Thread by @PSainath_org

1/8. With the passing of Ramchandra Sripati Lad (underground name ‘Captain Bhau’) on Feb. 5 – India lost one of her greatest freedom fighters. On June 7, 1943, his Toofan Sena squads looted a British Raj train at Shenoli, Maharashtra. Story link at end of thread.
#FreedomFighter

2/8. The money from the Raj payroll was spent on struggling farmers and workers in a year of great hunger. “It is unjust to say we looted anything,” he complained. “What the British had looted from us Indians, we brought a small part of that back to our people.”
#FreedomFighter

3/8. Captain Bhau’s Toofan Sena was the armed wing of the prati sarkar, the underground provisional government that had declared Satara’s secession from the British Raj and which actually held sway across 600 villages or more for three years from 1943 to 1946.
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4/8. “We fought for two things, Independence and Freedom – we achieved Independence.” Freedom, observed Captain Bhau, is still the monopoly of a few. “Today, the man who has money rules…he who holds the hare is the hunter – this is the state of our freedom.”
#FreedomFighter

5/8. At age 95 in 2017 he marched in a farmer’s rally in Kundal, Maharashtra. In 2018, he video messaged the 1 lakh farmers marching on Parliament in Delhi. “If I were in better health,” the old warrior thundered, at age 96, “I would be there marching with you.”
#FreedomFighter

6/8. Captain Bhau loved PARI. He said, after the film we made on him was shown in his hometown: “I felt very emotional watching that film. Earlier, most young people in my own village knew nothing, had no idea who I was or what my role was” in India’s freedom.
#FreedomFighter

7/8. But PARI’s article and film, “have revived the memory of the prati sarkar…revived our pride and honour. This was our true story.” Now the younger generation looked at him “with new respect. This, in my last and final years, has restored our respect."
#FreedomFighter

8/8. Why was he still going out marching in the sun in his 90s? What was he fighting for now? Invoking memories of the freedom struggle, he said: “Then also it was for farmers and workers, Sainath. Now also it is for farmers and workers.”
#FreedomFighter
ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/a-…