- Usha Mehta
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Usha Mehta (March 25, 1920 – August 11, 2000) was a renowned Gandhian and freedom fighter of India. She is also remembered for organizing the Congress Radio, also called the Secret Congress Radio, an underground radio station, which functioned for few months during the Quit India Movement of 1942. In 1998, the Government of India conferred on her Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of Republic of India.
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Early life
Usha was born in Saras village in Surat in the state of Gujarat, on March 25, 1920. When she was just five years old, Usha first saw Gandhi while on a visit to his ashram at Ahmedabad. Shortly thereafter, Gandhi organized a camp near her village, and she became highly influenced by him. She became one of his followers, deciding to wear clothes made of Khādī and remain celibate for life. Over a period of time, she emerged as an active follower of Gandhi and a proponent of Gandhian thought and philosophy.
In 1928, eight-year-old Usha participated in a protest march against the Simon Commission and shouted her first words of protest against the British Raj: “Simon Go Back.” As a child, she did not comprehend the significance of her actions except that she was participating in a movement to free her country under the leadership of Gandhi. She and many other children participated in morning protests against the British Raj and picketing in front of liquor shops. The children also did a little spinning. These activities inspired her to remain active in the freedom movement.
During one of the protests marches against the British Raj, the policemen charged the children, and a girl carrying the Indian flag fell down. Wanting to respond to this incident, the children sought advice from their elders, who suggested that they buy khadi clothes in the tricolors of the Indian flag (white, green and red). That night, the children got the shopkeepers to sell them cloth, and with the help of their elders, they stitched the uniforms. In the morning, they marched, shouting at the policemen: “Policemen, you can wield your sticks and your batons, but you cannot bring down our flag.”
Because her father was a judge under the British Raj, he did not encourage Usha Mehta to join the freedom struggle. However, her father retired in 1930, and in 1932, when she was 12, her family moved to Bombay, making it possible for her to join the freedom movement even more actively. For example, she and other children distributed clandestine bulletins and publications, visited relatives in the prisons, and carried the messages to these prisoners.
Her initial schooling was in Kheda and Bharuch and then in Chandaramji High School, Bombay. In 1935, her final examinations at the University of Bombay placed her among the top 25 students in her class. She continued her education at Wilson College, Bombay, graduating in 1939 with a first-class degree in philosophy. She also studied law. However, in 1942, she joined the Quit India Movement and ended her studies. Thereafter, she participated in the freedom movement full time.
Role in freedom movement
During the Quit India Movement, Usha quickly became a leader. She moved from New Delhi to Mumbai, where she hoisted the tricolor on August 9, 1942 at Gawalia Tank Ground, which was later renamed as the "August Kranti Maidan." At that time, almost the entire leadership of the Congress Party was in prison.
On August 14, 1942, she and her close associates began the Secret Congress Radio, a clandestine radio station. The first words broadcast in her resonant voice were: “This is the Congress radio calling on [a wavelength of] 42.34 meters from somewhere in India.” Her associates included Vithalbhai Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri, Babubhai Thakkar and Nanka Motwani, owner of Chicago Radio, who supplied equipments and provided technicians.
Many leaders, including Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyutrao Patwardhan and Purushottam Trikamdas, also assisted the Secret Congress Radio. The radio broadcast recorded messages from Gandhi and other prominent leaders across India. To elude the authorities, the organizers moved the station's location almost daily. Ultimately, however, the police found them on November 12, 1942 and arrested the organizers, including Usha Mehata. All were later imprisoned.
Although the Secret Congress Radio functioned only for three months, it greatly assisted the movement by disseminating uncensored news and other information banned by the British-controlled government of India. Scecret Congress Radio also kept the leaders of the freedom movement in touch with the public.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a wing of the Indian Police, interrogated her for six months. During this time, she was held in solitary confinement and offered inducements such as the opportunity to study abroad if she would betray the movement. However, she chose to remain silent and, during her trials, asked the Judge of the High Court whether she was required to answer the questions. When the judge confirmed that she was not mandatory, she declared that she would not reply to any of the questions, not even to save herself. After the trial, she was sentenced to four years' imprisonment (1942 to 1946). Two of her associates were also convicted.
Reminiscing about those days, Usha Mehta described her involvement with the Secret Congress Radio as her “finest moment” and also as her saddest moment, because an Indian technician had betrayed them to the authorities.
She was imprisoned at Yeravda Jail in Pune, Maharashtra, where her health deteriorated, and she was sent to Bombay for treatment at Sir J. J. Hospital. In the hospital, three to four policemen kept a round-the-clock watch on her to prevent her from escaping. When her health improved, she was returned to Yeravda Jail. In March 1946, she was released, the first political prisoner to be released in Bombay, at orders of Morarji Desai, who was at that time a home minister in the interim government and who eventually rose to become Prime Minister of India]].
Post-independence
The day India gained independence, Usha Mehta was confined to bed and could not attend the official function in New Delhi. However, she remained in touch with developments through the radio. She disagreed with the partition, but her failing health prevented her from participating in politics. However, she re-commenced her education and wrote a doctoral dissertation on the political and social thought of Gandhi, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Bombay. She had a long association with the university in many capacities as a student, as a research assistant, a lecturer, a professor, and finally as the head of the department of civics and politics of the University of Bombay until her retirement in 1980.
Even after India’s independence, she continued to be socially active, particularly in spreading the Gandhian thought and philosophy. She was elected as the president of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, a trust dedicated to the perseverance of the Gandhian heritage. The Nidhi acquired Mani Bhavan in Mumbai, where Gandhi used to reside during his visits to the city, and converted it into a Gandhi memorial. She was a member of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. She also actively participated in the affairs of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The Government of India associated her with a number of initiates during the celebrations of India’s 50th anniversary of freedom.
Over the years she had authored many articles, essays, and books in English and Gujarati, her mother tongue.
After India’s independence, she was unhappy with the developments taking place in the social, political, and economic spheres of independent India. Once, in an interview with India Today, she expressed her feelings in these words: “Certainly this is not the freedom we fought for.” She added that the freedom fighters of her generation felt that “once people were ensconced in positions of power, the rot would set in." However, in her words, “we didn’t know the rot would sink in so soon.” However, she did not deny the achievements of free India since the independence: “India has survived as a democracy and even built a good industrial base,” she said. “Still, it is not the India of our dreams”.
The Republic of India conferred on her Padma Vibhushan in 1998, the second highest civilian award of India.
Death
She had participated in the anniversary celebrations related to the Quit India Movement in August Kranti Maidan (Revolution Ground) and returned home after a tiring day and suffered from fever. Two days later, She died peacefully on 11 August 2000 at the age of 80, survived by her elder brother and two nephews, one of them Ketan Mehta, a noted Bollywood filmmaker.
The other nephew is Dr. Yatin Mehta, the famous and world renown anaesthetist, who was the Director in Escorts Hospital, and is a part of the Medicity in Gurgaon now. He is the editor of many healthcare magazines and is the President of several healthcare associations.
See also
Further reading
- India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN 81-88086-19-3) by Indra Gupta
External links
Categories:- Indian independence activists
- 1920 births
- 2000 deaths
- People from Gujarat
- Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan
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