The Hindu : National : “Raje government ignored 1908 tribal sacrifice”

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“Raje government ignored 1908 tribal sacrifice”

Special Correspondent

New Delhi: The Centre for Development Studies, Rajasthan, has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan for not commemorating the gunning down of over 1500 Bhil tribals, Dalits and other backward community members by British-led forces in 1908, during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the 1857 war of independence.

In a press release, the CDS described the massacre, which took place at Mangarh hills on December 7, 1908, as the biggest sacrifice for the cause of independence anywhere in the world. The Bhil tribals, Dalits and others had raised the banner of freedom under the leadership of Dharmacharya Govind Guru, the founder of the Samp Sabha, an organisation dedicated to fighting British rule as well as the feudal Indian princes.

The CDS quoted freedom fighter and author Sumnesh Joshi to describe how Govind Guru had organised the Bhils and others oppressed by the princely class.

The movement grew rapidly, the CDS said, to the annoyance the rulers of Suthrampur, Dungarpur, Banswara and Kushalgarh, who in retaliation misrepresented the struggle of the Bhils as an attempt to form a separate Bhil state.

Govind Guru’s followers had gathered at Mangarh for the annual conference of the Samp Sabha. They were surrounded by British-led forces and fired at. Though over 1500 Bhils and others died in the firing, the Samp Sabha continued its campaign, laying a firm foundation for the struggle for independence, the CDS said.

It noted that 2008 marked the centenary of the great sacrifice and regretted the disrespect shown by the Vasundhara Raje Scindia government to Govind Guru who was even today revered as a saint by the Bhils of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

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