Happened on 14th August 1942
“When the press is gagged and all news banned, a transmitter certainly helps a good deal in furnishing the public with the facts of the happenings and in spreading the message of rebellion,”
A pre-independence India that had recently been snatched off its rights of freedom was now a nation in jeopardy. With its leaders being thrown into prison and the press shut down, India was standing unaware of its own situation. This was the peak of the revolution which went raging on. The famous Do or Die speech of Gandhi had fueled in the hearts of each and every civilian. People weren't looking for a reason to get inspired anymore, the blood running in them now was that of a revolutionary lion and you know once the lion roars, no man can tame the rage.
"So far we were conducting movements, but now we are conducting a revolution"— Ram Manohar Lohia (founder of Congress Socialist Party)
Although Gandhi and his comrades were arrested a few hours after his speech, there remained a voice among the people whose voices had been restricted. When all roads seemed to have been blocked, she took the road not taken. With a transmitter and few young people sitting in the telephone company called Chicago Radio, she began her first-ever broadcast anonymously.
{{/usCountry}}Although Gandhi and his comrades were arrested a few hours after his speech, there remained a voice among the people whose voices had been restricted. When all roads seemed to have been blocked, she took the road not taken. With a transmitter and few young people sitting in the telephone company called Chicago Radio, she began her first-ever broadcast anonymously.
{{/usCountry}}That was the voice of the courageous Usha Mehta who worked along with activists— Chandrakant Babubhai Jhaveri, Vithaldas K Jhaveri, Nanka Motwane, and Nariman Printer— to help the masses know what they had to know. She was a girl aged 22 addressing thousands and lakhs to unite them for the civil disobedience movement.
The broadcasts would initially take place twice a day in both Hindustani and English. Defying orders and galvanizing the revolt, she and her fellow compatriots had done what the newspapers dared not touch.
Working as an underground rebel, Mehta had used her Congress broadcasting as a means to connect the civilians with the goals of their leaders. She believed this transmitter of theirs could help them reach beyond India, and so it did. Mehta and her group managed to cover every news or event that went around. The Jamshedpur labor strike in TISC, the violent riots in Chimur and Ashti, Japan's raid on the British Armory in Chittagong, all covered by this unknown radio station that functioned for its own people.
Running from one place to another, Mehta and others played patriotic speeches, passed on news and appeals that were directed to students, lawyers, and police. She would get the relayed information from the All India Congress Committee and deliver them as messages. The radio however stood as a menace for the Britishers.
Although they were successful with their daily briefing, Mehta and her colleagues were frequently chased by police vans. Their hideouts shifted from one place to another quite regularly. Seeing the degree of the situation they were working in, the risk seemed inevitable. However, for safety backups, they had separate recording stations and broadcasting stations.
After successfully communicating news and playing a big role in the Quit India Movement for a total of three months, Mehta's broadcasting came to a seize on 12th November 1942.
The so-called All India Radio (claimed to be Anti India by many activists) had started jamming their broadcasting and they finally fell prey to the perpetrators in November. A member of their own had betrayed them. After that, it was only a matter of time till they traced their location and started banging their doors.
They raided all of Chicago Radio owned shops and stormed through the doors with a lot of 50 officers. Mehta was unaffected, strong, and brave. Words lack for her brave actions. While she sent away everyone else to leave the building, a final broadcast was yet to be made. Racing through some news bulletins and a final speech, she played Vande Mataram as a final see-off to her audience.
"They ordered us to stop playing 'Vande Mataram'. We did not oblige them."— Usha Mehta
Seizing all her equipment and all the 22 cases of files she had, Usha Mehta and her underground radio station were now caught and open in the spotlight. She was arrested along with four other members that day and the unparalleled power this act of hers had showcased made it one of the greatest rebellions of all time.
From its first broadcast to the last, this radio had unknowingly become a revolution people didn't know they needed in their lives.
This was story was first published on This Day.app.