Oh Lord! Bless My Mother Sindh With More Hemu Kalanis

 

23rd March is that glittering day in the glorious History of our gregarious
Sindh when a worthy son was born to a simple, proud and blessed mother. This
great son of a gifted mother grew up to help in changing History of our
Motherland, Sindh, in particular and Mother India, in general. He proudly,
valiantly and gladly sacrificed his life so that the lives of his kinsmen and
countrymen will never again be spent in ignominious chains and demeaning
fetters.  

In the glorious History of our beloved gregarious, grand and great Mother Sindh,
there have been countless noble and worthy children of Jeejal Sindhrree, who had
laid down their lives for the Freedom, Emancipation, Enlightenment and
Effervescence of this venerable dhartee – land of our ancestors.

Sindhis had also been in the forefront in the valiant struggle against slavery,
subjugation, oppression and tyranny. Remember, for hundreds of years Mother
Sindh and Mother India were colonised, enslaved and terrorised by the brutal
British Raj. Gone were the independence, self-respect and peace of the
peace-loving, secular-minded, Sufi and spiritual people of Sindh and India as a
whole.

And, when turbulences become Tsunamis and the going gets tough, the pain and
agony becomes unbearable and the ship flounders and is about to sink, the
Helmsman, high above in Heavens, sends His worthy and noble, brave and valiant,
true and real captains and helmsmen who, with His Help, take control of the
wallowing and crippled ship.
       
In the 1940s, the ship of India was in dire straits and sinking! A great
Mahatma, a simple man, a courageous man, a genuine man, a veritable leader,
pleaded to his countrymen to Rise, Stand Up and Be Counted! Thus began the Civil
disobedience movement, throughout India, against the ignominious British rule.
Mahatma Gandhi's call was answered by almost every full-blooded Indian,
everywhere, including Sindh. In 1942, Gandhiji started the "Quit India" Movement
with a slogan and appeal to the entire nation of, "Do or Die."


People of Sindh gave whole-hearted support to that Movement and the call of the
Mahatma. One such valiant and courageous young man was mitthrro suhnno Saaeen
Hemu Kalani, a young man still in his teens.

Today, we pay our humble tributes to a valiant young man, a filial son of Mother
Sindh, who did not even enter into his second decade of life on Earth, when he
and his comrades and group of close friends, gladly and proudly anwered Mahatma
Gandhi's call and went on streets demanding the ouster of the Colonialists from
Sindh and India.


Shaheed Hemu Kalani, has just turned nineteen, but, there was a mountain of
anger and anguish rising within him against the disgraceful and dishonourable
British rule and an Ocean of longing, yearning and craving raging within him to
bring the tyrant oppressors and the infamous tormentors, the Colonial British
down onto their knees.  


There was a train loaded with Tanks, Guns, Bullets, Bombs and Arms and
Ammunition, together with the Armed Personnel, British soldiers and European
Battalions, heading towards Sindh to contain the disturbances and civil
disobedience movement in Sindh. Young Hemu and his friends, decided to derail
the train. With hastily collected simple tools, started to dismantle the fish
plates from tracks of the Railway and unplugging their nuts and bolts.


Inexperienced, naïve, simple young men were not able to successfully cripple the
Railway tracks as the British forces came after them. Hemu Kalani saved his
friends, by asking them to run for their lives. In his brave efforts to save his
friends, Hemu wase caught by the British soldiers, hand-cuffed and imprisoned.

He was brutally and savagely tortured by the British in the prison to name the
rest of the group members who were with him on that fateful day when they tried
to derail the train. He was also asked to name his friends for his freedom. He
screamed in agony, suffered in pain, but did not divulge any name to his
tormentors. This valiant son of Sindh stood firm on his convictions and beliefs.
Ultimately, the case of sabotage was launched against Hemu Kalani. Despite pleas
and appeals from the people of Sindh, Hemo was sentenced to death by the British
Judges and British-colonial Court and subsequently sent to gallows on 21st
Januray, 1943. At the age of only nineteen years, Hemu attained Martyrdom,
Shahadat! Saaeen Hema Kalani Shaheed who will always remain a shining and
twinkling star on the bright and brilliant sky of Sindh.

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