07/03/2021
From the Pages of History
Comrade Dhanwantri: a revolutionary patriot
Sunday, July 14 1991
By Ved Pal 'Deep'
COMRADE DHANWANTRI was one of the noted revolutionary patriots of this country, died 38 years ago (on July 13, 1953) in Jammu at the age of 51. It is a coincidence that his end come on the auspicious "Marytrs Day". Dhanwantri had achieved martyrdom even before he died by dint of sacrifices he made during his life.
Fifteen years of hard and torturous life in British jails had played havoc with his health and he was in the grip of several ailments of serious nature which would have ordinarily incapacitated any other men. But Dhanwantri had an indomitable will which made him a living Martyr.
During his last days he had to breath with the aid of oxygen cylinder constantly kept by his beside but his wish indulgence in political and public engagement never ceased. In the real sense of the term, he died in political harness. His zest for for life with an unfettered optimism for future was tremendous.
TRUE PATRIOT
The whole country must be proud of patriots like Dhanwantri and the people of the State, more especially the inhabitants of Jammu, can shake off feeling of inferiority and keep their head high with the revelation that in one of the politically most backward parts of the country, where votaries of feudal system and symbols of repression and exploitation were held high in esteem and accorded unrestrained official adulation by observing commemoration celebrations in their honour and installation of statues in their memory, there was a son of soil who not only rose against British imperialism and risked his life several times but also fought incessantly for the overthrow of the rule of Indian exploiting classes and made unusual sacrifices for the cause of working people. And he carried on his struggle resolutely till last glimmer of life in him faded out.
Dhanwantri was born in a well to do family of Jammu. Yet hardly in his teens, he went to Lahore and sought admission in the famous D A V College where he came in contact with a group of young students burning with patriotic zeal and unbearable longing to lay down theie lives for the country. Some of the leading lights of this group included, the great martyr Bhagat Singh, Bhagwati Charan Verma and Chander Shekhar Azad. Many of these youngmen, sizzling with patriotism, later gave up their lives for the motherland or led a life of privations and hardships during long spells of incarceration.
Dhanwantri too, joined the "Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha" and "Socialist Republican Army" the clandestine organizations the young revolutionary studnets had formed to carry out their mission to overthrow the British rule. The three decades of Dhanwantri's life after his initation to the so called terrorist school of hectic life beset with revolutionary exploits, patriotic fervour, courage, valour and subjection to inhuman suffering and physical torture in British prisons. He had a last stint of imprisonment in "Kala Pani" (Andamans Jail) where hundreds of ther revolutionaries were also detained.
Dhanwantri like many of his colleagues had acquired a fascination for Marxism and his mind was in the process of gradual transition from dare-devil terrorism and revolutionary romanticism to the ideological domain of scientific socialism and mass struggle. In the Andamans he had ample time and opportunities to study Marxism and exchange views with the co - prisoners. The result was that along with several of his colleagues he decided to join the Communist Party of India (CPI) which was under a severe attack of the British rule at that time.
Dhanwantri's name, of course, struck terror in the minds of imperialists and their collaborators, the Indian exploiting classes but his mellow and pleasing disposition, his penchant for striking personal rapport with political workers and common folk, his sweet temperament and his simple heartedness verging on rustic nativity and several qualities of head and heart, were enough to impress his compatriots and win their hearts, hands down. He was a man whom his denigrators and political adversaries also held in high esteem. It depicts a measure of his popularity that soon after his release from Andamans he was made the President of the Lahore district Congress Committee by unanimous popular acclaim.
Several interesting anecdotes beset the revolutionary carrier of Dhanwantri. Once in his bid to run away fron the Jail by jumping over the high stone wall he had a fall and injured himself. This left a permanent physical scar around his waist that made it difficult for himto stand erect throughout his life. He was subjected to forced feeding several times when he observed prolonged hunger-strikes for various causes. His food pipe deep down upto his chest had been disfigured and disjoined on that account.
Once he shot at a British police officer when he had an encounter with him at Delhi's Chandani Chowk. The bullet hit the mettle piece on the belt of the Britisher. The police later misled people by shouting "Thief, Thief". The enraged public helpef police in apprehending their revolutionary hero whom they had not recognized. Dhanwantri was severely beaten up by the truth dawned upon them they wept and wailed like children.
Whenever during rail travel he alighted from a train, he looked around for an intelligence man to carry his luggage which the latter promptly did and felt obliged. Poor informer hardly perceived that it was done to mislead him and he wouldn't find Dhanwantri again where he feigned to be living. He had many a tricks in his bag to play traunts with CID men constantly following him. He had set up a "pharmacy" in an upper storey in Lahore's Anarkali Bazar and mostly sat near the window with one of his arms hanging outside to keep informers sitting across the road ambushed that the guy was inside. They never know when another guy with similar shirt and sleeve hanging his arm outside the window has replaced Dhanwantri and the bird had flown from the cage.
