THE SECRET OF SULTANA DACOIT OF NAJIBABAD

It's a story of nineteenth century when India was a British colony and going through the revolt times of freedom against the British rule and the Zamindari system . The Sultana dacoit was the name of terror famous in the terrai region of Najibabad town in Western Uttar Pradesh. The impact of his terrifying footprints were making it difficult for the British officials and the rich landlords of northern India to live and move freely.

 The most interesting fact as locals claim to be is that he was always generous towards the poor population of the area and used to distribute the looted wealth and money among the needy ones and help the families of poor girls at the time of their marriages. He was famous as a 'maseeha' among them and as a double trouble dacoit among the rich class. The other heroic move of this unstoppable looter was that he always used to declare in advance via the secretly delivered 'ghoshna patr' (a hindi term for declaration)pinned down with an arrow to the British officials about the location, time, and host of his next visit and decoity. Not only this, he used to throw an open challenge to the British Government stating, " catch me if you can? I will appear at so and so time and place". He was so perfect in planning and executing everything well that the well educated and well trained British officers could not deal with his shooting and horse riding skills through which he escaped every time just before seconds of being caught as if the very essence of being a decoit was all his passion garnished by the feelings of nationalism within him.

Finally on the request of the Indian government the England head office conducted a meeting in London and appointed Mr. Young the most renowned detective of the time to trap the Sultana alive and handover to the police. Sultana came to meet him personally in the dense jungles of the region while he was on adventurous tour to study the area and possibilities of all escape route that Sultana was following. Mr. Young saw his aura of an invincible warrior and his mustache proudly waving his confidence, his smile being very sarcastic and his eyes were glittering with the warming welcome to Young. Unfortunately Mr. Young was so horrified that he fainted there and then. To his surprise minutes later he woke up and was all alive even after encountering with the most dangerous and flawless decoit of the region. Wow! There was no Sultana around but only sacks of rice, dal and flour gifted to him by the Sultana to make food in the jungle in case he gets hungry. His gestures were always of kindness to the needy as if the flicker of humanity was burning it's candle in some corner of his heart. But his sword and mind were contaminated by hatred against those who were in power and were wealthy. After years of failure in encountering and arresting him, finally the Britishers caught his nerve and his weakness and that is his love for the poor.   

There was this loyal friend of him say billu who has always helped him in times of escape and Sultana being a devotee of kaali visited a temple near to his friend's place every Saturday. So you can say he was a frequent visitor of this secret friend on his secret home. Apart from the decoity , he never missed any invitation received from the people following him as God as he respect their sentiments. And therefore secretly used to visit and engage in celebrations and festivities of the people by changing his overall makeover and attire. Also during these visits he never used to carry his weapons to look all like a normal man. But this secret got revealed to the British officials who were after him since many years or say decades. But how?. Offering huge money to the locals who soon became their permanent mukhbir(an informant). Thus a very huge amount of fifty thousand as a prize money was declared all over to be offered to the one who will help him hand over alive to the government. The amount was huge to bait for and to break the trust and decode the secret visits. After all the majority of the population was poor and uneducated. All this while, Billu was blessed with baby girl and wanted the Sultana to bless the child and so warmly invited him for the holy celebration of the name ceremony(naamkaran ). Sultana came all dressed up with ten ten kilograms of five different mithai (Indian sweets )and clothes as the birthday offering. The moment he sat down for the food and was about to take his first bite he felt a gun on his head from the back. Within seconds, he was all surrounded by the khakhi men in dress and guns. He uttered no word just feelings of betrayal and broken heart. His pale eyes stared at billu for this emotional defeat and for selling the secret of his kindness and trust in fifty thousand prize rupees. He was taken to the court and declared to be hanged till death. 

He was tortured and beaten but he uttered no word. Flashback of his life were reversing in his mind. His journey from the naughty innocent childhood days to the youth who was threat to the system and a rebellious dauntless dacoit of northern India today. He knew his end is near. As a customary procedure on the day of his hanging he was asked his last wish. He kept quite all chained up surrounded by the Britishers. Then he said "I want to see my mother". The mother was called from his ancestry village and was present in front of the Sultana. He asked her ,"come near to me mother as I have a secret to tell you in your ear. She came closer and there was all abominable lull around and all of a sudden he bites her ear badly injuring her and making her bleed. He shouted that "It was you mother who always encourage me to go in the wrong direction!". It was you who appreciated me for stoling a pencil for the first time, and then fruits from the shop, then looting the landlords shop and then there was no end to my journey. If you would have slapped the first day of my petty robbery and forced me to study I would have not met this end. You never asked me to stop and you never taught me what is right and what is wrong". 

"I am ready to surrender and die freely today because of two secrets out of which one was never shared to me at the right time and the other which was shared about me at the wrong time. The first one is the secret you hide all this life was the secret of living right and progressing right. You said money is everything no matter how you get it instead of telling me to work hard and study no matter what the circumstances are. The second secret is the secret of my heart and that is to love and serve the poor people so that no kid of destitute needy becomes another Sultana of his time. I have no words left to say as my ship is on the verge of its sinking and I am all ready to leave this World to be born again.