Revolt that shook the Raj

On the morning of December 1, 1945, British navy officers woke up to see that the grand arrangements made at the parade ground to celebrate the Navy Day, with flags, buntings and flowers, had been destroyed and the trash was lying all around. Freshly painted graffiti and posters, with slogans like 'British, Quit India', were splashed all over the adjoining walls. The officers got into a tizzy as searches and raids were carried out at the hostels of the Indian naval ratings. A rating, who had forgotten to hide a bottle of gum in the rush, was arrested. His name was Balai Chandra Dutt, who was immediately imprisoned. An infuriated commander of HMIS Talwar, FM King, later called the revolting naval ratings to be "sons of coolies and bitches", which inflamed the situation further. As the news of Dutt's arrest spread the next day through the morning newspapers, there was an uproar across Bombay, with people coming out on the streets to protest. This arrest was a trigger for the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) revolt.

That day onwards, the ratings from the HMIS Talwar and the Castle Barracks, already inspired by the role of the Indian National Army led by Subhash Chandra Bose, went around Bombay in lorries, waving Congress' tricolor and the Red Flag of the then undivided CPI, and got into scraps with Europeans and policemen who tried to confront them. This continued for several days. As the situation in the megapolis continued to remain tense, Dutt was released after 17 days. He returned to the barracks to plan out a full-scale mutiny.

Dutt was joined by several others from Talwar, HMIS Khyber and the Castle Barracks, including Kailash Narain Tikoo, Madan Singh and Phanibhushan Bhattacharya. The latter had a chequered past. He had earlier participated in the Quit India movement and served a prison sentence. On his release, Bhattacharya, who had by then become a member of Communist Party of India, joined the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) to work with others like him inside the force and chalk out plans for a revolt from within. He was posted in the Castle Barracks from where he started this work with those who were already functioning underground. The CPI had planned out a systematic infiltration of its eligible cadres, especially from Bengal and Maharashtra, to join the RIN for this purpose. Over the weeks thereon, such incidents started taking place on ships stationed in foreign waters ranging from Singapore to North Africa and Europe, as well as on those lined up near the ports in Bombay, Karachi, Calcutta, Chittagong, Kochi, Madras and Vizag.

Background

The planning for protests in the Royal Indian Navy had begun two years before. The prime reasons were poor quality and quantity of food supplied to the Indian ratings, blatant discrimination in terms of pay and facilities between them and the British men of the same ranks, forced labour and the racist attitude of British officers towards them. But on the top were their political demands, namely 'Quit India' and releasing the prisoners of the Indian National Army (INA) imprisoned in several prisons, primarily in the Red Fort in Delhi. The Indian ratings and officers were influenced by the stories of the valiant INA struggles in Southeast Asia, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, and later the Northeastern India where the INA men had fought difficult battles with the British forces, as well as with the American Air Force. The ratings learnt about the reports of these battles through the messages pouring in from the front through the British communication channels.

Exactly a year after the August Kranti Andolan, on August 9, 1943, a secret Joint Action Committee (or Strike Committee) of the three services was established, with RIN's Madan Lal Saxena, Royal Indian Army's Chandra Singh Garhwali and Royal Indian Air Force's P Kottayam heading it. It was decided that a revolt would be sparked off simultaneously at all bases of the three services on February 18, 1944. In the first phase, the issues of 'No Food, No Work' and discrimination would be raised and in the next phase, those concerning the political demands. But over the next few months, the British officers got the wind of it. They arrested two women Navy officers, Urmila Bai and Anubha Sen. The committee then decided to advance the date of the revolt by a week to February 11, 1944. That day, direct confrontation began between the Indian and the British soldiers. On the orders of the Castle Barracks commander, the British troops opened fire upon the protesting Indian soldiers, who retaliated. The uprising happened in Bombay as well as in Karachi. A total of 35 British soldiers were killed and over 300 were wounded in these two cities. On the Indian side, the death toll was 11, and over 600 were injured. More than 5,000 Indian naval ratings were arrested and court martialled. The two Indian lady officers, Anubha and Urmila, were brutally tortured and raped and later shot dead. The fire of revolt continued to brew among the Indians in the three forces.

The Indian prisoners were released after weeks of agitation across India; Phanibhushan Bhattacharya was one of them. Discharged from the Navy, he returned home where his parents pressured him and got him married. Within days, he left a letter for his wife, explaining the situation, and again reached Bombay on November 9, 1945. He rejoined the Navy under a different name, P Apte, and was posted again at the HMIS Talwar.

After December 1945

On February 18, 1946, the first spark was lit when Commander King and Flag Officer Arthur Rullion Rattray were gheraoed by Indian ratings who had given a call for 'Food Boycott'. Scuffles broke out between the protesters and British soldiers, and within a few hours, HMIS Talwar fell into the hands of the Indian ratings. The Union Jack was pulled down and the Congress' tricolour and the Red Flag of the Communist Party were unfurled over the British warship. This sudden takeover took the people by surprise, with newspapers like 'Free Press Journal' publishing hour-by-hour stories about the uprising. As the word reached the Castle Barracks, British forces gathered and started firing towards HMIS Talwar. This attempt was checked and thwarted by the Indian people on the streets of Bombay, many of whom rushed towards the docks and confronted the British troops. The protestors damaged British-owned shops and also pulled down the US flag from the American Library building, raising slogans like 'Inquilab Zindabad' and 'Hindu Muslim ek ho'.

