Last Surviving Freedom Fighter Recalls Quit India Movement and Calls for Continued Struggle
It was 1942. YC Revanna, then 15, jumped out of the school window, as did many of his friends and classmates. Instead of classes, they ran to join the Quit India movement . All of them were more or less convinced that they were part of something bigger, something that could drive the British out of the land they called home. Now 99, Revanna, one of Mysuru’s last two surviving registered freedom fighters , believes the leaders of the time had inspired them to skip classes that day. “The leaders we had were very promising: Devaraj Urs, S Nijalingappa, and MN Jois (popularly known as Lion of Mysore), they made us feel the significance of freedom. It (joining the protest) was really about a fascination with how our participation could drive out the British, and we could rule ourselves,” says Revanna, who will be turning 100 next year around Independence Day. On August 15, he hopes to hoist the national flag at Mysuru’s Freedom Fighters’ Park or Subbarayanakere Park, where the Independence Day celebrations take place every year. Even after 79 years of freedom, Revanna says, our country still has a long way to go. “Swarajya was just a part of Indian movements. The youth must continue to organise and agitate till we attain Ramarajya,” he emphasises. The 99-year-old served as president of the Mysore freedom fighters’ association in its heydays, when it had 145 registered members. Today, only Revanna and Male Gowda are there to recall how the Quit India movement had shaken the British. Revanna’s first participation in the protests in 1942 had cost him dearly. Those days, the British Police used to arrest and jail leaders and protesters who were above 18 years. But the rules were different for minors. In the first instance of being caught at a protest, minors were abandoned in forests, where the police hoped the children would lose their way. In Mysuru, the forest where they were infamously abandoned was ‘Kakana Kote’, some 73 km away from Mysuru and now part of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. Then, as now, wild animals, including elephants, tigers and leopards, roamed the canopy-covered trails of ‘Kakana Kote’, named after tribal leader Kaka Nayaka who walked its paths and went on to openly revolt against the Mysore kingdom’s tax collectors. After being detained, Revanna and his friends were similarly abandoned. “The first time I got arrested with my friends, we were taken deep into the forest and were left in the pitch-dark night. It took some days to return home,” he says. In the second instance of being caught, not even minors were spared from jail. Revanna, however, continued to attend the protests. “This time, the police were waiting for us, waiting to put us in prison. But that did not stop us from fighting for Indian independence,” says the 99-year-old with a grin. After matriculation, he was admitted to Class 11, but his desire to be a part of the independence movement eventually drove him to skip schooling. “I quit midway and participated in the Indian freedom struggle on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi,” he says. YC Revanna recalls learning the meaning of freedom at a very young age from the local freedom freedom fighters and their stories. At seven years of age, when he was visiting his sister in Mysore in January 1934, Mahatma Gandhi was visiting the city as part of his campaign against untouchability. “I was very young. Everyone ran towards the main road to see Gandhi. I was a curious child and got a glimpse of him from afar. But later, his ideas and philosophies always stayed with me,” he says. Born on 25 August 1927 to Channaveera Devaru and Rudramma in a small village named Hale Yedathore, some 45 km from Mysuru, Revanna says that later in school, he sharpened his political ideas. Devaru was a trader during British rule but a few years after his son’s birth, Hale Yedathore that lay on the banks of the Cauvery river was totally destroyed in the floods. Then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, built a town named Krishnarajanagar, or popularly KR Nagar, for the displaced people, some five km from their destroyed village. At KR Nagar, Revanna’s family started a new life. “We used to hear about the freedom struggle, which was happening in the country, but were not aware of its significance. By the time I turned 15, I was a student at Sri Krishnarajendra Government Boys High School in KR Nagar. Leaders then were encouraging youngsters to participate in the freedom movement,” he says. It didn’t take Revanna long after that to join. Five years later, on August 15, 1947, when India eventually attained independence from the British, an elated Revanna, like many others, celebrated. But that was not the end of it. The then king of the Princely State of Mysore, Jayacharamaja Wodeyar, had signed the Instrument of Accession to join the Indian Union only days before Independence, on August 9, 1947, but did not easily agree to a democratically accountable state government. Protesting this, the Mysore State Congress, led by KC Reddy, launched a satyagraha on 1 September 1947, named ‘Mysore Chalo’, a slogan inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose’s ‘Delhi Chalo’. Revanna also marched. He was leading a padayatra of nearly a 1,000 youths in KR Nagar and was supposed to cover 45 km, but was arrested mid-way. He was released only after the Maharaja conceded to an interim government on September 24, 1947. Once out of jail, Revanna worked as a government school teacher and served as one until 1983, when he retired. Throughout, he continued writing and participating in agitations and social work. Till recently, Revanna was attending school and college programmes to raise awareness about the significance of freedom and how society needs to move forward. Currently, though, he lives a quiet life in Sharadadevi Nagar in Mysuru. His health deteriorated after his wife Kamalamma passed away last year in February. But his spirit of dissent is inviolable. “Be it the British or the people in power today, whenever there is injustice, the youth need to step up and fight. Agitations and movements must never stop… It must continue for the good of the nation,” he says. Comparing his era and now, he says, “Unfortunately, the country has been divided based on religion and caste, and there are no quality leaders who can take everyone along. Sometimes, when I see these things, I feel it would have been better if India never won freedom from the British or from the Mysore king. But I hope the youth will change my opinion.”
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