Importance of Eram in Basudevpur, in the tourism map of India
February 3, 2010Eram also known as the `second Jalianawala Bagh’ where the British forces killed 28 persons on September 28, 1942 was also very important as the only woman martyr of the freedom movement in Orissa, Pari Bewa, also fell to the British bullets there.
But today there is only one martyrs’ pillar at the ground standing as a mute reminder to the historic incident and there were no statues of the martyrs so far. Even there is no museum to showcase the great sacrifice through pictorial or any audio-visual depiction.
In Eram’s blood-soaked ground, not only 28 villagers died and 56 were injured, but another injured, lodged in Koraput jail also succumbed to his injuries later taking the toll to 29. Also the British police executed the gruesome murder the way they did it in Jalianawala Bagh by blocking all the three entry points of the ground.
People of nearby villages were assembled at Eram after they declared themselves as part of a `swadhina chakla’ or independent area under the leadership of freedom fighters Kamalaprasad Kar, Gouranga Chandra Mohanty, Aniruddha Mohanty and Shyamsundar Panigrahi.
People of Basudevpur have demanded that a proper memorial museum with depiction of the freedom struggle at Eram should be built as there is a nationwide demand to upgrade historical places with contribution to freedom struggle.




