Unsung heroes of Indian freedom struggle - martyr at 12 - Baji Rout !!!

 

Remembering the martyrdom  at age 12 !!!

The Nation celebrated its 79^th Independence Day and it is time we remember our real heroes.  Two things that we read in History books that needs deletion from our memory !!   (distorted truths)  :  1. British who ruled us were – kind, clement and cared about their subjects 2. Freedom was obtained by only Gandhi & Nehru without shedding blood !!   Fact remains that British were cruel and have been waging wars killing millions; also scores of Countries too got their freedom (but there are no Nehrus in their  History!) .. .. freedom was not gotten easily, it was obtained by the gory bloodshed of thousands of our countrymen.

Sad, that most of them remain unsung, hidden from public memory with prejudiced History books mentioning Allahabad prison story and the letters !! The cruelty of British Policy on a 12 year old and a group of six  people created ruckus in British Parliament even ! but the heartrending incident was not greatly condemned by Congress nor was recorded in the annals of our freedom struggle !!      Writing history is not always fair and inclusive in India. It has been regional centrism and biased. In the process of writing national history, significant provincial history and historical contribution of a particular region have been ignored and overlooked by historians. It is the history which makes account of the past politics. History is not just an account of the past; it also politics of the past. History includes how people shaped their ideas and belief which unite them

Back in Nov 2022,    Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated a  National-level football tournament, Baji Rout Cup 2022 at Dhenkanal Stadium. He also attended the inaugural match of the Baji Rout Cup between Odisha and Mumbai Kenkre FC at the stadium.   The Baji Rout title was won by the Rajasthan United FC (RUFC), defeating  Churchill Brothers FC (CBFC) in the final. The western India based club edged past CBFC 4-2 in a thrilling penalty shootout to be crowned the champions.  Perhaps if it had been an IPL match, it would have garnered more attention and some of us would have rushed to check why the tourney was named ‘Baji Rout’ – please do now !!

The Brahmani is a major seasonal river in  Odisha -  formed by the confluence of the Sankh and South Koel rivers, and flows through the districts of Sundargarh, Deogarh, Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Jajapur and Kendrapara.    Together with the river Baitarani, Brahmani forms a large delta before emptying into the Bay of Bengal at Dhamra. It is the second widest river in Odisha after Mahanadi. The site of the Brahmani's origin is mythologically reputed to be the place where Sage Parashara fell in love with the fisherman's daughter, Satyavati who later gave birth to Ved Vyasa, the compiler of the Mahabharata. The place is thus called Ved Vyasa.

After assuming the name of Brahmani, the river crosses the Tamra and Jharbera forests, skirting along National Highway 23 and flows on confluencing many tributaries along.   The Brahmani delta is the site of the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary, famous for its estuarine crocodiles.

The heartrending story is that of a 12 year old Baji Rout -  who worked as a boatman, who was shot by the Indian Imperial Police when he refused to ferry them across the Brahmani River on the night of 11 October 1938 at Nilakanthapur Ghat, Bhuban, Dhenkanal district.  The tale of a boy who died for the Nation when he was just 12 and few days [5.10.1926 till 11.10.1938]

Baji Rout was the youngest son of a boatman on the Brahmani river. As an active member of the Banar Sena of Prajamandal (Party of People), he had volunteered to keep watch by the river at night. The police ordered him to cross the river by his boat which he denied. The police then shot and killed Baji Rout.  A large procession was held for him in Cuttack. His mortal remains were taken to 9, Pithapur (the then HQ of Legendary Shri. Bhagawati Charan Panigrahi) and then his cremation was held at Satichaura in Cuttack. Sad, the Nation failed to honour, did not even remember him !!

He was born on 5 October 1926 as the youngest son of Hari Rout and Rania Devi in the village Nilakanthapur in the then state of Dhenkanal. He lost his father in his childhood. His mother who was earning a living by grinding and husking paddy at a quern in the neighborhood was unable to spend anything on his education. He had two elder brothers who also earned very little to support the family.

The oppressive rule of the King induced poverty in Dhenkanal Gadajata. “Millions and millions of half-fed and half-clad people were living in the state of abject poverty and utter destitution whereas a few ruling Chiefs and their minions were at their expense leading lives of utmost luxury and plentitude” (Routray, 1954:7-8). During this time, the popular Praja Mandal movement arouse against the tyrannical King of Dhenkanal. Baishnav Charan Patnaik was one of the local leaders of the Praja Mandal movement in Dhenkanal. He was popularly called as Veer Baishnav and was in charge of Nilakanthapur. Many villagers of Baji Rout had also joined the movement and were having regular meetings and discussions. Under the guidance of Baishnav Patnaik, Praja Mandal founded Banar Sena and many joined the movement  inspired by the speeches of Baishnav Patnaik. Baji Rout voluntarily joined the Banar Sena and undertook the responsibility of spying over British Police, to convey messages about the movement of British troops in his locality and also he promised to stop the ferry of British police over the Brahmani river to enter into his village. Baji Rout and his friends of Banar Sena used to sing the following song against the political agents of feudal-colonial rulers: “ebe mana dei suna thare dalal dala, bela aasilani chapi deba praja mandala” (hey, brokers gang of imperialists, now listen to us in rapt attention, your time has come to end, Praja Mandal will destroy you all).

