Awakening the class of people who believe in themselves, who believe in hard work, who taught people to work instead of relying on luck, the one who set the example of living with free thoughts in the country, who emerged as the brother of the poorest of the farmers, was Ram Bijapl who known as Deen Bandhu Sir Chhotu Ram.
Deen Bandhu Sir Chhotu Ram was born on 24th November 1881 at small village Garhi Sampla, Rohtak. He was born to a poor farmer. The boy Ram Birjpal was admitted to the school a little late but after going to school, everyone was surprised to see that he was very smart in his studies. He has completed his middle studies at Jharjhar Government School.
The financial condition of the house was weak, but seeing the child’s interest and stubbornness to study further, the father took him and went to the moneylender Mahajan to take a loan. So the moneylender made fun of the farmer’s son’s interest in studies and gestured for him to move the fan for himself. Child Chhotu Ram did not delay understanding the real reason behind this humiliation of his father and his economic slavery. And from this, the thinking arose in his mind that this class needs economic freedom before political freedom.
For further studies with the help of their uncle, he got admission to a Christian school. And from there he raised his voice against injustice for the first time. In the hostel, he became the leader of the students by a strike for basic things like cleanliness and food. From this incident, he had learned the lesson of fighting unitedly and winning.
After the intermediate, he can’t even study due to his house’s financial condition. But luckily in the rails after meeting Seth Chajhu Ram his life get totally change. After this, with the help of Seth Chazhu Ram Ji, he completed BA from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and get Law degree from Agra. After this, he edited Hindustan Newspaper for Raja Ramphal.
He started practising immediately after completing his law studies. Chhotu Ram was fighting for the truth through advocacy, but he felt that only advocacy is not enough to fight for the rights of farmers and workers. So he jumped into active politics and formed the Jat Sabha. And by publishing a letter named Jat Gazette, write a series of articles under the name Poor Zamindar to awaken the farmers and the working class.
For them, the original spirit of these articles impressed the people a lot. Since then this class get emotionally attached to him. He became the first district magistrate of Congress from Rohtak at the very beginning of the political process. But in 1920 due to disagreement in the non-cooperation movement, he had said goodbye to Congress and formed the Union Party along with other partners to liberate the rural people from the exploitation of moneylenders, the oppression of servants, royalty, and economic separation. Such was the effect of his popularity that from 1922 to 1946, this party was in power in the then Punjab.
Chhotu Ram Ji, while in power for about twenty-five years, was successful in getting economic freedom by freeing the farmers and labourers from the clutches of moneylenders and making other laws to protect their interests. In fact, it was through these laws that farmers, poor labourers and hardworking people started getting the fruits of their efforts.
Chotu Ram died on 9th January 1945. As long as he was alive he had many goods works. Fight for the rights of farmer, labourers and poor peoples.