HOME COMING
The people of Jammu and Kashmir had an opportunity to work with the revolutionary hero who was indigenously related to tjem when Dhanwantri came to Jammu to start political work here at the behest of the CPI of which he was a revered leader. Thus ended his 28 years old self-imposed life in exile away from his home State. His arrival here around 1947 brought about a qualitative change in the political scenario of the State. He established a unit of the CPI here which in earlier years operated within the National Conference (NC) as its constituent as desired by the central leadership of the party. It is a well known fact now that in giving a progressive orientation to the "Naya Kashmir" programme of the National Conference and after its coming to power persuading its leadership to introduce land reforms in favour of the real tillets of the land and several other progressive measures, the Communist Party of India played an important and decisive role and in this entire process of bringing about socio-politico-economic transformation in this State Dhanwantri's deep understanding, first hand experience and advice of great value. While working in NC Dhanwantri never for a moment lost sight of the high ideals he held dear to his heart. He carried on an unrelented struggle against the reactionary elements which had a dominant position in the State's ruling party.
SHEIKH'S ANNOYANCE
Whe. In 1950, Sheikh Abdullah was apparently alarmed at the growth of progressive ideology within the NC and he publicly challenged Dhanwantri to choose one of the two courses' either he should remain a member of the Communist Party of India or become a member of the NC by snapping ties with the latter. Dhanwantri lost no time in making a decision. He resigned from the NC and expressed his first loyalty with the red flag with hammer and sickle which symbolised aspirations of the working class.
It would not be out of place to recall here that the first ever public meeting of the Communist Party of India was held at Purani Mandi, Jammu in which thousands of people participated with unprecedented enthusiasm. The meeting was presided over by Mr Ram Chand who had then been dismissed from service for taking leading part in the countrywide bamk employees' strike. Aging Ram Chand is still a leading activist of the Party in the State and heads Kisan Conference Committee in Bishnah - RS Pura belt.
This mass meeting was also the occasion for first ever public denunciation of reactionary elements in the State who later organised themselves in the form of Praja Parishad in Jammu. Dhanwantri exposed and vehemently criticised Pandit Prem Nath Dogra who, he said was a party to Maharaja's ill-advised idea ro disassociate from the Indian Union and carve out an Independent dominion of Jammu and Kashmir under his personal rule.
While graduating independence to India, the British Parliament passed an Act whereby the princely states were given option to accede to India or Pakistan or to maintain their status quo ante. Dhanwantri said in his speech while all other states (except erstwhile Hyderabad and Junagarh states) signed Instrument of Accession immediately and became part and parcel of Independent India. The J&K ruler opted for what was known Standstill Agreement which meant that the State would maintain its position as it enjoyed under British rule. Pakistan accepted Standstill Agreement. Consequently in continuation of previous set up Pakistani flag was foisted on post office buildings in the State as it fell in the range of communication coming under Pakistan. India, however, refused to such an ambivalent position of the state. Dhanwantri flayed some prominent personage claiming themselves representatives of Jammu, including Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, earlier leader of Hindu Sabha and member of Praja Sabha (Assembly in Maharaja's time) who supported Standstill Agreement. Significantly leader of the pro-Pak Muslim Conference in Praja Sabha, Choudhary Hamidullah Khan also vehemently supported the Standstill Agreement. Later events, however, shattered the illusion of State's independent existence under feudal dynasty. Such revelations cut to their size certain vested interests who flaunted their brand of patriotism day in and day out.
LAST YEARS
Dhanwantri spent last six years of his life in this State at a time when it was passing through a series of travails of partition, tribal attack, influx of refugees and collapse of administration. The so called "Kashmir Problem" being fresh and a burning question often referred to in the UN had complicated the situation further and very serious conditions prevailed in this sensitive border State of the country. Not on this, even the CPIbof which Dhanwantri was a leading light was itself suffering the pangs of violent repression as punitive measure for its role in masterminding of the Tellingana peasant uprising launched against its cadres by Indian Government which deployed massive military and police force to crush it. The party was also greatly paralyzed on account of its internal differences. In several partsbof the country its units had been banned. Any other person with lesser potential for political acumen, patient consideration and a high standard of moral integrity and public stature would have probably not found himself competent to deal which such a complicated situation.
Only a man Dhanwantri's versatility could provide a competent leadership to progressive elements in the polity of this State and he did acquit himself commendably in fulfilling the historic task. He exercised a great measure of political sagacity and statemanship, the qualities which he had in abundance, to steer the State unit of the party from both the right and the left deviations and saved it from the extremism of the either side. His political line under the circumstances, the State was passing through, had proved more or less correct. The credit for raising the prestige of and giving a popular image to the party should largely go to him.
TIMELY WARNING
Dhanwantri was the first to foresee the ominous advent of communal riots as a result of partition of the country. In fact he had warned, the government, political parties and the public at large as far back as in 1946 of the grave situation that was precipitating on the eve of partition, by publishing a booklet the "Bleeding Punjab" in which he gave a detailed account of his observations and first hand information. Kh Ahmed Abbas much later when communal riots in the divided India had taken a massive toll of life and property, admonished the Indian Government for not heeding the timely warning given by Dhanwantri and adopting some of the measure suggested by him to mitigate the suffering of people.
Dhanwantri was the founder of the CPI in the state. Several opportunist, unscrupulous and spineless elements and person had too, left a mark of pollution and degeneration on the party since they joined it only to take personal advantage of its association with the ruling National Conference. Many of sich sycophants and fair weather political luminaries later sold their conscience to become Chief Minister, ministers and grabbed high positions in the bureaucracy or made fabulous money through other fraudulent means. But the activities of these scums could not smother the flame lit by Dhanwantri. The torch which he handed over to us still burns and is being carried forward by a large number of dedicated communists who were educated, trained and steeled under his personal guidance and care.
