Dashi Mondal

Tehatta (Nadia), Aug. 14: In 1932, Nanigopal Mondal was put behind bars for hoisting the Tricolour.

Six decades after Independence, his widow Dashi, 80, a resident of Chanderghat here, begs on the streets for a living.

Nanigopal was denied his freedom fighter’s pension when he applied for it in 1972 — the year it was launched — because he had not spent the mandatory six months in prison.

According to home ministry files, six criteria were later added to the list. Those tortured by the British, put under house arrest or disabled in a lathicharge or firing, those whose property was confiscated and those who lost a government job for sheltering freedom fighters also became eligible.

A freedom fighter now gets Rs 11,250 a month.

Nanigopal, who was forced to go underground, was re-arrested in 1942 and tortured severely. He lost most of his vision and walked with a limp. After Independence, he could not work because of his health. He begged on the road and Dashi worked as a domestic help.

Nanigopal died a depressed man in 1978. In 1979, the Nadia administration published a book — Swadhinata Sangrame Nadia (Nadia in the Independence Struggle) — that mentioned the torture Nanigopal faced in the hands of the British.

Dashi continued to work as a domestic help to bring up her daughter Bisakha, now 60 and a widow living in neighbouring Nakashipara. “My grand-son’s income is irregular, my daughter is too poor to look after me. So I try to make ends meet by begging,” said Dashi.

The mother and daughter met district magistrate .S. Meena. “Sir, please see if it is possible for me to get my husband’s pension at the fag end of my life. Otherwise, I’ll have to live in humiliation till I breathe my last,” Dashi said.

Meena held out hope. “I’ll enquire into Nanigopal Mondal’s case,” he said on the eve of Independence Day.