There were battles on other fronts, too, that Panimara’s freedom fighters had to wage. Some of these were right at home.
Inspired by Gandhiji’s call against untouchability, they acted.
“One day, we marched into our Jagannath temple in this village with 400 Dalits,” says Chamaru. The Brahmins did not like it. But some of them supported us. Maybe they felt compelled to. Such was the mood of the times. The gauntiya (village chief) was managing trustee of the temple. He was outraged and left the village in protest. Yet, his own son joined us, supporting us and denouncing his father’s action.
“The campaign against British goods was serious. We wore only khadi . We wove it ourselves. Ideology was a part of it. We actually were very poor, so it was good for us.”
All the freedom fighters stuck to this practice for decades afterwards. Until their fingers could no longer spin or weave. “At 90, last year,” says Chamaru, “I thought it was time to stop.”
It all started with a Congress-inspired “training” camp held in Sambalpur in the 1930s. “This training was called ` sewa ‘ [service] but instead we were taught about life in
— source ruralindiaonline.org | P. Sainath | Jul 22, 2014