Netaji and Veer Surendra Sai - heroes of India

On the 122nd birth anniversary of #NetajiSubhasChandraBose @narendramodi to inaugurate museum dedicated to the great leader at #RedFort today.On 21st Oct 1943,Bose declared independence of undivided India at Red Fort in Delhi.

Those who set out to do good to India are sabotaged even now. 

While we celebrate the Jayanti of #NetajiSubhasChandraBose today, it is also the Jayanti of another great revolutionary Veer Surendra Sai, who led a long uprising against British in Sambalpur, but not so well known.

The Prisoner of Yakutsk- The New Indian Express

http://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2014/dec/20/The-Prisoner-of-Yakutsk-696549.html

When he was alive, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was an enigma. His death in an alleged plane crash on August 18, 1945, in Taiwan remains a mystery wrapped in enigma. Sixty-nine years later, declassified files on the inquiries into Bose’s death indicate that he died alone in a Soviet prison in Siberia where over 516,841 perished under Joseph Stalin’s rule. 

The evidence, presented by a whistle-blower and now deceased Congress MP and diplomat Dr Satyanarayan Sinha in 1952, throws up too many uncomfortable questions, which could upset the established notion that Bose died in that crash and it is his ashes that rest in Renkoji Temple in Japan. Two inquiry reports by Shah Nawaz Committee and one-man GD Khosla Commission, set up in 1956 and 1970 by the Congress governments led by Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi respectively, concluded that Bose died in a plane crash at Taihoku airport.

The declassified documents and exhibits in the National Archives raise serious doubts about the veracity of these reports. However, the third and last report of the Mukherjee Commission established in 1999 had trashed the probe findings, though it doesn’t explain what exactly happened to Netaji. 

But the NDA government too did not disclose the new findings which were disowned by the UPA government, which chose to accept the findings of two previous reports. Sinha’s deposition before the Khosla Commission disclosed that Netaji was imprisoned in cell number 45 of Yakutsk Prison in Siberia, where over half a million slave labourers perished; Yakutsk is the coldest city on earth. But mysteriously, the committee decided not to probe Sinha’s testimony. 

Very few prisoners in Yakutsk survived the brutal conditions, but a former NKVD agent, Kozlov, who was rehabilitated later by the Soviet government, told Sinha about meeting Bose in Siberia. Sinha had an adventurous career, serving in the Russian Army in 1932 as an interpreter; he even fought in the battle of 1935-36 on the side of the Italians in Ethiopia before he became an aide to Nehru.

On October 17, 1970, Sinha, then in his 60s, was summoned before the Khosla Commission constituted by Indira. The files running into hundreds of pages reveal that Sinha had a trove of information regarding Netaji. He told the commission that Netaji did not die in the plane crash and was imprisoned by the Soviets in Siberia. This was Sinha’s first appearance before the commission and under oath, he testified that in 1954, he met Kozlov in Moscow, who told him that Netaji was lodged in Yakutsk Prison. It appears from the proceedings that the commission had received overwhelming evidence from Sinha but ultimately decided to ignore them.

Excerpts from the proceedings regarding the meeting between Kuzlov and Subhas Chandra Bose:

Khosla Commission: I want you to be more specific about this information which you received. Who gave you the information and what were the exact words used by him as far as you can remember?

Sinha: Kuzlov was the name of the man who was connected with the training of Indians till 1934. The same man was later treated by Stalin as a Trotskyist and sent to Yakutsk prison. From there, after the war, he had come back. I met him in Moscow. He said that he had seen Bose in Cell No. 45 in Yakutsk.

Commission: Did he name Bose or did he say some important Indian?

Sinha: He knew Bose. He had been a Soviet agent in India in 30s. He had met Bose in Calcutta and he knew his residence.

British India was crawling with spies of all nationalities, notably the Russians and Germans. ‘The Great Game’—a term coined by the English spy and cavalry officer Arthur Conolly—was raging as a conflict between the British and the Russian empires for supremacy in Central Asia. Afghanistan was the buffer state both wanted to control. The British believed that the Russians, both before and after the revolution, wanted to annex India. Stalin had even sent two British Communists to India to lead the disorganised Indian Communists to revolt against British rule, and create a red India. Their efforts failed and both were captured. 

