OUR FREEDOM FIGHTERS YOU NEVER KNEW
In history, biography and autobiography, we have read that all our Freedom fighters had jointly opposed the dominating British rule and that they had suffered by the iron-hand treatment of the infiltrators under the guise of East Indian Company merchants, who later squandered our wealth and seized the mother land, too.
But not all Indians willfully submitted themselves to the British brutal treatment for our Freedom. There were deep divisions between them! While one faction, majority of them under Mahatma, resorted to many agitations, the other had a different view, however, with a constructive purpose.
Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and many others, with an en masse always disobeyed the British rule vide many aggressions like, Non cooperative movement, Salt Satyagraha, Quit India move, banishing foreign goods, Dandi march and so on, the other group led by all equally high-profile leaders expressed their views to Mahatma to go soft and persuade the British rather diplomatically to give Freedom to India.
The objective of the second group is to go soft with the British, coax them, negotiate and get more employment opportunities for the Indians which was denied, and persuade, thus, and get Freedom.
Thus, the two groups remained divided, however, sticking to one goal: India’s Independence, The former, under Mahatma, was referred to as ‘extremists.’
The other group under the leadership of Gopal Krishna Gokhle, Surendranath Banerjee, Ferozeshah Mehta, Right Hon’ble Sir Srinivasa Shastri and many others was a soft one.
Despite the differences, the two groups attended the annual meetings. Gandhi was quoted as saying that Gokhle was his political guru. But after the death of Gokhle and Ferozeshah, the two factions slowly showed signs of merger. Nevertheless, they joined hands as and when there was any problem.
To cite another example, in 1935 the British govt, called the congress party to hold an election so that they could give training to the Indians in administration. But again the congress refused it pained the second group which, they reckoned would help them gain knowledge. Likewise, there was always a conflicting view between them!