Indians on other warships docked along the Bombay coastline were also affected by these developments. They joined their comrades on Talwar, while pulling down the British flag and flying the tricolour and the Red Flag. Some also unfurled the Muslim League's Green Flag. There was a complete strike in Bombay, with hundreds of people marching on the streets towards the revolting ships, carrying the three flags. Such was the display of solidarity that people from the Dharavi slums tied plastic bags on their bodies and swam across to ships like Talwar and Khyber to supply food to the protesting naval ratings. Another strike committee was formed to chalk out the further course of action, with Signalman MS Khan and Dutt's friend Madan Singh as its President and Vice President respectively. To begin with, the name of HMIS Talwar was changed to 'Indian Navy Talwar', which became the strike headquarters. Besides Talwar and Khyber, among the scores of other ships were 'Hindustan', 'Bahadur', 'Himalaya', 'Champak' and 'Kathiawad' — many of them stationed in Karachi. Ships from as far as North Africa and Singapore started for the Indian coasts after the Indians took them over. Within days, as the news spread, contingents of the Indians in the Army and Airforce started preparing for similar protests.

On February 21, 1946, Indian army men, led by the British, opened heavy fire on the Indian naval ratings. But within minutes, the situation reversed completely as the protestors appealed on mikes to their counterparts of the Maratha Regiment who were ordered by the British officers to shoot down the protestors. "Brothers, our struggle is for freedom and you too are the sons of this nation. We urge you to stop the fire", the protestors said. The firing stopped almost immediately thereafter. The men of the Maratha Regiment, then on, refused to take any orders from the British officers. The CPI issued a call for a general strike in Bombay for the next day (February 22) in solidarity with the striking ratings. People from all walks of life poured into the streets — the young and the aged, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians and all other faiths, from the loaders in the docks to the rickshaw pullers, the industrial workers and students from schools, colleges and universities. Shopkeepers downed their shutters. To check the rampaging mobs, the Britishers deployed men of the Gurkha Brigade, who were considered loyal. But the Gurkhas also refused to fire on the swarms of unarmed people.

Scores of warships had by then taken down the Union Jack and unfurled the Red Flag and the Congress tricolour, and sailed from the high seas of the Mediterranean and African coasts towards Bombay and Karachi. Indian sailors aboard these warships refused to obey orders and sailed through the Bay of Bengal towards the eastern port cities of Chittagong, Calcutta, Visakhapatnam and Madras. Communication channels with these sailors were opened from the ships carrying the leadership (Talwar and Khyber). As heavy firing was launched by the British on Talwar and Khyber, the strike leadership moved to a smaller ship 'Narmada'. The then Navy chief, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, who had rushed to India to take stock of the situation, was reported to have said that if this uprising could not be quelled, the entire British Navy would have to be disbanded. On his orders, the British forces blocked the lanes for supply of food and materials to the striking ships. But the valiant people like fishermen and slum-dwellers of Dharavi tied plastic bags containing food packets and swam across to these ships. The Bombay city remained tense through the few days of strike. Hundreds were injured in firing and baton-charge and thousands of others were arrested. Similar was the situation in several other cities — Karachi, Lahore, Delhi, Calcutta, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Hyderabad, Jabalpore, Kochi and Madras. Most of these cities witnessed general strikes and bandhs amidst mass demonstrations and protest meetings. In Karachi, Amritsar and Jabalpore, airforce and army personnel also went on strike in solidarity with the ratings. In Calcutta, there were protests inside the headquarters in Fort Williams. In Bombay, Admiral Godfrey took to the radio and asked the British troops to use force to quell riotous mobs that burnt down British shops, pelted missiles and stones, dug up streets or barricaded them. It was reported that over a hundred British tanks came out on the streets. A later assessment by the Bombay Presidency Governor reported that at least 228 persons were killed and 1,046 were injured in the week-long violence in the city alone.

Role of Indian national leaders

Having failed militarily, alarmed British rulers asked Indian national leaders to intervene and called for a ceasefire. This was heeded to by the striking ratings who thought that the Indian national leaders, particularly those from the Congress, would now provide leadership to them. While the CPI and the Congress Socialist Party stood by them, no one among the leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah or Vallabbhai Patel sided with them. Patel reportedly said the strike was planned by "a few hot-headed youngsters". While some of them suggested steps to end the discrimination regarding food, none of them made any statement supporting the striking ratings' call for 'Quit India' or freeing the INA soldiers. Some of these leaders invited a team of striking ratings to negotiate with the British officers in Bombay and assured them that they would not be arrested when they came for these talks. But the entire team of leaders who

came for the negotiations were arrested. The national leadership then also lost a major opportunity to keep the people united in terms of religion and caste. A year later, India witnessed the worst ever communal riots, which was followed by Partition.

Faced with such a huge betrayal, Dutt later wrote: "We had planned to channelise the unrest towards a revolt against foreign rule, but we lost. We failed to take the insurrection we started towards its logical culmination. … We cried like children, but the tears could not douse the flame of protest in our eyes." On February 23, 1946, the ratings surrendered. Indian sailors on over 30 ships, laid down their arms and surrendered. This brought down the curtain on a historic insurrection, after the 1857 Sepoy rebellion, which witnessed waves of protests that culminated into a full-scale revolt in February 1946. This however was a major factor which forced the British rulers to advance the date of granting independence to India, from June 1948 to August 15, 1947.

Views expressed are personal