The Lesser Known Indian Mutiny

SOYMB came across this article that describes an episode in Indian/Pakistani history that we think has been forgotten by many.

“[It] started as a strike by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy on February 18, 1946 in protest against general conditions. The immediate causes of the revolt were conditions and food. By dusk on February 19, a Naval Central Strike Committee was elected. Leading Signalman M S Khan and Petty Officer Telegraphic Madan Singh were unanimously elected President and Vice-President respectively. The strike found immense support among the Indian population. The actions of these revolutionaries were supported by huge demonstrations and strikes all over the subcontinent that paralysed imperialist rule. These included a one-day general strike in Bombay. The strike spread to other cities, and was joined by the ranks of the Royal Indian Army, Air Force and workers in various industries across the subcontinent. Naval officers and men offered left-handed salutes to British officers. At some places, Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) in the British Indian Army ignored and defied orders from British superiors. In Madras and Poona, the British garrisons faced revolts within the ranks of the Indian Army. Notably, the revolting ships hoisted red flags and they attached the Congress and Muslim League flags with them, defying communal hatreds.

The revolt was called off following a meeting between the President of the Naval Central Strike Committee (NCSC), M S Khan, and Vallabbhai Patel, a reactionary Hindu member of Congress, who was sent to Bombay to deceive the revolting sailors. Patel issued a statement calling on the strikers to end their action, which was later echoed by a statement issued in Calcutta by Mohammed Ali Jinnah on behalf of the Muslim League. Led by M K Gandhi, the Hindu and Muslim leaders of the native bourgeoisie were as terrified of this revolutionary uprising of the Navy, Army and Air Force personnel, supported by the workers and the broad masses, as the British imperialists were. They could see that under these circumstances it would be almost impossible for them to impose and continue class rule after the British physically left the subcontinent. Using this position and their exaggerated coverage in the media, the politicians of the native elite unleashed a ferocious campaign against this revolutionary upheaval. However, this heroic episode of the revolutionary struggle of the workers, sailors and the soldiers of the subcontinent has been either grossly distorted or totally removed from the official histories and syllabi of independent Pakistan and India. Under these intense pressures, the strikers gave way. However, despite assurances of the good services of the Congress and the Muslim League, widespread arrests were made, followed by court martials and large scale dismissals from the service. None of those dismissed were reinstated into either the Indian or Pakistani navies after independence.”

SOYMB casts doubt upon the article's  claims that "The British imperialists and the native elites were acutely aware that this movement would not stop at the juncture of national independence but would go the whole hog and achieve social and economic liberation. That meant a socialist revolution in the subcontinent.” but we do accept the authors observation that “After 67 years of so-called independence, the masses of the region are worse off than their ancestors were in 1577. Misery, poverty, disease, filth, illiteracy, destitution and deprivation stalk the subcontinent’s landscape. The impressive development statistics mask societies split by some of the most shocking divisions anywhere in the world. The rich and the powerful enjoy their fabulous wealth behind the iron gates of private towns from which the poor are physically excluded.” and can agree with his the article when it says, “As the socioeconomic system has declined and rotted, the political elites have further degenerated into upstart and neo-rich thugs with low cultural levels and deeply entangled in all sorts of crime and corruption. The ideological basis has constricted into more and more narrowness with religious bigotry being manipulated by corporate capital to further exploit and limit the consciousness of the working classes.”