Forgotten War Of Indipendence — The Royal Indian Mutiny
We all know that our country got its independence in 1947, but most of us have a wrong picture of how we got it. Our textbooks tell us that it was the great Mahatama Gandhi and his non violence movements that got us this indipendence, which is as far from truth as it can be. While Gandhi ji might have had his contributions, we got our independence by fighting and rebelling. Here is a story of one such war, the war we never read about, The Royal Indian Mutiny.
In February 1946, the least ranked of mariners in the Royal Indian Navy progressive system, carried out an insurrection. The youthful mariners were challenging the way that things they were guaranteed at the hour of enrollment had not been respected: day to day environments were horrendous; the food more regrettable and there was wild racial separation. Likewise, the Indian National Army (INA), was politically charged and quick to have an impact in India’s opportunity development. In something like 48 hours, the strength of the rebels developed to 20,000, and they took over ships above water and on-shore foundations. Servicemen in the military and flying corps, and regular citizens joined the fights.
The mariners pulled down the White Ensigns of the Royal Navy and lifted three banners — the tricolor of the Congress, the green of the Muslim League and the red of the Communist coalition. Their requests incorporated the arrival of all Indian political detainees and warriors who had battled in the Azad Hind Fauj. There was an immediate association to the INA preliminaries which were happening at that point. In days, the British put down the defiance with a “blend of beast power and trickiness.”
Contributed fights were battled Bombay and Karachi when the British attempted to wrest back control of the boats and maritime foundations from the mariners. Indian officers were hesitant to start shooting at individual Indians. In a matter of one day, the whole navy of India, including its 80 ships, had stopped listening to British orders. The britishers suddenly lost all naval powers over India, and they could have lost all control on the land also, but, the Indian army, full of Indian soldiers, was obeying the orders of British.
There were huge riots and protests on the streets of Bombay and Karachi, where the army open fired on the protesters, killing hundreds or thousands of people. The police department refused to listen to the British. If the Indian army would have also chosen its nation over the british, the so called white leaders would have been out of the country overnight. Instead, Gandhi and Patel came in for a settlement, and convinced the naval officers to surrender, and promised them that all their demands would be met. Why? Well, we do not know why both these leaders chose to act against the interest of national freedom.
The commitments Indian pioneers made to the mariners at the hour of giving up were not kept. The partition would have been less ridiculous assuming that the political pioneers had attempted to expand upon the collective solidarity made by the occasions of February 1946 as opposed to overlooking it. Indeed, even after Independence, there have been endeavors to “rub out the memory of the Royal Navy Mutiny,” to such an extent that the Bengali actor Utpal Dutt’s play in light of it, Kallol (Commotion), confronted hindrances and censorship.
