Protesting against the “attempts to rewrite the history of Indian freedom struggle by Sangh Parivar,” the CPI(M) will organise political campaigns across the State.
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau meeting will discuss the RSS attempts to distort history and finalise the campaigns, said Polit Bureau member M.A. Baby.
The Punnapra-Vayalar agitation was an integral part of the freedom movement as the workers wanted Travancore to be part of the Indian Union. Malabar Rebellion leader Variamkunnath Kunhamad Haji and others fought against the feudal lords and British. Though the leaders of the rebellion themselves had denounced the communal diversions the agitation took, the fight against colonialism cannot be undermined, Mr. Baby said.
The party and independent historians will highlight the role of Communists and others in the freedom movement, which the Sangh Parivar wanted to undermine, said P. Rajeev, State Secretariat member of the party.
The Kanpur and Meerut conspiracy cases as well as the Punnapra-Vayalar struggle and other Communist uprisings were integral part of the struggle, he said.
B. Shobhanan, the Kerala Coordinator of the fifth volume of the now controversial 'Dictionary of Martyrs: India’s Freedom Struggle (1857-1947)', said the deletion of the victims of Wagon Tragedy, martyrs of Malabar Rebellion and communist movement in Kerala from the list was unjustifiable. The different approaches to history should not come in the way of acknowledging the role of martyrs, Dr. Shobhanan said.
Incidentally, The Hindu had carried reports on the recommendations to exclude a few martyrs from Kerala in the dictionary, brought out by the Union Ministry of Culture.
Noted historian K. N. Ganesh said all those who fought the British for the freedom of India and perished should be recognised as martyrs. The freedom struggle was never a monolithic one in nature and content but a multi-faceted one in which several segments of society participated.
People from diverse culture, religion and region fought the British for the freedom of the country in their own ways. One need to take an all encompassing view of history and recognise the martyrs, Dr. Ganesh said.