Naturally, many Indian freedom fighters believed that Russia would help them overthrow the British. In 1940, Bose who disagreed with Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful protest principle escaped house arrest and fled to Russia through Peshawar, with the help of German Intelligence agents operating in India. Since the USSR, on the surface, maintained diplomatic relations with the UK, Stalin was reluctant to give asylum to a man the British considered a traitor and a subversive. However, he helped Bose escape to Germany from where he reached Japan. The transfer of Bose in African waters from a German submarine to a Japanese sub is the only submarine-to-submarine transfer of any person during World War II.

DID NEHRU KNOW BOSE WAS ALIVE?

Sinha, who was elected to the first Lok Sabha in 1952 from Bihar, made scathing observations in Parliament indicating a cover-up in the Netaji probe at the top levels in the Indian government. Born in 1910 in Bihar, Sinha had been tasked by Nehru to report on the political situation in Europe in 1947. 

Sinha told the commission that he got the funds from Nehru’s personal account in The National Herald and it was through Nehru confidant Rafi Ahmed Kidwai that he received money for his travel and investigations. In this capacity as an informal secret agent, he travelled to Germany, Italy, France and Yugoslavia before joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1950 and served as First Secretary in the Indian legation in Berne, Switzerland. Sinha told the Khosla Commission that he had gathered further evidence from Russian spies that Bose was living in captivity in Russia, which he had already informed Nehru in 1950. Sinha began probing into Netaji’s disappearance in 1949. In 1950 in Leipzig, Germany, he had met Karl Leonhard, a former Abwehr spy who had served time in Siberia, after Germany lost the war in USSR. Leonhard reportedly told Sinha: “I have come to know that your leader Bose is also a prisoner.”

Sinha deposed that in a meeting with Nehru on April 13, 1950, he had given the prime minister the new information, but Nehru was disinterested. Though initially relations between USSR and India were cool after 1947, Stalin, who had refused to meet the Indian Ambassador to Moscow Vijayalakshmi Pandit, gave an audience to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was then the Indian envoy. Stalin also offered a treaty of friendship between both countries. The USSR then supported India on the Kashmir issue. Nehru visited Soviet Union in 1955 and in return Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Defence Minister Nikolai Bulganin visited India in 1956. Meanwhile, Indo-US relations had cooled and the USSR stepped in with technological and economical aid. On the 1962 India-China war, the USSR blamed China as responsible for the war. India started buying Soviet arms in 1963 on a large scale when Nehru was PM.

Khosla Commission: Did you meet him (Nehru) in Delhi or elsewhere?

Sinha: In Delhi.

Commission: You went to see him and told him that a Russian had given you this information?

Sinha: Yes, that is on 13th April, 1950.

Commission: What did Pandit Nehru say to that?

Sinha: He said that he would check up the matter. But he said, “I think, this is American propaganda.”

Commission: After that, did you take any further steps to enquire into the matter?

Sinha: I did. Another talk on this subject which I had with Pandit Nehru was on 16th January 1951 in Paris where there was the ambassadors’ meeting.

Sinha also claimed that he had raised the issue with Radhakrishnan, who warned him that any further probe in the matter may harm his (Sinha’s) career. Sinha had worked as interpreter to Radhakrishnan while the latter was serving in Geneva. They had met on the sidelines of the ambassadors’ conference in 1951 in Paris. “He (Radhakrishnan) warned me that I should not meddle in these things. I asked him why. Then he said ‘you will be spoiling your career, you will not be anywhere’.”

Sinha told the Khosla Commission that he was making the charges “with full responsibility to prove them before the commission and before the wide world.” Sinha also said that he did not believe that the government wanted matters regarding Bose to come out in the public domain. He said, “Nehru was a very very strong man. When Khrushchev came, I was acting as an interpreter. I asked him ‘Will you in your next visit bring Netaji with you? Then Russia and India will become best of friends.’”

Sinha had also told the commission that Chinese officials had told him that Nehru was the only person who could repatriate Netaji.

THE COVER-UP

In 2006, the Justice Mukherjee Commission report concluded that Netaji did not die in the plane crash at Taihoku airport and the ashes in the Japanese temple are not his, and that in the absence of any clinching evidence a positive answer cannot be given. 

Former Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramchandran in a written reply on May 7, 2013, told Parliament that “the Government of India did not agree with the finding of Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (JMCI) that Netaji did not die in the plane crash. The government of India based on the reports of Shah Nawaz Committee and Justice Khosla Commission constituted on the question of the alleged death/disappearance of Bose came to the conclusion that Netaji died in the plane crash on August 18, 1945.”

