Gorakhpur. Gunjan Mausi, a 92-year-old eunuch (commonly known as hijda) claiming to be a freedom fighter, died here today in abject poverty after prolonged illness. Gunjan Mausi had been fighting a long drawn battle with the government authorities trying to get pension as a freedom fighter, but had to leave this world without having won any recognition or award. Mausi is survived by sixteen more eunuchs, whom she brought up and organized as a performing art group.
“Mausi had grabbed and seized an English officer from behind when he ordered lathi charge (caning) on protestors during the Quit India movement in 1942. Mausi was young and sturdy then and the officer was shit scared at being squeezed by her. He started crying for help, which caused his policemen to leave the protestors and channel their energy towards separating Mausi and the Englishman.” Shabnam, an eunuch brought up by Gunjan Mausi, recalled Mausi’s heroics during the freedom struggle.
Gunjan Mausi brought smiles to these faces in independent India
“It took more than half an hour to get that gora (Englishman) freed from Gunjan Mausi’s hold. Gora’s face had turned red and he was panting like a dog when he was rescued by his Indian policemen. He ordered his men to beat up and lock up Mausi in jail.” Shabnam recounted the story, which she had heard from Mausi herself and local elders while she grew up dancing on child-births and clapping in trains. Gunjan was jailed for four years for this anti-national act.
Local residents corroborate these stories, although rather reluctantly, based on what they had learnt from their grandparents. Apparently Gunjan Mausi was given a sobriquet of “gorpakad” (someone who catches a white man) after the incident and had become quite famous locally in those days.
“India would have got their first hijda leader way back then itself, but other leaders of those days didn’t make any attempt to get Mausi released from jail, and her political career had almost finished when she came out in 1946. People were talking about Pakistan by then. Mausi got confused as she still thought about India.” Jawahar Yadav, a local octogenarian said.
Gunjan Mausi was soon forgotten as India got independence and she had to struggle to make her ends meet. She attempted the same policeman grabbing act once more in the independent India when local farmers were being chased away by Uttar Pradesh police during a demonstration, but this time the policeman seemed to enjoy the act while everyone around laughed. Nobody took Gunjan Mausi seriously thereafter.
“No government official was ready to listen to her and she was being pushed to the margins. Some people, who had no idea about freedom struggle and were jailed for stealing clothes in those times, could get pension as freedom fighters but Gunjan Mausi’s claims were always rejected. She was soon disillusioned with our new society.” said Shabnam with bleary eyes.
Faking News pays our sincerest tribute such unsung heroes of our freedom struggle.
Possibly Related News:
- First man to have given a bribe in independent India dies
- Chinese celebrate 60 seconds of freedom and liberty with joy
- Engineers surviving only on chai-sutta inspire study for a new fuel
- Conman claiming to sell Oscars cheat Bollywood celebrities
- Justin Bieber sues Mark Zuckerberg claiming “Time Person of the Year” title
for me its not a matter of joke! well to kid about corrupt politician and the wrong doings of corporate and red tapes of the government official is alright , but to make fun of an entire clan of people who are like this ,by no fault of their own and that too on a sensitive issue of india’s independence is so totally unwarrented , may be i am not the person to pass judgement , but today i am so totally hurt by faking news , which had impressed me all this while. but yes its my opinion alone , and me being just an individual really doesnt matter.
I totally second maruti’s opinion. I do not understand why you had to make fun of a marginalised community to criticise the issue of reedom fighter pension which is abused by many people. Many of your jokes are well appreciated but sadly not this one.
good one! and ppl getting senti there I don’t know what u r talking abt.. everyone makes fun of hirjras in a cheap way, this article actually empathises with them (and that’s why u guys r even feeling sad). can u recall any other funny article or comedy show when u felt sad for hijras? maybe only when a hijra was killed (yes, kiiled!) in Welcome To Sajjanpur! this is really good job by FN!
from the “about us” of this website -
Please don’t visit this website if you are too religious, too political, too sentimental, too serious, too liberal, or too anything.
I think the article is good. Moreover why don’t people object when a sattire is made on politicians? Even nice and honest politicians also exist. Really appreciate the humour in the article especially the “but this time the policeman seemed to enjoy the act while everyone around laughed” part.
a nice step indeed, by kavi to reemphasize the warnings in the about s..
Great article! As opposed to opinions expressed above, I rather belive that this article beautifully depicts the problems like discrimination faced by eunuchs. Keep up the good work.
ROFLMAO!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sajal Kayan, Faking News and M Krishna, Nayan Medhi. Nayan Medhi said: Only surviving eunuch claiming to be freedom fighter dies: Gunjan Mausi, a 92-year-old eunuch (commonly known as h… http://bit.ly/5p1I3Y [...]
Is this high humour that is beyond my dumb brain.. or is it a pathetic piece of text trying to be funny or something else
I’d go with the first option and you know that, don’t you? that’s y ur name
btw, read this – http://www.fakingnews.com/about/faqs/#Q7
“Please don’t expect Santa-Banta type jokes here. News satire is a very different style of comedy – subtle, satirical, sarcastic, irreverent and sometimes even morbid or dark.”
subtle, dark, irreverent… man dont hype yourself too much!
trash is trash. have the openness to swallow the criticism. it makes you write better next time.
I thought u were just fucktard in name, but u seem to be a real one. clearly u didn’t even click the link. I had quoted from what I thought was right, the full text says –
—-
Not every article can be funny for each person, maybe it was not ‘your type’ of article. Readers of Faking News are not homogeneous.
Or maybe, it was not meant to be funny at first place. Please don’t expect Santa-Banta type jokes here. News satire is a very different style of comedy – subtle, satirical, sarcastic, irreverent and sometimes even morbid or dark.
Or maybe it was really a bad article. Take your pick.
—–
you took the last pick, I picked the first and second, where is the question of hyping by the author?
grow up fucktard and use some brains, it will help u and others it the society
@kavi: nicely replied … we ( maruti, ramesh etc.. no offence ) have to learn how not to be too sensitive and understand the crux of what is being said instead of jumping the gun and criticizing things
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner