An 8-year-old girl was raising slogans of 'Go back Simon' at the age when children's attention is in play. When she turned 22, she took an active part in the 1942 'Quit India Movement' leaving her studies to contribute.
She started and operated Secret Radio during the arrest of Gandhiji and other leaders. And by throwing dust in the eyes of the British for 3 months, by changing places, she kept awakening the spirit of patriotism among the people.
So wouldn't you like to know who she was? She was Usha Mehta, a resident of Saras village in Gujarat.
Usha Mehta was a Gandhian and a freedom fighter. In 1998, she was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.
Let us know about this fearless and courageous freedom fighter of the country Usha Mehta…
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Early Life
Usha Mehta was born on March 25, 1920, in Saras, a small village near Surat in Gujarat. Her father was a judge in the British Government. And the mother was a housewife.
When she was only five years old, Ushaji saw Gandhiji for the first time during a visit to his ashram in Ahmedabad.
In the year 1928, when a meeting of Gandhi was organized in Saras village, the whole village came to listen to his speech. Eight-year-old Usha was also in that crowd. Gandhi's thoughts had such an impact on that little girl that she went home and announced that she would participate in the freedom movement.
At the same time, a small camp was also set up in the village, where people were being taught to spin yarn and weave clothes with handlooms. Usha ji also reached that camp and there she learned to spin yarn and weave cloth.
In the same year the Simon Commission headed by John Simon came to India and Indians were opposing it.
There were protests against the Simon Commission in every village. 8 years old Usha ji also participated in that demonstration. and raised slogans of 'Simon go back'.
She along with other children participated in morning protests against the British Raj and staged a sit-in in front of liquor shops. During this protest, the policemen intimidated the children and pushed a girl carrying the Indian flag in her hand to fall down.
Children who were hurt by this incident told the whole thing to their parents. Now the elders gave their answer by dressing the children in the colors of the Indian flag and sending them out on the streets after a few days. Children dressed in the colors of the flag marched again, shouting: "Policemen, you can handle your sticks and your batons, but you cannot pull down our flag."
Usha ji's father was a judge in the British Raj. That's why he did not encourage Usha ji to participate in the freedom struggle. However, when her father retired in 1930, there were no restrictions on her.
On March 12, 1930, when Gandhiji started the Dandi March and the Salt Satyagraha began, Ushaji was only 10 years old. She used to bring home full of seawater and use it to make salt at home.
The enthusiasm of this girl started being discussed everywhere. People started calling her a little revolutionary.
In 1932, her family moved to Bombay, which made it possible for her to participate more actively in the independence movement. She and other children distributed secret bulletins and publications visited relatives in prisons, and passed messages to these inmates.
Ushaji was highly influenced by Gandhiji and became one of his followers.
From the age of 17, Usha ji started spinning her own yarn and weaving her own saris, following Gandhiji. Since then, she wore only hand-spun khadi sarees for her whole life.
She made an early decision to remain celibate for the rest of her life and adopted a spartan, Gandhian lifestyle, abstaining from all forms of luxury. Over time, she emerged as a leading proponent of Gandhian thought and philosophy.
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Education
Usha ji's early schooling took place in Kheda and Bharuch. Then happened in Chandaramji High School, Bombay. She was an average student.
In the year 1935, she was among the top 25 students of her class in the matriculation examinations. She continued her education at Wilson College, Bombay.
She graduated in the year 1939 with a first-class degree in Philosophy. She also started studying law but left her studies midway through 1942 to join the Quit India Movement.
Thereafter, from the age of 22, she fully participated in the freedom movement.
The beginning of Secret Radio and four years in Prison
On August 8, Mahatma Gandhi gave the slogan "Do or Die" to the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Mumbai and started the Quit India Movement. The British government banned the press. The British were so enraged by this movement that they laid a police net to catch the agitators in every nook and corner. It became impossible to transmit information from one place to another.
Gandhiji and the Congress had announced that the Quit India Movement would begin on 9 August 1942 with a rally at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Mumbai. But before that Gandhiji and almost all the leaders were arrested. However, a huge crowd of Indians gathered at the Gowalia Tank Ground on the appointed day. A group of junior leaders and activists took command of the rally to address them and unfurl the national flag.
On 14 August 1942, Usha and some of her close associates started the Secret Congress Radio, a clandestine radio station. Which aired for the first time on 27 August. The first words broadcast in her voice were, “Yeh hai Congress Radio, main 42.34 m hz se bol rahi hai from some place in India.”
Her associates included Vithalbhai Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri, Babubhai Thakkar, and Chicago Radio owner Nanka Motwani, who supplied equipment and provided technicians. Many other leaders including Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyutarao Patwardhan, and Purushottam Trikamdas also assisted the Secret Congress Radio. Radio broadcasts recorded messages from Gandhiji and other prominent leaders from across India.
The secret radio station was working to convey the news of the movement to the countrymen and to keep the flame of the movement burning. The location of this radio station would change every day.
