Haryana The Torch Bearer of 1857

Book excerpt: : Some of the recent writers have exploded many a myth concerning the First War of Independence in 1857. Tejinder Singh Walia has ventured to straighten the record through highlighting the role of Haryana in the freedom struggle in his book "HARYANA THE TORCH BEARER OF 1857.It makes an illuminating and serious reading. The writer's burning desire to unearth much of the truth that lays buried in the National Archives brings out many revealing facts and figures regarding the many-faceted sacrifices heroically made by the men, women and children of the soil now falling under the state of Haryana. The book is replete with facts and figures to make the authenticity of the claim convincing and substantial. For example, the fires that engulfed the buildings owned by the British Rulers were the first symptoms of revolt against the English masters on the very soil of Ambala a fact which cannot be underplayed by any amount of contrary reasoning. There are lots of other examples of defiance and rebellion stated in the book to illustrate the fact that not only the soldiers but the common man in the civics to equally shared the quota of sufferings in the form of inhuman torture, unfair prosecution and the sudden death meted out to the strong-minded patriots. Though we are all burdened by the overwhelming problems like the global warming, inflationary pressures and lots of other case of corruption, social and economic injustice, we still fervently harbor and are eager to express, feel and pay back what ever debt, however inadequately, the debt of gratitude and responsibility. So, goaded on by a strong desire to redness the dearth of awareness among our fellow-beings regarding the unforgettable sacrifices made by our freedom fighters, for example, how men, women and children were crushed ruthlessly by the rulers making the road named LAL SADAK in Hansi, a perennial reminder of the what man do to a man. Hence what started as an initial curiosity turned into a marathon search for the deeper recesses of the archives for the writer, his kith and kin, friends and a few other well-wishers in spending many sleepless nights and restless days to pay back a great debt to not only his own Walia ancestors but also to do justice to every freedom fighters of Haryana. Tejinder Singh Walia concedes that, after all, it were the cumulative sacrifices of the proud people of our pluralistic society whose glorious saga gave us the basis of a staunch national character. The readers would find the reading of the book absorbing and revealing from both aspects historical as well as human.