REMEMBERING NETAJI - WHEN K.B. SAHAY FACED BLACK FLAG PROTEST

 

To widen the reach and impact of the Civil Disobedience Movement, K.B. Sahay roped in the support of the factory and mill workers to the noble cause of the freedom struggle. He appealed on behalf of Congress, urging workers to disobey the management civilly while pressing for their just demands. This was followed by a call for a strike in the Tin Plate Factory in Jamshedpur, demanding better working conditions. Other members of the Legislative Assembly and members of the Bihar and Orissa Provincial Council namely Sri Joggiah, Ram Narayan Singh, Abdul Bari, Jimut Bahan Sen, and Sashi Bhushan Ray joined Krishna Ballabh Sahay who also sought the intervention of Dr Rajendra Prasad. Rajendra Prasad was among those who visited Golmouri during the first half of September 1929. (‘History of the Freedom Movement in Bihar Vol-I, by Dr Kali Kinkar Datta, Published by Central Secretariat Library Government of Bihar, 1957) The issue attained greater importance when in a meeting at Golmouri, Subhas Chandra Bose stated that he would not leave the place until matters had been settled. He asserted that, if necessary, he would launch a Satyagraha campaign on the lines of the Bardoli Satyagraha. Ram Narayan Singh met the General Manager of the Tin Plate Factory on 27^th August and announced that the dispute was not with the capitalists but with the government. On the 29^th of August, Krishna Ballabh stated that Congress had identified itself with the dispute only because the government was assisting the Company to crush the strikes. (File Title: Possibility of the Congress Party attempting to associate labour strikes with the Civil disobedience Campaign, File No.: 257/I/1930 Home Department, Identifier: PR_000003032598, Collection: Digitised Public Records Home/Political (Courtesy: National Archives, New Delhi) The strike finally ended in favour of the factory workers and a complete charter detailing working conditions was drawn and accepted by both the parties.

 

In March 1940, the Congress Session was called in Ramgarh (Bihar, now Jharkhand) to prepare for future strategy. Congressmen like Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Krishna Ballabh Sahay, Ram Narayan Singh and Ambika Kant Singh were entrusted with the successful arrangements. Interestingly, Ramgarh was also the venue of another big conference that was convened by Subhas Chandra Bose to oppose India’s participation in World War II which the British had been insisting upon. The 'Anti-Compromise Conference' as it was called was the brain-child of Netaji. K.B. Sahay had all regards to the leadership of Netaji but his efforts were directed towards the successful organization of the Congress Session. The perceived difference between the Congress and the Forward Bloc, which Netaji had established just a year earlier in 1939 as a faction within the Indian National Congress, has been succinctly brought out by Dr Rajendra Prasad in his autobiography. ‘Though Congress was never in favour of any compromise with the British’- writes Dr Rajendra Prasad in his ‘Autobiography’, ‘yet it was alleged that the Congress was bent upon compromise with the British even to the detriment to the country’. (Autobiography’ by Dr Rajendra Prasad, (p 501-505) (1957), Published by Asia Publishing house, New Delhi.) 

Such contradictions within Congress led to protests by the followers of rival groups and Krishna Ballabh Sahay was received with black flags by the Anti-Compromise Group when he visited Ramgarh to explain Congress policy to raise subscriptions and enlist volunteers for the Ramgarh session of the Congress. The story of the freedom struggle of India is replete with such push and pull but there were no inherent differences among these freedom fighters who struggled and strived to achieve the same goal- freedom of the nation. It is indeed painful to note that what we achieved as a nation in 1947 is now being questioned, thus negating the efforts of those freedom fighters who sacrificed themselves to achieve the hallowed goal of an independent India. What is more painful is the fact that often the descendants of these freedom fighters fall prey to such insinuation.