Lucknow :
As the nation steps into its 70th year of Independence, the urn containing the ashes of freedom fighter and revolutionary Chandra Shekhar “Azad” completed its 40 years in the UP State Museum, located within the precincts of Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden (formerly called Lucknow Zoo).
The urn was kept at a special gallery for the visitors as a part of Jashn-e-Azadi celebrations to mark the 70th Independence Day. However, much about the special urn is unknown to the public. Sunday, the eve of the Independence Day sprang a surprise for a few visitors, who while visiting the State Museum were amazed to see the urn containing the ashes of Azad, and that they had never noticed it during their earlier visits.
Elaborating further about the urn containing the ashes of Azad, director of State Museum, Yashwant Singh Rathore, said, “After the cremation of Chandra Shekhar ‘Azad’, some of his ashes was kept in safe custody of Shiv Vinayak Mishra (Azad’s uncle). The ashes kept in the urn have been kept as a memory of the revolutionary.” He further stated that the historical procession (Shobhaa Yatra) of the ashes of Chandra Shekhar Azad started on August 1, 1976 from Varanasi’s Vidyapeeth and reached the State Museum in Lucknow on August 10, 1976.
Born in 1887 in Unnao’s Beeghapur, Shiv Vinayak Mishra was a freedom fighter who participated in the Satyagraha movement called by Mahatma Gandhi and also in the Non-Cooperation Movement from 1930-32.
When Chandra Shekhar grew up, he left his parent’s place and fled to Banaras. His uncle Pandit Shiv Vinayak Mishra used to stay there. Chandra Shekhar took some help from him, and made some arrangements to get admission in the Sanskrit College.
Aadesh Shukla, who visited the Lucknow State Museum along with his friends was amazed to tumble upon the urn containing the ashes of Chandra Shekhar Azad. “I had visited the museum earlier, but it seems that I had always missed the urn containing the ashes of Chandra Shekhar Azad. Anyway thanks to Jashn-e-Azadi, I not only saw the urn, but also clicked its photo,” Shukla said.
Anupam Mishra, while reacting to development was of the view that the Uttar Pradesh government must give adequate publicity to this special urn, which contains the ashes of Chandra Shekhar Azad kept in State Museum, Lucknow. “Some of the amount of money spent on the advertisements by the UP government could be easily diverted to give some publicity to this,” Mishra said.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Swarajya Party of India headed by Anupam Mishra fielded Azad’s great-grandson Rajeev Mishra alias Raju from the Unnao parliamentary constituency.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Lucknow / Arunav Sinha / TNN / August 16th, 2016