However, Sinha had accessed classified Soviet documents from Berlin that concerned Netaji’s death but was stopped by the government. Later he asked the Khosla Commission whether he could quote at least three lines from the documents, but it appears from the proceedings that the commission was not interested in listening to what Soviet intelligence documents had to say about Netaji and the topic was changed. 

In 1963, Sinha went to Taipei to probe into Netaji’s death. He took hundreds of photographs of the alleged crash site and runway, making at least 30 sorties. He also submitted five photographs to the Khosla Commission marking the Taihoku runway. He made the sensational disclosure that the earlier photographs shown to the public featuring the crash site could be fakes because any photograph showing the crash site should have the Keelung River in the frame which was missing. But the commission again changed the topic instead of probing the new photos.

“The conclusion which I immediately came to was that if the runway was south of Keelung River, east-west and in the photographs, if the contour of the hills come, any photographs of the wreckage taken must show the Keelung River in between. There is no way out for taking any photograph without it,” Sinha had told the commission.

Probe not given secret files

In 1956, the Shah Nawaz Committee refused to consider the document “Allied secret report No. 10/Misc/INA”. The document says, “Gandhi stated publicly at the beginning of January that he believed that Bose was alive and in hiding, ascribing it to an inner voice. Congressmen believe that Gandhi’s inner voice is secret information, which he had received. This is however a secret report, which says Nehru received a letter from Bose saying he was in Russia and that he wanted to escape to India. The information alleges that Gandhi and Sarat Bose are among those who are aware of this.”

Interestingly, the contents of the letter were omitted from Shah Nawaz Committee report. The committee did not find it necessary either to visit the alleged crash site in Taihoku to make further probes that suggested that Netaji was alive.

The File No. JMCI/ Russia/ UO Papers/ 2001 revealed that the Mukherjee Commission tried to get in touch with Sinha’s family members to find out if he had left any diary or notes pertaining to his depositions. It appears that the commission was surprised at the omission of Sinha’s finding in the Khosla Commission report.

Even in 2000, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had claimed privilege and told the commission that the “documents are kept secret for ensuring the proper functioning of the public service.” The PMO affidavit said: “These are unpublished official records, the disclosure of which would cause injury to the public service.”

MYSTERIOUS EVENTS AFTER AUGUST 1945

A Top Secret cipher telegram number 3,338 dated October 20, 1945, was sent to the Secretary of State for India from the Home Department of the British Government on treason trials after World War II. It reveals that they were not convinced about Netaji’s death in the plane crash. The British government had prepared a list of 13 civilians in the Western countries and 12 in the Eastern countries for capture and subsequent prosecution. The telegram said Bose could be tried for collaborating with enemy if he was still alive although his trial would present grave difficulties. Sinha said that he had received notes dated 1946 from British military missions in Berlin from General Stewart and Major Warren saying that Bose did not die but was suffering at the hands of the Russians which they thought he deserved.

Commission: Any documents? Military missions in Berlin?

Sinha: Yes, in Major Warren’s possession, there were certain notes which said that Japanese had once more bluffed us and we had been cheated. But Gen Stewart and Maj Warren were very happy that Bose, who was a traitor, was being punished by Russians.

Commission: Was his name mentioned or it merely said in general terms?

Sinha: In the case of Bose, they had used words like ‘traitor’ and ‘quisling’, all these adjectives. I can give the number of the military mission papers. If it is possible, the commission may get hold of those papers.

In a debate in February 1947, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel said the government was not in a position to make any authoritative statement on Netaji’s whereabouts. Patel also denied that the government had ordered any inquiry to find out if Netaji was dead or alive, although a note dated August 27, 1945, prepared that after discussions between senior British commander Lord Wavell and British lader A Arthur Henderson, the Viceroy had already initiated an inquiry to ascertain whether it was true that Bose had been killed in an air accident.

“As I have said, not only myself but the House will be very glad if it turns out to be true that he is alive,” Patel told the Assembly.

Over time, more Netaji documents are likely to be declassified. Then the truth about the national hero’s mysterious disappearance could expose the Nehru government’s indifference to the fate of an inconvenient adversary.

Who is Dr Satya Narayan Sinha?

