Raghuvir Singh Khanna has been an institute in himself-an example of dedication to revolutionary cause and selflessness. He was a professional engineer, but left his lucarative job to dedicate himself to publish revolutionaries related literature from Nagpur by establishing Vishav Bharti Prakashan. He published Muktibodh's school prescribed but later banned text book-Bharat:Itihas aur Sanskriti! He fought court case on it. He also published Jitender Sanyal's banned biography of Bhagat Singh, in 1946, when ban was lifted from it. Later on Muktibodh and Sanyal's books many editions have come up. He also published Sukhdev Raj's Jab Jyoti Jagi for first time. He established Bhagat Singh Vichar Manch in Nagpur and all comrades of Bhagat Singh visited him, whenever they were in Nagpur. He was the one who discovered Kundan Lal Gupt, comrade of Bhagat Singh who prefered to live in anonymity for many years, after coming out of jail, a monograph on him was published by Khanna ji. Everytime I visited Nagpur, I visited his modest office-cum residence of Vishav Bharti prakashan in Sita Bardi. He passed away after brief illness on 8th January at his sister's place in Jabalpur, where he arrived a few minutes ago with her from Nagpur. Most shocking was that for more than two months, I had no information. Only on 13th March, got an sms from a friend Dr. Raghuvir Singh of Palwal, informing me of this sad news. At his invitation, I delivered lecture on Bhagat Singh in Nagpur in September 2013, of which some photographs shared in a albume then. Here his interview with Basant Tripathi and his photograph and few old photographs are being posted as a tribute to 89 years old Khanna ji! I remember him fondly and pay my tributes! He did not marry and lived alone in a small room near his book shop! Pushpender Pushpendra Phalgun's write on his blog also attached as link here
http://
http://
No comments:
Post a Comment