Dashrath Das Manjhi was a laborer who loved his wife very much. He made his way to his village by cutting a hill on his own, because his wife had died due to delay in medicine due to that hill.
Wiki/Biography
Dashrath Manjhi was born on 14 January 1929 (age: 78 years at death in 2007) in a Musahar family in Gehlaur village, Gaya district, Bihar, British India. His family was very poor and belonged to a very low caste (Scheduled Caste) of the area. His family was often harassed by the upper class (mukhiya or pradhan) of the village.
Family
Information about his parents is not known. His wife was Phalguni Devi who died after falling from the mountain. They had a son, Bhagirath Manjhi, and a daughter. He had a brother.
Bhagirath Manjhi, son of Dashrath Manjhi
Story
After working in Dhanbad for seven years, when he returned to his village, he fell in love with Falguni Devi, who surprisingly became his wife. Falguni Devi’s father refused to send his daughter to Dashrath Manjhi as he was unemployed. They both run away and start a new life as a family. By 1960, his wife gave birth to two children. One day, while delivering food to her husband, she fell from a mountain and was seriously injured. Dashrath Manjhi took him across the mountain to the hospital in the nearby town. But by then it was too late, he died due to lack of medicine on time. Then, he was determined to connect the people of his village to the nearby town and hospital by collapsing the mountain and building a path through it so that no one would ever have to face this problem again.
In the beginning people made fun of him and called him crazy. However, later some people came forward to help him. One of them was Shivu Mistry who gave Manjhi a hammer and a chisel.
Shivu Mistry who helped Dashrath Manjhi
He went to Delhi to meet the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, to seek help from the government but was thrown out of the train because he was traveling without a ticket. Nevertheless, he walked more than 1000 km to reach Delhi. It took 22 years (from 1960 to 1982) to build a path through the hill and finally a path 360 feet long, 30 feet high and 25 feet wide emerged and Dashrath Manjhi reached the pinnacle of fame. Due to his hard work, the distance between two blocks of Gaya district, Atri and Wazirganj, reduced from 55 km to 15 km.
Death
He died at AIIMS Hospital in New Delhi on 17 August 2007 at the age of 78 due to gall bladder cancer. On his death, he was given a state funeral by the Government of Bihar.
Nitish Kumar met Dashrath Manjhi at the hospital
fact
- In 2006, the Government of Bihar proposed his name for the Padma Shri award in the category of social service.
- Manjhi wanted the government to make the road built by him concrete but he could not see it in his life. After his death in 2007, the government made it permanent.
- When he went to CM House, CM Nitish Kumar politely offered his seat to Dashrath Manjhi for some time.
Dashrath Manjhi and Nitish Kumar
- In 2014, the first show of the TV show Satyamev Jayate, hosted by Aamir Khan, was dedicated to Dashrath Manjhi. Aamir Khan met Bhagirath Manjhi (son of Dashrath Manjhi) and his wife Basanti Devi and promised to help the Manjhi family financially. However, Basanti Devi later died due to lack of proper treatment.
- On the death of his wife, Bhagirath Manjhi said that if Aamir Khan fulfills his promise then his wife will not die.
- In 2015, his biopic, titled ‘Manjhi – The Mountain Man’, was released, directed by Ketan Mehta and starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Dashrath Manjhi and Radhika Apte as Falguni Devi.
Dashrath Manjhi biopic
- Film director Ketan Mehta had promised to give 2 percent of the film’s earnings to Dashrath Manjhi’s family but the family has received only Rs 1.5 lakh in two installments.
- On 26 December 2016, India Post released a postage stamp in his honour.
Dashrath Manjhi Postage Stamp
- A gateway to the path he carved out of a hill in the last century is named in his honour. A hospital has also been named after him.
Dashrath Manjhi Gate
- In 2017, CM Nitish Kumar had also unveiled the statue of Dashrath Manjhi.
See more: Anjali Tendulkar Wiki
Anjali Arora Wiki
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn