----- Original Message ----- From: "Arvind Kolhatkar" << One interesting story out of the Ghadr movement is that of Dr Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje, a young man from Vardha near Nagpur. After retirement he came back to India in the 1960's and settled in Nagpur. I remember to have read all this in the 1960's when his somewhat exotic life-story drew attention from newspapers. >> ========================== I was not even in my teens when Dr Khankhoje died in Nagpur. However, as his house was not far off from the place where we used to stay at that time, I remember my father telling me about him occasionally. Later on, I quite often used to see his widow (a Mexican lady), either shopping or taking evening walks. She stayed on in Nagpur for a long time after his death - all alone and rather aloof. Somebody who knew the couple later told me that she used to smoke heavily and play cards with a few close friends. I think she returned to Mexico in the 1980s. Must have been nearly 80, I guess. (Their daughter Maya lives in Canada.) Dr Khankhoje was one of those unfortunate freedom fighters, whose sacrifice Gandhi-Nehru and their political disciples had deliberately refused to acknowledge. In recent years, his biography has been published in Marathi (his native language), and it gives a moving account of the hardships he had had to suffer, and the indignities heaped upon him by his own countrymen in post- Independence era. He was forced to leave India during the British regime and finally settle in Mexico, where he gave up politics and worked as an agricultural scientist. His ''return'' from exile to the sovereign republic of India had a touch of Greek tragedy about it. A character persecuted by Fates. The British had branded him a persona non grata, someone not to be allowed to set his foot in this land. BUT THAT WAS BEFORE 1947. When Dr Khankhoje applied for a visa to visit his motherland (with a view to settling here permanently), our government, invoking THAT pre-1947 ban, rejected his plea. It took him about five years and untold mental anguish to finally convince the authorities that he was no longer a threat to the British Raj! And this was in 1955 or thereabouts! (Why does this remind me of Orwell's 1984?) Khankhoje is an unusual surname. It has a Moslem touch about it, though he was a Hindu Brahmin. One of his ancestors was a professional spy-killer and intelligence officer (the 007 of his times), in the service of a Maratha king of Poona in the 18th century. His job was to search for ('khoj' in Urdu means 'search') and destroy as many Afghani Pathans (collectivelly known as Khans) as he could. Those Khans were the notorious footpads, brigands, marauders, and of course mercenary soldiers of fortune, roaming throughout India with impunity, a chronic pain in the nether anotomical parts of our assorted kings, princes, and chieftains. This guy was so successful in his mission that his grateful boss gave him the title ''Sardar Khan-Khoje'' (Khan catcher) - which later became his family name. Sadly, there is not much about Dr PSK readily available on the internet. ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India