**‘Lessons from Inquilab 1857 can**

lead to a New India’

By Aleem Faizee

Inquilab 1857 has completed 150 years in 2007. Malegaonians join the Nation as the year-long celebrations in the country enter into the last phase.

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“The memories of the first war of independence in1857 remind us to build a new India, India that would offer equal opportunities to everyone”, noted renowned scholar and eminent journalist Shameem Tarique.

He was speaking as a keynote speaker at a Seminar organized by National Awakening for Development of Youth (NADY) at M.H. Ayyubi Hall in Malegaon as part of the country-wide celebrations on the completion of 150 years of the Inquilab 1857. “The people who had always sided with the imperialists forces before and after 1857, divided us on religion and sectarian line and destroyed our industries are still busy in the same dirty game”, he observed and advised to expose these forces in such types of seminars.

“The misconceptions regarding the first war of Independence in 1857 are so immense that even today people by and large are confused. And this was all done by the British historians who deliberately subdued this struggle and maligned the images of those who were at the forefront.”

Describing that there are lots of lessons to learn from the 1857 struggle, Mumbai-based film-writer Hasan Kamal wondered, why we are reluctant in doing this. “Mulmul manufactured by the Indian weavers was so popular world over that there were no takers for the clothes coming from Manchester. Because of this the British Empire always treated these weavers as a challenge and tried to suppress them”, he said as an example and added, “To learn the lesson is necessary otherwise why the weavers are suffering even today?”

While Dr. Ilyas Siddiquee observed that from Kanpur to Delhi every tree was used for hanging the martyrs and said, “It is not easy to override the sacrifices made by the Muslims during the freedom struggle”, Munawwer Peer Bhoy, Chairman of Azam Campus, Pune said, “In every freedom struggle including 1857, the sacrifices by the Indian Muslims were unmatchable. It is unfortunate that the Muslims were never given due respects in the country after the independence.”

Legendary Author Anand Herdikar who came from Pune especially for this seminar said, “The misconceptions regarding the first war of Independence in 1857 are so immense that even today people by and large are confused. And this was all done by the British historians who deliberately subdued this struggle and maligned the images of those who were at the forefront. It is time to uncover all the facts honestly. I am sure this will help in bringing Hindus and Muslims closer to each other.”

The seminar concluded with the presidential address by Dr. Manzoor Ayyubi who said, “Even after sixty years of independence, Sahidon ki yadgar in Malegaon is waiting for the names of the martyrs to be written.” Stating that the names of these martyrs were written in Central as well as State Government Gazettes, he wondered, “Still, if the administration is not willing to acknowledge their sacrifices, why don’t they dare to remove these names from these gazettes?”

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Sare Jahan Se Accha

Hindustan Hamara

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