Before 1951 February 19 Monday, Nepal was ruled by autocratic Rana leaders. The dictatorship rule was inherited for the first time by Jung Bahadur Rana in 1846. People's right to freedom and rights to education was suppressed by their rule. If anyone dare to speak against Ranas, they were given death penalty by hanging. They enjoy a luxurious life by getting wealth from British East India Company rather than showing love towards their country. Our Shah kings for a century were fighting against East India Company loosing a great warrior on bloodshed war. When Jung Bahadur Rana rises to power as a prime minister, he instead of fighting, he supported them giving the armies and warriors and in return getting money from them for their own purposes. He was the one to carry out mass Massacre of King, Queen and high official personnels while they were having a party. The following picture is of Jung Bahadur Rana.
**The throne was inherited from his to family members. For 104 years, people in Nepal were living in a blackout under a miserable and poor education being illeterate and without luxury. Now our country is democratic. Many martyrs and freedom fighters sacrificed themselves to implement democracy in Nepal. Among many of such great brave fighters, Shukraraj Shastri is a great national hero and martyr. There were other three martyrs along with him that fights to overthrow autocratic Rana regime from Nepal. They were : Gangalal Shrestha, Dharma Bhakta Mathema and Dashrath Chand. The revoultion of 1951 is the political movement in our history of Nepal whose outcome was overthrown of Ranas throne. This is the picture of Shukra Raj Shastri
Shukra Raj Shastri was born in 1894 in Varanasi state of India. The political movements of Shah kings forced his family to get exiled from Nepal and they flee to India to seek a place to sustain thei life. He studied Sanskrit language and got the degree of "Shastri". It is the degree of gaduation in Sanskrit and Nepali language. After he completed his education, he worked as a teacher in Allahabad in India. He wrote many books such as Satya Prakash, Sanskrit Pradeep, Satya Kalpana. He was a social reformer and was in contact with great Indian scholars. He used to go to Kolkata in India to get his books his published and once there he got a chance to meet Mahatma Gandhi. He was greatly influenced and inspired by Gandhi's political movements.
He knew Nepal was not a democratic country that time. He also knew that there were some Nepali leaders and small revolutionary groups that were planning to overthrow the Rana regime. He had a contact with them but was not highly impressed by their political movement ideas. Thus in 1957 AD, he formed Nepal Civil Right Committe. He was the president of it. From that day onwards, he was involved in active politics. The members of Nepal Civil Rights Committe played a prime role to uplift the public awareness. They published articles in newspaper to make people conscious. They also delivered speeched on Purans and the Geeta. Shukraraj gave many speeches on the Geeta. The political situation that time was very risky. That's why their committee worked indirectly and secretly. Their committee was underground.
Unfortunately, their political movements and secret plans to overthrow the Ranas rule were known to the government. Once while a demonstration was organized on Indra Chowk of Kathmandu by his committee, he spoke against autocratic rule of Rana, their luxurious life and how they were suppressing people's right and encouraged people to fight for their rights, their freedom. That time Civil Right Committee members were arrested and Shukraraj Shastri was convicted of giving lectures without getting government permission. Then he was sent to the prison where he was badly tortured. After 6 years spending time in prison, he was sentenced to death by the cruel government. He was mercilessly hanged at Teku in Kathmandu on 24 January 1941.
This is the tree in Teku located in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal from where he was hanged cruelly. All the democratic people respect him as one of the greatest martyrs and freedom fighters. So every January 29, it is declared a public holiday by Nepalese government and this day is declared as "Martyr's Day". The programmes for paying tribute to Shukraraj Shastri along with other great three martyrs is organized at the place with their respective statues.
