Descendant’s future tense
GORAKHPUR: Mohammad Moinuddin, 60, whose great grandfather Lal Mohammad was among 19 martyrs of Gorakhpur’s Chauri Chaura incident, is worried about the future of his youngest child Shahbaz.
Due to fund crunch, he could not continue his son’s Class 9 education this year. Moinuddin runs a small cosmetics shop in Chaura village and barely earns enough to feed his family of six, including a 12-year-old daughter.
His grandfather Suleman, the eldest son of martyr Lal Mohammad, passed away in 2007 and the meagre amount of pension (Rs 800) stopped after his death. There are 32 descendants of Lal Mohammad, most of whom live in pathetic conditions and work as labourers to eke out a living. Most of them depend on government ration shops for their kitchen stocks.
The cosmetics shop, which is the only source of Moinuddin’s income, is also lying closed for the past few days as no stocks are left in it. “I have no money to purchase fresh stocks. The dealers refuse to give goods on credit. Till now, we managed but our future is bleak,” lamented Moiniddin who has appealed to the government to at least provide them some sort of identity card (descendent of martyr) which could help them avail rebate in school fees, ration shops and train/bus transport.
A three-room pucca house built with financial assistance from his brother who lives in Arabia, is all that Moiniddin has in the name of property.
“Like Moinuddin, government facilities have stopped reaching some other descendants of Chauri Chaura martyrs. The descendants are called when ministers and public representatives come to visit Chauri Chaura memorial to pay homage to martyrs,” said village head Babloo Aslam.
Lal Mohammad was hanged in Bareilly Jail on July 3,1923, six months after Chauri Chaura incident in which a group of freedom fighters set afire a police station in Chaura, killing 19 policemen.
‘Chauri Chaura: Vidroh Aur Swadhinta Andolan’, a book written by SC Kushwaha has a mention about the martyr. A paragraph of the book reads ‘Lal Mohammad had gone to see a vaid for treatment of his one-year-old son who was suffering from fever on Feb 5, 1923. Both husband and wife kept awake the entire night due to their son’s ill health. The next morning on Feb 6, 1923 British police arrested Lal Mohammad for being a part of Chauri Chaura incident following which Mahatma Gandhi had called off non-cooperation movement.’