LUCKNOW: In his roaring 20s then, ON Bhargava was a student of Lucknow Christian College in 1942 when Mahatma Gandhi had given a call for the Quit India Movement.
Fresh as yesterday in the 94-yearold’s memory, on August 10, 1942, Bhargava and a few other students reached the university campus after crossing the river Gomti near the university’s boat club since the British had blocked Monkey Bridge. Students had decided to take out a large procession from the university towards the main city, but they were stopped at the bridge by police as prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 were in place.
“The British Collector was also present on the spot. Some girl students in groups moved out and returned to inform us about the presence of military vehicles with Tommys (British soldiers) parked on the then Imli Road ahead of Hazratganj. They warned us, but students insisted on taking out the procession,” recalled Bhargava, now managing secretary of Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli.
“After some commotion, the Collector ordered his men ‘two minutes, disperse or lathi charge.’ After two minutes, an Anglo-Indian sergeant grabbed a student standing right next to me and hit him with a baton followed by a cane charge by the remaining police on students,” he recalled.
Students fled and took refuge within campus limits, but pelted stones on police, which retaliated by firing. The bullets hit the university students’ union building. Hearing gunshots, a number of teachers led by Prof NK Sidhanta and Prof Shanker Dayal Sharma intervened and told officials that section 144 does not ban movement in groups of three and four. University teachers commanded so much respect at that time that even the ruling British Collector when confronted had to submit to their plea of logic,” said Bhargava.
Prof Sidhanta was in the English department and close to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sharma was a faculty in the law department then and later became the ninth President of India.
Between the Quit India Movement of August 1942 and 1946, the British were under tremendous pressure to leave India. This meant increased torture on freedom fighters and arrests. A lot of freedom fighters went underground, but continued their struggle.
“I was living in a boarding house in Kaiserbagh near Victoria Park now called Begum Hazrat Mahal park with some other students. Prominent freedom fighters like Munshi Chandrika Prasad and Jitendra Nath Tewari were familiar to us. Often these freedom fighters would come to our residence during this period in the wee hours and would happily donate our savings to them to continue the strife,” he said.
When the sky said, ‘We are free’
“On August 15, 1947, processions filled the streets of Lucknow. The Governor’s House, now Raj Bhawan, opened its gates for the first time for Indians to come and celebrate the day together as soon as UP’s first Indian governor Sarojini Naidu took charge. Tiger Moth light trainee aircraft dropped leaflets from the sky that read ‘WE ARE FREE’. My friends and I visited the Governor's House, sat on the lawns of the campus and enjoyed sweets which we brought with us,” recalled Bhargava, painting a joyously vivid picture of the momentous day.
