The uneducated freedom fighters

The author of Rang De Basanti raised a very valid question in one of his interviews. After the independence, our politicians never paid much attention to all those people — hundreds and thousands of them — who left their education and joined the struggle for independence. Since they didn’t have any educational qualification, I wonder what these people did after the independence. Did the government ever form a committee or something to take stock of how many such people needed to be rehabilitated?

My grandfather used to get pension because he was a freedom fighter. I don’t know how much the pension was but it must have mattered to him because right till his last days he religiously collected his pension. After his death my grandmother used to get it. I don’t know if my father was supposed to get it or not. Obviously my father didn’t take the trouble of going to the office and do the needed paper work because even the large-size pizza these days costs more than the pension amount.

Giving a lifetime pension (this was the least the country could do), although a good step, was not a long-term solution. The government should have set up a separate ministry to get all those people prepared for the future. I think our forefathers missed a great opportunity here. Just think how motivated all those people were. They were reaping the fresh fruit of their toil and blood. Their focused drive could have literally changed the fate of the country.