ABVP observes 150th year of 1857

Bhubaneswar(Visakeo) To mark 150 years of India's First War of Independence of 1857, the Akhil Bharthiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Friday took out a motorcycle rally spreading the message of 1857 rising against the Britsh Raj. ABVP activists started the rally at the statute of Bauxi Jagabandhu here in the premises of the BJB Autonomous College and traversed the whole city and campus of Kamala Nehru Women's College, OUAT, City Women's College, Rajdhani College, Debray College, Maharshi College, Rama Devi Women's Autonomous College and Utkal University. The rally sought instill patriotism among students, in which, Parishad's activists carried portraits of leaders who participated in the 1857 struggle, besides organising lectures at college campuses and public meetings. The ABVP activists have made out a strong case for removing the description of the first war of Independence of 1857 as "Sepoy Mutiny" from the textbooks prescribed for students. "Though the British saw the war as a Sepoy Mutiny, it is regrettable that even present day intellectuals describe the event as such. The Government should immediately remove the reference to 1857 war as sepoy mutiny in the textbooks," they said. The ABVP has also urged the Government to prescribe a textbook for the students, detailing the freedom struggle from 1857 to 1947. ABVP State vice president Prasant Rout and city secretary Bhabani Shankar Mohapatra led the rally