Martyr Ganga Lal's widow dies

KATHMANDU, March 14: Hasina Devi Shrestha lived revering the term martyr having been widowed at a young age of 20 after the martyrdom of Ganga Lal in 1941.

She had to endure the pain of the title of martyrdom being dragged down from its exalted status to the extent of vilification due to its rampant abuse. But she never complained.


“She was very frustrated and sad with the current state of the country but was too simple a person to abhor the way the term martyr was abused by politicians,” Bijaya Lal, the youngest brother of Ganga Lal, said.

Her death at the age of 90 at Kathmandu Model Hospital Saturday night, for once, restored the sanctity of the much maligned term and the tributes flowing from the leaders didn´t seem mundane for a change.

Born on May 9, 1920, Hasina Devi was married to Ganga Lal in 1933. She was pregnant when the Rana regime announced death sentence for him. She had given birth to their second son a day before he was to be executed on January 28.

Legend has it that Ganga Lal was taken for execution in a lorry that passed along the road in front of his abode in Pyafal. He had called her name in anguish but she could not answer him as she was in pain, having delivered a child just hours before.

“When they finally allowed the family to meet him for the last time, she could not visit him being in the later stage of pregnancy,” says Bijaya Lal. Sadly, she couldn´t even go for his cremation.

The Ranas were prepared to pardon the 21-year-old Ganga Lal in exchange for an apology due to his young age but he preferred to die in dignity rather than face ignominy of an unwarranted apology. “The family tried to seek his release but never put pressure on him to apologize. She had no regrets for what he did,” said Bijaya Lal who was raised by her like a son after the death of his mother in 1939.

During the family´s last visit to the prison, Ganga Lal had asked his younger brother Pushpa Lal, who went on to become the founder general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal, to continue the fight. She lost her elder son just three years after Ganga Lal´s execution but Hasina played her part by looking after his four kid brothers and two sisters while inspiring them to follow Ganga Lal´s footsteps.

“Pushpa Lal bowed his head to her feet when she reached Tindhara Pathshala to welcome him after he became public following the end of Rana oligarchy in 1951,” Bijaya Lal recalls.

Many leftist leaders tried to bring her into politics following the restoration of democracy in 1990. But she chose to live away from the limelight and led a simple life.

She is survived by son Shashi Lal and three grandchildren. Shashi lit Hasina´s funeral pyre at Shobhabhagawati, the very place where her husband was shot dead, Sunday afternoon.

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