Arun Chowdhury TO celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Independence, the government decided, two years ago, to award a tamrapatra (certificate) and Rs 200 per month in cash to each 'fighter' in the struggle against the British. I was intrigued to hear that an old man of 72, living in a small village in Birbhum district in West Bengal, had spurned the official award. This was a man who had fought vigorously against the British. While he had been in jail, five of his children had died of starvation within a few days during the famine of 1943. When he had come out of jail, he found that his wife had gone mad. Yet this heroic fighter had refused the tamrapatra. Curious to find out the reason, I went to see him at his home.
