The Freedom Fighter Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Our freedom fighters their prisoners
As thus the theories keep changing,
Shadows go shifting
And values and thinkings changing.

Many of the freedom fighters were but the blunt people,
The rustics and ruffians,
The lathi men
With big dandas into their hands
To save from snakes and other wild animals,
To keep as a help for old age,
To drive the thieves away

Some of them not, but most of them critical fellows,
I mean the screwed men,
A little educated, a little bit practical
Quoting epigrams like the oldie Bacon,
The medievalistic people,
Some of them of course
Well-read in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

But they were egoistic people, thinking within,
Sharing not with the commonly,
Waiting to adorn the chairs on occasions,
I mean the Gandhians,
The Gandhites,
Clothed in khadi kurta, dhoti and a cap
And with a danda.

The Gandhis going and the people seeing,
The half-fed, half-clothed people,
The men in the white clothes
And their whiteness
Making others respect,
A costly affair too,
As who will wash?

Many of them got pensions, freedom fighters’ money,
Many could not avail of
The then time little money,
Many just got their names included in
After getting signed by
A few of them known to as jail mates