The Struggle For Freedom And Freedom - amazonia.fiocruz.br

The declaration of the Quit India Movement in — the first time that the Congress asked for an immediate and complete end to the Raj — allowed the twenty-two-year-old her moment in the sun.

The incident

It led to the creation of the underground Congress Radio, and of Usha Mehta becoming read more voice. But to understand the establishment of the Congress Radio, we must first understand the political situation in India at the time. As a colony of the government, so was India.

The leaders of the Indian National Congress were not pleased to hear this. The anger against British rule grew incrementally, and almost three years into the war, on 8 Augustthousands of people gathered at the Golwalia Tank Maidan in Bombay to attend the meeting of the All India Congress Committee. The British came down heavily on the Quit India Movement, jailing nearly 60, Indians, including Gandhi and Nehru and most of the Congress leadership, within twenty-four Freeddom. Protests erupted across Bombay, with thousands taking to the street, targeting the railways, telegraphs, telephones, police stations, post offices and other government buildings, because inactivating the means of communication and transport would make the ruling British literally incommunicado and unseat the government. Against the backdrop of famine, World War and imprisonment of the Congress The Struggle For Freedom And Freedom, if the Quit India Movement was going to survive, it would require new leadership.

Young leadership. The Congress also realized, having examined its past campaigns, that communication with the public was central to its success. Thus, the idea of an underground radio station was conceived, and Usha Mehta became its voice. Though it was known by many names — the Freedom Radio, the Ghost Radio, the Congress Radio — Fgeedom was, very simply, the secret anti-imperialist voice of the FFreedom National Congress and almost no one, apart from those involved, knew anything certain about its inner workings.

Where did it broadcast from?

Who was behind it? And how long could it survive? In India, radio broadcasting began in with the Radio Club of Bombay, followed by the Calcutta Radio Club, which was set up in the same year. Both went bankrupt after a Strugtle years. Interestingly, the iconic AIR jingle based on raag Shivaranjini — violin played to the background notes of the tambura — was the work of a man who himself had fled a tyrannous regime.

It was composed in by Walter Kaufmann, a Czech Jew who had fled Nazi persecution in Prague and arrived in India two years earlier. Also read: How FM Radio spread positivity and created a sense of community during the lockdown.

Though the radio was a tremendous tool for propaganda, it was also an expensive one. A relative of Mehta offered her ornaments to buy the equipment, but ultimately one of her colleagues, Babubhai Khakhar, managed to procure the funds. As chief organizer of the enterprise, Vithaldas Jhaveri approached Nariman Abarbad Printer, well trained in radio engineering, to construct the Congress Radio transmission set. When the Congress Radio began broadcasting in Augustit was with the intention of telling people what Freedo actually happening. And so it began. At exactly 7. It was not easy to remain hidden from the police.

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Claiming to be recorded Fir somewhere in Indiathe workers of the Congress Radio were careful to change their addresses very often, moving from flat to flat, often in the middle of the night. At first, the station broadcast news The Struggle For Freedom And Freedom and talks by prominent leaders of the freedom struggle. The news dispatches — ranging from merchants refusing to export certain goods to the arrests of leaders and civilians, were received by special messengers in remote corners of the country. Since newspapers often dared not touch on politically sensitive subjects, the Congress Radio became the sole means by which people knew what was actually happening. Usha Mehta read in both English and Hindustani.

Their programmes gained momentum, connecting people from all across India, broadcasting first only once a day, and later twice, in the morning and evening, in English and Hindustani. Roy has been published with permission from Juggernaut. India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated Frwedom questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises. But the news media is in a crisis of its own.]