Kumaon Parishad
We have already told in the post related to the history of Uttarakhand, the birth of small Thakuri strongholds in the prehistoric period of Uttarakhand, and the subsequent socio-economic changes. After its collapse, the British arrived in Uttarakhand and ruled this large area till 1947. But after the Gorkhas, if we look at the background of Uttarakhand's contribution to India's freedom struggle, then the mention of Kumaon Parishad and Kumaon Parishad's session comes out again and again.
After all, what was the contribution of the Kumaon Parishad in the demand for independence arising in Uttarakhand, and how its session initiated the rebellion in Kumaon as well as British Garhwal and Rajshahi, so read this post till the end.
Background of birth of Kumaon Parishad in Uttarakhand
After 1815, the cruel rule of Gorkhas ended with the Treaty of Sigoli. The period of the rule of the Gorkhas is known in Garhwal as "Gorkhali or Gorkhyali". The way the Gurkhas ruled Kumaon in Uttarakhand in 1791 and Garhwal in 1804, there was an atmosphere of panic among the people of the region. The residents of Uttarakhand did not dare to overthrow the Gorkha Raj due to various types of oppressive tax systems and cruel judicial systems. In this episode, I have also told you the story of Raini of Chamoli.
In this episode, the Gurkhas attacked and damaged the province of Butwal, which was under British rule. Eventually, the company took steps to uproot the Gorkha power from Uttarakhand and drew the border between Nepal and Uttarakhand between the Kali River.
Because the residents of Uttarakhand had just gone through the oppressive policy and barbaric judicial system, it was only natural that the residents of this place connected with the company emotionally. But as soon as in 1857, Kalu Mehra, the head of Mahara village, jumped into the revolution against the British in Kali Kumaon. It gave birth to a new rebellious ideology against the British authority.
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The biggest hand in the birth of this rebellious ideology was also Ramje, who was then broadcast in the name of good governance. Who imposed martial law to suppress the rebellion of Kali Kumaon in 1857 and started the practice of pushing a person with moonshine and hanging him on a donkey in Nainital. This stopped the rebellion, but no historian talked about the birth of the idea of non-English rule born from it.
Apart from this, he considered the beginning of education in Uttarakhand by the British in 1858 as its root cause. As people for education moved from Uttarakhand to other corners of the country for higher education, they were inspired by the revolts raised by the British at various places. It cannot be said from this that education was the root of the bitterness that developed for the British or the ban on the dependence of the common people in the forests. But from my point of view, its origin was born only when the British started ruling Garhwal and Kumaon, and a question that naturally arises in every ecosystem and human being, "How a person from outside?" And it is from here that not only physically, but mentally, rebellion is born.
Yes, education definitely worked to give voice to this political and social consciousness, which strengthened the voices of protest in the form of newspapers. In this consciousness first Samay Vinod in 1868, then Debating Club in 1870 and Almora newspaper in 1871 emerged.
That is, along with Uttarakhand, the stage was set in other parts of the country as well, the players were also ready and had the capability, but now there was a need to give a medium to this voice. Historians say, after the birth of Congress in 1885, this deficiency was removed. But this answer definitely raises a question in the mind - did Congress really do the same thing in Uttarakhand?
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Because in 1912, when Congress was established in Uttarakhand, after 4 years there was public awareness, but the expected results could not be seen. The Congress used to talk about opposing the policies of the British but the regional problems were absent. Only then the Kumaon Parishad is established by some conscious people who were inspired by the Congress and through the session of the Kumaon Parishad, the voice of national freedom along with regional freedom is raised by harmonizing the regional problem with the national problem.
Establishment of Kumaon Council
As I have told above from the background of Kumaon Parishad, national consciousness was born in Uttarakhand, but even after that there was no open opposition from the people socially, the biggest reason for which is the lack of assertiveness of the Congress on the regional problem. For this reason, the Kumaon Council was formed in the year 1916.
Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant, Badridatt Pandey, Lakshmi Shastri, Indra Lal Shah, Har Govind Pant, Chandralal Shah, Mohan Singh, Prem Ballabh Pandey, Bholadatt Pandey, Mohan Joshi, etc. were there in the establishment of Kumaon Parishad. The Kumaon Parishad organized agitations regarding many problems in the area. Regional councils were also formed in many places. So that the movement can be run more actively and conveniently.
Contribution of Kumaon Council
If we count the contribution of Kumaon Parishad to the regional anger arising in Uttarakhand, many unprecedented examples can be seen. In which the most prominent example is a huge movement against the Coolie Begar system. Although the Kumaon Parishad remained for a short period of 10 years from 1916 to 1926, even in this short tenure, it left an unprecedented impression on the people of Uttarakhand. This not only increased the self-confidence of the Kumaon Council but also brought the then-English commissioner to his knees.
In the most important contribution of Kumaon Parishad, the mention of a huge movement against Coolie Begar will always be written in golden letters in the history of Uttarakhand because, since 1815, a huge movement took place in 1921 against this British evil practice which has been going on for 100 years.
