🧵 (1/15) Story of underground Congress Radio during Quit India Movement
(2) Mahatma Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India speech delivered in Bombay on 8 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank Maidan and and the thousands sitting in the pandal at Gowalia Tank firmly resolved to sacrifice everything including life for the nation’s independence.
(3) Ushaben and her friends attended the event and were electrified by the speeches. They felt energized and decided to contribute their bit to the freedom struggle by the medium of radio.
(4) “Based on my study of the history of revolutions in other countries of the world, I suggested that if we could establish a radio station of our own, it would help us very much in keeping the people informed about the latest developments in the movement. ...”
– Usha Mehta
(5) The decision [to start Congress Radio] was a conscious and determined one, motivated by the young team’s vision of freedom and their commitment to disseminate information about the movement and the troubled times they lived in.
(6) Audio from Congress Radio's orginal broadcast
(Source: gandhimedia.org/cgi-bin/gm/gm.…)
(7) Initially, Ushaben & Printer used to speak into the microphone & the programmes for broadcast were brought by Babubhai. Later on, there was a batch of speakers and writers, including Dr Lohia, Achyut Patwardhan, Moinuddin Harris, Coomie Dastur, KA Abbas & Usha Mehta herself.
(8) Ushaben fondly recalled the days soon after they went on air: “On listening to our broadcast, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia was thrilled & made frantic attempts to locate us. ...+
(9)
...
To our utter surprise, after a day or two, my uncle Ajit Desai, a radio engineer and a veteran freedom fighter, came to me with a message that Dr Lohia wanted to meet us. Without a moment’s delay, we went to him.
...
(10)
... Not only did we get a very warm reception but almost all our problems were solved as he took both the financial responsibility as well as the responsibility of supplying us with news bulletins, talks & speeches from leaders like Achyut Patwardhan & Jayaprakash Narayan.”
(11) On 18 October 1942, the Congress Radio announced that it would start a separate English programme.
However, on November 12, 1942, while the broadcast was going on, the police raided the location. Ushaben & Babubhai were present on the site and were caught hence red-handed.
(12) The Congress Radio was on the air for almost two and half months, at a time when there was a move to suppress all news about the people’s agitation, in order to isolate people from nationalistic activities. People were starved for news, and eagerly awaited the broadcasts.
(13) In fact, decades later, Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, the legendary revolutionary and the chief of the Rani Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army, recollected how eager they were to hear the Congress Radio.
(14) The bulletins and news filled a huge void created by the authoritarian measures taken by the British government.
(15) LISTEN Usha Mehta
#AzadiKaAmritMahotsov
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