Born in 1910 in Chhapra town of Bihar, Sinha was introduced to Acharya Kripalani, Acharya Narendra Dev and Mahatma Gandhi at a very young age, and he spent close to two years in Sabarmati Ashram in 1924. On March 5, 1930, Sinha sailed for Europe and stayed at Sorrento near Naples with Maxim Gorky. Fluent in many foreign languages, including German and Russian, Sinha studied medicine in Vienna but ended up as staff captain in the Soviet Army and served for two years from April 1932 to July 1934. He served as an interpreter for six months in Siberia where he befriended many Russian and German spies. 

Later, Sinha went to Ethiopia where he joined Mussolini’s forces, fought the allies during 1935-36 before returning to India in the late 1936. Sinha left India again on January 1947 and served in various countries on the direction of Pandit Nehru. Later, he joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1950 but resigned two years later. He was elected as a member of the first Lok Sabha from Bihar in 1952. Justice Mukherjee Commission, constituted by the NDA government in 2001, was dismayed by the sheer negligence of the Khosla Commission which omitted several crucial leads that Sinha provided to unravel the Netaji mystery.

World’s Coldest Prison Camp

Several camps were erected in Yakutsk by the river Lena to lodge prisoners of war and political dissidents. They were employed in building new shafts for coal mines, roads, dams etc. Each camp, known as Gulag, had 500 to 1,000 captives living with minimum facilities. The majority couldn’t survive the harsh weather and primitive living conditions, and died while building roads in this coldest city on earth.

The Confusion Over Ashes

The Shah Nawaz Committee that was constituted by Nehru had concluded that ashes preserved at Renkoji temple was that of Bose. However, declassified principal points of the committee which later formed the basis of official report suggest that the three-member committee was not convinced about it. The members, including Shah Nawaz, Netaji’s brother Suresh Chandra Bose and S N Maitra, opined that Renkoji was very far from the cremation site and although there was no tampering with ashes, it cannot be definitely said that ashes were those of Netaji. But, despite this candid admission, all three members agreed to cover up the truth emerging out of facts.

“Ashes from the crematorium to Renkoji temple is a long way—first to Nishi Hongaji temple, then to Tokyo etc. There is nothing to show that there was tampering, but to prove that it was definitely those of Netaji, much more stringent measures required by law should have been taken and a different and very strict procedure by way of seals, guards etc should have been taken. In all probability, the ashes could be said to be those of Netaji,” stated Principal Points of Shah Nawaz Commission drafted on June 30, 1956.

How Sinha was Branded an American Agent

Sinha claimed he did not appear before the Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956 because of rebuke from Jawaharlal Nehru Commission: You mean the rebuke which he administered to you in 1951 or on some later occasion?

Sinha: 1954 

Commission: What did he say?

Sinha: There was an open debate in Parliament after that and then he asked me in a private letter: how many times I had been to the American Embassy and whether I was their agent or not?

Commission: Was it in connection with Netaji?

Sinha: Netaji Subhas Bose case.

Veer Surendra Sai

When one looks at the history of the freedom struggle in Odisha, one name that would stand out would be that of Veer Surender Sai, who led a tribal revolt in Sambalpur that nearly rattled the British. A born rebel, Surendra, hailed from the small village of Khinda, and was a Rajput belonging to the Chauhan clan of Khinda-Rajpur. His father Dharam Singh, was a descendant of Aniruddha Sai, the fourth Chauhan ruler of Sambalpur. When Maharaja Sai passed away in 1827 AD, Surendra Sai presented his legitimate claim to the throne of Sambalpur, as the Maharaja had no male heir.

The British however found Surendra too much of an independent thinker for their own good. Predictably they were looking for some one more pliable, and their first choice was the Maharaja’s widow Mohana Kumari. The British had already occupied Sambalpur in 1804 AD after their victory in the 3rd Anglo Maratha War, when Odisha was one of the territories ceded by the Marathas. The British allowed Mohana Kumari to rule over the State, the decision however led to a lot of resentment between her and other claimants to the throne. With Mohana Kumari proving herself to be incapable, the people themselves revolted against her.

The British put down the rebellion, deposed Mohana Kumari, and sent her to Cuttack in 1833 AD, where she lived as a pensioner. The British then placed another puppet ruler Narayan Singh, one of the offspring on the throne. However Narayan, by then was already too old, not capable of handling the responsibilities of the state, and soon there was an outright challenge from other members of the Rajpur-Khinda Chauhan clan. Surender was backed by his uncle Balaram Singh( brother of his father), on the grounds that being the direct descendants, they had a legitimate claim over the throne. The Gond tribals in Sambalpur too revolted against Narayan Singh, who died in September 1849 with no male heir.

