LOOKEAST

AGARTALA | TRIPURA deputy chief minister Jishnu Dev Varma urged the scholars to rewrite the history of India’s freedom struggle from the “nationalist” perspective while addressing a gathering of 132nd birth anniversary of revolutionary Ullaskar Dutta, who hailed from undivided Tripura. The event organised by Ullaskar Dutta Academy, a Kolkata based research group.

■ Artists from Government Art College take parts of a portrait sketch competition | Ullaskar Dutta Academy

Dev Varma lamented that till the date students were taught the history of India and it’s freedom movement, which is skewed to either right or left or centre, but the perspective of Indians’ minds is significantly missing.

Hundreds of unsung heroes of undivided Tripura, Assam and West Bengal like Ullaskar Dutta who have not been given due coverage in the school and college syllabus

“In my student life, I studied history of Mughal emperors, British administration and non–violence movement of Gandhi but very little about the Bengal Renaissance of socio  political awakening in the arts, literature, music, philosophy, religion and science that helped influence the movement,” Dev Varma said and added that the Kings of Tripura had never supported the British unlike Assam and that’s why none of the tea gardens here had any European as owner.

■ Tripura deputy chief minister Jishnu Dev Varma delivering his speech | Ullaskar Dutta Academy

There were hundreds of unsung heroes of undivided Tripura, Assam and West Bengal like Ullaskar Dutta

Kings of Tripura had never supported the British unlike Assam and that’s why none of the tea gardens here had any European as owner

who have not been given due coverage in the school and college syllabus. The history book started with Europe, Russia and the Asian sub–continent but when it reached eastern India, the syllabus was over and the generations of 75 years lost the nationalist sentiment because of studying the incomplete history of the freedom movement, Dev Varma said.

ACADEMY MEMBERS WITH DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER TRIPURA JISHNU DEV VARMA IN AGARTALA | 16 APRIL 2022 pic.twitter.com/caWfjNrkAI

— Ullaskar Dutta Academy (@AcademyDutta) April 25, 2022

It’s unfortunate that after 75 years of India’s independence, the young minds of Ullaskar Dutta Academy are searching for the legends of the freedom struggle. Ullaskar Dutta was son of a London–educated father in Kalikachha village of Sarail in Brahmanbaria of undivided Tripura (currently in Bangladesh, about 30 km from Agartala). He fought against British suppression even in Presidency College. He was deported to Andaman jail for his Swadeshi movement and suffered inhuman torture but didn’t cow down, he added.

“Recently, reorientation of syllabus and revisiting history has started. Young scholars have now started re–writing the history of India especially, the unsung heroes of the Bengal region and we want more such efforts to evoke nationalism among our future generation,” Dev Varma added. ■

Credit | UNI