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PARI Education
  • Stories
    • Agriculture
    • Covid 19
    • Education
    • Migrants
    • Photo stories
    • Things we make
    • Gender
    • Inspired by PARI
  • Staffroom
    • Learning resources
    • Teachers’ blog
  • Get involved
    • Write for PARI
    • Participating organisations
    • Testimonials
    • Donate
  • About
    • What is a ‘PARI Education’?
    • PARI in the classroom
    • PARI Library
    • P. Sainath, Founder Editor
    • Connect with us
  • Return to PARI
August 4, 2021
Art, Inspired by PARI

Freedom fighters of rural India

Student reporter: Mayank Dabhi

École Intuit Lab, Mumbai

  • English
A tribute to some lesser known champions who fought for India’s freedom. Illustration by Mayank Dabhi

The struggle for India’s freedom was tenaciously fought in many villages and small towns across British India. These foot-soldiers of India’s freedom, led significant uprisings and movements, with great courage and personal sacrifice.
This 75th Independence Day, read beyond our textbooks and get to the heart of everyday Indians who led extraordinary lives and gave us our freedom.

This illustration by Mayank Dabhi is based on Hausabai Patil (and her father, Nana Patil standing next to her) – who was with the revolutionary underground that carried out audacious attacks on British offices, and looted armouries, buses and police stations in the Satara region in Maharashtra from 1943-46, as part of the Toofan Sena (typhoon or whirlwind army).

Look up the PARI Education’s Learning Resources section – Freedom fighters of rural India.

Editor's note

Mayank Dabhi is doing a post-graduate degree in advertising, design and digital communication at the Ecole Intuit Lab in Mumbai. He created this poster to draw attention to the stories of the foot-soldiers of India’s freedom, in time for the day marking the 75th year of India’s independence from British rule.

He says: “I wanted to pay tribute to our freedom fighters who lived in the shadows. They played such an important role in our freedom and independence, but we students never learnt about their importance. They were the pillars of our freedom struggle and some are still alive. PARI is connecting us with the real stories of real people.”

Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by People's Archive of Rural India.