Thread by @SanaatanTales

𝑩𝑨𝑱𝑰 𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑻

🚩 Baji Rout was one of the youngest freedom fighters of India from Odisha. Baji Rout lost his father during infancy; started working as a boat-boy from a young age to run the family. He ferried people on the Brahmani river.

🚩 On the night of Oct 10, 1938, the British police, who carried out brutal murders of innocent freedom fighters in a nearby village, asked him to ferry them to the other side of the Brahmani River. Baji Rout flatly refused.

🚩 'This boat can't be hired to the enemy of the people' said Baji Rout. British police asked him again to obey their orders. Baji Rout refused again. They manhandled him and threatened him with death. Yet he remained adamant.

🚩 He thought better die for the motherland than give in to the commands and demands of the British!
The British hit Baji Rout hard on his head and fractured his skull. In such a condition, he screamed aloud alerting the villagers of the arrival of the British on the river bank.

🚩Villagers arrived soon after. The villagers refused to ferry the British and resisted. The British shot at the villagers who came. Many attained Veergati. Baji Rout attained Veergati on the Brahmani River bank. He was only 12 years old then.

🚩That's how the young and the old, including children, resisted the British!

🚩There are thousands of children freedom fighters who resisted British and sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Bharat Mata, for the freedom we enjoy today.

- 𝑺𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑺𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒉𝒊 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒉𝒂

#𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐒