Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal on Wednesday paid rich tributes to the freedom fighters who laid their lives for India’s Independence and remembered Pari Bewa, a woman who fell to British bullets during a protest in the state in 1942.
While offering floral tribute at the Martyr’s Memorial here on the occasion of the August Kranti Diwas, Lal said that the Quit India movement launched on this day in 1942 forced the British rulers to leave.
“The country’s first woman martyr was from Odisha,” he said, referring to Bewa who died during a protest at Eram village in Bhadrak district.
A field in Eram was frequently used by the people for agitation against foreign rulers. on September 28, 1942, the police fired on protestors there killing 29 people and injuring more than 50 others.
Bewa, who was one of the 29 people who lost their lives in the firing, is regarded as the only woman martyr of Odisha. Eram is also known as “Rakta Tirtha” (The Pilgrim of Blood) and the second Jallianwala Bagh of India.
“Salute to the freedom fighters on the historic day of #QuitIndia Movement. On the day, Mahatma Gandhi gave a clarion call to end the colonial British rule, galvanising the people of the whole nation to participate in the freedom movement. #AugustKrantiDiwas,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.