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Shri Lakhan Lal Mishra was born on 14th Sep 1909 in a small village called Mura, in the State of Chattisgarh in India. After completing his primary school education in his village he came to Raipur to pursue his further education in a middle school in 1920. This was the period when the National School of Raipur was fast becoming a center for India’s freedom struggle amongst the students. The students used to wear khadi caps and shout slogans of “Vandematarm” and formed a group of young freedom fighters, consisting of school students and named it the “Vaanar Sena”. Although this was a group of school students, still, their patriotism was a major cause of worry for the then British Police force. Shri Mishra was an active and prominent member of this group. In 1920 Gandhiji’s call for freedom had evoked a strong response from every part of India and the whole country was determined to fight against the British Empire for independence. People of Raipur were not far behind and every youth, every child and every senior citizen including women had made up their mind to give up their lives for the sake of independence and India’s pride. Shri Lakhan Lal Mishra did his matriculation from Government School, Raipur and it was during this period when he met people like Pt. Sunderlal Sharma, Thakur Pyarelal Singh, Ravi Shankar Shukla, Dr. Khoobchand Baghel, Triveni Lal Shrivastava, Ram Narayan Tiwari, Ramanand Dubey etc and kept participating and contributing towards the freedom movement. He completed his Intermediate in 1930 and it was during this period when India was struck by one of the worst femine in which farmers were badly affected. His concious did not allow him to continue his studies further since he did not want to put aditional burden on his father, who had also suffered badly due to the femine and as a result returned back to his village. His father Shri. Rambagas Mishra made him join the police force in 1932 as a Police Sub Inspector. But while Shri Lakhanlal Mishra was in his job, his mind never settled down and was always looking for India’s freedom and as a result he always showed soft corners for his fellow countrymen who were fighting for the independence of our country. There were many occasions when Shri Mishra was supposed to take stern action against the freedom fighters but he never did so and infact always tried to help them by asking them to run away or by pre-informing them about his proposed raids on them, just to avoid arrests of fellow countrymen who were fighting for a cause. So although he wore a policeman’s uniform, he was a true patriot within. He took charge at a Police station in Durg in 1942 when Shri R.K.Patil was the district magistrate of that place. A strong believer of “Swadesi”, Shri Premchand Saxena was the Police Captain and on the other hand Shri Dau Ghanshyam Singh Gupta was giving mental inputs to the freedom fighters of Chattisgarh. Shri. Mohanlal Ji Vakilwala was taking care of all the expenses while others like Shri Vishwanath Tamaskar, Shri Ratnakar Jha, Dwarikant Tiwari, Saryu Prasad Gupta, Dinanath Mishra, Narayan Prasad Gupta were those Congress Leaders who had the support of all the people of the district. During his posting at Durg Shri Lakhan Lal Mishra came closer to Congress leaders and was highly inspired by their Nationalist Ideology. Shri R.K.Patil in the meanwhile, resigned from the Indian Civil Services and had joined the Indian National Congress. He travelled to various parts of India as a national leader and as part of his campaign he arrived at Durg on 15th Dec 1945. A huge number of people had gathered to welcome him and security was tightened by the British Govt. Shri Lakhan Lal Mishra was also present on special duty as a police officer to handle the volatile situation. People were waiting eagerly to greet their leader Shri Patil, with garlands and flowers. When the train arrived and after Shri R.K.Patil got down, the congress leaders were stunned because out of the crowd emerged Police Inspector Shri Lakhan Lal Mishra, took the garland from senior Congress leader Shri Sarayu Prasad Gupta and put it on Shri Patil’s neck. After that he saluted Shri Patil and started saying “Vandemataram”, “Gandhiji Ki Jai” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. All this happened within minutes and the news of a Police Officer in the British Govt. turning into a revolutionist spread like fire. An emotional Shri Mishra was heard saying to his Magistrate – “Sir I have decided to follow your path. I want to be Gandhiji’s soldier. My motherland is calling me”. This incident was a major cause of concern for the British Govt. The news spread to Nagpur, the then capital of the State. Every newspaper covered the story on their front page, the next day. The I.G. Police of the State called Shri Mishra and asked for an explanation. But Lakhan Lal Mishra had decided – he took off his police uniform along with his medals and very politely handed them over to his Captain along with his resignation. His brave an patriotic moves had been recognised and were acknowledged by great leaders like Mahatman Gandhi, Acharya Vinobha Bhave, Hari Krishna Kamat and others. Shri Mishra actively participated in the freedom movement at Raipur. After the death of his father the whole burden of his family fell on his shoulders. Realising his responsibilties, he took to farming in his native place and like a true farmer his effort showed outstanding results and he was counted amongst the prosperous farmers in the region. India finally got it’s independence on 15th Aug 1947. Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla called upon Shri Lakhan Lal Mishra and offered him the post of State Vigilance Officer. But Shri Mishra declined the offer and he thought it wise to devote his life in farming and for the upbringing of his family. He tried his best to offer the best education to his sons and he never took any privilages offered to freedom fighters by the Government. He never took advantage of his position and never attempted to place his sons in Govt. jobs through reference. Meanwhile he showed interest in state politics and was one of the pioneers of the Kisan Movement in which he was arrested and jailed for a period of 3 months. He was also involved in different social movements in the state. Later he retired from politics and devouted most of his time on religious activities and developmental activities in the village. On 21st Febrary 1975, while he was traveling to Rameshwaram with his family no body knew that the sadest moment of his life was yet to happen. On 3rd March 1975 his eldest son died in a train accident near chennai and this left Shri Mishra shattered as a father. He started falling ill from time to time and on 16th march 1984 he left for his heavenly abode leaving behind his wife, 4 sons and 5 daughters. Shir Lakhan Lal Mishra died of cancer. |
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