Hero of 1857 revolution Dhan Singh Kotwal and his publicity in Meerut

Hero of 1857 revolution Dhan Singh Kotwal and his publicity in Meerut- Ashok Chaudhary

Translated by:- Lokendra Kumar B.Tech E.C.E IET Lucknow

In 1857 freedom struggle about three lakh Indians were martyred. But in order to justify its rule, the British kept saying it to be a military revolt. They refused to accept it as a revolution and kept accepting from the back door. The biggest proof of this was that the three-hour long speech in the House of Commons, which was heard by Karl Marx sitting in the audience gallery, on July 27, 1857, Lord Disraeli, leader of the British Parliament's opposition in which Disraeli called this conflict of 1857 as the national revolt of India, and the root cause of it was the economic and religious policy of East India Company. Disraeli insisted in his speech, "Is unrest in India an indicator of a military uprising or a national revolt? Is the behavior of soldiers a result of any sudden emotions or is the result of an organized conspiracy?"
The British Parliament found East India Company guilty and handed over the India to Queen Victoria. The removal of East India Company from power only emphasizes that the British Parliament had assumed that the people of India were in opposition to the company.
The British formed the Congress in 1885 through its official AO Hume. In 1886, at the second session of Congress, Hume set out the constitutional route of Congress by completely eliminating the 1857 struggle and the path of violence. For the membership of the Congress, he kept only two conditions. First, the member should know English language and second, the loyalty of the member should be beyond suspicion.
In the year 1907, it was the semi-century of 1857 independence struggle. In London it was celebrated as the victory of the British rule and the Indian revolutionaries were being defamed.
In response to this, a resolution was organized by the Indian youth to organize a meeting under the auspices of "Abhinav Bharat" organized in India House, London on 10 May 1907, to commemorate the half century of 1857 revolution.
Indian youth Vinayak Damodar Savarkar formed the England branch and approached Indian students and urged them to organize the memory of freedom fighters of 1857 AD. Everyone resolved that by preparing for a whole year, the half century of the 1857 revolution will be celebrated in the year 1908. The celebration was held on 10th May 1908 under the chairmanship of legendary revolutionary Sardar Singh Rana at the ceremony organized in the India House Auditorium.
Now Savarkar decided that he would sit in a huge library of London and prepare texts by studying all the available documents of the 1857 freedom struggle. In those days Mr. Mukherjee, a member of the ‘Abhinav Bharat’ organization, sent an application to the library from his English wife, that he wants to write a research paper about the revolt of the 1857 Indian soldiers. On acceptance, Savarkar was nominated as his assistant. Savarkar continued to visit British libraries for several months and took notes of documents stored there. On the basis of these documents, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar prepared a manuscript of texts and made two copies by putting carbon copy, and named it as The Indian War of Independence.
Due to the strong opposition of the British this book was restricted before it was published. This is the reason that the leaders of the Congress made by the British did not even respect the freedom fighters of 1857. Mahatma Gandhi never took interest in it. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has expressed his views in the above mentioned "Discovery of India" in which he called this revolution "The blast of State men".
In fact, the situation remained till 1957. In 1957 was the 100th anniversary of 1857, India was liberated. But communist historians were still not ready to accept the revolution, but in 1953, Stalin, the controller of the Soviet Union died. Nikita Khrushchev (1954-64) became the new dictator of the Soviet Union. He traveled to India in 1955. During this visit, he felt the beauty of the centenary of 1857 in India. While feeling the feelings of the people of India, he asked the Central Committee of Communist Party the Soviet Union to publish a collection of related articles from Karl Marx. As a result, a book was published in 1959 under the name "The First War of Independence 1857-59".They added the role of six pages in it. In this role, the independence struggle of 1857 was called the fight of freedom.
Since Independence, in Meerut the government and non-governmental organizations have been organizing programs every year on Revolution Day (May 10). But who started this revolution from Meerut, its publicity was not in the public domain. It was prevalent in rural areas around Meerut and it was also regret that their elderly people took part in the revolution, due to which the British had destroyed their villages, killing hundreds of people without following the justice process. Because in the Meerut gazette which was written by the British officer in 1911, the name of any revolutionary of the public was not written. Gazette was re-written in 1965. UTTAR PRADESH DISTRICT GAZETTEERS MEERUT 

(Shrimati) Esha Basanti Joshi

 B.A. (Hons.), M.A., L.T., T.D. (London), I.A.S. Commissioner -oum-State Editor

 Published by the Government of Uttar Pradesh (Department of District Gazetteers, U.P., Lucknow)

 and 

Printed at the Government Press, Allahabad. U.P.

