‘They bathed in 1947 to wash off slavery; Today, I wonder have we?’

LUCKNOW: VK Joshi, 77, was only 6 when India attained Independence but it was one of the most memorable days of his life.

“I was too young then to understand things but I still have some vivid memories of those days,” says Joshi, a geologist and former director of the Geological Survey of India, Lucknow.

Joshi says his father GK Joshi was a magistrate posted in Bareilly till 1946. “In June 1946, I came to Lucknow. One evening my parents took me to Hazratganj. My young mind could not miss a distinct thing. There was a restaurant near the present day Royal Cafe. Outside the restaurant, there was a signboard that read: ‘Dogs and Indians not allowed’. I asked my father what does this mean,” he recalls.“My father told me that the restaurant was owned by a Britisher and such boards were common. Why should Indians be equated to dogs? Later, I understood that many Britishers discriminated against Indians,” he says. Joshi says another thing that he noticed was instead of presentday electric lamp posts, from present-day Lal Bahadur Shastri

› Lamps were lit, firecrackers were burst all around on the streets. Then I saw my father GK Joshi and uncle KC Joshi dressing up and going to neighbours who had a radio set. They went there to listen to news and the speech of Pt Nehru

VK JOSHI, geologist

Marg (then it was South Avenue) to the present day Mahatma Gandhi Road (then Mall Road), there was a row of street lights.

“Those were paraffin lights and timings were mentioned on the posts as to from what time the lamps will be lit. Every day, at that time in the evening, a man would prop a ladder against the post and climb up to the map to light the paraffin lamp. This fascinated me a lot,” he says. “I have one more memory of Hazratganj of 1946. I had my first ice-cream at Melrose Restaurant (the place where now we have Eastern Book Depot). In Bareilly, we had only seen kulfis,” says Joshi.

Barely a few months later, the family moved back to Bareilly.

“On August 14, 1947, I saw great festivities everywhere throughout the day. Jubilation was palpable in the air. In the evening, the city appeared as if it was Diwali. Lamps were lit, firecrackers were burst all around on the streets. Then I saw my father GK Joshi and uncle KC Joshi dressing up and going to neighbours who had a radio set. They went there to listen to news and the speech of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru,” he recalls.

“When they returned home, my father and uncle repeatedly said: ‘We are free now, we are free now’. And then my uncle and father went for a bath. I was baffled why in the dead of night they are taking a bath. When my uncle returned, I asked him the question and he said: ‘Humne apni ghulami dho daali (we have washed away our slavery),” he recalls.Moving to 1948, Joshi says: “In Bareilly, where my father was the magistrate, there were evacuee properties (left behind by those who migrated to Pakistan). I noticed a lot of bitter things. For quite some time, I witnessed that one or the other constable would come to my father and report about an evacuee property. My father would go and seal it.”

“One evening I saw that the sky was all red. That was because a lot of properties, which the Indian government had given to those who came from Pakistan as refugees, were set afire by Indian mob. In the morning, a lot of those refugees were at our doorstep, crying like children,” he says.

“My father tried to console them and asked them to settle themselves in our courtyard the place was too small to accommodate all of them. My father went out to make more arrangements for them,” he adds.

“Later in 1948, when we returned to Lucknow to stay here, I noticed that the board which said ‘Dogs and Indians not allowed’ had vanished. I understood why,” he says.

When asked what freedom means to him now, Joshi says: “I am not really sure if we have washed away our slavery or not?”