Dedicated to Late General Mancharsha Rustomji Avari

Atrocities suffered in the British Jails
        1. When General Avari was arrested in 1923 leading the Zenda Satyagraha he was given a very strict jail term. According to one of his companion in jail Mr. Ambolkar (as told to General Avari’s son Shri Gev Avari) he suffered terrible physical torture because it was the policy of the Britishers to give strong torture to first time popular leaders. Accordingly in the present day Gittikhadan area in Nagpur which was earlier a stone quary, Mr. Ambolkar himself saw General Avari’s both legs tied separately to two horses and they were speeding around the Gittikhadan area. This caused terrible injuries on General Avari’s body. This incident has already been recorded in the book “Shastra Satyagraha ke Pravartak General Avari ( His Life and Movements)” written by the famous freedom fighter and Hindi Laureate Shri Satyadev Vidhyalankar published in 1930. His second imprisonment was from 24th may 1927 to 15th april 1931 under section 124 A for preaching sedition because of his Armed Satyagraha. The first prison jail was from 13-4-1923 to 2-6-1924 for leading the Nagpur’s Flag Satyagraha. The third jail term was awarded on 7-05-1931 for three years for his movements. During his jail term in Nagpur he started a hunger strike to demand Khadi clothes in jail. Next day he was given Khadi clothes and transferred to Raipur jail. There he demanded that his underclothes like the religious ‘Sudreh’ which was refused. He was tortured in all possible ways. To break his Fast the Britishers tried to feed him forcibly by tube through his mouth, in the process breaking two front teeth when he resisited. Since General Avari knew Prananyam Yoga he would spill out the milk from his mouth through his nose. The jail officials then cut opens his veins of the hand and injected saline water in it. Again he started his usual yoga practised which stopped the beating pulse and blood circulation. Hence wonderfully enough not a drop of saline water passed in his blood though they kept the syringe for minutes together. Ultimately, they forcefully feeded him through his anus. Here he could not throw the saline water out. That was on the 75th day of his fast and he fainted. After that he was given Khadi underclothes.( This is quoted from the book of Vidyalankar from pg. 23-27.) This Fast reduced him to a state of skeleton i.e. reducing his weight from 164 lb to 114 lb. (quoted from his own words in his book “Rays from asylum” published on 9/10/1934)
2. After this torture the Britishers removed him from Raipur Jail to the Nagpur Lunatic Asylum during his 3rd jail term. Here also the tortures continued. The beautiful description of how he was rescued from lunatic asylum in Nagpur due to a mass movement is given in the autobiography of the famous Marathi Laureate Late Vamanrao Chorghade.

Unveiling portrait of General Avari in Nagpur Municipality by Netaji Subhashchandra Bose.
        Unveiling portrait of General Avari in Nagpur Municipality by Netaji Subhashchandra Bose. On 5th oct, 1928 Nagpur Municipality organized a big program to honour Subhashchandra Bose by presenting him ‘Man-patra’ and unveiling oil portrait of General Avari at his hands. General Avari was in jail that time. In his address, Netaji Subhaschandra Bose spoke of him as follows- “It gives me a great pleasure to unveil the portrait of Desh-bhakt like Shri Avari. Methods used by Avari or his ideas may not be liked by all but at the root of this movement is the idea of the Congress party to oppose the present day politics. This is important. Congress programs are not appealing to the youths today but this movement of young congress workers is a befitting reply to those people.... Even if following General Avari’s methods of working may not be easy to follow yet the people should carry on the nation-building work so ably started by General Avari.” Quoted from Nagpur Nagarpalika Shatabdi Granth, Nagpur Municiple Corporation in1964 edited by Dr. Padmakar Laxmikant Joshi, retired Dr. A. Raghvendra professor of political science, Nagpur University, chapter 5, pg.no. 46-47.

The story behind his marriage.
        General Avari was a very good looking, fair, Parsi gentleman and a U.S.A returned Engineer. But because he sacrificed his lucrative job and all his inherited wealth for joining freedom movement under Mahatma Gandhi, he remained a bachelor. There were many attempts by rich Parsi people in Nagpur and Bombay wanting to get their daughters married to him but he refused. In 1933 whike he was serving his 3rd jail term he met another young Parsi Patriot young Shri Minochehr Zaiwala who was also serving jail term. He was an educated B.T. trained school teacher from Bordi in present day Thana district. It was here that Mr. Zaiwala informed General Avari that all hs family members, except his youngest sister Dalerbanu, followed the Britishers. Since his sister was National-minded and was a fan of Mahatma Gandhi, she wrote poems and articles in Gujrati language and had already written about General Avari in one newspaper praising his movements. Ultimately Mr. Zaiwala proposed the marriage of his sister with General Avari and he agreed though there was a gap of fourteen years between them. She was niece of the famous Gujrati poet Shri Khabardar of Gujrat. Finally, the marriage was held in April 1935 and a big reception was held in Ahmedabad and then in Nagpur. The details are given by Shri Gev Avari his son in article 3 of ‘Majhe Vadil’ serialised in the famous Marathi Daily Lokmat.