Usha Mehta

In August 1942 a quiet voice came over the air in Bombay. It said it was the Congress radio, calling from somewhere in India. The British had no idea where.

The voice belonged to Usha Mehta. She was 22. Her station ran for only a few months, but it carried news that the government wanted to hide.

1How did a child become a protester?

Our story begins in Saras, a village near Surat in Gujarat. Usha was born there on 25 March 1920. Her father was a judge under British rule.

When she was five, she saw Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad. Soon after, she joined a camp that Gandhi arranged near her village. She sat in on sessions and tried a little spinning.

In 1928 she was eight. She joined a march against the Simon Commission. There she shouted her first protest words: “Simon Go Back.” Children also picketed liquor shops in early morning marches.

Her father did not encourage this. That changed when he retired in 1930. In 1932 the family moved to Bombay. Now she could do much more. She helped hand out secret bulletins, carried messages to prisoners and visited relatives in jail.

She finished at Wilson College, Bombay, in 1939 with a first-class degree in philosophy. She then began studying law. She also chose a Gandhian life. She wore only khadi and decided to stay unmarried for life.

• Born 25 March 1920 at Saras, near Surat.
• Met Gandhi at age five, in Ahmedabad.
• Age eight, 1928: shouted Simon Go Back.
• Family moved to Bombay in 1932.
• Graduated in philosophy from Wilson College in 1939.

2What happened in August 1942?

Gandhi’s Quit India call came in August 1942. The plan was a mass movement against British rule. But nearly all senior leaders, Gandhi included, were arrested before the campaign could begin.

A huge crowd still turned up at Gowalia Tank ground in Bombay on 9 August. Junior leaders and workers addressed it. They also hoisted the national flag. The movement had lost its leaders, but not its people.

The government clamped down on the press. News of arrests, firings and protests was hard to find. People needed a way to learn what was really happening.

Usha was 22. She dropped her law studies to join the movement full time. She and a few close friends came up with a bold idea. They would run a secret radio station.

• Quit India leaders were arrested before the campaign began.
• A crowd met at Gowalia Tank, Bombay, on 9 August 1942.
• The press was censored, so news was hard to find.
• She left law studies at 22 to join full time.

3How did the secret radio work?

The Secret Congress Radio began on 14 August 1942. Its first broadcast went out on 27 August. Her voice opened it. She said: “This is the Congress radio calling on a wavelength of 42.34 metres from somewhere in India.”

She did not work alone. Vithalbhai Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri and Babubhai Thakkar helped run it. Nanka Motwani, owner of Chicago Radio, supplied equipment and technicians.

Senior figures also lent support. Among them were Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyutrao Patwardhan and Purushottam Trikamdas. Lohia is known for his own underground work in 1942.

The station played recorded messages from Gandhi and other leaders across India. It also carried news the British had banned. That kept leaders in touch with the public.

The secret was to keep moving. The team shifted the station’s location almost every day. This made it very hard for the police to trace the signal.

• Founded 14 August; first broadcast 27 August 1942.
• Opening line: 42.34 metres, “from somewhere in India”.
• Helpers included Nanka Motwani of Chicago Radio.
• It carried messages from Gandhi and banned news.
• The station moved almost daily.

4How was the station caught?

The luck ran out on 12 November 1942. Police traced the station and arrested the organisers, Usha Mehta among them. From the first broadcast to the raid was about 77 days.

One account says an Indian technician had betrayed them. Usha later called her time on the radio her finest moment. She also called it her saddest, because of that betrayal.

The Criminal Investigation Department questioned her for about six months. She was held in solitary confinement. She was offered the chance to study abroad if she would give up the movement.

She refused. At her trial she asked the judge if she had to answer questions. The judge said no. She then declared she would not answer any of them, not even to save herself.

She was sentenced to four years in prison. She served time at Yerwada Jail in Pune. Her health got worse. She was taken to a Bombay hospital for treatment, with police guarding her all the time. Later she returned to jail.

In March 1946 she was released. She was the first political prisoner freed in Bombay. The order came from Morarji Desai, then home minister in the interim government.

• Raid and arrests: 12 November 1942.
• The station ran about 77 days.
• She was questioned for about six months and named no one.
• Sentence: four years, at Yerwada Jail.
• Released March 1946 on Morarji Desai’s orders.

5What did she do after freedom?

Her health was poor after jail. On the day India became free, she was in bed. She could not attend the official function in Delhi.

She went back to her studies. She wrote a doctoral thesis on Gandhi’s political and social thought. The University of Bombay awarded her a PhD. She later taught there and became head of the department of civics and politics. She retired in 1980.

She kept spreading Gandhian ideas. She wrote articles and books in English and Gujarati. She led the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, which turned Mani Bhavan in Bombay into a Gandhi memorial. She was also president of the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi.

In 1998 the Government of India gave her the Padma Vibhushan. She was not blind to India’s flaws. In an interview she said this was not the freedom they had fought for. She died on 11 August 2000, aged 80.

• Earned a PhD on Gandhian thought at the University of Bombay.
• Retired in 1980 as head of civics and politics.
• Led the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and the Gandhi Peace Foundation.
• Padma Vibhushan, 1998.
• Died 11 August 2000 in Bombay, aged 80.

6What are the exam traps?

Exams often test her through one fact. Keep these points straight.

• She is known for the Secret Congress Radio, not the Round Table Conference or the INA.
• The station started in 1942, during Quit India, not Civil Disobedience.
• The opening words mention 42.34 metres.
• The raid was on 12 November 1942.
• Her honour is the Padma Vibhushan, awarded in 1998.
• Read about Aruna Asaf Ali.
• Read about Ram Manohar Lohia.
• Read about the Quit India Movement.