On January 14, 1921, under the leadership of Badridutt Pandey, Hargovind Pant and Chiranjilal, etc., on the day of the Uttarayani fair on the banks of the Saryu river in Bageshwar, 40,000 freedom fighters took an oath not to do coolie forced labor and threw the register related to it into the Saryu river. Ended up
On the other hand, in the year 1919, in the third session of the Kumaon Council, the Nayak Samaj Reform Committee was established by the Kumaon Parishad more than 400 years, whose first meeting was held in Nainital. Due to his untiring efforts, the Nayak Samaj Reform Movement was started to connect the Nayak Samaj with the mainstream of the society and finally, this evil practice came to an end.
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On the other hand, the Kumaon Parishad organized successful agitations on many problems like forest policy, license policy, new litigation, forest settlement etc. This is the reason why by raising voice against regional problems of Kumaon Parishad, public awareness was created in Uttarakhand against the tyranny and unjust policy of foreign rule. At the same time, the credit for the birth of the feeling of nationalism among the regional people also goes to the Kumaon Council. Later this Council merged with the Congress in 1926.
kumaon council session
Kumaon Council session Location President
First session (1917) Almora Jaydutt Joshi
Second session (1918) Haldwani Tara Dutt Gairola
Third Session (1919) Kotdwar Badridutt Joshi
Fourth Session (1920) Kashipur Hargovind Pant
Fifth Session (1923) Tanakpur Badridutt Pandey
Sixth Session (1926) Ganiya Dioli Barrister Mukundilal
The first session of the Kumaon Council (1917)
After the formation of the Kumaon Parishad in 1916, every year the sessions of the Parishad were held at different places. In which voices were raised on different issues. The first session of the Kumaon Parishad was held in September 1917 at Almora. Which was presided over by Jaydutt Joshi. Jaydutt Joshi was a retired deputy collector. All types of leadership, young and old, were present in this session.
In the very first session of the Kumaon Parishad, the lack of unanimity between the young and old leaders became visible. The old leaders were moderate while the new leaders were inspired by radical nationalism and the ideology of Tilak. In this session, a plan was made for the promotion of the Council, for which Lakshmidatta Shastri was elected. Lakshmidatta Shastri did the propaganda of the council from village to village. Due to his efforts, the Kumaon Parishad became popular in the rural areas.
The second session of the Kumaon Council (1918)
The second session of the Kumaon Council was held in Haldwani in December 1918. Rai Bahadur Tara Dutt Gairola presided over the second session of the Kumaon Parishad. The youth dominated the session. In this session, a resolution was passed in which the government was asked to abolish Coolie Begar within two years. At the same time, this warning was also given, if it is not abolished by the government, then the public will do Satyagraha.
Third Session of Kumaon Council (1919)
The third session of the Kumaon Parishad was held at Kotdwar. Badridutt Joshi presided over the third session of the Kumaon Parishad. The number of participants in this session was more than 500, and the famous leaders of the time were also present in this session. Due to this, 2 resolutions were passed in the session, which were related to forest and coolie removal.
The leaders present in this convention included Govind Ballabh Pant, Badridutt Pandey, Mohan Joshi, Indralal Shah, Har Govind Pant, Jailal Shah, Prem Ballabh Pandey, Mohansingh Mehta, Taradutt Gairola, Girjadatta Naithani, Vishwambhardat Chandola, Mukundilal, Bachi Singh, Mohan Singh, Buddhiballabh Tripathi, Durgadatta Pant, Ramdatta Jyotirvid, Brijmohan Chandola, Narayan Swami, Anusuya Prasad Bahuguna, Mathuradatta Naithani, Dhaniram Mishra, Shivlal, Channi Shah, Pratap Singh, Lokmani Joshi, Hardutt Upadhyay were prominent.
Fourth session of Kumaon Council (1920)
The fourth session of the Kumaon Parishad was held in Kashipur in December 1920. Hargovind Pant presided over this session. Many resolutions were passed in this session, in which there was also a proposal for non-cooperation. In this way, in this convention, an exercise was made to connect the local movement with the national movement. The main feature of this convention was that the president of the celebration was appointed by the youth leadership instead of being appointed by the liberal leadership like other conventions. At the same time, the youth leadership was effective in this convention as well. Due to this, the liberals failed to convince their vote in this convention and they left the council.
Fifth session of the Kumaon Council (1923)
The famous five session of Kumaon was held in Tanakpur in 1923. Badrish Dutt Pandey presided over this movement.
Sixth Session of Kumaon Council (1926)
The sixth session of the Kumaon Parishad concluded in 1926 at Ganias Jholi. This session was presided over by Barrister Mukundilal. In this session, after several successful agitations, the Kumaon Parishad merged with the Congress.
Like Kumaon Parishad, Garhwal Parishad was also established in western Uttarakhand. Its first conference was held in Srinagar Garhwal on October 1919 in which many resolutions were passed. The first session of Garhwal Famous was held in Kotdwar in November 1920.
Thus, both the regional councils have been very successful in achieving the direct and indirect goals in Uttarakhand. The result of all this was that a large mass of people gathered for the upcoming national movement.
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