India got its freedom from the British East India Company in 1947, but did you know there is a city of India which took its freedom before 1947. Balia is a district in Uttar Pradesh state, India, this city is recognized with the name of Baghi Ballia which means Revolutionary Balia.
Actually, it all started in 1942, when Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress of India launched their Quit India Movement, people all over the country started volunteering for it. In the northern part of India, in a district named Ballia, people were taking part in it in a large number. So, it was 15 August 1942, many volunteers of Balia gathered around a British India Police Station at Baria which was a police station in Ballia. People then tried to remove the British flag from the station and tried to raise the tricolor, the Indian flag. They did it also, but it was removed by the officers of the Bairia police station. Getting angry about it, on the 18th of August of 1942, more than 25,000 people gathered there at the police station and tried to replace the British flag with the Tricolor, but the officers there, they opened fire on the protestors. Due to this, more than 100 people got injured and more than 20 people were killed by the officers of the Bairia police station of Balia.
But the protestors did not stop and the fight between the officers and the volunteers kept ongoing for more than five to six hours, on that day, it was 14:00 pm when it all started which continued till night. Well, in return the protestors won and the British police officers appointed there vacated the place. Then, the police station was seized by the Ballia people. But this not made Ballia, revolutionary, Baaaghi Balia. Let us know more.
Many people of Balia were very angry with those officers who opened fire on the volunteers at the Bairia police station. They got so angry that more than 50,000 people gathered together and started walking towards then the central jail of Balia where many Indian nationalist leaders with the famous leader of Ballia, Chittu Pandey were prisoned, the people were wanting to release them all free. All these people of Balia were so much furious that they refused the non-violent movement of Gandhiji and they took up their guns in their hands and started moving towards the jail but all those people were getting arrested. Seeing all, that more people were coming towards the jail, the District Magistrate of then Balia went to Chittu Pandey and other famous Indian nationalists who were imprisoned there and asked them that if those nationalist leaders asked people to get calm then the Magistrate would free them all and moreover if those people did not harm any treasury, the Magistrate would free Chittu Pandey and others fellow prisoners but it was rejected by all those leaders in that jail as they were all furious about that open fire on the volunteers. When the Magistrate saw that the people were more furious and were looting here and there, those volunteers were asking their leaders to be free so the Magistrate had no choice and released every prisoner.
Then, Chittu Pandey and many other nationalist leaders were free. Those leaders called a meeting at a hall present in Balia district and they all gathered over there and asked everyone to be non-violent but the people of Balia were not satisfied with the decision, they all started looting those people whoever used to work for Britishers. They started looting and firing, they looted many British officers at that time. Then, the DM of BAllia district understood that the people were not going to stop and he knew that those volunteers would steal the treasury and all notes from the department so the Magistrate bought every note present in the treasury and burnt it so that the protestors could not reach it.
Then, on 20 August 1942, the people of Balia got their independence from the British officers because many British officers were leaving the place, the people proclaimed it as a freedom of the city and took independence from the British, they formed a local government with Chittu Pandey as its leader under Congress. That is why Balia is called Baaghi Ballia.
Alas! this local government did not run for more than even 2 days and on 23 August the Britishers came back to the district and arrested everyone. Then they all were very tortured but this did not bring any change to the protestors. Many of those leaders and volunteers were later awarded by the Indian Government when India got its own Independence in 1947.
So, this was the story of Balia, famously named BAAGHI BALIA. At that time, Chittu Pandey of Balia was a very important leader of the people of Balia, it was him who gathered everyone for the cause of freedom, he was called as Sher-e-Balia by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Balia is still known for its revolutionaries activity, many big leaders like Chandra Shekhar who was a Prime Minister of India was very revolutionary in his thought, another famous leader of the country was Raj Narain, he also gathered more than 1 lakh people against the Indian Government when he saw that the constitution of India was being neglected by then PM of India, Indira Gandhi, it was Raj Narain who brought the idea of Socialism in real practice in India. Mangal Pandey is another name who was born in Balia who first time revolted against the Britishers in 1857 during the First revolt of India,1857, it was Mangla Pandey who at the first time neglected and refused those bullets in which there was the meat of cow and pig. So, Balia has given a lot of revolutionary people. Hence, it is known as BAAGHI BALIA.
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