On October 10, 1938, Baji Rout was also posted at the bank of the Brahmani river “by the Praja Mandal as a sentinel to watch over the ‘ghat’ and to see that the boat was not used by the British police to cross the river for carrying out their murderous game of killing and looting people and burning down the houses of peaceful villagers.   On that fateful day,  late night, a magistrate and a police sub-inspector with an armed force of forty men entered Bhuban village with warrant of arrest against eighteen persons. The police arrested eighteen persons and shot two persons dead. When the police came out with the arrested men, villagers gathered in massive numbers and requested the police with folded hands to stop firing and to release these innocent people. It was raining and pitch dark. Some policemen flashed their torch and fired. Forty to fifty people were killed and several injured in the firing. In the same night, six persons were killed in police firing including Baji Rout at Nilakanthapur village. The police left the village at a running pace, without caring to count the dead and the wounded, not to speak of rendering first aid (AICC file G 35, Part II, 1938, f 23; quoted in Pradhan, 2011: 180). The British police “immediately started a pursuit and were met by blockade of simple villagers, who refused to give up their local hero. The authorities then opened indiscriminate fire at the villagers”. On September 22, 1938, “a surprise raid was planned where Hara Mohan Pattanayak and other leaders were arrested. Pattanayak was wilier than they thought, and he escaped”. On October 10, 1938, the police were searching for the Praja Mandal leader Har Mohan Pattanayak and went to Bhuban to arrest him. During the raid, “Pattanaik had escaped by jumping into the Brahmani river to swim to safety to Nilakanthapur village on the other side and meeting other revolutionary there”. With some other arrested persons, the policemen reached at the Nilakanthapur Ghat two miles away from Bhuban to ferry across the river Brahmani in the midnight.  “Incidentally, Baji Rout had been asked by senior Praja Mandal activists to keep an eye on the Ghat, to ensure that cops didn’t get ferried across the river. Baji Rout was sleeping at the time when these troops approached him to ferry them across the river”. They roused Baji and demanded his boat to be taken across. The state boats had been sunk earlier (Rath, 1993: 184). “The news of the brutality carried out by the British police had already reached Baji by this time”. Baji looked at the troops with drowsy eyes still moist with fleeting dreams. The troops pointed their guns at his chest and repeated their demand in a still coarser voice. “The winds were howling and thunder-clouds clapped across the distant sky. But the little hero stood undaunted and an inspired voice rang outthis boat of mine belongs to Praja Mandal. This cannot be hired out to you-the enemy of the people” (Routray, 1954: 12). With rage and ire, “one of the policemen shook his tiny body violently while another struck his head with the heavy butt of his gun. The pale body of the little hero collapsed like a young Sal struck down by a sharp gust of wind. His skull was fractured and blood was oozing profusely” (Routray, 1954: 12). However, he did not succumb immediately. He got up and jumped to the river bank from the boat tied ashore and called out to the workers of Praja Mandal in a loud and resonant voice. His voice was heard by the villagers who were asleep in their homes and like a siren it warned them of an approaching storm. Soon after, other workers of Praja Mandal appeared on the scene. “They fastened the rope of the boat tightly to their waists and stood on the bank like trees deeply rooted in the soil. The police cut the rope that fastened the boat and rowed away. After rowing away the boat a few yards the troops loaded their guns and fired a volley at the silent crowd standing on the bank. A few were killed instantly and many were wounded fatally” (Routray, 1954: 12-13).

The dark lonely night of a still darker land witnessed the martyrdom of seven tall fighters of our land. Baji Rout along with his friends Hurushi Pradhan, Laxman Mullick, Raghu Nayak, Guri Nayak, Nata Mullick, and Fagu Sahu were killed and fell martyrs to imperialist bullets (Routray, 1954: 13). Seven dead bodies which were in a state of putrefaction were brought by boat to Jenapur and from there to Cuttack by rail and were placed in a separate bullock carts and were marched through the streets of Cuttack in a grand procession before post-mortem (Banerji, 1938: 12). Socialist leaders Sachi Routray, Ananta Patnaik, Rabi Ghosh, Motilal Tripathy, and Gobinda Tripathy cremated these seven martyrs at Khan Nagar, Cuttack near the Kathajodi river, on October 13, 1938.

The funeral fire roused the poetic emotion of Sachi Routray who wrote his famous poem titled “Baji Rout” in 1938. Sachidananda Routray, Jnanpith Award winning poet famously wrote,

" ନୁହେଁ ବନ୍ଧୁ, ନୁହେଁ ଏହା ଚିତା , ଏ ଦେଶ ତିମିର ତଳେ ଏ ଅଲିଭା ମୁକତି ସଳିତା। "

 “This is not a funeral flame, O’ friends! When the country is in dark despair, It is the light of our liberty, It is our freedom-fire”. 

 

Baji Rout was only 12 when he was tortured and killed by Imperial Police.   The gruesome killing and his martyrdom must have been part of our history.  National monuments; places of importance, buildings, bridges should be named after such martyrs so the upcoming generation will value freedom, respect their martyrdom.  Alas, we know – how for decades all projects, all sports, everything have been named after a single family !! 

With sadness – tribute to all unsung martyrs  - Jai Hind

S. Sampathkumar

18.8.2025

 

Biblio: : https://magazines.odisha.gov.in/orissareview/2021/August/engpdf/page-4-11.pdf

Banerji, B.N., Dhenkanal Unrest: A Review. Cuttack: Mukur Press, 1938.

Mahtab, H.K., History of the Freedom Movement in Orissa, Vol.IV. Cuttack: State Committee for Compilation of History of the Freedom Movement in Orissa, 1957.

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