 1965 

Dhan Singh Kotwal's name was first written in this gazette. (The Indian troops as well as the police including the kotwal, Dhanna Singh, made common cause against the British.)

 But by the year 1997, the name of the government or non-governmental organization was not taken into account.

It is a matter of 1997 that a social worker named Rajbal Singh came to me(Ashok Chaudhary) resident of 108/1 Nehru Nagar Garh Road Meerut, and that he(Rajbal Singh) resident of Lodi Pur Chhabka village, which is now in Hapur district. He came to me, along with him was Jaykumar Singh, an employee working in District Panchayat Meerut. He gave me information of a program and said that under the banner of the organization Dehat Morcha, a program on May 10, in IMA Hall Meerut, is going to take place in memory of Shahid Dhan Singh Kotwal, who started the revolution from Meerut. On his invitation, I attended the program.  In the program, a spokesman of the history department of Meerut College had come in that program. But the spokesman gave his speech on Gandhi Ji. Probably he was not studying Dhan Singh Kotwal. This program was done by Krishanpal Chaprana and Kailash Chapranna of Afzal Pur Pavaty village near Meerut on behalf of the countryside.

I got back to my daily activities. A few days later, a letter from Meerut Arya Samaj Suraj Kund which came out every year, the minister of Arya Samaj, Dr. RP Singh Chaudhary resident of Phoolbagh Colony gave me that letter. In the sheet "May 10 - Dhan Singh Kotwal sacrifice day" was printed. I asked the basis of the headings written by Chaudhary Sahab. He said that it is already being printed. I do not know much more than that.
Ramesh Chandra Nagar, a social worker who lived in my street, was my good friend. He got his sister's son Dr. Sushil Bhati who was a student of history. I talked to him about Dhan Singh Kotwal ji. Then he told that all the events in the Meerut Gazetteer have been written. Bhati ji gave me the photocopies of the Gazette from Meerut University and gave it to me, in which the incident of 10 May 1857 was mentioned and Dhan Singh Kotwal's name was written.
Now I have a desire to spread some propaganda for this forgotten martyr in my mind. There is a place called Gagol Tirtha near Meerut, where Satpal Singh, a retired engineer from Gagol, used to run the organization under the name of "Jan Seva Panchayat". On October 31, 1997, reached this organization's meeting. I have expressed my wish by discussing them with them. It was planned that a program should be organized on May 10, 1998 in Panchli, village of Dhan Singh Kotwal. In the same organization Surendra Singh, the younger son of the husband of the head of Panchli, Late Bhule Singh chairman , also used to come. Gumi village worker Karamveer and Vijay Pal also used to come. Ramesh Chandra Nagar, Deshpal Singh and Subhash Gurjar, from Meerut, Surender Singh Pallava Puram Meerut, Surendra Singh Bhadana of Kazipur, Pratap Singh of Buxar, and Sushil Gurjar, councilor from Begumbag.
Now the idea was made that there should be a photograph of Dhan Singh Kotwal. After discussions with the elderly people of Panchli, the picture of Dhan Singh Kotwal was made with Bharadwaj Painter located in Lala's market near ghantaghar Meerut's Bazarhouse and on 10 May 1998 a program was organized in the village Panchli. In which the residents of Panchli village along with the above mentioned companions increased and took part. In the program former MLA Shri Ramkrishna Verma was the chief guest. On Panchli Main Road, five bricks were kept for the memorial of martyrs. The then District Magistrate, Sanjay Agarwal gave the village Panchayat Panchali for 25000 / - martyrs' memorial. With that money martyrs pillar was founded. After that on 27th February 1999, Chamber of Commerce Meerut came in a program organized on the birth anniversary of Vijay Singh Pathik Shri Rajesh Pilot, the Ex State Home Minister of India. In this program Meerut's current District Panchayat President Kulwinder Singh's father Shri Mukhiya Gujjar was also present. A poster was released by Pilot Rajesh ji, which had pictures of Sardar Patel, Vijay Singh Pathik and Dhan Singh Kotwal and the names of the workers doing the program were written down. In the memory of martyr Dhan Singh Kotwal on Revolution Day, on 10th May 1999, in the Chamber of Commerce, with me (Ashok Chaudhary), Sunil Bhadana etc. of the village Juraranpur etc. and in the Subhash Chandra Bose Auditorium of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, programs were organized. In both of these programs, the former Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Ramchandra Vikal and the Minister of State for the Independent Charge of the then UP Chaudhary Jaipal Singh participated.
