Assembly unanimously passes resolution reiterating its request to Union government to declare Paika Bidroha as first war of Independence

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Assembly Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution reiterating its request to the Union government to declare Paika Bidroha as the first war of Independence.

Minister of Culture Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi moved the resolution and it was unanimously passed in the house.

The resolution said the 1817 Paika Bidroha is a glorious chapter of in the freedom movement of India.

It was an well organised and far reaching rebellion against the British which later helped in expediting the freedom movement.

People from every walk of life including several royal landlords from Dalai to Dala Behera joined the Paika Bidroha during 1817 to 1825 and shook the British Empire.

There is no accounts of people hanged, sentenced to rigorous imprisonment and deported for participating in the mass movement.

Respecting the sentiment of people of Odisha and for the proper evaluation of history, the Odisha Cabinet on the occasion of the bicentenary celebration of Paika Bidroha passed a resolution in 2017 requesting the Union government to declare Paika Bidroha as first war of independence.

Later Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik July 19, 2017 had written a letter requesting the Union government to declare Paika Bidroha as the first war of independence.

The state government has launched a light and sound show in Paik gallery set up in the state museum and identified 9 acres and 685 decimal of land on the foot of Barunei hill to set up a Paik memorial. Poem reading, discussion and workshop on Paika Bidroha had been organised for publicity.

The resolution was passed to day as a mark of respect to the revolutionary heroes who have sacrificed their lives to free their motherland from the clutches of British to declare Paika Bidroha as the first war of independence.

UNI