Under the Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Dalhousie annexed Sambalpur, and Surendra Sai, revolted against the British. Surendra felt he had a legitimate claim to the throne, however the British were wary of his popularity and strong personality. Aware that he would not be the puppet ruler they wanted him to be, the British did their best to keep him away from the throne. And thus began an intense and epic struggle against the British, that in fact had it’s genesis much earlier in 1827 AD.

The Beginning

Since 1827, Surendra backed by his uncle Balram, had repeatedly laid claim to the “Gadi” of Sambalpur as the legal heir apparent. However with the British ignoring his claim, Surendra decided to go down the path of total revolt. His 6 brothers Udyanta, Ujjala, Chabila, Jajjala and Medini too supported him, as did all the local Zamindars and Gauntias. When Narayan Singh’s men killed the Gond Zamindar of Lakhanpur, Balabhadra Deo, the furious Gonds too supported Surendra in his revolt. Some of them murdered the unpopular Zamindar of Rampur, Durjaya Singh, a camp follower of Narayan Singh. Though Surendra had no role in it, the British neverthless implicated him in the case, and he was arrested along with his uncle Balaram and his brother Udyanta Sai. Sent to Hazaribagh jail in 1840 AD, Surendra spent as many as 17 years in prison, till the 1857 Revolt, when the mutineers, broke down the prison. His uncle who was his guiding force and mentor, however died in prison itself.

In the meantime, the Zamindars of Sambalpur, as well as the ordinary people, were fed up with some of the oppressive measures taken by the British, after they annexed the state. The British indiscriminately raised the revenue to be paid by the Tribal Zamindars as well as the Gauntias. When the 1857 revolt broke out and Surendra Sai was liberated from prison, the tribal masses in Sambalpur, gathered under him. And this marked the second phase in his long struggle with the British.

1857 Revolt and Later

When the 1857 Revolt broke out and Surendra was released from prison by the rebels, he was declared a fugitive by the British. The authorities put a bounty of Rs 250 for his arrest as well as that of his brother Udyanta. Surendra however had become a hero for the common people, and returned to a rousing reception in Sambalpur. Surendra made a petition to Capt R.T.Leigh, the Senior Asst Comissioner of Sambalpur to recognize him as the Raja of Sambalpur and remit his life imprisonment. However the Odisha Comissioner, G.F.Cockburn, strongly opposed any kind of amnesty to Surendra Sai, and recommended his deportation. The British bought in more troops and put Surendra under house arrest in Sambalpur. He however managed to give them the slip and escaped to Khinda village where his brother Udyant was located.

31st October 1857, Surendra began his rebellion against the British, and soon many of the ordinary people, the tribal Zamindars, Gauntias all joined hands with him. It was primarily a tribal revolt, with the Zamindars of Kolabira, Laidia, Loisinga, Lakhanpur etc, sacrificing all their comforts, and joining Veer Surendra Sai in his guerilla war against the British. Fighting in the thick jungles of Sambalpur, some of them lost their lives, while some had their estates confiscated, and some were arrested and hanged. The selfless spirit of sacrifice and heroism shown by the tribals, was Veer Surendra Sai’s greatest source of strength and support.

Surendra organized the rebels into different groups, and soon they began to cut off all the routes of communication used by the British to Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Cuttack. The dawk road to Bombay was blockaded, and the British by now had completely lost control over Sambalpur. Veer Surendra Sai, regularly harassed the British with his guerilla attacks, and it became difficult for them to venture in to the thick forests. The soldiers were regularly ambushed, and when Capt Leigh undertook the operations, the rebels struck back hard, killing and wounding several of his 50 strong contingent.

Cockburn despatched more forces to Sambalpur, and the Government transferred Sambalpur from the Chota Nagpur division to Orissa division for more effective handling. With the Chota Nagpur division Comissioner having his hands full, and the difficulties in controlling Sambalpur from the North, it was felt that having it in Orissa, would be better. And by Dec 19, 1857, it became a part of the Cuttack division. Capt Wood arrived in the meantime from Nagpur with a large cavalry and made a surprise attack on the rebels at Kudopali on Dec 30, 1857. Though Surendra Sai, managed to escape, he lost one of his brother Chabila Sai, as also about fifty rebels in the skirmish.

