Gentle Setting of the Empire's Sun

India’s freedom struggle included nonviolent satyagraha and revolutionary movements, shaping British threat perceptions and prison conditions.

The story of India's struggle for freedom is one of several shades and forms. By design perhaps, just one, the Gandhian non-violent' and stayagrahi version came to be ingrained in the nation's memory and become common historical discourse. As the struggle progressed, the British had come to believe that the more serious threat to their empire was from the other movement which had resulted from a heady mix of patriotism, cultural and spiritual pride. This was represented by the revolutionaries, the secret societies and others like them.

This monograph discusses how the British based on threat perceptions had categorized freedom fighters as dangerous' and less dangerous'. Threat perceptions determined prison conditions and punishments. The Cellular jail (Andaman) and the Lahore Fort Prison that housed leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr. Rammanohar Lohia and V.D. Savarkar were for example a different world when compared with the Naini jail, the Ahmednagar Fort prison, the Yerwada jail and the Agha Khan Palace where senior Congress leaders were usually detained.

The monograph also explains how the British managed an exit that was smooth, friendly and free of embarrassment. Lord Mountbatten had attended over 200 farewell events in his about 15 months of stay as Viceroy and Governor General of India in 1947-48. The friendly, informal and personal relations between important British functionaries and senior Congress party leaders in a way diluted the emotion ridden anti British foundational narrative of the freedom movement. Many of India's problems it is suggested can also be traced to the informal decision making that is a defining feature of the times.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements 9
• Introduction 11
• 1. Some Early Torchbearers 17
• 2. Nationalism: Spiritual and Cultural Legacies 20
• 3. V.D. Savarkar: The Indian War of Independence 28
• 4. Two Paths of the Freedom Movement: Dangerous and Less Dangerous 30
• 5. First Call for Purna Swaraj 33
• 6. Rot has Set in Fighting for a Share of the Booty: Gandhi 36
• 7. Different JailsDangerous vs. Less Dangerous 46
• 8. The Lahore Fort Prison 50
• 9. Sardul Singh Caveeshar 52
• 10. Not Seen the Sun or the Moon: The Cells of Lahore Fort Prison 55
• 11. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia: The Lahore Fort Prison 58
• 12. Dr. Lohia: Torture 61
• 13. Dangerous: Jayaprakash Narayan the Lahore Fort Prison 64
• 14. V.D. Savarkar: The Most Dangerous 70
• 15. Savarkar: The Andaman Cellular Jail 74
• 16. Freedom Fighters in the Andaman: Prisoners and Protests 79
• 17. Harsh Conditions in Some Mainland Prisons 86
• 18. Sri Aurobindo 89
• 19. Jails and Prison Conditions of a Different Kind 93
• 20. Jawaharlal Nehru 99
• 21. The Quit India (1942) Movement and Life in the Ahmednagar Fort Prison 104
• 22. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 107
• 23. Mahatma Gandhi and his Prison Conditions 112
• 24. Forgetting the Past: A New Narrative Unfolds 119
• 25. The Union Jack and the Last Days of British Rule 122
• 26. 15 August 1947: Assembly's Loyal Message to His Majesty 127
• 27. Misery and Suffering: Government Celebrates Queen Elizabeth's Wedding 130
• Contents 7
• 28. The Past Forgotten: Jawaharlal Nehru's Farewell Letter to Departing British Troops 132
• 29. Personal Friendly Relations: Pre-poning the Transfer of Power and Joining the Commonwealth 135
• 30. Pomp and Pageantry in the Midst of Partition Horrors 141
• 31. Jammu Kashmir: The Nehru-Mountbatten Factor 143
• Epilogue 147
• Bibliography 155