To promote the picture of Dhan Singh Kotwal in the entire country, the All India Gurjar Maha Sabha, whose office is in Delhi, with the help of Sir Ramshan Bhati and Sudhir Besla, with the portrait of Shaheed Dhan Singh Kotwal, pictures of other Indian great men by arranging beautified calendars, around 100 each in 12 states has been reached for four consecutive years.
Now the picture of Dhan Singh Kotwal ji was in the whole of India. With the recommendation of then minister Chaudhary Jaipal Singh, the cultural minister of the state, Ramesh Pokhariyal ji sent the life-size statue of Dhan Singh Kotwal, which was unveiled on 2 October 2002 near Mawana Stand Meerut. In the unveiling program, the then Cabinet Minister, Babu Hukum Singh, Chief Guest and former Minister Chaudhary Jaipal Singh ji presided over the program. In order to get the place for establishment of this statue, Mr. Sushil Gurjar, then Deputy Mayor of Meerut Municipal Corporation and the then Councilor Rajkumar of village Kazipur were supported. Written research paper by Dr. Sushil Bhati was released on Dhan Singh Kotwal. Noida's resident social worker Shri Nepal Singh Kasana also remained in the support.
A building was named after Dhan Singh Kotwal Community Center on the proposal of the then Vice-chancellor of the University Students Union, Mr. Jaiwir Singh Rana, by the then VC of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Mr. Ramesh Chandra. In 2015, Mr. Sunil Bhadana constructed Shahid Dhan Singh Kotwal High School in his village Juraranpur. With the efforts of Shri Bhopal Singh, the then head of Panchli village and Inspector of Homeguard Mr. Vedpal Chaparna, the then Cabinet Minister, Homeguards and provincial defense forces Government of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Vedram Bhati in March 2010, laid the foundation stone of Shahid Dhan Singh Kotwal Circle Training Center Home Guards. Which was launched in May 2016. The incomplete martyr memorial in Panchali was completed in collaboration with the then MLA Vinod Harit's MLA fund. A Gate of Subharti University has been named after Shaheed Dhan Singh Kotwal. My book (Ashok Chaudhary), short booklet "1857 Freedom Struggle and Kotwal Dhan Singh" was published in January 2008.
Dhan Singh Kotwal was Kotwal of Sadar Kotwali of Meerut. All of our colleagues wanted their statue to be in the Sadar police station. In 2012, Satvir Singh Gurjar, who is presently resident of Birsangpur village of Hapur district and was also the head of the village, accompanied him and presented a big portrait of Dhan Singh Kotwal to the SHO of Sadar police station. After that, on May 10, the then MLA Mr. Ravindra Bhadana and me (Ashok Chaudhary) have been going on each year to give a wreath on this picture.
On May 10, 2018, the former MLA Ravindra Bhadana and me (Ashok Chaudhary) went to the statue of Dhan Singh Kotwal on the Mawana stand after wreating the picture in Sadar police station. Coincidently, the senior Superintendent of Police of Meerut, Mr. Rajesh Kumar Pandey, arrived at the same time. At that time, Karmaveer Gumi and Jagdish Putha arranged for stage, mike and snack with their companions. In the mind of Pandeyji, I have seen the respect for the martyrs which is very rarely found in people. From 1947 till today, the authorities have been continuing to visit Meerut. But all of them performed the wreath at the statues on 10th May Revolution Day and kept busy in their work. But Pandey ji in his address said in the same speech that the martyr who converted his military rebellion into revolution, his statue will be found in the Sadar police station in which he had been Kotwal. Changing his story to do, by the continuous efforts of SSP Rajesh Kumar Pandey on 3^rd July 2018 the statue in Sadar police station unveiled by D.G.P. UP OP Singh.

On 12th July 2018, the statue of Kotwal Dhan Singh in Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut was unveiled by the efforts of the University's VC Professor Narendra Taneja, Governor of Uttar Pradesh Shri Ramanayak and Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Dinesh Sharma.