Usha Mehta

Usha Mehta (25 March 1920 – 11 August 2000 ) was a Gandhian and freedom fighter of India.

In 1928, eight-year-old Usha participated in a protest march against the Simon Commission and shouted her first words of protest against the British Raj: "Simon Go Back." She and other children participated in early morning protests against the British Raj and picketing in front of liquor shops.

During one of these protests marches, the policemen charged the children, and a girl carrying the Indian flag fell down along with the flag.

Angry at this incident, the children took the story to their parents.

The elders responded by dressing up the children in the colours of the Indian flag (saffron, white and green) and sending them out in the streets a few days later.

Dressed in the colours of the flag, the children marched again, shouting: "Policemen, you can wield your sticks and your batons, but you cannot bring down our flag."

Usha's father was a judge under the British Raj.

He therefore did not encourage her to participate in the freedom struggle.

However, this limitation was removed when her father retired in 1930.

In 1932, when Usha was 12, her family moved to Bombay, making it possible for her to participate more actively in the freedom movement.

She and other children distributed clandestine bulletins and publications, visited relatives in the prisons, and carried messages to these prisoners.

Usha grew up highly influenced by Gandhi and became one of his followers.

She made an early decision to remain celibate for life and took up a spartan, Gandhian lifestyle, wearing only Khādī clothes and keeping away from luxuries of all types.

Over time, she emerged as a prominent proponent of Gandhian thought and philosophy.

Usha's initial schooling was in Kheda and Bharuch and then in Chandaramji High School, Bombay.

She was an average student.

In 1935, her matriculation examinations placed her among the top 25 students in her class.

She continued her education at Wilson College, Bombay, graduating in 1939 with a first-class degree in philosophy.

She is also remembered for organizing the Congress Radio, also called the Secret Congress Radio, an underground radio station, which functioned for few months during the Quit India Movement of 1942.

She also began studying law, but ended her studies in 1942 to join the Quit India Movement.

Thereafter, beginning at age 22, she participated in the freedom movement full-time.

Gandhi and the Congress had announced that the Quit India Movement would commence on 9 August 1942 with a rally at Gowalia Tank grounds in Mumbai.

Nearly all leaders including Gandhi were arrested before that date.

However, a vast crowd of Indians gathered at Gowalia Tank Ground on the appointed day.

It was left to a group of junior leaders and workers to address them and hoist the national flag.

On 14 August 1942, Usha and some of her close associates began the Secret Congress Radio, a clandestine radio station.

It went air on 27 August.

The first words broadcast in her voice were: "This is the Congress radio calling on [a wavelength of] 42.34 meters from somewhere in India."

Her associates included Vithalbhai Jhaveri, Chandrakant Jhaveri, Babubhai Thakkar and Nanka Motwani, owner of Chicago Radio, who supplied equipment and provided technicians.

Many other leaders, including Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyutrao Patwardhan and Purushottam Trikamdas, also assisted the Secret Congress Radio.

The radio broadcast recorded messages from Gandhi and other prominent leaders across India.

To elude the authorities, the organizers moved the station's location almost daily.

Ultimately, however, the police found them on 12 November 1942 and arrested the organizers, including Usha Mehta.

All were later imprisoned.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a wing of the Indian Police, interrogated her for six months.

During this time, she was held in solitary confinement and offered inducements such as the opportunity to study abroad if she would betray the movement.

In 1998, the Government of India conferred on her Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India.

Usha Mehta was born in Saras, a village near Surat in modern-day Gujarat.

When she was just five years old, Usha first saw Gandhi while on a visit to his ashram at Ahmedabad.

Shortly afterwards, Gandhi arranged a camp near her village in which little Usha participated, attending sessions and doing a little spinning.