Tricoloured Memories

IN INDEPENDENCE DAY, journalist Veena Venugopal sets out to “stitch history together from the fabric of lived experiences”, bringing to light “unknown stories” and conjuring up some “unreal ones”. Memory, “the fuel and folly of oral history” is the driving force of this book. Venugopal’s aim is to share with readers what ordinary Indians made of the defining moment in the country’s history. What memories of Independence Day remain imprinted in the consciousness of those who were at least four or five years old in 1947 and experienced first-hand the country’s “tryst with destiny.”

Many of the people interviewed for the purposes of the book were children at the time. Others were young adults. But they were all aware of the freedom struggle and its rhetoric in varying degrees. The 15 interviewees whose first-person testimonies made it to the book hail from various parts of India. Voices from Mumbai, Delhi, Mysore, Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat, Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu all find a place here. Their memories were not addled by the distractions of the internet and mobile phones, but of course their recollections of the fateful day are steeped in the hues of human subjectivity. Oral history offers fresh perspectives on the events recorded in the history books, excavating the vivid histories embedded in people’s memories. Independence Day comes as a timely reminder of this function as India completes 75 years of existence as an independent nation.

The central question Venugopal poses to the interviewees is this: what did Independence Day mean to you? The answers are a revelation. No two people seem to have experienced the day as well as the tumultuous time before and after it in the same way. Their recollections and responses are as surprising as they are enlightening. Tarun Kumar Roy from Krishnagar, Bengal, celebrated Independence Day first on August 15, 1947, hoisting the Pakistan flag since Krishnagar was on the other side of the border. A second celebration followed four days later since the district was reassigned and declared a part of India. As for Sarabjit Singh and his family from Lahore, who had lost everything in the Partition, Independence Day was a day of lament, not celebration. In Mysore, S Narendra and his family celebrated in secret on August 15, 1947 because the Maharaja of Mysore had not acceded to the Union and such celebrations were banned in the princely state.

Even though parts of southern India were insulated from the tumult of the time, Ambika Menon in Kerala remembers the heated debates the elders in her family used to have about the freedom struggle. Newspapers were their lifeline and the headlines were discussed in her home with great fervour daily. S Vedapuri who grew up in North Arcot and attended a college in Madras had never seen a Britisher. S Venkatachalam in Thiruvannur too considered the British a theoretical concept since he had never come into direct contact with them.

Even if the horrors of the pre-Partition riots and the Partition affected the north and south in different degrees, all the interviewees featured in the book talk about their deep connection to the leaders of the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were household names. Their words inspired people to make significant life choices and to contribute to building an India that lived up to the vision of these icons.

The overall mood of the collage of memories in Independence Day is one of optimism. Despite setbacks, India has made progress, say the old timers. It took blood, sweat and sacrifices of the supreme kind to rid the country of colonial rule. Freedom is a hard-earned victory and it requires patience, persistence and eternal vigilance to preserve it. Those of us who wring our hands and relapse into cynicism in this time of increasing ‘unfreedoms’ in India would be well advised to read Independence Day. The memories of the past, which emphasise the importance of collective action, could boost our failing resolve.

A People’s HistorybooksIndia’s partitionOral historypost-independence