INDIA is not worth of their potential by the conditions prevailing in our country.

When will we change? Or will we ever?