The Quit India Movement in literary imagination
Prem Singh
(SAMAJ WEEKLY)- A major event in a society and civilization has an impact on literature and other art forms. The 1857 revolt against colonial subjugation, which is called India’s first freedom struggle, was
definitely a major event in the national life, as it was, of India. Call it the fear of the British or the inherent conflict between patriotism and loyalty to the Raj, the 1857 revolt remained exiled from the creative imagination of the authors of elite literature (shisht sahitya) for a long time. However, the revolt made a strong presence in folk literature. Bharatendu Harishchandra, “a pioneer of the renaissance” in the Hindi region, has mentioned 1857 in only one couplet – “Kathin Sipahi Droh Anal Ja Janbal Nasi/Jin Bhay Sir Na Hilai Sakat Kahun Bharatwasi”. However, in contrast to this, several British writers wrote more than 50 novels/fictional accounts based on the ‘mutiny’ of 1857 between 1859 and 1964. (Shailendradhari Singh, Novels on the Mutiny, Arnold-Heinemann India, Delhi, 1973) Gautam Chakravarty, in his study on this subject, has included 70 selected novels written mainly in Britain between 1859 and 1947. (The Indian Mutiny and British Imagination, Cambridge, Delhi, 2005)
Rishabh Charan Jain wrote the first Hindi novel Ghadar (1930) on the 1857 revolt after a long gap of 73 years. The same was immediately confiscated by the British government. Before this, Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1899) reflects the 1857 revolt in a subtle manner. The number of novels written on the 1857 revolt in other Indian languages including the Indian English, is very few even after Ghadar.
The Quit India Movement or August Revolution, launched by Gandhi with the call of ‘Do or Die’ aiming the liberation of India from British imperialism, too was a major event in Indian national life. This event is different from the event of 1857 in the sense that it attracted the creative imagination of Indian writers immediately and on a large scale. Some writers played an active role in the movement and pen down their experiences in the novel genre. Ku. Rajavelu (Tamil), the writer of 1942 (1950), Nityananda Mahapatra (Oriya), the writer of Gharadiha (1975), Phanishwar Nath Renu Hindi), the writer of Maila Anchal (1954) etc. also served prison sentences.
The Quit India Movement has been depicted as the most important political event in Indian literature after the partition. The reason for this seems to be that Gandhi’s political endeavours and ideas had cut off the fear of colonial power and the lure of capitalism from the psyche of the Indian elite to some extent; and, thanks to the long struggle and sacrifices of the Indian people, the goal of independence was not far away.
When Soviet Russia joined the Second World War, the Communist leadership of India declared the imperialist war as a ‘people’s war’ and decided to oppose the Quit India Movement and support the British. That decision not only became the cause of a bitter clash between the Congress Socialists and the Communists, but due to it the activists of the Communist Party became victims of confusion and dilemma regarding the definition and criterion of patriotism and treason. This clash is described in detail in Satinath Bhaduri’s Jagari (1945), Samaresh Basu’s Jug Jug Jiye (1977) written in four parts, Yashpal’s Deshdrohi (1943), Geeta Party Comrade (1946) and the last monumental novel Meri Teri Uski Baat (1979) and to some extent in Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya’s Mrityunjay (1970).
During the last months of his underground phase of the Quit India Movement, Dr. Lohia wrote his long but incomplete essay ‘Economics after Marx’. Lohia’s biographer Indumati Kelkar has quoted Lohia about the purpose of this article: “In 1942-43 when the movement against the British was on, the socialists were either in jail or were being pursued by the police. That was also the time when communists, following their foreign masters, had given the slogan of ‘People’s War’. I was totally confused by the spectacle of Marxism in all its contradictions. Then I decided that I would discover the essential truth of Marxism and purge it from falsehood. Economics, politics, history and philosophy have been the four main facets of Marxism and I deemed it necessary to analyze all these. But as I was in the midst of analysis of its Economics I was arrested.” (Ram Manohar Lohia (Abridged Edition), Indumati Kelkar, p. 54, National Book Trust, 2010)
Obviously, the communists of India would have taken Lohia’s comments and the essay ‘Economics after Marx’ in distaste. However, no novelist, including Yashpal, has mentioned the communist reaction to this episode. Only a glimpse of the communist reaction can be seen in Doodhnath Singh’s important novel Aakhri Kalaam (2006). This important novel, written on the demolition of Babri Masjid, dates back to the forties, i.e. the Quit India Movement. The communist reaction to the article, quoted by the protagonist, a Communist Party theoretician professor, was that how dare Lohia write such an article!
Many important novels in almost all Indian languages and Indian English have been written on the Quit India Movement, or have been influenced by that event. But the socialist-communist conflict is not the only theme in all such novels. The portrayal of the courage and sacrifice of ordinary satyagrahis who remained steadfast to the mode of non-violence and civil disobedience under the influence of Gandhi in the face of the oppression of British rule happened to be the main theme in most of the novels. Further, human relational tussles and mental dilemmas of the characters have been delineated while participating in the movement. RK Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1955) carries this theme poignantly. The time of the Quit India Movement is also known for the terrible Bengal famine of 1943. Bhabani Bhattacharya’s novel So Many Hungers (1947) gives a creative and compassionate expression of this predicament by juxtaposing the hunger arising from the famine deliberately created by the British and the hunger for freedom of the people.
The phenomenon of the depiction of the Quit India Movement in Indian novels shows that the movement has become a part of the national memory of India; and, hence, it has abundant potential of creative content. In future, the Quit India Movement would continue to be depicted in literature and other art mediums. Satakadi Hota’s novel Mukti Yudha (2021), a Hindi translation of Khushwant Singh’s novel I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1968) as Bolegi Na Bulbul Ab (2014) can be perceived to be an indication of this possibility. Both the novels are based on the Quit India Movement. The recently released film ‘Ae Watan Mere Watan’ can also be seen in this series. There could also be a possibility that some painters, alone or in a group, prepare a series of paintings on the episodes/characters of the Quit India Movement in the future.
(The writer associated with the socialist movement is a former teacher of Delhi University and a fellow of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla)
