This Month in Indian
History: Revolt in the Royal Indian Navy, 18-23 February 1946
Shri
Shyam Lal Manchanda: Please
tell us about the Naval Mutiny (1946)? When they raised the banner of revolt
and came to the mainland from the ships, what was the attitude of the
Communists? Did they come to the PHQ?
Shri
Govind Vidyarthi: Yes.
Their representatives came to the PHQ and we had all the news earlier because
their telephone messages were coming. We had our people who used to come to us
with the message. People used to speak to the members of the Communist Party:
Here are the details; this is happening. Whatever they could do, not only from
Bombay ship, but ships in other places also, whenever they came to our place,
they gave us news; they used to send us reports. So we sent our people. Our
Party created a set of people to monitor them because they were doing careful
work. As I told you, without original agreement, some of our comrades were
trained in sort of a guerilla warfare by the British, through Maxwell Pact. So
out of those people trained in that, two or three were available in Bombay and
they were sent to contact these people, carrying the news up and down. All of
them were not allowed to come to us; they were in the ship. We were doing that
work; we were very well informed. In fact, probably, I interviewed one or two
people because quite a few of them were form Kerala. They had come and I took
their interview in Malayalam about their affairs, what happened, what provoked
them and what happened to them.
Shri
Shyam Lal Manchanda: What
were precisely the real cause?
Shri Govind Vidyarthi: Real
cause was ill-treatment and war duty was very powerful work indeed. They were
being carried from place to place without any special money paid to them. They
sensed that they were being treated as second-rate citizens. This was the case
with the category of officers in Bombay also in the British days. Some places
had absolutely Englishmen; that gradation was there. They got the promotion
with other duty of work and other things. So a lot of people among them came
out and became leaders of the movement. One of them was from Kerala who later
on died. He was working in The Times of
India.
Shri
Govind Vidyarthi (1912-2006): Freedom Fighter, Artistand
Journalist from New Delhi.
Transcript of the
interview is in two volumes of 519 pages and recorded on 30 March 1995.
The interview is a
voluminous recollections which includes, among others, social, cultural,
religious and political atmosphere in rural Kerala and awareness of Hindi
language; experiences of his stay in a village near Allahabad while learning
Hindi; stay at Banaras; R.D. Bharadwaj; experiences while touring with P.C.
Joshi when he was on nationwide tour in the 1930s; stay in Bombay – National
Front and Raj Bhavan; activities of CPI before and after declaration of
People’s War; B.T. Ranadive and P.C. Joshi; naval strike and CPI in Bombay;
Bombay during partition; Second Party congress, Calcutta (1948); activities
soon after Calcutta Congress till suspension from the Party; stay with P.C.
Joshi in Calcutta during underground days; factional groups in CPI; activities
after suspension was revoked; Jawaharlal Nehru and Sangeet Natak Akademi,
Delhi; journalistic experiences.
Ms
Shikha Mukerjee: Now,
would you tell us about Naval Mutiny (1946)?
Shri
Jyoti Basu: In
1946, as you know, very important developments took place, Naval Mutiny – Air
Force and Armed Forces were affected. The influence of the Indian National Army
of Subhas Chandra Bose had also its effect. Our Party took a leading part in
Bombay along with the ratings, who revolted against the British on some of
their demands and they were threaten by the Air Force Commander – I forget his
name. He declared: Within 24 hours if you do not surrender, we will bomb you
from above. That day I was in Calcutta attending some meeting in 249, Bow
Bazaar Street, which was our office for trade union as well as kisan sabha. Immediately
two of us, Ismail and myself, went out to Sealdah Railway Station to organise a
political strike of the workers against that threat against the mutineers. It
was the first and a very big and successful strike of the railway workers for
24 hours.
Shri
Jyoti Basu (1914-2010): Freedom Fighter, Trade Unionist
and former Chief Minister of West Bengal.
Transcript of the
interview is of 208 pages and recorded on 18 December 2001.
The transcript deals
with, among other subjects, Basu’s stay in London (1935-39); entry into
Communist Party of India (1940); CPI and Second World War; experiences in
undivided Bengal Legislative Assembly; memories of Direct Action Day (1946);
impact of partition in West Bengal; Tibhaga movement; Second Party Congress
(1948), arrest and jail life (1948); P.C. Joshi and B.T. Ranadive; CPI and
Telengana movement; Vijayawada Party congress (1951); first General Elections
(1952); Peace Conference at Moscow (1962); circumstances leading to split in
CPI (1964) and its effect; United Front Government (1967-68); Naxalbari
movement (1967-72); on Kashmir problem; outcome of Emergency (1977); role of
CPI (M) in forming Janata Party; Left Front Government (1977-2000) – Centre-State relations; relations with
Morarji Desai; fall of Janata Government; relations between CPI and CPI (M);
meeting with Indira Gandhi on the eve of Operation Blue Star and its aftermath;
emergence of Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister; Congress before and after
Independence; collapse of Soviet Union and its impact; evidence before Liberhan
Commission; CPI approach to corruption; retirement from politics; comments on
contemporary politics particularly on politics of coalition.
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