Kanaklata Barua:Assam’s Teenage Martyr

Kanaklata Barua was not your regular teenager. She was made of much sterner stuff. So when Mahatma Gandhi gave the call to ‘do or die’, the motto of the Quit India Movement he launched in 1942, Kanaklata went all in – and made the ultimate sacrifice. ​Barua, then 17, led the Mukti Bahini, a procession of freedom fighters to unfurl the Tricolour at Gohpur police station on September 20, 1942. When police did not let them move forward, an altercation led to firing, killing Barua at the head of the procession. So intense was the dedication of these young men and women that in their protest they even transcended the fear of death. The struggles and triumphant feats of the heroes and veeranganas of India’s freedom struggle like Birbala Kanaklata must be included in our history books. History written without reverential references to them will be incomplete.