The Students' Movement in Rewa

The prominent role played by the students in the freedom struggle in India gave a new lease to the nationalist movement. In the Rewa district of the then Central Province (now Madhya Pradesh), in 1944, the students organized themselves to form the Poor Boys Association and the Student Congress. Rewa was a Princely State under the Colonial government, with a hereditary salute of 17 guns, implying that its ruler had been granted a gun salute by the Crown. The Poor Boys Association or Gareeb Vidyarthi Sangh was a secret group. The group was primarily a literary association that organized various competitions, debates, etc., to create an atmosphere that would awaken the patriotic sentiments of the students of Rewa. The Student Congress, on the other hand, played the role of a coordinator between the State and the Regional Congress, thereby providing the necessary cooperation and strengthening the nationalist mission. The Association joined the Student Congress on the insistence of the then Maharaja of Rewa, Gulab Singh, who wanted to prevent the influence of his opponent and the Associations’ mentor, Sardar Narmada Prasad Singh, from spreading in the state. In 1946, the representatives of the Student Congress attended the All India Student Congress session at Delhi. Some students such as Jagdish Chand Joshi, Shawan Kumar Bhatt, etc., inspired by the socialist ideology, joined the Congress Socialist Party, which opened its own branch in Rewa. The students of Rewa thus played an important role in furthering and channelising the nationalist fervour in the state, thereby contributing significantly to the freedom struggle.