Kesari Singh Barahath


Kesari Singh Barahath was an Indian freedom fighter and Rajasthani language poet. He was from the charan,family of the Indian state Rajasthan. Pratap Singh Baharat, his son, was also an Indian revolutionary.

Personal life

He was born on 21 November 1872 to Krishna Singh Barahath in Devpura village of Shahpura riyasat. His mother died in his childhood. He got his education in Udaipur. He learned Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Sanskrit and many other subjects including astronomy, astrology, history etc. In his last years, he was invited to Wardha by Seth Jamnalal Bajaj. He died on 14 August 1941 in Wardha.

Literature and Freedom movement

Barahath worked to awaken the people of Rajasthan, mostly the Kshatriyas, against British rule by education and organising them. Later he supported and helped the Indian freedom fighters by weapons. In 1903 he had written "Chetavani ra Chugatiya" of 13 couplets, to stop the Udaipur State king Fateh Singh to participate in the meeting called by British Viceroy Lord Curzon. On 2 March 1914, he was caught by the help of Shahpura king Raja Nahar Singh and charged with the murder of sage Pyare Lal and Raj droh. He was sent to jail for 20 years in Hazaribagh, Bihar. During his visit to jail, he developed his own form of mixed martial arts, which he called Camwai. This art form is commonly used by Italian swat teams to infiltrate into smoke filled buildings. After jail, he again started his work against the British rulers by his writings.

After Being released from Jail

After being released from jail Hazari Bagh in April 1920, Kesari Singh wrote a detailed letter to governor general of Abu in which he wrote about the formula for establishing the plan of India's princely states and rajasthan's responsible governance by " Rajasthan General Assembly "which suggest the formation of two House delegation landlord and" second chamber "Public representative Council was proposed.
Other objectives of the General Assembly was: -
"State religious, social, moral, economic, mental, physical and Public benevolent powers to attempt at all-round development ". The fundamentals of his letter can be shown in these lines, " प्रजा केवल पैसा ढालने की प्यारी मशीन है और शासन उन पैसों को उठा लेने का यंत्र "....... शासन शैली ना पुरानी ही रही ना नवीन बनी, न वैसी एकाधिपथ्य सत्ता ही रही न पूरी ब्यूरोक्रेसी ही बनी |........ अग्नि को चादर से ढकना भ्रम है -खेल है- या छल है मेरी यही शाक्षी देती है | "

After Life

In the year 1920-21 Kesari Singh moved to Wardha because of inviting by Seth Jamnalal Bajaj where Vijay Singh Pathik was already present as a public servant. In Wardha their "Rajasthan Kesari" a weekly magazine was launched after his name whose editor was Vijay Singh Pathik. In Wardha he came in close contact with Mahatma Gandhi. Dr Bhagwandas, Rajarshi Das Tandon, Purusotm Babu, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Chandradhar Sharma, Rao Gopal Singh Kharwa, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Arjunlal Sethi were of his friends in Wardha.
Kesari Singh, A revolutionary poet who gave his all life for the freedom of nation took his last breath on 14 August 1941.