‘Will destroy Hodson’s grave at La Martiniere’
LUCKNOW: Historian Amaresh Misra has threatened to destroy Major Hodson's grave inside La Martiniere College and erect a monument dedicated to 1857 in its place. Mishra has launched a campaign under 1857 nationalist Forum, to destroy graves and plaques of British soldiers in the city.
On Wednesday, a procession led by Amresh Misra marched to La Martiniere College and headed towards the grave of Major Hodson, notorious for killing more than 500 Indians and Bahadur Shah Zafar’s sons at Khooni Darwaza Delhi. “Despite police presence, 1857 NF activists broke the barricade and reached the gates of La Martiniere,” said Amresh , who is the national convenor of the movement.
After a long tussle with La Martiniere principal Carlyle McFarland, management, police and district administration, the processionists handed over the demand to highlight Hodson's atrocities on his grave to the district administration.
Amaresh condemned the behaviour of La Martiniere management as anti-national and gave it time till June 30 to register Hodson's atrocities on his grave, else more than 10,000 youths and peasants would storm La Martiniere, destroy Hodson's grave and erect a monument to 1857 and Indian freedom struggle in its place. The participants dispersed after pledging year- long campaign under aegis of Rashtriya Apmaan Virodhi Abhiyaan (RAVA). Under this campaign, epitaphs of all British graves across the nation will be rewritten from an Indian perspective .
Amresh and his men want the plaque on Hodson's grave to read: "Here lies the grave of coward Major Hodson. He killed more than 500 unarmed men, women and children in Delhi. He shot unarmed sons of Bahadur Shah Zafar point blank. He also committed numerous atrocities on Jats, Gujars, Mewatis, Muslims, Sainis, dalits and OBCs. He he was finally marked out and killed by brave Indian warriors at Begam Kothi, Hazratganj, Lucknow."
As Wednesday marked the 160th anniversary of 1857, India’s War of Independence, the volunteers of 1857 Nationalist Forum led by Amaresh took out a motorbike procession from Sheroes Café to the grave of Henry Havelock in Alambagh.
Despite being guilty of civil atrocities against Indians in 1857, Havelock’s grave still carries laudatory phrases. The Forum had vowed to post Havelock’s real deeds besides his grave. But the gates of ASI's protected monument were locked. The Forum activists broke the lock and placed a new plaque beside the one written from the British perspective.
The new plaque reads: "Henry Havelock was a cruel British officer. He hanged thousands of innocent civilians between June to September 1857 in Varanasi, Allahabad, Fatehpur, Kanpur and Unnao. He lined the GT Road with corpses. He burned hundreds of villages. Indians still suffer from the trauma Havelock left behind. He was justly wounded by Indian freedom fighters and died on 24th November in Lucknow."