Source : Google photo of the Victoria memorial in my home town where the Queen sat on the pedestal with her broken nose long after Independence.
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Synopsis : What is in a broken nose ? Evidently a
great deal. The British ruled India for over 250 years with ruthless oppression
that made the country poor and pitiful while they looted all its riches to
enrich their own country. They erected statues of their kings and queens all
over India that posed as a visual symbol of their oppression but it came to an
end when India became free. Someone broke the nose of the statue of King George
V in New Delhi that led to a chain of events over a long period of time
culminating in the erection of the statue of the great Nationalist hero Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose.
In my home town there is a huge park erstwhile called
Alfred park where there used to be a white marble life size statue of Queen Victoria sitting on a throne with a scepter in her
hand and a sphere in the other perhaps representing the globe. It was most
likely made in England and transported to my home town with great fanfare and
installed under a huge marble canopy.
During the struggle for independence people attacked the
symbol of oppression like the statue of the Queen Victoria and broke her nose
so she sat there for years with a broken nose. I used to climb to the pedestal
and look closely at her stone unsmiling face and wonder how the queen of a
small island called England so far away could become the ruler of a vast
country called India that was now free.
During the British Raaj, the park used to be a lively place
where the British ladies walked around the promenade with parasols while their maids
pushed the baby strollers behind. A band played in the center just in front of
the monument where the Queen sat there with unblinking eyes and perhaps
wondering what she was doing in a strange land so far from home.
British men in smart evening dresses walked along with the
women with their Indian servants in tow just in case they needed something. It
was a park of massive proportions with trees and flowers everywhere .Numerous
gardeners toiled to make the park beautiful with beautiful roses and
chrysanthemums. There were flower shows, dog shows and picnics so the park was
a lively place indeed.
The entire front of the monument was lined with cannons
representing the might of the Empire but later the termites ate away the wheels
so the cannons were placed on ugly cement blocks by the municipal office.
One day my father was going to his office pedaling his
bicycle and passing by the park when he heard gun shots so he knew that
something was going on inside the park so he pedaled on faster but later the
news came that a great hero and revolutionary Chandra Shekhar Ajaad was
involved in a gun battle with the British police that had shot him. Now the
park is named as Chandra Shekhar Ajaad park but the Victoria memorial remains
empty.
I was probably 10 years old when I heard that a statue of
the hero was to be unveiled in the park at the spot where he gave his life so I
walked several kilometers to reach the park and observed the ceremony.
At that time there was a national movement to remove all
statues of British people and change all the names of roads, parks and public
buildings so the statue of the queen with her broken nose was removed
unceremoniously and dumped somewhere full of weeds and overgrown jungle. People
just did not like to be reminded of their 250 years of oppression because the
country was now free.
There was a beautiful park near our home called Minto park
where we used to play as children annoying the devil out of the gardeners
tending their beautiful flower beds but what we liked most was to climb on the
monument that had a square base with some inscriptions chiseled into the white
marble that we tried to read and understand. On top of this square base was a
huge pillar with four lion heads on top and the half bust of Minto, King George
V, Victoria and others on four sides.
Later the busts were removed and the four sides with the
inscriptions were defaced entirely. The park has been renamed Pt. Madan Mohan
Malaviya park . He was a great revolutionary who was also the founder of the
Benares Hindu University (BH) that is one of the top Universities in India.
Now the younger generation does not know the British and
their names so the Chatham lines, Canning road, McPherson Lake and Hewett road
etc. are forgotten because all the names have been changed long ago.
Just a few days ago the Prime Minister of India Narendra
Modi created history by pushing a button that turned on the holographic projector
that now projects a 3D holographic image of the National Hero Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose exactly at the same place where King George V statue used to be.
The canopy was empty since 1968 but I always wished in my heart that Netaji
Bose should be honored there because it was Bose and his Indian National Army
that had pushed out the British from India no matter what the Congress propagandists
say even today. People know the truth.
The Congress party ruled the country for many decades but
they tried to marginalize the effort of Netaji Bose to get Independence so they
tried to erase him from the history books. Thus a great injustice was done by
them that has now been corrected by the Prime Minister of India.
The holographic image will stay there until a 28 foot tall
statue of Netaji Bose in granite is completed and placed there. It is what I
call the Divine Justice because Bose who fought the British tooth and nail and
succeeded in getting them out of India stands right where King George V was.
Source : Google photo of the India Gate and the empty
canopy in Delhi
Source : Google photo of the holographic image of Netaji Bose in Delhi
When someone broke the nose of the statue of King George V during the movement to remove all British statues in India, it stood there until it was removed in 1968 , some 21 years after the independence . Why it took 21 years to remove the statue of King George V ? The ruling party of the time was the Congress party that did not like to embarrass the British Royalty by removing the statue but a new government came to power that removed it.
The place remained empty from 1968 until this year of 2022
because the Congress Party did not like to honor our national hero Bose and
perhaps wanted to place a statue of Gandhi or Nehru there but it was strongly
opposed by the people of India who see the Gandhi and Nehru as nothing but the
interlopers who falsely claimed that the British left due to their nonviolent
agitations.
Now a great statue of Bose will be installed there as soon
as it is completed. People of India have impatiently waited for 75 years for
the national hero Bose to be recognized and honored this way. The freedom
fighters who died in jails in Andaman or were hanged elsewhere by the British
were thousands in number but most of them have faded from the collective memory
of the nation because their contribution to the armed struggle to free India
was suppressed by the people in power in the post-independence era of India.
It took India more than 70 years to build a National war
memorial in front of the India Gate in Delhi to honor all those who sacrificed
their lives so that all Indians could live as free people. This credit as well
goes to the Prime Minister Modi who lit the eternal flame there just a few days
ago.
Now the nation gratefully acknowledges them and a new
museum has been opened in the Red Fort of Delhi that shows in graphic details
the struggle of the Indian National Army under the leadership of Bose.
The broken nose of the statue of King George V led to the
chain of events culminating in the recognition and establishment of Bose as the
true hero of India. Bose lives forever in the hearts of all Indians no matter
where they are. People never forget their heroes.
Source : Google photo of the national War Memorial in front of India Gate in New Delhi that honors all the fallen soldiers and revolutionaries.
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La biografía de anil en español.
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