Pune: It was the afternoon of August 13, 1947. A young woman stepped out of her house in a hurry and walked briskly toward the Reay Market (Mandai). Feigning composure, she kept looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching. Picking up her pace, she turned into a wada tucked behind the market. After washing her feet at the entrance, she walked straight into the kitchen of one of the households. Three of her friends were already waiting for her. Poha was being roasted on the hearth to make ‘chiwda’, and two of the women were busy making besan laddoos. The young woman joined them.
Her name was Subhadrabai Shaligram. When I met her in 2011 at her home in Kasba Peth, she was 87 years old. I had entered her wada looking for an old eatery. Out of habit, I requested her to share her memories associated with food and how she and her family celebrated festivals.
She was hesitant at first, but opened up at her daughter-in-law’s insistence.
Her husband owned a small cloth shop. Both of them had taken part in the Quit India movement of 1942. During the riot that broke out in Pune on August 11, 1942, Subhadrabai was struck with a lathi. When her father-in-law learned that his son and daughter-in-law had joined the movement under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership, he was furious. He reprimanded his son and threatened to send his daughter-in-law back to her parental home if they ever participated in any of Gandhi’s political activities again.
Under pressure from his father, who aligned with the Hindu Mahasabha, Subhadrabai’s husband never took part in the freedom movement again. For the next few years, Subhadrabai’s movements were largely restricted to the confines of her home. She spent those years consumed by the daily struggle against the food shortages and inflation brought on by the Second World War.
{{/usCountry}}Under pressure from his father, who aligned with the Hindu Mahasabha, Subhadrabai’s husband never took part in the freedom movement again. For the next few years, Subhadrabai’s movements were largely restricted to the confines of her home. She spent those years consumed by the daily struggle against the food shortages and inflation brought on by the Second World War.
{{/usCountry}}When news arrived that the country was finally gaining independence, she was overjoyed. Yet, she soon realised that she would not be able to celebrate the first Independence Day.
As preparations for Independence Day gathered momentum, the Hindu Mahasabha announced that it would boycott the celebrations. On August 10, 1947, ‘The Bombay Chronicle’ reported that the Mahasabha’s Working Committee had decided not to participate in the Independence Day celebrations and would instead hold protest meetings across the country against the Partition of India. The Hindu Mahasabha regarded the Congress’s acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan as a grave national defeat.
Meanwhile, an article in ‘Organiser’ on August 14, 1947, titled ‘Whither’, rejected the Congress idea of a composite Indian nation, arguing that India’s national identity should be rooted in Hindu traditions and culture.
The same issue of ‘Organiser’ rejected the Tricolour, adopted by the Constituent Assembly on July 22, as an appropriate national symbol, favouring the saffron flag instead. For these Hindu nationalist organisations, therefore, independence was an ambiguous moment. British rule had ended, but it had also brought Partition and a political order that did not reflect their vision of a Hindu nation.
At a time when many women’s lives were governed by the wishes of the men in their households, some women who longed to prepare festive sweets or attend flag-hoisting ceremonies realised that they might not be free to celebrate August 15 as they wished. Some women wrestled with the question of whether the men in their families were right or wrong to boycott the celebrations. A few even came to feel that their stance was justified.
It was in this atmosphere that Yamutai Kirloskar published an appeal in the Marathi daily ‘Dnyanaprakash’ on August 10, 1947. A prominent civic figure who mobilised women beyond the conventional domestic sphere, Yamutai was also the wife of pioneering industrialist Shantanurao Kirloskar.
Yamutai served as the secretary of the Maharashtra Mahila Mandal and was a standing committee member of the All India Women’s Conference. Her statement read: “To witness the dawn of freedom after centuries of foreign rule is a privilege we are fortunate to share. Generations of patriots bore suffering with resolve, endured long years in prison, and shed their blood to win this liberty. With such a legacy before us, it is baffling that any of our sisters should hesitate over whether to celebrate Independence Day.”
Though the All India Women’s Conference maintained a non-partisan stance and was not affiliated to any political party, it had a long history of speaking out firmly on national affairs. Yamutai’s appeal was in keeping with that tradition.
She called upon the women of Maharashtra to welcome Independence Day with joy and dignity, to hoist and salute the new national flag, pass resolutions at public meetings, make people aware of the significance of the day, and send messages of gratitude to national leaders while pledging full support to the task of rebuilding the nation.
Subhadrabai knew nothing of this appeal. Yet, the urge to celebrate Independence Day left her restless. Several of her friends faced similar domestic restrictions and were equally troubled by the prospect of being unable to celebrate August 15.
Exchanging secret messages, Subhadrabai and her friends hatched a plan. Offering various pretexts, they gathered at one friend’s house two days before Independence Day. Together, they made ‘chiwda’ and laddoos, returning home without drawing attention to themselves.
On August 15, a friend’s brother took those sweets and savouries to Shaniwar Wada, distributing them among the schoolchildren gathered there.
A couple of years after hearing this story from Subhadrabai, I met Nirmala and Madhav Prabhu in Mumbai. This couple had fasted on August 15, 1947. Their fast was not a boycott of Independence Day, but an act of solidarity with Gandhiji, who himself was fasting that day.
While celebrations took place across the country, the Mahatma was in Calcutta, striving to quell communal violence.
Subhadrabai made it a point never to miss preparing something sweet on Independence Day. The Prabhus always fasted on August 15. They all loved their country deeply.