Major Bates arrived in Sambalpur on January 7, 1858 to take charge of the situation, and occupied the Jharghati pass connecting Ranchi, that was blocked by Udyant Sai. Bates destroyed the village of Kolabira, it’s gauntia was arrested and hanged. Captain Woodbridge and Wood then launched another attack on the hill stronghold of the rebels Paharsgira on February 12, 1858. However the rebels managed to counter the British, and Woodbridge was killed, his headless body was later found in the forests.

With the situation in Sambalpur, slipping out of control, the British sent Col Forster in March 1858, and gave him wide ranging military and civil power. Forster cracked down hard, blocking the food stocks of the rebels. He convened a meeting of all the neighboring Rajas and Zamindars, and demanded their cooperation in suppresing the revolt of Veer Surendra Sai. Ujjal Sai, another brother of Surendra Sai, was captured and hanged without a trial at Bolangir. The Zamindars of Kharsal and Ghens who were sympathetic to Veer Surendar Sai, were also captured and hanged. In spite of all the repressive measures and crackdown, though Forster still could not capture Veer Surender Sai.

Major Impey was appointed as Dy. Comissioner of Sambalpur in April 1861, and believed a carrot and stick approach was better suited to end the revolt. He announced a policy of amnesty for all rebels who surrendered in September 1861, except Surendra Sai, his brother Udyant and son Mitrabhanu. He issued another proclamation in October 1861, promising free pardon to all the rebels who surrendered. Weary of the long conflict, and seeking a normal, peaceful life, many of the rebels surrendered to the British leaving the jungles. Impey’s conciliatory approach worked, with many rebels now surrendering, and the local people too more or less reconciled to the inevitability. The Zamindar of Kolabira, one of Veer Surendra Sai’s strongest supporters, received generous treatment after his surrender and this made many rebels trust the Government’s intentions. Mitrabhanu surrendered on on January 7th, 1862 and 2 days later his two brother Udyanta and Dhruva Sai too surrendered.

Surendra Sai once again negotiated with the British authorities for his claim to the throne of Sambalpur. They however rejected it, and and Impey assured him a liberal pension in lieu of that. He then demanded payment of arrears to his soldiers, to which Impey agreed, and soon Surendra surrendered on May 16th, 1862, bringing the long revolt to an end. It was however not the end of the story, some of the British officers were not satisfied with the conciliatory moves towards the rebels and Veer Surendra Sai.

British officers like Berial, the Superintendent of Police, felt that Surendra Sai should have been charged with dacoity and murder. Pressure was put on the Dy. Comissioner for the arrest of Surendra Sai, and when Major Impey passed away in December 1863, they saw it as a golden opportunity. Capt Cumberledge joined as Dy. Comissioner, Sambalpur on January 19, 1864 and soon Surendra Sai, his son and some close followers were arrested on January 23, at their native village of Khinda. His brothers Udayant and Medini too were arrested, and all of them were sent to Raipur for trial. After what was clearly a farcical and hasty trial, the Comissioner announced Veer Surendra Sai and others guilty, and sentenced them to deportation for life.

Even though the then Judicial Comissioner John Scarlett Campbell, called the trial a farce and the charges as baseless, Surendra along with 6 others was detained at Nagpur. Fearing his presence in Sambalpur would provoke another mass uprising, the British kept him at Nagpur till April, 1866 and and thereafter to the Fort of Asirgarh. Medini passed away at Asirgarh, Dhruva and Mitrabhanu were released on January 1876. Surendra however had to spend the rest of his life in prison, and it’s believed he passed away there at an unknown date. One of the great revolutionaries, a man who was a terror to the British in Sambalpur, passed away in anonymity in a remote prison.

Veer Surendra Sai was a true valiant warrior against British imperialism, who fought against them till 1862. An inspiring leader of the tribals in Western Odisha, spent 37 years in prison. His aim was to drive the British out of his native Sambalpur, and though he could not succeed in his goal, he inspired a generation of freedom fighters in Odisha, and Jharkhand later on. A man who gave up the comforts, suffered untold miseries for the cause of his people, Veer Surendra Sai, was a true hero, worthy of emulation. When the history of Odisha is written, the resistance led by Surendra Sai, would forever be in letters of gold.

Source: http://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/august-2007/engpdf/Page72-75.pdf
https://historyunderyourfeet.wordpress.com/2018/01/25/veer-surendra-sai/