During the medieval and modern times, the independence movement of the country grew rapidly and gained much more importance. Maharana Pratap is known to be the first freedom fighter of India. He was the bravest and the most courageous warrior that India has ever produced. He was the only Rajput Ruler who did not surrender in the hands of the Mughals. The Battle of Haldighati defines his legacy both as an effective administrator as well as an accomplishment of being a great warrior. We can define his legacy by the fact that despite having a meager 20,000 Rajput Warriors with him, he literally created havoc in the Mughal Campaign and literally defeated the Mughals despite having over 1 Lakh soldiers.
The fact that Maharana Pratap was one of the greatest warriors that India has ever produced that can be fully justified is that even Akbar, the Ruler of India at that time even didn’t dare to come to the battlefield to fight with the Greatest Warrior of all time Maharana Pratap because of the tremendous fear and fear of being humiliated and defeated from Maharana Pratap. When Maharana Pratap died, even Akbar cried and Tansen sang most emotional song. Another fine example of greatest warrior and an exemplary leader with great oratory skills and an extraordinary administrator was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who defeated Mughals many times.
Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s is not only famous in Maharashtra, but whole of India. But great valor and extraordinary administrative skills also require great amount of sacrifices and bloodsheds for the nation. So it also happened during the reign of Shivaji. Great warriors like Tanhaji Malusare, Baji Prabhu Deshpandey, Haider Ali Kohari, Darya Sarang, Ibrahim Khan and Daulat Khan, Siddi Ibrahim, Ranojirao Ghorpade were some of the prominent warriors who sacrificed their lives for their motherland under the reign of Shivaji Maharaj. Chattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, Baji Rao 1, Mahatma Gandhi, Rana Kumbha, Rana Sanga, Tatya Tope, Sadashiv Rao Bhau, Veer Savarkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Bal Gangadhar Tilak etc were the other prominent rulers from West India who fought valiantly and sacrificed their lives for the motherland.
From the regions of Bundelkhand and Central Indian Regions we have Jhalkari Bai, Maharani Laxmi Bai, Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar, Maharani Durgavati, from North we have Mangal Pandey, Ramprasad Bismil, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, Chandrashekhar Azad, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Ji, Aruna Asaf Ali, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Shambhu Dutt Sharma, Ashfaqulla Khan, Manmath Nath Gupta, Udham Singh, from East India we had Jatindra Das, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Maurya Dynasty, Khudiram Bose, Dadabhai Nauroji, Birsa Munda, Veer Babu Kunwar Singh etc and from South India we had Alluri Sitarama Raju, George Joseph, Sarojini Naidu, Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy, Vedre Ramachandra Reddy Bhoodhan, Karnad Sadashiv Rao, K.G. Gokhale etc were some of the freedom fighters from all parts of India who sacrificed their lives to save their motherland.
The freedom that India has presently got and now the citizens of the country can live freely without any intervention (India got its complete independence on 15th August 1947 with exception of Goa as it was freed later in 1960s) was overall a daunting and a humongous task all together. Right from the ancient times, there were several wars of independence to free the nation from foreign invasions such as wars against Alexander’s expeditions in India (by King Porus and Chanakya), war against Hunas (by Gupta Rulers), war against Central Asian Kingdoms, the three Battles of Panipat ( 1526, 1556 and 1761, the 1761 being the most brutal battle as lakhs of Marathas were killed), battle against the Mughals and the Delhi Sultanate Rulers by various kingdoms of the country and finally the battle against European Colonial Rule in India (Battle Of Plassey, Battle of Buxar, Anglo-Maratha Wars, Anglo-Mysore Wars led by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan against Britishers, Anglo-Burmese War, Anglo-Sikh Wars etc) shape the history and led to the rise of new independent India. When it comes to the battle that was fought for the independence of India, no one can forget the Rebellion of 1857 which involved great warriors such as Maharani Laxmi Bai, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Tatya Tope, Mangal Pandey and many more. This was the battle that paved the path for the independence of the country and to create awareness among all citizens and encouraged them to respect the value of sacrifices that their ancestors have made for the independence of the country from the hands of the foreigners.
During the early 20th century, the freedom movement in the country took a rapid pace and started to spread in each and every part of the country because of the prominent leaders such as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Ji, Khudiram Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dadabhai Nauoroji, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and many more. But during all these independence struggles and freedom movements there were riots between various communities such as Muslim-Sikh Riots, Muslim-Hindu Riots in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata, Rajasthan, Gujarat and many more places because of the British Policy of Divide and Rule. Hence because of these events, it led to the partition of the country into two new countries i.e. – Pakistan and Bangladesh. As a result, lakhs of innocent youths, women, children, poor people, beloved persons etc, lost their lives, were killed brutally, raped or being sent to rehabilitation centers, brutalized, tormented, tortured and many other things that a normal human being cannot even imagine. Hence, the independence of India has not come so easily.
CONCLUSION- The final conclusion that be drawn from the above discussions is that all the common citizens of the country whether they are poor or rich, whether they are women or children, whether they are disabled or a normal human being, whether they are Parsi or Hindu, whether he is a Prime Minister or an IAS officer everyone have to respect the sacrifices that have been made by our great freedom fighters and hence should try to remain together with peace, integrity, oneness and most importantly should live together as brothers and sisters. There are several regions who are demanding separate states for themselves so that they can have their own unique identity and can leave peacefully.
For instance Dravidians want separate nation for themselves, in recent times there is a division of Andhra Pradesh into two separate nations- Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In earlier times there is division of Uttar Pradesh into two separate nations- Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand (still some people are demanding further divisions of the State into various smaller states such as Harit Pradesh, Purvanchal, Bundelkhand etc), Bihar into two states- Bihar and Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh into Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh respectively. There are further demands for the division of other states such as Gorkhaland from West Bengal, separate region for North-East Region of India, Vidarbha from Maharashtra, Saurashtra from Gujarat and so on.
This disintegration of the states will lead to abysmal state of the country and the progress of the country would collapse. Hence all the citizens of the country should understand that they should not waste he efforts of sacrifices of the freedom fighters of the country and should maintain integrity and brotherhood. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, known as Iron Man of India helped in the integration of the smaller kingdoms into one single unit known as India and hence we should not waste his efforts nor he freedom fighters of the country.
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