Dear Sir, Indian minds, those who remain within the fort of power behave in queer ways. 1857 had been known as %u201CSepoy Mutiny%u201D until %u201970s of the last century. It had no relationship with the prospective Independence Movement, which came first as an elite movement under the Indian National Congress several years after, only in the next century. Well, %u201CSepoy Mutiny%u201D remained to be a historical date-line, no matter who scripted it. In the %u201970s, let us recall the power and popularity Smt Indira Gandhi, precisely after winning a Pakistani war and creation of Bangladesh as a new sovereign state. She smashed first the Syndicate within her party. Her actions like Abolition of Privy Purse, Bank Nationalization etc. were visibly of egalitarian approach. Then came the highest despised Emergency. Remember, Congress president Debakanta Barua saying: India is Indira and Indira is India? Indira%u2019s tendentious mind was then for dictatorship. After emergence of Democracy, no non-monarchial dictator world over would ever have claimed that he or she is great, instead the psychological rout has been: My Country is great; to govern the country my Party is great %u2013and, I am there, the Inevitable! From Hitler to Saddam, every one did so. Indira was no exception either. As usual, she started to preach about ultra-nationalism and in the process, there were obvious attempts to interfere in to the areas of history and distort the same. In the process, the Sepoy Mutiny was rechristened as First War of Indian Independence. Then for this there had never been any public deliberations; no historians of worth were consulted and it was unilaterally announced autocratic government in Delhi. Stipulation for justifying the new name was wherever, whoever for whatever purpose one fought or rebelled against British were taken to fit to the slot. Our question on this point is: Why not the %u201CPaika Mutiny%u201D of Orissa which lasted for more than 15 years from 1803 to 1817 in whole of Orissa from Khurda to Sambalpur %u2013 an open war against British %u2013 considered for this glory. Is Orissa not a part of India? Through you we request any body who can justify this ignorance. Rabi Kanungo, Intellectual Froum.
