The Quit India Movement began on August 8, 1942. A look back at how the movement shaped Indian literature

Indian Express

3 days ago

The Quit India Movement, like many other great events that shaped our national life, had an impact on literature and other art forms. It influenced many Indian writers, some of whom also played an active role in the movement. Ku Rajavelu (Tamil), the author of 1942 (1950), Nityananda Mahapatra (Oriya), author of Ghardeh (1975), Satinath Bhaduri (Bengali), author of Jagari (1945), and Phanishwar Nath Renu (Hindi), author of Maila Anchal (1954) also served prison sentences while participating in the movement.
Apart from these, Samaresh Basu's (Bengali) Jug Jug Jiye (1977) written in four volumes, Yashpal's (Hindi) Deshdrohi (1943), Geeta Party Comrade (1946), and Meri Teri Uski Baat (1979), Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya's (Assamese) Mrityunjay (1970), Doodhnath Singh's (Hindi) Aakhri Kalam (2006), RK Narayan's Waiting for the Mahatma (1955), Bhabani Bhattacharya's So Many Hungers (1947), Satakadi Hota's (Oriya) Mukti Yudh (2021), Khushwant Singh's (English) I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale (1968) – are some important novels which have either been written on the Quit India Movement or have referred to it.
Political novels often face the risk of polemics and bias. Despite these limitations, such works can be an authentic source of the historical, social and ideological reality of a particular movement.
Bhaduri's Jagari, set in the Purnia region of Bihar, is the first important novel written on the movement. In the words of Saroj Bandyopadhyay, who wrote its preface, it was 'the fiery ground of forty-two'. Scholar Shishir Kumar Das has described it as 'one of the finest political novels'. Bhaduri once again returns to this movement in the second part of Dhorai Charit Manas. According to Bandopadhyay, 'This makes us understand how deeply the author was moved by this incident. It was as if he wanted to see those people by removing all the veils in the light of a revolutionary great fire.'
The author used retrospection and stream of consciousness, giving this novel its distinct identity. Told in the first-person, the stories of the four characters of the novel — Bilu, an activist of the Congress Socialist Party, his father Master Saheb, a devoted Gandhian, his younger brother Nilu, a committed worker of the Communist Party, and their mother, whose life is spent in looking after these three men – reveal the complexity of personal and political lives. Except for Nilu, all three are in jail for participating in the Quit India movement. Bilu has been sentenced to death based on Nilu's testimony in court.
The night before Bilu's hanging, many incidents surface and disappear in the consciousness of the four characters. All of them see life from their own perspective. In the preface, Bandopadhyay rightly notes, 'The subject of Jagari is man, not the political worker.'
At one point communist leadership of India perceived the imperialist war as a People's War. This became the reason for the conflict between the Congress Socialists and Communists. Even the Communist Party workers became victims of confusion and dilemma regarding the definition and criteria of patriotism and treason. In the novel, Communist Party workers tell Nilu that he has not done the right thing by testifying against Bilu. Nilu himself is also not fully convinced about his action. The argument of loyalty to the party was his only solace. This conflict and political dilemma have also been captured in Jagari.
Significantly, the author does not ignore the fault-lines and weaknesses of the national freedom movement led by Congress that culminated in the Quit India Movement. This novel conveys the idea that when the intellectuals were immersed in the revolutionary and libertarian ideas of the West, Gandhi had already entered the minds of the masses.
This novel can also be read as an allegory. At the very end, it is revealed that Bilu's death sentence had been postponed. But no one except the high officials was informed about this. Bilu was not even removed from the hanging cell. A non-political prisoner was hanged that morning. The first one to get this news was Nilu, who was waiting outside the jail with an official order to take Bilu's body. The dreadful night finally ends, and a joyful morning begins.
The writer associated with the socialist movement is a former teacher of Delhi University and a former fellow of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla