Gopeshwar (U’khand), Aug 14 (PTI) Sher Singh Shah, who figures on a list of forgotten heroes of the freedom struggle on the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), is credited with leading the Quit India movement in Uttarakhand’s Kedar valley.
Working as a goldsmith in a remote village near Guptkashi in Rudraprayag district, Shah took the plunge into active politics under the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi and local leader Anusuya Prasad Bahuguna in 1940.
Gandhi’s Quit India movement resonated in the hills of the Kedar valley in 1942 due to the efforts of Shah, who led the movement from the front as his political mentor Bahuguna was sick, his grandson Kunwar Singh said.
“Due to the ill-health of Anusuya Prasad Bahuguna, my grandfather led the movement in the Kedar ghati and challenged the British officers and their police,” he said.
As a consequence, Shah was sentenced to jail for two years and a half on the charge of treason and sent to prison.
After being released from jail in 1945, he played an active role in establishing the Congress organisation in Chamoli tehsil, which included Rudraprayag.
Though Shah had made a transition from his family’s goldsmith business to politics initially for the sake of India’s independence, social service remained a lifelong commitment for him, his grandson said, adding that even today, a trust formed to help poor students financially bears his name.
After independence, Shah was appointed as the manager of the Garhwal Cooperative Society. He was a member of the District Board, Garhwal from 1948 to 1962. He did many things to promote the cooperative movement in Garhwal.
By establishing a “Vidyapeeth” near Guptkashi and then by becoming its manager, Shah made tireless efforts to make the institution a leader in undivided Uttar Pradesh.
Another notable work of Shah was to establish the Dharmada trust for poor and meritorious children in 1978.
Due to his charitable nature, he invested his wealth in social-welfare projects. Youngsters of Pauri-Chamoli especially benefitted from this trust. This work of his was started after being influenced by Gandhi’s trusteeship principle.
Singh is happy that his grandfather’s contribution to India’s freedom struggle is finally being acknowledged.
“He was always concerned about better facilities for the needy,” he said.
Singh also said it is disappointing that Chamoli’s district magistrate is not giving time to the trust established by his grandfather.
“Chamoli’s district magistrate is the ex-officio president of the trust. But due to the trust meeting not being held for years, poor students are not getting assistance,” he said.
Born in a goldsmith family at Sonla village in Chamoli on September 16, 1912, Shah was involved in his ancestral business near Nala village in Guptkashi.
He received his primary education in Joshimath. Subsequently, he left Sonla and started his ancestral goldsmith business near Guptkashi.
He also wrote religious literature and photo guidebooks and prepared maps of the travel route available to Kedarnath pilgrims before joining politics. Shah died in 1991. PTI COR ALM RC
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