The bulletin was broadcast on Secret Radio twice daily. As soon as Usha Ji's voice was heard on the radio, people in every nook and corner of the country used to sit with their ears glued to their transistors. The British were busy in the Second World War and here the Indians waged a do-or-die fight against the British Government.
On this radio, she used to read the news of the movement every day in both Hindi and English languages. The eyes of the British were also on this radio, but they did not know its whereabouts. In this affair, the British raided the houses of many Congressmen, but by the time the British reached, the entire system had been removed from there.
Usha ji used to tell on the radio every day that people were arrested today, where the British lathi-charged, and fired bullets, how many people were injured, and how many died. Every day she started her bulletin with the song "Hindustan Hamara" and ended with "Vande Mataram". Nehru ji, Maulana Azad, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel helped her in running this radio.
It took three months for the British to trace its whereabouts and arrest those associated with it.
For the last three months, this radio had kept the British government in its nose. She used to run the news of British atrocities every day and used to give moment-by-moment news of the movement to the Indian public. Gandhiji was in jail, but his message would be broadcast on the radio.
These words were being repeated on the radio on a November morning. In front of Mumbai's Girgaum Chowpatty, the blue luxury police lorry swerved to the right. English Deputy Inspector Ferguson and CID officer Kokje were sitting inside the lorry. Both were trying to catch radio waves with their radio transmitters.
Inspector Ferguson's radio transmitter picks up the waves. The British got the location of the radio station. And on November 12, when Usha ji was reading the bulletin of that day from Girgaon, she was arrested.
She was interrogated for six months by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a branch of the Indian police. During this time, she was kept in solitary confinement.
She chose to remain silent and during her trial, asked a High Court judge whether she needed to answer questions. When the judge confirmed that she was not required, she said that she would not answer any questions, not even defend herself.
The trial went on in the special court for five weeks and Usha ji was sentenced to four years. The British tried to give them all kinds of greed.
Greed to send abroad to study and settle there forever. The only condition was that she should tell the address of other underground Congressmen. The British tried everything, but could not make the strong-willed Usha ji face to face.
Usha ji was kept in Yerwada Jail in Pune. There her health deteriorated and she was sent to Bombay for treatment at Sir JJ Hospital.
Three-four policemen kept a round-the-clock watch on her in the hospital. When her health improved, she was sent back to Yerwada jail.
In March 1946, she was released on the orders of Morarji Desai, who was then the home minister in the interim government. Usha ji was the first political prisoner to be released in Bombay.
After her stay in jail, Ushaji's poor health prevented her from participating in politics or social work. On the day India gained independence, Usha Mehta was confined to bed and could not attend the official ceremony in New Delhi.
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After Independence
After the independence of the country, 26-year-old Usha ji resumed her studies in independent India, which she had left midway.
She did her PhD in Gandhian Thought from Bombay University and received her doctorate. Now popularly known as Dr. Usha Mehta.
Then she started teaching Political Science at Wilson College.
She had become a well-known figure in Mumbai's academic and political circles, winning much acclaim during her long career as a student, teacher, professor, and then head of the Department of Civics and Politics at the University of Bombay.
Ushaji retired from Bombay University in 1980 at the age of 60. After retirement, she was also the president of Mani Bhavan for some time. She was also active with the Gandhi Peace Foundation and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
After retirement, she chose to lead a busy social life, spreading Gandhian ideology through articles, essays, books, and speeches in English and Gujarati.
The Government of India associated her with several celebrations of the 50th anniversary of India's independence.
The Government of India awarded her the Padma Vibhushan in 1998, which is India's second-highest civilian award.
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In the last years
With time, Ushaji became increasingly 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. Today the gap between rich and poor has become so deep. We had never seen the dream of this India. She said that freedom fighters of his generation realized that "once people occupy positions of power, dirty politics will also start."
In fact, instead of serving the public, she used to speak like this after being hurt by the people who were chasing power.
Nevertheless, she did not deny the achievements of independent India since independence, "India has survived as a democracy and has even created a good industrial base."
“Still, this is not the India of our dreams.”
In August 2000, Ushaji was down with a fever. But still participated like every year in the anniversary function related to Quit India Movement at August Kranti Maidan. She returned home weak and tired.
She died peacefully two days later, on 11 August 2000, at the age of 80.
She is survived by an older brother and three nephews. One of her nephews, Ketan Mehta, is a noted Bollywood film producer. The other nephew is Dr. Yatin Mehta, a renowned anesthetist who was earlier the director of Escorts Hospital and is now associated with Medicity in Gurgaon. The third nephew is Dr. Nirad Mehta, who joined the army and is now at PD Hinduja National Hospital, Mumbai.
Who says women lack courage? No, they have immense courage and power. The pathetic condition of women is only conservatism in thinking.
Our India will be truly independent only when women move ahead fearlessly and are financially independent.
Jagdisha pays tribute to the great freedom fighter Dr. Usha Mehta.
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