NEWS

Bihar Chief Minister said February 15 would henceforth be commemorated as “Shahid Diwas” in memory of the 34 freedom fighters who were killed by police in Tarapur town of Bihar

WHAT HAPPENED

• On February 15, 1932, a group of young freedom fighters planned to hoist an Indian national flag at Thana Bhavan in Tarapur
• Police were aware of the plan, and several officers were present at the spot
• Around 2 pm, even as the police carried out a brutal lathicharge, one Gopal Singh succeeded in raising the flag at Thana Bhavan
• A 4,000-strong crowd pelted the police with stones, injuring an officer of the civil administration
• The police responded by opening indiscriminate fire on the crowd
• After about 75 rounds were fired, 34 bodies were found at the spot, even though there were claims of an even larger number of deaths

WHAT TRIGGERED THE PROTEST

• The hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru in Lahore on March 23, 1931, sent a wave of grief and anger around the country
• Following the collapse of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the Mahatma was arrested in early 1932
• The Congress was declared an illegal organisation, and Nehru, Patel, and Rajendra Prasad were also thrown in jail.
• In Munger, freedom fighters Srikrishna Singh, Nemdhari Singh, Nirapad Mukherjee, Pandit Dasrath Jha, Basukinath Rai, Dinanath Sahay, and Jaymangal Shastri were arrested
• There were two centres of activity for the freedom fighters in Munger: Dhol Pahadi near Tarapur, and Supaur-Jamua village in Sangrampur
• A call given by the Congress leader Sardar Shardul Singh Kavishwar to raise the tricolour over government buildings resonated in Tarapur
• At a meeting of freedom fighters held at Shri Bhavan in Supaur-Jamua, it was decided that a group of five freedom fighters, each carrying the national tricolour, would march towards government buildings, while hundreds would cheer them from a distance of 200 metres.